Earth Hour India :today 8:30PM-9:30PM (IST)

Earth Hour is an international event organised by the WWF, and held on the last Saturday of March each year, which asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. Earth hour was conceived by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights.
Following Sydney’s lead, many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008 Earth Hour 2009 is from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time, 28-03-2009. Currently, 82 countries and more than 2100 cities are ‘committed to Earth Hour 2009′, a huge increase from people participating in 35 countries for Earth Hour 2008. 1 billion ‘votes’ is the stated aim for Earth Hour 2009, in the context of the pivotal 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Among the participants this year is, for the first time, the United Nations building. The U.N. conservatively estimates that its participation will save $102 in energy.

Earth Hour in India

earth hour India

Our country India is also joined in Earth Hour 2009 in the global fight against climate change. As one of the most pressing challenges facing mankind today, climate change is in no way less alarming than the evident threat of terrorism that the nation is currently reeling under. Lights will be dimmed on buildings and pivotal landmarks and monuments throughout the city centers on 28th March 09 and thousands of people in several cities of India will be coming together to celebrate, in candlelight, the Earth Hour campaign.
The only way to truly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to take the pressure off climate change, is through an international treaty on climate pollution. And the only way that will happen is if politicians around the world become convinced that climate change is an issue that concerns people, one that will make them change the way they live, spend — and vote. Hundreds of Indian residents will switch off their lights for Earth Hour as symbol of this positive message of change to the world.

Sachin Tendulkar, Amir Khan, Infosys, Intel, Wipro, Nokia are going to turn off their lights on earth hour. Are you?.

come and Join for Earth Hour 2009, turn off your lights at 8.30pm Saturday 28 March and sign-up here at Earth hour India..

Google
Earth Hour has also received free publicity from the Google corporation. From 12:00 a.m. on March 29, 2008 until the end of Earth Hour, the Google homepage in the United States, Colombia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland and the UK was turned to a black background. Their tagline is, “We’ve turned the lights out. Now it’s your turn – Earth Hour.”

google earth hour

However, Google stated that for 2009 they would not turn the page black again due to the confusion it caused many users. A common misconception is that having a black background on a web page reduces the power consumption of monitors; LCD monitors use a constant amount of power regardless of which colors are shown. This is not the case for Organic LED monitors, though they are not currently in popular use.

So, Come and Join the Earth Hour 2009, turn off your lights at 8.30pm Saturday 28 March and sign-up here at Earth hour India....

Information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org and http://www.earthhour.in/

The Pioneer of Bengali Movie

We know the road Madan Street or Madan Square, but we don’t know who the man was. The roads belongs to the name of a Great man who came east from the west to rising up the sun of the bengali film industry, Jamshedji Framji Madan.

jamshedji framji madan

Jamshedji Framji Madan (1856–1923), born in a Parsi family in Bombay, was one of the pioneers of the Indian film industry and he was the man who makes first silent Movie in Bengali language. In kolkata No can can think that it can be an industry before him.
In 1902, he started bioscope shows in a tent in Maidan, Calcutta along with similar shows in Corinthian Theatre. The equipments used were procured from Pathé Frères of Paris. Most of the films shown in those shows were from Pathé Productions. These bioscope shows (A Bioscope show was a fairground attraction consisting of a traveling cinema) were organized under the banner of Elphinstone Bioscope Company. Kolkata — the skyline across the Maidan The Maidan (open field) is the largest urban park in Kolkata (earlier known as Calcutta) in India. … Elphinstone Bioscope Company produced a number of short films. He also started film shows in Alfred Theater, which he bought in the same year.

In 1907, he established Elphinstone Picture Palace (currently known as Chaplin Cinema), which was the first permanent show house in Calcutta.

He also opened Madan Theatre and Palace of Varieties (now known as Elite Cinema).

