with much joy and happiness I can today say that I’m off to University! I’ll be study Aeronautical Technology with Management at the University of Hertfordshire.

I’ve come a long way since I started secondary school..

In 2000 I joined Loxford School of Science and Technology. I met all kinds of people from all walks of life. Loxford has had a reputation of being a very “rough” school. In all honesty, either I’m rough or the given reputation was false. Attending Loxford gave me the privallege of meeting some of the best teachers with unique personalities. To mention a few: Mr.Sanhotra, Miss.Tran (now Mrs.Henry), Mrs.Kanolik, Ms.Niel, Mr.Coogan, Mr.Dixon & Mr.Heap. In 2005 I finished my GCSE’s with good results and started 6th form. The transition between GCSE and A Levels certainly did prove to be  hard for me (but not impossible). The key is to utilise your teachers. If you have a problem - ask.

During the run-up to results day I was under a lot of stress. I must confess that the day before I was praying for hours hoping for a miracle. When midnight came, the whole of the UK logged onto UCAS to see if any results had been released. I can say that with great confidence seeing that UCAS’s server crashed. When I woke up at 6.30am I immediately logged into TRACK (on UCAS) once again to see if there had been any updates. Due to my good fortune I had been accepted and confirmed by Hertfordshire.

The daily prayer for that day also read:

He has extended His power in all four directions, and placed His hand upon my head.
Gazing upon me with his Eye of Mercy, He has dispelled the pains of His slave.
The Guru, the Lord of the Universe, has saved the Lord’s humble servant.
Hugging me close in His embrace, the merciful, forgiving Lord has erased all my sins.
Whatever I ask for from my Lord and Master, he gives that to me.
Whatever the Lord’s slave Nanak utters with his mouth, proves to be true, here and hereafter.

(click here to read more of this scripture).

I’ll be honest, when I read the above passage I got freaked out. Whether my entry into Hertfordshire University was down to some sort of a divine miracle is questionable, but it sure has given me a boost in confidence.

I hope to take this same boost of confidence to Hertfordshire and succeed not only in my chosen academic course but also sport (do they do Hockey?). At the moment I’m busy revising my friends Physics notes and trying to sort my accommodation out.

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to visit the London Excel motor show for free (thanks to Satveer Singh). I wanted to go and visit the Geneva motor show earlier this year but  was unable to due to my busy schedule.

My day began by catching a bus with Satveer in the morning which brought us outside London Excel. Upon entering we had the option of entering two large halls.

In the hall on the right were your “typical” cars and on the left were all the high performance cars. If you went straight down in the middle you could exit at the back where they had Land Rover doing an off road performance. I got the chance to sit in a performance and experience the Land Rover’s handling of the obstacle course. The technology inside the Jeep is amazing. When coming down a hill you do not need to touch the controls as the car automatically drives you down (literally). You do not need to worry about anything except the steering.

I saw many dream cars but the cheapest I could find was Hyundai Coupe SIII 2.0 S.E - £18,000. £18,000 is relatively little in comparison to the other cars in the show. One particular car made me giggle; it was the Nissan Micra (the new ugly one shaped as a deformed bubble). It’s not only the shape that gets to me but also the fact that I’m having my driving lessons in one of them in full view of the public!

The Lotus’s and Ferrari’s really made me happy. Nothing beats high quality products. They all had leather interior’s with many additional extras.

I bought two bags of goodies. One was the Top Gear official magazine bag (£1 - what a bargain!) and the other was the official motor show bag which had many goodies inside including a SHELL cap.

Overall the day was brilliant. It’s revived my creative thinking and brought a few new ideas to mind for aeroplanes.

Over the years I’ve been watching adverts year after year. This year I was too late to get the tickets but decided to try and watch it for free anyway. After all, what did I have to lose except £5 on travel costs?

I left from Barking station with two friends of mine, Hashim & Kulvir. Within a hour we arrived at North Greenwich at The 02. From there due to the absence of a ticket we decided to walk along the river. We finally found a suitable spot and started recording. After some time we noticed that there was nothing considerable happening except the few side acts.

Click To Play

The main race itself got extremely boring after a short while. The aeroplanes would come, do the same maneuvers and then repeat twice again.

