Thank you for stopping by my blog. This is my first dip into the blogging trench, started out of my curiosity to know what actually is a blog. I try to put here my readings from various sources; books, blogs, sites. I also grab stuff from here & there and try to showcase it in my own style here. If you'd like my scribblings, please subscribe to my full text RSS feeds.


Currently I am experimenting a few new features on my blog, like Peekaboo and Post Summary; the reason for the slight distortion you see. I am hoping to frame up these soon, please bear with me!




Definitions of Tip on the web:


  • cause to tilt; "tip the screen upward"
  • mark with a tip; "tip the arrow with the small stone"
  • give a tip or gratuity to in return for a service, beyond the compensation agreed on; "Remember to tip the waiter"; "fee the steward"
  • topple: cause to topple or tumble by pushing
  • the extreme end of something; especially something pointed
  • tiptoe: walk on one's toes
  • gratuity: a relatively small amount of money given for services rendered (as by a waiter)
  • information related to a particular thing or process that could help the interested perform the task with ease or without any problem
  • an indication of potential opportunity; "he got a tip on the stock market"; "a good lead for a job"
  • tap: strike lightly; "He tapped me on the shoulder"
  • tip off: give insider information or advise to; "He tipped off the police about the terrorist plot"
  • point: a V shape; "the cannibal's teeth were filed to sharp points"
  • peak: the top point of a mountain or hill; "the view from the peak was magnificent"; "they clambered to the summit of Monadnock"
  • remove the tip from; "tip artichokes"

We'll talk about the definition in red. This definition relates to the tiny nuggets of information that can have surprisingly profound effects on our lives. They can make life easier and less frustrating; they can make our activities safer; they can make our work more efficient and they can help us save money too.


We always take tips from our granny but after the task is achieved, we seldom bother to archive it, or pass it to the needful. TipBin exactly does this task for us. TipBin is a huge collection of tips posted by users like us who'd like to educate the rest of us with this useful tips. These tips range over a variety of topics. A neat and clever tag cloud lets you easily browse thru the tips related to your topic of interest.



Conceived by Christian Cantrell, TipBin's mission is to:
  • Make as many tips as possible available to anyone who wants them at any time
  • Make information easy to find and share with each other
  • Make it easy to provide feedback on tips so you know which ones you can rely on
Check for the tips on a topic of your interest. Who knows, it could be the very same tip you got from your granny sometime back. Esle it could be a very useful tip that could save you a great deal of money and time. Before you could suggest the world with your tips, you need to register with TipBin.






In context to my earlier posts on US VISA Interview Appointment and VFS Global, I also felt the need to keep my readers informed with some (or rather complete) info on the complete application procedure. Excerpts from various sources and largely from VFS have helped me put together the information collectively at the tip of your mouse pointer. Please pen your suggestions if this document needs updations with some info that I might have missed.

Read this doc on Scribd: H1B VISA Application Procedure

A new website, Blackle, aims to act as a starting point for eco-conscious web searchers. The site, which serves as a front end for Google searches, reverses the color schemes of search-result pages so users see light-colored text on a black background. It’s a trick that, allegedly, cuts the energy consumption of computer monitors. Blackle claimes it had saved more than 5,500 watt-hours of electricity since its debut in March. Blackle also has an Indian version too!



The Google cache version of the site’s “about” page, which carries some white screen space from Google atop the black page, explains that the site was inspired by a blog by Mark Ontkush claiming that if Google went all-black, it could save 750 megawatt-hours a year (a megawatt-hour is one million watt-hours). But as the blogger mentions, the savings are most likely to accrue from older CRT (cathode-ray tube) monitors, rather than the more-modern, more-compact, more-energy-efficient LCD (liquid crystal display) screens that have come to dominate the market (representing three quarters of all monitors world-wide as of last year).


On LCD displays, color may confer no benefit at all. Cadmus Group, which specializes in energy and environment, and does work for the government; quickly tested this behavior by loading Blackle, Google and the Web site of the New York Times (which is like Google, mostly white on-screen) on two monitors — one CRT, one LCD — and connecting a power meter to both. “We found that the color on screen mattered very little to the energy color consumption of the LCD monitor,” said David Korn of Cadmus. The changes were so slight as to be within the margin of error for the power meter. Tweaking brightness and contrast and settings had a bigger effect. The bulkier CRT screen did see savings with Blackle of between 5% and 20%. Mr. Korn emphasized that this was a quick test, not a rigorous study.

“Even if the energy savings are small, they are representative of the need for each of us to start taking small steps to save energy,” quoted Blackle’s Dr. Heap in an email. “My hope is that by setting Blackle as their home page people will be reminded of this need to save energy each time they go online.” Similar wording appears on Blackle’s “about” page.


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Blackle is part of the Google Co-op program, which means it shares in ad revenue from searches. A Google spokesman said, “Google is not affiliated with Blackle and we do not have any additional comments to provide at this time.”

Google says "We applaud the spirit of the idea, but our own analysis as well as that of others shows that making the Google homepage black will not reduce energy consumption. To the contrary, on flat-panel monitors (already estimated to be 75% of the market), displaying black may actually increase energy usage. Detailed results from a new study confirm this."

source:the wall street journal






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