Facebook Easter Egg

While browsing regularly through the Facebook homepage, I happened to hover around the language dropdown menu at the bottom left of the page and scrolled down to find “English (Pirate – BETA)” as a new option!

Fun little surprise, and makes for some fantasy entertainment…

Screenshot:

A new perspective to photos

I recently installed this Firefox plugin called PicLens and I'm simply loving it!



What it does sound pretty simple, but looks pretty amazing - click on the bottom left corner of any photo in a photostream on Flickr or Facebook (or any other photo page) and the next instant you see a 3D carousel view of the same!



Yeah you've probably seen it earlier, but the great thing here is it activates it for any darn web view and I don't surf Flickr without PicLens anymore!



Give it a shot - and watch it pimp it up! Also available for IE, Safari and desktop view.

You@ClubDhoni.com

Seriously - that id is up for grabs! An ex-colleague informed me about the launch of CoolHotmail.com, which if you haven't guessed yet, lets you change your @hotmail.com ID to something funkier like you@clubrajni.com or you@goarocks.com or you@underpaid.co.in or you@bhangrarocks.com while using the Windows Live Hotmail interface!

Like CoolHotmail proclaims... no more same pinch ;)

My Top 10 Facebook Apps

Wow, I've never blogged about Facebook before - Strange! But all the noise around the top 10 apps for Facebook on the blogosphere, started by TechCrunch's interns - makes me wanna share my faves as well, for whatever it's worth. Narcissism, if nothing else.

First, a quick WTF about Facebook for those who came in late or never did. By far the best social networking application and platform, Facebook was started by Mark Zuckerberg as thefacebook.com for his Harvard University. More history here, but it's definitely defining the future of social software and how we interact with it, and our peer circles. Let me put it this way... way way back, when you wanted to communicate or stay in touch with friends, it was the BBS world, then came email, followed by chat, IM and now - dense social networks like Facebook (yes Orkut and MySpace also seem old skool now).

Just about a month back, Facebook released a Platform for other services to build on top of, and integrate with the site. Essentially, you're now able to share your virtual life and lifestyle with your peers who are constantly updated of what you're upto. Little wonder, no one dares to ask "wazzup?" anymore! Summing up... here's my list of the top 10 apps I like on Facebook.

1. Movies / Flixster -
'Coz I'm a flixphile. Seen 1,200+ movies so far!

2. del.icio.us -
Share the luuv! Publishes my public favorites.

3. ZuPort Flickr -
Fetches all my Flickr photos & sets - no duplication!

4. 30Boxes Calendar -
The best calendar/lifeminder out there, methinks.

5. Shortcut -
Wow, this one should have come with Facebook by default. Start typing a friend's name and jump to their profile/album/message them directly.

6. Twitter -
The 'wassup' killer. I ping Twitter in Google Talk, updates here!

7. Video -
This one's made by Facebook and could get much better.

8. Trips -
Great for nomads. Shows your past trips and let you invite pals to plan future ones.

9. Shelfari Books -
Rate books I own, want or would like to lend. Vice versa.

10. Graffiti -
Freedom of expression and/or defamation :)

Other Fun/Noteworthy Apps

* Hoops & Yoyo eCards -
The most fun eCards. Love 'em! Integrated with Facebook.

* Photobubbles -
Because photos without captions are only half the fun!

* Introductions -
Still testing this... Seems interesting.

* Blog Friends -
Great tool for bloggers, linkswapping and updating friends.

The Audio app was also one of my favorites, but it just vanished this week :(

Compare my list to others' - TechCrunch | Robert Scoble | Orli Yakuel

Cool (Free) Web Services!

I've always had a penchant for finding really useful "cool sites" - mostly free web based services. Thought I'd love to write a journal-style book on it someday, a lot of new sites come up, lots get removed - so blogging is a better platform I guess - Enjoy! (This will be a regularly edited post - last updated on 08 July 2007)

PIM / Organization and Stationery

* Log your personal finances and track your historical spending trends - Expensr

* Print graph papers, Smith charts etc. at PDF Pad

* Create and print a cool foldable pocket organizer at PocketMod

---

Phone Stuff

* Call anywhere in the world - and talk on your phone! - Via Nick

* Find the Names Your Phone Number Spells - Via Manas Tungare

---

Health and Fitness

* Log daily workouts, get motivated and motivate others - Traineo

* Custom workouts based on your conditioning, experience and goals - Hyperstrike

---

The New Social Services ;)

* Quick, simple and easy blogging for everyone - Tumblr

* Pick from more than 100 social bookmarking links for your blog entries - 3Spots

* Create your free wiki with photo albums, ToDo, Calendar and more - JotSpot

---

Hobby and Craft

* Download, print and create 3D paper models of Yamaha bikes, animals etc. - Yamaha (Via Manuj Chandra)


* Check out TONS of awesome projects at the HP Activity Center - you can download PDF artwork and print it on HP recommended paper and then create some really fun stuff like albums and picture frames, calendars, cards, gift wraps and more - all for free!

Shrek fan like me?

Download and create some cool Shrek The Third prints!

