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Microsoft Office 2007 Beta Tech Refresh

2006-04-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

With the March 2006 release of the Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 1 Tech Refresh (TR), we're finally getting a hands-on look at the final user interface for this version of Office. Microsoft says the new UI is designed to make the overall software experience easier, reduce design clutter, increase feature and capability discovery, and support the creation of great-looking documents. "Based on detailed usability studies and extensive customer research, Microsoft consistently heard that the existing [menu and toolbar] UI model hides features under the top-level menu structure and has too many places for people to go to find functionality," a document the accompanied the Beta 1 TR code reads. "Customer input helped make it clear that a new user interface was needed to empower people to work more productively with the powerful Office tools at their disposal.

I saw the new Office 2007 user interface for the first time, and I've documented its evolution in a few screenshot galleries (Pre-Beta and Beta 1). Now, with Beta 1 TR, we can start working with the final UI and discover new UI paradigms like the Ribbon, the Office button--found in the top left corner of each Office 2007 application and designed to emulate and mirror the Windows Vista Start button, Live Previews, and other unique new Office 2007 features. In a future write-up, I'll examine how successful these features are. But for now, enjoy a look at the new user interface.

Goooogle Calendar

2006-04-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with Google Calendar , the much-rumored service which is now live at calendar.google.com. It's a beta (surprise!), but a good one--probably the most Google-esque new Google tool in quite awhile. (My definition of Google-esque: clever, simple, useful, and obsessively respectful of the user.)

Online calendars are nothing new (how long has Yahoo Calendar been with us?), and at first blush, Google Calendar looks much like its more well-established bretheren. You get multiple views (daily, 4-day, weekly, monthly, agenda) and the ability to create single and repeating appointments and invite other people. Pretty standard stuff.

But this calendar has a nicely-done user interface, plus collaborative tools that go beyond the basics. On the ease-of-use front, it's a true AJAX application with lots of highly interactive, impressively responsive features. Once you've created an event, you can move it or change its length by dragging and dropping it on the calendar, just like in a desktop program. Start typing the name of an invitee, and it'll get filled in from your Gmail address book. You can get a map from Google Local based on even sketchy information (I typed in "nova san francisco" and it plotted the location of Nova, the restaurant I was looking for.) And there's a neat feature called Quick Add that intelligently puts entries on your calendar based on brief entries such as "San Luis Obispo Trip April 21st," as shown here:

Oh, and as befits something called Google Calendar, you can Google calendars--both yours and public ones--via a search feature that's exactly as fast and friendly as you'd expect it to be.

Google Calendar has been called an Outlook Killer--not by Google, natch--but as nifty as it is, it's very, very far from being such. There's no printer-friendly view, as far as I can see (even Yahoo Calendar has one). (Correction! As a commenter points out, there is one; it is, however, pretty basic.) I don't see any To-Do feature, either. And the only options for exhanging information with other software and devices are a simple import feature that can bring in CSV and iCal formats, plus the ability to output a calendar as an RSS or iCal feed. I can't imagine anyone using Google Calendar as it stands for serious business scheduling--and if you're using the behemoth known as Outlook for lightweight tasks tht Google Calendar could handle, I feel sorry for you. (As for me, my day is documented in Lotus Notes and on my Treo; Google Calendar has no way to sync with either, so it's not going to be my primary calendar.)

But like I say, this service looks to be extremely useful as is--in part because of its collaborative features for friends-and-family use, which are good enough to bring the phrase "Evite killer" to mind. (If Google has a strategy for eventually making money off this thing, it presumably relates to Evite-like monetization of group event coordinaton.) You can invite anyone whose e-mail address you have to an event, then keep track of folks who accept the invitation. Calendars and events can be private or public, and you can create multiple, shareable calendars within one Google Account. A bloglike little built-in message board in every appointment record lets people talk amongst themselves. And Google has published information on how to create buttons to add to Web sites to let site visitors participate in Google calendar-based scheduling. Since it's Google, all this feels streamlined, and it's all ad-free...which is more than you can say for Evite or Yahoo Calendar.