Click To Play

After a brief discussion we decided to cross the river and if the show failed to impress us, we would simply visit the other various landmarks London has to offer. We started walking in the direction of Woolwich (big mistake) in the hope of finding a bridge or a crossing point. Neither of us have ever been on that side of the river so we we’re walking in the dark. Some roads were blocked off by police so we couldn’t access them either. After four miles of trekking we finally managed to cross via the ferry service! We then had to track back the same distance until we were parallel with The O2 once again. By this point my friends were exhausted and we had lost the will to carry on. We found the local DLR service and came home.

Overall I think it was a waste of a day. But at least I know now what exactly the Red Bull air race has to offer. My advice for anyone thinking of visiting would be to stay at home and save yourself the £15-188 it will cost. The highly edit the promo videos in order to make it seem appealing. In reality its as boring watching the paint dry.

This past week I officially started the 100 push ups challenge. The “100 push ups challenge” in itself is a guide to take you from 0 push ups to 100 in a period of six weeks. The creator of the website argues that its simply a case of discipline and an organised approach. Let’s see if he’s correct!

I decided to take up this challenge as it fell under one of my goals which I set out to accomplish in my summer holidays.

I’ve also somehow managed to persuade Gurpreet and her friend over in Portsmouth University to commit themselves to the challenge but, I think they’re just out to make muscles.

In addition to push ups I’ve also been trying to increase the number of bicycle crunches I can do. They’re proving to be the ultimate abdominal workout.

For this blogs RSS feed look to your right or at the bottom of this page.

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, wordpress is the backend to this blog. It’s the software that makes everything run. Wordpress have created a short video that shows the new features in 2.6.

After watching that video who wouldn’t want to upgrade?

After clicking ‘Please update now‘ you arrive at a page that looks like this:

From here click the relevant link. You can either click on the link that takes you to the guide for upgrading or download a fresh new install.

I clicked on the guide for upgrading my existing installation of wordpress.

This should take you to a page with lot’s more writing:

If you are normal, at this point you will switch off and decide to stick to Version 2.5 as I almost did. But worry not! Go back to your Wordpress dashboard and click ‘plugins‘.

If you are a regular blogger you must have heard of a plugin called “Wordpress Automatic Upgrade“. This one plugin turns upgrading all plugins into one click job! If you havn’t got it, hurry up and install it.

Once installed, click on the link that says: “Wordpress Automatic Upgrade” (in the description). After doing this you will arrive at a page that looks like this:

This is where the fun begins

click on ‘Automated version‘ and let it do its thing.

Sooner or later you will be presented with this page:

Now from here you need to click on ‘click here to complete database upgrade‘. This will pop open a new window where you have to click ‘upgrade wordpress‘ continue.

After a few seconds it will finish upgrading your database and you will be presented with the following:

Now all you need to do to finish off is click on ‘click here to run the clean up process before continuing’. All this does is cleanup and remove any temporary backup files that were made. After clicking this you’re done! All that’s left is for you to enable any plugins you previously had enabled.

I really hate the upgrade method where you have to manually delete files via FTP and upload certain files. It all gets tricky and never works out for me. This one plugin has made life truly easy. If you’re like me and want to upgrade without hassle - follow this method.

]]> http://www.vsingh.net/blog/2008/07/15/its-time-for-wordpress-26/feed/ http://www.vsingh.net/blog/2008/07/12/40-free-disposable-email-address-services-to-fight-spam/ http://www.vsingh.net/blog/2008/07/12/40-free-disposable-email-address-services-to-fight-spam/#comments Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:33:49 +0000 Varinder Singh http://www.vsingh.net/blog/?p=267 If you give your e-mail address to anyone on the Internet, there is a good chance to be included in a one, or many spam lists, and to become a subject of multiple spam emails. There are descent filters in most of the Web-Based servers or POP3 email clients. However, it is a good idea to prevent your address to be even a subject for an email abuse. One of the easiest ways to prevent your email to get to the “wrong” people and minimise the amount of spam is to use a disposable e-mail address. The basic idea is this: obtain and use an e-mail address other than one of your main e-mail address or addresses, doing certain on-line business registrations or transactions. Some of the situation, when disposable address might get handy:

• Signing for online Web Sites or informational services.
• Shopping online.
• Entering contests or sweepstakes.
• Signing for forums, message boards, or social networking sites.
• Seeking for one-time information on any products or services.
• Posting messages to newsgroups.

