What is XMLSocket ?
XMLSocket is a JavaScript class that would replace magic Flash MX or greater XMLSocket class.
Why XMLSocket ?
Ajax doesn't support socket connection and many ajax based applications (chat, im or others) requires a refresh every N seconds. This "delayed" way to interact requires a dedicated control too to verify if users are connected or not. Every message, sent or recieved, will be displayed every N seconds, but is really necessary this reload interval ? Not if you have a socket, where there's no delay or refresh and where every message is sent in real-time to each user. With a socket you have every time the real status of connections and a system based on socket doesn't require a database, all messages are managed by the socket and not by a generic db engine. However, for advanced applications, you can choose to storage all informations in any kind of datadase. Then socket is one of the best ways to develop real-time multiple users interaction applications.

XMLSocket :: F.A.Q & API

Adjusting your photographs to get the color 'just right' can be a chore. Think about this: The Old Masters of painting spent years of their lives learning about color. Why let all their effort go to waste on the walls of some museum when it could be used to give you a hand with color correction?

When Photoshop entered the CS series it included a new tool called 'Match Color.' This tools was made so that you could match a series of photos to one another.

But there is another thing you can do with 'Match Color' that is much cooler: You can match the colors in your photos to those in famous paintings.

I keep a directory of about 30 of my favorite paintings and anytime I need to do color correction, I just scan through them to find the one that gives the photo I'm working on the best look.

This technique can be used in other ways. For example, use the color from a scanned-in 1970's Kodachrome snapshot to give a recent photo a vintage look. Need to make a picture more menacing? Use the color from a picture of a storm.

Improve your photography with clasical art.

Mickey Tiki Bedding Collection

Create your own Tiki paradise with Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Mickey, Donald and Pluto are the perfect tropical totems to bring a playful Polynesian spirit to your bedroom.

Tiki sheets.

DisneyShopping.com: Mickey Tiki Bedding Collection

Warning: I haven't gotten any business funded past the seed round. I am no expert but... this just seems like how its done after the umpteenth time, and I would like some feedback. This is perhaps a little cynical, but its 1:30AM and I wish I didn't have to spend weeks writing these things.

1) Decide what you want to build, how long it will take to build it, in what stages it will be built, how many people should work on it, and how much those people cost.

2) Figure out all the support required to turn what you built into a business: office, lawyers, sales people, marketing, website, and figure out how much that stuff costs. If this is your first business, you will probably greatly underestimate these costs. Ask for help.

3) Add up all the costs. Break your project into 3 phases: Seed, Angel Round, VC Round, that being a small product/featureset, a larger product/featureset, and the product/featureset that makes you ginormous. Outline the VC stage even if you intend an earlier exit.

4) Figure out what a chart should look like to make 10 times the value of the budget required in 3 years. Make this chart in Excel. Critique yourself about this number. If it seems like total bullshit, you can't sell it. If you aren't skeptical enough, it is certainly totally bullshit. Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 until 4 is right.

5) Write a story about the market, connecting your costs and the generation of value. Throw in some trends you've noticed and business plan speak you've learned from weblogs.

6) Typeset and print so its pretty, with lots of charts: Pies, Bars, Histograms.

7) Show it to people who know what they're talking about, or people with money, or both, and get their feedback. Reiterate the process until someone gives you money.

Write a Winning Business Plan in 7 Steps - Startupping Forums

# Get representation. You want a broker and a lawyer working on your side of the table. In his book Tenant's Handbook of Office Leasing, Stanley Mark Wolfson writes that "using a building's broker to negotiate a lease for you is foolish and stupid."
# Measure the space. Don't automatically believe the square-footage amounts -- or worse, approximations -- the landlord tells you.
# Put a cap on rent increases. Try to get a fixed percentage rate of annual increase. Or tie rent increases to some real-world index, such as the consumer price index, though doing that could be risky. "It depends on what you think the market will do," says Greg Gunn of Cottonwood Realty Services LLC, in Salt Lake City.
# Get a cancellation clause. The landlord wants a five-year lease, but you worry you'll outgrow the space. Gunn suggests negotiating for the right to cancel the lease after three years if you pay for unamortized costs.
# Make sure you have the option to renew. Try to lock in the renewal rate, too, says Andrew Johnson, managing director of Johnson Commercial Brokerage in Los Angeles. "If you find the market is lower, you can always renegotiate," he says.
# Minimize restrictions on your ability to sublease. If you grow, you want to be able to move and sublease the space. "The 'use' clause should be as vague as possible," says Johnson.

Five Ways to Save Money on Office Space, Cost Controls Article - Inc. Article

This winter looks like a season of cats for me. Big cats. Now that I've settled in the Pench National Park and doing safaris more often, it is getting real interesting. Here, sightings of large predator the Tiger is not as common as in Bandhavgarh or in Kanha but there are good densities of wild dogs and the elusive, adaptable, little big cat - the leopard!

Leopards are the most successful of big cats. One of the reasons is that they are shy and secretive. That helps, especially in places where its bigger cousin, the Tiger, reigns supreme and also where ever it is close to human settlements. They are not easy to see and you always get fleeting glimpse or hear that unforgettable sawing call.

An early morning, a few weeks ago, we were driving in an area called ‘Jodamunara’. While driving in this area, the eye wouldn’t miss the huge black rocks and boulders which are all over the place. The road winds like a snake with ups and downs since it's a hilly terrain. I was keeping an eye on rocks, as my first sighting of a leopard in Pench happened just there late last year. We came to a turning, when suddenly our guide shouted leopard!Less than a hundred meters ahead I saw one leopard jump off from a small boulder which was on the roadside. Then we saw another and that was still on the same rock. Two leopards!! WOW! I immediately asked the car to be stop. Himanshu, my colleague, who was driving stopped the vehicle and I asked him not to move till they are comfortable by our presence. The one that jumped was much smaller compared to the one that was on the rock and with quick look through binoculars we conformed smaller one was female and big one was a male. A courting pair!

The female was very young compared to male. We think that this might be her first courting. She was shy as she hid behind a tree. The male looked old and had bad wounds on his face and chest. There was fresh blood on his face. The wound was probably caused by the female, as leopards, and all big cats in general, tend to be aggressive while mating. Poor old guy had been clawed on his
face by the desperate young female. Seth, the Head Ranger from CCAfrica Phinda of South Africa, who was with us for five weeks to train us was with me. Looking at the swollen face of the leopard, we came to this conclusion: When female is in estrus, she advertises by sawing. Sawing is a way where leopards call for marking territory or for mating. It is fairly loud, similar to the sound of a saw cutting wood but difficult to explain in writing! This sawing along with the scent marking of the female would have attracted another male from different territory. And it was quite possible that both the males would have fought during the previous night.And when the male leopard jumped off the rock in the end we actually saw him limping. So, it must have been a fight with another male and few on the face may be courting fight with the female.

Anyway, we slowly approached the couple to get a good look at them. The male was not at all bothered by us but the female looked nervous. I had a little knowledge of leopards, but Seth has amazing experience with them since he does specialist safaris there which deal with tracking leopards! We knew the female would come back eventually. We waited there patiently and now we were less than twenty meters from the leopards.

This guy gave me a tour of this reserve, and then we climbed a big hill. He's an excellent guide, and his blog is interesting because he is intimitely familiar with all the wildlife on this Tiger reserve: Elephants, monkies (never trust a monkey), tigets, leopards, etc.

Live from the Indian Jungles

The real Computer Monster

HA

YouTube - The real Computer Monster

We successfully working in next areas:

- complete web site design and development
- graphic design, illustrations
- Flash animations and sites
- database driven web applications
- windows desktop applications
- system administration
- custom programming

Complete web site design - Quart

First up, the best TV pilot you've never seen: Ben Stiller's Heat Vision and Jack from 1999. Jack Black stars as Jack Austin, an astronaut on the run from NASA after a solar accident makes him the smartest man in the universe. Owen Wilson plays his talking motorcycle. Produced by Stiller, who also appears in the introduction and as a strip club DJ.

Waxy.org: Daily Log: Waxy's Bandwidth Blowout #1: Heat Vision and Jack

"Being an entrepreneur can be lonely," says Mark Fletcher, winner of the Wired Magazine Tech Innovator Rave Award in 2005. "When I first started a business in 1987 I wished there was somewhere I could turn to for help."

Now there is. With the help of Elance providers, Mark, a "serial entrepreneur" – we'll get to that in a moment – recently launched Startupping (http://www.startupping.com/). Startupping is a community resource created for Internet entrepreneurs by Internet entrepreneurs; you can share information, ask questions and tap into the experience of people who have built and are building web businesses.

"Having a community to turn to for advice and support is incredibly valuable for people starting any business," says Mark. "While there are scattered resources, there isn't a central gathering place for Internet entrepreneurs."

To develop Startupping's entrepreneur community, Mark turned to the virtual outsourcing community. "I'm a programmer and software developer," says Mark. "I'm not a designer per se. So I've worked with providers like QuartSoft (Elance username: Quart) for web design, MetaLink (Elance username: metalink) for Windows programming, and Logo Design Company (Elance username: logodesigncompany) for the Startupping logo."

Elancer - April 2007: Mark Fletcher