OMG!!! even my itsmylife blog whose link was everywhere,my facebook status,gtalk status,twitter,orkut everywhere because of my Goodbye JUIT article… and then for a moment i thought oh my God everything is gone!!! All those articles,those beautiful comments,my technical blog which has more than 500 entries…
Luckily i still had FTP access to my main site and i changed the index page back to original by taking the code from GOOGLE Cache. 

Then i checked out the hackers page again it was in Turkish,i found that from the emotional video that was there on that pagea and that sound was making me even more crazy… i tried to translate that page but for the first time Google was of no help as it doesn’t have turkish to english translation yet!

Finally i got the link to hacker’s website and OMG it was on on turkish and its look was enough to drive me crazy i somehow managed to find a contact link and requested him to leave my site…

Then i called up My host in USA but damm.. it went on voicemail and i wasted Rs. 6.40/-  then i sent him a mail and thank god after around 10 mins he came online and i told him everything… he said he’s working on it and i don’t need to worry about it as he has backup of everything. after reading these lines i came back to senses but still stayed awake till 4 but then i went off to sleep but still quite tensed…

As soon as i woke up i got a sms from Google sms channel which sends me updates of my blog… i was happy to see that msg coz i thought everything is back to normal but it wasn’t it was still “Ownz! by Cyber Operations Team[Turkish Hackers] - CyberGrup.Org” but one thing was good Lakshman kumar was still online and that means he was still working on it, he told me he’s working on it and repeted those golden words that “he has backup of everything”… Finally i got completely relaxed around 2:30PM when i saw all my blogs up and running smoothly…  especially my Goodbye JUIT post and all the comments….

Here’s that deadly page that i had to see all night yesterday…

HACKED

I just wrote to my host saying thanks and also that he need to take more security steps…

May God save you from HACKERS!!!

I’m a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity. But people can only type so fast, and even with ournew emoticons, there are still some things that just can’t be expressed in a chat message. 

That’s why today we’re launching voice and video chat — right inside Gmail. We’ve tried to make this an easy-to-use, seamless experience, with high-quality audio and video — all for free. All you have to do is download and install the voice and video plugin and we take care of the rest. And in the spirit of open communications, we designed this feature using Internet standards such as XMPP, RTP, and H.264, which means that third-party applications and networks can choose to interoperate with Gmail voice and video chat.

Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the “Video & more” menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose “Start video chat.” You’ll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it’s ringing, and then you’ll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail. You can click the “pop-out” iconto make the video larger, or click the fullscreen iconin the upper left-hand corner for a fully immersive experience. See this all in action in the video below:

Our team is spread between Google offices in the US and Sweden, and video has really changed the way we work. Collaborating across continents and timezones is a fact of life for us, and it sure is easier (and greener) to click “Start video chat” than to get on a plane! And when I do have to visit another Google office, I can use Gmail voice and video chat to check in with my family.

We’ve just started to roll out Gmail voice and video chat for both PCs and Macs, so if you don’t see it right away, don’t worry — it could take a day or so for this feature to be available in all Gmail and Google Apps accounts. If you want to download the plugin right away, visithttp://gmail.com/videochat. And if you need a webcam, there are a few models with special discounts through November 30th.

So if it wasn’t a hologram, what was it, then? Over on the Ceeb site, a Dalhousie theoretical physics professor (fancy!) explains that what we were actually seeing was something called a “tomogram”:

he CNN anchors were not really speaking to three-dimensional projected images, but rather empty space, Kreuzer said. The images were simply added to what viewers saw on their screens at home, in much the same way computer-generated special effects are added to movies.

Kreuzer said the images were tomograms, which are images that are captured from all sides, reconstructed by computers, then displayed on screen.

Holograms, on the other hand, are projected into space.

Tomograms, you say? That’s a new one to us. Wikipedia, ho!

Tomography is imaging by sections or sectioning. A device used in tomography is called a tomograph, while the image produced is a tomogram. The method is used in medicine, archaeology, biology, geophysics, oceanography, materials science, astrophysics and other sciences. In most cases it is based on the mathematical procedure called tomographic reconstruction. The word was derived from the Greek word tomos which means “a section”, “a slice” or “a cutting”. A tomography of several sections of the body is known as a polytomography.

[...]

More modern variations of tomography involve gathering projection data from multiple directions and feeding the data into a tomographic reconstruction software algorithm processed by a computer. Different types of signal acquisition can be used in similar calculation algorithms in order to create a tomographic image.

And that, dear readers, is how CNN managed to spend untold thousands of dollars having Will.i.am appear on their Manhattan soundstage — without him actually being there! Even though he very easily could have been. At far less expense.

Source :- CBC News & National Post 

[Source]

There’s not much info as to exactly how this stuff works, other than what USA Today has reported:

CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There’ll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.

Jessica Yellin was the first CNN reporter to be “beamed” to the New York newsroom, where Wolf Blitzer interviewed her — and she reported that there were only 35 cameras pointed at her, and that “talk to the cameras in New York.” Apparently representatives in the Obama campaign in Chicago and the McCain campaign in Phoenix will be interviewed as holograms later in the evening.

It’s still unclear who makes this hologram technology, nor how much it costs, nor how exactly it works.

[Source]

To make your profile more findable, Google recommends to “add information about yourself on your profile so people can find you when they search by keywords associated with your profile. For example, include details such as the name of your hometown, your job title, where you work or go to school”. In addition to this specialized search engine, profiles can be indexed by any search engine and Google makes this easier.

