Recently I had stumbled across a useful website, which gives more than 9800 fonts, all in various shapes and forms, and that too without seeking a single penny from your wallet.
Enter www.creamundo.com.
This site is a pure joy for the designers and calligraphy writers, who see pictures in letters. Although I am not one of those kinds, but still I had enjoyed my stay at this site and also downloaded a few of them.
You can type your own text on this site and see how does it actually look like in your chosen font. See the results of the text "Manish Garg is a nice guy"
One drawback however is that the site is poorly crafted and there is only one page on which the entire information is given. There is no toolbar or navigation bar.

Recent Telecom News

Economic Times
Trai won't allow spectrum sharing
Telecom regulator Trai, in its upcoming recommendations on infrastructure
sharing, will not allow mobile service providers to share the spectrum
allocated to them, although the move will make operations more economical. More

The Hindu
Hutch, Airtel face penalty
The Department of Telecom is all set to impose a penalty on Hutchison Essar
for violating the national numbering plan by offering `Talk On' services. More

Economic Times
SC imposes Rs 1-cr fine on Reliance Tele
The Supreme Court on Thursday imposed a fine of Rs 1 crore on Reliance
Telecom Ltd , which after the division between the Ambani brothers has gone
to Anil and has since been incorporated into Reliance Communications, for
laying optical fibre cables in the Madhav National Park More

Business Standard
Trai rules out mandatory sharing of infrastructure
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is understood to have ruled
out mandatory sharing of infrastructure among mobile operators and has
instead proposed allowing active networks like antennae, feeder, cables and
transmission equipment to be shared among them. More

Economic Times
SC stays Trai notices on mobile operators plea
Private GSM operators today got a reprieve from Supreme Court, which has
stayed regulator TRAI's notices asking them to refund excess charges levied
from customers on calls made to the networks of PSU telecom firms like BSNL
and MTNL. More

Recent Telecom News

The Hindu
Vodafone-Hutch deal: Decision likely at next FIPB meeting
The Department of Telecommunications on Tuesday said that a decision on
Vodafone's proposal to acquire Hutchison Telecom International Ltd's stake
in cellular company Hutchison Essar, was expected in the next meeting of the
Foreign Investment Promotion Board. More

The Economic Times
Intl bandwidth reselling may not cut price
Telecom regulator Trai's move to allow the entry of resellers in the
international bandwidth segment is unlikely to lead to price cuts. More

Business Standard
BSNL to offer recharge facility via SMS
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the major service provider of cellular
mobile telecom services in the country, is to introduce multi-pronged
methods to recharge or renew the talk time coupons for their pre-paid mobile
customers.Talking to reporters here, L Kannan, general manager (mobile
services). More

Business Standard
Bharti Airtel in pact with VRC, NEDFi for CSR
The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi), Bharti Airtel and
Vocational Rehabilitation Centre (VRC), have jointly taken an initiative to
create livelihood opportunities for the disabled and handicap. More

Guidelines for proper subscriber verification released

In order to comply with the requirements of the DoT and also address the concerns of national security agencies, COAI and AUSPI have come together on a common platform and set up the Apex Advisory Council for Telecom in India (ACT) to oversee and ensure that the proper subscriber verification process is followed before any new mobile connection is activated.
The Apex Advisory Council for Telecom in India (ACT), has laid down certain procedures and criteria for the new subscriber activation. It is mandatory for all Points of Sales, to follow the same. The mailer made available to all Points of Sales, providing full details of the procedures to be followed for new activation is given below

ACT Mailer download
Press Release download

Recent Telecom News

The Hindu Business Line April 04 Aircel Group loses top executives The Aircel Group has lost two of its top management executives who have put in their papers recently. When contacted by Business Line, company officials confirmed that the Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jagdish Kini; and Chief Financial Officer, Mr Ganapathy Subramanian, had resigned. More...

The Hindu Business Line April 04 Pune's wireless project targets municipal schools Bypassing Bangalore and Hyderabad (preferred IT destinations), has become the first wireless city in the country with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Microsense and Intel Technology Pvt Ltd joining hands to commercially roll out the first phase of the 802.16d Wi-Fi and WiMax network in the city. More...

The Hindu Business Line April 04 The `option' issue unlikely to trip the Hutch deal It is a labyrinthine structure that characterises the Hutch deal, now hanging fire at the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board). To decode the deal, Business Line interacts with Mr George Vivek Durai of IndoJuris Law Offices, Bangalore (http://techlawindia.com). More...

The Hindu Business Line April 04 MTNL floats Rs 210-cr broadband tender State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has floated a Rs 210-crore tender for buying equipment for offering broadband services in Delhi and Mumbai. More...

The Economics Times April 04 Vodafone tells HTIL after equity row Vodafone Plc will execute the Hutchison Essar (HEL) deal only when all the ambiguities surrounding the telco’s shareholding structure are cleared. More...

