Employers in all fields today look for candidates who know a bit more than the usual Windows, Internet and MS-Office. They would like you to know about blogging, social media, new media etc. You should be aware of the latest developments, know the difference between a Kindle and an iPad. Its an era of information overload, where each and every employee needs to be tech savvy to survive, or perish to the line of the unemployed.

Learning web skills is an essential component, especially if you work in a media related industry. The knowledge of creating facebook fan pages, internet marketing, web design, search engine optimization etc would certainly hep in getting the word out about the product or service a company or individual has to offer.

Top 5 websites I recommend for learning web development and internet marketing:

1. Digital Point Forums: One of the biggest webmaster forums in the world. Has thousands of people online at most hours..since people all over the world are members. I learnt most of my web skills in the different boards on this forum..starting from adsense to blogging to installing scripts to template design. The forum also boasts of a thrivi9ng marketplace where you can buy and sell products and services.

2. SitePoint Forums: Probably the second most popular forum after Digital Point, but said to be much more professional. Their ebooks and paperback books on web development, design and programming are said to be one of the best resources for specialized web training.

3. Mashable.com: Founded in 2005, Mashable is the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture. With more than 30 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific news site reporting breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviewing new Web sites and services, and offering social media resources and guides.

4. Warrior Forums: A great forum where experienced internet marketers share knowledge on social media marketing, ways generating online revenue and has one of the most active marketplaces where unique and original internet marketing products are sold.

5. SEO Chat Forums: Learn and discuss Search Engine Optimization, the basis of getting ranked high for certain keywords on Google and other search engines.

There are many more resources available online and offline, once you learn the basics from the above, you might get sufficiently interested to start with the advanced stuff. The aforementioned sites will certainly hep with that as well. Many members at Digital Point, Sitepoint and Warrior forums are old and experienced members and discussing things with them can always help you get a head-start on the ways and means. Its easier than learning from books, as its easy to get bored when reading up technical stuff. Learning by discussions in forum boards on the other hand, although slower, is a much more interesting way at getting to your goal.

So for example a blog post from lughole.net becomes so popular that it gets hundreds of Diggs, it will get to the front page of the website and get massive traffic. Digg has thousands of members across the world and when they like to read interesting stuff. Videos and pictures are also routinely dugg by the crowd at digg.

And now digg has come out with something that was long overdue – a revamped interface and design.

It was due because the old digg was being abused because it was only some old and powerful crowd that would get their stories on the front page of the popular website. The rest of the people, however hard they tried, and however interesting content they posted, had to be content to remain on the inside pages. The new version has great improvements.

The new digg currently accepts members only by invitation. If you would like an invite, just go to the following link:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22I+currently+have+5+extra+invites+to+the+new+Digg!%22+&result_type=recent

You should get one of the working invites as the link is regularly updated.

Also, dont forget to follow me on the new digg. Here’s my profile: http://new.digg.com/chunkymonk

Amazon Kindle 3 launch

Move on to July 28, 2010 when the third edition of the Kindle was announced, improving over the previous edition in terms of design, technology as well as price!

The third generation Kindle has the following advantages over Kindle 2:

Kindle 3 vs Kindle 2

• 21% smaller body with the same 6″ reading area
• 17% lighter
• 50% increased screen contrast thanks to the new E-Ink screen
• Crisper, darker fonts
• Double the storage
• Faster, quieter page turns
• Built in Wifi
• Advanced pdf reader
• Soft touch textured back
• New webkit based browser
• Voice-guide read-to-me menus

Kindle 3 Compared

Kindle 3 has been launched in two versions with the 6″ screen – the Kindle Wifi and the Kindle 3G+Wifi. The Kindle DX, with a much bigger 9.7″ screen, continues in Kindle 3 and is the most expensive of the lot.

Kindle 3 models compared

The Kindle Wifi has been priced at an affordable $139, while Kindle 3G + Wifi and Kindle DX cost $189 and $379 respectively.

Many people have no clue that much before Apple iPad came out, the Amazon Kindle ruled the roost. The other ebook readers from Sony and Barnes & Noble haven’t really been able to tear through the market that is now hotly contested by the two As – Apple and Amazon.

However even as we speak the Kindle 3 is already temporarily out of stock. In fact, pre-orders were thrown open on July 28 itself, and the third generation Kindles were supposed to start shipping from August 27, 2010. Although you can still place an order, there is no guarantee that you will get your Kindle 3 by August 27. In fact, a note posted on the Amazon website says:

Temporarily Sold Out. Order now to reserve your place in line

Due to strong customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out. Order now to reserve your place in line. Orders are prioritized on a first come, first served basis. Orders placed today are expected to ship on or before September 4th.

