Archana Online.com

The photofunia.com site enables you to blend your images on various ready-made photos. A sample one is given below.

All are catchy photos with special effects which will boost your spirits high. The website uses mostly face detection algorithms to cut out your face alone from the image you supply from your computer/pc. It also enables to save to Imageshack for easy usage in internet sites or save as Avatar to use in forums and as thumbnails or to save the entire image to your desktop and that too for free!!!

Technology has now stepped up in various ways. It has started influencing our day to day life in every possible way. We are getting addicted to internet off late. Atleast I am.

In the earlier ages, Yahoo and MSN dominated us with their chat rooms and then the messengers. The blogs and personal pages like Yahoo pages and Yahoo 360 and MSN spaces grew side by side.  Actually, the search of enhanced personal pages landed me in the world of blogs. Some say, though the world is growing, people are being worse. In handling their values, morals, and relations. But technology has geared up to teach us back the essence and need of being connected. The innumerous sites for social networking like the famous Orkut and Facebook and lesser known hi5, Friendster, Refriendz etc and the volume of registered members speaks it out. People are networking with each other and finding their lost friends and relations spread geographically over internet. Its as if the telecommunications has blended into the computer workstation. And the postal department has been almost replaced by emails and blogs. I wonder what would be the future. Read the rest of this entry »

Computers, gadgets, gizmos, toys etc are the keywords which entices geeks and techie freaks. I am not sure how I got attached to such crazy things. Whenever I saw a mobile in someone’s hand,  I would peek it wondering what model is it, if not the number, whether it is high end or low end, or whether mine is better than his or hers etc etc. And then I used to satisfy myself that its expensive and has that n this problems and would appreciate my mobile in the end. But now, with more and more new gadgets and smartphones available at cheaper prices than before, I have started drooling again!

Long back, in childhood, I remember Appa playing with his toolkit containing screwdrivers, variety of spanners, pipe wrench etc. He had his own ways of fixing household appliances which interested me. Being the youngest daughter and spoilt brat that I am, I was like a tomboy for him, helping hands in his maintenance works. I fascinated his calculators and his expertize in mathematics. I am not sure from where he bought them, but I remember using a manual calculator, rather a mechanical abacus kinda device (googled and found its called Addiator). Then there was the digital diary, where in I stored most of my known contact numbers and imagined that I was a serious businesswoman! Those were the times, when mobile phones were too expensive to be bought and when pagers and walkie talkies ruled the world. I used to envy my friend’s father’s pager when she used to talk about it. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome back to the 5th episode of the Webscape Tidbits. This time, I have just few links compared to the ten given in the last post.

1. Ever wondered if you could write a secret letter to someone and blurt out your feelings? Ever imagined how people go about suppressing their emmotions or waving it off in the form of a curse, or forgiveness or play of life? Ever wished that you could convey your wishes to the old friend whose whereabouts is unknown? So there is one such website where your could post/submit your letter to the mailbox and they will publish the letter for you if you are lucky!

2. I had been going through this phase of life many times and even recently. I am sure, any blogger, who writes casually do fall for the disease of writer’s block sometime or the other. There are many ways to get out of this, by either taking up tags, or writing random thoughts or by bouncing back automatically with time. There are websiets which says how to overcome the writer’s block by keeping on writing, no matter what nonsense it is…. Great!

3. As mentioned earlier about the bookshelf, there were time, when I was crazy with books, and thought I would be a great reader and follow the paths of great writers by reading a lot..During those times, I searched for top reads or best sellers etc, and came across this site, which mentions about the 100 must read books. Now, apart from few classics, I haven’t even heard of those books ever. Nevertheless, its a great site, which contains reviews of so much books, including the plot too!! Saves time in selecting a book!!!!

4. These days, I have been smitten by blogomania, which means to stumble upon blogs, and read blog posts, and if the disease is on the high, you even subscribe to it, through Google reader or any other bookmarks! So although the below blogs may have been already popular, I came across them only recently, and few of them made me laugh so much that, if I had an award and trophies for humourous blogs, I would have given them right away….

a. Domain Mazimus – Strange blog title I know, but it gives the explanation too…
b. Mirror Cracked – Another cupid victim!
c. This music gives you, rather gave me, a refreshing wave of Chennai thoughts and memories, along with this good personal blogger from Chennai…

Soft music and rather addicting right??? Though I would now prefer to fast numbers so as to prevent my blackmailing trap of random thoughts pulls me in. So listening to Pyaar ki yeh kahaani suno from the film Honeymoon travels Pvt. Ltd. Absolutely mesmerizing dance performance there!!! So while I enjoy the music and stumble across various websites, go along and take a break or if you don’t want to, keep following me on twitter or read on other episodes of Webscape!!!

