Vamsi's Homeplace

Online Branch Suggestor for Engineering Aspirants

2011-06-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

Engineers from top engineering colleges including the BITS, Pilani , College of engineering, Pune (COEP) and Pune Institute of Computer Technology have designed an online branch suggestor for engineering students.

The application will be available on an educational portal namely - www.yournextleap.com . Engineering branches including mechanical, computer, civil, electronics and telecommunication, instrumentation and so on often create confusion in the minds of students. Engineering aspirants can simply take the online personality test to understand which engineering branch is most suitable for them based on their skills and interests.

To increase the accuracy of the branch suggestor, more than 100 successful engineering students who are doing well in their career were surveyed and tested. Besides engineers from top colleges, the application has been made after extensive research by psychometricians with 35-odd years of experience.

The branch suggestor application prompts students to answer a set of questions based on real life situations to asses their personality and engineering inclinations. Students can see their progress after each set, and even save their progress at each set to come back and finish the test later.

The application also contains detailed information on what kind of work is expected out of an engineer in the professional world once they start their jobs. The test can be given online anytime at the student's comfort and the 60 questions take only about 8-10 minutes for completion. A Sahasrabudhe, director, COEP, launched the application on Sunday.

-- timesofindia.indiatimes.com

The History Of Podcasting

2011-06-24T04:04:00.000-07:00

Well we know that a podcast had its beginnings in the creation of MP3 files that could be downloaded and played on the iPod device developed by Apple Computers. The release of the iPod encouraged people to share their music with others. They then realized that they could create, upload, and download information other than music too. Some iPod users reverse engineered the device and loaded various types of firmware or operating system softwares. Other users decided that they would share sound files to be played on the iPods, since the technology for distributing such files already existed. RSS feeds provided a way to generate machine-readable files, which could then share data between servers and users. Many blogs used RSS to keep their readers up to date on blog posts. Some visionary podcasters realized that they could enclose links to sound files inside the RSS feed and download these files to a computer later.

The iPod podcast became increasingly popular as this change in RSS feeds was implemented. Podcasting became a common way to share files, and users began to view podcasting as a way to become, essentially, radio-show hosts or DJs. Then software was developed that would automatically check the RSS feeds, extract links to podcast episodes, and download the files. This software is called a podcast client.

By the time all this was happening, podcasting had expanded far beyond Apple's iPod device. Developers had even discovered ways to use PlayStation Portable gaming systems as a podcast player. While this was more difficult than downloading a podcast to an iPod because of PSP's different file format, more PSP podcasts began appearing on the Internet. Podcasting also expanded into use by individuals who didn't have iPods, but who viewed podcasting as a very convenient technology for receiving news, music, and entertainment over the Internet.

Now, iPod podcasting remains in use, but fewer people subscribe to podcasts in order to get portable media files. This still represents an attractive feature of podcasting, but it is overshadowed by the use of podcasting as a content delivery system. Podcasting is currently associated with a large and growing number of audio and video blogs, for example. With these offerings, content is not delivered via posting, but through media files that are uploaded to the blog. These types of blogs, and podcasting in general, benefit from the constantly decreasing cost of broadband Internet connections and the growing number of people who have high-speed access to rich online content that includes multimedia files.

Indian Village Changes Its Name to SnapDeal.com Nagar

2011-06-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

A village in northern India has now changed its name from that of an Indian god to SnapDeal.com Nagar. The tiny town had a good reason to, because SnapDeal,the India’s version of Groupon, provided it with fresh water.
SnapDeal’s founder Kunal Bahl wanted to do something good with his company’s burgeoning profits, so like Bill Gates and his philanthropic efforts, the 28-year-old CEO started looking for an opportunity where he could have the most 'bang for the buck'.
His answer? Water. He found out that a mere $5,000 would install 15 hand pumps that would make it so the villagers wouldn’t have to walk nearly two miles just to get clean water. The result was life-changing, Bahl told CNN.
The villagers were so grateful for the SnapDeal.com-branded pumps distributed throughout the village, they decided to change the name of their village, formerly known as Shiv Nagar (named after the Hindu god Shiva), to SnapDeal.com Nagar.
Kunal Bahl hints at more such philanthropy in the works by his bustling New Delhi-based business, the largest daily deal retailer in India, according to the SnapDeal.com blog. When asked if this was a marketing or PR gimmick, he replied,

“All we can say is that time will show our commitment to this project and even the things we do in the future. You need not be a multibillionaire company to make a change in society around you. This project was not about the power of money but the intent and efforts which our team took to give this dream alive. Even if one small company takes inspiration from this, we will feel our efforts have borne fruit.”

