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FW: Muthoot Finance to raise Rs 6,000 cr in FY12

2011-08-22T21:18:00.001-07:00

Feed: The Economic Times
Posted on: Monday, August 22, 2011 6:08 PM
Author: The Economic Times
Subject: Muthoot Finance to raise Rs 6,000 cr in FY12

Gold financing company Muthoot Finance is mulling over to raise Rs 6000 crore in the current fiscal to meet its working capital requirements, a top executive said on Monday.

The promoters of Muthoot Finance will also dilute five per cent of their share-holding in the next three years.

"The total fund requirement in this fiscal will be Rs 6000 crore. As we are raising Rs 1000 crore through the currently listed retail non-convertible debentures (NCD), the remaining funds will be raised through various options, including bank loans like cash credit," George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director, Muthoot Group told reporters.

The company's Rs 1000-crore public issue of the secured redeemable NCDs is opening tomorrow.

The largest gold loan NBFC's average lending rate is 21.6 per cent with a net interest margin of 9.5 to 10 percent, while its non-performing assets ratio is 0.3 per cent and average loan size of Rs 35,000, Muthoot said.

"We will offload another five per cent of the equity stake of the company in the next three years. If situation requires we may come out earlier than that," he added.

According to market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), promoters of a listed company need to offload 25 per cent equity stake in the open market.

At present, the promoters of Method Finance hold 80 per cent stake in the company.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog - RSS Feed

2011-08-22T01:22:00.001-07:00

Venkatesh V-Dy. Manager-Business Analyst-Home Equity-Chola (venkateshv@chola.murugappa.com) has invited you to add the "Digital Inspiration Technology Blog" RSS Feed to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

You can subscribe to this RSS Feed on any computer with an RSS-compatible program installed, such as Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. To view and subscribe to this RSS Feed, copy and paste the following Web address into your Web browser:

http://feeds.labnol.org/labnol

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thanks & Regards | Venkatesh Vedhakumar | 30007626

The best Uninstaller for Windows – Revo Uninstaller VS IObit Uninstaller

2011-08-19T17:59:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Venkatesh via Google Reader:

The best Uninstaller for Windows – Revo Uninstaller VS IObit Uninstaller

via Devils Workshop by Vibin on 8/19/11

Many of my friends are fans of Revo Uninstaller; it's nice but not perfect. The other day I was searching for a good alternative to Revo Uninstaller and here it is, IObit Uninstaller. I'm not a fan of IObit products but this one is worth a trial.

Note: Below is the comparison of IObit Uninstaller and free version of Revo Uninstaller, not the paid one.

IObit Uninstaller is better than Revo Uninstaller in…

IObit Uninstaller is a lot polished in terms of features, below are some its features which are not present in Revo Uninstaller.

Portability: IObit Uninstaller doesn't need installation, just run the downloaded file and start uninstalling!
Bulk Uninstall: This is a real time saver, especially for a blogger like me who installs tons of programs.
Uninstalling Toolbars: Freewares are often packed with toolbars like Ask Toolbar, Brothersoft Toolbar etc. These are of no use; they just eat the space of browser's window. IObit Uninstaller lists all the installed toolbars separately and you can uninstall them like any other program.
Programs Classification: IObit Uninstaller classifies the installed programs into 4 categories: Toolbars, Recently Installed, Large Programs and Rarely Used. With this, you can easily know which program you need to uninstall and which you shouldn't.
Just What You Want: Revo Uninstaller is packed with some unnecessary tools, for example, Autorun Manager. On the other hand, IObit Uninstaller does just what it promises, no more clutter.

IObit Uninstaller needs improvement in…

Apart from the Hunter mode, the IObit Uninstaller has all the features that are present in Revo Uninstaller.

Hunter/Drag and Drop Mode: This is useful when the program you want to uninstall is not listed in the programs list. In Revo Uninstaller, just drag the program's shortcut into the icon and select Uninstall from the menu.

IObit Uninstaller is completely free, while Revo Uninstaller does have a paid version. Both the programs support Windows.

Link: IObit Uninstaller

Which one do you like? Revo Uninstaller or IObit Uninstaller?

-- This Post The best Uninstaller for Windows – Revo Uninstaller VS IObit Uninstaller is Published on Devils Workshop .