After World War I, his business started growing rapidly. In 1919, his film production business became a joint stock company with the name of Madan Theatres Limited. Madan Theatres and its associates had great control over theatre houses in India during that period. In 1919, Madan produced the first Bengali feature film, Billwamangal. It was first screened in the Cornwallis Theatre (now known as the Sree Cinema) “The Great War â€? redirects here. ….A joint stock company (JSC) is a type of business partnership in which the capital is formed by the individual contributions of a group of shareholders. …

The Madan Theatre Company has its roots in 1902 when Jamshedji Framji Madan, a wine merchant who came to Calcutta from Bombay as a child, started his entertainment business by acquiring two theatre companies in Calcutta and then beginning film exhibitions.Billwamangal (Pronounced Billomongol) was a 1919 Bengali silent film by Jyotish Banerjee. …

The Electric Theatre (now known as Regal Cinema), Grand Opera House (currently known as Globe Cinema) and Crown Cinema (now known as Uttara Cinema) were all owned by Madan Theatres.

His films were marked by a high degree of technical sophistication, facilitated by his employment of experienced foreign directors like Eugenio De Liguoro, Camille Le Grand and Georgio Mannini. Such expertise was complemented by grand sets and popular mythological storylines which ensured good returns. Many of these films were versions of earlier popular theatrical forms. Liguoro directed Nala Damayanti (1920) and Dhruva Charitra (1921), Le Grand directed Ratnavali (1922), and Mannini directed Savitri Satyavan (1923). Patience Cooper, one of the early stars of Indian Cinema, acted in many of the movies produced by Madan Theatres. Patience Cooper Patience Cooper (1905–1983) was an Indian film actress. …

Madan also took the initiative in obtaining the film rights for works of stalwarts of Bengali literature like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Rabindranath Tagore. Madan Theatres produced films like Bishabriksha, Durgesh Nandini (1927) and Radharani (1930), based on Bankim Chandra’s works. Giribala (1929) was based on Tagore’s work.

Hidden Password Generator In Windows Xp

We all know that we must have a strong password to protect our private data. A strong password must have letters, numbers, and symbols. The greater variety of characters that you have in your password, the harder it is to guess.
You can use some online password generator to get a strong password. But did you know that in Windows Xp you can generate a random password.

Here’s how:

* Go to Run on the Start menu and type ‘cmd’ (without the quotes)
* A DOS like command prompt window will open. You must see the flashing cursor.
* At the command prompt type ‘net user administrator /random’ (without the quotes)

Note: There is space before the slant(/)
Command prompt will now generate a strong password for you to use.

Please Take Note Of The Generated Password It will Reset Your Admin Password
You can also use this if you forgot your admin password

BSNL Broad Band Absurd Billing

On April I posted an article about Absurd Billing system of BSNL Broad Band. Now this is the second part of their drama. Last month my father received a call from BSNL, that they made a wrong bill for my connection and only Rs. 2012 is the exact amount for that bill. So they told me that what I payed for the month of April that is excess payment and they will adjust it on my next bill. I received the bill for May of Rs. 1167. I payed before the due date. Now from the last Monday, my internet connection is disconnected. After asking to the customer care I come to know that my connection is temporarily disconnected due to the not payment and told me to contact my local AOTR of BSNL. My father went to meet him yesterday at Mullick Fatak, the Broad Band section of BSNL at Howrah. He clearly told that I must have to pay the outstanding Rs. 3045 of the bill of April which was Rs. 6090. As I only paid the first installment of Rs. 3045, my connection is disconnected. My father told him about the call from BSNL for the wrong billing and submit all the documents in proof. But he denied, he told my father “I dont know who called you up; may be its a ghost call”. He threaten my father that, if I dont pay the rest of the amount within Monday, my internet connection will be permanently disconnected.
This is BSNL, The one and only Broad Band provider undertaken by west Bengal Government. and this is how they run their monopoly business.

K-Lite Codec Pack 3.9.0 Full

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codecs are required to encode and/or decode (play) audio and video. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play 99% of all the movies that you download from the internet.

