How to buy gold bullion and also steps to safeguard its value?

One of the easiest and time-tested methods to buy gold bullion is to buy it directly from a reputable local gold bullion dealer who's been in business for a pretty long time. Why I prefer to get it from a dealer the good old way is coz you can see and feel the gold bullion - also you can actually feel the weight of the coins before you buy.

It's most likely the best approach to buy coins that are actually issued by a Bank or a Government agency than to buy the usual 1 oz or 10 oz bullion in the open market.

Usually you will find in most cases that the bullion that you plan to purchase is assayed or usually tested (acid) to check that it is real. But if you buy gold bullion encapsulated by a the very reputed issuing company it usually comes in a tamper proof case so there's really no question of purity or safety. Well, if you happen to invest in gold, you must clearly understand that it is a very long-term proposition since once you have it, it doesn't do much. Much in the sense, gold bullion doesn't pay interest or dividends but I would think that it is nice to take out and look at from time to time and feel it in hand often.

Also, be prepared that in short term you may infact likely lose money due to the market but eventually inflation increases it's value over a long period. The recommended allocation that most wealth manager's suggest is not more than 5% of your total portfolio's value should be in precious metals. Also, here's a very important tip when at the dealer's outlet, make sure that you are not charged more than around 10% over the current spot value of the metal. Remember to check online to see the daily spot value's and keep yourself updated of the up's and downs.

Finally, remember to keep the gold bullion, encased in it's original protective plastic Air-Tight packet since condition (in the distant future) may be important when selling. Hope you found this stuff interesting and useful.

The Best In Audio Video Tools

What do you use your computer for? Long gone are the days when the computer was strictly a data processing tools. Today, the computer is an all-purpose media entertainment center. Its capabilities have gone far beyond keeping a catalog of all your movies and music – it’s even gone beyond playing all your favorite music and movies. These days, with the right tools you can splice, cut, record, edit, mix, create and publish your own media. And to accompany the new capabilities there’s a dizzying array of new software tools that can help you do everything from rip CDs to encode complete animations and videos. How do you find the best new software tools?

And you’ll find them easily. There’s no need to wade through page after page of directory structure. You can search all categories from the front page on the site, or click on a category to go directly to browsing that category. You’ll find video editors, audio editors, CD rippers, imaging software, video and audio converters, complete all-in-one packages and more. There are shareware listings, commercial listings and freeware listings – in short, just about everything you’d ever want to play with your media.

Each listing includes a capsule description and a full review as well as a side box that lists all the important details about the software – including both a staff and user rating, and the chance to enter your own rating. The categories include All-in-One, Media Players, CD Rippers, CD Burners, Converters, DVD software, Editors, ID3 Tag Editors, Mobile Phone Tools, Plugins, Radio and Broadcasting (plogcasting, anyone?), Recorders, Utilities and Voice and Text editors.

The reviews are comprehensive, listing all the capabilities of each software package and how well it performs each function. It’s a nice bonus that’s not often found on pure directories.

For software publishers, there are multiple opportunities for exposure. There’s an easy submission tool to add a free listing of you audio or video software, and many different ways to increase the exposure of your listing at very reasonable rates. You can opt for a featured listing, front page exposure, top level search results, footer text links and more.

Among the most popular software featured at audio-video-tools.com is Blaze Media Pro, the popular powerhouse all-in-one media tool that converts between all available video and audio formats .Rip, burn, convert, edit, capture, create, extract and combine files to create your own unique media.

Free Invites for new Orkut – anyone wants?

Many of you folks send e-mails to me asking for an invite to the new Orkut eversince I wrote about the New Orkut. Though the steps were very simple to get an invite easily on the New Orkut but many were unable to get one.

So, here’s some very good news for you folks.

Well I am giving away the invites on a FCFS (First Comment First Serve) basis. You simply need to comment on this post below and also mail me at .

So what are you waiting for folks!! Get started – the new Orkut is really worth the wait I feel.

Hard Rock Cafe Opens in Hyderabad

Hard Rock Cafe is all set to open India's fifth Hard Rock Cafe at Hyderabad, which perfectly augements the flagship Mumbai cafe(September 2006) and also locations in Bengaluru(December 2007), Pune(January 2009) and New Delhi(June 2009). The new Hard Rock Cafe Hyderabad is as expected going to be situated near luxury hotels and shopping areas that offer a convenient destination for both local fans and also international travelers.