Other than the missing features I've already mentioned, it's easy to pick additional nits. For one thing, Google Calendar feels only partially integrated with Gmail--it's easy to get from your calendar to your in-box, but not vice versa, and as far as I can tell, address book integration is one-way. (Your Gmail contacts show up in Google Calendar, but Gmail doesn't seem to do anything with new e-mail addresses you enter in the calendar.) Some other first takes on this service report that Gmail now recognizes meeting-related information in e-mail and adds it to your Google Calendar calendar; I haven't been able to verify this yet.

Some of the things I'm squawking about, I'm sure Google plans to fix. For now, Google Calendar feels like a very promising first draft of a next-generation calendar. (It's not the only one, by the way--30 Boxes has fewer features but is, in some ways, more innovative and imaginative.) Like even the best of the rest of the new generation of online productivity tools (such as Google's own Writely), it's as much a shot across Microsoft's bow as a fully-baked idea.

Still. it's amazing how far Web-based productivity apps have come in the past year...and I think that before the year is out, we'll see ones that truly are ready to take on Microsoft Office, at least for some users. A more refined Google Calendar might be among them, especially if Google goes to the effort of making it sync with other tools that people use to manage their time. (Hey, with Google Desktop, Google already has a desktop application that hooks deeply into the personal information on our hard drives. Synching would be a logical addition to the Desktop's features, no?)

FANAA THE MOVIE

2006-04-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

Aamir Khan: Actor in Fanaa the Movie

Aamir Hussain Khan ,born March 14, 1965, in Mumbai, India, is a prominent Bollywood actor. He rose to stardom with the film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988).It is difficult to relentlessly pay close attention to detail with a diligence and passion that is always directed towards offering the best in front of the camera. As an actor, Aamir Khan has done just that. Without letting commercial considerations influence his careful career selection of projects (save a few hasty choices early in his career), Aamir has devoted time and attention to every project he has undertaken His refreshing down-to earth persona combined with the unusual intensity and commitment with which he tackles every role has earned him undying love and respect from his audience.
A scion of a prominent film industry family (father, Mr. Tahir Hussain and uncle Mr. Nasir Hussain, both prominent film makers), Aamir had an early exposure to various nuances of the medium. The urge to be involved in films was only natural, resulting in an early beginning as an assistant director on Mr. Nasir Husain’s Manzil Manzil and Zabardast . While in college itself, Aamir had developed an early interest in theatre. He joint the theater group ‘Avantar’ under director Mahendra Joshi, working backstage as well as in two plays, One Gujarati, Kesar Bina and one English called Clearing House .
The acting bug had finally caught on. It was however his cousin and soul mate, Mansoor Khan who convinced him of his true potential and cast him as the main lead in his debut film, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. Aamir had already dabbled in acting via his roles in alternative cinema (Ketan Mehta’s Holi) and was accustomed to facing the camera (therefore not as nervous as a newcomer is bound to be in a big commercial set-up) And his confidence and youthful demeanor with a great face that won him a fan following that an actor could only dream of!
Aamir never looked back after his commercial debut, both as a star and more importantly, as an actor. The short period after his successful debut, when he signed a few forgettable films, also determined him to seek like-minded individuals as directors and to only do a limited number of assignments with conviction. Thus, it isn’t surprising that Aamir has done fewer films than most in his relatively long career. But the unforgettable characters that he has essayed over the years have left an indelible impression of cinegoers. Films like Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Dil, Raakh, Dil, Dil Hain Ki Manta Nahin, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, Andaaz Apna Apna, Hum Hain Rahin Pyaar Ke, Akele Hum Akele Tum, Rangeela, Raja Hindustani, Ishq, Ghulam, 1947 Earth and Sarfarosh constitute a body of work that any actor would be envious of.

How to make money in IPOs ............

2006-03-29T09:37:00.000-08:00

How to make money in IPOs

These days, in virtually every conversation I have, I am asked a question on an IPO.
What is your view on the Royal Orchid Hotels?
Should I try for GVK Power?
Is Sadbhav Engineering a good bet?
And so on and so forth.
A number of my friends are all set to invest in them but have no clue about the company or the stock market in general. Yet, they are convinced that IPOs are a good way to make money.
This is true to a certain extent. When the stock market is on fire, everybody seems to be making money on IPOs. Well, almost everybody.
For example, those who subscribed to high-profile IPOs like Jet Airways and HT Media don't seem to have had such a good deal (we will explain the reasons later in this article).
We should also never forget the amount of money people lost in the mid-nineties when fly-by-night operators decamped with hundreds of crores worth of investors' money.
Before you decide to invest in an IPO, do read this series on IPOs and how to make a wise choice.
We are flagging it off with a quick lesson on the basics.