The K-Lite Codec Pack has a couple of major advantages compared to other codec packs:
- It it always up-to-date with the latest versions of the codecs.
- It is very user-friendly and the installation is fully customizable, meaning that you can install only those components that you really want.
- It has been very well tested, so that the package doesn’t contain any conflicting codecs.
- It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies.There are three versions of the K-Lite Codec Pack: Basic, Standard and Full.
• K-Lite Codec Pack Basic contains only the most essential things. It contains everything you need to be able to play the most popular and widespread formats. It is small enough to fit on a single floppy. Also great for including on your movie CDs.
• K-Lite Codec Pack Standard contains everything you need to play all the commonly used formats. This package should be enough for the average user.
• K-Lite Codec Pack Full contains even more codecs. It also has encoding support for the various formats. This package is for power users and people who do their own encodings.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack

Features of K-Lite Codec Pack 3.9.0 FULL version :

• Player :
- Media Player Classic [version 6.4.9.1 rev. 49]
• FFDShow :
- FFDShow [revision 1937]
- extra plugins
- FFDShow VFW interface
• DirectShow video filters :
- XviD [version 1.2 build 2008-01-10]
- DivX [version 6.8.2.6]
- On2 VP6 [version 6.4.2.0]
- On2 VP7 [version 7.0.10.0]
- MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 (Cyberlink) [version 8.1.0.1513]
- MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 (DScaler5) [version 0.0.8.0]
- MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.3]
- MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 (MainConcept) [version 1.0.0.78]
- MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 (Ligos) [version 4.0.0.77]
• DirectShow audio decoding filters:
- AC3/DTS/LPCM/MP1/MP2 (AC3Filter) [version 1.46]
- Vorbis (CoreVorbis) [version 1.1.0.79]
- AAC (CoreAAC) [version 1.2.0.575]
• DirectShow audio parsers:
- MusePack (MONOGRAM) [version 0.9.1.2 | 0.3.1.2]
- WavPack (CoreWavPack) [version 1.1.1]
- FLAC (madFLAC) [version 1.8]
- Monkey’s Audio (DCoder) [version 1.0]
- OptimFROG (RadLight) [version 1.0.0.1]
- DC-Bass Source [version 1.1.0.0]
- AC3/DTS Source (AC3File) [version 0.5b]
- AMR (MONOGRAM) [version 0.9.0.1]
• DirectShow source filters:
- AVI splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.9]
- AVI splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.8.122.18]
- MP4 splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.8.122.18]
- MP4 splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.4]
- Matroska splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.8.122.18]
- Matroska splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.3.0]
- Ogg splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.8.122.18]
- Ogg splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.1]
- MPEG PS/TS splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.4]
- MPEG PS/TS splitter (Haali Media Splitter) [version 1.8.122.18]
- FLV splitter (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.4]
- CDDA Reader (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.2]
- CDXA Reader (Gabest) [version 1.0.0.2]
• DirectShow subtitle filter:
- DirectVobSub (a.k.a. VSFilter) [version 2.38]
• Other filters:
- Haali Video Renderer [version 1.8.122.18]
• VFW video codecs:
- XviD [version 1.2.0-dev build 2007-07-25]
- DivX Pro [version 6.8.2.6]
- x264 [revision 721bm]
- On2 VP6 [version 6.4.2.0]
- On2 VP7 [version 7.0.10.0]
- Intel Indeo 4 [version 4.51.16.2]
- Intel Indeo 5 [version 5.2562.15.54]
- Intel I.263 [version 2.55.1.16]
- huffyuv [version 2.1.1 CCE Patch 0.2.5]
- I420 (Helix) [version 1.2]
- YV12 (Helix) [version 1.2]
• ACM audio codecs:
- MP3 (LAME) [version 3.97]
- AC3ACM [version 1.4]
- Vorbis [version 0.0.3.6]
- DivX Audio [version 4.2.0.0]
• Tools:
- Codec Tweak Tool [version 2.2.4]
- GSpot Codec Information Appliance [version 2.70a]
- MediaInfo 0.7.6.3
- VobSubStrip [version 0.11]
- GraphEdit [build 061102]
- Haali Muxer [version 1.8.122.18]
- AVI Fixed [version 2.0b1]
- FourCC Changer
- Bitrate Calculator

Download K-Lite Codec Pack

Derivatives Trading

What are various types of derivatives?

