as random as Ek Do 3

When speaking of Web 2.0, there are a few common phrases thrown that are discussed…collaboration, communities, Peer to Peer, Blogs, Social Networking, Wikis, XML, API’s….the list goes on. One of the key features of having your website 2.0 compliant would include being able to manipulate information from databases and display and present it in a multitude of fashions on your website. As an example if you can create individual tables for relative fields pertaining to your business, that information can be proven invaluable in creating a Web 2.0 atmosphere in your website. This especially applies to websites with large number of products. So for instance, if you are creating a Perfume Website, some of the filters that can be created are:

• Gender
• Box Size
• Price
• Brand

So for Gender the attributes would be ‘Male or Female’. Box Size could have attributes of S, M, L, XL. Price could display options such as 1-50, 51-100, 101-151, 151-200, 200+. Finally for Brand, you could list out all Perfume Brands.

When putting together your website, these fields that are in your mySQL files can be used as Filtering Options on your website, and can provide an amazing shopping experience for your users. They will be able to narrow down their choice by using these filtering options that are present in your tables if arranged and displayed in a neat and orderly fashion. A user could choose a Medium box of Ralph Lauren perfume for females in the 100 price range; run a query and presto - your results.

Your website can adapt and transform itself almost instantaneously and with hardly any cost, just by spending a little time managing your data base which will lay the foundation to gain entry into a whole new world - a web 2.0 world!

Recently I needed to locate the Buy.com Customer Service phone number for a client, and did the usual Google search. The first result takes you to someone’s answering machine. The second and third, etc… all direct you to a number that tells you to call another number. Now, Buy.com has a great website and I understand that they probably want consumers to continue browsing through their site to find solutions to their questions, however… I see a whole new marketing campaign for Buy.com with their phone number. Its an amazing phone number.

You ready for it. Here it is……

One of the recent iphone shortcuts I learned about is in regards to deleting an email from your mail folder.  While viewing your list of emails, you can just glide your finger very gently from left to right on the email you want to delete and a ‘DELETE’ button pops up.

Very useful to get rid of the junk in your trunk.

After much anticipation, Jodha Akbar will be releasing Feb 15 2008 and will probably top the charts in gross revenue for Bollywood movies in 2008. The movie is being directed and produced by Ashutosh Gowariker who started his acting career in the 1984 film Holi, and has since been in Naam (1986), Chamatkar (1992), and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1993). Mr. Gowariker will probably be remembered most for his epic Lagaan which was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film (after Mother India and Salaam India).  Ashutosh is currently bedridden due to acute back pain and is looking to recover very soon.  Being the perfectionist he is, he will make sure to be there for the grand premier to ensure everything runs smoothly.

The movie Jodhaa Akbar has had numerous issues to date including accusations from animal rights activists claiming cruelty to horses in some sequences. Secondly, the Rajputs of Rajasthan have claimed that the story of Jodha Bhai being Akbars wife is incorrect; instead they assert that she is Akbars daughter in law. There are studies beind conducted that can back up this theory. Recently when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was celebrating her husbands birthday bash in Jaipur, there were protesters outside the hotel chanting “Amitabh, Aish ko samjao, Aish ko Jodha mat banao” and ” Jodha Akbar nahin chalega, band karo Jodha Akbar”.

This isn’t the first time Ashutosh’s movies has created dissidence prior to its release and from the looks of things the more controversy the better the movie does.  Regardless of what happens here, Jodha Akbar will be the most awaited irrespective of all these allegations.

Have been messing with importing, exporting and sharing databases and came across a post that has really helped me understand DB structure a whole lot. Once you have a database created, you can back it up using the following directions:

• Open phpMyAdmin
• Click on Export
• Under Export - Select the database you want to backup
• Select SQL
  - (In red only if you are migrating from local to remote installation)
• In SQL export compatibility: select - MySQL40
  - NOTE Some earlier versions of phpMyAdmin do not have this SQL export compatibility feature.
• Select
  - Structure
  - Add DROP TABLE
  - Add IF NO EXISTS
  - Add AUTO_INCREMENT VALUE
  - Enclose table and field names with backquotes.
• Select
  - Data
  - Complete inserts
  - Extended inserts
  - Use hexadecimal for binary fields.
• Select Save as file
• In File name template: _DB_name your db here. (Here you can use any name you want)
• In Compression specify your choice.
• Click Go.