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Google+ Users Share 1 Billion Items Per Day, Says Larry Page

2011-07-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

Google+ Users Share 1 Billion Items Per Day, Says Larry Page: "

Google+ already has 10 million users who share 1 billion items every day, and Google’s +1 button is being hit 2.3 billion times per day, Google CEO Larry Page said Thursday.

Page, speaking to analysts during Google’s second-quarter earnings conference call, also said that 550,000 Android-enabled phones are activated every day and 160 million people use Google’s Chrome web browser.

Page was careful to put those stats, some of which had already been reported, in perspective. Since Google draws the vast majority of its revenues from advertising, products such as Android, Chrome and Google+ are viewed as long-term investments. They can “generate huge new businesses for Google in the long run,” he said.

Nikesh Arora, senior vice president and chief business officer for Google, said that Android’s growth has acted as “an accelerator to our mobile [advertising] efforts.”

Page slices Google’s business into three categories including search/advertising; products that are having strong consumer success, like YouTube, Android and Chrome, and new products like Google+ and Commerce and Local.

Somewhere outside of that are products that Page calls “speculative,” like driverless cars. “We may have a few small speculative projects happening at any given time, but we’re very careful stewards of shareholder money,” said Page. “We’re not betting the farm on this stuff.”

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sx70

Screenshots: Inside Google+

Google+ Logo

This is the Google+ logo.

Google+ Icons

The Google+ icons. Starting top left and circling to the right: Circles, Hangouts, Home, Sparks, Profile, Photos.

New Google+ Navigation Bar

All Google sites will sport the new Google+ navigation bar. It includes notifications, profile information and content sharing options.

Google+ Stream

This is the Google+ Stream, where users share content and see what their friends are sharing. It is similar to the Facebook News Feed.

Google+ Circles

Google+ Circles is Google's version of the Facebook friend list or the Twitter List. Users can select multiple friends and drag-and-drop them into groups. This makes it easier to send stuff to friends, family or the entire world.

Google+ Circles Editor

This is the Google+ Circles editor in action. Google has created unique animations for adding and removing friends through HTML5.

Google+ Sparks

Google+ Sparks is Google's content recommendation and discovery engine. Users can search different topics and find relevant articles, videos and photos. Users can then share that content with their friends.

More About: android, Google, google chrome, Google Plus, trending

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Mark Zuckerberg on Privacy, Google and More [LIVE]

2010-11-16T20:54:00.001-08:00

Why is Facebook on a product launch frenzy? What does Facebook’s founder think of Google? What is Facebook going to do next?

Mark Zuckerberg, the high-profile CEO of Facebook, has placed his company in the limelight recently with a huge wave of product launches.Facebook Places, Facebook Messages and Facebook Groups all launched within the last three months. It also doesn’t hurt that his company is growing like wildfire and is now worth more than eBay.

Mark Zuckerberg is about to be interviewed by Tim O’Reilly and Federated Media’s John Battelle about Facebook, its new products, the CEO’s view on Facebook’s competition with Google, his vision for social media, and much more. Here are our live notes from their conversation:

Live Notes: Mark Zuckerberg

All times are in Pacific Standard Time

5:07 PM: Zuckerberg takes the stage. Battelle brings up Facebook’s new Messages product and wants Zuckerberg to explain what it is. Zuckerberg says, “We didn’t want to build an e-mail product,” (something he has said many times). He then goes into the anecdote about what a high school student told him about e-mail: It’s too slow and formal. He calls Facebook Messages “seamless.”

5:11: E-mail filters have become very good at winnowing out the real junk, but we still get random e-mails from services and utilities. The real way to solve spam is to use your social graph, Zuckerberg says.

5:13: Zuckerberg says photo tagging works much better than facial recognition. With regard to Groups, he says, “Groups is one of our fastest-growing products ever.”

5:15: There’s a discussion about Facebook’s privacy practices. Battelle asks whether it’s his approach to step on toes until people scream then apologize. Zuckerberg talks high-level and doesn’t really address the question.

5:16: The controversy surrounding Gmail and Facebook contact sync is brought up. Zuckerberg says it’s different, Battelle and O’Reilly say it isn’t, and nobody agrees.

5:22: Battelle brings up competition. He says he thinks Facebook looks like it’s at the point for bringing his business model off-site, à la AdSense. Basically, Battelle asks, will Facebook will launch its own version of AdSense? Zuckerberg: “I think we have a lot left to do. Same on the credit side.”

5:24: Zuckerberg: “I think over the next five years, most industries are going to get redesigned around social and people.”