What are IPOs?

The most common way of investing in shares is buying them on the stock exchange. This is referred to as the secondary market.
But there are companies that are not listed. This means, their shares are privately held and they are not available for buying and selling in the stock exchange.
When these companies decide to issue more shares and list them in the stock exchange, it is referred to as an Initial Public Offering. This is the first time their shares will be available to the public for buying and selling.
The market for IPOs is referred to as the primary market.
Sometimes, companies that are already listed come out with a fresh lot of shares. Bank of Baroda is a recent example.
This is not referred to as an IPO (since they already have shares trading in the secondary market); it is called a new issue. It's also called a Follow-on Public Offer, an FPO as against an IPO.

Why invest in IPOs?

This brings us to the question: Why invest in an IPO? You can buy the shares from the stock market when it lists on the exchange later.
The reason is simple: you get it cheaper.
Often, companies come out with a cheaper issue price. An issue price is the price at which you can buy a share when you apply for an IPO.
When the shares are listed on the stock exchange and are available for trading, the price generally rises.
Take, for example, the Jet Airways IPO. It had an issue price of Rs 1,100 per share. On March 14, 2005, the day it was listed and made available for trading, the price rose to a high of Rs 1,339. In just a few weeks, you would have made a profit of more than Rs 200 per share.
So, besides getting the shares cheaper, those who want to make a quick buck sell it soon after it is listed. Within a short span of a few weeks, they make a neat profit.
This is the reason why investors flock to IPOs.
When it could backfire
It is not mandatory that the price of the stock rises on listing. There could be instances where it does not. So, if you are looking at selling the moment it is listed, you could be making a big mistake.
Also, much depends on the timing of your sale. The price may rise on listing, but you may hold on for just a few days longer and it could slump.
Those who invested in the Jet Airways IPO at Rs 1,100 per share were thrilled as the share price kept rising.
Soon after listing (as we mentioned above), the price rose. On March 14, 2005, it was Rs 1,339 per share and rose to Rs 1,361 per share on June 1, 2005.
However, after that, it has generally been going downhill. On December 6, 2005 it touched Rs 1,269; on January 6, 2006, it was Rs 1,148.
On February 3, 2006, it was Rs 983.
Those who did not sell at the initial levels would be rather dismayed.
The HT Media IPO is another case in point. It came out with an issue in August 2005 at an issue price of Rs 530. On September 1, 2005, it touched a high of Rs 731. On January 6, 2006, the price was Rs 465.95.

Remember, the best reason to invest in an IPO is because you believe in the company and are willing to hold on to the shares for the long term.
Often, companies that are going public (listing their shares for the first time) offer their shares cheap and go on to become very successful.
An IPO thus offer investors the chance to participate in the company's potential prosperity.
While the chief attraction may be making a profit the moment the price of the share rises, don't let it be the only one.

Awesome Gayatri Joshi Swades movie Actress....

2006-03-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

Gayatri Joshi Biography
Gayatri Joshi is a B.com graduate from Sydenham College, Mumbai. She began her modeling career in 1996 when she was still at college. She was one of the last five in the Femina Miss India beauty pageant in 1999 and was chosen to represent India at the Miss International in Japan in the year 2000.
Though she didn’t win the crown, it was a tremendous learning experience for her as she continually seeks to reinvent herself. Her modeling assignments include the famous Hyundai ad with Shahrukh Khan and other ads for LG, Godrej Coloursoft, Sunsilk Fruitamin, Ponds, Philips, Bombay Dyeing and others. She appeared in music videos of Jagjit Singh’s Sagar Ki Kashti and Hansraj Hans’ Jhanjaria. Gayatri has also modeled for Seasons catalogue and calendar for the year 2001.
Gayatri made her Bollywood debut in December 2004 in Ashutosh Gowarikar’s film Swades.
Vital Stats
Height: 5 Ft 9
InWeight: 49 Kgs
Waist: 25
Hips: 36
Chest/Bust: 35
Hair Color: Black

Rang De

2006-03-05T22:35:00.000-08:00

Rang De Basanti Rocks........

