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ISRO Bhuvan Launched-Download and Watch India's Answer to Google Earth

vbb — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:13:55 +0000

It’s giant leap for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).Already in the news for Chandrayan Mission-they have hit the headlines by launching the pure Indian version of something we have known as Google Earth for quite some time.

ISRO –Bhuvan is in their terms is –“Indian Earth Observation Visualization” which is basically the complete virtual 3D Globe made up by the data gathered by satellites.

How to Run/Watch ISRO Bhuvan

Just like Google Earth ,ISRO Bhuvan requires a plug-in to be installed on your computer.This plug-in can only be downloaded when you register as a user in the Bhuvan Website.Once you

get inside download and install the plug-in.After installation you should be able to run the application just like Google Earth on the browser.You need to logged into the website to run the application ISRO-Bhuvan.

Download Bhuvan Client

Just visit the ISRO BHUVAN official site and register yourself as a user.After you log in you will be asked to download the browser plug in which is approximately 11 MB in size.This plug in will place a shortcut on your desktop which is NOT to be used as ISRO Bhuvan can be run on the browser itself.

What is Bhuvan Exactly

ISRO has various Remote Sensing Satellites which are used for geo imaging, mapping and many more purpose.These satellites are used to take images of all parts of the world.Once you transpose these images to a 3D virtual globe what you get is a virtual tour of the whole globe-which is now Bhuvan.Presently Bhuvan consists of images taken over an year to 3 years ago.These images will be refreshed in regular intervals.

Features of ISRO Bhuvan

Emphasis on Indian Terrain .It will eventually show the political borders too.It will provide local information such as weather,flood, for major locations.
Different Viewpoints-enabling you to view a location in different perspectives.
You can draw figures,polygon and boxes onscreen.However you will not be able to ADD any information presently in the Beta version.
Provides on screen snapshots,measurements and drawing features.The pictures shown above are taken by the “snapshot” feature.
Resolution up to 10 meters can be obtained through Bhuvan for major locations.
Places with security considerations will not be detailed.
Value added services will be added later .

Now just head over to Bhuvan site- www.bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in and enjoy.

Now Get Mobile Banking from SBI-FreedoM

vbb — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:00:22 +0000

Almost all popular banks such as ICICI,HSBC,HDFC provide mobile banking service.The largest bank SBI(State Bank of India ) was late to catch up the trend but now it has joined the mass of banks who provide mobile banking services.

SBI has launched mobile banking services under the brand name of SBI-FreedoM.Through this you can carry out almost all transaction as you did on the Internet Banking.Here is how to get SBI Mobile banking on your mobile and instructions for Registration and Activation.

SBI Mobile Banking-Features

Presently in initial phase the mobile banking service SBI-FreedoM have the following features-

Balance enquiries and mini statements.
Fund transfer to SBI and other banks.
Demat account related queries.
Utility bills,merchandise and SBI Life insurance premium payments.
Request for check book issue.

Registration and Activation of SBI Mobile Banking

You need to download the Mobile Banking Application to your mobile,which must be java enabled for proper functioning of the application.You can download the application in following two ways-

Method 1:Download the mobile banking application from here ,transfer the application to your mobile and install.
Method 2:If you have a GPRS connection,then you can Send an SMS to 567676.For example if you have a Nokia N70 mobile then send MBSREG Nokia N70 to 567676.On the reply you get a WAP link to download the application as well as user id and MPIN.

Using SBI FreedoM Mobile Banking

Once the application is installed,run it and click “Register” link in case you have installed using method 1 shown above(also shown in figure).Soon you should get an SMS which contains a user id and MPIN (Mobile PIN).Login to the application using the given user id and MPIN and change the MPIN immediately.

Now after first login the system needs to be activated.This activation can be down by either your branch manager or by you at any SBI ATM.In order to activate it using SBI ATM,select services on the ATM menu and press Register for mobile Banking .

The service should be activated within 24 hours,after which you will be able to use the mobile banking service.

Charges on SBI FreedoM Mobile Banking

The usage of SBI mobile banking is FREE from SBI however you will be charged for any SMS the application sends as decided by your mobile carrier.

This mobile banking service is one more way to avoid those long queues at the SBI branches so download and enjoy the service.

You can see the mobile banking page on SBI site here and from the same page you can download a simple User Guide in pdf format which explains all the basic information about the use of mobile banking.

Update: If you want detailed Instructions for downloading ,registration and activation you can now visit this link.Kindly read the full post before posting any query.Thank You.

