IT Masala

This message came up yesterday when I opened the  firefox browser.

Mozilla team wants to see Firefox in the Guinness World Record. Its kinda cool to see Firefox in the world record list. The date for that is not yet set.Right now pledge to download Firefox 3 on that day. All we have to do is download Firefox 3 on that specified date, so that we set a world record of highest downloads within a span of 24hrs. You can have a look at the people who have taken the pledge to download, a nice map showing the number of users is on the homepage.

 

 

Maybe they got this crazy idea by seeing some craziest records set. The official date for the launch of Firefox 3 will be posted on the site. So take a pledge to bring Firefox in the Guinness World Record.

Firefox 3 has a nice caption "The browser that has it all" .

[ Download day 2008 ] [ Get Involved ]

Today we celebrate Earth Day . It's Not Easy Buying Green.Eco-friendly electronics products are increasing in number, but consumers have to work to find them.

Dell's Plant a Tree For Me program lets you make a small donation to two environmental organizations while buying a notebook or desktop PC. Retailers like Radio Shack and Best Buy have electronics-recycling programs for disposing of unwanted cell phones, batteries, and other products. (The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has compiled a list of recycling programs.) But when it comes to buying a product that's less toxic to the environment, knowing what your options are isn't easy.

Count Down Your Carbon is a site where you analyze energy consumptions like Change Your Light Bulbs, Plant Trees ,Buy Energy Star Appliances,Conserve Energy,Use Hot Water Efficiently,Buy Clean Energy,Drive Less—Drive Smart,Eat Green,Reduce Waste—Support Recycling,Offet Your Emissions. So what more you could other than knowing the energy consumptions and saving..

Download : home energy audits school energy audits

Google also celebrating Earth Day 2007 ..showing off their Earth Day logo..

Let us all contribute in whatever way we can.. " Small contributions from you and me can make this World a better place "

[ Earth Day Flag ] [ Earth Day ] [ Get Involved ] [ Earth Day @wikipedia ] [ Earthday.gov ]

Some Facts : 

It is estimated that one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. That's roughly 100 times as many as those who actually die from these causes each year.

About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. This is down from 35,000 ten years ago, and 41,000 twenty years ago. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five.

Famine and wars cause about 10% of hunger deaths, although these tend to be the ones you hear about most often. The majority of hunger deaths are caused by chronic malnutrition. Families facing extreme poverty are simply unable to get enough food to eat.

The Hunger Site began on June 1, 1999. In 1999, a year marked by good economic news, 31 million Americans were food insecure, meaning they were either hungry or unsure of where their next meal would come from. Of these Americans, 12 million were children.

How You Can Help In Mere Seconds — Every Day

The Hunger Site provides a feel-good way to help promote awareness and prevent hunger deaths every day — through easy and quick online activities.

With a simple, daily click of the yellow "Help Feed The Hungry" button at The Hunger Site, visitors help provide food to those in need. Visitors pay nothing. Food is paid for by the site's sponsors and distributed by Mercy Corps worldwide and by America’s Second Harvest to food banks throughout the United States.

Button to be clicked on The Hunger Site :

Please remember to click every day to give help and hope to those most in need. Every click counts in the life of a hungry person.

Best Option : 

Also use Remember to Click option to be reminded of clicking for that day. Its a free newsletter to remind you to click everyday.

You Can Help Even More

In addition to clicking the yellow "Help Feed The Hungry" button, visitors can help more by shopping in The Hunger Site store , each item purchased will raise funds to feed the hungry..

Where does the Funds go ?

The staple food funded by clicks at The Hunger Site is paid for by site sponsors and distributed to those in need by Mercy Corps and America's Second Harvest. 100% of sponsor advertising fees goes to our charitable partners. Funds are split between these organizations and go to the aid of hungry people in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.

So all you people just help by clicking on the yellow button on The Hunger Site . You don't need to do anything much. Just a click everyday by everybody would feed millions…

[ Sign up here ] [ The Hunger Site store ] [ Remember to Click ] [ Be a Sponsor ]

Google always caters the needs of its users. So here's a chance for you to help Google to help you better… "Report Bug" link has been added to Gmail .It will appear near the top right on your Gmail Inbox page besides the " Settings" and "Logout" links. 

I was surprised , it did not appear when i login , i tried many times to get it ..logged in and out several times.. but in vain. But when my friend logged on he got a link [ screenshot attached ]. Maybe Google doesn't like me using Gmail ?? or it doesn't want me to send " Bug Reports "  or maybe it appears only for non-frequent Gmail users ..

