Tell A Friend ::: New Twist to the bookmarking tale~!!!

I came across "Tell a Friend" while looking for some tool which would allow for better bookmarking of my posts..and man! I really loved it!!. So, didn't waste any time in adding the lil thingy to my blog. (You'll notice it at the bottom of each of my posts)
Now we all know that when tongues wag, the lamest rumors become the hottest news.And, this is where "Tell a Friend" comes into the picture..(for the record though, I ain't implying that my posts are lame ok!!)

The site or rather the tool harnesses the power of "The Word of Mouth" (although its more like "word of fingers" in this case!!) concept of marketing ur goods .

The explicit video that I have posted (source: from tellafriend.socialtwist.com) will allow for the better understanding of this concept..as will the learn-more page here.
What struck me about the thing are two things...the ability to send messages thru instant messengers and the high level of customizability (see! i know long words too!!). Man, you can even customize the pop-up window!!. Hmmm mention of the pop-up brings me to a  major highlight...cos using tell a friend..u can spread the fire without leaving the page...unlike almost all the similar available widgets..now aint that cool!!
Coming from the horse's mouth:

• It's free!
• Just copy and paste. No integration or coding.
• Users can share content across IM, Email or Social Networks
• Users share content without leaving your site
• Visitors can access their contact lists and easily reach out to their friends
• Leverage trust-in-friends to spread the word
• Have announcements which are context-rich

And to add to all this blitz, it also has the features like analytics, choose ur widget etc..(features which are, de rigueur these days). For corporate customers, they are packing in more goodies.(well its obvious of course!! cos they'd be showing them the dough, u freeloader!!).

Well, the guys have tied with a lotta bigshots for their promotion and seems they are going all out on this one. The people behind this have added fewer social bookmarking option leaving out a few important ones but, with its ability to send messages thru IM, it beats the pants off of its competition in terms of versatility. Check out the home page.
I give my thumbs up on this one (...and hopefully it'll be up for some time)



P.s: I noticed that this site is part of SocialTwist which is in turn a business of Pramati Technologies..home to India's own Application server...my kudos to them

So wat are u waiting for....

GRAN TORINO Theatrical Trailer ::: Prime Clint Eastwood~!!!

Yippeee!!! Clint Eastwood's back!.. and how!!!!. I simply love this guy's movies man(Well I used to stubbornely hate Cowboy Westerns till I saw "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly"). He's pure genius...an institution in his own..he's a..ok ok I better stop gushing bout him and get onto business...

Well, many ppl were kinda hoping this movie would be a "Dirty Harry" sequel, thankfully, its not. Clint Eastwood seems to have come out with all guns blazin (quite literally) and a really kick-ass performance in yet another engaging movie from his stable (Hey thats wat i think after seeing this trailer alrite..don't blame me if u find it otherwise..but i think am pretty accurate wit my predictions ..remember Drona and Karzz? lol!)


The Director:
Clint Eastwood

The Cast/Starring:
Clint Eastwood, Cory Hardrict, John Carroll Lynch, Geraldine Hughes, Brian Haley, Dreama Walker, Doua Moua, Brian Howe, Sarah Neubauer, Lee Mong Vang, Nana Gbewonyo, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, John Anton, Austin Douglas Smith, Ahney Her, Ramon Camacho, Rio Scafone, Anthony Moscato, Elvis Thao, Brooke Chia Thao, Sonny Vue, Jerry Lee, Chee Thao

The Story/Plot:
Its 'bout a disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), who sets out to reform his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager, who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possesion: his 1972 Gran Torino (For those who are wondering...its a Ford Car). And how, in true Clint Eastwoodian Tradition. ends up being their hero (not that he really wants to be) saving their backsides from some pretty badass bad blokes(the word pretty, here, doesn't imply the looks of the bad guys nor their derrieres ok just incase u have me politically misnderstood heh heh)...

My Take:
Looks like it'll be a good movie...its Clint all the way...and at his age he's really kicking butt..and i mean really!! (Big B look up and take notice). And as in all his movies, the human emotion factor is also high. So, looks like a movie dat I'll watch..have a look at the trailer and do tell wat u think urself ...is worth a dekko??


The Trailer:

Add Recent Posts and Recent Comments to Blogger ::: The Easiest Way~!!!

Hmmm now this has been around for many days and not many talk about it even though lotsa ppl use the "Recent posts" and "Recent Comments" in the same way as I do but don't write 'bout it...( i wonder why??!!)....So "much ado About nOthing~!!" does wat its meant for ... ;) :p

How to Add "Recent Posts" / "Recent Comments" to Blogger
(and I am gonna tell it 2 u even if u already knew how to!)

