Dog Meat, Anyone?

Apparently several forums within Orkut are a buzz at discovering that in some parts of the world, dogs are a delicacy.

In the Animal Protection forum, RAKESH was shocked by what he saw and wrote:

i could not stop crying looking at it .it is horrible.plz lets do something about it....we r showing them hell right here on earth .its not fair..i am ready to do anything for them.plzz lets do something........i beg u all on behalf of those innocent animals...

In another forum (the Animal Adoption/Rescue to be exact) several members expressed outrage with some expressing threats to the dog butchers who...well...made the meat available to the masses.

The PETA (In English) forum by far is the most interesting, with members debating whether its wrong to eat other animals or not.

(Rohit) It is not humane to put an end to smebdys life..
It is not humane to eat sme1s flesh as a delicacy..
It is not humane to b so numb to sme1s suffering..

I wouldn't want someone to hurt me, definitely not.... coz it 'hurts'.

(Mani on page three) see, at the moment i am speaking from a purely biological point of view. we are omnivores and that is indisputable. every human has the right to eat meat and plants. [...] since we are biologically programmed to eat meat, if anyone wants to you have no right to stop them.

unless of course they are eating an endangered animal!!

Although there are some cases I believe warrent our attention, (like what Nishant posted in the No Fur forum) when it comes to food you pretty much lose all protesting rights.

After all, if its his custom to eat the animals that guard my house, as long as he is not eating my pets, then I see no reason to start a fight.

Is Orkut Displaying Google Ads?

I received an email from Anupam about a week ago claiming that he was seeing ads within Orkut. I first doubted this, since Google does not advertise within Orkut (with the Joga companion being the exception).

My first suspicion was that these ads were being displayed via a GreaseMonkey or Firefox hack, (something Google would not enjoy) but after disabling these hacks, the Anupam sent me some screen shots of what he saw.







Apparently these appear to be Google ads although Anupam is the only one (to my knowledge) able to see this. He has also checked with several other friends and none of them are seeing any ads either.

Although some may not like viewing ads within the forums, to me this represents good news because it means that:

• We will see less donut errors.
• Orkut may open up to the rest of the world
• Orkut could incorporate Picasa and Google Video (and perhaps Blogger) within (similar to what Joga has).

I'd be willing to put up with a few ads in order to reap more features for Orkut. After all, MySpace has a lot of annoying ads, and yet people keep going back and logging in.

After all, Google is probably losing millions of dollars by not running ads, and I am sure there are many businesses (especially in the entertainment and fashion world) who would love to market to the Orkut community.

Update: I contacted Phil over at Google Blogoscoped and he confirmed that people have reported the same thing to him as well.

A Brain Teaser...

...that I can get! Today Vivek posts in the Brain Teasers forum a puzzle that I can not only understand, but also solve.

A farmer on his death-bed, wants to divide his 25 cows between his five sons... But it is not that easy that you think, as every cow has a number-tag, and most surprisingly, every cow gives litres of milk daily, as the number written on its tag...

I mean the cow bearing number 12 tag, gives 12 litres of milk daily and the cow bearing number 23 tag, gives 23 litres of milk daily, or so on... Now can you people help the farmer dividing the cows between the sons so that every son gets five cows with equal quantity of milk daily...

This is a good "mind expanding puzzle," but for those of you who want to cheat the answer lies inside Orkut.

Note: For those who enjoy these puzzles, Priyanka is offering even more brain teasers via pdf format.

Do Ladies Prefer Muscular Men?

Over in the Issues of Men forum, Jay is wondering if ladies prefer a muscular guys since working professionals "don't have enough time to workout at gym."

While Detox and Atrous argue that working out keeps guys looking nice and keeps them from being lazy, Lilian disagrees and expresses her own opinions about "manliness."

Na, I dislike men with such grossly exaggerate muscles (Like the competitive bodybuilding) and so does most of my female friends. Ew, major turn off. I think is a must to be broad, I mean,with body not very musculous but tenacious and a bit strong.

Selina also agrees, citing pressure from society, although In Training (who seems to scared to actually use her real name on orkut) offers a different opinion.

no muscle no power

a skinny guy can be a good team member but a muscle man proves to be a good team leader

so to rule u need muscle

Really? I wonder what the feminists would think regarding this?

Note: Speaking of feminists, it looks like they are already stirred up over a forum created by Aka'Diabolic promoting male dominance. Heh.

The Orkut Song?

I came across this song while searching Del.icio.us for Orkut related items. This song was on Spatch.net's servers, although I am unsure if he is the original author of the musical.

Either way you can listen to the song by clicking below or download it for future enjoyment.

powered by ODEO


As a courtesy, lyrics are provided below.

Hey everybody! Lets sing the Orkut song!

You should come to Orkut now.
I promise you'll have fun--oh wow.

It's a place where people meet,
To discuss the food they eat.

Maybe with a little luck,
They could find someone to--have fun with.

Every boy and every girl,
Should be apart of Orkut's world.

Oh yeah, this is a good song.

But I'll say that without fail,
You'll end up in Orkut jail.

There you won't have much to do,
And they don't explain to you.

Or perhaps a special treat,
Your account should get delete (oh no!)

But before you beat your breast,
This is still a beta test.

Okay do the Orkut limbo now.

So lets make a lot of friends,
Talk about Mercedes Benz

Rate everyone real cool and cute
Network in your birthday suite

Orkut's great its real inspired
But your session has expired.

Sign back in just like a squirrel,
Welcome to the Orkut world.

