Jason S Blog on Technology ::The Authoritative Guide::

SMS based location search in Bangalore - Get directions for free

2009-11-09T10:41:00.003+05:30

A new SMS based location search service is available in Bangalore now. It's on 9008890088. This new service allows you to find services, directions to places of interest and also provides directions to people from point A to point B in Bangalore.

The cool things about this services is that it is completely based out of the SMS network and so it works absolutely fine for people with or without Smart phones. Till date we have had location based search confined to only smart phones having mapping facility like GPS but this new service brings in a lot of hope to look out for in Bangalore.

The 9008890088 SMS service is available free of charge - the only charge you will incur is the standard SMS rate for local messages as per your mobile plan. This service requires NO registration or NO subscription.

I used this service over the weekend and was very much impressed with it - I found the service to be pretty reliable and also involves very little waiting time - maybe because very few people have started to use this service. But even on a weekend and the fast response it was really good. The reply back time varied for me from around 5 seconds to a max of about 1 minute but again it looks like the reply time varied due to the mobile operator’s message traffic congestion and also the availability of signals since I was constantly on the move.

Here's how you can make use of this very simple and effective service. All you need to do is simply send SMS to 9008890088.

Here's how you can use the service - simply SMS any of these messages below to 9008890088:

Example 1: FROM Silk Board TO Lalbagh Road
Example 2: Pizza NEAR Forum Mall
Example 3: HDFC ATM NEAR M G Road

You will get an instant reply SMS with the exact location and also you will get the shortest directions to reach the place from a prominent landmark. Another added benefit is that you also get to know the total distance in Kilometers and also an approximate Auto fare to the destination which really helps when you need to bargain for a fixed fee from places like MG Road or Forum.

Hope you too find the service very useful - save it to your mobile now!! Never know when you need this service which is just an SMS away!!

Changes to the Blog

2009-11-09T01:24:00.002+05:30

Hi Folks,

Some much awaited changes have been done to The Most Authoritative Technology Blog. I had been thinking about these changes for quite sometime now but really didn't find time to implement them. So, here today I find time at 1:15hrs (mid-night) to implement the changes.

The two changes are:

Summary of articles on the front page - rather than entire articles. This makes it faster to load the website and also gives the readers to choose which content to read in it's entirety. You can click on the article headline or the link after "Continue Reading" to read the rest of the content in the article.
New Bookmark widget has been implemented. This has much smaller icons(see below) and also has a lot of options like even sending to gmail or saving in your browser favorites or printing this article.

As always - I would like to hear from you on how these changes affect you. Your comments are always welcome.

Cheers!!

Jason

Simple Steps to easily get an invite to the New Orkut for Free

2009-11-05T13:57:00.006+05:30

A new avatar of the popular social networking website - Orkut has been launched a few days back by Google. It seems that Google has finally woken up to the strides taken by Facebook to make it more leaner, fun and simple to work with. The new Orkut seems more like a union of the existing (or should I say OLD) Orkut and Facebook.

Orkut has been on a steady on a decline as more and more users are switching to FaceBook. This includes even me - I too was a loyal Orkut user for years until I was sucked into Facebook a few months / year back and ever since haven't looked back.

So the new Orkut is only open to private invitations currently. Here's how you can easily get an invite to access the all new Orkut. Since the new Orkut is available to only a few users - so make haste!!

Follow the steps given below and you can easily get a Free invite to use the new Orkut :

Head to the Official webpage of the new Orkut Community.
On the page you will find a link marked as "BE THE FIRST TO PREVIEW THE NEW ORKUT HERE!". Click on it and it opens a form to enter your details and lo!! your on your way to get an invite for the all new Orkut!!

Ain't this simple? Do try it atleast for the fun of it.

Here are a few screen shots of the all new Orkut.

Here is also an official video released by Google. BTW, most of this work was done at the Google R&D hub at Hyderabad, India.

Simple tips to get the most out of your Online Meetings

2009-11-03T23:50:00.002+05:30

Online meetings are inarguably the most price-less tool for saving people's time and money in a very aggressive and competitive business environments that we see today. But did you know that most online meetings tend to have a sour experience in the host as well as the presenter's minds mainly due to poor training or unpreparedness of both - either the presenter or the host.

So here are some very simple and most effective methods to achieve the most of Online Meetings:

1. Always make sure that the Online Meeting is short and to the point - crisp. Always make sure that No online meeting ever exceeds more than an hour or in some cases even thirty minutes.

2. Always make sure that you have already prepared a slip containing the list of all probable questions that you will ask those attending the online meeting. Always remember that asking questions helps you retain everyone’s attention.

3. Before you start off - remember to inform the other participants to keep their questions to the end of the online meetings. There should be a very high probability that you will answer most of the questions that the audience thought off during your regular presentation.

4. Mail out the attendees well in advance to install and test the online web meeting software ahead of the schedule. Also, they can check the audio setup and the microphone setup too.

5. It is important in a web meeting that you have a very optimized copy of the PowerPoint slides such that the .ppt / .pptx file is less than 2 MB in size. This greatly helps the attendees not to experience a time lag as you flip through the slides.

Hope these tips helped you. Do share your tips/experiences on online Meetings too.

My Almost New Asus P320 is up for Sale!!

2009-10-27T12:30:00.005+05:30

This is an Asus P320 - I received this as a gift a week back, but didn't find much use of a Windows Mobile device. Hence, didn't use it even a single day!! Max use must have been about 3-4hrs.

Even the back camera cover is not removed and there is not even a single scratch on the entire phone.

The phone comes in it's original box (packed Aug 2009 - important coz there are many old stuff floating in ebay). MRP as listed on the box is Rs. 12900. The phone comes with the following :

Asus P320 handset (BLACK)
Stereo Handsfree headset (with volume control)
Data Cable
Charger
Extra Stylus (so you'll have 2 stylus - one on phone and one extra)
Soft Pouch (Black Asus)
P320 Manual
2 original Asus Software CDs
1 external GPS antenna connector
Asus VIP card (I found this inside the box)

This is loaded with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional by Asus. I have installed the following Resco products (More info at http://www.resco.net/products/ ) Almost USD 75 worth of software for free!!!

Resco Contact Manager - Manages your contacts, calls & SMS (Also has a cool Facebook Integration feature)
Resco File Explorer - File Manager with powered functionality (FTP, Network,...)
Resco Keyboard Pro - Extended keyboard, Calculator, macro definer
Resco Backup - The most comprehensive backup solution for your PDA.

The Asus P320 Features

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Size 99 x 55 x 13 mm
Weight 105 g
Display TFT resistive touchscreen, 65K colors
Screen Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.6 inches
Sound Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3, Midi ringtones
Speakerphone Yes
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records Practically unlimited
Internal 64 MB RAM, 128 MB ROM
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), microSDHC
Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
USB Yes, v2.0
Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, autofocus
Video Yes
Features OS Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
CPU TI OMAP 850 200 MHz processor
Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push E-Mail,
MSN Browser HTTP / WAP 2.0
Games Yes
GPS Yes
Java Yes -
MP3/AAC/AAC+/WMA/OGG/AMR player
WMV/MP4 player
Organizer
World Clock
Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, PDF viewer)
File Manager
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 1100 mAh

You can contact me on my e-mail for further doubts / clarifications.

The asking price is Rs. 9800 + 350 (shipping). Shipping is waived off if inside Bangalore. P.S: I can only ship this phone inside India currently. Do let me know your BEST OFFER!!

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 to be available on Vodafone next month

2009-10-25T20:52:00.003+05:30

The next avatar of the Sony Ericsson Xperia family named as Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 will be available on the Vodafone network in early November. Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 is basically designed for those of you who need to be connected always as it brings together great personal and business experiences into a single easy-to-use mobile gadget.

It comes preloaded with what are known as Xperia panels. You can also download an additional 16 more panels. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 has an improved touch interface unlike the HTC Touch Flo 3D. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 also sports an all new 3D signature panel from which users can benefit to have flexible desktop panels which can be specifically designed to categorise business, fun and communication stuff.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 has a full QWERTY keyboard which immensely helps in messaging. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 is powered on the Windows Mobile 6.5 platform. This lets you to use the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 like your computer at home. You can easily view and edit Microsoft Office Mobile documents including the latest 2007 formats like .docx, .xlsx and .pptx quickly on your mobile.

The Xperia X2 has an impressive 3.2" high resolution touch screen which has a DVD quality display. Also you have a 8.1 megapixel camera at your disposal to capture fantastic photos and also you can instantly share them online with your friends and family.

If you can't wait until November - do check out Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Deals.

Fresh Car Designs from the Tokyo Auto Show

2009-10-25T20:21:00.002+05:30

Here are some really fascinating fresh car designs from the just concluded Tokyo Auto Show. They are so breathtaking that it'll make you wonder what we can expect in the near future.

First off is the Skydeck's seats that are exclusively constructed from wood and mesh to make passengers feel cool as they drive.

Honda did bring the Skydeck to the show which was a rather futuristic looking six-seat hybrid vehicle.

Also we had the Honda's EV-N which was a tiny retro-looking electric vehicle that has an inbuilt power-producing solar panel on its roof. This vehicle also has a place to store your Honda U3-X scooter in it!!

Yamaha also had a new concept electric scooter called the EC-1. It is part of Yamaha's strategy to move beyond its core market of motorcycle with fun and personal vehicles.

