Merry Christmas!

I know it is a bit early. But I am going tomorrow on vacations, so I won't be able to do serious blogging. I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Shine, Jesus, Shine!
Shine, Jesus, Shine!
Shine, Jesus, shine; fill this land with the Father's glory;
Blaze, Spirit blaze, set our hearts on fire.
Flow, river flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy;
Send forth Your Word, Lord, and let there be light.

Shine, Jesus, Shine; Shine, Jesus, Shine!
Lord, the light of Your love is shining,
In the midst of the darkness shining.
Jesus, Light of the World, shine upon us;
Set us free by the truth You now bring us.

Shine on me, Shine on me!
Shine, Jesus, shine; fill this land with the Father's glory;
Blaze, Spirit blaze, set our hearts on fire.
Flow, river flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy;
Send forth Your Word, Lord, and let there be light.
Shine, Jesus, Shine; Shine, Jesus, Shine!

Gmail Server Errors - gmail down?

Server Error
We're sorry, but Gmail is temporarily unavailable. We're currently working to fix the problem -- please try logging in to your account in a few minutes.

There is some problem in Gmail servers today. Few minutes have become 5 hours for some people. Yahoo mail is gaining most out of this.

Google Group for gmail is seeing a heavy activity today. Still no word from Gmail team. A Starnge point to note is that while some accounts are accessible, others are not. People are able to use all service from a Google account except for Gmail.

Most of the people are having 2 accounts and according to Murphy's Law, there primary account is dead. Let's hope to hear from Gmail Team soon.

Update: I am able to login into my gmail once again. I suffered for just 2 hours unlike those who are reporting on Google Group that they had to wait for 5 hours. But Gmail is logging me out if I try to download soem attachment. But this logging-out-if-download problem is in IE-6 only, not in Mozilla.

The Race for Optimizing IE7

Both Google and Yahoo try to convince IE6 users to upgrade to their version of IE7. Yahoo does that by promoting the bundle on each and every search results page, while Google bought some AdWords for "ie7".

I wonder if there's a strict template companies should follow or Google and Yahoo are completely unimaginative.

Update: Jeremy Zawodny, from Yahoo, says there's no template and Google copied Yahoo's page. Google changed the page and Matt Cutts wrote a short post about Yahoo copying Google.

I can’t say why someone at Google would decide to do that, but to the Yahoo! UI designer whose page was copied: my apologies. In my personal opinion, it sucks when someone else copies a page layout without attribution.

Worth Reading: Comment by Matt Cutt on Jeremy Zawodny's blog.

Social Networking Websites Being Misused

Do you know what the main purpose of a social networking website is? If you are an avid internet user, you likely do. Social networking websites are online communities that make it easier for internet users to meet and communicate with each other.

We are committed to providing an online meeting place for people to socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests. Join orkut now to create and connect with your own social circle.

What about an online blog? Do you have one of them? If you do, do you know that you could use your social networking website to promote your blog? Promote your blog? Why would you want to do that? Honestly, if you have to ask yourself that question you probably shouldn’t even have one. The whole purpose of a blog is to document your thoughts, views, and opinions on a particular topic, issue, or subject. What good will your blog do if no one reads it.

Do you own or operate your own website? With the rising popularity of the internet, there is a good chance that you do. A large number of internet users run their own personal websites, but others run their websites as a way to make money. Of course, any website owner wishes to promote their online website, but those who rely on their websites for income are more willing to. Whichever type of website you have, did you know that you could help to promote it with online social networking websites?

With a fairly large number of social networking websites, including MySpace and orkut, having over a millions users, there is a good chance that you could not only make new friends, but find internet users that would be interested in visiting your online website, especially if that website is your personal website. When joining an online networking community, you should be given your own profile page. On this page you could not only describe yourself, your online website. By mentioning what your personal online webpage is all about and providing a link, you should receive a number of new visitors.

When it comes to advertising there are many business owners who literally cringe. Are you doing this now? There is a good chance that you are because many advertising methods cost money. As a business owner you want to make money not spend it, right? Unfortunately, if you believe that all forms of advertising take money, you are sadly mistaken. Although you may have to spend money to make your business what you want it to be, there are ways to promote your business and the products or services that you sell without having to spend any money at all.

Increasingly, I am noticing this malpractice rising very fast in both orkut and Myspace in many different forms! I think its high time when some steps should be taken to clean these social networking platforms.

Orkut was not so popular in USA as in Brazil (http://mitanshu.blogspot.com/2006/06/indias-growth-in-orkut.html). So Google opened the orkut for all and hence, it is no more unique.

Now, when orkut has millions of users (35,800,363) addicted to it, they have opened "Advertise on orkut" for USA and India.

Sunita becomes 2nd Indian origin woman in space

Sunita Williams on Sunday became the second woman of Indian origin after Kalpana Chawla to venture into space when the US shuttle Discovery, with seven astronauts onboard, rose into the night sky on a 12-day repair mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The shuttle blasted off with a thunderous roar in a cloud of white smoke and flame and reached orbit about nine minutes later also carrying with it a 11-million-dollar truss segment to add to the space lab.

The crew, of which five have never flow in a space shuttle before, is on a complex mission during which they will give the ISS a new electricity system.