kudos to BINDRA - the man who made INDIA proud..

Abhinav Bindra, an Indian shooter, created a history by winning a solo gold medal for India in Olympic Games after 28 years long wait. Today, Abhinav Bindra showed brilliant performance in Beijing Olympic Games 10 metre air riffle event and won Gold medal. With this Abhinav Bindra has become an iconic figure in India and every person wants to know about him. Below, I am adding few short points about the life of Abhinav Bindra.


1) He was born on Born on September 28, 1982.
2) He belongs to Chandigarh, Punjab.
3) He came from an affluent Sikh family. His father name is Dr. A S Bindra and mother name is Babli Bindra.
4) He completed his early school education from Doon school of Dehradun.
5) He is first India to win individual Gold in Olympics.
6) He started his shooting practise in 1995.
7) He was youngest participant in 1998 common wealth games (just 15 year old). Also youngest participant in 2000 Olympic Games.
8) His first main achievement was bronze medal win in 2001 Munich Shooting World Cup.
9) He won his first gold medal in 2002 common wealth games.
10) In 2000, he was honoured with Arjuna Award and in 2001 with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.
11) His best performance was in 2001 when he won six gold medals in different international events.
12) He made a world record in 2004 Olympic Games despite not winning any medal.
13) He is a MBA and running own company with name Abhinav Futuristics.
14) His blog address is abhinavbindra.blogspot.com.

Also visit-Video Abhinav Bindra getting Gold medal
Watch video report on Abhinav Bindra’s Olympic Gold win
Indiscipline at Olympics by Indian Athletes
Watch Beijing Olympic Games 2008 live from Eurosport and CCTV 1
Live Medal Telly Beijing Olympics 2008
Watch All Latest news related to Beijing Olympics
Video of Indian squad in opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics 2008ArvindKatoch kgw.arvindkatoch.com

Top 10 downloads of the past 10 years

By Kelly Green Morrison and Karen Whitehouse, Download.com
When CNET Download.com opened its doors in 1996, it was home to 3,000 small shareware and freeware applications. Online software distribution was still in its infancy. What a difference a near-decade makes! Since 1996, we've watched the rise of instant messaging, digital audio and the MP3 format, file sharing, spyware and antispyware, and the open-source movement, just to name a few. And we've watched as online software distribution has gone from pipe dream to reality. These 10 applications best represent the top trends in downloading over the past decade.

	ICQ Today instant messengers are ubiquitous, but when ICQ ("I Seek You") was first released in 1997, it was truly the first of its kind. Though competitors such as Yahoo Instant Messenger and AIM have since encroached on ICQ's territory, this chat client remains enormously popular with international users, and it has remained one of Download.com's most popular applications since its launch.
	Winamp Arriving fast on the heels of the emerging MP3 digital format, Nullsoft's Winamp was one of the darlings of the burgeoning digital audio scene in the late '90s. This free audio player quickly gained popularity, becoming one of the most popular files on Download.com, and Nullsoft was eventually acquired by AOL in 1999.	CNET community's Top 10 downloads "Hewlet Packard" by Marysday (see profile) January 6, 2008 wish you an hewlet packard download (read more) "WinRAR is far better than WinZIP" by darrenforster99 (see profile) November 25, 2006 I'm suprised that WinZIP is in the top 10 in comparison to... (read more) "times have changed" by smallcreep (see profile) August 19, 2005 I first learned of Shareware.com when CNET had their... (read more) See all comments
	Napster Who doesn't remember this controversial file-sharing kingpin? Developed by Northeastern University student Shawn Fanning, Napster was a groundbreaking application that enabled users to share MP3s painlessly for the first time through a peer-to-peer network. Napster has since been sued, shuttered, and reborn as a subscription music service, but its legacy remains.
	Firefox Developed by the open-source Mozilla project in 2003, Firefox was the first browser to show the promise of breaking Microsoft's stranglehold on the browser market. Lightweight, secure, and packed with useful features, Firefox exemplifies the promise of the strengthening open-source movement.
	WinZip When CNET Download.com launched in 1996, WinZip was among the first programs in our library, and in the past nine years, it has remained near the top of our Most Popular list. The reason is simple: For many years, WinZip was an essential utility. You couldn't download or send large files without it. Even the fact that Windows XP now has built-in ZIP support hasn't diminished its popularity. The keys to WinZip's success are its simplicity and its singularity of purpose: it does one thing--compressing and decompressing files--and it does it very well.
	iTunes Apple's music player and organizer makes our top 10 list for the sheer beauty of its product design. iTunes is not only a full-featured media player and library in its own right, it's also the gateway for Apple's iPod and popular music store, creating an elegant and simple interface for buying and organizing music. If only all software were this easy to use.
	Ad-aware Almost as soon as there was software to download, there was adware coming along for the ride. Lavasoft did its part to hold the line with Ad-aware, a spyware scanner and remover. Its simple interface and excellent results have gained the program acclaim over the past five years, including a recent monopoly on the No. 1 slot in Download.com's Most Popular list. We wouldn't download files without it, and apparently, neither would most of you.
	Skype If Internet signals can travel over a phone line, then voice calls can travel over the Internet, right? With a Voice-over-IP (VOIP) program such as Skype, they certainly can. The prospect of making free calls to folks all over the globe has persuaded millions of people to install the software; the ease of use and surprising voice quality have earned Skype a loyal user base and accolades that include a CNET Editors' Choice and a Webby.
	RealPlayer Ten years ago, the Web was full of static content. The 1995 debut of RealPlayer changed all that. Streaming audio and video in a free media player was a bold step forward into making the Internet a viable entertainment platform, and RealNetworks was there. Today the software plays almost every media format, and the online music store sells tunes compatible with most MP3 players--even the iPod. RealPlayer hasn't always been at the head of the class, but it was there first, and it keeps adapting to the developing world of online media.
	Adobe Acrobat Reader Bridging the gap between print and Internet publishing, Adobe's portable document format (PDF) lets publishers distribute their articles, newsletters, and documentation online without worrying about formatting problems or unauthorized alterations. By giving away the Acrobat Reader early on, Adobe helped create a nearly unassailable market position. If you want to read magazine archives or software manuals online, you need Acrobat Reader--as its nearly seven-year occupation of the Most Popular list can attest.