How to restore a Database using phpMyAdmin

• Open phpMyAdmin
• On the far right hand side, click on the little SQL box and a window should open.
• In this window click on Import Files.
• Use the browse button to find the database file.
• In Compression select the option you chose to export the database.
• Click Go.

With these basic instructions, you will have your data backed up and be able to do whatever you want with it. You can modify the data, import it into a new site, create interesting ajax applications, display the data in a host of different fashions, and much more.  Most importantly, your data and data structure will be backed up in case your site host goes Kabooom. Although most hosts run backups typically on a daily or weekly basis, I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep backups on your local computer or removable media.  You can run additional backups at any time through cPanel backup manager.

Life as easy as EKDO3

Imagine Bin Laden lounging in the mountains of Waziristan (see map) with his entourage watching the 2008 Presidential Debates on a 52″ Pioneer Elite mounted on the cave wall, while Dr. Al-Zawahiri sits nearby monitoring his dialysis machine. He starts talking to the rest of his crew about how associating a Muslim name (Obama Hussein) with the most powerful position on the planet was his vision from the beginning and will mark a momentous day for Muslims all over the world when it comes to fruition.

Ok, so that scenario may be a little far fetched….however having a Muslim name as the most powerful position on the face of the planet resonates very nicely not only with the notorious crew, but with millions of Muslims worldwide.

Sure, a name should mean nothing and we should look at the character behind that name, what they stand for, their policies, etc…. but is that really what will happen come November 2008? One thing is for sure….for any Muslim not sure who they are voting for, when the time comes and they are presented with that ballot with the name ‘Hussein’, there is no doubt that name will be chosen.

The #1 reason for cellular phone dissatisfaction is ‘coverage’ or ‘reception’. In order to overcome this issue, there is a new gadget on the maket called a Femtocell. You’re probably wondering what the heck a ‘femtocell’ is. Well, the Femtocell looks like a box (about the size of a router) that you connect to your broadband router; it essentially gives you your very own cell phone tower, right in your home. So instead of searching for a cell tower to connect to, the femtocell base station picks up the mobile phone signal and sends it out via the Internet via your broadband connection. This will definitely help out some of the smaller networks with fewer cell towers, as they will be able to compete with the big boys at a fraction of the cost.

The Femtocell picked up alot of buzz during CES 2008. The word “femto” means “one-quadrillionth the size of a given unit.”

The .asia domain extension is available as of October 9 2007. Effective immediately, owners or authorized representatives of trademark rights can reserve “their” .asia domain. In the initial sunrise phase, reservations can be made for trademarks registered before March 16, 2004 and that are currently published and used. Companies do not have to supply supporting documentation with their applications, but must present it upon request. The initial phase lasts until October 30, 2007.

During the next phase(November 13, 2007 to January 15, 2008), domains can be requested for trademarks that were applied for before December 6, 2006. Finally, the landrush phase offers registration of .asia domains to the general public and is scheduled to start in February 2008. If several parties request the same domain during one of the phases, the domain will be auctioned rather than assigned according to the rules of “first come, first served.” After the live phase, which should start in March 2008, the remaining domains will be assigned to parties who submitted their applications first.

Here is a list of registrars along with some typical costs to expect when registering a .asia domain:

GoDaddy - $19.99/year with $100 application fees
AsiaRegistry - $45.00/year with $150 application fees
Net4.in - 800 INR/year with 4000 INR application fees
007names.com - $26/year with $80 application fee

Check out DotAsia.org for the latest updates, news and dot asia related articles. Here is a list of ICANN designated Asia Pacific countries eligible for the .asia domain extension: