Tech Support Websites

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Indian software product start-ups that are making news

Posted on 19:52 by Unknown
The business newspaper Economic Times (Hyderabad edition) carried an interesting front-page article yesterday on successful Indian software products coming out of India.

Over two-and-a-half million people worldwide, half of them in the US, are using word processors,creating slide-show presentations and doing their sums with the help of an online suite of software products built by technology start-up Zoho, located in Chennai.

In Bangalore, InMobi,a company that builds technology for mobile internet advertising,is helping global advertisers and publishers reach 175 million customers every month across Asia,Africa,the UK and the US.

... while it took Infosys Technologies 18 years to record its first $100 million in revenue,product start-ups such as InMobi expect to do so within five years.

In Kolkata, FusionCharts,a graphic data visualisation tool created by startup Infosoft Global is used by 1,500 organisations across the globe, including the US government.

..Webaroo’s SMSGupShup a Twitter-like closed group messaging product for cellphone subscribers, has 27 million users in India. In three months GupShup will be available to mobile users in nearly two dozen countries.

Apalya now has one million customers for its product MiMobiTV that streams live television onto mobiles starting at a subscription price of Rs150 a month.

Earlier this year, Mango Technologies, that was incubated at the NSRCEL centre in IIM-Bangalore, sold two of its proprietary telecom solutions to handset maker, Qualcomm.

This blog uses a contact form that's built with Zoho Creator & I'm happy with the way its been working. Zoho also provides APIs for integrating Zoho services with third-party applications.

The free version of FusionCharts works with PHP, ASP.NET, JSP, ColdFusion, Python, RoR, simple HTML pages or even PowerPoint Presentations. I was not aware of it when I was evaluating free ASP.NET charting controls for a project requirement.

Webaroos SMSGupShup was probably the inspiration for Google India's free SMS service called Google SMS Channels.

Similarly, JustDial may have been the inspiration for another Google India Labs service called Google Phone Search. This free service which is in the pilot stage provides voice search for region-specific info like local business listings, movie showtimes etc., in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. While Google Phone Search (toll free # 1-800-41-999-999) uses speech recognition technology to process a query and read out the results or send the information via SMS, a real person picks up the phone at JustDial (phone # in India - 6999-9999; in 240 cities in India) to address a query.

JustDial makes money from small businesses paying up to be sponsored listings. In this fiscal year, it made about $32 million in revenues having answered 72 million calls. JustDial (1-800-JUSTDIAL) has recently been launched in the US. The operations will be handled out of India but it will soon be creating call center jobs in the US.
Read More
Posted in India, Tools/Utilities, Websites | No comments

Saturday, 27 March 2010

Read Telugu news sites in transliterated English

Posted on 12:54 by Unknown
Although I manage to speak decent Telugu (one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of India & spoken by over 74 million native speakers), I have to confess I'm poor at reading it (Why? That's another story). So for long, I wished there was a way to read Eenadu (the largest circulated Telugu news daily in Andhra Pradesh with over 13.5 million readers) in English. My wish has been granted, thanks to a Firefox extension called Padma, a Transformer for Indic Scripts, built by Nagarjuna Venna and Harshita Vani

Padma can understand a variety of fonts used in the popular Telugu-based news websites & convert them to RTS (Rice Transliteration Standard for Roman Transliteration of Telugu)

Here are the steps to read content from the online version of Eenadu (or Andhra Jyothy, Andhra Prabha, Vaartha newspapers) in transliterated English
1) Install the Padma extension in Firefox & restart the browser
2) On the Eenadu site, select content you wish to read in English
 3) Right click & choose the option Padma & then Transform to RTS


Also see:
Free print version of Newspapers
HOW TO GMail Chat in an Indian language
Read More
Posted in Browsers, India | No comments

Thursday, 25 March 2010

Face Detection & Tagging

Posted on 10:31 by Unknown
I came across a nice article on a Silverlight 4 application that does real-time face detection (without having to spend a dime on commercial licenses to any APIs) on the Coding4Fun site which features unusual but interesting applications built on the .NET platform. It's amazing how today's tools & technologies can provide "eyes" to the computer & process faces in photos, mostly for free.