CHECK OUT MY OWN TOOLBAR ...AND INSTALL!!!!

http://bloggersstopblogspot.myblogtoolbar.com/

"Orkut" Buyukkokten

Orkut Büyükkökten (February 6, 1977 in Konya, Turkey) is a Turkish software engineer who developed the social networking service Orkut.

He developed Orkut as an independent project while working at Google.

While previously working for Affinity Engines, he had developed a similar system, InCircle, intended for use by university alumni groups. In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Büyükkökten and Google based Orkut on InCircle code. The allegation is based on the presence of 9 identical bugs in Orkut that also existed in InCircle. Google and Orkut have since settled the lawsuit; the terms have not been disclosed.

Originally from the Turkish Konya, Büyükkökten obtained a B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and Information Science from Bilkent University in Ankara, and earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. His research at Stanford focused on Web search and efficient PDA.

Since the decision of the California Supreme Court to grant equal recognition to same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples, Büyükkökten has become engaged to boyfriend Derek Holbrook.

CHECK OUT:http://www.stanford.edu/~orkut/self.html

Orkut Buyukkokten

I kept hearing about Orkut, joined it one day. Found many of my lost contacts, collegues, and friends.

Well, for dummies like me Orkut is a social networking website launched by Google in January, named after Orkut Buyukkokten, a Google engineer who created it. It aims at connectings users to their friends and their friends' friends for talking, dating and business networking. Only people invited by an orkut member can join, create profile, join communities, and check for friends and other people.

I wondered who this Orkut Buyukkokten is.
Browsed www, found his snap. Looks cool isn't it??? Looks pretty young isn't it? Thought will check out more details.
Well, Orkut Buyukkokten was born on 6-Feb-1976, in Konya, Turkey.
Did his high school from Konya Meram Anadolu Lisesi (1986-93), BS Information Engineering from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey (1993-97). Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University in the Database Group.

Thought, if he has created Orkut, he should be there. Found his profile there. Sent a friend request, but didn't get a reply. But Amazing number of scrape entries!! 470449 scraps!!!!

Found some baffling information on net about Orkut's earnings, but I am not sure if this is right:
Orkut Buyukkokten(the creator of Orkut) gets $12 when every person registers to this website.
He also gets $10 when you add somebody as a friend.
He gets $8 when your friend's friend adds you as a friend & gets $6 if anybody adds you as a friend in the resulting chain.
He gets $5 when you scrap somebody & $4 when somebody scraps you.
He also gets $200 for each photograph you upload on Orkut.
He gets $2.5 when you add your friend in the crush-list or in the hot-list.
He gets $2 when you become somebody's fan.
He gets $1.5 when somebody else becomes your fan.
He even gets $1 every time you logout of Orkut.
He gets $0.5 every time you just change your profile-photograph.
He also gets $0.5 every time you read your friend's scrap-book & $0.5 every time you view your friend's friend-list.
Many Global Financial Consultants think this person might become the richest-person in the world by the end of 2009.
Finally, this is the best fact. This person has 13 assistants to monitor his scrapbook & 8 assistants to monitor his friends-list. He gets around 20,000 friend-requests a day & about 85,000 scraps a day.