---

Business
* Create, maintain and despatch invoices for free - Blinksale

---

Careers
* Locate/post job listings for freshers - JobOKPlease

---

Travel
* Plan, print and share your trips and vacations - Yahoo! Trip Planner

* Read and share your trip experiences -
IgoUgo, TripAdvisor, WAYN, Raahi, HolidayIQ

* Find and book inter-city buses for transportation - RedBus

* Free accomodation worldwide through hospitality exchange -
The Hospitality Club, CouchSurfing, ExtraBed.in (for bloggers)

* Great holiday package deals (airfare + stay) from Jet Airways and Indian

* Satellite maps mapping minute details of every structure on earth! - Wikimapia

* Cheapest airfare, ticket booking, stay and vacation deals -
ClearTrip, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, TravelGuru, IXiGo, Arzoo, Travelocity, EzeeGo1

---

Video and Entertainment
* Watch online videos for free - YouTube, Vimeo, Gotuit

w00t! Fella just gifted me a 1 week Subscription to deviantART, my favourite artist community. Happy 05.05.05 indeed :) 

My buddy Nick Gray just gifted me a obscenely cool Flickr! Pro account - 2Gigs of monthly photo uploads and unlimited storage. THANKS A MILLION NICK!! 

Pow!

In class 1
Originally uploaded by brood_mode.

Super cool picture :)

Flickr & Frolic

Via FlickrBlog, Flickr! account size limits will be doubled for uploads and archiving, i.e. 20 MB a month in uploads, 200 photos will be archived and available through the site. Wooooohoooo!

Since I'm talking about video...

Moviefone Hi-Resolution Downloads is a cool new way to share and downloads the latest movie trailers - legally! :) 

The Video Web has arrived!

Google Video is opening up video uploads to the public! So you could create your own video and sign up as a content provider to host your videos. You may even charge users for downloading! Sounds pretty interesting, and I've queued up a little home video taken an year back or so. Talking of videos and sharing, Nick's buddies Zach and Jakob run Vimeo - a video sharing community, much like the Flickr! of videos. Go on, give it a shot!

Yahoo! preps up to do a Gig

Yahoo! is getting all aggressive to take on the Google guys. Triggered response mechanism? Well, looks it! Let's see what we have... Google becomes search leader ; Yahoo! wakes up, shakes up it's search Google acquires Picasa ; Yahoo! acquires Flickr! Google launches Gmail with 1 Gig; Yahoo! ups their storage to 250 Megs, and now readying to do the Gig Google acquires Pyra Labs' Blogger ; Yahoo! braces up Yahoo! 360° The one thing I love about Yahoo! which Google *still* doesn't have? My Yahoo!

Collaborative app development

Microsoft's Software GreenHouse for mobile development and Google Code are 2 awesome collaborative application development/developer communities which seem really interesting. Hop across and you'll know why!

I wanna Fly away!

Via Rediff, Indian Airlines is offering amazing package deals called Flyaway!

The deal is, you pay a lumpsum 'x' amount, which includes return airfare to your national or international destination, stay in select hotels for that period, breakfast and/or lunch, shuttle service and more in some cases. This is quite a boon, (1) for the special rates and (2) for people with no time to plan their stay or reserve a hotel!

So, where do you want to go today?

Digital Inspiration

Fatima Hadi's blog is one of the best blogs I've added to my BlogRolling recently. She's an amazing photographer, brilliant writer and a great person from what I've learnt about her from the blog. More than anything else, it's her attitude which I really liked. Bookmarkworthy!

Favorite communities roundup

From left to right, IgoUgo for Travel, Ryze for business networking, Flickr for photo sharing, deviantART for artists' community, Epinions for informed purchase decision making.

Got Flickr?

I've been Flickr-ing for the past week and everytime I try it, I find a cool new feature. Today I tried FlickrLive which is taking chat to the next level with real-time photo sharing, instant-buddy, private messaging and more. See the screenshot for more. It offers the kind of communication and customisation which only Opera and Google has given us so far.

These guys are doing a fantastic job of creating a robust community around photo sharing. I've tried it all - Webshots, Yahoo! Photos, Ofoto... nothing compares to the flexibility and usability of Flickr. I'm almost sounding like a brand evangelist now. If you still don't get the message and don't join the site, I don't think I should say anything further.

Look out for Flickr - it's the next buzzword!

Psst... Check out the cool thing on the sidebar of my blog. Shows random pics from me and my friends.

She loves me, she loves me not

Nah forget that silly game, try this one instead: It's called 'Petals Around The Rose'. Apparently Bill Gates tried it. It's a logical game, I could even write down the code. My tip: Don't think too much. If y'ask me, it's a test of your lateral thinking. Call it a mind puzzle if that sounds DeBonoish.

I cracked it in 10 minutes without cheating or Googling. What's your best time?

Oh and yes, one small thing - mute your MIDI channel, the music makes your mind go number. Dah! Another pun. I gotta stop being corny. Which reminds me...

Gautami's list of changes I gotta make to myself
1 - Stop being shallow (What, me shallow?)
2 - Become more serious and be responsibile (Hmmmmmm)
3 - Stop discussing personal life with others (OK. Done.)
4 - Narrow down on only 1 girl I really really like (Do I have to?) :(

Make Millions. Repeat.

Million dollar sweet dreams are made of these, ladies and gentlemen.

Narendra Rocherolle sold Webshots to http://www.excite.com in 1999 for $82.5 million. Excite went bankrupt later, and to settle off debtors, auctioned their holdings. Rocherolle and his associates bought it back at a 97% discount (!!!) for $2.4 million. Let's get to the bottom of the iceberg. The gentleman this week sold it again, this time to C|Net. At another whooping $70 million. So the next time you see a man laughing away to the bank, it's not because they changed something in the Matrix or a black cat passed by twice. Narendra Rocherolle might have cracked a deal. Again.

Trivia: C|Net also recently bought over MP3.com

Full Story

Thanks for the heads up, Nick.