Hope you all enjoyed this episode of webscape. Keep pouring in your suggestions at so n so. Till I come back with another Webscape escapade, this is Archana aka crazy bluediamond signing off..

I love Google. From the time, I knew about searching information on web, Google was my supervisor. Earlier, when emails were luring people onto internet, I was also a victim of Yahoo and Hotmail and Rediff. Since Gmail, I have never looked back. If I self-analyse, I could see that I use Google products more than anything for online purposes. Starting from the popular Orkut and Gtalk, I have moved on to use Adsense and Analytics and Webmaster Tools for blogging technically, Notebook and Reader as blogging assistant tools, Picasaweb for all my photo albums, Toolbar for efficient browsing, Bookmarks for storing my favourite sites and so on. There are other tools like Youtube and Blogger which I use occasionally for reading. And few of the old tools like Groups and Alerts which I have stopped long back.

Now its Google Chrome from today.! Will it mesmerize me in the same way as its brother products did??? The comic ad looks promising! Lets wait n watch.

There are times in life… When you wished to cry loud, leaning on someone’s shoulder, clinging onto them to your heart tightly… Or to blast onto their ears of your success or achievement… When you just want to smile at the nature’s beauty admiringly and want to cuddle up in someone’s arms… Or to release the impounding pressure of the heart and tension from your mind and to find solace and peace… There are times in life you wished you could just hug someone… without any desire, without any shame, without any name, without any relationship, without any gender bias, seeking love….
I didn’t knew it was possible…

Stumbled across the Free Hugs organization recently, and the video, which reminds you the essential craving in you to hug someone in your life. Quite a good initiative, but I really wonder, whether in the land of conservative people down in the South India, whether this concept would be accepted ever? Food for thought!

Webscape is back. I would try not to miss them again, but it actually depends on the various stumbled sites of mine, and based on how others help me out in providing and discovering links through their sharing methods.

1. http://firef.ly/ – For people who use Facebook, might have noticed that you can chat with people who are visiting the site at the same time along with you. I guess Firefly is similar kinda application that can be used on any site…. But useful only if many are visiting the site simultaneously!

2. YouTube Video Download Tool – Recently, owing to the extreme availibility of my broadband connection, I am watching more and more you tube videos. But the wait for it to load completely is terrible. Hence this download tool is extremely efficient in downloading all the clips to watch at a later time. You need FLV player to play them.

3. Stumbled upon the cool wallpaper links from Smashing Magazine.

Read the rest of this entry »

Online friends, or unseen or unmet friends…

It had been my old habit of talking to strangers. The world of internet had opened to me long back, a new way to make new friends. Being member of various tech forums( don ask why I joined them! ), I had so many acquaintances to whom I could chat online in yahoo/msn messengers. There was a peak time, which even persuaded me to enter the chat rooms and I was chatting in 3-4 windows simultaneously with strangers starting with the “asl”. I don’t remember the names now, but I do remember that I had talked to one person who claimed to be from Pakistan. And there was also another person who was so talkative and so impressive in his talk and humour style. Now, when I think back of those days, a smile or rather a sheepish grin originates around the corner of my lips.

Though I had been the regular member of Tech Arena and then the Tech Enclave, it all started with the Digit forums. There are some long lost members who know me (and vice versa) by just an online name and nothing more. But there were few who kept the relation going, and thankfully to them, it is still active, through some strange bond, and also with the help of the common link Chennai, blogging and of course the messenger! Over these years, I knew them only through the posts they make in some new tech forums, the yahoo chats we have, and the photos in orkut, the mobile smses, and very few have gone up to the stage of mobile calls (that too some calling almost daily or twice a week!). The chains were missing in between for a while, but I guess its the Time who linked the broken links of the chain to bring us more closer. These unknown but, friendly strangers, have grown close to play important roles in my life in the form of brothers, friends and some more than that.. It is indeed a strange experience, to discuss with a person, whom you never met, though you have either seen the face or heard the voice. And especially, when they grow up to become your closest friends in your life, just like one of the Top friends in Facebook. The relation may get worse or better after the meet, but I guess its always the same whenever you meet any of them for the first time. Though I agree and I should warn others to be careful while disclosing the details to your online friends.

The month of October has lots of memories related to me in the past two years. And I hope, this month it will turn out to be yet another memorable month. Before any such meeting with online friends, I always feel an excitement, creating a big hush of waves in my mind shore, of past storms, of the hidden consolation, or of unknown future.. Maybe I am again just into such an emotion, as usual…

Hmmmm……