Download Free Microsoft Security Essentials Limited Beta Soon!

vbb — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:38:49 +0000

Here is a security software from none other than Microsoft.Known as Morro, in development is now available for limited download.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a security suite just like other antivirus and antispyware suites.This free software from Microsoft has all common functions like many scan options, scheduled and automatic scans, automatic definition file updates,defense shield working on real time ,and root kit protection.Grab it quickly as it will not be available for long as download is limited to 75000 times only.

Free Security Kit from Microsoft

Before you download ,kindly note that-

It’s available in only four countries the United States, Israel, Brazil, and China.Even then I was able to download it in India,may be because my company in office uses a good proxy server.So you can also trying download using an anonymous proxy server which can hide locations.
You must have Genuine copy of your OS,be it Windows XP,Vista or Windows 7 as it needs WGA validation.
You will be required to become a member of Microsoft Connect and then fill a survey before you can download it.

I decided to try it on my virtual Windows7 installation.For Windows 7 ,the package is smaller than that for XP(Just 4.5MB).

After installation it updated the definition files to protect the PC from the latest malwares.

As you can see,it has its complete functionality in four tabs,namely Home,Update,History and Settings.
Home-Is the landing page,which shows the status of the program and PC.
Update-Definition files update status
History-Past history of custom and automatic scans including the malicious files and programs it found.
Settings-Contains settings for adjusting real time protection ,scheduling scans,and so on.It also has something called SpyNet which is like centralized malware feedback network.

After definition file update it took only 5 minutes for a quick scan and 36 minutes for a deep scan.So short scan time because I have allotted a small space to Windows 7.

I am yet to test it with malwares,till then download it soon before MS makes it unavailable.

Download Microsoft Security Essentials Beta.

Chrome is Tarnished,Firefox is Old and Safari is Boring-says Microsoft IE8 Campaign

vbb — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:42:33 +0000

Microsoft Australia is promoting Internet Explorer 8 in an special way.It’s started a campaign saying “Ten Grand is Buried Here “.IN this ,you have to get some clues to discover and win $10000.But to discover those clues you must be using IE8.

What’s interesting is that, when you open the competition page,it detects the browser and says that the browser you are using is old,tarnished or something.

Use IE8 to Discover $10000!

When I opened the page in different browsers ,here is the message I got-

Google Chrome is tarnished!

Firefox is Old!

Opera and other uncommon browsers

IE6

I also heard that it also called “Apple Safari “as Boring.But I was not able to take that screenshot.Of the various reaction on this campaign ,significant one is by a Mozilla developer who has developed www.tengrandisburiedthere.com as reported by TechCrunch,it’s nothing but a Google map which zooms to show Mozilla Firefox.

The counter site www.tengrandisburiedthere.com seems to be more popular than the original one.Search for “Ten Grand is Buried Here” and Google will return only some top links pointing to Microsoft and almost all others to the counter site.

Tetris Completes its 25 Years

vbb — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:04:13 +0000

Very popular game Tetris has completed 25 years today.It was created on June 6th’1984 by Alexey Pajitnov .This very addictive game is available for almost all platforms ranging from video game consoles to handheld gaming devices and for all computer operating systems and mobile phones.

Google has put it on the homepage today.

Tetris Mania Continues…

In the 25 years the popularity of Tetris has grown manifold.According to Wiki- Tetris has been played even on the walls of various buildings.

Tetris Holding, LLC is the official site.Here you can play the game online.However many versions of the game are available.I am fond of Bricks 2000 (If you are unable to download ,Get it here ) which even gives you chance to post your scores online.

It’s very unlikely that you have not played it anytime.Or if you have played and didn’t like it,then again it’s time to fall in love with Tetris.

For me ,the next hour is reserved for Tetris!

Create Your Google Profile-Mark Your Online Presence

vbb — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:29:36 +0000

You have your profiles on say Facebook,LinkedIn,Orkut,MySpace but most of them are not searchable on Google.Google now allows you to make one more profile- Google Profile.People can find your profile when they search on Google profile.

Initially it looks like just another LinkedIn profile page but it’s from Google.It is sure to boost online presence for people who create their profile.It can work positively for anybody,whether you are a freelancer artist or just a college student.

Get a Google Profile Now

Stuff you can put on your Google profile -

Google profile lets you enter your basic information like name,address,contact info ,where you have worked or working now as well as photos and interests.

Photos

You can import photos from your Picasa web album , Flickr or any other site.

contact info-

This information is not public.You decide who can view it.

Fun stuff

Interestingly it offers you to fill some fun to your profile.You can write about

Something you can’t find using Google or your superpower.You can easily say,eating rice with sticks, as your super power.

