AVINASH 2.0

Blog Hungry? Check Out The List Of 45,000 Blogs

If a few thousand blogs weren’t enough for you, here is a list of 45,000 blogs. Just remember that this single page may be bigger than 6MB in size.

Social Language Networking – Learn Foreign Languages for FREE

Recently, I’ve seen two new Web 2.0 startups in the ‘learn foreign languages’ segment. These companies are targeting an audience that is specially interested in learning/teaching foreign languages. The concept sounds cool ’cause there are many people who are interested in learning Spanish, Russian, German, French, etc., including myself and when there is someone ready to teach you these languages for FREE, the concept automatically becomes super cool, doesn’t it?

And these two sites are:

I started using Mango Languages about 13hrs ago and so far, I’ve liked its Flash based Spanish lessons. In its current state, Mango Languages can’t be called a social language network though. It still has many powerful features that make language learning a fun experience. The main features are:

• Color Coded Translations
• Audio of Native Speakers
• Interact With Individual Words and Phrases
• Speaker Icon at the Beginning of Each Full Sentence
• Phonetics
• Relevant and Real Conversations
• Note Slides
• Memory Building Exercises

These features should be more than enough for any person who wants to learn any foreign languages. Personally, I find the color coded translations pretty helpful. I completed a few lessons in less than 3hrs and was able to chat with a friend in Spanish for more than 10 minutes. In the end, she said: “Wow! I didn’t know that you can read/write Spanish so well. I’m impressed.”

There is one more site that can be pretty useful. I’m yet to start any lesson on this site though. This social language networking site is:

I joined Livemocha after reading this Profy blog post titled Livemocha: A Social Language Learning Experience. Livemocha has many language courses designed to make you an expert in any foreign language. You can also add friends who are interested in teaching you their native languages.

Everything is free so the only thing that you need is the passion to learn any foreign language.

IT Exam info for IT students
642-382, Cisco certification exam is very assistive to enhance the practical knowledge of Cisco Channel Partner Field Engineers. 642-642, certification exam is designed to assess the inherent technical skills of IT professionals. 642-825, The Implementing Secure Converged Wide Area Networks certification exam is a qualifying exam for CCNP. 642-552, cisco certification exam is very accommodating exam to uphold the professional status of IT personnel. 642-812, the Building Converged Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN) gives the perfect knowledge to the candidates how to build switching and routing system efficiently.

WordPress to Launch Theme Marketplace

Marshall Kirkpatrick of Read/WriteWeb reported that WordPress is to launch a WordPress theme marketplace:

“The idea is that designers will be able to upload themes, we put a price (Automattic takes half), and users can navigate the directory and quickly select, pay and install a template, everything from the same place and without major expertise.”

Visit Read/WriteWeb to read the whole article: WordPress Launching Theme Marketplace

A 50/50 deal. Sounds tough, no?

Mandriva – An Open Letter to Steve Ballmer

What can money buy? The answer is in Mandriva’s (previously Mandrake) open letter to Steve Ballmer:

[...]

We recently closed a deal with the Nigerian Government. Maybe you heard about it, Steve. They were looking for an affordable hardware+software solution for their schools. The initial batch was 17,000 machines. We had a good answer to their need: the Classmate PC from Intel, with a customized Mandriva Linux solution. We presented the solution to the local government, they liked the machine, they liked our system, they liked what we offered them, the fact that it was open, that we could customize it for their country and so on.

Then your people entered the game and the deal got more competitive. I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that. They fought and fought the deal, but still the customer was happy to get CMPC and Mandriva.

[...]

And then, today, we hear from the customer a totally different story: “we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward.”

Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done for these guys to change their mind like this? It’s pretty clear to me, and it will be clear to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve, in the place where you live? In my place, they give it various names, I’m sure you know them.

Hey Steve, how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?

[...]

And I thought that Microsoft was already evil enough…

Twitterquake?

Frank Gruber of Somewhat Frank has something interesting to say about Twitter and how it may be used as a great life-saver tool.

If you don’t understand the value of Twitter you might want to listen now. I was just on Twitter checking some friend updates when I saw one of my Twitter friends yelled, “EARTHQUAKE!” The earthquake hit just outside of San Jose but thanks to Twitter I had personalized alerts from several friends in the area as soon as the quake hit.

Now You Can Withdraw PayPal Funds to Your Indian Bank Accounts

UPDATE: This post is being updated to notify all the people reading this post about PayPal account holders having problems in withdrawing payments to their Indian bank accounts for past 30 days.

I’ve received an email from PayPal that claims that they are going to resume withdrawal to Indian bank accounts from 3rd March, 2010. To read more about this update, please check out their blog.

What a great surprise! Now, the Indian PayPal users can withdraw PayPal funds to their Indian bank accounts. The process may still take 5 to 7 days.

Supported Banks:

• State Bank Of India (SBI)
• Bank Of India
• HDFC Bank
• ICICI Bank
• Axis Bank (Previously, UTI Bank)
• Standard Chartered Bank
• Canara Bank
• Union Bank of India
• ING VYSYA Bank
• HSBC
• Citibank

Now the cool thing is that I’ve bank accounts in the first 6 banks. Woohoo!! It’s amazing, really. The time to see the true Indian e-commerce boom. PayPal has just taken a step that will change the way Indians run online businesses.

It seems like PayPal has been doing pretty cool things in the past couple of months. I was already happy to know that Indians could receive PayPal funds to their VISA credit cards. I hope that this latest move by PayPal will make many Indians happy who couldn’t maintain a credit card.

You can find more info about this news at: Indian Bank Account Withdrawal FAQs