The new Hard Rock Cafe Hyderabad will be located at GVK 1, Road No. 1 which anchors the GVK Mall development at the heart of city. The 8,000-square foot cafe features a 200-seat restaurant, live concert venue and Rock Shop complete with Hard Rock's limited-edition merchandise. The new cafe and retail outlet will offer guests great American fare in a rock 'n' roll atmosphere.

Hard Rock Cafe Hyderabad like the other destinations will be adorned with pieces from Hard Rock's world-famous memorabilia collection which includes items representing both contemporary stars as well as rock legends, such as Elvis Presley, Elton John, Kylie Minogue and many more. Key memorabilia items on display at Hard Rock Cafe Hyderabad will include a pair of Alain Mikli glasses with gold-colored plastic frames worn by Elton John, a black satin top hat worn by The Beatles' George Harrison during the recording of "Crackerbox Palace," and a leather suede tunic jacket worn by The Who's Roger Daltry in the 70's. Now that's something to watch out for!!

Also, for the first time, Hard Rock Cafe Hyderabad will offer limited-edition and city-specific merchandise. The Rock Shop will have limited line of authentic rock-inspired Hard Rock Cafe items, including famous Classic and City t-shirts, as well as highly collectible accessories and pins. In addition, the Hyderabad cafe will offer Hard Rock's charity-driven Signature Series T-shirt line, featuring artists such as U2's Bono, Shakira, and Green Day.

Winner of the HP PhotoSmart Printer Giveaway

Well, folks - it wasn't that easy to choose a winner. There were 340 correct / qualifying entries to the contest. That was a bit too less than what I expected it to be, anyways - looks like the word didn't spread around much. So, how do you pick 1 winner from 340? There were many folks who had consistently answered on all 7 days - many correct, some wrong.

I just got an idea this morning to be completely neutral and use a Random Number Generator. And this was the lucky number which won it.


So, at position 112 we have.....

Anuradha from Namma Bengaluru

Congrats Anuradha on winning the contest - we've already dispatched a mail to you. The details on when the printer will reach you will be shared separately in a few moments.

Oh boy! that was pretty exciting. Thanks to the HP IPG team (especially Seema) and also folks from Burson-Marsteller (especially Soumya) for making this happen. Thanks again folks!!

Special thanks to all the participants and also for all those of you who helped spread the word about the contest.

Please await for a complete review from me on the HP PhotoSmart Premium 309G in a few days.

Cheers!!
Jason

All set to cover the HP Photosmart debut in India live tomorrow

The HP Photosmart Free Printer Giveaway contest will conclude tomorrow (Nov 19, 2009) at 11 am IST and thereafter the winner will be announced. So, to catch all this action live - I have been invited by HP to Delhi for the exclusive launch.

All you bloggers out there who are based out of Delhi can get an invite for the tomorrow event(check the invite above). If any of you are planning to attend do give me a buzz - we can catch up.

BTW, the mean Black machine has arrived a few minutes ago and you can be rest assured about a review soon.

Cheers!!
Jason

HP PhotoSmart Free Printer Giveaway contest - Day 6/7 of 7

We are less than 24 hrs away from the Free HP Photosmart Printer Giveaway results - and we have 2 more questions to go. So I'll go ahead and post both the Day 6 and Day 7 questions here - double bonanza you may call!! Two correct entries from you today - you get two chances more to winning the Black Beast!!

Well, well - sorry that I couldn't do a detailed review of the HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G printer since the review unit seems to have just vapourised into thin air. The courier agency seems to claim that it has delivered the unit but I am here still waiting to get it :( - so it may take somemore time untill the logistics get sorted off and I get to do an in-depth review of the unit.

Here are thre words to describe the HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G - Simple, Natural and Compelling and here's the reason why?

Simple: Breakthrough ease of use through direct manipulation
See it. touch it, print it

Natural: Directly manipulate objects and pages, naturally
Push it. pull it, flick it

Compelling: Warm colors, photo realistic graphics, and quality sound deliver a premium, engaging experience
Hear it, see it, love it

TheQuick Form is one hell of an innovation I can call.

Touch the Quick Form icon. Then you have several quick forms to choose - eg. Calendar . You can choose between monthly and weekly calendar monthly - select year you want to see - OK - then select the month - touch the arrows to move - May 2010 OK - printing. You're done - You now have a lovely customised calendar printer right at te comfort of your desk!! You can also get it priter in studio quality online at HP Snapfish all this even without connecting to a PC.

Another example for fun: games choice - Sudoku, mazes, dots, tic-tac-to Let's go for Sudoku - touch Sudoku then you can even select the 4 different levels of the Sudoku - from "very easy" to "difficult". Let's go for the difficult one - touch done then you are asked for the number of printouts.

Easily drag and drop photos to a desktop icon from virtually anywhere – folders, applications, e-mail and websites – for printing with the HP Photo Print Gadget.

Easily print web pages with HP Smart Web Printing and save both ink and paper by combining multiple web pages onto one printed page.

So here's Day 6 question below :

The HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One allows users to view, edit and print lab-quality photos without connecting to a PC from your online album at?

Click here to give your answer to the above question and also enter the contest. Rules of the contest are available at the following link.

P.S: Answer Day 6 and Day 7 questions individually on the contest entry page.

And.... here's the easy of the lot question for Day 7.

Why do you love the new HP PhotoSmart Premium 309G? In case of a tie, the best answer to this question wins!!

Click here to give your answer to the above question and also enter the contest. Rules of the contest are available at the following link.

P.S: Answer Day 6 and Day 7 questions individually on the contest form.

HP PhotoSmart Free Printer Giveaway contest - Day 5 of 7

The response has been good thus far though we had a few glitches with the Techolic Blog where the contest had to be dis-continued for some un-avoidable reasons. But we're going strong on The Most Authoritative Technology Blog though. The final 3 days are here - so gear up folks and let others know of the contest too - so that we can have more fun and you can also find your friends and family try their luck on winning a brand new printer - courtesy HP.

PRINTING IS FUN!

Well, you may ask how? With the HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G the convenience and simplicity of a TouchSmart control panel with a large 3.45-inch touchscreen, the HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One allows users to view, edit and print lab-quality photos from their online albums on HP Snapfish without connecting to a PC.

The new HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G take “touch” several steps ahead with a breakthrough TouchSmart user interface called the “Magic Frame”. This patented dynamic panel provides consistency, value, and ease-of-use across the product lineup. The screen maximizes the size of the touch area by including contextual buttons that light up when relevant to the user. To simplify the user experience, HP has removed all clutter from the touch panels and minimized unnecessary features. This strengthens the visual focus and makes it really intuitive.

Now looking into the Quick Forms. Touch the Quick Form icon Then you have several quick forms to choose - eg. Calendar, etc. You also have fun options: games choice - Sudoku, mazes, dots, tic-tac-to Let's go for Sudoku - touch Sudoku then you can even select the 4 different levels of the Sudoku - from "very easy" to "difficult". One touch has your Sudoku game ready. Easily drag and drop photos to a desktop icon from virtually anywhere – folders, applications, e-mail and websites – for printing with the HP Photo Print Gadget.

And here's the Day 5 easy as usual question coming your way.

What’s the size of the HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G touchscreen?
Answers : 2 inch | 3.45 inch | 5 inch

Click here to give your answer to the above question and also enter the contest. Rules of the contest are available at the following link.

P.S: You need to copy paste the answer only at the contest entry page. E.g: 2 inch

For those of you who find it hard to track the questions daily or have the website blocked at their office premises - here's a simple solution. Enter your mail ID in the form below and get subscribed to the mailing list - the questions will be delivered right in your inbox - ain't that simple?

HP PhotoSmart Free Printer Giveaway contest - Day 4 of 7

More on TOUCH.PRINT.GO

Ever-since HP first started incorporating touch into it's Photosmart range of printers way back in 2006 - things have evolved so much. There have been lots of evolutions to make the new touch experience that you experience in the latest range of printers to make it that much more user friendly and intuitive. It's not just the hardware and the touch responsiveness that has evolved but also the UI and the underlying software that powers up all these. The new features incorporated into the dynamic graphical interfaces strive to improve the overall user-experience and also makes printing directly right off the printer a far more instinctive approach than never before.

Did you know that the new HP PhotoSmart C309G makes touch-based processes that much more satisfying with the all new multi-touch capable hardware(much like your iPod Touch or iPhone) and also the software is tweaked to react to the very lightest touch of a finger, thereby making the experience that much more fun and easy.

The HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G also features a very smart one-touch wireless set-up. Best of all the new HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G comes in a sleek new black design with piano finish that'll compliment any desk and it's sure gonna grab a few eye-balls.

So, here's the Day 4 question coming your way.

Day 4: When did HP first incorporate touch technology in the Photosmart line?
Answers : 2009 | 2006 | 2004

Click here to give your answer to the above question and also enter the contest. Rules of the contest are available at the following link.

P.S: You need to copy paste the answer only at the contest entry page. E.g: 2009

For those of you who find it hard to track the questions daily or have the website blocked at their office premises - here's a simple solution. Enter your mail ID in the form below and get subscribed to the mailing list - the questions will be delivered right in your inbox - ain't that simple?

HP PhotoSmart Free Printer Giveaway contest - Day 3 of 7

Well, well - Here we have the day 3 of the contest for you. There was a barrage of e-mails yesterday as to what happened to the contest question - well, we were slightly off track as the questions were coming out only at around 15:00hrs on Day 1 and Day2 - Inorder to correct this off-set, yesterday was intentionally left and lo - we now have questions in the morning itself from today onwards.

Also, for those who find it hard to track the questions daily or for those who have the website blocked at their office premises - here's a simple solution. Enter your mail ID in the form below and get subscribed to the mailing list - the questions will be delivered right in your inbox - ain't that simple?

So here's the fun reading for today and also the question.

A printer for everyone in the household

As I had mentioned in the earlier article - the brand new HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G printer is touted as the world's first Web-Connected printer. Now what this really means is that the printer can work very individually without the need for a PC and when I say this - it's not the simple Copy-Scan features I am talking about but a whole host of other things.

The HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G is all about convenience and simplicity - It features a really nice and large 3.45-inch touchscreen which is called the TouchSmart control panel. This allows users to easily view, edit and print studio quality photos from their online web albums located at HP Snapfish - All this even without switching ON your PC. Not just that, the superb Touchscreen helps you to do much more on Snapfish like archive, share, and even create projects or print photos from the site. Isn't it a true Web-Connected printer?

Day 3: HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G printer is touted as the XXX-Connected printer. What's the XXX?

Click here to give your answer to the above question and also enter the contest. Rules of the contest are available at the following link.

P.S: You need to answer only the XXX at the contest entry page.

HP PhotoSmart Free Printer Giveaway contest - Day 2 of 7

First of all, thank you folks for the out-standing response we have had on Day 1 of the contest. Hope you all enjoyed the contest yesterday and many said it was very simple - yes that's exactly how it's going to be for the next 6 days too. Now lets dive into today's topic and also the question.

Simple steps to Save Energy when using Your Computer and Printer

Always look out to buy Energy Star certified computer accessories like monitor, printer, or All-In-One (AIO) scan-copy-print-fax machines. They can easily help you save around 50% or more on your energy consumption. All of HP's current printer range are ENERGY STAR® qualified which means that they are more than 10% energy-efficient than other similar models which are non-ENERGY STAR® qualified.

One may wonder how the modern Energy Star computers / printers work and how they can save power? It's very simple, these equipment can use 70% less energy than other non-Enery Star equipment due to the low power mode that can operate when the computer/printer is inactive. As we all know, inactive period of computer periperals like printers and scanners is very high than the time they are active. So having an energy star efficient equipment really helps. There are also other benefits of the Energy Star qualified equipment like reduced noise and heat output as well as less electromagnetic field emissions in case of certain type of monitors.

Hope that made an interesting read, so here's the question for day 2.

Day 2: ENERGY STAR® qualified printer are more energy-efficient than other models by?
Answers : More than 10% | Less than 5% | Less than 2%

Click here to give your answer to the above question and also enter the contest. Rules of the contest are available at the following link.

P.S: You need to copy paste the answer only at the contest entry page. E.g: Less than 2%

HP PhotoSmart Free Printer Giveaway contest - Day 1 of 7

After the initial announcement of the HP PhotoSmart Free Printer Giveaway contest this morning - I have been virtually flooded with mails. Most of them asking why the contest is open for Indian residents only. Sorry about that but we were constrained by the Logistics and hence wanted to restrict the contest only to Indian residents.

So, lets get started off with the contest for today.

The Power of Touch

HP started talking about something called as Print 2.0 way back at the Web 2.0 Summit held during October 2007. At that time the Print 2.0 concept looked more like a strange paper initiative that many company's talked about. At that time it merely looked like what many other company's were doing by adding a 2.0 tag to their businesses. But through the years, we have witnessed HP going through a conceptual shift which is very well captured by this very cool video placed on YouTube.

Way back when HP started the InkJet Revolution by introducing the HP ThinkJet which was the first mass-marketed personal inkjet printer. Inkjet technology very much spelled the end for the noisy dot-matrix printer. Those were the days when the web was at it's infancy. The printer very much evolved from the clunky, noisy boxes to integrate personalized features that can make printing more intuitive and simple. And “touch” became an important step forward.

The new HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G takes the “touch” evolution several steps ahead with a breakthrough TouchSmart user interface which is called as the “Magic Frame”. HP wants to make the printing experience seamless with the concept of TOUCH.PRINT.GO . The HP PhotoSmart Premium C309G printer is also the first-ever web-connected printer - what this essentially means is that you can very easily view, edit and print lab-quality photos from their online albums on HP Snapfish without even connecting your printer to a PC. Now ain't that cool.

Coming to the question of the day :

Day 1 : Fill in the blank - HP Enables Consumers to Simply XXXXX, Print and Go?
(Hint: Check out HP’s FaceBook Page or read the article above again carefully )

Click here to give your answer to the above question and also enter the contest. Rules of the contest are available at the following link.

P.S: You need to answer only the XXXXX at the contest entry page.

Free Giveaway Contest :: Chance to win an all new HP PhotoSmart here

Hello Folks,

I'll be starting off with a Free Giveaway contest on the Jason S The Most Authoritative Technology Blog shortly (a few hours from now to a day at max). The contest will entitle you to win a Free HP PhotoSmart printer on the day of it's launch!! Yes - you can win the very first unit when it is launched in India on 19th November. How much cooler can it get - thanks to HP for all this.

So, that's got you all excited - here's how you can win the printer easily. All you need to do is visit this blog daily (as you've always done) and for the next 7 days - everyday you'll find an article related to one very exciting (when I say exciting I really mean it) feature of the HP PhotoSmart printer and based on that article you'll need to answer a very simple question and lo you can win yourself a brand new HP PhotoSmart printer. Can it get any simple than this?

Hint : Even before the contest opens up I'll pass on some hints to you folks. Each day's answer will be a SINGLE WORD. So no large sentences to remember. Now that makes it so much more easy.

Hope this has got you all excited. Do let me know if you have any queries - will be happy to answer.

Here are the contest rules :

• The contest is open only to Indian residents.
• The contest will end on Nov 19, 2009 at 11 am IST.
• Only one entry allowed per user per day.
• The contest winner will be decided by Jason S along with the HP co-ordinates.
• Employees of HP and Jason S (The Most Authoritative Technology Blog), their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, retailers, agencies and their respective officers, directors, employees and agents, and members of their immediate families and households, whether or not related, are not eligible to enter or win.
• The decisions of the judges are final and binding. HP and Jason S (The Most Authoritative Technology Blog) reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject entries, if any, that are not qualified as eligible.
  
• The contest will also be run jointly on Techolic Blog which is also authored by Jason S. The winner will be jointly chosen from all the entries received from Techolic and The Most Authoritative Technology Blog.
  Update : The contest will run exclusively only on this blog.
• The rules can be modified without prior intimation - the same will be displayed on this blog as well as the contest page.

Do let all your friends and contacts also know about this contest - together you can WIN. Click the e-mail icon below to mail this to your friends.

Here are the direct links to all the Questions and the Contest Entry page.
Contest Day 1 Question
Contest Day 2 Question
Contest Day 3 Question
Contest Day 4 Question
Contest Day 5 Question
Contest Day 6 Question
Contest Day 7 Question

SMS based location search in Bangalore - Get directions for free

A new SMS based location search service is available in Bangalore now. It's on 9008890088. This new service allows you to find services, directions to places of interest and also provides directions to people from point A to point B in Bangalore.

The cool things about this services is that it is completely based out of the SMS network and so it works absolutely fine for people with or without Smart phones. Till date we have had location based search confined to only smart phones having mapping facility like GPS but this new service brings in a lot of hope to look out for in Bangalore.

The 9008890088 SMS service is available free of charge - the only charge you will incur is the standard SMS rate for local messages as per your mobile plan. This service requires NO registration or NO subscription.

I used this service over the weekend and was very much impressed with it - I found the service to be pretty reliable and also involves very little waiting time - maybe because very few people have started to use this service. But even on a weekend and the fast response it was really good. The reply back time varied for me from around 5 seconds to a max of about 1 minute but again it looks like the reply time varied due to the mobile operator’s message traffic congestion and also the availability of signals since I was constantly on the move.

Here's how you can make use of this very simple and effective service. All you need to do is simply send SMS to 9008890088.

Here's how you can use the service - simply SMS any of these messages below to 9008890088:

• Example 1: FROM Silk Board TO Lalbagh Road
• Example 2: Pizza NEAR Forum Mall
• Example 3: HDFC ATM NEAR M G Road

You will get an instant reply SMS with the exact location and also you will get the shortest directions to reach the place from a prominent landmark. Another added benefit is that you also get to know the total distance in Kilometers and also an approximate Auto fare to the destination which really helps when you need to bargain for a fixed fee from places like MG Road or Forum.

Hope you too find the service very useful - save it to your mobile now!! Never know when you need this service which is just an SMS away!!

Changes to the Blog

Hi Folks,

Some much awaited changes have been done to The Most Authoritative Technology Blog. I had been thinking about these changes for quite sometime now but really didn't find time to implement them. So, here today I find time at 1:15hrs (mid-night) to implement the changes.

The two changes are:

• Summary of articles on the front page - rather than entire articles. This makes it faster to load the website and also gives the readers to choose which content to read in it's entirety. You can click on the article headline or the link after "Continue Reading" to read the rest of the content in the article.
• New Bookmark widget has been implemented. This has much smaller icons(see below) and also has a lot of options like even sending to gmail or saving in your browser favorites or printing this article.

As always - I would like to hear from you on how these changes affect you. Your comments are always welcome.

Cheers!!

Jason

Simple Steps to easily get an invite to the New Orkut for Free

A new avatar of the popular social networking website - Orkut has been launched a few days back by Google. It seems that Google has finally woken up to the strides taken by Facebook to make it more leaner, fun and simple to work with. The new Orkut seems more like a union of the existing (or should I say OLD) Orkut and Facebook.

Orkut has been on a steady on a decline as more and more users are switching to FaceBook. This includes even me - I too was a loyal Orkut user for years until I was sucked into Facebook a few months / year back and ever since haven't looked back.

So the new Orkut is only open to private invitations currently. Here's how you can easily get an invite to access the all new Orkut. Since the new Orkut is available to only a few users - so make haste!!

Follow the steps given below and you can easily get a Free invite to use the new Orkut :

• Head to the Official webpage of the new Orkut Community.
• On the page you will find a link marked as "BE THE FIRST TO PREVIEW THE NEW ORKUT HERE!". Click on it and it opens a form to enter your details and lo!! your on your way to get an invite for the all new Orkut!!
  

Ain't this simple? Do try it atleast for the fun of it.

Here are a few screen shots of the all new Orkut.





Here is also an official video released by Google. BTW, most of this work was done at the Google R&D hub at Hyderabad, India.

Simple tips to get the most out of your Online Meetings

Online meetings are inarguably the most price-less tool for saving people's time and money in a very aggressive and competitive business environments that we see today. But did you know that most online meetings tend to have a sour experience in the host as well as the presenter's minds mainly due to poor training or unpreparedness of both - either the presenter or the host.

So here are some very simple and most effective methods to achieve the most of Online Meetings:

1. Always make sure that the Online Meeting is short and to the point - crisp. Always make sure that No online meeting ever exceeds more than an hour or in some cases even thirty minutes.

2. Always make sure that you have already prepared a slip containing the list of all probable questions that you will ask those attending the online meeting. Always remember that asking questions helps you retain everyone’s attention.