Once you save your profile you get the options to chose your profile URL.It can be just your Google Account user name or a 20 digit number.Security/privacy concerned users are sure to choose the later option.

Profile URL

Will be something like this

http://www.google.com/profiles/YourUserName OR

http://www.google.com/ profiles/123456791234567891

Samples

Google has put sample profile to see before you create yours.For example ,see the profile of Matt Cutts.

So what are you waiting for,just head to Google Profiles and create your own page.Or you can read the official news about Google Profile below.

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/create-your-google-profile.html

Gmail-Now Write in Indian Languages

vbb — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:33:17 +0000

There are situations when you just want to convey a message in you Mother Tongue.Although the person you are sending a mail knows English very well ,but the feeling is just brilliant when you say something in your native language.

People in India have been writing mails in their languages using third party tools such as online transliteration engines,activating different language keyboard layout,or some software and mail extensions but now Gmail gives you freedom to write in Indian languages directly.

Mail in 5 Indian Languages

Google Blog and Gmail Blog ,both announced the new feature to write in five different Indian Languages.The secret behind the feature is transliteration engine.

Presently five languages are supported-Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam — and you can select the language of your choice from the drop-down list next to the icon.

Many Bloggers (I think both blogs are owned by the same person,but there are more people having the same opinion) are saying that Google is arrogant as it says Hindi typing is a new feature while they are able to do so since years.

The Google Blog exactly says-

the launch of a new feature in Gmail that makes it easy to type email in Indian languages.

Still ,lets be thankful to Google as the feature that was possible using hacks and other services is now available directly.

I was able to compose a message in Hindi but couldn’t set the subject in Hindi.Perhaps Google wants to keep subjects in English only.For typing in Hindi or any supported language you have to write in English as you pronounce them.For example -

the starting word in the above mail is the result of typing “aaj”.Now Enjoy your own language.

“Sagoon”-A New Search Engine Launched-Using Ads by Google!

vbb — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:41:53 +0000

A new search engine is up for testing.Sagoon Inc. headquartered in Washington DC has launched beta version of its search engine “sagoon.com”.The search engine stats,”Bring and Organize Online Information” as their goal.It’s founded by two IT professionals Mr. Govinda Giri and Mr. Shiba Dhakal .

Sagoon features ‘semantic and natural language processing’ which means that it can understand if you say “Who is the president of America’” as a question and will try to search for answers.

Features of sagoon.com search in brief

Semantic and Natural Language processing

Makes it able to understand natural language.It’s done by special algorithms.

Inbuilt Directory,news and video search

You can search for news and videos as well as view its web directory.

Includes Classified search

Directly search for classified ads.

It seems a good start considering the quality of search results.Check here for a video tour of sagoon.com which shows the features in a nutshell.

However considering the dominance of Google on the search engines,nobody seems to be away from it’s shadow.Even people launched search engines like Blackle.com which were actually Google custom search.

And here Sagoon is using Adsense for revenue .However it may not use it when it starts generating money itself,but at present see the “Ads by Google” at search results page when you use Sagoon.

sagoon search results

Microsoft Launches it's own 2D Code System

vbb — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:49:50 +0000

On January 7,Microsoft launched beta of it’s own 2D Bar code system called Microsoft Tag.The basic difference between more popular QR or Data matrix codes and Microsoft tag is the format.Tag uses “High Capacity Color Bar codes ” or HCCB format,making the code much smaller than QR or data matrix code.

2D code

Those not familiar with 2D codes codes can get it here.Basically 2D codes are just an extension to highly popular Bar Codes which you can see on almost every product you buy.Usually bar codes are used for product information like serial number and are extensively deployed for shopping automation.Mobile Tagging is a relatively new system which uses 2D bar codes.Present 2D codes in use are QR code and Data Matrix code.

Microsoft Tag gives numerous possibilities to explore.While these codes can be used by individuals on their blogs,visiting cards or anything else they can imagine to store information like any text or a hyperlink to their websites,companies can use it for more wider prospects given the feature of tracking and reporting .

Creating a Microsoft Tag

Tag creation is Free.You just need to sign in here.After logging in you get a tag management page from where you can create a tag for yourself.It can be any text or even hyperlink to your blog.

Reading a Tag

You will require a Tag Reader which you can download from http://gettag.mobi by a mobile browser or from Tag site.

Here is a Tag which actually points to this blog when snapped with a camera mobile with Tag reader application installed into it.

2D Code with hyperlink to this blog

For more information you can head to http://www.microsoft.com/tag/