So if you face some problems in using Gmail then :

- First - Check troubleshooting guide to find a solution to your problem, it might be already be available.

- Second - Check out Help Center - it has answers to most frequently asked questions. 

- If you could not get a solution to your problem then - Use this Bug Reporting form to make sure that Gmail knows about technical issues. 

Note : While filling this Bug Report form don't forget to mention about your browser and OS information.This will help Google to handle problems reported, quickly and effectively. And give proper valid Email address- response will be sent to the id you give here..so.

PS : Google might not respond to every message they receive. 

Bug Report Form looks like this :

[ Report Bug ] via [ Gmail ]

With a tiny 6.76% of the search market, compared with Google’s 60%+ search share dominance, Microsoft has decided it’s time to leverage their massive base of global Windows users with juicy wads of cash to switch search providers!

So Whats the deal ? 

Microsoft’s new program is called “Microsoft Service Credits for Web Search” and has been unveiled by John Batelle’s ‘SearchBlog’. The money on offer is significant, especially when multiplied across thousands of PCs. The deal means that companies can earn between US $2 and US $10 per computer on an annual basis, plus a US $25,000 “enrollment credit” which is a nice big wad of cash that will likely need a large-ish, strong and sturdy brown paper bag to hold securely while being passed under the table.  

For companies that have thousands of computers, this could translate into anywhere from US $100,000 to $200,000 per year, which is money that could be put to good use in the IT department or elsewhere in the company.

Bad part of the campaign :

Microsoft will use a ‘Browser Helper Object’ installed into IE7 to track search queries and send information on search back to Microsoft, so they can use the information to improve the results that Windows Live Search delivers. Because of this, IE7 must be used – it doesn’t work with Firefox, Opera or older versions of IE browsers.

Really this is heights !! Is Microsoft so very irked by open source successes ?? anyway..read on.. 

Robert Scoble comments - "Microsoft sucks": 

“What Windows Live lacks, specifically, is an identity. No one can describe it, no one from Microsoft has even tried.”

Former Microsoft employee and blogger Robert Scoble who served as the online face of Microsoft during his three years at the company is not impressed with Microsoft’s moves in deciding to offer companies money to use search.

PS: Each search at click4thecause.live.com results in a financial donation from Microsoft to provide help with education programs to the refugee kids around the globe.

We all know that Google doesn’t need to pay anyone to use its search services – people use them voluntarily because of the quality of the results.

So, is Microsoft really that spooked by Google's dominating success in search, and why is Robert Scoble so unimpressed with the deal? - The answer is quality !

It will be a loooong time until Micro$oft Live search reaches the level of Google searches..Till then keep trying..Good luck, Microsoft, you’re going to need it!

via [ itwire ] 

Ever thought of contributing something to the society ? If yes , then here's a chance to do so. Its simple. You don't need to pay anything .

Donate and Help! ….God will help those who help others !

So if you are a student and don't have money to donate , no problem, here's an alternative way to donate to UNICEF.

Steps :

- Invite your friends to sign up for the free UNICEF USA eNewsletter

- Get $5 donated in your name for each friend who signs up

- Track the difference you've made by simply spreading the word!

Click here to know more about Other Ways to Give to UNICEF. 

What your money can buy:

$3 can buy a large wool blanket to protect a child from the cold during an emergency.

$17 can immunize a child against the 6 major childhood diseases.

$54 can buy 150 sachets of PlumpyNut, a ready-to-eat therapeutic spread to nourish children with acute malnutrition.

$100 can buy a kit with enough materials to test 100 children for the Hepatitis-B virus.

$500 can buy a year's supply of antiretroviral medicine for an HIV-positive child under three-years-old.

 
Want to know more :

Download UNICEF's annual report

Click to view this PDF file (2.4 MB) online (or right click to save it to your desktop).

via [ UNICEF ] 

is a new initiative from Windows Live™ Messenger. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective organizations dedicated to social causes. 

1. Use Messenger 8.1
2. Add the i'm emoticon to your display name by entering the code of the cause you would like to support (note: I suggest adding it at the end of your name so you still appear in the correct alphabetic order in your contacts list)
   
3. Send and receive IMs
4. A portion of the advertising revenue generated by your usage of Messenger will be donated to your cause. So the more IMs you send and receive the more money will be donated to your cause.

note: currently the donation only applies to Windows Live Messenger users in the United States. If you are in the US and you are IMing with a contact in another country your IM activity will be counted towards the donation.