The Economic Times, the major print new paper and news website of India is going to live web cast Union Budget 2009 on it’s website using Microsoft’s SilverLight.

On 6th July 2009, you can point your browser to http://budgetlive.economictimes.com to view the live budget presentation and minute-by-minute analysis of the presentation. I think this is the first time ever a budget session is being live telecasted on web and thanks for this initiative from Economic Times as many people who are away from home can watch the budget session using their computers. Also you can watch NDTV & CNN IBN online as they do provide good coverage of budget 2009 session.

Microsoft SilverLight is winning many hearts and grabbing the market share quickly as many event are being live telecasted using it. Thanks vasu

Visit http://budgetlive.economictimes.com

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Watch Indian Union Budget 2009 Live On Your PC

Microsoft recently launched Windows Live Planet, a new social networking website that is very similar to Orkut or Facebook which allows us to be in touch with friends and share information with them.

Looks like this web site is soft launched and there is not much buzz on the blogs or press releases from Microsoft. The design and the content of the home page suggests that this site is primarily intended for Indian audience.

You can sign in to the site using your Windows Live/Hotmail/MSN account or otherwise you can use your GMail or Yahoo or other ids to create a new account.

Once you login, you can set up your profile and connect to your friends if they already in Windows Live Planet or you can invite them to join you. The options like search for friends, leave scraps allows you to find and keep in touch with friends.

The website also features a sleek web version of MSN Messenger(available in the footer of the website) and it allows you to chat with your friends as you do in the MSN Messenger windows application.

The website look and feel is not bad, but the usability looks like a problem as it does not look clean(it’s too flashy and hard to identify the various options). By the way, don’t try to open this website using Firefox or Chrome browsers, it may not work. I tried couple of times using Firefox and Chrome, it failed to work properly. Use Internet Explorer, it works perfectly.

It’s too late for Microsoft to get into Social Networking business and also very tough to convince the Indian users to move out of Orkut or Facebook and join Windows Live Planet.

Visit Windows Live Planet

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Windows Live Planet – Microsoft’s Social Networking Website

As there is lot of value addition in the new version, I upgraded Firefox at work place too.  All the fun with the new browser ended when I saw a flashing message showing Firebug plugin is not compatible with the new version of Firefox. I extensively use Firebug for web development and without that web development came to stand still. I was left with no option other than downgrading Firefox 3.5 to 3.0.

The next version of Firebug is compatible with Firefox 3.5 but still it is beta stage. So till a stable version of Firebug is available, I can’t upgrade to Firefox 3.5.

How to downgrade Firefox 3.5 to Firefox 3.0

For any reason if you are interested in downgrading Firefox 3.5 to Firefox 3.0 here are the steps to be followed:

1. Download the latest release of Firefox 3.0(3.0.11) from Mozilla FTP Servers
2. Just run the installer, it will automatically downgrade your Firefox to version 3.0

The downgrade process is very smooth and it retained all the settings of my profile.

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1 Reason Why I Downgraded Firefox 3.5 To Firefox 3.0 On My Work PC

This software will enable you to install third-party software that Apple does not like [not approved from Apple's App Store]. There is only a Windows version available for the jailbreak, Mac version is coming soon.

Steps to jail break is given as follows :

1. You need a Windows PC [Does not work with windows 7]
2. Download and install the  latest iTunes
3. Download purplera1n and run purplera1n [You will see a windows icon, click that to download the software to jailbreak]
4. Test your patience -  Wait
5. Run Freeze
6. Reboot the iPhone

You have successfully JailBroke the iPhone now

Note:  Cydia doesn’t display after running Freeze, make sure you reboot.

[Image credit: http://www.purplera1n.com/]

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Jailbreak iPhone 3GS

It’s a weekend and time for some Geek Fun. Here is a kite that a geek could appreciate

Via Digg

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Cursor Kite - Kites For Geeks [Geek Fun]

Real-time search comes to Bing. Microsoft today announced the integration of Twitter updates in it’s search results. Bing shows Twitter results from a few thousand prominent Twitterers(who are having large number of followers and tweets at regular intervals) in the results when ever appropriate.

In a blog post, Microsoft said “There has been much discussion of real-time search and the premium on immediacy of data that has been created, primarily by Twitter”

For example, if you search for Danny Sullivan Twitter or Danny Sullivan Tweets or @dannysullivan in Bing, you will see latest tweets  of Danny in the search results. Here is the screen grab when I bing’ed the same(Yay, you notice that? Along with Googling the web, we can also Bing now. That’s fun right?)

By the way, there is no tie up with between Microsoft and Twitter in this move. Microsoft is just using the Twitter APIs (as how thousands of other are using) to pull the latest twitter updates.

Bing is the first major search engine to show twitter updates as part of search results and this move is greatly appreciated by pundits in the industry.

After so many years, Google is first time ever facing a search engine opponent that is capable of standing against it’s supremacy. Looks like the Search Engine war is on!

Go..Bing..go!!

Update: If you don’t see the tweets in Bing results, wait for some time as Microsoft is slowly rolling out this feature to everyone. As I write, this feature is available for all the US users and soon its expected to be available for the users in other parts of the world.

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Bing Introduces Real Time Search. Now the Search Results Show Twitter Updates

If you are using still using Windows 7 Beta be prepared for automatic shutdowns of your computer once in every 2 hours. It’s time for you to upgrade your Windows 7 Beta to Windows 7 RC without loosing any of your configurations, data or installed programs.

The upgrade progress takes close to an hour or so and it is painless. Here are the detailed instructions for upgrading Windows 7 Beta to Windows 7 RC.

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Windows 7 Beta Automatic Shutdowns Start Today

Mozilla officially released the final version of Firefox 3.5 and it is available to download from here(approx 7.7 MB). Without any second thought, just grab your copy and install it.

Few users are reporting update notices, but I’ve not received any notice when Firefox is launched. I forced the upgrade by downloading the new version and installed it. Firefox 3.5 is awesome and more powerful than ever. Here is a quick walkthrough of new features and also the reasons why you should upgrade

What is new in Firefox 3.5?

1. Private Browsing: The new browse has Private Mode browsing feature. Firefox is quite late in introducing the private mode future that allows to use the browse the web without leaving any traces of the session.

2. Tab Tearing: The skinny Google Chrome introduced this awesome feature that allows dragging a tab out to create a new browser window. Now Firefox also has this nice feature.

3. Forget this Site: This feature allows you to erase history of a specific website. This comes handy when you want to clear browsing history of a single website and retain the rest.

4. Recover Selected Page of a Crashed Session: The crash recovery of Firefox is smarter now. It allows you to choose the pages that you want to recover after a crash. 

5. Faster JavaScript Engine: Firefox 3.5 has got a brand new JavaScript engine called TraceMonkey. Mozilla says its 20 to 40 times faster than the Firefox 3.0 JavaScript engine. We have to wait for independent performance assessments to know the actually performance boost in Firefox 3.5. Nevertheless, JavaScript will run more faster in the new version.

6. New Icon: Firefox 3.5 has a new icon that is slightly different from the previous version. You can have a look at the new logo here and also download high quality image.

Want to know more about all the things changed in Firefox 3.5? Then read the release notes

Download Firefox 3.5

Click here to download

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Firefox 3.5 Available To Download Now – 5 Reasons Why You Should Install It

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TopOfTheTubes: Quick Way To Watch Most Popular Videos On The Web At One Place.

Just few months ago we saw YouTube bringing free movies and TV shows in partnership with Hollywood & Bollywood studios. Now YouTube has launched Trailers, an exclusive sections for showcasing the Hollywood movie trailers in HD quality.

Even though there are many blog and sites that offers trailers, YouTube Trailers organizes the videos in a neat way. We can browse through the categories like most popular, latest, opening soon, and those currently in theaters.

As of now only Hollywood movies trailers are showcased in YouTube and hopefully we can expect to see Bollywood movie trailers too.

Visit YouTube Trailers

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YouTube Trailers – One Stop To Watch Movie Trailers In HD Quality