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 »

Its been long that I watched television serials or rather followed them keenly.

I still remember the pre-engineering days or holidays when I had nothing to do at home apart from attending entrance tuitions. I was booming into or outta my adolescence age. My favourite channels were the top notch hindi channels, including Star Plus, Sony TV, Zee Tv, and few others. And if I ever got bored I used to skip to some English ones too but just for a break. The timings were late in the afternoon say, from 2 to 4, and after a while it started as early as 12.30 and extended upto 5pm..! All the K-serials were part of my daily routine, and prime time ones were favorites of mom too… But I alone could watch the re-telecast of the episodes in afternoon, if we ever missed them at night. Of the English ones, I rarely saw the kid-doctor series and the wonder years in Star World aired from 4.30 to 5.30pm. They were stories of boys and girls of my age and why shouldn’t I like them and their experiences retold in the form of a series. I have forgotten almost the English series names and I am trying hard to revive those memories through my various searches in youtube. I caught hold of The Wonder Years, but not the brilliant kid who became doc at 16. The addiction at that age to anything you are gifted with, was clear now when I look back at those years.

Now, being at home full time, I am bestowed upon the full opportunity to view any and all, I don’t feel that urge anymore. Its as if the excitement has worn out. In all the almost three years I lived away from home, I have gone accustomed not watching tv, or movies. And especially not alone. Almost a similar phase, but at different time of life and at a different place. And you find the passion is not there. Is it the same for most of the desires?