5:25: More than 50% of people use Facebook every day — that’s more than 250 million people.

5:28: Games are the first vertical to be “tipped” to be social.

5:29: Facebook focuses on helping people share. It won’t start businesses in areas of expertise like media, content, or games.

5:33: Battelle: “Do you believe there is just one social graph? … Do you feel that pressure of power?” Zuckerberg started with discussing how the best apps on Facebook went all-in with social on Facebook. Then he says instant personalization wouldn’t have worked a few years ago because it didn’t have critical mass. Zuckerberg says that there can never be “just one” graph. His view is that Facebook makes all of these graphs more interoperable.

5:38: What about the social graphs that would be detrimental to Facebook as a company? Zuckerberg says it’s fine; he doesn’t seem too concerned.

5:41: Zuckerberg is asked about Steve Jobs and Ping. The Facebook CEO responds on social: “Get on the bus.” Either you’re going to have an incumbent that gets social (Zuck says they’re in on it with Ping) or an entrepreneur will take you down.

5:45: Zuckerberg thinks Facebook is in a good place by having a high user-to-engineer ratio.

5:46: An audience member asks what it’s like to be popular and incredibly important/ahead of other entrepreneurs and how that impacts his life. Zuck responds that he’s made a lot of mistakes but it didn’t deter him. You have 100 problems to deal with, but only one or two really matter, he was told by a VC.

5:50: Is education an opportunity for Facebook? Zuckerberg responds that if someone builds a great application, there’s a huge opportunity.

Source: Mark Zuckerberg on Privacy, Google and More [LIVE]

Test if your ISP is shaping your traffic

2010-11-16T20:44:00.001-08:00

The goal of the Glasnost project is to make ISPs' traffic shaping policies transparent to their customers. To this end, we designed Glasnost tests that enable you to check whether traffic from your applications is being rate-limited (i.e., throttled) or blocked.

Glasnost tests work by measuring and comparing the performance of different application flows between your host and our measurement servers. The tests can detect traffic shaping in both upstream and downstream directions separately. The tests can also detect whether application flows are shaped based on their port numbers or their packets' payload. For more details on how Glasnost tests work, pleaseread our NSDI 2010 paper.

We configured our tests to be conservative when declaring the presence of shaping, i.e., passing our tests does not necessarily mean that there is no throttling occurring on your link.

P2P apps		Standard apps		Video-on-Demand
BitTorrent eMule Gnutella		Email (POP) Email (IMAP4) HTTP transfer SSH transfer Usenet (NNTP)^NEW!		Flash video (e.g., YouTube)

Select a Glasnost test to run

Each Glasnost test takes approximately 8 minutes
Note to all users: To allow accurate measurements you should stop any large downloads that might run in the background.

5 Sites to compose and edit your music online

2010-11-16T20:42:00.001-08:00

I seem to be enjoying this music syndrome which I am going through these past few days. Keeping up with the theme of few of my past posts, here is what I’ve managed to lay my hands on this time. If you feel the need to try composing music but lack the time to learn the art, here is a simpler way out. These free online applications will soothe those itchy nerves down and make the club popping with your tracks.

(Image Credit: Mashable)

So all set to be “DJ You” ? Hang on guys, there is a list!

#1. iNudge

Create music with random clicks across your screen? That seems to be the concept behind this application. Its extremely simple to use, but that wasn’t it for me. What really clicked for me, is somehow it didn’t matter how random the clicks were, it seemed to sound good. It has got a user-friendly interface which is good. You can toggle between 8 sound types as well as mess around with basics like tempo, audio panning, volume settings.

#2. Tone Matrix

It is a simpler version of inudge. It should amuse you for a while when you are overworked. It is not really for serious music editing.

#3. Audiotool

Created by the makers of Tone Matrix, Audiotool is an high-end music mixing software. It’s a virtual DJ console, right to the part of plugging in the wires of additional devices you pull out. If you aren’t familiar with mixing, don’t be worried as there are some fun tutorials as well.

#4. Looplabs

You will get three choices when you will click on the link – Music Studio, Dubstep Studio, and Electro House Blender. Each of them is just as good and easy to use. There is also Charles Ives Music Lab which is made by the same creators. While you are there, don’t forget to check out the playlist of the most popular tracks created on these applications. Addictive!

#5. Jamstudio

One of the most popular of all these is Jamstudio and for all the right reasons. It has managed to retain the most important features necessary for music editing – instruments, sound effects and notes. It has over 300,000 users, which is probably a good audience for your grand debut.