Futures : A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a certain time in the future at a certain price. Presently Index futures on S&P CNX NIFTY and CNX IT , Stock futures on certain
specified Securities and Interest Rate Futures are available for trading at NSE. All the futures contracts are settled in cash.
Options : An Option is a contract which gives the right, but not an obligation, to buy or sell the underlying at a stated date and at a stated price. While a buyer of an option pays the premium and buys the right to exercise his option, the writer of an option is the one who receives the option premium and therefore obliged to sell/buy the asset if the buyer exercises it on him.
Options are of two types – Calls and Puts options :
“Calls” give the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy a given quantity of the underlying asset, at a given price on or before a given future date. “Puts” give the buyer the right, but not the obligation to sell a given quantity of underlying asset at a given price on or before a given future date. Presently Index Options on S&P CNX Nifty and CNX IT and options on certain specified securities are available for trading at NSE. All the options contracts are settled in cash.
Further the Options are classified based on type of exercise. At present the Exercise style can be European or American.
American Option – American options are options contracts that can be exercised at any time upto the expiration date. Options on individual securities available at NSE are American type of options.
European Options – European options are options that can be exercised only on the expiration date . S&P CNX Nifty and CNX IT options available at NSE are European type of option.

What are the benefits of trading in Index Futures compared to any other security ?
An investor can trade the ‘entire stock market’ by buying index futures instead of buying individual securities with the efficiency of a mutual fund. The advantages of trading in Index Futures are:
- The contracts are highly liquid
- Index Futures provide higher leverage than any other stocks
- It requires low initial capital requirement
- It has lower risk than buying and holding stocks
- It is just as easy to trade the short side as the long side
- Only have to study one index instead of 100’s of stocks
- Settled in cash and therefore all problems related to bad delivery, forged, fake certificates, etc can be avoided.

What is the Expiration Day ?
It is the last day on which the contracts expire. Futures and Options contracts expire on the last Thursday of the expiry month. If the last Thursday is a trading holiday, the contracts expire on the previous trading day. For E.g The January 2004 contracts mature on January 29, 2004.

**Information collected from NSE.

Basics of Financial Markets

What is Investment?
The money you earn is partly spent and the rest saved for meeting future expenses. Instead of keeping the savings idle you may like to use savings in order to get return on it in the future. This is called Investment.

What is an ‘Equity’/Share?
Total equity capital of a company is divided into equal units of small denominations, each called a share. For example, in a company the total equity capital of Rs 2,00,00,000 is divided into 20,00,000 units of Rs 10 each. Each such unit of Rs 10 is called a Share. Thus, the company then is 11 said to have 20,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each. The holders of such shares are members of the company and have voting rights.

What is a Derivative?
Derivative is a product whose value is derived from the value of one or more basic variables, called underlying. The underlying asset can be equity, index, foreign exchange (forex), commodity or any other asset.

What is a Mutual Fund?
A Mutual Fund is a body corporate registered with SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India) that pools money from individuals/ corporate investors and invests the same in a variety of different financial instruments or securities such as equity shares, Government securities, Bonds, debentures etc. Mutual funds can thus be considered as financial intermediaries in the investment business that collect funds from the public and invest on behalf of the investors. Mutual funds issue units to the investors. The appreciation of the portfolio or securities in which the mutual fund has invested the money leads to an appreciation in the value of the units held by investors. The investment objectives outlined by a Mutual Fund in its prospectus are binding on the Mutual Fund scheme. The investment objectives specify the class of securities a Mutual Fund can invest in. Mutual Funds invest in various asset classes like equity, bonds, debentures, commercial paper and government securities. The schemes offered by
mutual funds vary from fund to fund. Some are pure equity schemes; others are a mix of equity and bonds. Investors are also given the option of getting dividends, which are declared periodically by the mutual fund, or to participate only in the capital appreciation of the scheme.