3. Before you start off - remember to inform the other participants to keep their questions to the end of the online meetings. There should be a very high probability that you will answer most of the questions that the audience thought off during your regular presentation.

4. Mail out the attendees well in advance to install and test the online web meeting software ahead of the schedule. Also, they can check the audio setup and the microphone setup too.

5. It is important in a web meeting that you have a very optimized copy of the PowerPoint slides such that the .ppt / .pptx file is less than 2 MB in size. This greatly helps the attendees not to experience a time lag as you flip through the slides.

Hope these tips helped you. Do share your tips/experiences on online Meetings too.

Fresh Car Designs from the Tokyo Auto Show

Here are some really fascinating fresh car designs from the just concluded Tokyo Auto Show. They are so breathtaking that it'll make you wonder what we can expect in the near future.

First off is the Skydeck's seats that are exclusively constructed from wood and mesh to make passengers feel cool as they drive.

Honda did bring the Skydeck to the show which was a rather futuristic looking six-seat hybrid vehicle.

Also we had the Honda's EV-N which was a tiny retro-looking electric vehicle that has an inbuilt power-producing solar panel on its roof. This vehicle also has a place to store your Honda U3-X scooter in it!!



Yamaha also had a new concept electric scooter called the EC-1. It is part of Yamaha's strategy to move beyond its core market of motorcycle with fun and personal vehicles.



Daihatsu also showed off its concept called "Deca Deca". The van's big cabin has
doors that open up to an amazing 135 degrees and a center pillar-less body.

Get your CIBIL - Credit Report in India online easily

CIBIL which stands for Credit Bureau of India Limited is India's first and foremost credit information bureau. It serves as a repository of information which contains among others the credit history of borrowers both commercial and consumers. CIBIL also provides this information to Banks, lending agencies which are its Members in the form of credit information reports for a specific borrower.

Till now, one could not get access to their own credit information since there was no provision for the same. I too have had a very bad experience with ING Vysya bank and a home loan that I have with them. Till date it has been almost 2.5 years and 5 lakhs of regular payment with Post dated Cheques (PDC) but now when I contact them they say that my loan has not yet started all because the EMI I was paying regulary was incorrect due to some software error - now it looks like they have sent my information to CIBIL. So, when I found this news that any individual can access their own credit report - it was a very good news for me.

All you need to do is

• Send an e-mail to myreport@cibil.com
• The Email need to have a copy of the CIR Request Form duly filled by you.
• Also, after sending the mail do Mail self attested hard copies of your latest Identity Proof (PAN Card / Passport / Voters ID) and Address Proof (Bank Statement / Telephone Bill / Electricity Bill) documents and Fees (Demand Draft (DD) of Rs 142 in favour of Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited payable at Mumbai ) to P.O.BOX 17, Millennium Business Park, Navi Mumbai- 400710
• Once CIBIL receives the above documents and also the Fees, your request will be processed and copy of your CIR report will be dispatched to you.
  

That sounds like a very good news. You can read more about this here.

What are Crystal Singing Bowls and what is their use anyways?

Well, most of us might have come across a term called as "Crystal Singing Bowls" like I did a few days ago and wouldn't be knowing what is their real use was. First of all, these are real bowls which have been in existence for well over 3000 years ago in most places of India.

But the bowls in their current shape has been originally date to somewhere around 1000 years back in parts of current Tibet. In Tibet, there is a sect called as "Bon" which is part of Shamans who use the Crystal Singing Bowls in their cultural rituals. The bowls that are used for the rituals are usually made of an alloy of either nine or seven or five metals like gold, silver, tin, copper, iron, mercury, etc. There is also a popular ritualistic belief in ancient India that Singing bowls made out of meteorites were very holy.

Even today you can find Singing Bowls made of these very same metals in parts of Tibet. But they are very highly priced due to the antique value that they carry. Crystal Singing Bowls come as a very perfect alternative to the original metal masterpieces. These are carved out of a single rock of crystal and hence each piece has it's own distinct look and feel. For mass production we find crystal bowls made out of composite minerals that mimic the crystal ones. So you may need to look out for the fakes and choose the right ones.

Well, you may ask - why are these bowls really used? Crystal Singing Bowls are mainly used for meditation purposes. The soothing music helps the mediator to experience more completeness in meditation and attain a higher state and calm.