So go ahead and place your order for Kindle 3 at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk before its too late!

The Holiday Match Maker from Halifax ís one of those rare things, a Facebook application that is genuinely useful and entertaining at the same time. It’s also pretty clever. By analysing the content of your profile, it will calculate what your ideal holiday destination is, where you should stay, what you should do, what the weather is like at the moment and how many plastic Eiffel Towers you can buy for a fiver.

As you can see from the screenshot above, I got an 85% match to Paris. That’s actually my favourite European city! Was it a co-incidence or the application figured it out? It doesn’t get better than this.

Oh, and it will also point you in the direction of Halifax Travel Money, something you might find handy when going on holiday.

We Are Family is a remake of the Susan Sarandon-Julia Roberts starrer, Stepmom.

The storyline revolves around a divorcee mother who is suffering from cancer and has to accept another woman in her husband and children’s lives. The desi adaptation stars Kareena as the stepmom, played by Julia Roberts in the original movie. Kajol plays Sarandon’s role of the ex-wife and Arjun Rampal plays the role of Ed Harris.

The film is distributed by Hollywood studio Columbia Tristar and co-produced by UTV.

Quite often while I am connected to the internet from my laptop at home, the net stops working. I’m not sure if Windows XP has such a recurring problem with wifi connectivity but I have Windows Vista on my laptop and it happens quite a bit.

Now usually to troubleshoot such problems in Vista you would normally right click on the connection in the tray and click on “Diagnose and Repair.”

This opens a a box which starts searching for the problem causing the connectivity issue. In most cases it is unable to identify the correct issue and gives you the option to “Reset Network Adapter” to get it resolved.

Resetting the adapter sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. I can safely say that the diagnose and repair”" facility is Windows Vista is a failure as its on very few occasions that it really diagnoses and fixes a problem correctly.

So here’s the trick for Vista users (and probably for Windows 7 users as well) – Try and sign in to Windows Live Messenger while you’re having problems with the internet connection. Since the net isn’t working, WLM wont be able to sign you in but display this window instead:

Now click on the troubleshoot button and a new window comes up that checks your computer for internet connectivity issues. I got the following Window when my WLM finished checking for net connectivity issues last night:

As you can see it shows that DNS and Key ports are flagged. And that’s usually the case – most net connectivity problems, when not occurring from the ISP’s side happen due to DNS problems. Often the DNS is unable to resolve the IP address, and this thing recurs when there is more than one computer using the WiFi network.

Now coming back to the troubleshooting, click on the “Repair” button to help solve this issue. WLM will start troubleshooting the issues found, and once resolved all possible issues will be checked with the green tick and not flagged with the exclamation mark like was the case with DNS and key ports. ou will now be able to use your net and also successfully sign in to Windows Live Messenger. I have seen that in 75% of the cases I have been successful in solving my internet connectivity problems by using WLM.

Give it a try if the need arises!

Developed by Mad Media Labs, Spinning Streak was released on May 12, 2010.

It is a game of skill and balance. Your aim is to become the most famous Spinning Streak act on the planet and the game will lead you through the steps on your rise to fame.

Game screenshots taken from the iphone:

Spinning streak is further described on the developer’s site as follows:

Did you ever wonder whether you could achieve more in life?
Really do something that sets you apart from the rest and gets you noticed?

Use your balancing skills to perform breathtaking balancing acts; right here, right now. Impress your friends and become the world’s first Spinning Streak Superstar!

See a video preview of Spinning streak here:

The game can be downloaded for free from the itunes website and can be installed and played on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. For the iphone, it requires OS 3.1.2 or later. Game size is 20.6MB.

iphone 4 includes a host of hardware improvements

960x640 resolution on a 3.5 inch screen

Features high definition video recording

Features front camera for video calling

iphone 4 Processor

The iPhone 4 uses Apple’s A4 CPU, the same processor powering the Apple iPad. And it runs the newly renamed iOS 4 operating system (which the iPad will also use, starting in the fall).

