Thought Garage

I use SiteGround to host this blog. Their service over the last year has been commendable. My blog was never down as per my knowledge. Whenever I access it, it is always available. But questions like was it really never down? Was it up all the time over the last year? always pops up, as I was not sure about it. I wish it was up all the time. But there is no way to know that.

Then, I recently read about Site 24X7, which can monitor my website availability and content for free. I signed up on their website, and entered by blog URL to monitor it. Today I received the first report for the last week. I am very happy to see that my site has been up all the time and available 100% of time. Now I know for sure.

View Status Report : (Click on image to enlarge)

How does it work? : The tool try to access your website at a configurable interval to check whether your site is available or not. You can configure this polling interval as you wish from 5 minutes to 24 hours. 

Along with the availability monitoring, the tool also provide content monitoring. For example, You can also monitor for defacing attacks. See the following configuration screen.

Configuration Options: (Click on image to enlarge)

If you configure certains key words to be always found on your webpage and/or if the URL content changes by 50%, you can receive an alert. Both keywords and % of your URL change is configurable. So, if your URL changes because of defacing attack, you can get an alert by SMS or Email.

Also you can share this status with public by embedding the stats on your webpage or by providing an URL to interested parties. This URL if known, can be accessible by anybody and everybody. For example, you can see the status of my blog here.

Nice tool for website adminstrators and bloggers alike, but an essential tool for folks like me, who use third party hosting solutions.  Thanks a ton Site 24X7. Thumbs up!

Here is a copy from their website, on what Site 24X7 can do:

What Site24×7 can do?

Ensure your Websites are up : We can make HTTP/ HTTPS requests at regular intervals of time and check if your website is fine.

Track Website Performance : You can track your website response time.

Monitor Web Transactions : Record and Playback a sequence of HTTP requests or web page submissions.

Monitor Web Page Defacement : Be notified when your webpage changes.

Instant Alerts : Be notfied via email or SMS when your website is down or when the response time has crossed certain limits you have set.

Reports and Trends : Track website performance over a period of time and conclude on possible trends.

Visit for more information and free signup here.

Jana-Gana-Mana, the Indian National Anthem composed by A.R.Rahman and sung by the best of the best of Indian Musicians.

Vandemataram, the best of Indian Music Inspiration, composed by A.R. Rahman.

Traditional and classical musicians objected the way it was visualized and composed, but was there any better visualization to touch an Indian heart. Was there any better visualization that inspires an Indian?  Truly an inspiring and undoubtedly the best of A.R. Rahman.

Windows Live Writer team has issued a new update to the Beta Window Live Writer, the desktop blogging application with the following updates.

The following is a summary of the changes in the Writer 1.0 (Beta) Update:

• Tagging support
• Support for Blogger Beta
• Categories are sorted by name and support scrolling, plus improved support for reading categories from your blog
• Improved startup performance
• Paste is enabled for Title region and TAB/SHIFT+TAB navigation between title and body supported
• Insert hyperlink added to context menu when text is selected
• Title attribute in Insert Link dialog
• Custom date support for Community Server
• Improved keyboard shortcuts for switching views
• Change spell-check shortcut key to F7
• Add ‘png’ to insert image dialog file type filter
• More robust image posting to Live Spaces
• Improved style detection for blogs 
• Fixed issues with pasting URLs and links
• Remember last window size and position when opening a new post
• Open post dialog retrieves more than 25 old posts

Source: Writer Zone

Little confused regarding plugins as there are multiple pages with plugins. Checkout new plugins at Windows Live Gallery. There is another list of plugins here.

Cellular Phones have dramatically changed our life style, even before rich content applications arrived. Still in some parts of the world, mobile is still primarily used for voice calls and access in remote parts. Rest of the developed world, now with a wide variety of Content and applications, they are becoming the most dependable devices ever. A new life style called The Cellular Life Style is born and growing at exponential rate. Not convinced or can’t believe the Cellular phone as the most integral part of our lifestyle, listen to the following podcasts produced by BBC and PRI in ‘The Chaning World’ series. 

Mobile Phones : In these documentaries produced for the BBC World Service, we explore the influence of the mobile phone on lives throughout the world. From rural Africa to cosmopolitan cities in Europe, cell phones have changed the way we communicate – and how we expect to be able to communicate.

• Part 1 : Nick Rankin explores the history of mobile phone technology in this BBC World Service documentary. He examines how cell phones are changing the lives of the poor, and questions just how safe and secure our mobile phone conversations are. Listen to MP3 file here.
• Part 2 : The global explosion in mobile phone use has been met with a call for better cell phone etiquette. In this half-hour, Nick Rankin looks at how mobile phones have blurred boundaries between public and private lives, from Europe to Australia. Listen to MP3 here.

The Communications Revolution : How we communicate is rapidly changing. Whether you’re in a preschool in London, a coffee shop in Boston or on a street corner in Kigali, new technology has the potential to bring us closer together. Or some say, to alienate us. In these documentaries produced for the BBC World Service, Mike Williams examines “The Communications Revolution.”

• Part 1 :  When is a phone, not a phone? Some people welcome the wealth of features new cell phones offer – others would be happy just making and receiving phone calls. Mike Williams looks at the history of communication technology, and explores the spread of mobile phones. He also takes us into the world of Star Trek, and looks at the impact that classic TV show may have had on modern advancements. Listen to MP3 here. 
• Part 2 : In this BBC World Service documentary, Mike Williams examines how communication is transforming the way we lead our lives. We can use our cell phone or computer to make travel arrangements, and we can do our grocery shopping while sitting in bed. New communication technologies also hold promise for those who are disabled or dealing with debilitating illnesses. Mike Williams profiles advancements that can help all people lead more independent lives.  Listen to MP3 here.

[tags]BBC, PRI, Changing-world, Mobile-Life-Styles, Mobile-Handsets[/tags]

Digital Camera, A Video camera with DVD quality, a Digital Music Player, Video player,  an FM Radio, Ability to print your pictures by direclty connecting to a printer, Photo editing and sharing applications, WiFi connectivity, RSS reader, a full pledged Browser, an Organizer and a whole bunch of multimedia and personal information maangement applications.  Oh, we forgot, you can also make voice calls, SMS, MMS, IM ….. and all that you can do with a traditional cellular phone.

This is not a list of my dream cellphone, but just a preview of features offered by Nokia N-Series N-93 Phones. N-Series phones also comes with WiFi, that means along with your carriers cellular network you can also use any hotspot to download or upload or browse web sites. Recently we have posted about printing capability of N-series mobile phone from Nokia. Yesterday, I watched a preview of N-93 Nokia Mobile featured on ABC News ABC News Ahead of the Curve Video podcasts series. Watch the video podcast here:

Cell Phone Multi-Tasking

Wednesday, July 26, 2006, 9:09:23 PM

A cell phone for everything — pictures, video, music, and calls.

060726ann aotc cellphone.m4v?CMP=OTC-3V9R06864381

You can also visit Nokia N93 Phone home page for more details about the phone.

[tags]abc-news, nokia, mobile-handsets, usa, cingular, Nseries[/tags]