Welcome to the Orkut world,
Welcome to the Orkut world.

Staying Positive In A Negative World

Simply reading or listening to what is happening in the world today is enough to make a person want to never get out of bed (or at least take a drug to survive the day).

Some Orkut members have discovered an alternative towards sleeping in (as well as taking the pill) and over in the Personal Growth and Development forum, Ritesh lists five ways on how a person can stay positive in a negative world.

1. Take a news sabbatical. Listening to the news can be downright depressing. All bad news all of the time can drag you down and keep you there. Give yourself permission to stop listening to the news, especially before bed time.



2. Use your influence to do good where you live. Shift your focus from what is happening in other parts of the world to your community. Get involved in making a positive change or contribution.



3. Focus on what is working in your life. Choose one thing that you are grateful for and focus on it for the rest of the day.

You will have to visit the forum for the last two, (sorry folks, you need to explore inside Orkut for this one) although I can personally say that I have tried out number one and two.

For those looking for ways to change negative people into positive people (what is desperately needed in this world) then Bryce in the Conflict management forum has some great advice in this arena.

Video Highlights: Roshni-The Light

Over in the Short Films forum, Vikram (from India) has posted a video with a strong message for all those who enjoy the tobacco crave.

(Note: If you are unable to view this video here, you can check it out over at YouTube's website)

One great thing about this forum is that members are able to provide constructive criticism (rather than attacks) in order to help each other produce a better movie.

One of the best forms of this came from Yogesh who replied with:

Saw your film your production credit is excellent and SFX of that feels like a hollywood movie where did u manage that from; apart then that lighting is really poor. Even the script is dull. Is it your first film? Sorry to be harsh but it'll help you for your future.

Subject of Anti smoking is good but u never showed any reason for a person not smoking apart from death and every smoker knows everyone has to die sooner or later. Something more negative towards smoking would had been nice.

Advice well spoken. Perhaps Vikram could do a reshooting of this film (something I would look forward to) as this message needs to get across to every Orkut smoker lest they end up in this forum.

Did Google Force Fake Orkut Site Offline?

Earlier I reported on a site that was allegedly stealing Google passwords by pretending to be a legit site of Orkut.com. Because identity theft is a pet peeve of mine, I decided to report this to Google's Orkut team and they informed me that they had passed this message to "the appropriate team."

Not long after I received a reply from Google the site no longer was online as you can see from this screen shot below.



Apparently whoever owned the site was either contacted directly by Google or decided to quit after the blogosphere had picked up on this phishing scheme.

Since the site was registered by someone in West Orange, New Jersey, authorities may have the legal means to arrest and hopefully remove another internet thief from cyberspace.

Another Orkut Hack (Orkut Scrapper 1.0)

Update: Thanks Priya for the info! Corrected authorship below.

It appears that we have another Orkut hack that might dethrone Orkut Cute from its number one position.

Developed by Binny K Mathew Priya (from India), Orkut Scrapper 1.0 gives users the ability to see a live preview of their message before posting on their friends scrap book. It also adds a reply button within the scrapbook, making it easier to notify your friends. Here is a screen shot below via the official Orkut Scrapper blog. (click on photo to expand)



Their are a host of features associated with Orkut Scrapper including the ability to send invisible scraps, delete all your messages in your scrapbook (very handy if you are being flooded), although the ability to flood someone else's scrapbook may not make Google very happy.

Priya is also promising to add According to Priya (a friend of Binny's) there will be even more features such as the ability to change one's background skin as well as a scrap alerter.

For a list of more features (future and current) regarding this hack please visit the Orkut Scrapper blog (or the forum) for more details.

Note: Will be listed under Orkut User Tools on the sidebar.

Update (11:41 AM): It looks like Orkut Scrapper is no longer working after Google updated the scrap book. Sigh.

Featured Artist: Rao

Now that Orkut is back up (at least for me) I can talk about some artwork that I stumbled upon in the Drawing forum. Rao, from India who enjoys graphic design (of coarse), tv commercials and cricket as long as India is about to win.

Here are some of his drawings below. (for a clearer screen shot please click here).

(Note: Original photo's not uploaded to respect copyright laws)

What I enjoy most about Rao is his "cartoonish" art that is not only fancy but fun to look at (especially the guy with the tie at the end). The sad part is that his best work is not located on his album, and in order for you to see that you are going to have to visit his site.

Update: Fixed photo.

Orkut Down...

Unfortunately Orkut is under construction again. I'll post more later on today when it is back up and running again (if I have time).

A Blog Detailing Joga?

Just a quick mention, but apparently their is a new blog following the world of Joga entitled Joga Bonito (which means "play beautifully" in Portuguese).

For those of you who don't know, Joga is Orkut's little brother developed by Google and Nikefootball.com to cover the world of soccer.

The blog looks really cool, although if you do not Deutsches sprechen then this site may be of little value to you.

Note: Adding this site on the sidebar underneath the "Orkut Related" category.

Profile Highlights: MC Hammer

(Hat Tip: Hip Hop, RNB and Soul News)

Apparently it seems that the former legend MC Hammer has created a profile inside Orkut. I first doubted about whether or not this profile was legit, until I discovered that the Orkut founder himself is listed as one of his friends (not an easy thing to accomplish within Orkut).

MC Hammer's joining of Orkut may have more to do with him promoting his latest album than with linking up with fans.