If you participate in on-line activity that fits the above categories and any similar others, you may find that weeks and months later you may receive a massive amount of the unsolicited commercial email from sources you have never contacted in the past. This is possibly because the companies involved have “shared” your email address with other Internet-based businesses, and this sharing can continue with other companies indefinitely. Another way your e-mail address can be distributed is when less secure companies get “hacked”, and have their customer information stolen. Also when going out of business, firms sell their assets, and e-mail addresses may be considered to be assets.

An increasingly popular and very effective way to avoid the spam flooding is to using disposable e-mail address (DEA) services. The idea is simple. When, for example, an online merchant asks for your e-mail address, you just use the service to generate a disposable one. You can read the incoming email online, or the service forwards e-mail sent to this address to your real e-mail account. If the disposable address gets spammed, you can simply close it. In addition, you can use multiple addresses for statistical and strategy generation purposes, as you are able to keep track of which account were submitted to which service, also pointing out on the main spam-generated source. When spam to that disposable address increases to an undesirable level, you can terminate that disposable address and create a new one.

There are multiple complimentary and commercial service providers that offer disposable email addresses to the users, which are slightly different in terms of the technical approach, list of services provided, and life span of the disposable email on the server (at some providers, it can be unlimited). For your convenience, I have generated a Rating List of the top 40 free services, providing disposable addresses to the users. Brief description, rating, and links for the sites access are included:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24864-free-disposable-email-address-providers.aspx

If you are on Gmail you can also create a disposable email address. Let’s say that my email address is varindersingh@gmail.com (which it isn’t) - you can easily transform this email address to:

varinder.singh@gmail.com

varin.der.si.ngh@gmail.com

varindersingh+hello@gmail.com

var.indersingh+yabba@gmail.com

As you can see, Gmail allows you to generate various combinations of your existing email address all of which are valid.

If one day varin.der.si.ngh@gmail.com starts getting spammed you could easily block off the email address by creating a filter.

Firstly click ‘create a filter‘:

Then enter the email address that is being spammed:

Hit next and tick the ‘delete it‘ tickbox.

Click ‘create filter‘ and you’re done!

Hey guys,

just a quick post to let you know of a LAN party I’m going to be hosting sometime this month. I’m still trying to find out who can make it and who can’t so a date has not been set as of yet.

FAQ

What on earth is a LAN party?

Local Area Network Party. This is where a load of “cool” people get together in one place with their computers, connect them all together, and then have some fun! Lan parties often go on for days on end, without sleep or rest!

How many people will be there?

In short, no more than 8. The reason being is that bandwidth (and space) is limited!

How long will it last?

One day and one night - or - One night and one day.

Where is it?

.. in my house.

How much does it cost?

Nothing.

What’s the key features of this event?

• Free food !
• 2 Streaming radio stations: Rock+Hip-Hop+R’N'B+Techno “VS” Bhangra + Bollywood
• Ideal chance to copy over any warez you want

What do I require?

• A computer / laptop
• Mouse and keyboard
• A screen (I’ve got two spare ones here just in case)
• Ethernet or USB cable
• Memory stick or empty hard drive (if you intend on copying content)

Additional notes:

If you live locally I can arrange for your PC to be picked up. The events most probably going to take place on a Friday or on the weekend. Let me know if you are coming!

For the past few days I’ve been back to my age old habit - coding. This time I’m coding Facebook applications but I’ve found it tricky to catch on. It’s not creating canvas based applications that is hard but creating profile boxes. They require intense use of FBML (Facebook markup language) and API knowledge.

In PHP we can usually use the require command to grab any content but this is not the case for a profile box (apparently). They seem to think it’s a security risk so you have to use the API to PUSH content into the box.

If I can learn how to do these simple little things I think it would be a great way to market new products, services and earn some green paper. I’m thinking of integrating existing content such as audio and video streams into a presentable format on the Facebook page. The possibilities are endless.

Talking of Facebook, the Open Sikh Projects account got disabled. We had over 700 contacts and then suddenly they disabled the account. I can understand why the system must have blocked it but the methods to get them unblocked are rediculous. You have to send an email in and I highly doubt they have a dedicated team that deals with blocked accounts. It’s probably one poor soul who’s having to deal with thousands of unblock requests.

I’ve decided to sacrifice all my holiday plans for charitable work this summer. I’m currently helping Sikhcess with various campaigns that are taking place in the UK. I was meant to be doing peer mentoring too with my local council but I’m not sure if I will be able to fit it into my busy schedule.

