• Websites
• Frameworks
• Utilities

Websites are a list of sites which are so called Web 2.0 based, frameworks are those which allow a developer to build a Web 2.0 websites and utilities are tiny apps which you can use while building a site. The Feedmyapp website categorizes these under categories like CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Chat, E-mail, Frameworks and even Dating!

These websites etc. are submitted by visitors. The list is comprehensive and interesting. It is through this site I came to know about BuddyPress which is a WordPress multi-user edition modified for social networking and Roundcube – an intuitive, PHP based, desktop app like, yet a lightweight, Webmail. Recently, one of my clients asked for a quick way to generate rounded corners and I found that too at Feedmyapp – a Web based utility called RoundedCornr.

Just browse through this website whether or not you are looking for something specific and do let me know your picks

This happened somewhere between 15:45-16:15 hours IST. Checked with a friend who said he was able to connect. Perhaps the downtime did not happen to all service providers.

When the connection, came back I noticed that I was now able to connect with my mobile too! That is, I was able to reconnect with my laptop (using the client’s Internet connection) and my mobile (through Edge) almost at the same time.

So is this just a coincidence or was there some kind of downtime across ? Checking the news revealed nothing as of this writing.

Many may believe that Steve² and Linus are very different personalities and have different agendas in their life and different questions for which they have been trying to find the answers. Surprising (or not so), they all had the same question to ask. Following is what they asked God:

Steve Ballmer: Hey God, seeing you gives me the same excitement as seeing Windows, when I saw it the first time.

God: Steve, this means you are really glad to see me. Im happy with your devotion to Windows, since it is an indirect devotion to me. I’m everywhere, in you, in others and even in MS Windows. Ask for a wish.

Steve Ballmer: Oh God, you have given me everything including the strength to lift and throw chairs at this age. The only answer to the only question that I’m looking for is: when will Windows become the de facto (the standard, the only used) operating system

God: Steve, Windows is dominant and is doing pretty well. Within ten years it will become the de facto, despite your mistakes like Vista.

(Steve Balmer starts crying)

God: Why are u crying my child ?

Steve Ballmer: I’m crying because this will not happen in my lifetime

God: Don’t worry my son, your name will still be remembered with WIndows.

(God disappears leaving Steve Ballmer sad as well as happy)

Next, God appears before Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs asks the same question – when will Mac OS become the de facto operating system.

God: Steve, you are my son and you are as creative as me. You create beautiful things like me. Yet it will take about 20 years for Mac OS to become a de facto OS. Being more open and less self obsessed will lead to it, but will take not less than 20 years

(Steve Jobs starts crying)

God asks: Hey why are you crying my son. I thought I gave you good news.

Steve Jobs: I’m crying because this will not happen in my lifetime.

God consoles Steve Jobs and disappears after blessing him.

Finally God appears before Linux Torvalds and blesses him for his open and free efforts.

Linus Torvalds: God, if my efforts have been so pure and unselfish, my question to you is – “WHEN WILL LINUX BECOME THE DE FACTO OPERATING SYSTEM”

(God starts crying)

Linux Torvalds: God, why r you crying

God: I’M CRYING BECAUSE THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN IN MY LIFETIME

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

DISCLAIMER: This is, as you would have guessed, A JOKE. Request you to not start arguing why God had to cry for Linux and not for Windows. . Also, after writing this post, I felt a little guilty about the “lifetime” point. This post is a joke and I genuinely, wish the longest life to Steve, Steve and Linus.

condom-a-cappella

I must admit that the post title is just meant to be catchy. The ringtone was launched, day before, by a campaign funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates is ex CEO and founder of Microsoft. That’s the one and only connection with Microsoft

http://www.condomcondom.org/ is the website of this campaign. The ringtone can be downloaded from this site too.

The website is meant for Indian masses and aims to create awareness about HIV and AIDS, But note that the website is Flash based and slow to download. Most people in India use slow (slower than broadband) Internet connections, many are on dialups and Flash is not installed by default. Could have been a normal, fast loading, HTML site.

Nevertheless the ringtone idea seems to be a killer idea to spread awareness and kill the condom taboo. The mobile penetration is ever increasing in India. People esp. youngsters always want to do something new with their mobile – which includes setting up an interesting new ringtone.

Following were the depicted (graphically) scores for the home page (http://www.shekhargovindarajan.com) of this Blog (click to see the full graph):

• The score was 2.45 out of 5
• 2.45 was rounded off to “3″ as “Overall” score by Ready.mobi
• Just for information: www.google.com scored 5/5!
• Just for information: www.yahoo.com scored 4/5

I’m happy with:

1. The reported download size of the homepage (4.8k)
2. The reported download speed on an Edge connection (about 1.2 seconds)

Note:

1. Ready.mobi works with WordPress plugins (and should work with other such plugins) which detect a mobile device (or mobile browser) and redirect it to the mobile friendly version/site.
2. If you are using caching, then you may first like to hit (or browse) the Website page. This will build the cache, in case the page is not visited for a while. And then perform the Ready.mobi test. The speed at which the page loads contributes to the overall score.
3. To checkout your Website on the mobile emulators (on the Page Results) you will need Sun Java Plugin
4. Mobile website developers or webmasters should check out http://dev.mobi/content/dotmobi-mobile-web-developers-guide.
5. You may have noticed on the home page of Ready.mobi, it also offers entire site check (instead of checking page by page). The site check requires registration. Havn’t checked this out yet.

I’m not happy with the overall score (despite, specifically, using a Mobile Plugin for this Blog). If you scroll down the Ready.mobi’s “Page results” page, it will tell you the tests which have failed. I found the following tests failing for the hompage of this site:

1. XHTML Mobile Profile
2. Valid Markup
3. Structure

Clicking on the failed tests, explains it further and also gives a link to “Help me fix it”. Therefore the next step for me is – to try to fix these mobile unfriendly errors. Will update this Blog post as I proceed. Subsequently will run this Blog through the entire site check of Ready.mobi.

In the meanwhile, please share your scores and fixes via comments.

Update:

AND THE HOME PAGE NOW SCORES 5 out of 5!!!

todo: testing on mobile after the changes, how I did it, possible contribution back to WordPress!

Update (May 30, 2009): After updating the WordPress Mobile Edition Plugin to 3.0.4 (refer to Browse this blog on a Mobile), I get a score of 5 out of 5. That is, no modifications required to get a 5/5 score at ready.mobi if you are using the latest version of the plugin.

http://mutiny.in/2008/07/22/pms-reply-to-the-debate-on-the-motion-of-confidence-in-the-lok-sabha/

Interesting read.