(Hip Hop, RNB and Soul News) MC Hammer has embraced the internet in order to promote his new album Look3X. The former rap millionaire's catalog just sold for $2.7 million as part of a bankruptcy settlement, but he's not letting that stop him. HeÂ’s got pages set up at Myspace, Orkut and has his own blog. There's also this commercial too, but, like we discovered, it's soooo not for what you think.

For those in the Myspace world you can find his journal over here (and don't forget to read his blogger journal as well).

It's not uncommon for music stars to use social networks to promote their albums, although I wonder if they do it because its cheaper than advertising or because they really want to reach out to their fan base. Hmm...

Fake Orkut Site Stealing Google Passwords?

(Note: Published on The Social Networking Weblog)

(Hat Tip: IT Digest, Software And Tools, Digital Inspiration)

Users logging onto Orkut need to beware, as there seems to be a new phishing scheme aimed at stealing Google passwords to your account.

The carbon copy which goes by ork0t.com (with a zero replacing the "u") seems to be owned by a mysterious person from New Jersey according to whois.net. I did a reverse phone number lookup of this person, but apparently they have listed little info about their true identity.

Users who have Google Toolbar (with Firefox) installed should receive this warning below, notifying them of this copycat.



Users who accidentally log into this site should notify Google as well as change your password to all Google services. (Note: Compromised accounts should not affect users Ad Sense publisher accounts if one does not hold a Gmail account with Google).

Update: I've notified Google about this already, so hopefully their legal department can take care of this issue.

A Lebanese Speaks Out Against Hezbollah

Over in the other Hizbollah forum (is it spelled Hezbollah or Hizbollah?) Samir, a Lebanese vents against what he sees is the main problem of the war in Lebanon.

Just one question Mr. Nasrallah: Who gave you the right to open a war in Lebanon? From whom did you take the advice of choosing this critical time of the year to do that STUPID operation of getting 2 Israeli soldiers as hostages? Those who live in Lebanon know that Lebanon survives because of the tourists spending their money in these 3 months of the year.

But NO Hezbollah chose to do their attack now! NICE TIMING GUYS! AND PLEASE, don't come and convince me that they did this in return of Lebanese hostages in Israeli prisons. As a matter of fact, Hezbollah are everything but Lebanese! Hezbollah is pure Iranian/Syrian Shiite Muslim fanatic militia! [...]

Thanks Hezbollah for ******* up my country, please go back to Iran, there you will live better with your compatriots, and stop claiming that you are Lebanese because you are everything but Lebanese!

This leads to an interesting discussion with Ayaz rebuking Samir and saying he should realize "how lucky" he is while others chant choruses to Hezbollah or post more rants against Israel.

I personally was perplexed (like Samir) why Hezbollah started the war when they did. It seems to promote more of Iran's interests rather than Lebanon's. The sad part is that I have friends in all three regions of this conflict (Lebanon, Israel and Palestine) with various opinions, although right now I'm trying to figure out who is alive (a major concern for me).

Must Have Orkut Hacks!

Millions of people around the globe use Orkut everyday for business, faith, friendships or simply exploring new hobbies. Some even attempt to use Orkut for romance, although the success rate is not as high as many would like it to be.

Unfortunately for those millions, Orkut lacks many of the features that other social networks have, but that has not stopped users from developing hacks, programs and scripts to improve Google's community forums.

Of all of the two dozen (and counting) different hacks and programs for Orkut, these are perhaps the best ones developed as of this post. And because my time is valuable, I will only list the top five hacks (in reverse chronological order, of course).

___________________________

In 5^th place: On-Off 1.0 (aka Orkut Online Status Indicator)

Created by Link, this GreaseMonkey hack allows users to notify their friends whether or not they are online, busy, away or have logged off for the day. This hack is not automatic (so users have to set it manually) but it may resolve the issue of knowing when to contact friends while surfing various communities.

Crowning feature: See if friends are online or off.

For a more in depth review click here.

___________________________

In 4^th place: Scrapboy (aka Orkut Instant Messenger)

Scrapboy is a software program developed by Assaf Koren which enables users to scrap each other instantly within an "IM format," as well as notifying users of new scraps (which Orkut does anyway via email). It also boasts several formatting tools making it easier to communicate.

It's crowning feature however is not simply being able to reply back and forth to your friends instantly, but rather the ability to be notified of when your friend receives new scrapbook messages, a feature Orkut has yet to offer.

Crowning feature: Friend scrapbook notification

For a more in depth review click here.

___________________________

In 3^rd place: Orkut Toolbar

Developed by Renato Rodrigues this toolbar (for Firefox) contains a host of formatting tools allowing users to customize text, emoticons, weblinks within their scrapbooks or community forums.

Its crowning feature is giving users the ability to post images within a forum for the first time, although only users with the toolbar will be able to see them. You can also post flash movies, although you must insert them "at your own risk."

Crowning features: Posting images and flash movies

For a more in depth review click here.

___________________________

In 2^nd place: Sorkut (aka Google Forum Search)



The Sorkut toolbar was originally developed by Rohit Kumbhar for firefox users. Giving users the ability to search within a specific forum, (a feature you would think Google would have already developed) Sorkut gives community Moderators, members and outsiders the ability to locate specific posts within a forum.

You can even simply do a title search with this toolbar, or a general word search within the posts.

Crowning feature: Search or Google keywords within Orkut forums.

For a more in depth review click here.

___________________________

In 1^st place: Orkut Cute (aka the Orkut browser)

This probably one of the best programs developed for Orkut thus far (although another program not mentioned here is attempting to de-throne Orkut Cute). Created and designed by Alexandre Pires, this program requires little "geek skills" compare with other Orkut programs.