As part of iOS 4, the iPhone 4 gains a bevy of capabilities. One of them–multitasking–feels long overdue, but as with Apple’s long-awaited cut-and-paste feature, the company delivers on the promise of making multitasking work smoothly.

iphone 4 display

With the new iPhone 4, Apple debuts new display dubbed as ‘Retina Display’. This 3.5-inch multi-touch display offers 960×640 pixel resolution at 326 pixels per inch. This means crisper images and more amazing graphics display while playing games. Apart from that, this IPS technology based panel will offer 800:1 contrast ratio that would be four times better than the previous generation iPhone devices.

So, you can comfortably watch 720p HD movies on this 960×640 pixel display with more accurate colors. Apart from that, both front display and back panel would come coated with fingerprint resistant oleophobic coating.

iphone 4 camera

The iPhone 4 brings much-desired camera and video recording advances, as well. The primary camera on the back bumps up from 3 megapixels to 5 megapixels, while retaining the same pixel size (which can further improve image quality). The camera also gains an LED flash, a backlit sensor, and an integrated 5X zoom. The camera now lets you shoot in high-def, at 720p, 30 frames per second; in addition, video gains the tap-to-focus feature already available on the camera.

iphone 4 Battery life

One of the major issues of all the iPhone users has been the battery life and hence, Apple has put a larger battery in the iPhone 4. The lithium-ion rechargeable battery promises to offer up to 7 hours of talk time on 3G networks and 14 hours of talk time on 2G networks. Also, one can listen to music for 40 hours or watch videos for up to 10 hours. The most amazing part is that users can now browser mobile web for up to 10 hours on the iPhone 4, that is as much as offered by new Intel Atom Pine Trail platform based netbooks.

Other iphone 4 specs

• Quadband HSDPA/HSUPA
• Wi-Fi (802.11n)
• Assisted GP
• Acceleromete
• Digital Compass
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• iBooks App as free download
• Microsoft’s search engine Bing officially added to search engine options.
• Micro SIM just like the ones used in iPad
  
  

In the box

• iPhone 4
• Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic
• Dock Connector to USB Cable
• USB Power Adapter
• Documentation

The phone will roll out on June 24 in the USA, priced at $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model (in white or black).

The 10-year-old agency lost the Government’s multi-million-pound digital media account to Sir Martin Sorrell’s GroupM in February, which accounted for some £40m of billings, equalling 40% of the agency’s total turnover. i-level  had been handling this business for a decade.

i-Level’s clients included Orange and Samsung, and was founded in 1999 by Andrew Walmsley and Charlie Dobres. In spring 2008 they sold a 60 per cent stake to ECI, a private equity group, in a £45m ($68m) deal.

Your author, who is also into internet based affiliate marketing, got to know about this today when he received emails from LoveFilm and Comet – two prominent i-level clients – saying that i-level’s going into administration will not affect their earnings in any manner. The following is an extract from the email he received from Orange:

Hi Sarthak,

With the recent announcement about the incumbent agency i-level, Orange has agreed with i-level to transition the account to MEC as of immediate effect.

Orange would like to re-assure affiliates that promotion and payment of the Orange product offering will remain as normal.

The agency has about 140 employees, in disciplines including online display advertising, search marketing, social media and mobile marketing.

Latitude, another UK digital specialist, also went into administration in January after struggling with debts racked up during the boom years of the mid-2000s.

Sources: FT, Mediaweek

The goal scored with Shashi Tharoor’s resignation has been so powerful that it has rebounded upon the scorer himself. The self goal has meant that Modi stands suspended from the league he himself created, and faces a slew of corruption charges.

So much information has been leaked from various ‘sources’ with each passing day that the average cricket viewer’s attention has been forced to move away from the games being played on the field, to those off the field. It is indeed a sad state of affairs that a tournament which gave India immense international recognition, and brought on India’s domestic talent to the forefront, has been so tainted with corruption.

Adding fuel to the fire are the match fixing allegations. If they turn out to be true, there will be immense public anger, and the BCCI can then bank upon the fact that TRPs for any future editions of the IPL will never be the same again.

In spite of the information overload, there are many things we do not know; and though Modi had threatened to reveal the dirt in the game once the tournament concludes, he is yet to open the promised Pandora’s Box.

It is ironical that at the beginning of this year’s tournament, Lalit Modi made the team captains sign the MCC ‘spirit of cricket’ pledge.

The spirit has been murdered.

In a country where the rich and the powerful almost always escape the clutches of the law, will the spirit ever get justice? Even if Lalit Modi is convicted and prosecuted, there are bigger pawns (read politicians) on this chessboard, who may yet again subvert the system to save their skin. And the common man‘s faith in democracy will be further diminished.