As I continued to search about Orkut Buyukkokten, found that there were some court cases against him.

A small social-networking software company has filed suit against Google, claiming that much of the source code behind orkut.com, the search engine's popular social service, was stolen by a former engineer. In its lawsuit, Affinity Engines, based in Palo Alto, California, said engineer Orkut Buyukkokten illegally took the code that he had written for the company -- which he co-founded -- with him when he joined Google.

DID YOU KNOW???

Did You Know, Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

Did You Know, The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

Did You Know, 40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

Did You Know, TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

Did You Know, Butterflies taste with their feet.

Did You Know, Coca-Cola was originally green.

Did You know, If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

Did You Know, Every day more money is printed for
Monopoly than the US Treasury.

Did You Know, It is impossible to lick your elbow.

Did You Know, Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

NANO..the 1lakh car

Seldom do we see cars that rewrite the history books even before they are seen running around on the roads. And hardly ever do we see cars that vow to put the nation on four wheels. The Tata Nano is one such car – a car that has been in the news for quite a few years, for reasons good and evil. Nano is a car which has breathed into life due to one man. Give credit to Mr. Ratan Tata for his determination to build a low cost family car that has come true, finally! Took long it did, but the Nano came in a beautiful form. Touted as world’s cheapest car by a far cry, Nano has been the talk of the town around the globe. Head honchos of big organizations have been pouring in by numbers to have a look at this engineering masterpiece. We bring you some interesting bits.

Looks:

Numbers first.
Length – 3100mm
Width – 1500mm
Height – 1600mm
Wheelbase – 2230mm.
Ground Clearance – 180mm

You will be wondering why I am talking about the dimensions of the Nano, since all of you know that it is a rather compact and tiny machine. It is because I have good reason to talk about the dimensions. You see, the Nano is going to be faced with Maruti 800 as its main rival. But you could throw in the Alto and Zen Estilo to mark out some design and packaging aspects. Just to get things in perspective, Nano is over 230mm shorter than 800 in overall length but the wheelbase advantage of 155mm over the offering from Maruti makes sure that the Nano is more accommodating than the 800. Tata has managed to squeeze out a 60mm advantage in width and Maruti 800 falls short of about 100mm in height. So in essence, you get more legroom, better shoulder room and room more than enough for a turban, if you wear one! But before you enter inside, you are bound to gape in admiration at the beautifully crafted curves of this micro car. I personally feel that the front has a lot of Zen Estilo written on it, but manages to look really funky and cool.

The mono-volume design establishes a sea of change from the two-box layout of the 800. What it ensures the Nano with is extremely short overhangs and tight packaging. For a car of this size and image, the Nano is an extremely sexy looking car with futuristic design cues. The bonnet line is steep and unites together with the bumper in a seamless way. Though there is no ‘grille’ per se, the front has a smiling look which accentuates the ‘happy’ feeling. The fog lamps are incorporated in the bumper which has a distinct air dam running across in between them. In profile, the Nano resembles Mitsubishi’s latest small car ‘i’. The rear of the Nano is somewhat recognizable. The tail lamps are inspired from elder sister, Indica. So this is a very compact hatchback, yes? No my friend, you are massively wrong. Even I was dumbfounded when I discovered that the Nano cannot be called a hatchback – a word so true to the way the small cars are. The reason for this is because it does not have a hatch! The tail gate cannot be opened owing to it being joined together with the boot sill. This makes accessing the engine a pain in the bottom. But a hatchback it will be called still. The back side of the Nano is made attractive by the mid mounted exhaust pipe which peeps out of the aggressively designed bumper.

Interiors:

As attractive as the Nano is on the outside, the same cannot be said for the interior. The plastics feel cheap and it is here that you begin to feel the concern towards the price that Tata was aiming at. The rudimentary knobs and switches point towards the use of materials which would be better off in tractors twenty years old! Dreary and uninspiring by any measure, that’s what one can say about the interior quality and looks. What impressed me though was the layout. Spacious and functional, the dashboard has a curved look which can prove beneficial when it comes to storing items. The Chevy Spark started it for the small cars and the Nano continues on what seems to be the current trend. The instrument binnacle is mid-mounted and the centre console has a swooping form which houses all the important knobs and air con vents. Speakers for the audio system have been incorporated on the rear bench just under the seat area.

