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Create the perfect avatar!

June 4th, 2009
2 comments


 

AVATARS

Avatars, according to Wikipedia, originates from the Sanskrit word Avatarawhich translates to incarnation in English. Avatar is the form the Supreme Beings assume in this world for some special purpose. Lord Vishnu, in Hindu mythology assumes ten different forms to help rid of the world of trouble and terror. Lord Vishnu assumes the forms of Matsya (Fish), Kurma (Tortoise), Varaha (Boar), Narasimha (half lion, half human), Vamana (Dwarf), ParasuRama, Rama, Krishna, Balarama, Kalki (This avatar is still to come).

AVATARS IN THE COMPUTING SENSE

But, in the computing sense of the word, Avatars are computer user's own representation of himself as a picture. The avatar could be the photograph of the person or a cartoon of himself or it could be his own representation of himself  based on the mood, likes, dislikes and other idiosyncrasies. This pictorial representation will represent the person in a forum or website or in blogs. These pictures can be simple or can be even animated. These icons or images can be in JPEG, JPG, GIF formats.

3D AVATARS

The Second Life and www.there.com are sites where the user can create 3D avatars of himself and cruise along in a 3D virtual reality world. These sites also provide a virtual reality world to play games, explore places, meet other people and just have fun.

RIGHT CLICK AVATARS

Choosing an avatar can be as simple as going through a list of categories like people, cartoons, flowers, nature etc and picking the one that suits the best from sites like www.avatarity.com, www.allavatars.com . Just right clicking on the picture and click on Save image as to save the avatar in the computer. Then, that image can be uploaded to the blog or on the forum to be the avatar.

YAHOO AVATARS

Yahoo Avatars can be created for every Yahoo ID. These avatars follow you in all Yahoo sites like the Yahoo Music, Yahoo Movies and in the Yahoo messenger chat and are fun and easy to make fromhttp://avatars.yahoo.com.  Yahoo avatars are created  from scratch by choosing on the preferred shape of the face, choosing the skin color, the hairstyles and accessories to the hair and face. These avatars can be made to show off different moods, emotions, clothes, add ons and festivities. The site is also very user-friendly and has a large array of clothing, backgrounds and extras of any kind to choose from.

OTHER AVATAR CREATION SITES

There are may other sites which create avatars similar to the Yahoo avatar site. www.doppleme.com, AvatarMaker lets you create a cartoon-like person while letting you choose the clothes and background. Zwinky is another popular avatar creation site. It includes tons of accessories, clothes and other stuff and is very highly rated. But to create zwinkies, the software has to be downloaded for the browser. It then loads the zwinky making software on the toolbar where it can be evoked in blogs, Instant Messengers and in websites. Zwinky also downloads SmileyCentral and other software along with the download.

WORDPRESS AVATARS

WordPress supports Gravatars (wavatars,identicons and monsterID plug-ins). Wavatars are automatically generated avatars based each email address. It creates a unique and memorable face for each person.Identicon plugins supported by WordPress automatically generates geometric pattern and is unique for each person based on his IP address.MonsterID creates a unique monster for each person. BLAVATAR (BLog+AVATAR) is the latest idea in WP. The general idea is to have a picture associated with the blog and to make it appear in the blog page in front of the URL in your blog (The favicon place). This picture also appears when you comment in someone else's blog.  Mighty interesting! And it was easy to make my blavatar too. Just click on the Settings in the top right corner of your blog page and upload a picture. Crop it if you need to and all set!

YOUR NAME AVATARS

Want to turn your name into an avatar? Trywww.turnyournameintoaface.com!

TALKING AVATARS

Sitepal is a commercial site where avatars are customized to talk about a particular product or a topic. These talking avatars come for a price but are interestinge and is very engaging for the viewer.

Whee for Wii

October 14th, 2008
10 comments


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Nintendo’s Wii is a great gaming console. Apart from its mac-like cute looks, and small, smart size, it delivers great gaming to weekend gamers like me. Though Wii runs in the same lines as the Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft XBox, it has one great advantage: Movement and exercise to the whole body.
Wii is designed to let the gamer experience the game better by actually playing the game. For example, with the help of a remote-like thingy, the gamer plays tennis by actually moving the remote to hit the shots with the opponent. Believe you me, i started playing this yesterday and i am already an addict. The gamer experience is even more exemplified by vibrations in the remote when the ball “hits” the racquet. The wii actually works with the wrist-flicks. But the graphics and the sound, gives it a wimbledon-like atmosphere to play in and so, makes you run around the whole place returning the shots! Great exercise!