2006-03-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

Aamir Khan's biggest hit abroad, Rang De Basanti, passed the $2 million benchmark in America on Sunday. The film, which has already grossed over $600,000 more than Aamir's Oscar-nominated Lagaan in North America, has also harvested about $1.5 million in the United Kingdom.

At the current rate of attrition, the film, which is getting plenty of repeat audiences, could end its run in America and the UK with at least $3.85 million. Adding its gross in the Gulf, Australia, Singapore, South Africa and the Caribbean takes the total to $4.5 million. It could end its overseas run with a spectacular $5 million gross. Still, this isn't big enough to come anywhere near the $8 million gross of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.

could not believe how compelling the film (RDB) is and how well written its characters are," said a young man at a recent screening in Manhattan, admitting that he knew nothing of Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries extolled in the film. "What is also amazing is that we accept Aamir as someone who has been out of college for five years, though he looks much older even for that part," he continued. "He has a lot of charisma."

So potent is the film that, in its fifth week, it grossed $25,000 over the weekend -- more than what newcomer Taxi 9211 took in three days across North America in its opening weekend. Both films were released by UTV. RDB is the highest grossing film for UTV following such hits as Swades, which grossed about $1.2 million in North America.

"After a long time, there is a film with return visit value," said UTV's Lokesh Dhar, adding that despite inclement weather, many families made time to see RDB over the weekend. In several movie houses in the New York-New Jersey area, and in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, it had more full houses in its fourth week than in the second week. "Suddenly, people who saw RDB two or three weeks ago yearn to see it on the big screen all over again," said Dhar. "They want to see it with friends and family." He also added that though A R Rahman's music had become popular soon after its release, it is only in the last two weeks that it has "reached super hit status."

Though the film could end up with significantly less than what Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham took in North America in 2001, the latter was a multiple starrer. The K3G star cast included Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. Directed by Karan Johar, who had made a big splash with the 1998 mega hit Kuch Kuch Hota Hain, K3G grossed about $2.9 million in North America and $4.2 million in the United Kingdom.

Johar is one of very few directors in India whose name deserves to be above the title of a film, but Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra was a non-entity. His first film Aks was a box-office turnip, yet that factor did not deter audiences from embracing RDB from Day 1. Another key factor to be remembered is that RDB, given the subject of the Indian political system, could not have drawn a significant number of viewers from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

‘Soft Skills’ a key to employment today

2006-02-25T09:33:00.000-08:00

Today’s competitive job market means that minimum acceptable skills are being replaced with higher standards. And among the higher standards are what many call “soft skills.”

A soft skill refers to the cluster of personality traits, social graces, facility with language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that mark each of us to varying degrees. Persons who rank high in this cluster, with good soft skills, are generally the people that most employers want to hire. Soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job. The ideal, of course, is someone strong in both job and personal skills, but as one employer put it in a recent report, Hard Work and Soft Skills, “Don’t worry so much about the technical skills.

Illustrative Soft Skills

Work ethic
A motivating belief that employees owe their employer a full day of diligent work including following their supervisor’s instructions.
Teamwork
The ability to share responsibilities, confer with others, honor commitments, help others do their jobs, and seek help when needed.

Self-discipline and self-confidence
The ability to arrange one’s own tasks for best performance, to learn from experience, to ask questions and correct mistakes, and to absorb criticism and direction without feeling defeated, resentful, or insulted.

Conformity to prevailing norms
The ability to govern one’s dress, grooming, body language, tone of voice, and vocabulary according to the particular culture of the given workplace.

Language proficiency
The ability to speak, read, and write standard English in a businesslike way. One may have the “hard” skill of knowing what usage is correct and what is incorrect but lack the “soft” skills of knowing when to use only standard forms and in what tone to use them.

U R Unique........

2006-02-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

Enjoy that uniqueness. You do not have to pretend in order to seem more like someone else. You weren't meant to be like someone else. You do not have to lie to conceal the parts of you that are not like what you see in anyone else. You were meant to be different. Nowhere ever in all of history will the same things be going on in anyone's mind, soul and spirit as are going on in yours right now. If you did not exist, there would be a hole in creation, a gap in history, something missing from the plan for humankind. Treasure your uniqueness. It is a gift given only to you. Enjoy it and share it! No one can reach out to others in the same way that you can. No one can speak your words. No one can convey your meanings. No one can comfort with your kind of comfort. No one can bring your kind of understanding to another person. No one can be cheerful and lighthearted and joyous in your way. No one can smile your smile. No one else can bring the whole unique impact of you to another human being. Share your uniqueness. Let it be free to flow out among your family and friends and people you meet in the rush and clutter of living wherever you are. That gift of yourself was given you to enjoy and share. Give yourself away! See it! Receive it! Let it tickle you! Let it form you and nudge you and inspire you!