Daihatsu also showed off its concept called "Deca Deca". The van's big cabin has
doors that open up to an amazing 135 degrees and a center pillar-less body.

Finally Nokia launches the much awaited N97 mini

2009-10-25T19:25:00.003+05:30

Yes - the wait and the endless rumors seem to be true after all. As Nokia launched the much awaited N97 mini over this weekend in London. The N97 Mini looks almost the same as the big brother N97 in design. The N97 Mini comes with an impressive 3.2 inch touch screen along with a full QWERTY keyboard which slides open as the N97, an internal 8GB of storage on board and all this on a 14.2 mm thickness. Now that's cool isn't it?

The just launched Ovi Maps 3.0 is going to be an important part of the all new Nokia N97 mini. Ovi Maps 3.0 will support street level / satellite level as well as terrain level maps in both 2D and 3D formats for the users - now that's going to challenge the Google maps offering on the Android platform. Ovi Maps will also allow users to search for their favorite pizza joints or coffee bars and also search for address from the comfort of their N97 Mini. The integrated A-GPS along with compass seems to be a nice add-on which is surely going to be useful.

Nokia claims that the N97 mini can last upto 12 days of standby time and also upto 28 hours music playback when it is put in offline mode. The N97 mini comes with a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens 5-megapixel camera which sports a dual LED flash and also video light.

So, how do you get one of these? Well, it's very simple - just check out the latest and best Nokia N97 Mini Deals and also pre-order one!! The Nokia N97 mini is currently listed at a street price of £429.00 for Preorder which includes VAT and free shipping.

Do check out the promo video from Nokia and also a video comparative between the N97 and the N97 Mini below.

The all new Sony Ericsson Satio and Aino is on it's way - Releasing next week!!

2009-10-09T17:41:00.002+05:30

Looks like the all new and one of the best Sony Ericsson's mobile phones' aptly named as Satio is gonna be released in the coming week(s) finally. This phone is very much widely watched as its design embodies one of the best Swedish and Japanese design engineers got to offer.

The dates have been confirmed as for Satio to start selling from 16th October, while Aino is slated much earlier from 14 October and finally Yari should be available in stores near you in another week from then.

The Satio is a very uber cool phone that sports an impressive 12-megapixel camera and also allows the user to download loads and loads of cool applications online. Aino will offer really cool high audio quality sound and also ability to play Hi-Def video. It will also allow the user to easily integrate Anio to the popular Sony's PlayStation 3 console. Finally, the Yari is going to be a glorified and very advanced gaming mobile.

There are lots of rumors that the Sony Ericsson's Satio launch was apparently delayed by a few weeks, due to the engineers working on a major upgrade for the phone's software in order to fix most of its drawbacks.

According to rumors circulating in the United Kingdom, the marketing of the Sony Ericsson Satio has been delayed for several weeks, to proceed with an upgrade to the software necessary to eliminate some drawbacks. Most of you folks may not be aware that the Satio prototype was released way back in February with the code name Idou.

You can find really awesome Sony Ericsson Satio Deals at Omio and also check out some cool offers too.

Watch this cool video on Satio.

How to easily download Entire / Complete Photo Albums from FaceBook

2009-10-09T10:49:00.007+05:30

A few days back, we had been on a trip down country side with my friends. We were about 10 of us and carried 6-7 cameras. As one can expect - after returning from the trip we had 6 different sets of photos - some snaps were good in some camera's, so I had to download each of the albums to store it on my Hard Disk for personal memoirs. But how do I do it?

Well - I started hunting for an app that could help me download entire albums off FaceBook easily. Then I found a very cool free Firefox plug-in called as FreePAD - short for Facebook Photo Album Downloader!! It allows you to easily download entire albums of photos of friends off the internet easily.

P.S: This will work only in Firefox - so you need Firefox to be installed first.

Download the FacePAD Firefox extension directly from here. You may get a message block from Firefox - right click and allow that.
Once you have installed - You will need to re-start Firefox to begin using the new extension.
You will now see FacePAD added to your list of Plugins in Firefox.
Head over to your friend's profile page and click on Photos. There you will find all the albums of your friends. Simply right click on the photo album and you will now get a new option "Download Album with FacePAD". Go ahead and download the album.
Currently you get a weird message to indicate that the album download has begun.
You will now find all the photos of the FaceBook album neatly downloaded to your Hard Disk with absolutely no effort.

Now that's a really cool app to have. Makes tasks that much more simpler and fun.

Get your CIBIL - Credit Report in India online easily

2009-10-07T17:41:00.002+05:30

CIBIL which stands for Credit Bureau of India Limited is India's first and foremost credit information bureau. It serves as a repository of information which contains among others the credit history of borrowers both commercial and consumers. CIBIL also provides this information to Banks, lending agencies which are its Members in the form of credit information reports for a specific borrower.

