“Oops… the system was unable to perform your operation (error code 756). Please try again in a few seconds.”
I came across this wierd error staring at me when i try to login to my GMAIL account..

We rely so much on our primary email. All my account details ( countless details of endless things that might be used someday in the future…. or NOT!) are up there. ALLL THE STUFF is up there. I dont know what or how they are important, but its my EMAIL !!! How can i stay without it???

So, i start googling on the error code, and NOTHING!!

well, what do i do if at all i lost access to this account? will i survive without all this mess of a thing called my EMAIL ACCOUNT?? ok, gotta calm down, its just junk. I can live without it. Yes i can. Yes. NO!!!!

Can i live without being online? Without being able to check my bank statements online?

Without checking the weather before i step out?

Without being able to recharge my cingular prepaid ( 25$ for 23$) at comfi.com ??

Without being able to blog?

Without checking the number of visitors i have on iaintablonde.com?

Without checking the comments on my posts and feeling happy??

NO. I CANT!

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Drivers in central London and on a busy west London road will be able to pay for parking using their mobile phones!!

Westminster Council will roll out pay by phone parking across the borough following the six-month pilot scheme.

The council says the service will help eliminate theft, fraud and vandalism to parking meters.

‘Coin-free convenience’

Motorists need to set themselves up with a pay by phone
parking account, either via a website at home or a touchtone phone or
SMS text on the street.

If they are delayed returning to car they can top up their parking fee without the need to return to the vehicle.

Alastair Gilchrist, at Westminster Council, said: “For
motorists it gives coin-free convenience when paying for parking, and
the ability to pay for longer from elsewhere if you’re running late.”

No proof of purchase needs to be displayed in the window
of the vehicle as parking attendants can check if payments have been
made using a hand-held computer.

source: bbc.co.uk

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ShopWiki Color Search –Just saw this on comparisonengines.com and loved it: Shopwiki uses Web a Web 2. interface to let users search by color. Simple and innovative addition to the online shopping behavior. Very cool.im thinking that so many folks like to shop by color.
Ok, just talking about ShopWiki’s new color search tool is not enough. You have to experience it for yourself to understand the ‘cool’ factor of this funtionality. So go and test it out:

Go here (a search for a – something). Click on the ‘Colors’ beta button. Then choose a color. Then another. Then another. Then another. Now try searching for ‘vacuum’ or ‘cell phone’ and use the color search tool. It’s not perfect, but you’ll quickly get the picture.

Seriously. Leave. But please come back.

If you take a close look at what ShopWiki is doing, the color search tool is probably just the start of a flood of innovative ways to shop. Many shopping comparison engines are set up to quickly and efficiently monetize incoming clicks. If you look at the UI of most engines, there’s no Web 2.0 technology like Ruby on Rails or AJAX. There’s no sleek or simple interface like you’d see on SimplyHired or Kayak. And many of the current breed of shopping comparison engines are now owned by larger entities that are public or are going public so there’s not necessarily going to be a drive to take a step back and figure out how to innovate, but rather a full fledged assault on increasing revenue per visit.

The point is that ShopWiki has the freedom to think about the activity of shopping search much differently than NexTag, PriceGrabber, or Shopping.com. I’m not saying that ShopWiki is correct in its approach and every other company is wrong, but this color search innovation is what comes from thinking about a better user experience. I have not seen new features like this on the more established engines in a while. And isn’t the shop by color feature a better way to search for a sweater than the current options out there?

So where does this leave ShopWiki? Because of the potential for comprehensiveness, the low cost model, and focus on user experience, it’s exciting to think of the possiblities. Expect the company to continue to launch new features to create a more engaging shopping experience. Taken as a whole, this is one way (note, it’s not the only way) to build a loyal audience and not rely on the PPC engines. The more established players should pay attention.

Women are going to love this!

I need to play some more to get the color just right – you are right – it is fun!

Now, maybe I can match shoes and a purse without spending hours at the mall!

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IE: a wannabe firefox?

First lets talk about the predecessor. A post about IE7 on TechCrunch generated a lot of comments complaining about the lack of innovation in the Microsoft product. The timeline between IE6 and IE7 has been unusually long by software standards, so it was reasonable to expect a decent amount of innovation.

But nothing is near to ‘innovation’. All the features, though they look like the Microsoft IE-styled integration, are what firefox has. Infact, the features are what firefox came out as foxier than IE. So all looked like imitation.

Firefox

In just a few years, Firefox has taken
the previously dormant browsing market by storm and woken the slumbering giant Microsoft.

Any browser that was to successfully challenge IE6’s market dominance would have to be far and away the best browser on offer. Netscape 6 was decent, but didn’t cut it. The Mozilla suite, on which Navigator 6 was based, is excellent but aimed at developers and unwieldy for most user’s needs. The web needed a browser that was fast, lightweight, and did everything IE does, but better. The answer to that: Firefox.

Features that i Like the MOST! :

Firefox has an open architecture which allows the installation of
themes and extensions. Themes, like ‘skins’ in many other applications,
give the browser a whole new look. Extensions are even better — anyone
can write one to make the browser do something special, like check your
Gmail account when you open the browser, or block all ads.

• I like the IE Tab, with which i open the sites which cry to
  open in firefox. Another interesting thing i do with IE Tab is to open
  two gmail accounts at the same time in two different tabs, one firefox
  tab, one ie tab.
• And ofcourse, i use Performancing, which lets me configure my blog account very easily and blog within any tab.
• Firefox uses the same powerful rendering engine (code named “Gecko”) which is found in all Mozilla products. This means it has superb support for all those things we web developers love. Its rendering is accurate and fast, and it has advanced stylesheet support up the proverbial ‘wazoo’. DOM support is present and accounted for.
• Search is probably the most fundamental thing we do online and Firefox excels at
  integrating search engines in a very smart way. With this new release, Firefox adds the
  search completion mechanism, which works just like Google complete.

• FireFTP:

FireFTP is a Firefox add-on which enables you to upload your site or
files via the FTP protocol. It is handy if you are a Firefox user
because of the idea of running it inside one of the tabs so you don’t
have to launch an extra program. I looove this feature!

This free add-on allows you to upload to anywhere on the internet with FTP ability, providing you have the password of course.

You can run multiple FTP accounts and switch between them with a
simple drop down list. It is faster than most FTP clients I have used
and includes a whole host of features as well as a very good help
website to accompany it.

The program is available through the Mozilla Firefox add on website or direct from fireftp.mozdev.org.

Pros: Firefox has a tabbed interface; includes a pop-up
blocker; built-in, multiple search tools; and built-in RSS reader. It
is stable and free.

Cons:
No ActiveX support, so not all sites work in Firefox.

Overall:
Firefox’s tabbed browsing, RSS support, security features, and overall
cool factor make it more attractive than Internet Explorer.

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I would put it this way: Microsoft OFFICE 2007 is a all-that-you-need package. But no matter how cool the features are, there are always pros and cons to anything that is called a SOFTWARE! So here is my review after working on it for my homework’s at Speed School and everything else.

The good: Previously hard-to-find features now easier to explore; Word embraces basic desktop publishing tools; Excel formulas are easier to reference; PowerPoint presentations are more attractive; Outlook improves task and time management; improved integration throughout the applications; smaller application and file sizes; new file formats are easier to salvage if corrupted; document security is more straightforward.

The bad: Drastic design changes demand a steep learning curve if you’re upgrading; new interface isn’t always intuitive; contextual tabs and style galleries can be distracting; users of Office 2000 through 2003 must install converters to open Office 2007 files; no easy way to save work to the Web.

Office 2007 also stores documents in a new format — one more compact and safer than before. Colleagues who haven’t upgraded must download a free converter program to open the files. You also can save files in the older formats with Office 2007 — important because the converter isn’t available yet for Apple Inc.’s Mac computers. NOT A GOOD THING!!

I study at UofL and am sure by the time the University decides to get Office 2007, Office 2011 would release. This means though i can use the cool features of ver 2007, without the converter installed on the university PC’s, i would have to carry my laptop around! Now, im not a big fan of doing that!

Most of the suite’s applications — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access — have done away with the old, familiar menus and toolbars. In their place is the Ribbon — a horizontal strip of screen real estate populated with tabs and icons grouped by function.
There are some potential end-user stumbling blocks, though.

Office 2007 introduces a new interface, including a ribbon comprising a combination of toolbars that changes depending on the task a user is working on and the Office button, which replaces the old File menu. It may be difficult for end users to get used to the new elements, but we found the interface intuitive and eventually grew comfortable working with it.

The features that i like?
Creating a complex formula in Excel? Click on “Formulas” and pick your poison — all broken down by type.

It’s also dynamic: When handling a photo in Word, the Ribbon presents the tools suitable for that task. No more clicking on the “View” menu, choosing “Toolbars” and then figuring out which of the tiny icons might be of use.

The bottom line: Overall, Microsoft Office Standard 2007 is a worthy upgrade if you need to make sleeker-looking documents and presentations to share with others, and Outlook is better than ever, but you can stick to your current software if you don’t feel that it lacks anything.

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