Step1:
Click the Layout view of the respective blog in your Dashboard. You'll find that you have been directed to the page elements page.
Step2:
Click the "Add a Gadget" Link which you have on your Layout. This time something'll pop up...more precisely a pop up window.
Step3:
In that pop up window (the window from Step2 or did u forget already??) you'll find a gadget that goes by the name of "Feed" ...Click the Blue Button wit a white "plus" sign on it to the right side of the "Feed" gadget.
Step4:
On doing step3, you'll find the window's changed and now the silly thing's asking u to feed it some URL. Well, dont hesitate ...paste ur comments/Blog feed URL to it...the comments feed in my case is:
http://rajsharmablogs.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default
And so this step will create for ME (not U awrite...use ur own feed for dat!!) a "Recent Comments" thingy
Click on the "continue" button.
Step5:
You'll find the window's changed again (the chameleon dat it is!!). Make the required changes you need and click the "Save" button.

Behold! a "Recent Comments" Widget to ur Blog... see? no sweat!!!...Repeat the steps for including a "Recent Posts" widget to your blog but while in Step4, just provide your blog feed URL
(e.g.: http://feeds.feedburner.com/rajsharmablogs)
instead of the Comments feed...to get ur desired results..

Hope u liked the post ...(and hopefully, i dint shove it down ur scrawny throats like the spinach of ur Yore!!)

'til l8r ....tk cr

Comment in same post page ::: Its here... finally!!!

Its finally here!!...after spending many days in "Blogger in Draft" anonymity, the post comment on the same page that u see the post has become a feature in Blogger.com. Finally, i can comment in peace in a blogger blogpost without having to look at drab, redirected post comments page...good riddance!!! comments page!! (though it'll still be around if u post from the main page of the blog)

Display Favicon in Blogger ::: Faviconize Yourselves!! (New)

Well I had a personal favicon on my blog until today I discovered that the silly thing had disappeared!! ...so had a look under the blog's hood and did some tweaks and behold! the lil thingy's back!... So, since I underwent the entirely tiresome process of cut-pasting the one line of code, I've decided to document the entire process of putting in a Favicon for ur Blogger.com Blog (oh and by the way, u'll find it's a little different from other places). Here goes:

How to add a Favicon to your Blogger.com Blog (for Dummies!!!)

Create a favicon

Step1:

Make an image/logo that'll suit ur blog in an image editor (MS-Paint is one for starters)

Step2:

Convert the image to a favicon (.ico) file using any of the many online tools available out there in the Internet. I used www.html-kit.com for my favicon

Step3:

Host the image from some file hosting server that allows a direct access to the image file. I used my trusty 'ol Fileden.com account for this one.

Now add the freakin' favicon to ur Blog already!

Step1:

Login to Ur Blogger.com account and reach ur dashboard.

Step2:

In the dashboard, click on the layout link for the particular blog.

Step3:

On reaching the layout view, you'll get to see an "Edit HTML" link..click it!

Step4:

We've reached THE most important step now, so, pay attention!

Look for the title tag in the gibberish which will arise wen u click the "Edit Html" link.

Hopefully it look like:Below this, type the following additional gibberish:



Step5:
Click the "Save Template" button. Voila! u have a shiny new favicon.

well, many places may tell u to put ur <link> tag in the <head> section for putting the favicon into ur blog. But, you'll notice I have put mine below the <title> tag (which is still actually inside the <head> tag). Well, i recommend this different approach because Blogger.com appends the meta content in the <head> above the title of the blog while dishing out ur stuff to people and within that code, they have the code for the Blogger.com favicon as well and that was the reason why my favicon disappeared in the first place!.

Anyways u can learn more about favicons from here and there...

So until later ..ciao!!

Photofunia.com ::: Joyful Photo Fun!!!!

Hmmm not in wat ppl would call "Pink of Health" right now, which would explain my hiatus from posting to the blog. Well, now if u live in India and don't contract any kind of tropical fever once in a while then it'd be a real shame!! wouldn't it?? :P. Anyways, thanks for sticking in there....and doing wat the title of the blog says, "much ado about nothing~!!" lol.. really appreciate it...

