Just finished upgrading the blog to WordPress 2.8.2! I have yet to see how it is going to help me blog on a regular basis…

When I logged onto Facebook today to check my usual set of messages, posts & gossip; I noticed a very interesting link at the very top left. It said “The new Facebook is here Try it now”. Being the insanely curiously type, I clicked “Try it now” and found my online social life change instantly.

There have been several rumors of plans to give a face lift to Facebook but what I experienced leaves face lifts far behind and places FB on a whole new level. Facebook has not only set a new standard but exceeded all my expectations of what social networking site can become in such a short time span.

The wide layout and additional tabs have made the content area a lot more user-friendly and made my profile a whole lot easier to manage with less scrolling.

Several interesting facts:

* Can add new tabs to include any new areas that I might want within easy access
* Edit text/icons are available for any section of the profile
* Loads a lot faster than the previous version
* A lot less scrolling to get to the required sections (e.g. Funwall, Testimonials, etc) – now they are available under Boxes

All-in-all, I really like this new face of the future and looking forward to more.

I just finished upgrading this blog from WordPress 2.5 to 2.6 and noticed immediately that it was a smart move since this update contains a number of new features that make WordPress more powerful than it currently is…

There is even a feature now to track changes to every post and page and easily post from wherever you are on the web, plus there are dozens of incremental improvements to the features introduced in version 2.5.

There are plenty more additions but one thing in particular that caught my attention was the support for Google Gears, which would prove to be pretty useful in future revisions of WordPress.

If anyone using WordPress has not already upgraded, I highly recommend that you do. And those of you who are still blogging on Blogger.com, its time to make the transition.

More details about WordPress 2.6 can be found here.

Dignity of labour is how much we respect all types of jobs and how we don’t feel that one job is less or greater than another. Although this is one of the most essential things we as individuals should develop within ourselves, it is rarely the case.

This happens to be one of the leading causes of unemployment, as people are worried about what others think about what they do for living than getting employed and doing something useful with their lives rather than remaining idle. Its mostly evident in developing countries (such as ours) were people either have too much self-pride or fear of what their family, friends and relatives think about what they do for a living.

In some countries, someone who works two or more jobs (just so he/she could make some more money) is considered perfectly fine and no one bothers about it. But sadly, if someone who holds a decent position in a company does after hours part-time in a place like McDonalds serving food… it is looked down upon by society.

Judging the social status by what they do for a living still existent where we live. It is a common known fact that tillers of land, barbers, potters, leatherworkers, dhobis, carpenters, weavers, and cattle-rearers are looked down upon by society. As pathetic as this sounds, its the evolution of the community and how their status in society are traced; for all these occupations are confined to the lower grades of human dignity.

What people don’t realize is that most don’t do what they do because they have to, but because it is what they chosen career choice. Without each one of them contributing to society in their own way, we would be filled with a lot people doing the same thing everyday; all our lives!

Consider this for a moment, what if our fore-fathers gave up on rock-carving, farming, planting and making furniture, we would not be having a culture, traditions or history.

Another thing that should be brought to light is the fact that men work hard to obtain money; and having gained wealth, they suppose that their money will make their children worthy in the eyes of society. But many such men fail to train their children, as they themselves were trained, to hard, useful labour. Their children spend the money earned by the labour of others, without understanding its true value. Thus misusing the talent that was born in them that should be used to accomplish much good.

Not so long ago, it was considered by many that any sport would be worthless to pursue. But once it became a profession that was paying considerably, it started to climb the social ladder.

Sadly this is the society we live in today!

Although this post is over a month overdue, I really wanted to get the word out about this great site since its really worth a look for anyone that wants to make some money while you do what you do best or want to get some work done at a decent price!

The Question

Have you ever wanted to tap into design talent around the world and get something designed without incurring absurdly exorbant costs? Or are you a designer that wants to get paid decently for what you do? Then 99designs is the place to visit…

The Reach

There are over 15,000 talented designers from around the world at your disposal that design everything from logo designs, business cards or web sites.

There is good new for designers as well, prize money up for grabs by designers: $54,309

How it Works

Step 1: Create your Design Brief Few simple questions form your design brief. A design brief is just a summary of what you need designed. It costs USD$39 to post your brief on 99designs.com

Step 2: Set Your Budget How much you’re willing to pay the winning designer to purchase their design. This is called the prize. Prize amounts generally range from $50 to $500 depending on the type of design you require.

Step 3: Work with the Designers Once your design brief has been posted to 99designs.com, designers from around the globe will submit design concepts to compete for your prize. It’s your job to rate the designs and provide feedback to help the designers deliver what you want.

