Made in England - Stickies.

Made in England - Stickies.

{Photo via - www.flickr.com/photos/ascott/2380875606/}

I just got some important number via chat friend & I want to save it quickly. I just found some nice information online and I want to save it to my personal notes. I have a quicker task to followup with. I need lot of reminders and alarms to keep me on toes.

I rely on notepad to get things done most of the time. Sure, it's simple and effective way. But I was bugged up with opening notepad, do task, save and remember where it's ! Though I'v used stickies before, was not particularly happy with any of them. Mostly because of sad design or no usability.

If you are late fore the party, stickies are simple notes live on your desktop, so that you can reach out to them without much fuss. Since I work on more collaborative work environment I was in need of a sticky which ensures privacy with non-intrusive feature. I was in need of some usable solution to note down lot of info.

Viola ! After little bit of search: I found a usable and friendly Sticky program which is made in England [Made in different location for a change ;)]

Though minimal, a feature I was bowled over is - Rolled stickies have a different position to unrolled stickies: just this is enough to show how innovative this free software is ! I just love it and it's one of the essential ware I rely heavily now a days. I'm sure lot of us use paper based paper stickies very often and stick them on your cubicles. If you're little bit of concern on 'go-green', it's time to - recyclable, usable and environment friendly stickes.

>> Get stickies by zhorn-software

9008890088 | Useful number in Bangalore

9008890088 | Useful number in Bangalore

This is useful/Authentic information for people who travel by Auto and we will be able to know the rate, route and the distance too, 9008890088 is an SMS-based location search and direction finding service that provides directions to people with or without Smart phones to any location in Bangalore.

The SMS service is available free of charge and all you pay is the standard SMS rate according to your plan. It needs no subscription. The service is reliable and involves very little waiting time.
The reply back time varies from 3 seconds to 1 minute depending on the mobile operator's message traffic congestion and availability of signals.Only you need to do is SMS to 9008890088.

The example usages are:
Example 1: FROM Mekri circle TO ESI Hospital
Example 2: INOX
Example 3: SBI ATM NEAR M G Road

You will get a reply SMS with the exact location and shortest directions to reach place from a prominent landmark. And also with total distance in Kilometers and approximate Auto fare.

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Designing for Flex by Rob Adams

Designing for Flex by Rob Adams

{flickr.com/photos/photomishdan/2482468643/}

"Motion has been a key element of Adobe Flash since its very beginning. The ability to animate objects on the web is integral to the technology and was originally one of its main selling points. Flash originally used its animation capabilities to tell stories, whether to teach, to sell, or to entertain. But with Flex, the Flash platform has moved into application design, bringing all the communicative power of its motion technology with it.

Unfortunately, due to some high-profile mistakes, motion has received something of a bad reputation in application design and development circles. I say "unfortunately" because, when used properly, motion can be a powerful tool for making applications more useful, usable, and desirable. Using motion, you can eliminate the jerky jumps from screen to screen that disturb and deeply disorient users. However, improper use of motion will distract and annoy users, impeding them from reaching their goals.

The Designing for Flex series surveys new possibilities, techniques, and challenges designers and developers will confront when designing Flex rich Internet applications."

My fascination for design was yielded with Flash. And what a metamorphosis ! when flash-MX became Flash-2004, I was shot sure, Macromedia is upto something as the software was opening up for major AS programming. That's when Flex came into arena. Flex was a kind of doubtful kid when it was born, and now everyone wants it. Fortunately, I am with flex now :), flexing rich internet apps as client wishes.

>> An excellent series on designing for Flex by Rob Adams

Creating a Timeless User Experience with Flip

Creating a Timeless User Experience with Flip

I was thinking to buy an hand-held video cam. Something sleek and feature rich. Though not yet decided upon anything,while researching online I found interesting details about player and design trend.

Oflate, a new video player with zero whistle and bells creating (rather created) flutter in video recording gadget market by eating 20% of the market share from biggies. It's just a candybar sized no-frills simple video camera with the attractive price tag. Is this the timeless user experience oriented product design is all about ? This is a cool read on -how products can be future proof, if designed keeping 'Timeless User Experience'. It's about sustainable creating a Timeless User Experience.

I'm sure creating simple and understandable products is all about -Creating a Timeless User Experience

Portal of the Sun

Portal of the Sun

I'm a great fan of PatrickSmith's photography chronology. I love long exposure photo collections of him. They are quite dreamy. The above picture is the winner in the 2009 Nature's Best Ocean Views competition!

The dim last light of a fading sun sets through a portal on California's Central Coast. No HDR. This photo was just selected as one of the top 10 images for the 2009 showcase portfolio for the North American Nature Photographer's Association! {excerpt}

>> Visit his gallery here

Bend it like fire !

Bend it like fire !

I've always wondered the designs of fire flares and fire balls made by fire blowers. The way fireballs get clouded, moulded, moved, waved are awesome. They become so intricate designs yet they are not designed to be like that deliberately :) They are so natural, dangerously lovable !

Watch this amazing, lovely & breath taking 'slow motion' fire dancing with cool music in background at
>> Napalmdragon.com

How to mingle with people abroad and be accepted

How to mingle with people abroad and be accepted

I've traveled quite a bit to US, UK, Taiwan and South East Asia. As my work demands, have spent most of the time living in hotels and corporate apartments or with friends. Not even a single instance, I was never objected by any native of that domicile. I always tried to strike a communication or wave length some one I meet. I'm sure that's the experience of many.

But oflate since Aussie attack incidents cropping up more frequently, any violence which includes desi citizen, is highlighted in media as a scary scene . I understand the intent of media flashing the news time and again. It might be an awareness act to grab the attention of the nation where incident happened. When you're hurt on the streets of unknown country, there's hardly anyone to help you.

I'm sure, there are lot who take the face value of everything appears in media. I believe, media has a larger role to educate the mindset of Indian's traveling abroad.

'Be a Roman while in Rome’ – is a commonly heard adage. Observe the life style of people around you and rearrange yours accordingly.. Talking or laughing in high pitch is not acceptable any where.The natives in most of the countries, smile at you even if they don’t know you. But we smile only when we see acquaintances. Learn to smile, wave or wish when you come across unknown people, it does not hurt you.

I found a cool read about how to be a safe citizen in another country. I guess it's known to most of us, but no harm in reading it again.

>> How to mingle with people abroad

Know where so-called dragon is pissing

Know where so-called dragon is pissing

A country should utilize it's powers and wealth to mitigate poverty, ease out labor union strikes, beautify the god given nature, take care of poisonous facts of its milk production, dipping toys export due to toxic substances, and increase productivity as it's best known nation for -'made in' tag on bottom of any product. Not to hurt or invade the nation which has never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history.

"Sometime back an email was circulated where in God showed India as His finest creation except that it did not have good neighbors. It is aptly said that you can choose your friends but not your neighbors. In this post, I will briefly take you through an introductory note on how India’s influence in the neighboring nations of South East Asia is being slowly eroded by China. In the successive posts, I will take each of the nations in greater detail."

>> Know where so-called dragon is pissing