(Hat Tip: Personal And Technology News)
Apparently a coding problem is making Orkut citizens "a bit taller" (as in taller than Shaq). This author is noticeably less than six feet, although my Orkut profile says otherwise.
Although some may object to the height change, I see nothing wrong with it. Do you?
After God and Jesus, President Bush is one of the most controversial topics inside orkut.
Sites opposing the presidency have attracted a huge following, probably due to the successful re-election by the republican party. One such group entitled Bush is stupid, boasts 68,365 members while its smaller counter part, I hate Bush, logs 6,823 members.
Despite being large and fierce (as one can tell by visiting the forums), the anti bush crowd ironically seems fractured in their cause, something JUNNAID notices by commenting in this post.
Although his foes out number his fans, the pro Bush crowd seems to enjoy their leaders aura, as one can tell by visiting the Bush is Cool community (with 749 members) or the I love Bush forum (294 members).
Paula Lolita (**Warning: Profile photo may not be suitable for minors) kicks off a post by asking "Why do you love Bush?," and receives responses from the left and the right (and from this author as well).
Despite the promotion by Google, Internet Explorer is still more popular than Firefox inside orkut. I guess Bill Gates must be smiling.
(Note: My family considers me a "geek," so no blog hating here).
Ellen (a Googler) has posted an interesting read for the tech minded on her blog site.
Last spring, orkut began providing related community recommendations, which are displayed on the bottom-right side of community pages. They were generated automatically based on common community membership. For example, since many of the same people belonged to both The Simpsons! and South Park, links to each community were displayed on the other community's page.
Google is pretty much a multi-cultural company, and I was quite surprised when I came across this on their media site (article written by Gavin Tachibana).
(Letter from the Editor) I don't mean that it's one of my favorite stories, or that it should be anyone else's favorite. But it is one of the best because it has managed to captivate the world for thousands of years. If you believe in Jesus Christ it's the foundation of your belief. Even if you don't, the birth of Jesus is one story that you can evaluate your own personal growth in relation to your response to this timeless tale.
But perhaps the frame around this debate can be nudged ever so slightly, for this was a researcher not trying to play God. He was trying to be Jesus.
Taavi has started an interesting discussion over at the Christianity Roundtable.
So. I would like Christians to tell me who exactly can be called a Christian - what facts does one have to believe, what does one have to do, does one have to be baptized, does one have to regularly pray or go to chruch or confess their sins, how well does one have to know the Bible and so. (sic)
A new forum has started up entitled Women For Mid-East Peace. It looks similar to this group, although I don't think any guys are allowed in this one.
No, not for Orkut, but for Tony Le who has just turned 23.
Tony enjoys having fun and one of his favorite books is Slaughter House Five (and no it's not as bloody as you think it is) while O Brother, Where Art Thou? is on his top movie list.
For those coming to this post, wish Tony a happy birthday (via scrapbook of course), and if you're late, just add belated.
And no I am not talking about this rainbow community.
I am merely referring to those who (for whatever amusing reason) are fixated on one particular color.
Since we all remember ROYGBIV from science class, I guess we will start in that order.
The Red community seems to be a popular group (1047 members and climbing) who explain why red is such an important color.
Life, Love, Happiness, Danger, Passion...Red symbolises em all! n yeah...duznt everything look better whn its Red:p
We LUV this...oh so HOT...color! :) (sic)
ORANGE
A way of life .. A life itself
A way to see .. An eye itself
Green is the beaty of the nature, a thing it is why we all love green.
And we are just sons of her.
that is why all childrens of the mother nature love greeen (sic)
According to recent studies, blue is the color of tranquility, the color of the sea and the sky, is both the color of peace and the color of royalty. Its calming effects make it the color of choice for hospital nurseries. If blue is your favorite color, you crave harmony. You are capable, sensitive and make an outstanding friend! You are cautious in your manner of dress and conscientious at whatever you're working on. So who ever associated this colour with the blues was sure mistaken!
Alternate Title: Will the real Orkut Buyukkokten please stand up?
Apparently while snorkuting through the deep waters of the community forums I came across the legendary Orkut Buyukkokten. For those of you who wonder why the forums are called Orkut (instead of per say, Google Connect) here is an explanation from the help center:
orkut.com is a new social networking service named for the Google engineer who developed it, Orkut Buyukkokten. (Orkut is easier to spell and pronounce than Buyukkokten.) It was created as an independent project to help people around the world connect.
Updated on 8/11/06 for clarity (as well as links)
(Previously posted on Hidden Nook)
I've decided to give away Orkut invites (aka Orkut Invitations) for free. Orkut is from Google, and if you are unsure about what Orkut is, here is a "summary" from the site.
[O]rkut is an online community website designed for friends. The main goal of our service is to make your social life, and that of your friends, more active and stimulating. orkut's social network can help you both maintain existing relationships and establish new ones by reaching out to people you've never met before. [...]
[O]rkut makes it easy to find people who share your hobbies and interests, look for romantic connections or establish new business contacts. You can also create and join a wide variety of online communities to discuss current events, reconnect with old college buddies or even exchange cookies recipes.
To join orkut, simply click on the link in the email you received and follow the instructions for creating a user name and password. If orkut doesn't sound like it's for you, feel free to delete your invitation. If you change your mind in the future, don't worry! We'll still be here.
(die spam bots die) and make sure the subject/title of your email says "Orkut Invite Now!" as I have a filter looking for this title (if you don't put that in I will not add you as I get a ton of mail).(Note: Originally posted on author's sister site, Hidden Nook)
Updated (2/22): Scroll down to the bottom for details.
