Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Online project management tool

Basecamp by 37signals is one of the best project management applications available online. I've used it for a project of mine and it makes managing data among team members really easy.


On the project page you can

  1. upload files,
  2. create task lists and allot them to people,
  3. mark milestones and targets on the map,
  4. discuss things on the whiteboard,
  5. conference on the chat(not very comfortable though),
  6. send messages to the group
Another useful data they show, is the group activity like when was each member's last login and last activity. One thing missing is collaborative working on docs, excel sheets etc. But other than that Basecamp is neat and easy to manage. Also you can host it on your own domain as well.


I used it for one my projects which required us to work from different places, and it really increased productivity. The number of meetings we had, to discuss things, decreased drastically.

Here's a screenshot of the project page from the tour. Click for a bigger picture.


If you were wondering how to work on the project with a team spread across the world, try this.

I've written two posts today, because my college year is nearly over. I probably won't be able to post anything for the next week because my PC and me will be traveling back, home :).

Good day!

Hot or not is now free!

This one's for the new Hugh McLeod, who knows math.


Hotornot is an unique dating site, where all the jazz of searching for similar tastes and interests are done away with. Instead you are shown pictures and you get to rate them on a scale from 1-10. If you click yes on a picture, then the next time they come online, they are shown your picture and if a match occurs, then a connection is made. Till recently you had to pay 5$ per month for mailing to connections, now you can do so without paying anything.



The creators of the site James and Jim have decided they've made enough money off people, so they ripped apart their business model and now make money only by displaying advertisements.

There are some 28,600,000 photos online, so you'll never run out of people. While I've never really tried making a connection, I've spent a lot of time, just rating people :). It's addictive!



Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Reality TV!

The web's first Reality show is here.

Justin.tv is the live video blog of Justin. He wears a camera 24 into 7. No, he's not chained to his house. He wears a headcam and the video is streamed on mobile network, which means he can go about normal life. On the website you can watch live-feed of what Justin is doing and chat with him or call him. The calendar serves as the TV guide and you can find out his plans for the next few days.

While he mostly goes around meeting other startups and web entrepreneurs, he also goes on dates sometimes. And when he goes on dates, their web traffic shoots up because everybody's asking, "Will he get lucky tonight?". And no Justin doesn't film when 'he's getting lucky' or in the bathroom. Right now Justin was sleeping and there were some 300 people watching him! Yeah, people love absolutely love reality tv.
Beside is the man, Justin Kan.


Here's the embedded channel from Justin.Tv.



Have fun!

addition: Live update. Justin and his crew just got the boot from their landlord!

Monday, May 07, 2007

Keep track of your money.

I'm at college, so as a rule I'm always running out of money and always borrowing money from people. In my first year, the more intelligent guy among us made an excel sheet where 12 of us after every outing, dinner would religiously fill in all expenditures. As all stories end, the computer crashed one day and with it went my 350 rupees which people owed to me.

Moral of the story? Use an online expenses manager.

Buxfer makes it easy to track your and group expenses. You can save transaction details, bills etc online. Then you can divide the expenses among your friends. The best part is Buxfer does all the math for you, no more arguments over calculations of expenses and who owes whom.

On buxfer you can
  1. Save personal and group transaction details.
  2. Keep track of who owes you money and whom do you owe money.
  3. Keep track of personal spending.
  4. Know your spending trends.
And the integration with your mobile means, you can report transactions and expenses as they are happening. You can also settle bills using your bank or credit card.
Also on Buxfer you don't have to register if you are already using gmail, yahoomail, facebook or openID. No hassles of joining!

Take the tour to know more.

Fun fact: Buxfer is run by three people of Indian origins.

That reminds me, I owe somebody lots of money! Luckily she's not on buxfer, yet.


Sunday, May 06, 2007

Use the Web to reach out and do social good!

Today's post is going to be long, because they do something I'm very passionate about.


Kiva.org is the world's first loaning site for micro-credit. Micro-credit is making loans of smaller sizes available to the disadvantaged sections of the society. People who need amounts of money as small as a couple of hundred dollars to meet their needs. Such small loans aren't given out by banks, because they feel poor people are also bad customers and the cost of providing small loans is really high. So other agencies called micro-finance agencies provide such small loans. BTW the Nobel Peace prize for 2006 was awarded to Grameen foundation and its founder Md. Yunnus, who are the pioneers of micro-finance.
Read more about micro-finance on the wikipedia.