I’ve also been handed a “special project” which I won’t be revealing just yet. It’s already proving to be a difficult task. I’m communicating with all sorts of people and trying to hunt down willing people to participate. It’s certainly is a big managerial role with a lot of responsibility.

I’ve also been doing the typical “small work” (we can’t forget that now can we?) like making donation boxes

Along with doing work I’m trying to perfect myself. A few weeks ago I done work experience. My employer was kind enough to bring to my attention some audio-books by Brian Tracy & Tony Robbins. I must have listened to three days worth of audio so far. It’s had a big positive affect on me and my daily routine. I’m now more productive, conscious of what I want out of life and how to go about achieving my goals. I’d definitely recommend any products by these guys to anyone who feels the need to PERFECT themselves in whatever they may be doing - business, career, attitude and personal relationships.

Yesterday I finally got my first pro-skateboard. It’s a Renner Z1. It took me quite some time to pick the skateboard I wanted as I was limited by my budget. The key features of this skateboard are:

• Board: 31inch x 7.75inch 7 Ply Canadian Maple Deck with 80S Full Grip Tape
• Trucks: Virus
• Hardware: Renner Risers and 1 inch Posi Hardware
• Running Gear: 53mm Pro Core Wheels with Abec 9 Bearings

I’m especially happy about the Abec 9 bearings (which best quality bearings with low resistance) & the 7 ply deck which makes the board lighter than regular 9ply wood boards.

I didn’t go crazy and get a board with graphics as I previously was considering as I want to customize this with my own graphics. Perhaps a graphic saying my nickname: Vaz Singh. Another board I had in mind was “World Industries - Protection“. This one really appealed to me due to it’s witty slogan at the bottom, along with the fact that my year of birth is 1989.

I can’t wait for the board to arrive so I can start doing some stunts. I’m now considering getting some timber and making a few ramps in the garden as a summer project. After all, not only would it be an excellent learning experience but I will also have a ramp (or even a half pipe) at the end!

Thankfully for me I’m not the only one making ramps and half pipes this summer. Thousands of other skateboarding enthusiasts are picking up DIY tools in a bid to make the ULTIMATE home skate-park. Here’s an excellent website with blueprints, tutorials and video guides on how to get your own skate-park setup.

This year I have a personal goal to explore and see as much of the world as I possibly can. My idea of exploring is not getting a ticket to a tourist destination and then being guided like sheep by a tour guide. My idea of exploring is to live the lifestyle and experience the atmosphere in it’s true nature.

Yesterday was another such day. I left my home at 4am to meet up with my cousin Tina. We then ventured into London. I’ve already walked into London twice this year but this time we decided to view the other parts of Central London. As we reached Stratford I saw Rastafarian’s doing a BBQ at 5am (once again). Previously, my cousin thought I was joking about it but yesterday she saw for herself.

As we progressed into London we took snaps near various monuments : The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St.Paul’s Cathedral & Millennium bridge. The Millennium bridge has a no bike policy so we unfortunately were unable to walk on bridge itself but we took the lift (photo: left side) going down and walked along the river.

Further on near a statue on a lone street we were approached by a very kind lady who offered to take a photo of us. After making small talk she revealed to us that she was on her way to give an exam for the job of tour guide. We then went into China town and then to Bar Italia on Frith Street.

When we crossed the road we saw some Skinheads (at a gay bar). They seemed stressed out but I’m sure there’s a good reason for it.

Before leaving home we made a quick stop in Covent Garden and enjoyed the music by the various entertainers.

On the way back my feet gave way and my cousins back gave way. Luckily for her she was on a bike! We reached my town by 7 in the evening and departed our own way. It had only been a minute since I started walking down the high road when I heard a bottle smash. Everyone froze and attention was drawn to a Caucasian male who was wearing a sky blue tshirt along with black trousers. He then took out a razor blade which to me at first looked like a credit card (perhaps because he was standing outside Bradford & Bingley society). As I focused my eyes on his hands he started slicing his neck and left wrist. Blood was visible on his neck but not on his wrist. He then stopped and stood there whilst shoppers looked on.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing so I approached two African men to ask what he had done. They said the same as what I had seen. The suicidal man then started walking away and as he did I limped away with my aching feet to the police station which is not too far. I reached the police station and explained to the officers at the front desk. The police had been viewing the situation on CCTV as it happened and a patrol car had already been dispatched. I got commended for taking the initiative and coming in to report the incident nevertheless.

There’s lots of little exciting things which happen when you walk and take the time to spot them. You meet all sorts of wonderful, bad, crazy & suicidal people on the way. I urge all those who are reading this to quit using the car or public transport and to “walk it”. Believe me, you won’t regret a single moment. Two funny things which I saw were a floating raft with a witty message and a hair salon called “Kalah Beauty salon”. The reason why I found the hair salons name funny was because “Kalah” in the Punjabi language means black. This particular salons main customers are black too.

Remember to prepare before leaving guys. Every time I go out to walk I pop down to Tesco the night before and grab myself a sandwich, bottled water, pasta, gummy sweets (to keep the energy levels up) & a cereal bar. There are two reasons for doing this. The first is not to die on the way to wherever you may be heading. The second reason is that most well known locations are expensive. Buying before hand keeps your costs significantly down.

In addition to food supplies be sure to have the correct clothing. In particular footwear. The first time I went walking with my friends I was wearing business shoes - bad idea. The second time I went walking into London I was wearing walking shoes. For some reason my feet still gave way. Now when I went walking I was wearing regular trainers and they seemed to be better.

Be ready to experience pain. Lot’s of pain. Just to give you an example here’s some photos of my feet:

This foot is still healing from my second trek. The marked line indicates upto what point my foot had swelled up and blistered. I had to cut the skin off with scissors. Thankfully it’s almost healed up.

This is my right foot. It was fine earlier on yesterday but on the way back it decided to cause issues. The photo doesn’t do justice to the pain and condition that it’s really in. 15 hours & 40 miles = foot like this.

These pains and injuries are a small sacrifice for the experience and fun you have whist exploring. I’ve ended up in this situation three times already and I wouldn’t mind ended up in it again! Keep on walking soldier!

For many years I’ve been reading countless number of articles on how to improve page rankings and ultimately improve SEO (search engine optimization). After trying all sorts of methods on clients websites I have learned that the only tricks that work effectively are the following:

Number #1:

<h1>, <h2> & <b> tags!

Many people initially try and avoid these tags out of fear that the text will simply not blend in with the rest of the website. However, after conducting some research I have concluded that these tags are probably the most effective method of getting search engines to pick up on those key words. In fact, I’m so confident that I want YOU in one weeks time to put this posts title or the following key words into Google and see what comes up on the first page:

Banana Blind Money Bribed

Number #2:

Friendly (static) URL’s. You usually have two types of urls. The first sort are the all too common dynamic urls. These URL’s look something like this: http://www.mywebsite.com/article.php?id=7

The other sort (static) look like this: http://www.mywebsite.com/article/7/how-to-make-a-pizza/

Both URL’s may still be showing the same content but the search engines tend to be more favourable to the static sort. Why you ask? Simply due to the keywords embedded within the URL. Making your website is fairly easy difficult at times but it definately pays off. You can achieve friendly URL’s with the use of a .htaccess file.

Number #3:

ALT text! ALT is simply a tag which helps describe what an image or media item is. It’s a way to put in mini-information to help users understand what’s going on. For example, if i have a photo of my visit to Spain I may want to write “Spain trip - on the beech”. For a live example hover over the images in this post with your mouse. This change can be implemented by simply formatting image tags like this:

<img src=”..bla bla bla” alt=”Football. Manchester United VS Chelsea”>.

Number #5:

No excessive use of flash or images. The amount of times I get clients asking for a flash websites with lots of animations and then expect the website to be listed at number 1 on Google is unbelievable. Search engines scan the web-page source code for key words and tags. Usually flash websites lack any key words except those in META tags (meta tags coming up next!). If a search engine cannot harvest your key words it cannot give you the desired page ranking. It’s that simple. If you wish to implement animation, do it on a small scale. Also, for those graphics junkies who call one big image cut into thousands of little bits a website, please stop. The same rules apply for websites made out of 100% images. However, if you still wish to continue using images in such an excessive manner be sure to write in some ALT links!

Number #6:

HTML META tags I feel really embarrassed writing about this point as I’ve forgotten to implement it on my own blog! To put it briefly, the meta tag is used by search engines to allow them to more accurately list your site in their indexes. Sometimes. If you simply produce your home page and register the URL with a search engine, or a number of search engines, their spider programmes will (eventually) toddle along to your site to index it. These days some search engines put a 250 character limit on meta tags. For more information on how to get META tags placed on your website click here. Also, it’s always a good idea to validate your html from time to time.