-- mashable.com

Top 10 Ways to Advertise Your Website/Business:

2011-06-18T03:03:00.000-07:00

Great Ways to Advertise Your Website/Business:

1. Promote Your Local Business on the Internet

List your local business for free on Google Places for Business (places.google.com/business), Yahoo! Local (local.yahoo.com), and Bing Local Listing Center (https://ssl.bing.com/listings/).Your business will show up on a map when people do a local search. For more information, see articles on local marketing (www.wilsonweb.com/local/) on my site.

2. Promote Your Video, Images, and Audio Content

If you want to get a top-ranking, informative video on YouTube (www.youtube.com) that mentions your site, it could drive a lot of traffic to your site. For further info, search "optimizing images" or "optimizing videos" on YouTube.

3. Write Articles for Others to Use in Websites and Newsletters

Just include a link to your website and a one-line description of what you offer in the article. This is an effective and "viral" approach to produce hundreds of links to your site over time. You'll find lot of info on how to do this on the most popular article marketing site, EzineArticles.com. If you create a free membership account, they will be sending you instructions and ideas every week.

4. Issue News Releases

Send newsworthy events and news releases to print and web periodicals in your industry. Link to your site in online news databases remain for months and temporarily improve traffic to the site and increase popularity. Use an online news release service like PR Web. Placing your website url in online copies of your press release may temporarily increase link popularity.

5. Become Part of a Social Media Community

Best online networking communities for business include Facebook (www.facebook.com), LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), and Twitter (www.twitter.com). You may also want to participate in a social bookmarking community in which members share info about websites, articles, or news items that they like. These include Digg (www.digg.com), Delicious (www.delicious.com), StumbleUpon (www.stumbleupon.com), and Google Bookmarks (www.google.com/bookmarks/).

6. Promote Your Site in Online Forums and Discussion Lists

The Internet is offering hundreds of very targeted e-mail based discussion lists, online forums, and groups made up of people with very specialized interests. Use Google Groups (groups.google.com) to find appropriate groups. Search online for blogs or other forums. Add to the discussion in a helpful way and let the "signature" at the end of your e-mail message do your marketing for you.

7. Ask Visitors to Bookmark Your Site

Ask all visitors to bookmark your site or save it in their Favorites list. Use widget called AddThis (www.addthis.com).

8. Publish an E-Mail Newsletter. Aggressively Ask for E-Mail Sign-ups

Want to get subscribers to your e-mail newsletter ?? you'll need to work hard at it. Include a subscription form on every page of your website. Send Offers to Your Visitors and Customers.

9. Begin an Affiliate Program

A retailer's affiliate program is a CPA program that pays a commission to other site owners whose links to the retailer's products result in an actual sale.

10. List Your Products with Shopping Comparison Bots and Auction Sites

If you're an online merchant, Shopping bots compare your products and prices to others. Some work on a PPC (Pay Per Click) basis, others on a CPA (Cost Per Action) basis, perhaps with a listing fee. Bots to consider include mySimon (www.mysimon.com), BizRate (www.bizrate.com/), PriceGrabber (www.pricegrabber.com/), and Shopping.com (www.shopping.com). Shopping sites that include comparison features include: eBay (www.ebay.com), Yahoo! Shopping (shopping.yahoo.com), and Amazon Marketplace (www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161232). You pay to acquire first-time customers, but hopefully you can sell to them a second, third, and fourth time, later on.

- www.wilsonweb.com

My Hot Pic

2011-06-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

" A good snapshot stops a moment from running away." - Eudora Welty
Find that perfect snap using the latest app 'My Hot Pic' on Facebook.
This application selects and posts that pic of your that was most liked by your friends on Facebook which undoubtedly is your best pic.

My Hot Pic is an awesome app with rating (4.9 out of 5)
Do check it out:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=119869768097773
http://apps.facebook.com/appbestpic/

"Design Genius" T-shirt Design Competition

2011-06-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

iLogo is organizing a theme based T-shirt Design Competition. The theme

for the competition is "Dancing in the Rain". The top 3 'most-liked'
designs will be custom made by iLogo for the winners. What's more, they
are also giving out 10 pairs of PROVOGUE eyewear worth Rs. 2000 each
to lucky commenters/participants in the Contest.

So go on and participate Design Genius contest today and win fabulous goodies.
Please visit http://facebook.com/ilogo.org/ for further details.

Here are the Terms and Conditions:

1. Participants are requested to adhere to the theme of the competition. The theme is "Dancing in the Rain". Entries not found relevant to the theme will be deleted without further notification.

2. iLogo reserves the right to declare any design invalid, if found NOT to be of a minimal* standard.

3. Winners will be decided on the basis of Facebook "likes" the design gets along with iLogo's discretion.

4. The design submitted MUST fulfill the following conditions:

i. Only the shirt front is to be designed.

ii. Images used in the design should NOT have more than FIVE colours and there should be NO gradients.

iii. Text should have fonts from the collection in the Design Studio. Images for text are unacceptable.

5. Top 3 winners will get the design printed on a custom made T-shirt of size as specified by them after contact.

6. In case the winners do not respond within a period of 3 days, iLogo reserves the right to declare the next best design as the winner.

Ten pairs of provogue eyewear worth Rs 2000 will be given to the lucky commentors/participants during the course of the competition.

*minimal -> Here minimal means with good design sense and composition of final T-shirt. For clarifications please refer designs on website http://ilogo.org/ in the "Design Ideas" tab.

Why Is It So Difficult To Trace A Cyber Attack ??

2011-06-15T03:12:00.000-07:00

Cyber attacks may not be a new phenomenon but the recent successes scored against high-profile targets including CitiGroup, Google, RSA, Mozilla and government contractors such as Lockheed Martin underscore the target's current failure to block security threats enabled by the Internet. Malicious hackers use the very same technology that enables online banking, entertainment and myriad other communication services to attack these very applications, steal user data, and then cover their own tracks.

One common practice that attackers employ to evade detection is to break into poorly secured computers and use those hijacked systems as proxies through which they can launch and route attacks worldwide. Although such attacks are an international problem, there is no international response, which frustrates local law enforcement seeking cooperation from countries where these proxy servers typically reside.

Every day seems to bring news of some new cyber attack. "We're seeing more reports on invasive attacks on a much more regular basis," says Chris Bronk, an information technology policy research fellow at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and a former U.S. State Department diplomat. The hardest problem in finding the source of these attacks is attribution. Each data packet sent over the Internet contains information about its source and its destination. "The source field can be changed [spoofed] by an attacker to make it seem like it's coming from someplace it's not," says Sami Saydjari, president of the cyber-security consultancy Cyber Defense Agency and a former program manager of information assurance at the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA).

-- Blackhat-forums

Claim Your Blog in Technorati

2011-06-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

I just submitted my site to Technorati for inclusion in the blog directory with the hope of gaining some additional link value, traffic and visibility. I wasn’t planning to write a post about this, but claiming my blog was really confusing. Particularly, the step of claiming the Technorati’s claim token – mine is 9SNH82Q3FB6G.
Here are the steps to claim:

Go to Technorati and log-in or sign-up for an account.
Fill out the required fields of your profile information.
On your profile, scroll to the bottom of the page to the “My claimed blogs” section and add the URL of your blog.
On the next page, fill in all of the required details of your blog and proceed to the next step which leads to a “Blog claimed status” page.

You will receive an email that says the following:

Thank you for submitting your blog claim on Technorati. Technorati will need to verify that you are an author of the site http://yoursite.com by looking for a unique code. We have just assigned the claim token ############ to this claim. Please visit http://technorati.com/account/ for more details, including how to use the claim token.

Write a blog post (such as this) and include your 12-digit technorati claim token in the body of the post, near the beginning (hence my code at the top)
Return to your account page, scroll to the bottom, and click the button to “Check Claim”

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs.
By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. The name Technorati is a blend of the words technology and literati, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism.
Technorati was founded by Dave Sifry and its headquarters are in San Francisco, California, USA. Tantek

Scientists Create Artificial Brain With 12-Second Memory

2011-06-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

This Artificial Rat Brain Has 12 Seconds of Short-term Memory

It’s not artificial intelligence in the Turing test sense, but the technicolor ring you see above is actually an artificial microbrain, derived from rat brain cells--just 40 to 60 neurons in total--that is capable of about 12 seconds of short-term memory.

Developed by a team at the University of Pittsburgh, the brain was created in an attempt to artificially nurture a working brain into existence so that researchers could study neural networks and how our brains transmit electrical signals and store data so efficiently. The did so by attaching a layer of proteins to a silicon disk and adding brain cells from embryonic rats that attached themselves to the proteins and grew to connect with one another in the ring seen above.
But as if the growing of a tiny, functioning, donut-shaped brain in a petri dish wasn’t enough, the team found that when they stimulate the neurons with electricity, the pulse would circulate the microbrain for a full 12 seconds. That’s roughly 12 seconds longer than they thought it would (they expected the pulse to live for about a quarter of a second).

That’s essentially short-term memory. The neurons were relaying the signal in sequence, persistently, mimicking the activity we know as working memory (though admittedly we don’t understand it that well). The brain is basically storing the stimulus long after the stimulus is no more, which is a big deal for a tiny brain grown in a dish.

- World Of Technology

Expansion of iLogo into the B2C segment

2011-06-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

With a set of marquee clients such as the Barclays, Google, TCS, JWT, Big Cinemas already in its kitty, iLogo is leveraging on the products it built for these clients and working on 'differentiated products for the Indian market '. Building on the success of personalization, iLogo a popular destination for personalized products in the country, is expanding into the B2C(Business-to-consumer) segment.

iLogo is now going to launch two new websites namely, www.grabonedeal.com and www.blueinjun.com
These two websites are going to cater to the consumers directly focusing on singular purchases.

Grab One Deal is a unique website offering fabulous deals on particular units, only for a limited time.
Grab One Deal is your one stop portal for finding daily deals and best online store deals providing you an aggregated and categorized view of online deals to help you make your online purchase easier.
It will provide users with some of the most incredible money saving bargains online and provide free shipping.

The daily deals consist of t-shirt, sleeve shirts, shirts etc. Plus one ridiculously huge coupon each day, on the best things to eat, drink, see... and you'll never wanna miss it.
fabulous features include :
A premium deal everyday.
Experience a never-expected discount.
Everyday you'll meet a new surprise.
Some of the current hot deals include Social Media T-shirt, Tin-Tin T-shirt, Viva La Relativity T-shirt, New Mumbai Indian T-shirt etc.

Blue Injun will cater to the hardcore segment of the crowd, with a deep sense of fashion and individualistic appeal. It will be one of the leading B2C Marketplace that helps fashion appeal buyers to instantly connect with quality fashion appeal manufacturers & suppliers from all over the world. True beauty resonates from individualistic appeal.

Blue Injun will be a contemporary accessories and lifestyle boutique that embodies customers to declare style independence, allowing the discovery of their personal style. Each and every customer will be left inspired by the merchandise, as well as by the distinctive shopping experience.
Fashion should never be chased, indefinable as it may be...

iLogo, the hottest Indian start-up

2011-06-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

Purchasing different dresses and outfits for you had once been a tedious task. You had to go all the way to the store for getting the stuff. People who want to purchase items also want to get them with great comfort and without any hassle.
purchasing the items especially the outfits had not been this easy as Internet shopping has made it today.

People throughout the world love to step outside of their homes and know that they are in style. They don't like wearing last years clothing lines - they have to have the new and improved clothes. People want clothes which aren't available anywhere else.
Customized clothes are the new in thing. People want to wear their thoughts and what better way to put it on a T-shirt ! More than any other kind of clothing, T-shirts are a mode of self-expression. When you want to say something, let the T-shirt speak for you.

Myntra was once the most popular destination for personalized products in the country. Building on the success of personalization, Myntra is expanding into broader Lifestyle/Fashion retailing. The company has a vision of being India's largest online lifestyle products retailer and has eventually withdrawn from the market in the field of customized merchandise focusing more on Lifestyle retailing.
There is a void in the vast field of customized/personalized merchandise and what else can be a better successor than iLogo, which already has a standing and a reputation which is building up amongst all kinds of clients, right from corporate companies, associations, groups, NGOs, colleges and event management companies.

Founded in 2008, iLogo offers customized merchandise solutions to corporate and retail clients.You can easily go to ilogo.org and get the latest products ranging from personalized apparel, office products to branding & gifting solutions.The iLogo website has stuff for everyone it lets you create T-shirts online by choosing colour (any pantone colour shade) combinations of sleeves, collars and cuffs.For all those girls and guys, who are looking forward, to get themselves into sporty yet sophisticated look, iLogo has got some real amazing clothing and accessories.

Out of all online T-shirt customizing portals what makes iLogo special is :
Thousands of images & hundreds of fonts to choose or upload your own graphic.
All-inclusive pricing (no extras for shipping or taxes)
High quality screen printing and embroidery.
Money Back Guarantee if the customer is unsatisfied.
Consistency in product quality, embellishment and delivery.
Time-guaranteed, free delivery – globally at a reasonable price.

iLogo's specialty products include :
Embroidered Shirts
Premium Cotton Polo Shirts – Mercerized, Piqué, Interlock
100% Cotton And Lycra ® –mix T-shirts
Personalized Tote Bags, Wine Bags
Travel Gear – Backpacks, Laptop Bags
Personalized Office StationaryiLogo also offers social media marketing solutions, branding strategy consulting and design services to corporate clients.

iLogo's past clients include Barclays, Google, TCS, JWT, Big Cinemas and iLogo has done humungous orders for them with immaculate efficiency. iLogo applies technology and common sense to play at a different level.So, in the end, if you are looking to be stylish and fit in with your friends, then you want to choose something that would be great eye-candy for those around you. iLogo is the one stop solution for all your customized clothing needs.