So that I guess is a good range for all of you to try. Don’t panic if it seems too complicated because there are tutorials or guidelines given which make it easy to deal with.

I love these innovations like these because you can choose to learn the tricks of a new job everyday.

Know of better alternatives? Let me know through your comments.

-- This Post 5 Sites to compose and edit your music online is Published on Devils Workshop .

Facebook mail Will it really kill Gmail?

2010-11-15T20:40:00.001-08:00

Facebook has been working on ‘Gmail Killer’ and Tech Crunch recently reported Facebook is going to announce this on Monday. It is human tendency to not accept monopoly and Facebook is feeding to those thoughts!

One big advantage Facebook has is, it has millions of users across the world already to use it’s new product. I remember reading somewhere that Facebook might enable email to all the current users by default and make them use it. Well, there’s already enough hype which will make every current user to at least try once!

But, when we look at Gmail, it’s been around from years and is a very matured platform now. Gmail is feature rich & almost has no flaws in it. Gmail has seamless integration with Android which is taking over the mobile OS market share. And more importantly we all have our years old emails already with Gmail. I’m damn sure Facebook would come up with tools to migrate all your emails. But, question is, can Facebook really take on Gmail in just one shot?

Tit-Bit:

Out of curiosity I hit the URL http://mail.facebook.com and I was presented with Microsoft Outlook Web-access!! That means Facebook is using Microsoft exchange server for internal emails!!

Introducing bit.ly Bundles

2010-11-15T20:38:00.000-08:00

We are thrilled to announce the launch of bit.ly bundles, a new way of sharing multiple links with a single bit.ly short URL.

You can start bundling links right away! Just head over to bit.ly, shorten some links and then hit the “Bundle” button.

Every link you add to a bundle will include a rich media preview (courtesy of our friends at embed.ly) and a bit.ly click count, and can be customized with a title and description. Try it out with your favorite video, photo, and any other links you’d like to curate and share!

If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out a travel guide to Washington, D.C. from our friends at Jauntsetter, a collection of videos soundtracked by the Free Music Archive, and a bundle of fun from Superchunk drummer/comedian Jon Wurster.

So, click on over to bit.ly and get your mace out… let’s get ready to bundle!

Twitter Trends Come to Even More Cities Around the World

2010-11-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

Twitter’s locally focused Trends, the list of hot topics that allows Twitter users to keep their twitchy little fingers on the pulse of their communities, is now available in a total of 18 countries and 24 cities around the world.

In an announcement today, a Twitter product manager stated that Twitter’s trending topics, a what’s what of popular and talked-about keywords, will be gaining a more local flavor for 13 new countries and 6 new cities starting today.

Twitter’s been paying a lot of attention to trend-related features lately. Trends became locally oriented for some users in major markets at the beginning of 2010. The company worked on its trending topics algorithm in the spring; with trends becoming ever more relevant and interesting, Twitter was ready to roll out trend-based ads in the summer.

In other globally focused Twitter news, the company will now be displaying tweets from other languages in the user’s native tongue.

According to the company blog, “We we are now using Google Translate to to display Tweet translations in the details pane to give people more access to what people are talking about around the world.”

This is hardly surprising; Twitter has been focusing on multi-language support since last year. Only a handful of users have this feature now; it’ll be rolling out site-wide in the weeks to come.

Source: Twitter Trends Come to Even More Cities Around the World

RockMelt Browser

2010-11-15T04:32:00.001-08:00

Book your invitation for RockMelt Browser!: "

RockMelt browser promises to be the next exciting new browser with a clear view of being useful from a social media perspective. It is based on Chromium. It promises to revolutionize social media usage by bringing in some intrinsic built-in features to the browser itself. As it is based on Chromium it supports almost all extensions which work with your Chrome browser.

Some expected features of RockMelt

The browser is basically specific for Social Media usage. Facebook friends with their display images can be seen on the browser itself.
Along with this you can see multiple features to use Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
This seems to try to mash together the concepts of social media apps like Tweet Deck with a browser like Chrome.

I do not have an invitation to sign-up and use the browser so I will post a full-fledged review of it in sometime in the future.

Sign up for RockMelt

There are many browsers out there but RockMelt seems to be focusing more on social media as its calling card. Will this work for it? Do drop in your comments and views.