MORE…

Happy Halloween Gmail! We knew you would have the best costume at the party, and who can blame you? We think it’s great that you’re using this holiday to pay homage to the one who started it all, who got 35 million people online at once, gave them all email, great content and messaging capabilities, and even created a forum that encouraged them to speak in emoticons.

That costume is fabulous…clearly, the devil is in the details… and what’s that you’ve got there? An “experimental” instant-messaging feature built right into your mail service so people can use it to send text messages to their contacts’ phones? We love it – that was such a hit when we first introduced it so many years ago. We tried to make it easy: telling users to simply open the AIM panel in their email type “+1 and the 10-digit cell phone number” into the To: Screen Name box. It’s kind of fun, too – good choice!

And those sidebar options – talk about getting it right… Adding gadgets to email that allow people to manage their calendars, access their favorite content and best Websites? Nice work. The idea of adding a side panel like that was one of our best. Giving people the ability to get to their favorite places on the Web, manage their schedules and IM right from their email home page tripled the convenience of our service. We’re sure you’ll get lots of compliments.

Finally, is that an “attachment warning” popping up on your back? Nice touch. We know nothing is more embarrassing than having to send an email twice because you forgot the attachment. Our users love this little reminder, and they have been praising it since we first implemented it back in 2007.

They say imitation is the best form of flattery, so Gmail, we thank you and we are indeed very flattered. Putting together a costume that is so dead-on could not have been easy, and you’ve got it down pat. Trying to convince all the other kids at the party that the only thing to use is Gmail and putting out a press release every time you add a new button to the service is just so 1998. We’re telling you – this outfit brings back memories!

Here’s a tip though… the Web’s getting more personal, and people are really savvy at customizing their own services. When you don this same costume next year, make sure you check outwww.tunome.com first and add some third party services (see our new Yahoo! plug-in) – you can’t be all Gmail all the time any more – it won’t be such a big hit next year!

Happy Halloween!

Although AOL mail team tried it level best to mock Gmail with this but they forgot the fact that they were the past and Google is the present and hopefully the future…

here are some of the comments of their own readers:-

Hey, you might have some good ideas, but if you don’t implement them well, they mean nothing. It’s like having good intentions… Oh, I *meant* to get you a great present for your birthday, but… 

Seriously, AOL will always have a place in Internet history, but the present, and likely the future, belong to Google.

Gmail was free first, more intuitive, more customizable, and better at communicating new features than AOL mail.

This is ridiculous. You’re soooo behind the curve, all the time. If it was in your control, none of the web would have even been possible, but just small networks a la Compuserve or the first MSN shit. What a shame. Go cry somewhere else, kid.

I don’t know any serious internet users who have @aol.com as their email. The overwhelming majority are people who are Internet neophytes.

The time you spent crying to the public to “Look at me..look at me,” would have been better spent studying Google and learning a thing or two about service, reliable products, and ease of use.

You can send SMS messages to your contacts’ mobile phones using Gmail Chat. To do so from Gmail:

1. Enter your contact’s name in the ‘Search or invite friends’ box in Chat, and select Send SMS from the box of options that appears to the right of your contact’s name. Or, if you already have a Chat window open for this contact, just click Video & more, and select Send SMS.
2. In the dialog box, enter a phone number in the ‘Send SMS messages to this number’ field. For now, this feature works only on United States phone numbers. If you’re outside the US, you can still use it, but you won’t see the SMS option in Chat until you enable it manually in the Chat settings page. 
3. Click Save.
4. A Chat window appears. Just type your message as you would normally. When you hit Enter, the message will be sent to the phone number you entered.

If your contact replies, the text message response will appear as a reply in Chat. These conversations are stored in your Chat history just like regular chats (but keep in mind that you can’t go off the record while communicating via SMS).

The nice thing about Gmail SMS is that each user gets a virtual phone number that facilitates replying to messages. “To write back, reply to the message as you would any other text message, and your message appears as a Chat message in your friend’s Gmail account. If you don’t want to receive any SMS messages from Gmail, reply with the command STOP. If you’d like to block the person who sent you the message, but still be able to get Gmail SMS messages from other contacts, reply with the command BLOCK,” informs Gmail’s help center.

Source

No more will you have to settle for a when you can have a. Out with the “XOXO” and in with the. And of course, when the bad news smells really bad, transcends all words.

So raise yourand welcome in the colorful new world of Gmail

P.S. For those of you who love our chat smileys, 
Google also added a whole new set for your enjoyment.

Source

 
Of course the question that pop’s up on everyone mind is how fast is it? I read claims that it is Most Fastest Browser in the World ever. So I decided to try it, Yes! it was quite fast.

You can get more information about the browser from Mozilla Page. You can also download the latest version from ftp of mozilla.org latest-trunk. Well if you have the time and the guts to try out a browser which is in ” NOT A FINAL OR PRE-RELEASE VERSION” yes this cup of tea is for you.

Minefield a separate install, your existing Firefox stays alive.

If you have a mac PC, Set your default browser as MineField, you will notice something. How many web browsers do you have on your system.

To Do:

1. Download and install the latest nightly build.
2. Start tracemonkey javascript engine by going to about:config and enabling the option javascript.options.jit.content.
3. Browse websites blazingly fast