The Picture Planet - Think Picture!

It is always a pleasure to view creative pictures, pictures which make you think and smile!
An apple made Newton think and certain pictures made way to this "Picture Planet"!
The pictures will be switched frequently, you can share your views and ideas about the picture and "Picture Planet" in the comments page. :)
Here goes the first one!
The picture says it all, isn't it ??
Oops, am I in for another argument ?

It is time to say "YAHOO!" again !

This post comes in with a happy note, can you guess the reason behind it ?

It isn't only due to the content of this post. I've already written about Google and Microsoft, but there was always something missing in my blog, yes, there was no YAHOO!
This is the post which is going to fill that hole in the blog!

The Sunnyvale, California -based company has been under great pressure these days, with Microsoft's bid for yahoo and its leading investors asking it to make the deal. However, Google having a close watch on this scenario, has succeeded to join hands with Yahoo! and in the process relieving it from this tremendous pressure.

The web pioneer agreed to let Google put search ads on its site in what it called an $800 million annual revenue opprtunity that would boost cash flow.



Microsoft had hoped a Yahoo deal would accelerate its ability to capitalize on Web advertising growth and compete with Google, which is increasingly fighting for the same Internet audience.
When asked, if there would be a second round of negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo!, this seemed to be the end.

After a satisfactory deal with Google, Yahoo! has started progressing again with the launch of its two new e-mail domians, Ymail and Rocketmail.
Yahoo! undoubtedly has been the leader of e-mail services, with 260 million users worldwide. If you are a new user trying to create a Yahoo! account, you hardly get the desired username. This is pretty obvious due to the terrific number of users as mentioned above.

In order to solve this issue and help users get their desired usernames, the two new e-mail domains have been launched.

So what are you waiting for ??

Hurry up! No time to delay.. Get your username activated, right away!

Does Money matter more than Awards ? - "NO"

When it comes to Honda, especially Accord, I don't think there will be a considerable number of voices against it!

Many of us would have already seen this award winning Honda Accord advertisement, for those who haven't, you just have one amazing video below! Go on and watch it!!

This is the world's costliest commercial, the total cost of which was estimated to $6.9 million.
The fabulous 90 seconds commercial took around 606 takes and re-takes to attain completion.

"HARD WORK PAYS" isn't it ?? After watching the advertisement, I wanted to modify this statement slightly. "PAID HARD WORK PAYS EVEN MORE" :)

Being in a 'money-threatened' world, I guess you guys will agree with me.

Apart from the tremendous hard work, it also required a strong investment, which altogether was paid back as awards. Awarded as the Best advertisement of the year - 2007, this commercial also fetched the team many other awards.

Those instruments or gadgets seen in the advertisement are exactly the components of Honda Accord and it was pretty obvious.

Fast and Furious - THRUST

Are you guessing this post to be related with the Rob Cohen movie of 2001 ??
Then, I must say, you are absolutely wrong! I've got one simple question for you, "which is the world's fastest land vehicle ?" Still thinking ?? Never mind.. just go ahead reading.

The picture above looks weird, isn't it ? Named as THRUST SSC (super sonic car), currently holds the World Land Speed record (1,228 km/h). This British designed 'supremacy' emerged as the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. The car was driven by a Royal Air Force fighter pilot, Andy Green. It was powered by two engines, similar to that of F-4 Phantom jet fighters.Earlier, Richard Noble, one of the developers of this super sonic model held the world land speed record (1,018 km/h) with his car Thrust2.

To your left, is the proud Thrust SSC team.The Thrust SSC is being displayed in the coventry transport museum, England.

The North American Eagle is one of the many teams competing to break the existing record, which aims to achieve 1300 km/h.
While we fear 200 km/h (or even less), these guys are just rocking!

Great People Think Alike - TRUE

Do " great people think alike " ?? Yeah! I've got a perfect example to justify this.

Many of us would have definitely come across these logos, but have we ever realised the striking similarity ?? YouTube the video giant and Airtel the most successful mobile service provider! So.. yes.. great people think alike.. isn't it ?? Well, this was one post out of the way.... :)

Maglev Trains - a Replacement

If you've been to an airport lately, you've probably noticed that air travel is becoming more and more congested. Despite frequent delays, still provide the fastest way to travel hundreds or thousands of miles. Passenger air travel revolutionized the transportation industry in the last century, letting people traverse great distances in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks.

The only alternatives to airplanes being feet, cars, buses, boats and conventional trains, are just too slow for today's fast-paced society. However, there is a new form of transportation that could revolutionize transportation of the 21st century the way airplanes did in the 20th century. A few countries are using powerful electromagnets to develop high-speed trains, called maglev trains. Maglev is short for magnetic levitation, which means that these trains will float over a guideway using the basic principles of magnets.


The big difference between a maglev train and a conventional train is that maglev trains do not have an engine, at least not the kind of engine used to pull typical train cars along steel tracks. The engine for maglev trains is rather inconspicuous. Instead of using fossil fuels, the magnetic field created by the electrified coils in the guideway walls and the track combine to propel the train.

If I'm not wrong, the question in your mind now must be, "How does this FUNCTION ?"
As mentioned earlier, levitation is one of the phenomenal applications of a superconductor.
The base of the train is made of superconducting magnets, which floats above an aluminium guideway. Enormous repulsion between the 2 magnets (superconducting magnet and electric current in the aluminium guideway) is produced. The current is responsible for producing the magentic field required to levitate and propogate the train. The retractable wheels are takn into the body once levitated and brought out again as the train slows down.

While maglev transportation was first proposed more than a century ago, the first commercial maglev train made its test debut in Shanghai, China, in 2002, using the train developed by German company Transrapid International. The same line made its first open-to-the-public commercial run about a year later in December of 2003. The Shanghai Transrapid line currently runs to and from the Longyang Road station at the city's center and Pudong airport. It travels at an average speed of 267 mph (430 kmh).
This was one video which fascinated me quite a lot..


Logic or Magic ?? Ofcourse logic! But thats got you thinking now :)

Survival of The Fittest (or Wealthiest ?)

As we all know, the 'WAR' is on!! No swords, No guns, No attacks, No retreats!! Yes, this is the 'NET WAR'! For those who aren't aware of it, the battle is between the Massive Microsoft and the Glorious Google. What is the aim of this war?
Well, when the question is " who is the King of OS ? " the answer is pretty simple. But, "who is the King of Online Services ?"
Now the answer isn't that simple. Thus, the aim of this battle is to get a clear answer to the above question.
Microsoft has dominated the field of OS for a very long time now. Though it had a few online services, it didn't worry about dominating them. Google which started as a normal search engine,
has emerged as the best search engine and now has a variety of online services, which need no description!
Microsoft has watched google grow and develop from the top, but fears for the same now.
To begin with, I dont think there is any need to compare the 2 search engines( msn and google).
Moving on to e-mail, there are equal number of people using Gmail and Hotmail [gmail came much later than hotmail].

'Google Earth' has made a terrific impact too!
Google is fast advancing the existing services apart from creating new services like the 'Google Health'. Its not that all google services have been a big hit. 'Google Video' was a setback for the google team. Although Youtube is in the hands of google now, it has a failure recorded in its history.
The hot news around the globe is Microsoft's bid for Yahoo!


For those who are really interested about this, check out this video..
http://www.news.com/1606-2-6228869.html



This is the Page Rank of Google [10/10] probably the only site with such a rank.
'Page Rank' is again developed by Google. But, the patent is not assigned to Google but to Stanford University.







Now, this is the page rank for MSN [8/10].

As mentioned earlier both Gmail and Hotmail hold the same rank [8/10].





Among all these, Google's Orkut being a big success and Microsoft's Windows Vista taking away the first place in the 'Top 10 disappointments of 2008' is something to be mentioned.

Now, Youtube taken by Google and Microsoft's bid for Yahoo! This is what I call as a typical race or battle to reach the 'top'.

As of now, Google is more close to the top than Microsoft.

So, is it going to be survival of the fittest (or) survival of the wealthiest ? We got to wait for some more time. If you have an answer already,I guess you can take up the following poll :)

OS Outlook

Hey friends!! You're just checking out my First Blog and am sure you guys won't let me down. :)
All you people out there will be familiar with operating systems (OS). When we talk about OS the first name which appears before your eyes is definitely "MICROSOFT" or "WINDOWS" to be more specific.Yes, its pretty obvious, more than half of the household desktops are loaded with windows.All of us are addicted or pampered by the softwares provided in windows, for example MS Office! This is due to the simple fact that windows is much more user-friendly than any other OS in market today. I think this is the Begining of the end of the Windows Era..
Nowadays, you'll find more of OS like Linux in most of the software companies and.. yes in other companies too. Though its not user-friednly like Windows, it has many other reasons for being preferred. It isn't easy for Windows users to just like that come out of it. I would suggest you to start using softwares similar to that of windows and slowly make the change.For example you can find softwares similar to that of MS office at http://www.openoffice.org/. There is yet another thing to be mentioned, as we all know, GOOGLE has emerged as the 'best pick' of online services. Not to our surprise, they are now on their way to an OS!! [not yet official though]
I have a small suggestion ( or advice ??) for all you aspiring professionals, you must be familiar with windows, but that isn't enough. Get used to atleast 2 other operating systems, namely Linux.
Not to forget..Windows is still alive.. but you got to choose wisely...... and.....yup this blog was posted from a system working on a windows interface ;)
Well....my blogs are going to be based on the technical side [not too techincal though].
Do check out for new posts....
I would be pleased to read your comments.