Now getting down to business, something caught my eye in my friend Nischal Shetty's blog (u can spot it in my blogroll) and simply loved it.... Its a website called "Photofunia.com". The site is a online tool (yup!, yet another web 2.0 phenom!) for mashing and re-mashing ur pics ...online!. This website has some pretty cool photo-effects which it will render upon the photos that u provide the tool with. I tried it out wit some of my own fotos, which turned out some pretty interesting results...check out some of them below:
U can do all the Above stuff and more without having to be a Photoshop Wiz!! all at Photofunia.com

As of now, Photofunia.com has about 70 foto effects to chose from (but they all slightly differ from foto to foto ..which is good)..the facial recognition tech. is quite good actually but be sure to use a relatively bright foto or u might not get the effect u desire (read botched image!!)....anywz...its got my thumbs up on this one ...sooo wat u wating for? go.. go check it out!!

ciao!!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince ::: The Movie Teaser Trailer

Hi!..I am back, wit a movie story.... finally!!

This time its the penultimate number in the Harry Potter series.. the darkest of the Harry movies yet released ..the Half Blood Prince...This movie is the second in the longer of the Harry Potter Series, the first of which, was the Order of the Phoenix, one, in my opinion, which was a damp squib. That was because the feature was much short in relation to the novel, which had deserved a longer attention, but  the producers

 seemed to think otherwise. Dunno wat this one will offer though. 

This particular one continues with the awesome graphics and moments that the other movies of the franchise offer, superb sfx and gr8 performances... but it remains to be seen as to wat the movie, in its entirety offers.

The Director:

David Yates

The Cast/Starring:

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Alan Rickman,Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright.

The Plot/Story:

For those who came in late, this one starts with Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts. In this part, he comes across a mysterious book which is said to belong to a person, who prefers to call himself the Half Blood Prince (owing to his roots of being part-muggle and part-wizard). This book, as Harry finds out, belonged to an old student of Hogwarts who was a genius, but like Harry himself, was an outcast to the vox-populi of the school. 

The story also delves into the childhood of the Dark Lord, Voldemort and how he began to turn to his dark side ( reminded of Star Wars and Darth Vader anyone??) .....the more Harry reads the book of the Half Blood Prince, and the more similarities he finds between the Prince and himself...and the more determined he becomes to discover who the guy really was ....a mystery which is unraveled at very end of the story.

My Review:

Hmmm yea I will definitely watch it as this is my most favorite story amongst all in the magical Harry Potter saga (so will many other's cos of the huge fanbase the books enjoy.. and quite rightfully!!.. i might add). But, only this time will be seeing it wit slight apprehensions since the last movie when I had felt a Lil let down. As for the teasers and trailers ..well the performances look their usual marvelous  selves....Daniel looks Harry..Mr. Fiennes exudes his usual, evil, nose less Voldemort persona...and Ginny's all grown up!!!...the child Tom Riddle (Marvelo) also appears to have been given some good riveting dialogues...mixed reactions on this one...

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince hits screens July 2009...Like the previous film, this film will be simultaneously released in regular theaters and IMAX 3-D....So, look out for it!!

'til then, watch and enjoy the teaser..

have fun an' make merry ...

10 Effective Ab Exercises ::: C'mon lets Workout !!!

Hmmm of late, I am being approached by people around me, asking wen the next blockbuster is gonna hit screens and wat my opinions 'bout it are(all thanks to my blog and the raving reviews dat i write ahem! ahem!)....well ppl, yea i like showbiz a lot(movies in particular) but I ain't no walking, talking movie encyclopaedia folks!! (or so i tend to think..). So, to shake things up a li'l, I have decided to change the topic for couple o' days....but nothing to worry the movie trailers and reviews will keep coming, cos 'ol habits.. die hard!! (heyyyy... waitaminnit, die hard's a movie too!!..maybe i am a movie addict!!)....

Well, i came across this article at about.com...it instantly caught my eye, the reason being very clear from my earlier post (I am somewer between the 1 and 2 year stages...). Having gone from fab abs to ab flabs in recent days had really been a shock for me....so have started to take my exercises more seriously. By the way, in the process of this, have come across lotsa things 'bout exercising and health, which, I'll hopefully be able to share in my subsequent posts, its only the top ab exercises for this one..wit some of my quips on the various forms of bodily contortions...(u can check out the exercises by clicking the number one exercise link and moving onto the next ones in d page which opens)

1. Bicycle Exercise (my favorite cos its one of the few ones to target the obliques together with the abs)
2. Captain's Chair (its good for the entire upper body)
3. Exercise Ball Crunch (Never tried that huge ball ..so cant say anything bout this)
4. Vertical Leg Crunch (effective!!!)
   