Link: RockMelt Browser

-- This Post Book your invitation for RockMelt Browser! is Published on Devils Workshop .

Book your invitation for RockMelt Browser

2010-11-15T01:47:00.001-08:00

Some expected features of RockMelt

The browser is basically specific for Social Media usage. Facebook friends with their display images can be seen on the browser itself.
Along with this you can see multiple features to use Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
This seems to try to mash together the concepts of social media apps like Tweet Deck with a browser like Chrome.

I do not have an invitation to sign-up and use the browser so I will post a full-fledged review of it in sometime in the future.

Sign up for RockMelt

Meanwhile you can sign-up for RockMelt with your Facebook account. It will send you an invitation soon so you can use RockMelt browser. This has actually helped create a lot of buzz about RockMelt because invites are available to people who get invited to RockMelt. I guess a viral campaign is a nice way to build up publicity for a browser.
There are many browsers out there but RockMelt seems to be focusing more on social media as its calling card. Will this work for it? Do drop in your comments and views.
Link: RockMelt Browser

-- This Post Book your invitation for RockMelt Browser! is Published on Devils Workshop .

Top 5 Online Radio Applications

2010-11-15T01:45:00.001-08:00

Previously I wrote about the top 5 applications to create music playlists online. Today, the mood lingers on but with a bit of nostalgia. I’m talking about online radio.

I get disappointed with annoying messages like ‘This application is not supported in your country’. After a bit of searching, I was thrilled with the options available which are supported in my country! Not only can you listen to the usual hip hop, R&B, jazz category, you can also hear Tamil and Punjabi music.

Here is a list of my top 5 picks for keeping you “tuned” with the hippest radio stations around the globe:

#1. Live365.com

With its own Wikipedia page, Nanocosm Inc.’s Live365 is one of the most popular online radio networks. It has more than 7000 broadcasters from over 150 countries. I am definitely impressed because it’s neatly classified with genres and has great sound quality. Must try – That 70′s Channel.

#2. SHOUTcast.com:

Every genre of music has sub-genres. The radio opens up in a separate window which makes it easy to browse through other options. While you’re there, don’t forget to try the Indian music streamers – it has Bollywood, Hindi and Tamil music! It also displays the last song played by any radio station.

#3. Radiolicious.com

Radiolicious has great variety, and is not as cluttered as the others. You have to simply browse through the pages and choose what you like. You can also download a version compatible with your iPhones/iPads.

#4. Last.fm

Though you have to create an account here, it doesn’t take much time. My favorite is the Red Hot Chilli Peppers Radio. You can change the skins as well but red or black are the only choices.

#5. HypeMachine.com

It’s not exactly an online radio, but I really want you guys to know about it. Hype Machine tracks various music related blogs and uploads the most popular and interesting works of new artists. I think it is offbeat and a pleasant break if you have an ear for new artists.

The radio was invented somewhere through the 19th century but strangely hasn’t gone out of vogue as yet. To think of it, radio paved way for our iPods and Zunes, personally its my fashion statement as well (I wear a chain with an antique transistor engraving!). Hopefully, these applications will keep the ‘radio gaga‘ still going on amongst us.

Do let me know which one is your favorite through your comments.

-- This Post Top 5 Online Radio Applications is Published on Devils Workshop .

5 Ways To Transfer music from your iPod to your PC

2010-11-15T01:43:00.000-08:00

I have found iTunes extremely frustrating at times when after formatting my computer, I lose all the music on my iPod as it isn’t synced with the new iTunes version. Now what if I told you there was a way you could transfer music from your iPod to your PC/Mac? How about this, I gave you more than one way to do this – and you can transfer music, movies, pictures?

#1. iDump

One of the most popular software used to transfer music from your iPods to PC. It was released around 2007 but has been updated many times since. It should work with the iPod, iPhone, iTouch and iPad.

#2. Sharepod

Think of this place if you want a one stop shop for your iPod, iPhone and iTouch related transfer and backup related work. The unique feature of this application is that once you upload your music from your iPod to your PC, it automatically imports the music into iTunes. You can also move your album artwork,

#3. doubleTwist

This one is should be compatible with iPod, Blackberry, Android and PSP Pre. It supports music, video and photo transfer and syncing. While you are there don’t forget to check out the demo video. It’s a great watch.

#4. EphPod

One more option for you guys. It is a far more basic version compared to the multi tasking doubleTwist. However if you use Microsoft Outlook, Winamp on a Windows OS then this one is great way to merge them all into your iPod.