Or perhaps looking for two.
Although Inside Orkut shares news, views and (in the future) taboos of Orkut society, it is fairly impossible for this author to cover everything going on within Orkut, as the community covers virtually every topic under the sun.
If anyone would like to join as a contributor (i.e. writer of this site) there are several stipulations that a user must meet (basically items this author is looking for):
It looks like the Orkut team has just made the community more pleasing to the eye.
We just made it easier and quicker for you to sort, organize, and group all your friends. Check it out at http://www.orkut.com/Friends.aspx or click the "friends" tab at the top of the page. Once you land on this page, you can invite new friends, re-send invitations, and share the karma!
Hollie has started an Orkut forum called the Religious Round Table which is "for everyone to share, teach, debate (politely) and discuss religion." Her community appeals towards those seeking understanding, although if you are in a confrontational mood you might want to check out Atheist vs. Theist.
For some, Orkut can be as addicting as alcohol and if so then Orkutholics may be the place for you. Created by Bojan, this community is for those whose spend way too much time on Orkut (like these people) and need to get a life--outside--in the--sun.
Unless of coarse you discovered the love of your life inside the forum (congrats Andrea).
Last but not least, for those of you thinking about ending your Orkut life, Orkutcide Intervention (by The Dude) may be the community just for you. There is even a testimony from someone coming back from the dead (Note: not a beautiful site).
It seems that Orkut has added a new feature allowing your friends (if you have any) to see what makes you drool happy this Christmas, Hanukkah or Holiday season.
Note: You will need a Google Account in order for this to work.
First, find out what you want for Christmas, Hanukkah, etc. You can use either Froogle or Amazon, although if you have another preferred shopping list (such as Ebay) these may work as well. As for me, I'm drooling hoping for an OQO.
Next, type in the url path of your wish list. For Froogle, it should be something to the affect of this: http://froogle.google.com/shoppinglist?..
For other browsers you may simply have to go to the "wish list" (if they have one) and copy the link directly from there.
After you add your list, simply update and if you've made an Orkut user very happy this year they may surprise you with something larger than a piece of coal. ;)
Hanspeter (in the Conflict management forum) it seems has stumbled on a great way to diffuse angry people (Editor's note: and we are talking anything from the mild mad man to the extremely violent):
[I]f the person directs some actually undirected anger against you, try to re-direct his anger to someone famous but not present, or even better to some anonymous organisation, take his side on this, and then you suddenly have enough time and leverage to really defuse the anger by talking and giving him the feeling that he is heard.
We once were doing orienteering in a forest when a very angry forrester came and accused us of cutting down young trees (why would we do this? but we were present and attackable). There we managed to put other un-loved visitors of the forest like mountain bikers int the focus of his anger and then had a very good discussion at the end of which he agreed that most people are nice to the forest but there are "black sheep" everywhere. (sic)
Vincent inside the Star Trek forum has started a word game (where you choose a relating word to the previous one) that has gone on for well over a year (one year, 5 months to be exact).
It is one of those word related games, so if you are not a "trekky" you may feel like an outsider. First word was "transporter," last word (mine, as of this post) was Jadzia Dax. Any other takers?
After surfing the Orkut galaxy, I got bored and decided to post some questions in the US of A forum to see what enlightenment I could gather from people within the community.
Question: Why do you love, hate America? First, here are some of the positive responses below:
Lady Quixotic: Personally...I love my country because of its freedom and spirit...But I don't really hate anything about my country...only the few spots of ignorance here and there...
Eduardo: I like the fact that most of the taxpayers money go to services and programs that really see the money (in my country of origin this doesn't always happen).
What I don't like is the fact that the culture of this country does not always coincide with my own. I miss my Latin America culture but only until I'm hit with ignorant remarks by Brazilian-communists here on Orkut.
Paul: Ou[r] "emissions standards" may be better than most countries, but when you look at the pollutants we put into the atmosphere per capita, we suck. We are the United F**** States, we should be leading the way when it comes to the environment. We shouldn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming into cleaning up our environment. And I'm not talking about our failure to sign the Kyoto treaty....which is biased against us anyway.
Two things I love about my country:
1)Freedom of Speech.
2)Our Women.
Two things I hate:
1)Our jingoistic foreign policy.
2)The religious Right.
The thing I love the most about America is that we see our mistakes and deal with them openly.
It took a long to end slavery...way too long. And even now, as we can see from the aftermath of Katrina, we still have a long way to go.
But at least the base of goodness is there. We have a direction that we're all moving towards. We're a nation of people trying to do the right thing--only we don't always agree on what that is.
One of the surprising aspects that I've found to be wonderful Inside Orkut was the fact that one could communicate with people from various nations, cultures, strange locations all inside this international forum.
For example, if you wanted to travel overseas, you could take a peek inside the Orkut Travel Hospitality Club to see if a member would allow you to crash at their place upon arrival. For those of you who are more timid, simply chatting within Orkut, (i.e. the Cultures of the World forum) might be your cup of tea.
Regardless of the reason, stop wasting time and explore! After all, its not everyday you get a chance to meet people from Vietnam.
Updated on 8/11/06 for clarity (as well as links)
Your probably wondering "What is Orkut" and why should I join? Well, here is a brief description from Orkut's teaser page.
[O]rkut is unique, because it's an organically growing network of trusted friends. That way we won't grow too large, too quickly and everyone will have at least one person to vouch for them.
If you know someone who is a member of orkut, that person can invite you to join as well. If you don't know an orkut member, wait a bit and most likely you soon will.
