IT Masala

A Tech Curry with a Pinch of Indian Spice

8th May 2007

Railway Enquiry using SMS

Really saying i am fed up of people asking PNR status to others when they are not at their pc desk.indian_railways.gif Even though Railway has made such a nice service of Railway enquiry through sms, people hardly use it.even the so called " tech geeks" rarely use..then whats the use of technology when its not being used for making the work easier ! So atleast from now on use Railway SMS Enquiry service to know your PNR status. I know its difficult to remember all the codes for train list, seat availability, etc.. but atleast PNR status is simple !  : PNR <PNR NO> and send it to 676747

Or if you cannot remember carry a printout of the codes for it !! lol..nono..u dont need to..

here,do this to make your work easier !!

Here are the numbers to which you can send and get the info..

- 7886,676747,7070,8888   ( i like 676747 , as time of message reply back is faster..)

For example : You use 676747

To get the list of codes  … send . sms TRAIN to 676747 

- Checking your PNR status

sms PNR <your PNR number> to 676747
eg: PNR 1234567891    or just send your PNRNo to 676747

- Checking for Trains running between two stations

sms TL < starting city > < ending city > to 676747
eg: TL Hubli Bangalore or use stations codes   eg: TL UBL SBC

- Checking for Ticket Availablity

sms TA <train number > <starting city> <ending city> <journey date > to 676747
eg. TA 6590 hubli bangalore 07May

Networks which Support 676747 :

airtel.gifbpl.gifidea.gifmtnl.gifoperator_bsnl.jpgoperator_hutch.jpgoperator_reliance.JPGoperator_spice.jpgspice.gif

 

8888 is busy.. many a times i have never got any reply from it..as its used for many other purposes, maybe it takes longer time to respond to this railway query !

So from now on use your mobile ONLY when you are not at your pc desk..

Happy railway smsing !

For more info : [ Railway SMS Service ] [ Service provided by ACL Wireless Limited  ]

7th May 2007

Look At World’s Best Presentation Contest Winners

Slideshare.net announced the winners of the World's Best Presentation Contest today:

Contest Winners! (chosen by the judges)
People's Choice Winners
Honorable Mentions (chosen by the judges)

I Am The Media

I Am The Media

from: alainthys

6th May 2007

Homemade Space Glove Wins NASA Contest

An astronaut glove stitched together on a Maine engineer's dining room table won a cool $200,000 Thursday in ahomer_glove_nasa.jpg NASA competition.

Peter Homer, an engineer from Southwest Harbor, Maine, won NASA's first-ever Astronaut Glove Challenge after a two-day competition here at the New England Air Museum near Bradley International Airport.

A total of $250,000, split into two separate prizes, was up for grabs during NASA's Astronaut Glove Challenge, one of several Centennial Challenges offered by the space agency to spur interest and innovation in spaceflight technology. Entrants were charged with constructing spacesuit gloves capable of meeting, or exceeding, the specifications of NASA's current Phase VI glove. Of six possible contenders, three teams presented their gloves for the competition.

via [ space

6th May 2007

Adobe CS3 Wallpapers and Desktop Backgrounds

[Right click and choose "Save Target as" to download any of these Adobe Wallpaper images]

     Adobe Illustrator Art

Photoshop Brushes Wallpaper

    

Terry White's beautiful wallpaper set for download - Design Premium, Web Premium, Production Premium, Master Collection, CS3 Creative License

Available in 800×600, 1024×748, 1280×960, 1600×1200 and 1920×1440 sizes.

via [ DI

Tags: Uncategorized | 0 Comments
6th May 2007

How to Get Framed Flickr Photos for your Walls?

Flickr333: The prints      my photo printed at 333

Remember those beautiful framed prints from Flickr 333? Now you can have your own photos printed, matted and frame photos sent directly to your home by Imagekind.

How to Get to Imagekind: 

From the Flickr 'Do More' page, click on Imagekind and you'll be taken to the Flickr member page on Imagekind.

Select a photo, choose your framing options, and away you go. Imagekind also provides a way for people to sell their prints to others.

You can read more about Imagekind's service on their blog. Join the Imagekind group on Flickr for questions or comments.

Photos from Planet Vicster and diyosa.

via [ flickr's blog ]

6th May 2007

Microsoft Yahoo merger?