Orkut Cute is a "modified browser" which allows users to change their background skin (without GreaseMonkey hacks), scrap all of your friends at once, post to all of your favorite forums at the same time and last but not least, inform you when new posts arrive in your favorite communities.

It also contains the basic formatting options, as well as a scrap notifier to let you know when you receive new messages.

Crowning features: Post in multiple scrapbooks and forums at once, change background colors, alerts you to new messages in forums.

For a more in depth review click here.

___________________________

Those are the top programs for Orkut. I may update this again in a month or so (as I have to test out several other programs and hacks), although I wonder if Google might implement their own version of these listed above.

If you know of any other programs or hacks that you think are better, either comment here or let me know on my scrapbook.

Video Highlight: Centre Calls (By Yogesh)

(Note: The "Orkut Must Have Hacks" will be posted later on as Blogger was previously down for me earlier)

Yogesh (over in the Short Films forum) has uploaded a short flick on Google Video.

The title of the film is Centre Calls and details the tragedy of an Indian girl seeking freedom in her life. Here is a brief description of the video below.

A conservative, reserved girl joins the Call Centre to monetarily support her parents and studies. But when she gets exposed to the environment of the Call centre, gets the taste of freedom and easy money there happens a major change in her.

The story follows a simple plot and is roughly 19 minutes long. For those of you at work, this may not be the best place to view it as images of people drinking as well as doing drugs are fairly common throughout this film. You can watch the movie for yourself below, or simply visit this movie on Google Video.

Orkut Activates Auto Hyperlinks?

(Published on The Social Networking Weblog)

It looks as if the Google team has slightly altered the way users can post links in the forums.

After previously disabling hyperlinked text in both Orkut and Joga.com, it seems as if the Google team is allowing web links to be hyperlinked without the link tags (these ones: [link][/link]) on each side.



Although this may not seem like a major issue, enabling this feature automatically linked will make Orkut less annoying when sharing a webpage to a friend online. Despite this recent change however, Orkut still lists those tags as necessary to make a web page link appear.



Ironically minor changes like these do not make the front news page, despite the fact that they affect millions posting within Google's forums. Perhaps Google should take some spare time and inform the masses that there is an easier way to post links within the forums.

Featured Artist: Riddhi Malhotra

Over in the Sketching forum, Riddhi has been asking for some feedback regarding her drawings, especially on the Harry Potter piece. Hailing from India, Riddhi seems to have some great skills with just a pencil, as you can see by some of her drawings to the right.

Although Riddhi can draw some animals, what I enjoy most is her ability to bring life to the faces of her creations, a difficult task for any artist trying to make a living off of their work.

Riddhi could make these great sketches even better by finding a way to add color to these drawings (although then they probably would not be sketches then, hence the point of this forum).

Either way I hope we get to see some more images from Riddhi and hopefully her studies at college will not take her away from sketching some more beautiful faces.

Why Do Women Show Off Their Skin?

Over in the Men Ask, WOMEN ANSWER forum, Sixthly was bold enough to ask this question.

Do women feel a need to show more & more skin?

Is it getting to an age where you have to show more skin than what one showed in the '90s, simply to get guys' attention?

Since I was also curious about this question myself, I decided to investigate the responses from this post. Ironically, it seems that Diana was offended by the question and sharply replies with:

It's not about getting attention. It's about feeling good about the way we look. Why must you translate the show of skin as an attempt to attract the male species?

Ouch. Sixthly later on asks how would some of these women dress if their were no guys on planet Earth (wouldn't that be boring?). Here are some of the responses below.

Curious: Actually, I'm not sure how I'd dress if there were no males.

I'm not convinced it's about what you wear anyway. Because if it was I'd not have guys chasing after me when I'm at the barn, dressed in some old work cloths, hair tied up in a mess, sweaty because it's so hot and humid, no make up.... I don't get it.... but for some reason guys like that also.

Mari: If there were no males on the planet, then I'd obviously wear no clothes!!!

Suprisingly Sixthly thinks those responses were "so gay," although I think he means the happy version of gay. Or does he mean dumb? Hmm...

Miss Orkut: Mausumi Das

Apparently in my wanderings throughout Orkut, I forgot to keep myself updated about what goes on in the Miss and Mr. Orkut competitions.

This months winner is Mausumi Das from India who enjoys talking, listening to music and watching movies. She also enjoys fashion designing and watching music competitions like American Idol, although I wonder if they have a similar version in India.

As far as sports goes, video games are pretty much it (they're a sport?) which I guess can improve a person's hand-to-eye coordination. If she enjoys games from "back in the day," she may want to consider joining Vintage Video Games and catch up on some Mario, Zelda or Metroman.

That is all I can say about Mausumi as there is little info on her profile. Perhaps we can find out more by visiting her scrapbook.

Update: Oops! Inserted Technorati tags instead of Del.icio.us categories. The error has been corrected.

Rise Of The Geek Machines?

Over on Orkut Media Jen La Sala (whose articles never cease to amuse me) publishes another amusing post regarding the dreaded office machines of America.

Other people must have this problem. It starts when one thing breaks, then something else, then something freezes, and when you think there is nothing left that can go wrong, something starts to smoke. That's when you know it's happened. The machines have turned against you. [...]

In any office, there is that one contraption that befuddles the most eager of IT personnel that can reduce the most even-tempered employee into a raging stapler wielding head case. In my office, it is the combination printer copier.