Till now, one could not get access to their own credit information since there was no provision for the same. I too have had a very bad experience with ING Vysya bank and a home loan that I have with them. Till date it has been almost 2.5 years and 5 lakhs of regular payment with Post dated Cheques (PDC) but now when I contact them they say that my loan has not yet started all because the EMI I was paying regulary was incorrect due to some software error - now it looks like they have sent my information to CIBIL. So, when I found this news that any individual can access their own credit report - it was a very good news for me.

All you need to do is

Send an e-mail to myreport@cibil.com
The Email need to have a copy of the CIR Request Form duly filled by you.
Also, after sending the mail do Mail self attested hard copies of your latest Identity Proof (PAN Card / Passport / Voters ID) and Address Proof (Bank Statement / Telephone Bill / Electricity Bill) documents and Fees (Demand Draft (DD) of Rs 142 in favour of Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited payable at Mumbai ) to P.O.BOX 17, Millennium Business Park, Navi Mumbai- 400710
Once CIBIL receives the above documents and also the Fees, your request will be processed and copy of your CIR report will be dispatched to you.

That sounds like a very good news. You can read more about this here.

Exclusive 40 Leaked Maemo 5 Screenshots from Nokia N900

2009-10-07T16:30:00.012+05:30

Hey folks,

Lots of leaked Screenshots of the upcoming Maemo 5 OS on the Nokia N900 have begun to surface all over the internet. But here are some very exclusive leaked screenshots of the superb UI that Nokia will come out with in a few days from now.

The new mobile operating system will be out on the N900 and you can see lots of new features and UI enhancements on the Desktop, Music Player, Contacts look-up, Menus, etc that truly make it stand out from the earlier buggy Maemo 4 on N810 (WiMax release) and Maemo 3 on the N800.

While we wait for the Maemo release next month - have a look at the exclusive screenshots!! You can also subscribe to availability alerts for Nokia N900 deals on Omio.com for when the Nokia N900 is released.

Click on the Screenshot to Enlarge

The all new My Phone - cloud based services for Windows Mobiles - Reviewed

2009-10-07T12:11:00.004+05:30

Along with the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 , the My Phone services have also been launched. It is a cloud-based FREE sync service that allows mobile users to back-up contacts, photos, text messages, videos and also calendar data onto a protected website which is hosted on the Microsoft Cloud services.

It also has a premium service offering for $4.99 which has so many cool services and features that will definitely be a bang for the buck you spend!!

The best thing is that the 'My Phone' premium package also comes with a Web-based GPS system that can provide accurate location of a lost phone. It also has an ability to remotely send a "lock device" command with an "if found please return to ." message which seems to be simply superb.

And the other best part is that you can also remotely send instructions to wipe off all the data on the phone. That's not all, the service seems to be good value for money since it also has an option to ring off a very loud location alarm just in case the phone has been misplaced, this can be really useful if the mobile has fallen between the couch cushions, or has simply disappeared inside your house or car without actually being lost.

And all this is very easily integrated using your Windows Live ID - so all looks very seamless to use. keep up the good job Microsoft!!

Related Article : Windows Mobile 6.5 is finally launched and available for Free upgrade

Is your Firefox slow like mine? Make it work really fast very easily!!

2009-10-07T11:31:00.004+05:30

From the past few days I have begun to find Firefox to become slower and slower by the day. First I thought I must blame the latest 3.5.3 version for Firefox being slow. Even it took a whole lot of time to start-up and that's when something irked me to research further on what was happening.

I could make out that there was a lot of Read (I/O) operation happening when Firefox starts and also the RAM took a big hit. So I could narrow it down to be some faulty add-on that must have been playing the trick. So, I went ahead and opened the options and began hacking a few settings.

Opened the Tools > Options > Privacy. Change the drop down to "Use Custom Settings for History" and then you will find the culprit sitting quietly over there. There is a default setting in Firefox to remember history for 90 days which is really huge. This basically means that Firefox will be remembering each and every site you have been visited with the details such as date and time of the visit for the last three months that you have been using Firefox!!!. This will be really very very huge if you are a power user like me who spends considerable time online.

Well, to fix the slowness of your Firefox is to

simply goto the Privacy tab (Tools > Options > Privacy) and changing the drop down to "Use Custom Settings for History" and then change the setting to a much smaller value say 5 days!!

Then head over to Tools >> Clear recent history and select "Everything" in the drop down and hit Ok. Once that is done - close and open Firefox to see so much of speed!!

Hope this tip helped you in making Firefox work much faster.