The Wall Street Journal said:

Microsoft and Yahoo discussed a possible merger or other matchup that would pair their respective strengths, say people familiar with the situation. The merger discussions are no longer active, these people say, but that doesn't preclude the two companies from some other form of cooperation.

Briar Dudley's blog, The Seattle Times:

The New York Post owes everyone a good follow-up story. You can't just drop a bombshell that jerks around 80,000 Microsoft and Yahoo! employees, rocks Wall Street and then fizzles before the day is over.

The Post should investigate — and report — whether its anonymous investment banker sources made any money off the huge run in YHOO caused by its story. If the Post doesn't do this, the SEC might. We don't need any more reporter subpoenas.

At the very least, the Post needs to go back to its sources and clarify if and when Microsoft and Yahoo! ended their latest round of merger discussions.

According to SPJ (Society of Professional Journalists):

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth.

 

So what do you all think about this ? How can NY write something like this ? saying "unknown source" or "people" ,,,Do think Microsoft and Yahoo are really gonna merge ??

If yes will it affect Google's market share ??  I don't think Google might be worrying anything about this..as Google is GOD. Google is way beyond these two ..So maybe this merger isn't a potential problem for Google !

6th May 2007

YouTube Starts Paying Star Users

youtube_pays_users.jpgYouTube is going to start helping some of its indie video content creators make money, starting tomorrow. The company will launch a program that puts the creators of some of the more popular YouTube channels — including Lonelygirl15, LisaNova, HappySlip, renetto, Smosh, and valsartdiary — on the same playing field as large media partners like CBS.

“A select group of content creators will get promotion on the YouTube platform, and we will help them monetize their content,” said Jamie Byrne, head of product marketing, in an interview on Thursday. “This will help erase the the stigma around the user-created content, and, to be honest, these guys are media entities in their own right.”

While YouTube had previously said it might populate videos with pre-or-post roll ads as soon as this summer, the monies for the new program will come from the sales of banner ads.

via [ newteevee

6th May 2007

Vista draining laptop batteries-It was bound to happen

Its been just a few months of the Vista release and there have been hell lot of problems. Even though some tried to increase the usage of Vista by giving out Free Windows Vista, still people don't use it. You should look at the minimum requirements for running Vista..its really crazy to run a system with such high requirements..instead run a gnu/linux system which takes only 1/100 of the resources of what Windows take.It has hell lot of security vulnerabilities which were seen right from the day it got released. 

Some of Microsoft's most important customers aren't happy with the battery life offered byvista_batteries.jpg notebooks running Windows Vista.

"It's a little scary," said John Wozniak, a distinguished technologist in Hewlett-Packard's notebook engineering department, referring to the work HP needed to do on making Windows Vista more suitable for notebooks.

When Aero is turned off, battery life is equal to or better than Windows XP systems. But with it turned on, battery life suffers compared with Windows XP.

Microsoft, for its part, will likely have to improve Vista's battery life performance over time through the release of service packs and other tweaks, Shim said. "The (PC companies) are getting pressure from consumers–who are the notebook adopters–who are saying their number one priority on a notebook is battery life."

6th May 2007

Yahoo Photos ShutDown? Dosen’t seem so ..

According to TechCrunch and USA Today - Yahoo is to close its popular Yahoo Photos service completely in the coming months, telling people to either switch to Flickr or leave to a number of other competing photo sharing services.

But when i visited it today morning , it dosen't seem anything like that.. Moreover the old page is changed and has a new look..

new_yahoo_photos.jpg

S what does all this mean ? Are they going to force everybody to shift to Flickr ? or Let users use both !! wait and watch !!

6th May 2007

$10 Laptop by Engineers in India!

Around a year ago, India pulled out its support from the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ (OLPC) initiative. Now Human Resources Development ministry in India is seeking ways to develop a laptop that would cost an unbelievable $10.

 

india-laptop-olpc-laptop.jpg

 

The Indian government has two options. The first design is from a student at Vellore Institute of Technology and another from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, according to the Times of India.

At present, none of the two devices has managed to get the price to $10; in fact $47 is the lowest they could reach. Till now, the Indian government has not got any company to agree to produce the device, since building it for merely $10 would most probably mean that the manufacturer would have to take a significant loss.

Don't you think its crap ?? or is it really possible to make a $10 laptop ?? I think we lack practical thinking !! anyway ..lets see what happens..put in your comments !