Having worked on these machines as an IT technician, I can testify how annoying they were to work on. It usually did not matter if these machines were old or new, laser print or an office machine, USB connection verses wireless, they always caused jams, toner issues and worst of all, missing documents.

The "printer ate my project" was a common excuse at my former job, and to make things worse I could not operate on the machine because of a "minor" contract with the manufacturer!

Ok, enough ranting about my life experiences, here is more of Jen via Rant:

All of this makes me glad I'm not an astronaut. Since technical things seem to go wrong all around me I could be right at home at NASA. [...]

Insulation issues have been a thorn in the side of NASA's space program since the mid-air disintegration of Columbia in 2003, caused by a piece of insulation breaking off from the shuttle mid-decent.

She later talks about the Discovery space shuttle mission which NASA bet it would succeed despite the minor issue with the insulation (and it looks like NASA won that bet).

Hopefully technology failures won't keep Jen from reaching the stars. After all, with Google expanding around the world, I wouldn't be surprised to find her writing from the Moon.

Israel, Hezbollah, And The Lebanon Crisis

By now, unless you have no access to media, you have probably heard about the crisis in Lebanon. It seems like the buzz is finally spilling into Orkut itself, with much of the action within the Israeli and Hezbollah forums.

Over in The War In Israel forum, Naor posted his first impressions of the war.

i was today at work, 5 minutes after i entered the office we heard the bombs and then we saw them from the window in the office, it was scary !
but we have strength and we don't mind to be in shelters as much as it takes until our great army will distroy the Hizbullah and disarm them !!!

With Israel on the hunt for Hezbollah (as well as for their missing soldiers) it seems that not everyone is happy with what the Kosher army is doing to Lebanon, as Juliana (over in the Lebanon forum) is screaming for Israel to "Stop Destroying Lebanon."

Juliana is soliciting aid within the forum I hope it's for the Lebanese and not some terrorist group (hint: Hezbollah).

Speaking of Hezbollah, over in their forum, MaRoOf has decided to return back to Lebanon with the blessings and cursings of members within the forum.

AQSA: best of luck for martrdom
all the best and drop bombs and rockets [and] kill as many jews as possible .

best of luck for martrdom but if death is not destined then may Allah give u life till khilafah

Donald: Good luck *****. I hope you get martyred real quick. I hope a lot of muslims around you do too. Blessings!

Not too suprisingly, this terrorist forum is known for promoting death against Israel, although some Muslim extremists have decided to share that information within the Israel forum, which is not receiving very many "happy replies."

Sigh...and you thought we all could get along on this blue little world. Perhaps when the Space Elevator is built, I can take a trip towards Mars. Anyone else want to come along?

Vacation, Terrorism And More (Oh My!)

Well, I have not had time to post yesterday, as I have been either busy or blogging elsewhere, or both. I'll be away from Inside Orkut until Tuesday, so you probably will not see any posts from me. However, these sites below should entertain you until I get back.

• Orkuttando (english version over here)


• Joga.com: a project between Orkut and Nikefootball.com


• Beyond Satire: A Googler who I think works on Orkut

Moving on, today saddens me as both Israel and India have been hit with terrorist attacks over the past several days, with a war in the former case as Israel seeks to find its missing soldiers.

One item I would like to highlight though is what Divyanth said in the End Religious Violence forum:

[...] I have noticed something interesting. These terrorists aren't killing to "terrorise" people into giving them what they want, or "preach" islam and "Jehad" to the world in an "Islamic" way. One the contrary, these very anti-islamic feelings that we all have today, is simply and exactly what they wanted. They want to disintegrate India on communal lines, and through these "anti-islamic" feelings of ours', they have succeeded in doing so.

Therefore, what I am saying, is that we have become those terrorists' pawns. It is good that we have already realised this. Let us not hate islam and muslims anymore. That is not what muslims want.

In all my experiences with Muslims, most of them have been pretty cool. We may disagree over Muhammad, but they have no desire to kill me by slitting my throat (and yes, I've met Muslims like that...and that is a story for another day). May God be with the victims families as they cope with the losses over these incidents.

Last but not least, next week I'll post the top Orkut programs, hacks or tricks that I have seen while posting at this site. I've encountered at least two dozen (and perhaps three) but I'll go over the top five ones either Tuesday or Wednesday. So stay tuned!

Featured Artist: Sanjay Kamble

While scrolling through the Drawing community, I came across these paintings by Sanjay Kamble that were quite breath taking.

(Note: Original photos were not uploaded in order to respect copyright laws)

Sanjay is from the UAE which has reportably blocked Orkut for some odd reason. His ability to display his paintings here may prove that to be a rumor, as he has some beautiful works of art to show the world.

Sanjay is currently married (sorry ladies) and enjoys everything from painting to reading to even "trekking" (does he mean this trekking or this trekking?).

My only regret is that Orkut limits his album towards twelve paintings, but hopefully if he has a Picasa Web Album we will get a glimpse of some more paintings.

Sanjay is looking for feedback on his posts, so if you have something positive to say (or useful feedback) visit his scrapbook and drop him a line.

Orkut Instant Messenger (Scrapboy)

I have seen well over a two dozen hacks and programs for Orkut, but in my honest opinion none of them are as user friendly as Scrapboy. Founded by Assaf Koren, Scrapboy's mission is to help you keep in touch with your friends within the Orkut universe.