#5. MediaMonkey

My last listing gives you an alternative to replace all the functions of iTunes (including syncing the iPod, iPhone, iTouch) apart from taking a back up of your music on your PC. You can also burn CDs, manage your music library and leave it on auto-DJ mode and leave all worried behind.

The days of losing your mind over your music have finally come to an end because of these amazing applications. Hope you find these applications just as helpful as I did. Let me know through your comments.

-- This Post 5 Ways To Transfer music from your iPod to your PC is Published on Devils Workshop .

Run multiple IE browsers on your PC

2010-10-30T23:54:00.000-07:00

A web designer wants his web-site to be visually same across all the browsers. Amongst other browsers or even the latter incarnations of Internet Explorer, IE 6 is a very different animal.

We always want to test web-sites in various IE versions IE6, IE7 and IE8 for browser compatibility. But it is always difficult to test on different machines.

There are certain ways to test website on various versions of IE which is mentioned below.

What I used to do is to install 3 operating systems on a machine for IE testing, but it consumes a lot of time.
We can also make use of IE Tester but in some cases I found this unreliable, so I prefered to avoid it.

But I came across an excellent way to run multiple version of Internet Explorer on standalone computer.

Thanks to spoon browser ,which provides hundreds of desktop applications. It also provides multiple IE version that runs at the same time on standalone PC.

To test all IE browser we can use spoon browser sandbox .

Govt to relieve Rs 3K cr more to PSU oil retailers

2010-10-30T01:22:00.001-07:00

"The government has agreed to relieve an additional Rs 3,000 crore to state fuel retailers to makeup for losses they incurred on the sale of fuel during the first half of the current fiscal."

Source
Govt to relieve Rs 3K cr more to PSU oil retailers:

21% Users Eat while Watching Videos on YouTube

2010-10-30T01:18:00.001-07:00

The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has released a new study that provides some very interesting insights on how are people using Facebook and YouTube and why?

For instance, you’ll surprised to known that most people upload videos on these sites not for fun or pleasure but with a desire to impress their friends. Or that 1 in 5 users can be found eating a meal while they are watching videos on YouTube.

YouTube is seen as more of a destination for fun/cheering yourself up, where users are much more likely to visit Facebook to feel connected to people.

You may view the full IAB report online (link for news readers) or download it as a PDF file (~5 MB) from the Google Barometer blog.

Source

HOW TO: Connect with Other Entrepreneurs Online

2010-10-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

There’s no substitute for experience. Many successful entrepreneurs learned how to run a business as they built one, and they had the educational benefit of being able to make mistakes and learn from them as they went along.

But if there’s something close to a substitute for experience, it’s probably somebody else’s experience — which makes other small business owners the perfect people to ask for advice about your own business decisions.

These nine websites will help you track down the appropriate entrepreneurs. If you’ve found success on similar sites, let us know about them in the comments below.

1. OnStartups

Created by the same folks who run the popular programming Q&A site StackOverflow, this site is a perfect place to crowdsource all of your small business questions. After you post a question (let’s say, “How do daily deal or coupon websites handle marketing?”), anyone can post an answer. You and other users can vote the different responses up or down so that the best answer floats to the top — at which point, if you decide to, you can mark one response as the “accepted answer.”

The site is managed almost entirely by the crowd (none of whose members need to register to participate). Anyone in the community can edit posts and frequent users are allowed to vote irrelevant questions off the site.

2. Focus

Focus differs from other Q&A sites by maintaining a core group of experts who answer many of the questions on the site in exchange for the opportunity to promote themselves. This feature makes it more likely that you’ll receive prompt and useful responses.

Topics are divided into IT, marketing, sales, finance, customer service, operations and human resources sections, which makes it easy to search for the latest discussions on your interest area.

3. MicroMentor

Q&A has its value, but a deeper one-on-one relationship with a seasoned businessperson can be a greater asset to your business. MicroMentor helps you find a mentor online. Simply fill out a profile about yourself and your goals, and then search the mentor profiles that match your needs. If your selected mentor agrees that they’re a good fit, you can exchange contact information and start learning from each other.

The site is run by Mercy Corps, which intends to help “small businesses grow faster, generate more revenue, and employ more people.” More than 1,000 matches have been made to date.

