How to know who has an invite?

A pink ring shows up with the display name of any user who is on new Orkut and has got invites.

Check my profile – Ashfame on Orkut

New Orkut Screenshots

Profile Page

Home Page

Scrapbook

Photos (Album)

By now you must be excited to try this new Orkut look. Well I have got a few invites with me to giveaway here on my blog.

How to get an invite?

Tweet about this giveaway on twitter and leave the link to status in the comment. To enable non-twitter users to participate here now one just need to comment here. I will giveaway 2 invites everyday. The selections will be random for each day so you comment the next day for another entry. Go on try your luck!

This contest was ruining the fun, so its over, just leave a comment here and everyone will be invited till I am out of updates. Users have reported that more invitations are given to you once you have used up all the invitations, so keep commenting.

Invitations sent out to the following people :

• Luv
• Vanshaj
• Ashwin
• Aditi
• Claudio
• Steffi
• Tanay
• Aakash
• Rishabh
• Nicholas

20 more invites left! Just add me and leave a comment here with the link to your profile. Others who have missed it earlier, comment again or scrap me. I will send it right away.

Just comment and I will sent the invite as soon as possible. Happy Orkutting!

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So, I am going to share two three really cool sites with you which you can use to share your small but worth mentioning incidents which made you feel either good or bad.

Ok! First the good one and then the another one.

It Made My Day.com

Share small things that made your day.

Like my girlfriend kissed me after a fight. IMMD

Isn’t such a thing worth to share? Share it on IMMD.

F My Life.com

Its a great place to share your fucked up stories.

Today, there was a traffic accident on the highway which I normally take. I couldn’t resist laughing at the driver since he was stupid enough to rear-end someone on the highway. What I didn’t realize is that I forgot to pay attention to the road and rear-ended the car in front of me. FML #

Jhand.in

Its another startup (by Abhishek) similar to FML and can be called as its Indian version.
Its a place to share your day to day Jhand stories (if that really happens day to day)

Today I was sitting in a restaurant with my boyfriend. There was a couple sitting next to us. I heard the girl say to her hubby ,”Would you still love me if I looked like her”. [ Zindagi Jhand Hai ] #

Go live your life & share online. I hope and I wish that you mostly have good things to share.

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Innovative Idea, I would say. I liked the concept more than I did the logo.

I Just Made Love.com is about marking the places where you made love. It uses Google Maps to show you the world map. You can browse and zoom in to the place which you want to mark. Right click on it, choose either indoor or outdoor & leave a comment.

It has also got a Love Counter which shows how many people has marked the places where they made love. Other things include displaying the results from the last 1 hour, 24 hours, week, month or all the time.

The site doesn’t serve anything useful but coding up and visiting such a site is always a pleasure as it brings up a smile on our face. How did you find the site? Have your say in the comments!

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Howdy! Finally I managed to push out one of my projects from the pipeline – Need A Project.

Its all about coding in C, C++, JAVA, PHP, MySQL, xHTML & CSS. It aims for students and wanna-be programmers to interact on forums and improve their programming skill set.

The site is designed using WordPress as CMS and bbPress as forums with some custom PHP-MySQL code to pimp it. Both the WordPress and bbPress are integrated which means you get site wide login synchronization. By the way, it only takes a minute to register. If you deal with programming stuff, then you must realize that you need to get that urge of being a good programmer out and take a action. C’mon you got nothing to lose. Who knows you might end up with something useful. Register now!

In the coming days, I will be writing tutorials on the implementation of various features on the NAP site. If you have any queries about it, make sure you ask by leaving a comment here and I will try to cover that up. Make sure you don’t miss out updates. Subscribing to the feeds or via email can be a good idea.

All that said, make sure you do give it a visit as its the best website I have designed so far. I would love to hear your comments on it.

Also a note to all my subscribers. I have been really blogging only about WordPress, bbPress & web development stuff these days but I am not leaving the part where I used to blog about softwares, tools, reviews and tutorials. You will see a mix up of all these from now onwards. So please don’t unsubscribe thinking that now I don’t blog about what I used to. Cheers!

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Now if we want to style the first post differently we would just add CSS to our theme stylesheet like :

#position-1 .threadpost { background: #c0c0c0; }

This comes as a advantage for those who are using bbPress as a discussion board where first post is a question & all others are replies. Its better to style such a post differently to make it stand out of all the posts. Have your say in the comments.

If you want more of bbPress tips & tricks, then don’t forget to check out all bbPress related articles & subscribe so you don’t miss new ones. Also I have my first bbPress plugin coming and you can hire me for bbPress related works (be it integration, custom theme, issues or custom plugins). For all the services I offer, visit my services page.

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Has it ever happened to you that you can’t recall the name of a song but you do remember a single or a few lines of its lyrics? Stupid question, i know. Everyone would say, Yes!

Well, if you can’t recall, then you are no way out of luck. Lyrster is a search engine which indexes several lyrics websites (350+). Just hit it with some of the few lines of the song lyrics and I must say the results are impressive and I have a very good reason to say it.

That is because I didn’t tested it with the lyrics and found out the song that I already knew but in fact I knew a few lines of a song that I wasn’t able to recall and moreover it was an animated video (featured on Graffiti – Cartoon Network 4 or 5 years back) which eliminates the possibility of recalling the band too.

I quickly hit Lyrster with a single line “has gone out the window” and results came up. I read a few lines of the lyrics and it was the song that I was looking for. Cheers to Lyrster!

Have your say in the comments!

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We all love Gmail. Don’t we? I even use Gmail on domains but one thing that it certainly lacks in is its look. Google don’t give much importance to the looks other than colors and all as it doesn’t want to compromise with performance at any point. Gmail addiction is too much already and here comes a firefox add-on which is created to completely change the Gmail look. It uses a custom stylesheet (CSS) for changing the looks in the user browser overwriting the default styling of the Gmail. It only works for Mozilla browsers. The add-on also supports pimping Google Calendar & Google Reader.

All you need is the Gmail Redesigned add on and you are good to go. It checks for style updates daily and will download & apply them. Once installed, you got nothing to worry about, just pleasure to your eyes. Although you have the option of disabling the style by right click on the extension icon in the bottom right of Firefox.

Here are some more screenshots:

It also supports Google Calendar.

and Google Reader too.

How cool is it? Let me know your reactions.

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It fixes up many bugs in 0.9.0.4 so it came up before anything else. I am officially announcing my interest in bbPress and I might stick close to it as I am in love with it. (What’s so official about it anyway?)

I always check bbPress forum everyday and today when I saw the about the release, I wanted to see how to upgrade it (just like WordPress or something different) and how is its integration with WordPress.

Upgrading from 0.9.0.4 to 0.9.0.5 is pretty easy. You just need to take care of your configuration file (bb-config.php). Next upload the new files of bbPress by overwriting the files of previous version and you are good to go. However, upgrading from earlier versions can be a little different. I would recommend upgrading a similar setup on a localhost environment.

The next thing that I wanted to do was to see if the tutorial for bbPress integration with WordPress was working fine which I wrote a few days back. I tried on a localhost environment and it was working fine. So you can safely upgrade to the newer version without breaking anything with your existing integration. The same tutorial works fine for integrating bbPress 0.9.0.5 with WordPress 2.7.1

One thing that I would like to bring in everybody’s notice is that tutorial was for basic integration (having bbPress in a sub-directory of WordPress), deep integrations might work fine too but I am not sure.

I recommend using & sticking with the stable release on a live production site. You can upgrade to v 1.0 anytime but downgrade is not possible (although feasible).

Download bbPress 0.9.0.5

I offer integration of both the scripts (bbPress + WordPress) as a service when you hire me. If you have any questions regarding anything, then leave a comment here or get on with me on Gtalk (ashishsainiashfame) and I will be glad to help you out. Have your say! I am all ears.

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Lets understand the process to make things easy.

How Domain Transfer is carried out?

• Loosing Registrar – The one with which the domain is registered for now.
• Gaining Registrar – The one to which we want to transfer the domain.
• Domain Transfer is bought at the gaining registrar.
• Domain should be unlocked at the loosing registrar and Domain Secret Key or Authorization Code is gained needed to initiate the transfer.
• Gaining Registrar sends an email to confirm the transfer along with a Transaction ID and Security Code.
• Gaining Registrar sends a notification to Loosing Registrar to transfer the domain.
• Loosing Registrar sends confirmation for release of domain.
• After confirmation, it releases the domain to Gaining Registrar.
• A transfer success notification is sent & the domain control is now available at the new registrar.

Steps for transferring from any registrar to Godaddy

• Select Transfer Domains at the homepage of Godaddy.



• Enter the name of domain and proceed to checkout.



• When you have purchased the domain transfer, then open Domain Manager by selecting My Domains under the My Products tab on the left sidebar.



• From the Domains menu, select Pending Transfer.



• Click the Authorization button on the right side and select Begin Transfer Authorization.



• Enter the Transaction ID & Security Code received earlier in email.



• Authorize the transfer.



• Enter the Domain Secret Key or Authorization Code on the next prompt.



• Wait for instructions from the Loosing Registrar to approve the transfer. If the domain is unlocked and no reply is received within 5 days, it will proceed forward.
• After release of domain, it will soon be available under your new registrar’s account.

Now you have complete control of your domain on your new registrar’s account.

Have you ever transferred domains from one registrar to another? How was your experience? If you ran into issues or need more help, then leave a comment here and I will try to help.

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Alright. What we need to do is that as soon as the mail comes to our domain, we want that mail to go to Google’s server so that it can be collected and stored over there.

So Lets begin.