Here is more from their feature page:

With Scrapboy you can send scraps from your desktop with the same convenience as writing an instant message. You no longer have to click your way through multiple pages in the Orkut^TM website before writing a simple scrap, the next scrap you write is a mouse click away. [...]

Ever wondered why formatting your scraps with color and style is so complicated?

Well... it doesn't have to be. With Scrapboy adding color or making your text bold, italic or underlined is easy!

Although you can format and color your text with Orkut Cute and the Orkut Toolbar, what sets Scrapboy apart from either of them is the ability to be notified of not only new scraps from your scrapbook, but new ones from your friends as well!

You can download Scrapboy from their website, and be sure to join the Scrapboy forum within Orkut.

Note: If you are having any problems installing Scrapboy (like I did initially) you may need to visit your control panel and uninstall WinFX Runtime Components as well as all versions of .NET Framework . After doing those two things, simply reinstall Scrapboy on your machine.

(Hat Tip for fix: Microsoft Max Blog)

Update: Fixed some html within photo.

Update 2: Scaled down photo and listed Scrapboy underneath Orkut User Tools.

Update 3: Corrected Scrapboy forum link (I guess the other one was fake). Thanks for the note Assaf!

North Korean Dictator A Film Critic?

(Note: I guess I should not be too surprised that blood thirsty people have their hobbies...outside of slaughtering people that is.)

I came across this post on Orkut Media which I found almost amusing. John Gorenfeld on 2400 Baud talks about Korea's favorite dictator's passion about acting and film.

Kim has also written a book on what's wrong with opera. I bought it on Amazon.com. 1974's "On the Art of Opera: Talk to Creative Workers in the Field of Art and Literature" is available from the University Press of the Pacific, along with "On The Art of the Cinema," which recommends that actors seethe with ferocious party loyalty as the only path to mastering their craft.

"Actors must be ideologically prepared before acquiring high-level skillsÂ…The actor requires an ardent love of his class, and a burning hostility towards the enemy," he writes.

I do not know how anyone could take this dictator seriously. Not only does he have goofy hair, (just like Hitler) but he also thinks he can win a nuclear war against the West. (note: no one wins a nuclear war Kimmy)

Getting back on topic, here are some of the reviews from Amazon (which were in my opinion quite appealing).

(via Gjergj Plazh "comecon") Reading this book by this great Korean leader and the best man of his country put me in true ecstacy. The depth of his work is so immense. Yet he is able to put the most complex problems of his country in so simple terms that one begins to wander if his career would be better off as a writer or a philosopher.

(via Greg Mills "Greg") First off, I'm a huge fan of Mr. Jung's work.

"Let's Work On Doubling the Output of the Red Harvest Tractor Factory #8!!!!" was a beautiful little film, all four hours of it. Great rainy day treat, if your work militia collectively owns a dvd player.

Although tempting, I'll probably refrain from purchasing the books. After all, why support a regime that threatens the world with war?

Google Search Within Orkut Forums (Sorkut)

I am not talking about the search feature mentioned on Orkut News, but rather the ability to search within a specific forum or community.

Known as Sorkut, this hack was developed by Rohit Kumbhar and is only available for Firefox users (sorry IE fans). For those fortunate enough to partake of the browser rebellion, you can download the add-on over here. Here is a brief description about Sorkut below:

Use this toolbar to search for threads with specific words in the title. Just give the cmm id of the community you want to search, enter the search term and click Search. Its basically an automation that an ultra patient person would go through for searching the threads he wants.

NOTE: You must be logged in to orkut to use this toolbar.

This hack is great but for those of you who are visual, lets do a picture recap below.

The CMM ID of a forum is the number at the end of the forum link.



Simply copy and paste that number into the CMM Id box.



Next, type in what word you want to search. In this case, I am searching a Christian community with the word "bible" in it.



This will bring up every post with the word "bible" in it's topic headline. For those of you who want to search for a word within the forum, simply check the Search posts box and it will Google the word for you.

Note: The Search posts may produce some errors, so I would suggest not searching for common words like "the" which can give Sorkut a headache.

Update: Listed on the Sidebar underneath Orkut User Tools.

Orkut Online Status Indicator?

Update (8/15/06): This hack is no longer working. See this post for details.

One thing that Orkut lacks that many social networks have is an online status indicator. Many other social networks (such as MySpace.com) have this feature by default, but Orkut users were left out in the cold--until now.

The Orkut online status indicator (its official name is On-Off 1.0) was developed by Link who designed it to allow users to let their friends know whether they were online or not.

This feature requires both Firefox and Grease Monkey and is listed on the sidebar underneath Orkut User Tools.

Once installed users will notice a Status link between their email address and the Settings link.



After clicking on it, users can then select whether they are online, busy, away or offline.



After selecting their availability, the feature will update their status on their profile page.



Another cool feature about this is that it also updates your profile link throughout Orkut, letting everyone known whether your online or off.

Note: This hack is originally in Portuguese, but if you want to switch it towards your language follow these steps.

• Search for onoff.user.js on your computer (recommend using Microsoft search)


• Once the file is found, open it up inside Microsoft Wordpad


• You should see something that says, Muda seu status de On/Ocupado/Ausente/Offline no orkut. Simply change Ocupado to Busy throughout the entire document (or whatever language you love) as it repeats several times.


• Repeat the step above for each word you want to change (such as Ausente or Offline)


• Save and restart Firefox.

If anyone has any problems changing it over to their language, post here and I'll help you out as time permits.

Update: Added extra step in "translating" Orkut On Off 1.0 . Also added to sidebar underneath Orkut User Tools.