4. Entrepreneur Connect

Entrepreneur Media, the parent company of Entrepreneur Magazine, hosts this online network of entrepreneurs. The site’s broadly defined “groups” where you can post questions, makes it useful for asking for advice. The replies are less frequent than on some of the other sites, but they tend to be of high quality. You also have the option to create your own private group.

The directory of other entrepreneurs, browsable by industry and name, is also helpful for locating someone who might be helpful regarding a specific issue.

5. PartnerUp

If you have a question that can be expressed in fewer than 140 characters, the PartnerUp community will likely have an answer. You can also search for contacts with different skills in different industries or “PartnerUp” with people who have made comments you appreciated so that you can stay in touch. Like OnStartups, questions and answers can be voted up or down so that the best ones — at least theoretically — remain on top.

Thankfully responses aren’t restricted with a character limit.

6. EFactor

The authors of business networking book The N Factor venture up the alphabet a little bit to bring you the EFactor. This social network for entrepreneurs can help you answer your questions in a handful of different ways.

First there’s a Q&A feature that shares your questions with other entrepreneurs on the site. There’s also a traditional forum where you’re likely to find a thread that answers your question and where you’re welcome to start a new one if you don’t. And finally, there’s an option to search for a mentor by their expertise and the assistance you’re seeking.

7. MeetTheBoss TV

This site gives you the opportunity for personal access to the world’s most innovative and influential business leaders. Although the rest of us probably won’t be able to get our questions for business leaders answered directly, there’s likely a video on MeetTheBoss TV that is relevant to your issue. They’re all targeted specifically for entrepreneurs and intended to expand a skill set. You’ll need to use the search bar to find a video that answers your specific question, but the quality of the advice more than compensates for this slight effort.

8. SCORE.org

A resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration, SCORE gives free advice to entrepreneurs. The organization has 370 office locations offline and about 1,200 “counselors” offline. By typing in a couple of keywords about what business issue you’d like to discuss, you can browse a list of these counselors — mostly other small business owners — and e-mail them directly for advice.

If you prefer a face-to-face conversation, there’s also an option to search for a mentor by your zip code.

9. LinkedIn Answers

What sets LinkedIn Answers apart from the others on this list is that people have a couple of strong motives to help you. First, people are always looking for ways to stay in touch with members of their professional networks. Answering your question is a perfect opportunity to refresh a connection. Second, people who give the best answers to questions are featured as “experts” on the Answers homepage and in each category of questions.

LinkedIn’s giant network of professionals is another advantage. You can allow this entire network to search and answer your questions, or if you prefer, select individuals from your network who you want to answer your question. There are also advanced search options that allow you to browse the database of previously asked questions.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- Social Media Marketing 101: In-House Team, Agency or Consultant?
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Image courtesy of Flickr, Travelin’ Librarian

More About: e.factor, entrepreneur, Entrepreneur Connect, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, focus, LinkedIn Answers, MeetTheBoss,MicroMentor, Networks for entrepreneurs, OnStartups, PartnerUp, score, small business

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New Gmail Labs Feature Saves You Precious Seconds

2010-10-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

Gmail has just added a new “Labs” feature that should save you some time if you’re the type of person that tends to plow through your e-mail inbox in bunches.

As the name implies, the new “Auto-advance” option (that can be enabled under “Settings” > “Labs”) lets you automatically move to the previous or next conversation after Archiving, Deleting or Muting an individual e-mail message.

While that might sound like expected behavior, up until today, Gmail simply took you back to your inbox after taking any of those actions, meaning you essentially needed to scroll back down to wherever you were in your attempt at e-mail triage.

Thus, you can see how “Auto-advance” might save you some time – and probably not an insignificant amount of time if you get a lot of e-mail and aim to keep your inbox clean through the use of archiving, deleting and muting.

Have your own Gmail productivity tips? Let us know in the comments.

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War between web browsers

2010-10-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Which browser will win the browser war? Every month we see the browser share of Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer go up and down to give us some sign of who will emerge the winner.

I started a discussion on our Devils’ Workshop Facebook page about which browser was the favorite and why it was a favorite?

Credit: Mozillazine

Some interesting observations

Well the sample size is a little small to be called a poll but about 13 responses were in favor of Firefox, 6 for Chrome and only 3 for Internet Explorer. There were other opinions which even found favor with Opera and other browsers.
At first glance it looks like Firefox wins hands down but 4 opinions which were favorable to Firefox also said they really liked using Chrome.
Majority of the people who voted for Firefox seems to like the browser for its amazing add-ons.
Almost no one had anything negative to say about their experience using Chrome.