Related Articles : Tweak Firefox to work a lot faster and How to easily Speed Up your Firefox in 4 Simple Steps

Windows Mobile 6.5 is finally launched and available for upgrade

2009-10-07T11:10:00.005+05:30

Well, the much awaited Android killer - Windows Mobile 6.5 has been officially launched now. You can't really call it an Android or iPhone killer OS, coz both of these have a very low market share on the smart-phone sector when compared to Windows Mobile. The much awaited Windows Mobile Marketplace app store is also wide open now.

Some new stuff that has been released along with this is the latest Bing Mobile app that is available, the My Phone sync app has also been polished and a new security service has been launched as part of the new makeover. The complete list of devices running on Windows Mobile 6.1 than can be easily upgraded to Windows mobile 6.5 has also been released.

Currently we seen only three HTC devices namely Imagio, Tilt 2 and Pure along with a Samsung mobile called Intrepid that will come pre-installed with Windows Mobile 6.5. But all this is limited only to the US. When it comes across the world, Microsoft will have more than 30+ phones in over 20 countries that will be running the swanky new Windows Mobile 6.5 by this year end.

My Phone seems to be a very interesting cloud-based FREE sync service offered by Microsoft that allows a user to back-up contacts, text messages, photos, videos and also calendar data onto a protected website. Also the site allows users to post such content directly over to facebook, Myspace, Windows Live or Flickr. There is a service plan for $4.99 for the premium 'My Phone' package which will include features that helps users to recover data from their lost devices.

The new Windows Marketplace has all that Microsoft Mobile has to offer today for grabs. Currently it has a large number of Free and less than $30 paid apps that can be easily downloaded to your phone right from the marketplace. In a few days we will have a i-tunes kind of setup to browse the marketplace over a PC and then bill and send the content to the phone. All these services will be offered under the umbrella of Windows Live ID.

Coming back to Windows Mobile 6.5 OS, the operating system core seems to be unchanged and looks like some polishing has been done on the UI front to make it much more finger-friendly for the latest touchscreens.

So, lets watch out how well the users take on the Windows Mobile 6.5 OS and so also the Marketplace!! Meanwhile checkout the latest Motorola DEXT Deals here - they have really good ones.

What are Crystal Singing Bowls and what is their use anyways?

2009-10-02T21:42:00.003+05:30

Well, most of us might have come across a term called as "Crystal Singing Bowls" like I did a few days ago and wouldn't be knowing what is their real use was. First of all, these are real bowls which have been in existence for well over 3000 years ago in most places of India.

But the bowls in their current shape has been originally date to somewhere around 1000 years back in parts of current Tibet. In Tibet, there is a sect called as "Bon" which is part of Shamans who use the Crystal Singing Bowls in their cultural rituals. The bowls that are used for the rituals are usually made of an alloy of either nine or seven or five metals like gold, silver, tin, copper, iron, mercury, etc. There is also a popular ritualistic belief in ancient India that Singing bowls made out of meteorites were very holy.

Even today you can find Singing Bowls made of these very same metals in parts of Tibet. But they are very highly priced due to the antique value that they carry. Crystal Singing Bowls come as a very perfect alternative to the original metal masterpieces. These are carved out of a single rock of crystal and hence each piece has it's own distinct look and feel. For mass production we find crystal bowls made out of composite minerals that mimic the crystal ones. So you may need to look out for the fakes and choose the right ones.

Well, you may ask - why are these bowls really used? Crystal Singing Bowls are mainly used for meditation purposes. The soothing music helps the mediator to experience more completeness in meditation and attain a higher state and calm.

3 Critical Mistakes to Avoid when choosing the right Web Hosting

2009-09-17T01:06:00.001+05:30

If you are looking to host your website / blog / e-commerce website - this article ill surely be an eye-opener for you and a must read. This is one of the common three mistakes that I have seen folks committing very often while choosing a hosting provider for their needs.

Common Mistake #1- Do you need someone to do it for you and you end up paying over the roof for it in the end! Always remember that a good hosting company will hold it easy for you to host your very own website or websites without any prior knowledge about the same. Most of them will have something called as a "Control Panel" in your account where you can easily navigate everything you need to accomplish along with very simple and easy Video Tutorials to walk you through it. All this you can execute it with the right choice of top web hosting company!

Common Mistake #2- Purchasing the incorrect hosting plan- If you're a individual person who perhaps desires to put up a bundle of sites on online to make some additional income with, then you in all probability just require a "Shared" plan. You'll share space with other people on the server.

If you're a small commercial enterprise and barely would like to host your primary website, then you too hardly need the Shared plan likewise. Nevertheless, whenever you're executing some big things with your website and want additional security you might prefer to upgrade to a "Dedicated" plan. You'll possess your very own server for totted up security and speed all at your beck and call.

Common Mistake #3- Not heeding to the control panel settings correctly. If you're playing along someones videos that will demo you how to create websites that make you revenue in a few seconds. You need to watch out the control panel they are using in the video recordings. It's most probable to be a cPanel, the commonest for all hosting companies. You'll save yourself a headache by applying what everybody else uses if you're learning from other people.