Update 2: For those of you who were confused, here is the GreaseMonkey link to install this hack, which is also listed on the sidebar.

Endangered Species: Crazy American Soccer Fans

Jen Sala over at Orkut Media has an interesting article about why Americans are generally not interested in soccer.

American sport enthusiasts are the poster children for attention deficit disorder. We like big numbers; we like clear-cut winners; we like action and aggression marked by runs, touchdowns, baskets, and goals, peppered perhaps with the occasional fistfight. We like tangible action that we can read about in the box scores the next day. We don't appreciate the drama and struggle of a zero-zero game. [...]

I personally think that American soccer fans aren't nearly dedicated enough as Latin American or European fans. We need more painted people, more people dressed up like complete freaks. I would like to see more fans covered in greasy head to toe red, white, and blue. We need more people in giant wigs.

What Americans like about soccer is that it is what I call "a hype sport." Basically, it is a sport that, like basketball, a player can do a lot of cool tricks, have fun and use their skills to out smart the opponent.

Unfortunately unless those tricks are giving your team a massive lead (or showing up early on the score board) then the game loses interest, making the Golf channel much more appealing.

Profile Highlights: Abhay Kumar

Abhay Kumar may look like a care free guy, but behind the photo is a man with a lot of wisdom to offer the world. A man serious about entrepreneurship Abhay's passion is not only to become one but helping out others along the way.

Aside from business, Abhay enjoys Yoga, creative writing, science fiction movies and cooking. Despite the fact that he enjoys writing, teaching and helping people, he does not seem to be much of a book worm.

Reading books are not my forte..But I can write..yes. .Trying to write few books but not getting time. ...though its a good forum to know about my book and there backgrounds

One thing that impressed me about Abhay was his willingness to help future entrepreneurs with their businesses by sending them a free copy of the Entrepreneur Matrix presentation. I've gone over part of the power point presentation, and would recommend it for not only those seeking to start their own businesses, but also to for those interested in investing in one as well.

Abhay seems like a cool guy to know, and if you are seeking friendship or business advice, his scrapbook is always available.

Update: Moved photo to the right.

Featured Artist: Adorable Aries

It seems that every time I visit the Water color painting lovers forum, I'm always in for a treat! Today's featured artist is Adorable Aries from Pakistan who has some incredible art displayed over in her album.

Here are a few photo's displayed below, although you'll have to visit her album in order to check out the rest of them.

(Note: In order to respect copyright laws, original photos were not uploaded)

Aries may be a little shy as she provided no photo displaying her identity, although she does enjoy playing cricket and hockey (the latter of which can be pretty fierce). Aries also enjoys reading poetry, watching TV and sleeping (don't we all?) and not to mention anything dealing with art.

She has even more paintings on her album, although she has reached the maximum number of photo's allowed on Orkut (perhaps she should switch towards Picasa's Web Album). Hopefully we will be able to catch more paintings from Aries and I wish her all the luck in the future with her artistic talent.

Update: I almost forgot! Don't forget to visit her scrapbook and let her know how well she did painting those images.

Dear Entrepreneur, The Matrix Has You

No, I am not referring to The Matrix starring Keanu Reeves. I am referring to a post by Abhay over in the Entrepreneur forum in which he (along with others) have compiled "a matrix" or a mini-test to see if your business plan has what it takes to survive.

We have created an entrepreneurship matrix with following objective in mind

To create a system which helps entrepreneurs to measure clarity of business ideas and its execution plan. This is specially for ppl who are eager to become entrepreneur's but not clear how to start [...]

(from page 3) Entrepreneurship matrix is a set of Business components and its attribute, which is very essential for any business.

Here u can check whether your business idea is really workable on not based on clarity of your business idea w.r.t to different business attributes. All this explanation is done in 24 slide Power point presentation [...]

I have already downloaded it on my computer and it is not only virus free (for the cyber paranoid out there) but also very well written. I plan on using it personally for several projects of mine (no details here). I think it is an excellent tool for anyone considering not only starting their own business, but investing in one as well.

You can either post in the forum or scrap Abhay with your email address for more details.

Do We Need Religion?

Over in the Philosophy forum, Pallav asks the community "why do we need religion?" Answers varied from yes we do towards religion is evil, as well as everything in between. Here are a few responses towards Pallav's question.

Taha: closure- human beings need religion to give them the answers to questions science and human reasoning cannot. we are blessed and cursed with the ability to think. if we know that life is finite and there is nothing beyond this world we will plunge into chaos.

some people in the world might even commit suicide. religion or any ideology is all that sustains us as societies.

Amar: we do not need religion...the fact that so many people subscribe to it is simply that they [are not] yet mature to think for themselves. we, as humans, like to stay in our little 'comfort zone', knowing that nothing majorly wrong has taken place in the past thousand years (and attributing it to religion) and hence adopting a "why not" approach. man reserves every right to do what pleases him and gives him peace and satisfactin. i feel nothing wrong in following a religion, IF it doesn't interfere with other religions and IF it is tolerant enough of other religions.

Note: Edited slightly for grammar.

Mo: a religeon is not only a code but also a compilation of ideas...not only the law of a state...but a history book as well...the difference between religeon and science is that science has proofs.

religeon depends on faith and spiritual perspective and reasoning n all tht stuff...and mind you religeon doesnt always clash with science...

I personally enjoyed Mo's response the best, as I feel we should not label religion as entirely evil. You can find more of my thoughts over in the Philosophy forum (check the near the end of the discussion).