• First of all, Sign up for Google Standard Edition here : http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html
• You may want to look at Premier edition before signing up as there are some restrictions in the Standard edition like accounts for only 50 users can be created under Standard edition.
• Create a account that you will use to manage that domain account on Google Apps. For example : admin@example.com
• Verify Domain ownership either by uploading a html file or by creating a CNAME record.
• Create a new user as the email you wanted on your domain name. For example : mail@example.com
• Now login with your new user by changing the domain name to the one concerned in the URL example : http://mail.google.com/a/example.com

Now we have done the setup on Google Apps. Lets proceed to making changes in our hosting account.
Login in your hosting account and look for MX entry or MX records.

Enter the values one by one which are as following :

( The values were taken from Google Apps Admin Help. )

After making the changes, wait for the DNS to propagate which can take up to 48hrs.

You have completed the setup for having your own email on domain which is managed by Google Apps. Let me know via comments if you need more help or ran into issues.

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A few months back many blogs were having logos with a mirror reflection of their brand name which in my terms was appealing and worth for the time you opt a professional logo design. Earlier Photoshop or Gimp (Image Editing Softwares) were used to create such effects but now there are automated scripts which can do the same job with a lot of ease. Picreflect (in beta right now) is a similar service I thought would be the worth the share with you.

You just need to make selections such as the height of reflection, transparency and resizing options along with some minor selections. Upload the image either via a direct link from the web or from your computer and click on “Generate”. From the next page, you can save the image on your computer.

Here is an example of reflection of my logo:

Have fun creating reflection in your images.

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If you are bored with your usual work, this tool for drawing sketches can kill your boredom and remind you of your childhood days. Don’t we used to draw a lot in our childhood?

Sample of my Sketch

Swapped Sketch

A cool tool to fight your boredom and be an artist like you used to be in your childhood. Do you know of any free online drawing tool? Share with us in the comments.

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A large number of the users are on Shared Hosting Packages as they don’t have that much traffic and performance issues, so a shared hosting package is cheap and good for work but have you ever wondered how many other sites are being hosted on the same server? Well that is something you can’t know unless you are the host yourself but you can surely know how many sites are being hosted on a single IP Address on that server. I just saw that ChotoCheetah [Image Source] shared a service named myIPneighbors.com which allows you to view other sites which are being hosted on the same IP address.

I already know of a service Reverse IP Domain Check – YouGetSignal.com which I use to know the sites hosted on the same IP address.

How such a tool works?

Such tools are called Reverse Domain IP Checkup Tools. When a domain is entered for a query then the IP address of that domain is retrieved and then that IP address is used to get the names of all the sites which are sharing that IP address on the server.

Can I know all the sites on a server?

I don’t know if such a tool even exists. As it is clear from the diagram, a server may be hosting multiple sites under different IP addresses. Such tools only allows to check for domains sharing IP addresses. If you know of any such tool which can allow us to view all the domains on the whole server, then please share with us in the comments.

Advantages of such a tool?

SEO :

Many people generally inflate authorities of sites by various links towards it and generally they host all those sites on the same IP address or IP address range. One method that search engines use to detect this type of behavior is to see if these inter-linking web sites are hosted on the same IP address or IP address range. If the web sites are in the same IP address range, it is highly likely that they are operated by the same individual. Search engines devalue links from web sites pointing to other web sites hosted on the same IP address range. Also your site might get penalized because of a site hosting explicit content on the same IP address too.

Performance :

You can use this to your advantage to see what other sites do. For example if any of the site is a high traffic site or a proxy server then it might bottleneck the performance of other sites including yours. So its better to switch to a more reliable host or Virtual Private Server (VPS) as per your need.

Was you aware of such Reverse IP Domain checkup tools? Do tell us if you would like to find us something which would make your life even mnore easier. Have your say in the comments.

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Text2Party is a service which lets you know the ongoing parties, concerts near to your place by just text messaging PARTY<code> to 88089. Text2Party provides you free VIP access to clubs, free drink passes, free/discount bottle service, VIP guest lists, exclusive events and party listings along with directions and parking. It provides all these stuff from your cell phone. Just text them and receive whats happening & where along with special offers.

Each text message sent is charged @ .99 cents. Also there is a option for VIP monthly subscription if you are a frequent party-goer. which costs $9.99 per month. Currently this service is available in Miami, Ft.Lauderdale, NEW YORK, LAS VEGAS, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington & Texas.

Codes:
For Miami its 305 & For Ft.Lauderdale its 954. Get in touch with them if you want the code of your city. They have mentioned only two codes over their site.

I also recommend going through their FAQ.

I would love to have such a service here in India but then I can see how much time it can take for such a service to run successfully. Have your say in the comments.

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We all love playing around a bit. Now Don’t we? So this time I am sharing about a service that combines the face detection technology with automated image manipulation scripts (like in photoshop) to create very interesting images. The above screenshot is what all images you can create with your face.

If any single of them was created a image using photoshop, then it would have taken some good photoshop skills and time as ingredient but thanks to services like Photofunia which makes the fun process really simple. You are advised to use images which are of good quality to get awesome results.
Here is one which I made using Photofunia :

I was not having a higher resolution image of my face, so many of the effects produced unsatisfactory results. Why don’t you try it? Did you like Photofunia? Do you know of any such service? Share with us in the comments.

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