Normally, wii comes with a wii console a wireless remote and a nanchuck. The remote is used as the bat in baseball, racquet in tennis. The nanchuck, along with the remote is used in boxing games to simulate both the hands in action. The nanchuck actually looks like joystick. 

The wii comes bundled also with wii sports which has the tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing games. Each game is amazingly crafted and lets you play in a wonderful atmosphere and with the greatest of ease. Each point won or lost comes with an instant reply (which also can be skipped) which lets the gamer review the shots and correct them or learn from it. Mii is a wii avatar that each person can create and use it to play with other avatars or the console itself.

It is also possible to connect the wii to the internet and download information and updates for it. Wii can also be used to connect to other wiis and play along with others. It can also be used to jot down messages, email other miis. It also has a calender for a reminder.

PS3 and Xbox lovers swear that wii is not for serious gamers who appreciate high grade graphics. Wii also cannot be used as a dvd player. It only plays nintendo games and wii games.

The demand for wii is so much that it is always sold out in almost all stores and there is a serious website www.wiitracker.com that shows which stores hold the wii in stock! Because of the high demand, people are willing to buy it at any cost. (really!) It is actually priced at $329 which includes the gaming console, wii sports cd, one remote and one nanchuk. It is said that wii is ready to make its grand entrance in India this December. And that it will be priced around Rs.20,000. It will also come bundled with all the same things.

My initial review of the wii is that it is ADDICTIVE. I am not a serious gamer and i find myself happy in the company of the wii and even happier if it continuous keep me captivated and well exercised :)

The Google Chrome

September 9th, 2008
5 comments


I downloaded the Google Chrome 2 days ago and have been playing with it. Google Chrome is Google;s new web browser. It was launched 1 week ago and was released only for windows. It still has a long way to go to get into the main stream, but i think it is heading in a great direction.
My Verdict is: VERY NICE!

These are the features that i really like:

  1. Search the fav website right from the address bar :Search/ type url on the address bar. Usually, i have a google search box on my firefox browser and search there and then get results on a different tab. Here, it is sooo simple! To search, i just type “Rajinikanth” on the address bar and i get the best search result’s address like www.rajinifan.com and also google search for Rajinikanth on a drop down list. I can choose to go directly to the website or the results page… It actually brings out the best website as i tried it with “pidgin” and it brought me www.pidgin.im
  2. I am able to pull (drag) a tab right out of the window of the browser into a new window. That was pretty neat!
  3. If one tab crashes, it doesnt take the whole browser down. Instead, only that tab-page complains.
  4. Task Manager for websites! There are times when i used to wonder which sites take up so much memory to slow everything down. The answer is just shift-esc away. It shows you how much memory each tab uses.
  5. Reopening tabs closed by mistake. -I do that a lot and used to go into history to get it back. Super easy here. Just open another tab and you see a box that says “Recently closed tabs” and lists everything that was closed… Just click it!
  6. Book Marking is a cinch! i am able to drag my fav page and make a it a bookmark right under the address bar for easier retrieval. Or click on the star on the address bar to book mark it.
  7. Opening a new tab also shows a screenshot of the pages i have visited often. i click on them, i go to that page.
  8. And there is an incognito mode where, the website i am visiting in that mode is not saved in the history ;)
  9. I can make Application short cuts in two clicks.
  10. Settings can also be imported from your usual browser- very easily. Two clicks again
  11. Looks so neat and without much clutter. There is no File, Edit, View - menus… Just 2 more options other than the back and forward arrows.
  12. The downloads that i do can be seen on the bottom of my screen. Makes it easier for me to stop, restart midway…. (although i have never used it, but i like it visible on my browser to see the status)
  13. I also like the way the site name is highlighted in the web address.http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/features.html?hl=en

Chrome has not become my default browser yet. It misses a lot of plug-ins and crashes at the sight of flash. It couldnot handle even the “add a post page” in rediffiland and i am using my trusty firefox for it. And i am sure i cant find beautiful theme downloads and reminders (add ons) as i have in firefox, But still, i have created a soft spot for Chrome as it is really neat!

http://www.google.com/chrome/?hl=en Download Google Chrome here!