Flickr : Cool photos sharing site and more...

Recently stumbled upon this site flickr. It is one of the coolest photos sharing site I have ever seen. You will feel like you are using a desktop application when you go into their website. They are heavily using the latest web technology, which was pioneered by Google, called Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript XML). Typing description or title for the photos are a breeze.

The layout is neat and simple. They also a desktop based downloader which does not just uploading but resizing, title and description addition etc. Really intelligent stuff.

You can create sets of photos. You can make them private - only for people you know or public - for everyone.

You can share these photos with your own website, if you have as a normal photos or Flash. The photo management section is really the best part of all. You can do batch edit of titles, descriptions, permission, rotation and few effects etc.

Sharing with your people is easy as well as you can maintain list of contacts or groups of contacts.

lastly, a third party website offers paid services to make the photos as DVD presentation etc...
and so many other features...just check out...and you will explore more... than I did...

Microsoft's Zune music player to be made by Toshiba!

According to latest reports in FCC website, there is an indication that Microsoft's supposed-to-be Ipod killer Zune may be manufactured by Toshiba!

Thats a kind of mixed news! Toshiba is not doing well in its electronics and household products nowadays. I had a very bad experience with my Toshiba laptop and my home vaccum cleaner!!! Certain basic product quality standard was well below industry average when comparing with cheaper Korean brands. So, I am a bit worried now about the future of the player.

The only advantage is Toshiba is a kinda pioneer in its micro-hard drives. So, they will have the price advantage over others for sure. This is going to really impact the pricing of the players.

Fyi, Zune will be HDD based music/video player with wi-fi enabled.

Lets see what happens when the players will be available in the market which is around Christmas season this year!

Gudnite!
to

One more hacking incident!

As I am an enthusiast about Chess and follows events locally and internationally, I wanted to find out the Chess competition being held in Indian capital New Delhi. Actually my nephew is also playing there and that is another important reason why I wanted to visit the website, www.delhichess.com. Shocked to see it is hacked by some disgusting people.

I'm not sure what they really want to gain by doing this! I was laughing myself and not sure who to blame...Technology is simple to learn nowadays especially doing things like hacking. Actually the fact is that you do not need to learn hacking. You just need to learn how to form some intelligent keywords and try searching for it in google kind of search engines. In few clicks you can start hacking! I'm not teaching hacking here but just sharing the thoughts!

Lets come back to the game. My nephew is just 13 years old and traveled to more places than me in a year or so. A month back went to Iran, then to Calcutta won the championship, then in a week went to Turkey for Chess Olympiad. Now he is in New Delhi. All those overseas trips are for representing India!!! Astonishing these kids...BTW I forgot to mention his name...B.Adhiban...

Thimiru My Review...!

After the success of Run by Lingusamy/Madhavan combo, Thimiru is another movie in the same theme but with few strong surprises!

Vishal is lucky to get this and does his job with ease. But he has to do some homework on his facial expressions.

The story is simple: Heroin is in a trouble and as usual the hero makes his presence and saves her from the villain. The villain then targets the hero for the whole of the film and the climax is how the hero finally triumphs! Very often heard storyline right? But the director Darun Gopi's intelligence in narration and characterization does the trick! The villain is none other than Shreya Reddy, the tamil music channel VJ! Her dialogues are sometime disgusting but she has proved her skills and the director's as well! The dialogues in certain scenes are not so good to hear with the family around for sure, I warn you! Especially when she asks the father of Vishal that would not you like a "naattukattai" like me if you were young. Darun...you can try many other things to give her that kind cruel image...not this cheap...!

Reema has nothing to do except dancing for few songs...not even few scenes given to her where she can be romantic!

Music is another disappointment! Yuvan did not do well as he did in recent his continuous musical hits like Sandakozhi, Pattiyal and Azhakai Irukkirai...etc. None of the songs are really sounds good somehow...is it just for me? Yuvan, we expect a lot from you...We know you can do it!

There are so many good artists wastes, like Manoj K Jeyan, Banuchander etc. There are few characters like the handicapped assistant of Shreya who has done good work...

Camera is good as well as the action in the film. Overall the movie will be a hit for sure. The reason may be mainly because of the impact made by Shreya and her not before seen acting as Villain! But after the movie you can not avoid the feeling of finding some similarity with Sandakozhi...

I will give 40/100. Just managed to pass!

music and food...

Its 12.17pm Singapore std time. Feeling hungry...nobody in the office...Obviously it is the lunch hour, so you do not see many people working still in a company (an oil & gas company) like this...as day by day the crude oil price goes up for various reasons!!!

Thought of publishing this before i go for lunch...

Listening to some good music thru my headphone...its serene experience...should be felt rather than heard or listened...The song is a Tamil movie soundtrack composed Ilaiyaraja (IR), my favorite music director from a Tamil movie Dhalapathy called "Sundari Kannaal Oru Sethi". I feel that I am really blessed of being able to live in the same time as that of IR so that I can appreciate the music feast he has been presenting to us people.

There is one more song, almost similar style of melodious and slow duet in Hey Raam which is kind of sounding to me more matured than this. Certain pieces are really mind blowing in that song especially the piano piece that repeats once in a while. Listen to it again to appreciate it...

See you Later with some more stuff soon!