Newer versions of the popular photo organizing & editing software Picasa & Windows Live Photo Gallery now have a face detection & tagging feature which finds the people in your photos so that you can add a name to the face. Once you add the names to faces in one photo, the software matches similar faces automatically in your entire photo collection & organizes photos by the name tags.

When Picasa is not sure with the face detection, it provides suggestions that require a manual confirmation.
 Also see:
Digital Photography Tips & Tricks

#551
Read More
Posted in Tools/Utilities | No comments

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Developer Contests

Posted on 23:51 by Unknown
Happy Coder
At any point of time, there are always some Developer contests running. These are especially good for students & hobbyists who can pit their wits against the best in the class, win goodies and get noticed.

I plan to compile a list of contests that I come across & this will be a work in progress. Be sure to check the end dates of competitions.

* .NET Champions: Submit a story or video on a successful & innovative solution you have developed on the Microsoft .NET Platform. Program is restricted to Technology Professionals and Academicians from India
Prize: 1 Windows Mobile every month
More details: .NET Champions website

* Google Code Jam 2010: Google's annual programming competition, where thousands of coders around the world attack algorithmic problems in several 2.5-hour online rounds.
Important dates: Registration Begins - April 7, 2010, Finals - July 30, 2010
Prize: Top 25 finalists will divide over $10,000 in prize money.
More details: Code Jam site

* Google Gadget Ventures - a pilot program to help developers create richer, more useful gadgets. This program is restricted to people who have developed a Google gadget & submitted to Google Gadgets directory and it should generate at least 250,000 weekly page views.
Prize: Grants of $5,000 & Seed investments of $100,000
More details: Google Gadget Ventures FAQ

* Sony Ericsson Train to Fame - Submit Java, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile based applications or games. Contest is open only to Indians but others can submit.
Prize: Sony Ericsson Satio every week
More details: Sony Ericsson Train to Fame contest site

* Nokia Calling All Innovators 2010 contest - Build mobile applications under any of these four categories - Eco/Being Green, Entertainment, Productivity, Life Improvement. The competition is open to all mobile and web application developers worldwide
Important dates: Contest starts - 1 February 2010, Submission Deadline - 18 May 2010
Prize: 3 prizes worth 50000 USD for each category & other special prizes
More details: Calling All Innovators 2010 contest FAQ

Dear reader, if you know of any interesting Developer contests, please inform me & I'll put it here.

#550
Read More
Posted in miscellaneous | No comments

Monday, 22 March 2010

Book Review: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Step by Step

Posted on 11:27 by Unknown
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Step by Step
Like cycling or swimming, Sharepoint is easy but you need help to get started. Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Step by Step lives up to it's title of being a good step by step guide. It walks you through the maze of options in WSS 3.0 by gently holding your hand & showing the way. The instructions are straight-forward & in plain English, like any good technical book should be.

The book is practical & engaging with it's hands-on exercises covering the basic features. The authors highlight important points & offer troubleshooting tips at appropriate places, such as this one -
You can save documents directly to a document library by specifying the HTTP location in place of the hard drive, such as http://wideworldimporters/SharedDocuments/. Only saved documents can be attached to list items as attachments.

This book answers all the HOWs of WSS but not the WHYs and for that you will need another resource. However, after finishing the 16 chapters of this roughly 500-paged book, you'll learn enough to get going on your own. I recommend this guide to beginners. Even after you finish reading it, it'll be a good reference to go back to while you are working on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Also see:
Free Sharepoint 2007 goodies on Microsoft e-Learning