So what is Kiva.org in plain english? Kiva is a place where you can be a part of the revolution that micro-credit is, by loaning a small amount to some poorer people in the third world. The website has profiles of borrowers and the loan amounts they require. You can lend a part of the loan or the whole of it. The minimum amount you can loan is 25$.

Kiva.org is a web2.0 site which actually exists outside the internet, in fact most of its work is done off the internet. They have currently have partners in Africa, South America and Lower Europe. So you can loan to people in those continents. They still haven't started operations in India, because of regulatory issues. But anyways if you are looking to loan to people in India, you should be able to do so by the end of summer, because of a new to-be venture here. ;)

All you require to loan is a Paypal account. So go on and become a member, a 'loaner' and do some social good. Check out the widget on the left column of this blog to see a borrower.

Kiva is a non-profit organization and they run on donations. Also you do not get any returns on your loan. Most loans are repaid in about 8-9 months.



Saturday, May 05, 2007

Think you can't get bluffed?


Blufr is an addictive little website, where you are asked obscure trivia. The widget embedded below will give you a few examples.


Powered by Answers.com:
free online dictionary and more

All the bluffs have been created by users and you can add your own bluffs. Its fun and very very addictive mind you.

Have fun!

Friday, May 04, 2007

Save your To Do lists online

Toodledo is a new online application on which you can save your tasks, give them priorities, save it on a calendar, set goals etc. The list of things you can do on it is really long and here's the link. I don't think they have a mobile application yet. Such a thing will make things really easier.

If you already use some desktop task manager, then you can transport all the data onto Toodledo. I found the firefox extension really handy, you can save tasks as and when they occur. I mostly use Toodledo to remind me of my email tasks.

Try it out. The registration asks for two things only! Your email and a password. No other jazz. And then no hassles of confirming by email.

Tell me what do you think!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Search "How to?" on Koonji

Koonji is a community powered 'How to?' search engine. The Web 2.0 has given rise to quite a few similar sites, but Koonji is the best of them all because of the sheer size of number of people who use it and contribute to it.


Koonji has articles which explain common day-to-day activities in a step by step manner. On Koonji find articles on How to make Turkish coffee?, How to surprise mom on mother's day?, or How to buy a HDTV?. Koonji aggregates information mostly from the Wikipedia and WikiHow in a nicely organized fashion. The community collects and clips related articles in an unique format called a "Koonji".

The community members collect points for adding to Koonji's or creating new ones. Members can create new articles or review existing ones. Koonji also has articles on products and best places to buy them.

BTW Koonji means "Key" or "Cliff Notes" in Hindi an Indian language. This is an example of an interesting trend. With most links with english words, either already being used or owned by Link sharks, alternative names like these are being thought of.

I had previously covered Videojug.com, which has videos on How to?'s. Its pretty cool, check it out here.

Happy DIY!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Bitch into the vastness of the internet with B*SH

B*SH( url is http://ilovetocomplain.com) is a bitch board where you can anonymously scream anything you want to. Scream about your unfair boss or how you hate your friend sometimes. Take it off your chest. You've got a place to say it aloud to the world and not feel bad about it.

I've tried it :-) and really it feels pretty good, its the online version of the lonely woods where you could scream and cry for all you cared and nobody would notice.


Try it and tell me about it.

BTW I know you are wondering, WTF is B*SH? Its a new word created by these guys, I got know idea what * is.

Good day!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Burrp!

Burrp! is a yellow-pages sort of website written by the online community. Use Burrp to find out about local restaurants, bars, juice centers, etc. Read recommendations and choose the best place to hang out in.

Burrp is currently available for three cities- Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. And soon Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa and Pune will be covered.

On Burrp you can search for places and add your own review on the site. The community on Burrp is quite active, so a lot of hangouts have been listed and reviewed. The interface itself is really attractive, uncluttered and makes it easy to browse.


Tell me what you think of the site.



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