Health Is Wealth .........Health Mantra

2006-02-24T08:59:00.000-08:00

Introduction
Drink six (6) glasses of water (1.5 liters) everyday and avoid medicine, tablets, injections, diagnosis, doctor fees, etc.
You can never believe before practicing.
List of Diseases That Can Be Cured By Water Therapy
1 Blood Pressure / Hypertension
2 Anemia (Blood Shortage)
3 Rheumatism (Pain in joints / muscles)
4 General Paralysis
5 Obesity
6 Arthritis
7 Sinusitis
8 Tachycardia
9 Giddiness
10 Cough
11 Leukemia
12 Asthma
13 Bronchitis
14 Pulmonary Tuberculosis
15 Meningitis
16 Kidney Stones
17 Hyper Acidity 18 Dysentery
19 Gastroenteritis
20 Uterus Cancer
21 Rectal Piodapse
22 Constipation
23 Hostorthobics
24 Diabetes
25 Eye Diseases
26 Ophthalmic Hemorrhage & Opthalmia (Reddisheye)
27 Irregular Menstruation
28 Breast Cancer
29 Laryngitis
30 Headache
31 Leukemia
32 Urogenital Diseases

Therapy Procedure
1 Early morning, after you get up from bed, (without even brushing your teeth) drink 1.5 liters of water i.e., 5 to 6 glasses. Let us all know that ancient Indians termed this therapy as "Usha Paana Chikitsa" . You may wash your face thereafter.
2 Here it is very essential to note that nothing else, neither drinks nor solid food of any sort should be taken within 1 hour before and after drinking these 1.5 liters of water.
3 It is also to be strictly observed that no alcoholic drinks should be taken the previous night.
4 If required, boiled and filtered water may be used for this purpose.
5 It is difficult to drink 1.5 liters of water at one time, but you will get used to it gradually.
6 Initially, while practicing you may drink four glasses first and to balance two glasses after a gap of two minutes.
7 You may find the necessity to urinate 2 to 3 times within an hour, but it will become normal after quite some time.

ULTIMATE SMS MESSAGES COLLECTION

2006-02-23T10:48:00.000-08:00

Love is when you cant control your feelings, becoming envious, worried, and missing your partner dearly but love is more than a passionate feeling, its a gift from God

Whenever U share the godness in ur Heart.U always end up winning Hearts.... Bcoz Life is an Echo,It gives back what u have Given....

Life never seems to be the way we want it, but we live it the best way we can, there is no perfect life but we can fill it with perfect moments.

Sometime I dont say hi... Sometime i dont reply.. Sometime i dont msg u.. But it doesn mean that I forget u.. It means that I am giving u time to *MI$$ ME*

If dreams were dreams and dreams come true, I wouldnt be here i had been next to u. Distance is one thing that keeps us apart, But u will always be in my heart!!

Nokia E70

2006-02-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

Nokia E70 CHARACTERISTICS

General

Network GSM900 / GSM1800 / GSM1900
Introduced 2006 Q1
Status Coming soon
Form factor Block
Antenna Internal

Size

Weight 127 g (including battery)
Dimensions 117 x 53 x 22 mm
Display Type Graphical
Colours TFT, 256K colours
Size 352 x 416 pixels, 6 lines
Memory Shared Memory 75 MB
Symbian operating system OS 9.1
miniSD, 64 MB card

Standard Battery

Type Li-Po
Amperage 1150 mAh
Standby Time 220 hours
Talk Time 7 hours

Nokia E61

2006-02-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

General

Network GSM900 / GSM1800 / GSM1900
Introduced 2006 Q1
Form factor Block
Antenna Internal

Size

Weight 144 g (including battery)
Dimensions 117 x 69.7 x 14 mm

Display

Type Graphical
Colours TFT, 16M colors
Size 320 x 240 pixels

Standard Battery

Type Li-Ion
Amperage 1500 mAh
Standby Time 260 hours
Talk Time 7 hours