   
5. Torso Track (its a tough one folks..be careful wen u do this)
6. Long Arm Crunch (one of the oldest in the books!!)
   
   
   
7. Reverse Crunch (yup it works!! hmmm well its supposed to or it wont be here :D)
8. Full Vertical Crunch (this golden oldie is actually quite effective!)
9. Ab Rocker (this looks like the one they show on TV!..dunno if it really works heh heh!)
10. Plank on Elbows and Toes (i dint know bout this one b4. do check it out its quite cool!!!)

(source:about.com)

I tried out almost all the exercises above ('cept for the pilates one with the huge Ball and torso track) and well, i can say they all are quite effective but only to the extent of wat u eat (and u should see me gorge!!! Its the reason why I still am li'l on the pudgier side in d belly area :D) and ur genes...well, Ur genes u can't help but wat u can is, by eating a low calorie, filling diet (do not crash diet it'll make the situation worse) and stay happy!! (believe me extreme mood swings really do wreck havoc wit ur regimen!!!)...Don't keep dreaming about 6 packs ..they'll come to u if u have them in u (thats in the genes part)

so until l8r,

ciao

(dont forget ur cardio!!!!!)

Software Career Growth Meter... Where do you Stand??:::email forward

Ha ha !..I got this picture few days back in my mail...still at awe how the foto actually imitates real life!!!

keep watching this space, i have a good post related to this comin up in a few hours....hope u'll love it.....ciao

A Judge's Dilemma ::: An E-mail forward

I got this forwarded mail the other day...kinda seemed interesting enough to post....

In a small town, a person decided to open up a liquor shop, which was right opposite to a church.

The church & its congregation started a campaign to block the liquor shop from opening with petitions and prayed daily against his business.

Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about to open a few days later, a strong lightning struck the liquor shop and it was burnt to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the liquor owner sued the church authorities on the grounds that the church through its congregation & prayers was ultimately responsible for the destruction of his liquor shop, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons for the act of God. As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hearing and commented:

'I don't know how I'm going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, we have a liquor shop owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire church that doesn't.'

Quantum of Solace ::: the trailer

Well I know am a lot late with this post ..just kinda slipped outta my mind to post it ...anyway ,,,...here goes..

Quantum of Solace continues the high octane adventures of James Bond in Casino Royale. Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M interrogate Mr White who reveals the organisation which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.

Forensic intelligence links an MI6 traitor to a bank account in Haiti where a case of mistaken identity introduces Bond to the beautiful but feisty Camille, a woman who has her own vendetta. Camille leads Bond straight to Dominic Greene, a ruthless business man and major force within the mysterious organisation, Quantum.

On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the worlds most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano. Using his associates in the organisation, and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, 

Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in a Latin American country, giving the General 

control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land. which is however a main source of the South American water supply. In a minefield of treachery, murder and deceit,

 Bond allies with old friends in a battle to uncover the truth. As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, 007 must keep one step ahead of the CIA, the terrorists and even M, to unravel Greenes sinister plan and stop Quantum getting its way.

(source: traileraddict.com)

psst....the gal from Hitman, Olga Kurylenko is the bond gal this time..watch out!!



P.S.: This Bond Movie comes to India on November 7 before it hits U.S. Screens a week l8r ..hmm now hows that for staying ahead heh! heh!

DragonBall Movie ::: a really sneak peek!!!!

The ever popular anime series DrangonBallZ comes live next april....with an interesting cast and a good 'ol storyline, it looks quite promising...well folks couldn't help bring the spoiler  to u....sorry for this ..but like i said couldn't keep my fingers from wagging...heh !! 

Director:

James Wong

Cast/starring:

JustinChatwin, James Marsters, Emmy Rossum, Jamie Chung, Joon Park, Eriko Tamura, Randall Duk Kim, Texas Battle, Ernie Hudson, Chow Yun-Fat.

Story/plot:

Goku (Justin Chatwin) goes on a journey to find Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat)  and gather the seven mystical Dragon Balls before the evil Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) can. Along his way, he meets Bulma (Emmy Rossum) who then joins him to help him in his mission. When arriving at Roshi's place, he is not welcomed with embrace but he has to fight Roshi. Roshi soon learns that Goku is the grandson of Gohan (Randall Duk Kim) and thus trains him to prepare him for the ultimate battle with Lord Piccolo to prevent him from collecting the powerful orbs.(from wikipedia)

My review:

Well like everyone else, I too liked Dragon ball Z..alot actually...heh! heh!...with Stephen Chow (director-actor of acclaimed movies like Kung fu hustle, Shaolin Soccer and the forthcoming kung fu hustle 2, keep watching this space for updates!!)  at the helm of affairs in its production this Fox movie certainly seems to be worth a dekko!!!

so ciao ...

till l8r folks!!!

enjoy the Dragon Ball trailer...(official one!!!) btw way u may find the movie a little dated and a bit too americanised ..also piccolo isn't green!! nooooooooooo...