So, avoid those three errors and you will be able to be rest assured you're making an excellent decision with the company you use to host your website or blogs.

Modding your car the right way!!

2009-09-17T00:22:00.001+05:30

Continuing with the theme of car modifications, there are a lot of contrasting types of alterations you'll be able to do to your car including alloy wheels, internal mods, body kits, tinted windows, and more fashionable stuff. My personal feeling is that you make your car suit your own personal flair with barely a few refined mods and small-scale fine-tunes here and there, you don't need to go and acquire large spoilers and monolithic body kits to get noticed. The very first thing I'd get along when beginning to mod a car hopefully to see what kind of products and dainties are out there for your car and then because you've come across what is useable you can piece a characterization in your brain of what you'd wish your car to finish up looking like. Another important thing to think of when picking alterations is what you'll be employing the vehicle for.

For instance if you've a job design body kit that demands to be utilized daily driving to and from work over assorted road conditions occasionally with cloggy heaps you would not prefer to bring down the car a bit much since the excess burden would impact how the car manages in addition to the drive being compromised. All these matters require to be thought of ahead you do anything to your car for what could appear like a beneficial thought one second will burn you in the a@#$ a a couple of months down the line. Exorbitant modification could besides cause troubles when it relates to selling the vehicle. Thus whenever possible make the mods impalpable or even keep the previous pieces you replace and merely switch them back when you're ready to sell.

The exclusive technique to tell if car alteration is for you is to attempt it out perhaps when you've barely got your 1st car and you prefer to alter it up a little or maybe you've just got a car you've been longing after for some time and prefer to change it up a little, my advice would be to begin lowly. Alloys wheels actually alter the tone of the car bringing about it a a great deal more aggressive look and spirit they'll also assist you remain held fast the road with a more extended contact area since your rubber. If you look about you will be able to bump some great deals out there so it will not lame your bank account. Once you've the wheels upon your ride you might decide that's it.

If you're considering a peculiar car to be your first car alteration experience you ought log-in to some forums, there are loads out there rambling from small tuning up mods to entire on totally modified custom rides.

Does having a Car Body Kit reduce the Mileage of the car? Is Fiberglass better than Urethane?

2009-09-16T23:36:00.002+05:30

There are people who tweak every kind of car that is out there in the market and it's these very same folks who drive the Car Body Kit market by gaints and leaps. Usually, we find cars are tweaked by their owners for broadly reasons pertaining to enhancing the cars looks or it's speed, or even the sound of the car. But there looms a very large question as to whether using a car body kit will reduce the gas mileage of the car?

Many people may right away say that car body kits will surely reduce the mileage - but experts feel otherwise. The answer lies in the kind of kit you are adding to your car.Nowadays most of the body kits available are much smaller and a great more stylish - some of them even increase the aerodynamics of the car leading to better fuel efficiency!!

Things like alloy wheels will surely change the looks of your car giving it a much more aggressive look. Alloys will also help you stay stuck onto the road with a wider contact area for your tyres which adds more grip but at a cost. When looking out for car body kits always look out for kits made out of materials like either fiberglass or urethane - since they are much lighter and also durable.The fiberglass kits are much easy to repair than the urethane kits but often the fiberglass ones will break so you need to take a call on choosing the right material for you. Fiberglass is known to be a relatively strong material under most normal circumstances. It is made from plastic resin and synthetic fiber using very advanced techniques. Fiberglass can easily be damaged, and it also fatigues over time, leading to cracks.

Note that if you happen to live in an area that has adverse weather and snow and bad terrain, I would definitely recommend you to choose urethane because of its sheer endurance. While on the other hand, if you happen to live in an area where the roads are smooth and the weather is pretty good, then fiberglass body kits can be used. Always note that just as metal body kits rusts over a period of time, fiberglass cracks under adverse weather conditions.

Looking for Best Web Hosting Site?

2009-09-12T16:33:00.004+05:30

There are a number of good web hosting companies operating in the market currently.These companies offer a broad range of domain registration & web hosting solutions at most affordable prices as per industry standards.

Web hosting can be a significant expense for anyone. When you are looking for Web hosting online there are so many to choose from that it can be an overwhelming task to try to tone it down to a handful to consider.

What you need to do is research and compare the features of web hosting services in order to make sure they offer everything you will need.It would probably be best for you to go with a web hosting company that includes a domain name, free templates, and easy web page building tools.

There are several hosting services that charge only a minimal fee a month and allow many more features than a free web host will have.

The important thing for you to determine is what your goals and plans are for your website. If you think you will want to earn money from it someday, even by putting Google Ads on it and such, it is best to really do some research before you get started.

