Raman's Blog

I am using the JS-Kit commenting system from today. JS-Kit does more than just replace Blogger’s built-in commenting system. You can comment using your facebook ID. It saves me the pain of introducing facebook connect to my blogger account. It imports existing comments and provides live synchronizaiton of new comments with Blogger. I would recommend this for every blogger. Every time a visitor leaves a comment on your blog using JS-Kit interface, the comment is instantly copied to Blogger’s built-in commenting system. If for any reason you disable JS-Kit Comments on your blog, your visitor comments will be preserved on Blogger. This feature is something that was missing from Disqus or Intensedebate commenting systems.

I had embedded my youtube playlist in my previous post about nursery rhymes. Today Labnol.org gave me a new resource to try and the baby I was babysitting, loved it. KIDO'Z is a new service that offers an adobe air based kids safe browser with all the kid stuff preloaded! So it saves my time to search through the vast cyberspace for the kind of videos that my little niece would like to watch.You can safely leave your kid to watch videos on the web with this application. There is no need to know to read to use this intuitive software.  Link: http://kidoz.net/beta/index.html

Lifehacker today announced the entry of a new online service called Livedrive . It is like a dream come true! Livedrive offers unlimited file storage with a standalone software client. The software installs a virtual drive called L into which you can drag and drop files. You can also select a custom domain http://someusername.livedrive.com for accessing their files and sharing them. The service is at present free and I’ve pretty much strong intuition that it could be for fee soon. But until then enjoy! Technorati Tags: filestorage , backup

Matrix is my favorite movie and I would like to watch other movies similar to it. But how to search for a movie that is similar to another movie? That is where Jinni helps. Jinni's social search-and-recommendation engine uses Movie Genome, a big, ongoing project with the Jinni community to describe video more complexly. Using proprietary technology, a Jinni search takes you inside plot elements, atmosphere, and more to give you appropriate recommendations according to your taste. You can watch the movies online. Presently it is in invitation only beta. But I have 10 invites and would like to share with those interested.   Technorati Tags: movies , search

If you are a blog or a website owner and would like to get a wider audience getting a translator button will be very helpful. Your readers can read your site contents in their own language at the click of a button. Conveythis is a service that includes all the major online translators such as Google Translator, BabelFish, MSN Traslator and more in a single button widget. Also you have statistics. According to the site more than 30 different languages are supported. This is how a sample button looks like. Mouse over it and you can get a number of options.     Technorati Tags: blog , translate

Currently the economy is down and it won’t be a surprise if even the best of the best loses his job. If you are one of them, don’t fall into the vicious circle of depression and non productivity. Don’t despair, maintain your spirits and productivity, make use of your time and keep going. Rachel Zupek of CareerBuilder.com has given a few important tips in an article on MSN. Click here to read it.   Technorati Tags: jobless , productivity

I missed the auto fill form function of roboform in Google Chrome. I have been searching for an automatic form filler that will work in google chrome and finally found a software that will work in all applications. PhraseExpress is a very useful utility that will work in all windows applications. It can be personalized in different ways to suit our needs. We can launch applications, get auto suggestions for input fields, create macros for applications etc. It is a light weight application which monitors our keyboard and learns to give auto fill suggestions. It is a freeware for personal use. The application shows an average amount of time we saved using it. The following is a Youtube video showcasing PhraseExpress . Technorati Tags: productivity

After reading the intro in Lifehacker about the first issue of Productive magazine, I wanted to check it out. I was glad to find it uploaded to issuu which is my favorite online ebook reader. According to the Productive magazine website the mission is to be a platform where the top productivity bloggers will share their best productivity principles and tips’n'tricks. It is an online free magazine aiming to feature the best of the productivity blog posts. Get your own - Open publication Technorati Tags: productivity

In this digital era of electronic documents and ebooks, Adobe Digital Editions fills the void for the need of a visually pleasing interface for reading ebooks. Organize your eBooks into a custom library and annotate pages. Digital Editions also supports industry-standard eBook formats, including PDF/A and EPUB. Use it to download and purchase digital content. There are other ways to read pdf documents in an engaging and visually pleasant interface. Issuu lets you upload all your pdf files and read and share online. Scribd is a more famous service of the same kind and is not limited to pdf files. If you want to share your files with others and need a free online storage, Scribd or Issuu will be a good choice. If you are like me and would like to keep your files private in your computer and would like to have a more visually pleasing reader for pdf files, Adobe Digital Editions is a good choice. Technorati Tags: ebook reader , reader , ebooks , pdf , adobe

I think I have landed upon the best search engine for Indian stuff especially music. The website claims to be the first crawler based search engine developed completely in India and designed to make search simple for Indian users. The website automatically identifies content on the web and organizes it in such a way that Indian users get search results that are most relevant, real fast. “Guruji”, a respectful way to call one's teacher, is the person one seeks help from in times of need. Likewise, Guruji.com aims to help provide easy access to information in every walk of life in an Indian context.  Personally, I loved the way it searches and displays music search results. I would consider this Skreemr alternative for the Indian music.

Springpad is a beta service offering online notbooks in an ajaxy style and works on Google chrome too! Each notebook called springpad is packed with features which you can customize according to your needs. You can create your own springpads or get a ready  made template from the site. I have started experimenting with the service and am discovering new features each time I use it! The drag and drop interface and integration of other web services like google calendar, maps etc make it a compelling service for everyone to try.

All Indian channels in one page with email and sms reminders: that is ZipAZap . It has over 300 Indian TV and Radio Channels are available at least 7 days in advance. There are options for e-mail and sms reminders and so from now onwards don’t worry about missing your favorite soap or cinema. You can carry all your favorite programs wherever you go through their mobile link at http://wap.zipazap.com . I rarely find time to sit much time in front of the idiot box. But for me and for others who would want to keep up to date with the latest happenings in the television industry; the official blog is much helpful. I have subscribed the rss feeds of that blog and put sms reminders of my favorite programs on Discovery Channel. My feature request is a single feed for all my favorite programs from all the channels

An online reference for Indian pharmaceutical products is something I always wished for. Though there are similar services for US pharma products, they are quite useless from an Indian context. Current Index of Medical Specialties (CIMS) has always been a ready reckoner among Indian physicians for drug reference. Now the contents of CIMS is available on the net at their website at http://www.cimsasia.com/ CMPMedica is a leading healthcare media company providing tailored solutions to a global healthcare market. They provide reference data, decision support solutions, news and education to communities of general practitioners, specialist doctors, pharmacists, nurses and patients across 26 countries. The website is quite intuitive and you can search either CIMS or Searchmedica. You can choose to search for druginfo, interactions or diagnoses. I liked the feature of interactions but won't comment on the diagnoses option. Though I was interested only on Indian pharma products, you can ...

I always wondered whether there is any free VOIP solution to call my friends in USA. ICall is a small software which will let you connect to any phone in USA for a few minutes. You can call your beloved ones in US and give your extension number which they can dial for free from their local number which is listed on the website. Those who can afford to pay can get unlimited free outgoing and a virtual number in USA. Do let me know if you have any better option :-) Tags: VOIP , call , phone

Wowio is offering copyrighted high quality books for download in pdf format for free. You can sign up for a free account and can download upto 30 books in a month with a limit of 3 books in one day. You can give your friends a surprise gift by sending them an ebook by email. They have a wonderful collection of books which I always wanted to buy but never did either because they were expensive or were not available in the local bookstore. I also liked the way the ebooks are displayed in the website and enjoyed browsing through the collection. My book rack is already out of space though I would like to increase my library collection and ebooks seems to be a perfect solution. Also this is one way of avoiding unnecessary wastage of paper and helps in environment conservation. Tags: books , ebooks , wowio

As an advocate of modern medicine, I’ve always been skeptic about the efficacy of practices like yoga and meditation and have never bothered to delve much into those areas. But I was always curious about techniques that will improve our ability to perform in our day to day lives and help us to realize our full potential. That is how I became interested in “Transcendental Meditation” as advocated by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and learnt some basics of TM. My Acharya (teacher) was Mr. Sasidharan of Maharishi Ved Vigyan Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram. The TM basically consists of 7 steps as was advised to me by my Acharya. 1) Sit comfortably 2) Close your eyes 3) Wait for about 30 seconds 4) Meditation proper 5) Stop meditation 6) Wait for 2 minutes or more with eyes closed 7) Open your eyes slowly Meditation proper: Repeatedly chant the sacred mantra (in my opinion, it can be as simple as “Aum” or Om) inside your mind in a progressively decreasing tone and amplitude. The mantra should be chan...