Number #7:

Distribute that link! A key way to get attention to your page is to distribute the link. This can be done in many ways. Consider exchanging links with another website of a similar sort (not your competition!). For example, if i produce camping tents I may want to exchange links with a website who sells camping equipment. Exchanging a link is merely placing the other persons website link on your website and them doing the same. This way both parties profit from this mutual exchange. The second method of distributing your link is to simply include it into your signature. Whenever you make a comment on a blog (except mine), send out an email or publish new content on a website be sure to include a link to your website after your name. The third and last method of distributing ‘that link’ is to spam. DO NOT DO THIS. It’s considered very bad conduct and will give you a bad reputation. If you really want to mention your website but feel it may be considered spam - contact the webmaster before hand and ask for his or her permission. Also, distribute links on your own website. Link back to previous posts you made or key words which also appear on other parts of your website. It’s a good way to keep users “hooked” onto your website.

Number #8:

I guess those who say: ‘common sense isn’t common’ are right. Approach search engines directly and submit your link! Usually simply going to the search engines website and typing in ‘add url’ or ’submit url’ will bring up a page where you can submit your URL. It’s that simple.

And last but not least - Number #9 (did you really think we were going to go up to 10?)

Submit your website to DMOZ. DMOZ is an open directory of websites. It’s hand updated and has been around for years. If you want your website deep rooted, this is the place to approach. To underestimate this service would be absolutely silly. On doing a Google search for DMOZ 32,300,000 results come up - what does that say to you?

For a few months now I’ve been thinking deeply on my life as a whole. I’ve been looking at what contributions society has made to my personal development and what contributions I have made to society. Now I feel that I know exactly what I need to do.

I usually don’t like involving religion and my own spiritual journey with my professional work but sometimes the mix cannot be divided or avoided. In Sikhism one of the foundation principles is “Sarbat Da Bhalla” which translates to: “May everyone Prosper“. Deep down that’s also what I’d like to see happen. I feel that in order to bring about this change peace and prosperity all mankind must united and share everything conceivable (love, resources & knowledge).

I’ve been trying to do my bit for this goal (& hoping that I can pay my dues to society) by making some free time and trying to help others in anyway that I can. Right now I’ve got my hands on many different things. For starters I’ve been supporting and guiding other ‘newbie’ web developers with projects. I have also joined a peer mentoring scheme in my borough. The scheme will also allow me to participate in the ‘Summer University‘ that will be happening in a few weeks time. I’m also currently looking at the United Nations Volunteers service to see where I can fit in. You may have earlier also have read my decision to join & help Sikhcess which has recently been setup in the UK. Sikhcess has really taken off in Birmingham but as for the London campaigns I’m not too sure what’s happening.

I’ve also become the co-founder along with Gurpreet Kaur of a non-profit organisation called ‘The Open Sikh Project‘. This organisation aim to share the Sikh principles of Seva (selfless service) & Ekta (oneness) amongst mankind.

Edit: I now know what’s going on with Sikhcess. A flyer is availible here.

Edit 2: The new date has been set as Saturday the 28th of June. The venue will be Shepherds Bush Gurdwara, London. I’ll make a new post nearing the time.

After my birth my mother became very ill. She underwent four major operations and countless others. She was constantly on medication and was unable to see my childhood as well as she wanted. She says that nature cared for me and she was unable to do anything herself for me.

If we rewind a few years; life in our home was very different and to some extent depressing. We’ve now overcome this gloomy past and I’d like to share the secret with you on how we did it.

The key to a healthy life is a combination of the following:

• Access to a Herbalist (We found a guy who was around from the days of the Raj! He’s now retired and vanished off the map. DR.DAY COME BACK!)
• Access to a Nutritionist
• Yoga

The most important factor for my mother must have been the Yoga she started at home. Simple movements had an immense effect on her health. She used to have extremely poor eye-sight and within a 2-3 year period she turned that around to such an extent that she no longer required glasses!

Below is a photo of the medicine she DIDN’T have to take as a result of utilising alternative medicine & treatment which was available.