Going by the response, one can assume that Firefox is leading the pack by a big margin. But I feel differently about which one will end up winning the browser wars.

Why Chrome will end up winner?

Everything about using the Chrome browser comes down to one word and that word is ‘Simplicity‘. Lets be honest the world is not full of techies and majority of the people who use browsers are not geeks.

Installation

Installing newer versions of Internet Explorer or Firefox seems like rocket science when compared to installing Chrome. Most people use Gmail, Orkut and other Google related services which actively prompts people to download Chrome. This actually works great because Chrome installation is awesomely easy.

Speed

Chrome browser came to the market as the fastest browser around. It even boasted about it’s speed with its strange experiments. Jokes apart people felt Chrome won’t stay fast once they supported extensions. That has not happened and even now Chrome is known for being lightning fast as a browser.

User-Interface

Chrome has a spartan User Interface. The search bar is the same as the address bar. The tabs are nicely up right at the top, the settings and options are hidden and access through just a couple of not so interfering icons. Chrome keeps the user’s focus on the web-page rather than other features it might or might not have.

Add-on and extensions

When Firefox updates its Add-ons or when you update even its version it needs you to restart the browser. Get and extension on Chrome and start using it without any interruption. Such interruption free features make Chrome a browser to beat.

I know a lot of you might not agree with me and might argue that Firefox simply has more options. The problem with Firefox is not the options which makes it a browser of choice even for me. The problem is it has not been able to make it simple.

So do you think Chrome will win the browser war? Do drop in your comments and views.

-- This Post Why Google Chrome will win the browser wars? is Published on Devils Workshop

How to read Wikipedia articles in simple English?

2010-10-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

I often read Wikipedia for finding some interesting facts. Most times it is to get some basic background about certain things. Most articles will include a lot of information like the correct way to pronounce certain words.

It also has links to a particular query’s ambiguous meanings. This can be a little too much for children or for people who do not know English as their first language.

Getting Wikipedia articles in simple English

Let’s say I am reading an article about India on Wikipedia. The URL will be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India .
To get the same article in simple English just replace “en” with “simple”.
So the URL will be http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/India.

This gives the same content in simplified English which does remove a lot of information which people might not really be interested in. Special thanks to Mani Karthik for this tip.

I do not think most people will find Wikipedia articles are too difficult to understand. But this is really useful if you are learning English or for students who might find the language of a particular article too difficult.

Do you think Wikipedia needs more such filters? Do drop in your comments?

Links: Wikipedia | Simple English

-- This Post How to read Wikipedia articles in simple English? is Published on Devils Workshop .

Google's cars grabbed emails and passwords

2010-10-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6" Display, Graphite - Latest GenerationGoogle Inc admitted for the first time its 'Street View' cars around the world accidentally collected more personal data than previously disclosed -- including complete emails and passwords."

'Inflation to moderate to 6% by Dec end'

2010-10-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

'Inflation to moderate to 6% by Dec end': "The Planning Commission today exuded confidence that inflation would moderate to 6 per cent by December end from over 8 per cent currently, mainly on account of good farm output."

Because of this Dec month future is going to raise today

Gold may gain further; but all-time peak distant

2010-10-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Gold may gain further; but all-time peak distant: "Gold futures are likely to extend gains for third straight quarter in December, as investors seek a safe hedge against global uncertainty."

SEBI hikes limit for retail investors to Rs 2L for public issues

2010-10-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

SEBI hikes limit for retail investors to Rs 2L for public issues: "SEBI hikes limit for retail investors to Rs 2L for public issuesThis will cut the numerous applications investors sometimes make in the name of relatives to get more shares."

I might have earned more if this rule was bought before an year

Sharing the Information

FW: Muthoot Finance to raise Rs 6,000 cr in FY12

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The best Uninstaller for Windows – Revo Uninstaller VS IObit Uninstaller

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More Business Resources from Mashable:

New Gmail Labs Feature Saves You Precious Seconds

War between web browsers

Some interesting observations

Why Chrome will end up winner?

Installation

Speed

User-Interface

Add-on and extensions

How to read Wikipedia articles in simple English?

Getting Wikipedia articles in simple English

Google's cars grabbed emails and passwords

'Inflation to moderate to 6% by Dec end'

Gold may gain further; but all-time peak distant

SEBI hikes limit for retail investors to Rs 2L for public issues