Step 4: Choose Your Favorite Design At the completion of the design contest (which is a maximum of 7 days) you will choose a winning design and pay the designer the prize amount. The designer will send you their completed design along with copyright to the original art work.

That’s all there is to it. Take a look at some of the design contests currently running and see why 99designs is the best choice for your next design project.

If you are wondering where I was for the last 2 weeks where I conveniently disappeared from the face of this planet…

Well as much as I would love to say that I was abducted by aliens and had probes stuck in places that I would find hard to explain about…

But I was actually busy with getting a job! A job you ask? Yes! A Job! I am employed now. It was always in my long-term plan to have a steady income and this is most definitely the conventional way to make money… although getting employed was least likely choice for me, I figured earning money doing what you love to do is fair enough.

Getting a job is a funny business. Most people prepare for it with all the possible resources they can muster, whereas others just walk-in without a worry on their minds. With both the above cases the chance of landing the job completely depends on the way you approach the situation. In my case, I walked in and got the job simply because I followed a few basic guidelines:

* Did a background check of the company, the kind of business they are into (IT, HR, Training, etc)
* Spoke to a few friends within the company to understand their work culture
* Prepared a few Q&A scenarios of the most likely questions they would ask
* Made a mental note of a range of how much I would be expecting in terms of a payment package
* Finally, got a good nights sleep before the big day!

I hope that this may help anyone else that is looking to get a job or change their jobs.

On another note, I made a few changes to this blog today by adding an “Advertising Zone” on the right bar. I don’t expect it to kick in for another 24 hours since that’s how long it takes to get activated and populate with relevant ads.

Hoping to post a new review soon, so stay tuned for that… I promise it would be a real treat for the creative souls out there.

Google Doctype is an open encyclopedia and reference library. Written by web developers, for web developers. It includes articles on web security, JavaScript DOM manipulation, CSS tips and tricks, and more. The reference section includes a growing library of test cases for checking cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility.

Google Doctype is 100% open.

* Open source
* Open content
* Open to contributions from anyone

Click here for more information

Hello everyone! I have decided to have a Blog Festival to give you the opportunity to have your articles featured right here side-by-side to my articles.

Here’s how it will work:
1) Must be the original works of the author
2) You can submit as many as you like
3) Can be about anything at all (except for stuff that I can’t publish like porn and all)
4) Leave a comment here and send your entries to asela at crystalaxis dot com
5) Closing date is on 31st of May 2008

Since this is less of a competition and more of a way to get your ideas out there, there will not be any prizes given out. But you never know… I might just change my mind as and when I feel like it!

So start sending in your entries soon…

Microsoft has launched its Worldwide Telescope yesterday bringing together images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and few others right to your desktop.

“The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe,” said Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, in a statement.

The program allows users to travel the galaxy on their own or take guided tours of destinations out-space developed by astronomers and academics. It also provides a number of different telescopes and easy switching between different light wavelengths.

Here is a closer look at the system requirements:
2GHz or faster processor
2GB of RAM
1-10GB of free disk space
Graphics card with 128 MB RAM or 256 VRAM
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
Net connection
Macs must run Windows OS

Ironically, they can make a piece of software that can go to the moon but can’t seem to fix their own operating systems like XP or Vista.

Atleast we can be glad that we don’t have to billionaires or book a ticket on the next commercial shuttle out of orbit to experience all this.

Google launched their own version called Sky sometime back too which also comes with an add-on for Google Earth.

Check them all out and let me know what you think right here…

In a turn of events by Facebook to appeal to the greater mass of people, they have removed the Networks tab from within the top navigation. Apparently, they didn’t do the job right and kept some trailing trash to clean-up later. I was still able to click on edit (between the Profile & Friends buttons) and then go to Networks and change or add a new Network to my preference.

I could even go to the friends tab, click on All Friends and who ever that was already part of the old networks still showed up. I personally preferred the Networks since it created a geographical segmentation that would otherwise be out of control with every tom-dick-and-harry creating a group for whatever they liked. This is the same reason I left Hi5 and several other Social Networking sites.

What is happening to Facebook you might ask? Well… I can’t give you a good answer for that right now but I suspect that if things go the way they are right now, FB is going to turn out just like Hi5 and all the other Social Networking sites that couldn’t survive the pressure from the people that are insecure about themselves online and FB will eventually loose a lot of members in the process.

This is in addition to the thousands and thousands that will also leave if ever Microsoft succeeds in the take-over of FB.

What are your thoughts on this? Feel free to share.