However owing to the extensive web experience , I suggest you to take a look at web hosting reviews .Here you will find a free research guide to choose the best inexpensive Web hosting providers. These Web hosts offer unlimited Web hosting space, unlimited disk transfer, unlimited databases, and the leading control panels with easy Website builders, templates, and they even offer free Google and Yahoo ad credits.It provides the list of the cheapest and most reliable web hosting providers where you can host your small business, a large e-commerce website and personal websites.

Is Arts and Crafts taken a back seat due to video games and tech gadgets?

2009-09-11T07:24:00.002+05:30

Nowadays we find more and more children being glued to playing video games, watching TV than spending time on creative activities like Arts and Crafts. This surely is gonna affect the child on a long run. Arts and Crafts definitely make the child more innovative and creative though however small thing he/she does.

Nurturing the child's interests should always be considered an important and also a very responsible duty of every parent. When you find that the kid shows some sort of a interest in particular arts and crafts for kids, that's the time when you need to give full support to the child and nurture it. Never forget to show interest and support in something that the child does and it considers it to be very close to its heart, like painting, (s)he will develop and sometime down the line excel in that particular skill for sure.

Children always have been loving arts and crafts, and as nursery, and kindergarten teachers do not have to cover as much in academic activity as older classes do, they often fill up the space with arts and crafts for kids. But more and more kids don't spend more time on it outside the school due to hook up to computers and games.

There are special Arts and craft stores in most localities that have a variety of ideas and home décor projects for not just children but also adults who love this kind of work created by artisans and other hobbyists. These stores also have a collection of arts and crafts specific products that can be beautifully used to decorate your home, as well as for self creating other wonderful landscape and lifestyle products for your home.

When you've got this type of children you can easily get them more fascinated, and it's here where parents can become more inventive. I remember in my yesteryear's of painting Easter eggs with our family - that was such a wonderful experience at that time. We would also boil onion skins and make a dark brown broth of it and then the same thing with purple onions. This would be used to soak the already hard boiled eggs in the broth overnight and the next day we could paint the tan and purple colored eggs to our hearts delight with wonderful colors of choice. We would paint absolutely anything and everything like animals, flowers, birds, leaves, zigzag lines, just about anything that came to our minds. This work was also rewarding as we felt part of the preparing process for the holidays but nowadays the kids have other ideas on XBox / PlayStation, etc - gottu change their perception.

Nokia's new Tablet entrant N900 - Is it worth the 649 bucks?

2009-09-08T23:24:00.003+05:30

Nokia has brought out a brand new tablet called the N900 which is so very similar to the N97 - Here's a scoop into all it's features.

It comes with a pretty good ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor.
It packs a new PowerVR SGX graphics Messaging SMS system that lets you to have a cool threaded viewof all the messages.
Has the standard MMS, Email and also Push Email feature.
Has an IM Browser which is WAP 2.0/xHTML enabled
Also Maemo Browser for browsing HTML pages and support for RSS feeds
Comes with Radio supporting Stereo and FM radio
Comes packed with A-GPS support and also Ovi Maps
Java MIDP 2.1 support is available
Has a Digital compass - for once is this cometing with iPhone 3GS?
The music player is quite impressive in that it supports MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+
The Video player can't be missed too as the N900 supports WMV, RealVideo, MP4, AVI, and also XviD formats.
It also has a TV-out feature
As in other Nokia phones this too has a Document viewer for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and also PDF documents.

The screen is a TFT resistive touchscreen which has a 800 x 480 pixels resolution and is 3.5 inches.

The N900 has a 5 MP Carl Zeiss optics camera which takes pics in upto 2592x1944 pixels resolution. The camera features autofocus, Dual LED flash and also Geo-tagging which is quite impressive.

Nokia N900 is surely a contender to look out for in coming days as it get released.

Why having a Toddler Travel Bed is a Must!!

2009-09-01T20:24:00.001+05:30

Well, the idea of going on a vacation is always to catch up on a time of peace and relax your body and soul. But if you happen to be traveling along with a toddler it most of the times happens to be dead opposite. You are always in a worry of whether the toddler is not subject to any kind of stress and also whether the child has a good sleep for the night. If you tend to have forgotten to reserve a crib for the toddler at the hotel, well then you need to make some sort of a temporary sleeping arrangement for the infant in the form of a infant travel bed. But usually a Toddler's travel bed will be most effective and can also relieve it of any added stress.

Nowadays, we find that the Toddler travel beds are increasingly becoming a popular child sleep aid for parents who travel a lot with kids. So also the kids get a little extra comfort in a very new and unfamiliar environment. Travel beds for toddlers tend to serve as a very safe alternative to an unknown and large sleeping area that the toddler might come across while your staying in a resort or hotel room during a vacation. The versatility of using a infant travel bed not only extends outside of the home, but also when you are at your home - it safely allows the toddler to sleep safely while at home.

To keep toddlers safe and secure there is an inflatable travel bed that offers a little extra in its comfort and also design. It is surrounded by a zipper pocket and also the mattress is covered by a down folding unique design that pops up and twists into a comfortable bed for the toddler. When the bed is placed in its compact position it makes it very easy to transport and also to clean. The bed itself is washable and also the entire unit can be used for both indoor and outdoor adventures.

Contrary to popular beliefs the toddler travel bed is not very expensive. Many of them are reasonably priced. Toddler travel beds are designed to be safe, lightweight, portable and also very convenient. Most of them even come with their own traveling cases. When your toddler is happy - You are happy. So, everyone also gets a good night of sleep.

Which hosting is better? Free or Paid Hosting?

2009-09-01T18:05:00.002+05:30

Well, lets face it - nowadays if you want to run a online business or simply have your identity eched out on the World Wide Web - you will surely need an account with a good hosting company. So, today I thought of giving you a run down on when you must go for a FREE web hosting account and when to decide on a PAID hosting one - though the answer maynot be that straight out of the box. But here are a few tips to help you make the right decision.

Always, you will need to remember as in the Physical world even in the Digital world you will need to choose a web hosting company that you can trust. It is never a bad idea if you can spend some time and research a bit more on that company too. I personally do that every single time I needed to choose a hosting provider - One of the things that I look out for is that they appear atleast in one of the front pages of Google search results. Reliability is key when you are talking about making a decision on choosing the right hosting provider.

Web Hosting is the in-thing for geeks who want to advance to the next level with their blog or their website. Be it e-commerce or not but having a dedicated web hosting always helps stay out in the crowd. It makes it very easy for you to take complete control of your online business or blog . For folks without a web hosting account it will become difficult when you plan to make a lot of changes to your online business or blog.

Just for a moment, think of carpooling. A group of people share one car and split the cost of gas. This helps each person cut their costs for travel. Instead of one person paying for all of the gas, the cost is divided equally by the number of people involved. Shared web hosting is the same principle. It is the most popular form of hosting because it provides cheaper hosting costs to each person.

Free web hosting solutions are just that, free. Or are they? Free website hosting providers may not charge a single dime, but you might find yourself paying in other ways. Bandwidth availability is usually limited on free hosting sites. This is not a problem if you have a simple website.

On the other hand, paying for website hosting services allows a larger degree of freedom where website personalization and data management are concerned. Bandwidth availability is hardly an issue and the user can determine the advertising to be published on the site, if at all. There are a wide variety of hosting packages available with extremely competitive prices.

A website is a great way to increase your presence on the World Wide Web. Make sure to compare all aspects of a web host provider before settling on one host.

Things to look out for before Hiring a Criminal Defense Attorney

2009-08-29T11:39:00.004+05:30

Well, for those who have been through the experience of hiring a Criminal Defense Attorney - you will surely agree with me that it is one of the most stressful and daunting tasks to ever do in the world and I feel it is the same from a Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney or hiring a Defense Attorney elsewhere in the world. Here are some simple things that you nee to really consider before hiring a Defense Attorney.

Defense Attorneys become our key backbone in skimming through the complex maze of the defense establishment and the courts. They are surely the ones who will wade us through the criminal justice system since in most countries the system is lightly tilted towards favoring the government establishment. This is exactly the reason why you will need to hire an expert criminal attorney who will be able to take head-on the prosecution and also will be able to literally tear apart their case into pieces easily.

Here are a few things that you need to look-out for before hiring a Defense Attorney:

Whenever you are in search of a good criminal attorney - do get more information about how good he/she is and try to attain as much information as possible from the outside world about that attorney. This will surely reduce your stress on criminal charges later at least.
Look out for articles in magazines and papers and also look out for books that have been written by the attorney. This will surely help you to gauge the actual competence level of your attorney in legal affairs.
Find out how the attorney is considered among his/her peers and also find out his/her level within the attorney's associations.
It is a very good idea to pay a visit to his/her website and also websites of the major and most renowned criminal defense associations to cross check the criminal attorney's name and also how he represented the cases. You can also verify how the attorney is affiliated and also regarded in the attorney's associations.
One more very important task is to find out the number of outright acquittals that he/she has won.
Last but not the least, do visit or call the law firm and also verify if they can provide you some sort of a free initial consultation so that you can very easily gauge the possibilities for their firm representing you in your court case.

Well, as you must be very well aware you are very much innocent until proven guilty but always be rest assured that it is not going to seem very easy to prove that point all by yourself in the complex law setup. It is always good to remember that you always have the rights and when you have hired a competent criminal attorney you can be rest assured that all of your rights will be fairly recognized and presented before the court of law.