For those who are die hard fans of what is known as "the God debate," within Orkut, you can try heading towards the Atheist vs. Theist forum where "civil debate" takes place.

How To Remove The Joga Ad

Over in the What should Orkut do? forum, a couple of users have expressed their displeasure of Joga being advertised on their Orkut homepage. Axel leads the chorus by saying:

What the [*bleep*] is going on, there is a Nike (Joga bonito) advertisement at the left down corner of my orkut!!!

In the terms of orkut is written: "The orkut.comservice is made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. Businesses, organizations or other legal entities may not use the orkut.com service for any purpose."

IS THAT HOW ORKUT SAVES US FROM COMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENT???

Other users have asked about this, so in order to keep the screaming minority everyone happy, here is a way to remove the Joga ad on your home page.

1. Download Firefox. If you have IE, my sympathies go out to you.


2. If you already have Firefox (or have downloaded it) simply install this extension entitled Ad Block.


3. Restart Firefox and return back to this post.


4. Go to your Orkut home page and right click on the Joga Ad. A screen shot is provided for your viewing pleasure.





5. Another screen should pop up letting you know where the ad link is. Simply push the "OK" button and your ad should vanish.





6. If your ad does not disappear, try refreshing your screen by hitting "F5" on the top of your keyboard (above the number 6 key).

That's all you need to do. If later on you decided that you want the Ad back, simply go to Tools, Ad Block, Preferences and find the Ad that you blocked and delete it from the list (simply right click, and select Delete).

There is another way of removing the Ad within Firefox, but it also removes all images from Orkut which may hinder your efforts inside, especially if you are trying to find a date.

Superman Was Jewish?

Q. F. Azeem posts an interesting secret regarding the man of steel over in the Jewish/Judaism/Jew forum. Apparently Superman has jewish roots, at least in parable form which leads to some humorous (yet enlightening) discussion in the kosher community.

Daniel: [...] Even his Kryptonian name is Hebrew! (I wonder how they'd call him up for an aliyah? "Yaamod, Kalel ben Jorel...")

Milt: The facts of Superman's origins began in the fertile minds of 2 Jewish art students in the 1930s, Joe Shuster and Jerry Seigal, as a reaction to the threat to the Jews in Europe during the rising Hitler era in Germany. [...]

The Kryptonian names were not particularly Jewish unless there was an inside joke by the authors/illustrators. My own guess is that the names were "accidentally" Hebraic because the two originators were not that long before, Bar Mitzvah boys.

Carlos: In fact, not only Supermen... the guy whom created Marvel Comics, Mr. Stan Lee, is jew... so, the major part of the superheroes are from jewish genetic origin...

That last point is interesting because in X-men Stan Lee briefly goes over Magneto's (who is a super villain) jewish roots (plus many others).

Are the people of the book also the people of the comic books? If so, then that means all of my child hood hero's were kosher. That probably explains why I love falafels so much.

Americans Celebrate Their Independence (Updated)

Well, the fireworks are now officially over and members are giving their congrats to Americans over in the United States of America forum. Bruno pretty much sums up how Americans feel by saying:

A Happy Independence Day for all americans. May the star-spangled banner wave over the land of the free and the brave for another two centuries and thirty years, at least!

I was not able to find many postings on what Americans did on July the 4^th, although Orrey-gun gives a brief summary of what he did yesterday.

couple of brews and talked to my girlfriend while watching fireworks from my balcony. Yep, pretty wweet.

That pretty much sums up my holiday weekend as well--minus the beer and girlfriend part.

Update: Is blogger sick all of a sudden, or is it me?

Update 2: Sorry for the multiple posts. Blogger was refreshing infinately, and was not telling me that I was posting the same content over and over again. Sigh, I'll have to send in another trouble ticket.

An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore)

A new forum promoting Al Gore for 2008 discusses his latest film entitled "An Inconvenient Truth." The film discusses global warming, storming and a host of other bad news that generally makes a good day into a bad one.

Here is what Vivek had to say about the film.

This is the documentary movie starring Al Gore. I give it 5 thumbs way up! [...]

In this documentary, Al lays out the facts in such a meticulous manner, you've got to think, how can there be global warming skeptics. I've also had the opportunity to read the book he wrote back in 1992, Earth in the Balance.

Besides his dedication to the environmental cause, it's amazing how he predicted a lot of the events associated with global warming way back then, such as the emergence / spread of diseases and stronger storms.

Global warming has been a semi major issue in the US, although the topic can not compete with the War on Terror and American Idol.

Apparently there are some who doubt that global warming is a valid issue, although I lack the scientific geek powers to decide one way or another (since you can find plenty of scientists on either side of the debate). Anyways, Vivek points readers towards a theatre listing and here is a preview of the film below.

Happy Independence Day!

It looks like the "Great White North" (also known as Canada) has just celebrated their Independence Day which was on July 1^st. Over in the Canadians (go Canada!) forum, Marcella leads the celebration.

just wanted to say HAPPY CANADA DAY TO EVERYONE!!!!!

PROUUUUUUUUUUD TO BE CANADIAAAAAAAAAAN wooooooooo!!!

To all my Canadian friends (especially Chris who got me into this blogging world) I wish you a Happy Canadian Day.

Note: The US of A (United States of America) is having theirs tomorrow. There will be no posting then as fireworks shall be lit and hot dogs shall be bit (yummy!).

Update (12:20 AM, July 4^th): Happy Independence Day to all our American readers!