Indigen ::: Ice age but not quite heh! heh!

Well i was scouting around for trailer of the new Ice Age sequel coming up in july '09 and came across this funny lil small cartoon called Indigen. I am sure u guys will really enjoy this lil one.
In this there's a Scrat lookalike who goes around creating trouble for an african aboriginal who gets a really hard time..in a battlefield...made by a talented french group...looks as good as Ice Age if not better...

The video kind of makes u think whether the two are indestructible or something..it also reminds one of the classic Tom and Jerry adventure albeit it has a lot of gore in it...lots and lots of it actually!!! Watch out for the blood,  gore, flying body parts and stray missile folks!!!

watch the video for more details....

Ice Age 3: the Dawn of the Dinosaurs::: releases June '08

Scrat, Manny , Ellie and Sid return for a new installment of the all time fav movie Ice Age...and this time the adventure gets gigantic...or Mesozoic... maybe Jurassic even... or something like that...well its got dinosaurs in it.

If u ask me the title kinda lacks some logic cos i thought the Ice ages happened after the dinosaurs...but then wat the heck...who cares as long as i have fun... as for parents who are concerned dat their kids are gonna download some wrong info into their lil brains........... well folks u gotta take the responsibility of atleast some education!!!

enjoy the trailer...

ciao..

Valkyrie ::: Tom Cruise 's New Movie ...a first look

Hmmm..... well we all know that Tom Cruise 's no capt. Jack Sparrow but he'll be sporting a pirate-like eye patch in his new movie Valkyrie (dats supposed to be "Val-curry" or something ). 

The movie's a WWII thriller based on real story, where in the height of Nazism, a few germans conspire to kill The Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.

Tom Cruise portrays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the aristocratic German officer who led the heroic attempt to bring down the Nazi regime and end the war by planting a bomb in Hitler's bunker known as "The June 20 Plot". 

 Severely wounded in combat, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg returns from Africa to join the German Resistance and help create Operation Valkyrie, the complex plan that will allow a shadow government to replace Hitler's once he is dead. 

But fate and circumstance conspire to thrust Stauffenberg from one of many in the plot to a double-edged central role. Not only must he lead the coup and seize control of his nation's government... He must kill Hitler himself. (source:: yahoo.com)

The movie's directed by veteran Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-MEN, Superman Returns) and armed with an international cast consisting of Manfred-Anton Algrang, David Bamber, Matthias Freihof, Stephen Fry, Andy Gatjen, Christian Oliver, Christopher Karl Hemeyer, Carice van Houten, Eddie Izzard, and Kenneth Branagh alongside Tom Cruise..

The movie certainly seems promising....
It hits U.S. screens this yuletide in December 26 (which is actually a li'l delayed from its Summer 2008 release)

'k till then we'll have to do with the Trailer(below) and the pics...
ciao.

W. ::: The Movie

I was just lazily hyper-texting and hyper-turning thru pages in the Internet, when I came across this funny lil picture with a Big W in it. I looked a lil closer and found that it was the poster for Oliver Stone's forthcoming movie "W" starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks etc. etc... the quotes by George "dubya" Bush tickled me quite a bit so thought of writing something on it...and so here goes...

Movie:

"W" (pronounced Dubya)

Director:

Oliver Stone

Cast/Starring:

Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Ioan Gruffudd, Thandie Newton etc.

Story/plot:

Well, its a chronicle of sorts on George W. Bush's tumultous period of reign as President and other such ..well how to put it...hmm interesting times. Watch the movie for the entire stuff and look out for the famous blurblings like "misunderestimation" ha ha..

My Thought:

Well Oliver stone's a brilliant man and am looking forward to a tight movie with good acting by the good cast lead by Josh Brolin..

The Trailer:

P.s: The word "Dubya" is a play on the letter W as pronounced by ppl typical of the region from where the Prez George Bush Jr. belongs to.

You can also find all other movie releases along with this in my previous post just follow this link Hollywood Releases of the Month ::: October 2008

ciao till l8r