What is the function of Securities Market?
Securities Markets is a place where buyers and sellers of securities can enter into transactions to purchase and sell shares, bonds, debentures etc. Further, it performs an important role of enabling corporates, entrepreneurs to raise resources for their companies and business ventures through public issues. Transfer of resources from those having idle resources (investors) to others who have a need for them (corporates) is most effi ciently achieved through the securities market. Stated formally, securities markets provide channels for reallocation of savings to investments and entrepreneurship. Savings are linked to investments by a variety of intermediaries, through a range of fi nancial products, called ‘Securities’.

What is meant by Market Capitalisation?
The market value of a quoted company, which is calculated by multiplying its current share price (market price) by the number of shares in issue is called as market capitalization. E.g. Company A has 120 million shares in issue. The current market price is Rs. 100. The market capitalisation of company A is Rs. 12000 million.

What is an Initial Public Offer (IPO)?
An Initial Public Offer (IPO) is the selling of securities to the public in the primary market. It is when an unlisted company makes either a fresh issue of securities or an offer for sale of its existing securities or both for the fi rst time to the public. This paves way for listing and trading of the issuer’s securities. The sale of securities can be either through book building or through normal public issue.

What is the role of the ‘Primary Market’?
The primary market provides the channel for sale of new securities. Primary market provides opportunity to issuers of securities; Government as well as corporates, to raise resources to meet their requirements of investment and/or discharge some obligation. They may issue the securities at face value, or at a discount/premium and these securities may take a variety of forms such as equity, debt etc. They may issue the securities in domestic market and/or international market.

Which are the securities one can invest in?
 Shares
 Government Securities
 Derivative products
 Units of Mutual Funds etc., are some of the securities investors in the securities market can invest in.

What precautions must one take before investing in the stock markets?
Here are some useful pointers to bear in mind before you invest in the markets:
 Make sure your broker is registered with SEBI and the exchanges and do not deal with unregistered intermediaries.
 Ensure that you receive contract notes for all your transactions from your broker within one working day of execution of the trades.  Be cautious about stocks which show a sudden spurt in price or trading activity.
 Any advise or tip that claims that there are huge returns expected, especially for acting quickly, may be risky and may to lead to losing some, most, or all of your money.
 Investing in very low priced stocks or what are known as penny stocks does not guarantee high returns.

For more information on Basics of Financial Markets, please refer to the NCFM module of NSE, from where I did collect the above informations.

Online weather forecast for site, blog, or MySpace page..

AccuWeather.com introduces netWeather, a free tool for forecast weather online for your city. You can Choose from one of nine sizes with multiple themes, more than three million locations around the world, display current conditions, five-day forecast, temperature maps, and radar or precipitation maps. Available in English or Spanish.

Add to your blog or site, make it more attractive..

Check the Bandwidth of your Broadband

Mozilla introduces an addon for Firefox, by which you can check the bandwidth of your broadband connection. It can measure the bandwidth of Internet connections and perform diagnostic tests (connectivity, ping and traceroute etc). To get this addon you have to first install Firefox (A free Internet browser like Internet Explorer, Mozilla product) as this will only install with it. It doesn’t work with IE.

Download the addon from: Firefox Extension-Bandwidth Meter

Comodo Firewall Pro

Today I have got an excellent firewall for my system, Comodo Firewall Pro. I never used any firewall for my home PC before. I had tried it, it very easy to configure and took minimum resources than the other firewalls. It comes totally free. You can download it free from Comodo.com or from Softpedia.com.

Size: 19.4 MB
Supported OS: Windows NT/2K/XP/2003/Vista

Comodo Firewall, rated by PC Magazine Online as an Editor’s Choice, constantly monitors and defends your PC from internet attacks. Comodo Firewall Pro is aimed to secure your system against internal attacks such as Trojan viruses / malicious software and external attacks by hackers. Safeguard your personal data through a simple user friendly single click interface offering full immunity to attack. Comodo Firewall Pro helps you connect in a secure way to the internet and global networks.