Todays Headline :Private Forums in Drupal : Drupal Notes.

groups.drupal.org serves the Drupal community by providing a place for groups to organize, plan and work on projects. Real world local user groups in particular are encouraged to setup their online presence here.

http://groups.drupal.org/

Drupal Notes: http://www.group42.ca/drupal

Drupal Association : http://association.drupal.org/

Top 7 Useful Adobe AIR Applications for Bloggers!!

Adobe AIR aims to facilitate access to web apps and services from your desktop. I was introduced to Adobe AIR applications just a few days back and now I am totally addicted to them. Out of a number of Adobe AIR apps that I tried and tested, here’s a compilation of the top 10 which bloggers would love to have in their armoury.

But before that just make sure you have the latest version of Adobe AIR installed on your system. You can get it from here.

1. Google Analytics Reporting Suite

The Google Analytics Reporting Suite brings Google Analytics to the desktop. You can access your blog’s traffic statistics from your Desktop itself - you need not necessarily login to the analytics website.

2. ReadAir

As mentioned before, you can access Google Reader from your desktop using this Adobe AIR application. ReadAIR’s features include:

• Mac themed scrollbars and form elements
• Add/Remove/Manage tags
• Subscribe/Unsubscribe from feeds
• Search your feeds
• Auto software update

Another similar app is the Fresh RSS Reader

3. Twhirl

Twhirl is again a desktop twitter client, based on the Adobe AIR platform.

Some of twhirl’s features are:

• connects to multiple Twitter and Friendfeed accounts, cross-post updates to Pownce and Jaiku
• notifications on new tweets
• post images to TwitPic
• search tweets using TweetScan
• timeline filtering
• localized to English, German, Italian and Spanish

4. Webkut

WebKut is an Adobe AIR application that allows you to capture web pages, or parts of them in a very simple way. It provides you 3 capture options: the entire page, the current view, or only a selection.

5. AIRPress

AIRPress is rich blog editor. You can create new posts, and manage your WordPress blogs AIRPress. The only issue is that it requires an older version of Adobe AIR (i.e., Adobe AIR beta 2)

6. Color Browser

Colour Browser lets you create and organize your favourite colour palettes. Sets of colours are easily viewable in a clean interface. Edit them, rearrange them, create new sets, and make your own. This is a must have application if you are going to design your blog theme or redesign an existing blog template.

7. ShifD

With ShifD, you can create notes and bookmark websites. You can add content with tags that are easily editable. These are then synced, and you’ll be able to access them from your mobile too.

I hope you like the above mentioned applications. If you know any other apps that may be useful to bloggers, please tell us in the comments.

Think Today: What is the commonest problem we face today? Too much efficiency and not enough effectiveness.

Efficiency is based on doing what you already do — only faster and cheaper. Effectiveness comes from doing whatever you need to do to be a success. Since that is often something new and different, you’re usually not that efficient (at least at first). That’s why efficiency is what keeps dying businesses (and careers) afloat, while effectiveness is what launches new ones into the stratosphere.

Building effectiveness into your life
Look at your own life and work. Are you fixated on being more efficient: on doing more and more of what you already do (though perhaps more easily, cheaply, and with less effort)? Or are you looking to make yourself more effective: to learn new skills, add new experiences, become more creative, and follow your ideas wherever they may take you?
Many people rush about being efficient while strangling their effectiveness. They follow the latest fads in time management and personal productivity, yet cannot spare a moment to discover if what they are getting done so much faster and more easily is worth doing at all.
Here’s the fundamental difference: efficiency tries to save time to do more of the same. Effectiveness uses time to avoid doing only what you have done before, in favor of working out how to do something better. And since time cannot be saved — you can’t store it somewhere to use later — only redirected, saving time to do more of the same is no saving at all. Only by choosing to use your time in new and different ways can you let go of the past to find what the future will offer you.

India's best-known soldier dies!

The Indian general who commanded the military campaign that led to the creation of Bangladesh has died at the age of 94.
Sam Manekshaw, whose career spanned four decades, was one of India's best known and well-respected soldiers.
Under the British, he was decorated for gallantry in World War II for his part fighting the Japanese army in Burma.
After India gained independence, he became chief of the army in 1969 and in 1973 was made field marshal.
Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: Hero or villain?

http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/field-marshal-sam-manekshaw-hero-or-villain/

Flexible working attracts IT staff - 25th June 2008

Flexible working is second only to salary in attracting IT professionals to accept a new job.

Despite the attraction of working for home or part time, research by UK online recruitment site www.theitjobboard.co.uk revealed that the IT industry has a long way to go to truly embrace flexible working. Although 61% of IT professionals said they worked flexibly, almost half believed their company had yet to adapt to the whole flexible working culture. For that reason, a fifth of the respondents to the survey thought that flexible working affected their chances of promotion.

Alex Farrell, managing director of www.theitjobboard.co.uk, said that offering flexibility could be a key to attracting staff and combating the skills shortage.

"A flexible working policy is essential to many female IT professionals because it allows them to balance the demands of their career with family and childcare commitments. Employers have no time to lose in introducing this practice," said Farrell.

New Blog arrived : http://steps2invest.blogspot.com/

http://steps2invest.blogspot.com

This blog is an attempt to learn and share about Personal Finance.

I’ve tried to run away from finance. Maybe because I was not able to understand the jargons and the maths. But I guess ignoring personal finance worsens the situation. And the only way to get maximum out of your personal finance is to look it into its eye and grapple with it. You will come out stronger.

Check this out!

Top Story : Indian students are the best,rates Oxford University!

The Oxford University considers Indian students among the best in the world and would like more of them joining its campus, Chancellor Chris Patten has said. The university, which produced the likes of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has presently 257 Indian students on roll.