.
Read More
Posted in Book Review, Sharepoint | No comments
Newer Posts Home
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts
    Win + X   - context menu to access common features like Control Panel, Task Manager, File Explorer, Programs & Features, Run, Search etc...
  • What is the difference between Browser Mode & Document Mode in IE
    If you're a web developer and your job actively involves building web pages that work the same in all browsers including the last three ...
  • My 30-day personal project - watch 100 hours of Pluralsight videos
    Inspired by Matt Cutts' 30-day challenges , I plan to watch 100 hours of Pluralsight online videos to get up-to-date with current ...
  • Archive tweets & favorites with Google Reader
    There are numerous ways to archive tweets but rather than use yet another tool, I prefer using Google Reader to preserve the tweets I mark ...
  • TWIL - Week #3
    This Week I Learned: New Azure VM Image Templates include SQL Server, BizTalk Server, and SharePoint Server (2013?) images . This can be han...
  • Dashboard-like info with Browser tabs, Windows 7 Taskbar tabs
    Browser tabs & Windows 7 Taskbar tabs are turning self-aware.  This is how my browser looked the other day: I had the summary of all tha...
  • The State Of HTML5 Video
    Key points from the  The State Of HTML5 Video  report by LongTailVideo (last updated on April 19, 2012): 75% of the desktop & mobile bro...
  • Azure in Pictures - overview of Windows Azure Features, Services and Common Uses
    Download the Windows Azure Poster in PDF format (1.1MB)
  • Indian comparison shopping sites
    Did you know, India has 120 million Internet users & the Indian e-commerce market is worth $7 billion ?  Travel accounts for over 80 per...
  • Things to consider before settling on a JavaScript Library or jQuery plugin for your project
    In the article, Which JavaScript Library Should I Pick? , Pamela Fox has listed some practical points to consider before you settle on a Jav...

Categories

  • AJAX
  • Android
  • APIs
  • App
  • ASP
  • ASP.NET
  • ASP.NET-MVC
  • Azure
  • Azure SQL Database
  • AzureInPictures
  • Bing
  • Book Review
  • Bookmarklet
  • Browsers
  • C#
  • chart
  • Chrome
  • Cloud
  • CSS
  • CSS3
  • DidYouKnow
  • E-Commerce
  • Excel
  • FB
  • Fiddler
  • Firefox
  • Gadgets
  • GeoLocation
  • GMail
  • Google
  • Google Docs
  • Google Reader
  • Health
  • Hotmail
  • HOWTO
  • HTML
  • HTML/CSS
  • HTML5
  • Humor
  • Hyderabad
  • IE
  • IIS
  • India
  • Internet
  • IT
  • Javascript
  • jQuery
  • JSON
  • JSONP
  • Laptop
  • Learning Resources
  • Lists
  • Map
  • Metrics
  • Microsoft
  • miscellaneous
  • Mobile
  • NAPA
  • Office365
  • Opera
  • PDF
  • Performance
  • Personal
  • PHP
  • PM
  • PowerShell
  • Privacy
  • Programming
  • Rant
  • Safari
  • Science
  • Search Engines
  • SearchEngines
  • Security
  • SEO
  • Sharepoint
  • SharePoint2013
  • Silverlight
  • Software Engineering
  • Solutions
  • SQL Azure
  • SQL Server
  • TFS
  • Tip
  • Tips
  • Tools
  • Tools/Utilities
  • Trivia
  • TWIL
  • Twitter
  • UX
  • VM
  • VS.NET
  • VS2010
  • VS2012
  • WCF
  • WebApps
  • Websites
  • WF
  • Windows Phone
  • Windows7
  • Windows8
  • Word
  • WP7
  • WPF

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (112)
    • ►  October (16)
    • ►  September (14)
    • ►  August (8)
    • ►  July (8)
    • ►  June (13)
    • ►  May (12)
    • ►  April (12)
    • ►  March (8)
    • ►  February (15)
    • ►  January (6)
  • ►  2012 (127)
    • ►  December (11)
    • ►  November (14)
    • ►  October (13)
    • ►  September (14)
    • ►  August (16)
    • ►  July (16)
    • ►  June (6)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (11)
    • ►  March (12)
    • ►  February (7)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2011 (98)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  October (5)
    • ►  September (7)
    • ►  August (7)
    • ►  July (15)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (8)
    • ►  March (10)
    • ►  February (11)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ▼  2010 (163)
    • ►  December (14)
    • ►  November (19)
    • ►  October (19)
    • ►  September (15)
    • ►  August (18)
    • ►  July (17)
    • ►  June (20)
    • ►  May (17)
    • ►  April (19)
    • ▼  March (5)
      • Indian software product start-ups that are making ...
      • Read Telugu news sites in transliterated English
      • Face Detection & Tagging
      • Developer Contests
      • Book Review: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services...
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile