Wednesday, May 30

Do you know Mosi-oa-Tunya?

Ha, Ha, don't try to pronounce "Mosi-oa-Tunya"-instead just say 'Victorial Falls' .

Africa's Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) are, by some measures, the largest waterfall on the planet, as well as being among the most unusual in form, and having arguably the most diverse and easily-seen wildlife of any major waterfall site.

Water has some special attraction for us. It's dual force as the elixir of life as well as the wrecker in chief are not easily detected or do we take them for granted?

Falls are the most attractive of water force that has other forms that include rain, river, ocean and lake. Victoria Falls in Africa that dumps down river Zambezi is said to the wildest of all the water falls in the world.

Victoria Falls are one of Africa's major tourist attractions, and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



Image source: Wikipedia

Do you know limbless lizrad.


Don't mistake this picture; it is not a snake in there but a limbless lizard that is not existing anywhere in the world.

In fact, this a new discovery. The main difference between a snake and lizard is their eating skill.
Snakes can swallow preys that are even larger than their head but lizards can only bite and chew to eat their preys.

The discovery of this strange creature is reported in Yahoo News. The new lizard was found 10 days ago during a field study in the forested region of Khandadhar near Raurkela in Orissa state, about 625 miles southeast of New Delhi.

I had visited Orissa once but that was a place full of mines. Orissa is rich in natural resources and a lot of forests dot the state.

News Source: Yahoo

Saturday, May 26

How do you pronounce Cancun?

Cancun, the paradise on Mexico is pronounced as can-koon. The city was established only in 1972.

Since it started attracting tourists from all parts of the world, the city was developed rapidly to provide all modern facilities that are on par with the rest of the world.

Today, the city boasts that it can accommodate nearly 50000 tourists at any time in their 140 plus hotels and triple the number of restaurants.

I learnt that the Hotel Zone of Cancun is shaped like a backwards 7 with bridges on each end connecting to the mainland. Hotels on the vertical or long side of the 7 tend to have rougher beaches and beach erosion can be a problem. Resorts on the horizontal or short end of the seven tend to have more gentle surf because the waves here are blocked by the island of Isle Murejes which lies just off shore.

I don’t know whether it is man made or artificial. Apart from luxury resorts and time share condominiums, there are a lot of cancun all inclusive resort packages are offered by large travel service providers like Vacations.net.

I came to know that vacations.net is the most preferred in the ‘all inclusive vacation’ sector because of exemplary service and loads of freebies like unlimited snacks and drinks.

Vacations.net’s ‘all inclusive resort’ is where all meals, drinks both alcoholic and non alcoholic, hotel activities, entertainment, non motorized water sports, tips and taxes are included in the price of the hotel rooms.

Findings of a planet akin to earth.

Man's greatest quest is to find similar human life in another planet apart from earth.

Towards this, U.S and Russian has been spending oceans of money. Hollywood on its part has introduced aliens to us through their media. Weird looking creatures that can perform super human functions were imagined and created in the cellular medium.

Now actually, life may exist in another planet that is 20.5 light years away from earth. The planet has earth like temperatures hat suggest the possibility existence of water and therefore life.

It is one of the closest to the sun and an year means only 13 days in that planet. This planet is yet to be christened.

Do you want to know more?
Then read here fully.

Google on Mysore University.

This is good news. Very good news really.

Google has come forward to digitize more than 800k books and manuscripts of Mysore University.

The most heartening aspect in this endeavour is this:
India’s first political treatise, the ‘Arthashastra’ written in the 4th century BC by Kautilya is included in the manuscript. What a value it will add to world's history and heritage!

Academicians and students are all looking forward to this Himalayan effort. Manuscripts on ayurveda, mathematics, medicine, science, astrology and economy will go digital.

Google will also provide expertise, software, and manpower for the digitization work. Whereas, Mysore University is training some of its select Physics students to help in the digitization process.

These books and manuscripts were all written either in Sanskrit or Kannada. Mysore University, was founded by Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV in 1916, when he was the Maharaja of Mysore, Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV in 1916.

Source: Tech Shout

The advantage of Gold Certificate.

When everyone and everything is going virtual, why not our assets too, such as precious metals in the form of gold bars and silver bars?

Gold as ornaments decorate various parts on the body of women but gold as bars and coins that we buy for investment sake need not be stored up in our house or bank lockers. They are still unsafe and vulnerable to thefts and vandalism.

How many news we read daily about house breaks and physical assault on the inhabitants before escaping with jewels and cash?

Don’t you think it is advisable to use the services of Monex who offers to store our precious metal purchases from them at a separate bank and issue us a certificate of our purchase?

As per the experts of precious metals investors, this is the prime time to invest in silver because the demand for silver exceeds its production since 1990. As a result, one can expect a steady rise in silver price and it is better to buy it either as silver bars or silver coins.

Whatever may be the form, buy it from the leaders of precious metals Monex, the most dependable company in America.

Friday, May 25

Helicopter tour of West Maui.

I was sponsored to write about hotels and resorts in Hawaii earlier. But I have not seen this spectacular view in any of the Hawaii travel websites.


Just look at this picture and how cool it is your eyes. It is absolutely serene and silent.
The website Big Kahuna Hawaii correctly said, "this is the perfect tour if you want to see remote landscapes and plenty of spectacular waterfalls cascading down imposing sea cliffs. You will fly above West Maui and then on to the island of Molokai and see views that will take your breath away! "

Whenever I am on hills, I become rejuvenated and feel very active. Hills make me chill. I am not for hot beaches as I am born and brought up in Madras, a coastal city in India. I have had enough of shorelines.

I have never seen a waterfall from the sky. This would be perfect opportunity to enjoy the blue green mountains of Hawaii.

The printer that prints without ink.

A printer that prints beautiful color pictures with out ink is launched in the market by Zink.com

Look at the picture below taken from their web site:









The cost of a color ink cartridge is more than the costliest champagne in the world-I read it somewhere long ago. Even my last purchase cost me Rs.900 ($20). It used to cost Rs.1400 four years ago.

With Zink technology, we all can save plenty of money every year and I wonder what will be the reaction of the king HP.

How ZINK Works:

"The key to this process is the patented ZINK paper, an advanced composite material with dye crystals embedded inside and a protective polymer overcoat layer outside. ZINK paper is durable, colorful, and affordable.

Before printing, the embedded dye crystals are colorless, so ZINK paper looks like regular white photo paper. The ZINK printer uses heat to activate and colorize these dye crystals. The printing process is now radically simple. Just add paper and press "print". The result is high quality, long-lasting, durable, and affordable images."

Do you know that ZINK paper is capable of reproducing millions of colors at very high resolution?

Source:Zink.com

ps: I came to know about this printer in another blog but I am sorry I forgot the url.

Thursday, May 24

Privileged access for IT managers.

The need to buy privileged access has become mandatory for IT entrepreneurs that operate their business on HP-UX 11i v3 servers.

Before I speak about the Privileged Access, let me write a few words about Symark.com who have launched their two high security products PowerBroker and PowerPassword.

Since 1985, Symark is the leading provider of security administration solutions for heterogeneous IT environments. Symark offers extensive expertise in enterprise computing security, and its products are backed by unmatched technical support.

Linux and Unix server administrators are always on tenterhooks about loss of precious database due to security breach that can happen from outside as well as within.

To protect the root account, Symark has introduced their PowerBroker. To manage individual user accounts, Symark’s PowerPassword-UME enables server managers to centrally deploy, modify and delete individual UNIX and Linux user accounts.

For More Information, Contact: Ellen Libenson Dan Borgasano/Kara Yi
Symark Software Schwartz Communications, Inc.

Phone: (800) 234-9072 (415) 512-0770
Email: elibenson@symark.com symark@schwartz-pr.com

Wednesday, May 23

Got a recipe to publish?

Well, who has not? I have been cooking since the age 14 because of family circumstances.

So, you can imagine what will be the size of my repertoire as I am now 48!

But who really cares for a south Indian recipe?

But yes, I may find a few in My Recipe

It is a place you can find recipes from across the world and you can also share your secret recipe with others. I searched for Indian recipes and am happy that I found one about Spicey Mulligatawny by: gruben

When I read the recipe, I found it to be a non-vegetarian one and there, I suppose I lost in the race because I am a pure vegetarian.

I searched again for anything remotely Indian type vegetarian but hmmm... no way.

Saturday, May 19

My last trip to Hawaii was forgettable.

“But why, Hawaii is the most sought after destination in the world for travelers!”-this is your question-right?

Hawaii was everything that I read about, recommended to, in reality. The absolute silence in certain places, the gentle waves and all round greenery were all simply fantastic and memorable.

But still I had a miserable tour and the culprit was the travel agent of course who messed up everything he promised to arrange.

The chauffeur was at the wrong gate at the airport, the booked accommodation at a prestigious resort failed to communicate to the travel agent that they can’t accommodate me, last minute hassle of finding a right place to stay and on and on… the list of miseries were endless.


This time I intend to be doubly cautious in my planning. After a few minutes in the Internet, I stumbled on to a nice Hawaiian travel blog that was full of first hand information about Hawaii, places to stay, attractions not to miss, general precautions to take while planning for a vacation in Hawaii.

Of the various hawaiian vacation packages that I studied, the package offered by Hawaiian Beach Rentals was the most suited to my taste and my attitude of freedom. Vacation for me is not to go to places but to get away from them.

This time I intend to opt for a very quiet place in Oahu island. I like the serene atmosphere of Oahu and it is less crowded. A beautiful small cottage overlooking the ocean was promised to me by Hawaiianbeachrentals.com

This is my sincere advice to travelers going to Hawaii: “Visit once Hawaiianbeachrentals.com before you arrange bookings to Hawaii”.

Tuesday, May 15

Do you know CityWalk?

CityWalk is one of the most popular holiday spots in Orlando. This place is thronged by tourists all round the year mainly for the varieties of entertainment options it provides.

Music, food, movies, shopping and dancing etc are the attractions in CityWalk. Admission fees for CityWalk is part of your Universal Studios Tickets issued by Orlandofuntickets.com- the ultimate source for discount tickets for Disney World and all Orlando theme parks, dinner shows and attractions.

It is suggested hat you buy a multi day ticket to see all of the Universal Studios and CityWalk as one day ticket is just not sufficient to experience all the fun.

My first visit to Orlando a few years ago was a bad experience in the sense I found myself short of money within two days. I never knew that admission tickets in Disney World were so expensive.

Now we all can buy discounted tickets from OrlandoFunTickets.com that offers the lowest prices on all discount Disney tickets.

Monday, May 14

Do you know DECT?

Business people who regularly conduct online audio conference might of aware of this new technology called DECT (Digitally Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications).

We are all using the wireless technology as regular cordless phones but we don't know actual technology behind it.

The latest product from Net Gear is their Dual Mode Cordless Telephone.









So whats new?

The SPH200D Cordless Phone will enable you to make FREE call to your friends over the Internet AND make and receive traditional phone calls as well – this phone plugs into your “Land-Line”.

What you can do is have to plug the supplied base-station into your phone line and you've got a regular working telephone that can connect to the usual land line services.

Now just connect it to an ethernet broadband connection to enable it to connect to the Internet.
From ethernet port of your router, give a connection to your PC's ethernet. Of course you are already using SKYPE-right?

Let us go VOiP

Source: Webuser.co.uk
Image courtesy: Netgear.co.uk

Monday, May 7

A market place for students and teachers.

Learning should be a pleasant experience-whether you learn it online or offline.

Both modes of learning have its own advantages and disadvantages. But having studied online for post graduate degree, I am for it. It saved me a lot of time and money. I did not miss the camaraderie at all because I did attend a day scholar when I was a teen agar.

Internet has thrown open its door for one more e-learning community online and Tutorom serves as an ideal marketplace for students and teachers.

A marketplace is where one can sell or buy his products or services in exchange of money or service.

Tutorom.com is a free web site where lessons in varies subjects are available. Teachers can charge a fee also for their lessons.

Tutorom has been created mainly to facilitate anyone to create and deliver e-learning content, free of charge.

Soon, students can feast on their video tutorials, numbering 55K in computer training faculty. Anyone can create their own courses, and either charge for them, restrict access to them or deliver as public courses with advertising being split 50/50 between tutorom and the author.

Teachers and students should bookmark this website.

My guruji can also be yours.

My Guruji is not a human but a search engine.

This is a search engine for India based websites and blogs. I just submitted one of my blogs in exactly 3 seconds. Surprisingly, it did not ask any category.

It supports other local languages such as Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi.

Actually, they say that they don't depend on webmasters' submission because Guruji.com is India's first crawler technology based search engine focusing exclusively on the needs of the Indian searcher.

A different technology is used here when you search to get two types of results - India Search results and City Search results.

India can use more regional search engines. This area is till a virgin area; there is big scope for tremendous growth.

Friday, May 4

Makahiki Luau Dinner Show!

It may be tough to pronounce and remember but the show itself will remain in our memory for ever.

Taste of exotic Hawaiian fruits and fantastic meal is the highlight of Makahiki Luau Dinner Show, apart from those beautiful costumes.

This show is held at the Sea Fire Inn, in the Disney Sea World. I had a chance to look over the dinner spread at this show and I will admit that I have never seen such a great and colorful variety of food.

My friends advised me that the reservation to this show is a must. Not only for this dinner show but to all other attractions in Disney World require advance booking, else may we have to spend time in long queues.

Since Orlando is the most visited city in the world, it is better we decide our accommodation prior to our departure. Vacation homes in Orlando can be easily selected online at Orlandovacation.com. They have partnered with the best in the hospitality industry and can offer us luxurious places to stay with big money savings scheme.

Most of their vacation resorts are located very near to the Disney World and some are even inside the theme park.

One can get a free 50 page guide to Disney World for any purchase we make from Orlandovacation.com

Thursday, May 3

Do you know Vegetarian Shoes?

It means there is nothing cruel about them! Still doesn’t make sense.

They are animal friendly.

Animal welfare organizations can print this website on their banner to promote their cause. I know in India, traditional leather workers make such kind of footwear that is really cheap and long lasting.

All their products are made from car tyres that were recycled into sole.

The range of products include Sports/Casual, Women’s Shoes, Women’s Boots, Means Shoes Men’s Boots, Off-Road/Hiking Wear, Airseal (Shoes & Boots), Birkenstock (Sandals), Sandals & Slip Ons, Safety Footwear, Jackets, Jeans & Gloves and belts.

Visit: http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/default.aspx

Tuesday, May 1

I am late by a week.

But that’s alright. There is always another time.

Only last Wednesday, I have planned my yearly vacation and arranged flight tickets, hotel reservations, car rental and all, through an online travel site.



Had I delayed my planning by just a week, I could have saved nearly $200 and don’t you agree that it is a big savings? With that saved $200, I could have booked myself a vacation resort and had it all to my family.

Hotels Reservations offers fantastic discounts on hotels, flights, car rentals, vacation resorts.

Actually, I did the same planning with Hotels Reservation and the entire online arrangements were smooth and finally when I saw the bill, my heart sank because their rates very unbelievably competitive and I really rue my bad luck.

The choice of hotels and other resorts offered by them are many compared to other travel sites. Florida was my destination and I found some of the hotels that are nearer to many sight seeing attractions.

Now, coming to the flight tickets deal, Hotel Reservations must have stuck a deal with popular flight operators to offer us big, fat discounts on flight tickets.

People tend to neglect the after sales service of travel services. But what I noticed with them is their 24 hours, 365 days telephone support. This is just great. We can always call them to make a few last minute modifications in our choice of vacation package and they are only too happy to oblige.

Finally, a word about the type of vacation package we dream can be fully customized in their website. You can choose the exact number of days you would like to spend, what type of accommodation is preferred etc.

Travelers always want as many options as possible with respect to hotels or resorts. HotelReservations.com has a big network of hotels that can fit any kind of budget.

I must remember to utilize their services next year.