The speedo is calibrated to a top whack of 120kmph though we shall reserve our statements on that till we test the car thoroughly. Cash saving activity has gone a bit too far with the sun visor, there’s only one! Please Tata, please, have mercy on the people who will sit on the passenger seat, only to find no sun visor to protect their skin from sun or no vanity mirror for women (men too, going by the current fashion!) to put the make-up on. The centre console, forming a crest in the middle of the dash, can be worrisome if you happen to be as tall as Rajpal Yadav. The seats have integrated head restraints, like in the hugely popular, Hyundai i10. Yes the Nano will be deprived of a lot of creature comforts but to satisfy your salivating mouth, Tata will offer the top end version with air con, power windows and power steering. This car is destined to be exported too, so provision for ABS and airbags will also be there for sure. The floor mounted four-speed gearbox wasn’t smooth as silk but would give the 800 something to take inspiration from. Roominess is what this compact car from Tata is all about. Four average sized Indians will find themselves enjoying their ride.

Mechanicals:

Everyone, and it does not discount the motoring journos, expected the ‘One Lakh Car’ to have a plastic body. But boy did Tata play it big there! Contrary to everyone’s belief, the Nano is a metal-bodied car with four full-blown doors to ease the ingress and egress. This is a uni-body construction but makes use of a sub-frame which adds to the strength in addition to providing support for drivetrain and suspension units. The suspension has a story of its own altogether! Well, Tata engineers said that since the rear-biased weight distribution led to some scary moments while testing the car, they had to optimize the suspension setup and add a fair amount of other eccentric but equally helpful technical add-ons like fatter rear tyre while the battery box and fuel tank are placed right underneath the arse of front occupants.

The engine is what has been the buzz word around the car. It is an all-aluminum two cylinder engine displacing 624cc with two valves per cylinder driven by a single overhead camshaft. The bore and stroke are nearly similar giving it a ‘square’ form. Making the Nano move will be the power of 33 horses which will peak out at 5500rpm while 48Nm of turning force will be supplied at a meager 2500rpm which should help the drivability of the car. The Nano will transmit its small amount of power via a 4-speed cable operated gearbox with the fourth being an overdriven ratio. Tata is working on developing an automatic gearbox as well but that will not be available when the car gets launched later this year. In addition to the 624cc petrol engine, the Indian auto giant might also bring out a common-rail diesel engine (700cc) which might be of the same architecture as the one seen on Tata Ace.

As it was famous, Tata’s One Lakh Car will not exactly be that. Not a one lakh rupee car it will be. The base version, when it will come to a parking halt will see you shed close to 1.2lakh while the one which will sit in between with some necessary creature comforts will be priced in the vicinity of 1.5lakh. The top end might retail for close to 2.0lakh, we speculate.

Quick Specs:

Price: 1.2lakh onwards
Engine: 624cc, in-line, twin-cylinder
Power: 34PS@5500rpm
Torque: 48Nm@2500rpm
Gearbox: 4-speed manual; Cable operated
Top Speed: 95-100kmph (Speculated)
Fuel Efficiency: 20kmpl (claimed)
Length: 3100mm
Width: 1500mm
Height: 1600mm
Wheelbase: 2230mm
Ground Clearance: 180mm
Fuel Tank Capacity: 15lt.
Kerb Weight: ~ 600kg.

Top 20 Free Games of 2007

With the year so close to being over we figured what better time than now to thrown together a list of the most popular free games of the past year. That’s right, the top twenty most popular are all listed right here.. Enjoy!

#1 America’s Army

Nobody knows military simulations like the world’s premier land force, the United States Army. So, when the Army began making the America’s Army game to provide civilians with insights on Soldiering from the barracks to the battlefields, it sent its talented development team to experience Army training just as a new recruit would.

#2 Warsow

Warsow is a free standalone first person shooter game for Windows and Linux. It is based on the Qfusion 3D engine (a modification of the Quake 2 GPL engine), and aimed on the competitive scene, or the e-sports community. Warsow is developped under the motto “by gamers for gamers” by a team coming from all kinds of gaming backgrounds.

#3 Wild Metal

Wild Metal (1999) is a 3D strategic vehicular combat game set in a distant land, in which you command armed roving vehicles to disrupt dangerous automated military units that have overtaken the Tehric planetary system. While it flew under the mainstream radar when it was originally released, it was critically acclaimed for its unique yet intuitive control schemes and its massive open world to explore.

#4 Afterburner 3D

Afterburner 3D is an excellent fanmade remake of SEGA’s classic first-person shooter Afterburner. The game features excellent 3D graphics, great special effects, and even a nice soundtrack to round things off. If you don’t have fun flying jets and shooting others down you’re just not right.