Later in the afternoon I decided to try Yoga myself. I started a few years back but stopped when exams came in the way, although it does seems like the same is about to happen again. I went through some Asanas as were listed in the book I was following (YOG - It’s philosophy & practice - Swami Ramdev) and I was able to complete all the basic level stuff such as Gomukhasana (grabbing your hands behind your back). It came as quite a shock to find out how much flexibility I’ve lost over the past few years. I tried doing a handstand too and failed miserably. I must emphasise that it was an extremely painful failure.

I’m sure as time goes on things will only get better. My goal is to do the following Asana by Sunday (fingers crossed):

Rossy, an extreme sports guy who has spent years assembling his wings, casually stepped out of an airplane at 7,500 feet, unfolded the wings and quickly passed from free fall to mellow glide. He then fired up the wings’ engines and accelerated to more than 180 mph.

As if that weren’t cool enough, Rossy showed off a bit, making a few dives, some figure eights and a 360-degree barrel roll before landing at an airfield near Lake Geneva.

“That was to impress the girls,” he said after the five-minute flight.

It’s not your average DIY project, but then again Rossy doesn’t seem to be your average guy. One look at the video proves that.

Fusionman, as the 47-year-old adventurer calls himself, is intimately familiar with flight. As a military pilot he spent years flying Hunter, Tiger F-5 and Mirage III jets, and he flies airliners for Swiss International Airlines.

He’s spent several years developing the carbon fiber wing, which is eight feet long and features four German jet engines that provide 200 pounds of thrust. Rossy and his sponsors, which include the Swiss watch company Hublot, have spent $190,000 on the project, and with no plans to bring the wing to market, there’s no guarantee they’ll get a return on their investment.

The flight above the Alps was a big test for Fusionman and his wings, and it went off without a hitch. His mother wasn’t even worried, explaining to the Associated Press, “He knows what he’s doing.”

But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing — er, flying — for Rossy. Damage to a set of test wings in 2007 forced him to build another prototype, and he lost control during a jump three years ago and didn’t deploy his chute until he was a mere 1,500 feet above the ground.

Soaring above the Alps is only the start. Rossy is planning to cross the English Channel — a flight of about 23 miles — by the end of the year. But his dream is to fly over the Grand Canyon.

Photos from Rossy’s website.

(article source: wired.com)

(click to enlarge)

Today I’ve been trying out this brilliant new software (what an understatement) called Miro. For all those who have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, Miro is a free application that turns your computer into an internet TV video player. Heck, in a way it’s even a RSS reader & BitTorrent downloader! It’s currently supported on Windows, Mac & Linux

The amazing thing about this is that you can subscribe to over 1000 channels which are listed in the guide. Most channels contain HD (High-definition) quality videos. There is no silly sign ups required or functions which slow down your pc. It’s plain and simple.

Simply Download, install & run. My three favourite channels at the moment are: Discovery Channel (It’s got mythbusters on it), It’s the end of the world and I feel fine (believe me, this is a real channel!) & Tekzilla.

I think it’s time for NTL to get those fiber optic high speed cables installed in our area.

I’m one of those guys who likes to get real-time news there and then. No-matter if I’m in the shower, up a mountain or asleep and having odd dreams about chimps eating Yorkshire pudding.

In order to fulfill my news hungry appetite I’ve taken a number of steps to ensure I find out everything that’s happen around me.

I’ve currently got my Google Calender account linked to my mobile phone to alert me of any upcoming events. My Facebook account is set to send me SMS notifications of any activity happening on my account. I’ve got a bunch of RSS feeds plugged into Google Reader & being monitored all day long. I’ve got a series of key words being tracked down on Yahoo & Google alerts too.

Google Reader inbox view
(click to zoom in)

But it doesn’t stop there! I’m also on Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, IRC, MSN Messenger, Facebook Messenger. I’ve just recently combined all these (facebook + other social websites + MSN + Yahoo + ICQ) into one by using a program called Digsby! On average I usually have 55-60 contacts online throughout the day. I get live feeds delivered to Digsby of my contacts every move on social networking websites too.

Digsby contact list and conversation in progress
(Click to zoom in)

To put the icing on the cake I’m now thinking of buying myself a wireless alarm clock which will notify me of everything (new emails, RSS updates etc etc..) as soon as I wake-up!

After consulting with a few friends it seems that I am not the only one. This comes as a surprise and is actually quite alarming. How much is enough? How dominant should we be online and to what extent should we stay updated on news before it gets silly?