#5 Wolfenstein Enemy Territory

The year is 1943, and the Nazi War machine threatens to not crush Europe, but the rest of the world as well. Unknown to the general public, the fate of the free world often lies in the hands of a select few heroes, members of the Office of Secret Action. You are one of these legendary protectors of freedom, B.J. Blazkowicz.

#6 Flight of the Amazon Queen

Joe King is the hero of this point and click adventure. His plane is carrying actress Faye Russell when it crash lands in a remote jungle, and he must battle through 100 screens of adventure and puzzle. The game’s feel is influenced by hammy B-movies, and the characters are quite stereotyped and comic.

#7 King’s Quest 3

All 16 color backgrounds remade into stunning VGA graphics. Enhanced Close up cut-scenes and dialogue pictures help immerse you into what is known as the first plot driven chapter of the King’s Quest series.

#8 Maniac Mansion Deluxe

Remember the salad days of PC gaming, when there were graphic adventures as far as the eye could see, and LucasArts actually did something besides churn out Star Wars stuff? A group of devoted fans remembers, too, and have remade one of the greatest (and funniest) games ever made.

#9 Ultima IV

XU4 is a remake of the computer game Ultima IV. The goal is to make it easy and convenient to play this classic on modern operating systems. XU4 is primarily inspired by the much more ambitious project Exult. XU4 is a cross-platform application thanks to SDL; it’s available for Windows, MacOS X, Linux and more.

#10 Trackmania Nations

This special version features a brand new environment, the Stadium, and a revolutionary new gameplay designed for Nadéo’s own custom cars. With the online ingame ladder, players can customise their cars and avatars and race in their nation’s colours on the world’s servers from Friday onwards.

#11 Swine

S.W.I.N.E. is a real-time tactical strategy game in which you must carry out extremely varied missions while taking advantage of the terrain and your units’ special abilities. Your army’s abilities and strengths will then develop over the course of the game. Before and during the missions, you will also have the opportunity to purchase or sell units, and upgrade or augment them with various items of equipment.

#12 Xenon 2000

In this top-down arcade shooter, blast away meteors and your enemies, while collecting power-ups for weapons upgrades etc. Eliminate the end level bosses to clear each level. You know the role with this. It’s basically the game you were addicted on and had the top score at your local game room.

#13 Harmotion

Harmotion is an “effects” intensive player vs. player, top down 2D classic shooter (aka shmup). You face the opponent from the bottom of the screen and the objective is to outlast him/her in a short 3 minutes space fight. Each fight will be a one of a kind collaboration between the two opponents; a collaboration of sound and colors.

#14 Retro River Raid

River Raid is a 1984 Activision game that is counted among the better shooters. After all these years it remains as a favorite and is among the first games mentioned when asked which titles are remembered most fondly. So if you’re into the old eighties shooting type games, here you go.

#15 SWIV

SWIV 3D is a 3D remake of the original SWIV. It features a voxel-based 3D engine and mission-based play, as well as a myriad of new enemies and completely new style of gameplay. It plays a lot like a typical 3D shooter: you control a helicopter which you must navigate through landscapes, all the while shooting at buildings, vehicles and other planes or helicopters and fullfilling your mission goals.

#16 Mono

Utawareru Mono is split into adventure parts and simulation RPG sequences. You play as Hakuoro, a masked man who lost his memory as the result of some great injury that he incurred in a village on the frontier. Hakuoro is unable to remove the mysterious mask that covers his face.

#17 One Must Fall

One must fall is a classic example of the mid-nineties beat’em up! Its simple, fast paced and addictive. With one exception though, this one actually has some kind of plot, and a pretty detailed and interesting championship mode.

#18 Secret Maryo Chronicles

Secret Maryo Chronicles is an Open Source two-dimensional platform game with a style designed similar to classic sidescroller games. It uses the platform independent library SDL and, since version 0.98, the OpenGL accelerated Graphics Renderer.

#19 Scorched Earth

Scorched 3D is a game based loosely (or actually quite heavily now) on the classic DOS game Scorched Earth “The Mother Of All Games”. Scorched 3D adds amongst other new features a 3D island environment and LAN and internet play. Scorched 3D is totally free and is available for both Microsoft Windows and Unix (Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris etc.) operating systems. Winigolf - A minigolf game.

#20 Winigolf

Another decent 3D mini-golf game with a total of 36 holes. If you like playing golf or golf games, then you’ll surely love this one. It’s really just a typical golfing game were you put around and try to make the shot.