Download and play a few brain-teasers

Brain Games

Soukoban (144 KB) is a classic brain game for all ages. The objective is to push given cubes to a certain position in a warehouse.

PocoMan (1045 KB) is another brain game like Soukoban with a bit more complicated mazes.

Triogical (4156 KB) is a free (freeware), puzzle-type game. Collect all Klondikes by using 3 robots - pusher, grabber and zapper (99 maps).

Atomic (198 KB) - move atoms in a maze to create a molecule and all that in a time limit.

Oslík (113 KB) - get the yellow square out through the bottom edge (tease your mind).

Fifteen (17 KB) - Sam Loyd's (famous puzzle maker) well-known fifteen.

IQ Tests

IQ test 1 (243 KB) - this test has two objectives: showing the features of Macromedia Flash and evaluating intelligence (only an estimation). 27 static and animated graphical questions are targeted at logical sequences, analogies, memory, comprehencing principles etc. I stress again, the questions are mainly for mental stimulation, and not for a real PhD certified score. More serious tests are on the links to IQ tests page.

IQ test 2 (248 KB) - this second part offers 27 harder questions in the field of cryptoanalysis and logistics.

IQ test 3 (222 KB) - the last part is about numerical and picture sequences. Reults of these three tests are not 100% accurate. Although they can be close to truth.

Recent Telecom News

The Hindu April 03 BSNL to activate SIM cards after verification HYDERABAD: The BSNL Excel pre-paid SIM cards are being sold in inactivated status since April 1 and will be activated only after the subscribers submit filled-in application forms along with supporting documents to the franchisee or departmental customer service centres. More...

The Indian Express April 03 10,000 SIM cards are disabled after fake ID scare in J&K SRINAGAR, APRIL 2: Rattled by the discovery that militants had obtained cellphone SIM cards by faking identities of securitymen, telecom companies have temporarily barred services of over 10,000 subscribers in Kashmir and launched a massive re-verification exercise. More...

The Hindu April 03 BSNL seeks to fix glitch in recharging CHENNAI: BSNL has finally taken note of the complaints of its pre-paid subscribers in south India, who were unable to recharge their phones during last week. More...

The Hindu April 03 BSNL phone exchange upgrade in last lap CHENNAI : BSNL Chennai Telephones is into the last lap of upgrading its battery of exchanges across the city. More...

The Tribune April 03 38,000 BSNL mobile phones lose ring Ambala, April 2 The mobile phones of around 38,000 BSNL subscribers of the Haryana circle have temporarily been disconnected. More...

The Tribune April 03 Airtel ISD tariffs Bharti Airtel today announced up to 11 per cent reduction in its ISD tariffs. Calls made to the USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Europe will cost Rs 6.40 per minute from Rs 7.20 per minute. More...

Business Standard April 03 DGCA may allow in-flight mobile use The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) may soon allow domestic airlines to permit passengers to use mobile phones and access mail on PDAs while air-borne. More...

Photo Flicks - Make Stunning SlideShows of your Digital Photographs

Photo Flicks is an awesome online Flash slideshow creator for digital photographs packed with features like you may have never seen before.


With Photo Flicks, your digital photographs can look like a revolving 3D Cube, a rotating spiral, moving glass slabs, puzzles and so on.

Some slideshow also support sound and text captions. The standard zoom-n-pan style picture transitions are also available for old-school users.

Our personal favorite is the Photo Book effect which emulates a physical photo album - click the picture and the pages flip just like a norbal book.

Just upload your pictures and start creating these impressive Photo Flicks. The Flash slideshows can be easily embedded inside any webpage or blog.

Go, give it a shot. You'll love Picture Flicks for sure.

Picture Trail | Sample Slideshows [Photo Flicks]

More Slideshow Software - XDrive Shows, Pixtivity and Flickr Picture Slideshows.

Create Caricature Drawings from Photographs

Here are some interesting options if you want to make a caricature and can't afford the fees of a professional caricature artist:

Option A: Take your picture inside Photoshop (or Gimp), apply a couple of adjustments and filters as described at MacMerc.com and you may get pretty impressive results.

Option B: Convert your picture into a black-n-white pencil sketch using Dumpr.net (look at the girl's picture) and then paint this pencil sketch using ArtRage which is also free.

Option C: Magixl.com lets you draw caricature portraits of the human face - choose the type of jaws, skull, eyes, etc and your caricature sketch is ready in seconds.

Option D: Finally, if you have the inclination and the time, here's a good tutorial on how to draw your own caricatures.

None of above choices will match the results of a professional artist but they are still fun.

A few samples of the next generation hand-sets

Pantech’s Flexus Mobile Phone
Pantech’s sleek “Flexus” mobile phone concept recently took home the iF Design Award for Excellence & Innovation. This handset boasts a “trackball and Moto PEBL-esque keypad.”



NEC’s “Tag” Phone
NEC has just unveiled “Tag”, its next-generation cell phone concept. Available in white, black, or orange varities, this device boasts ‘”shape-memorizing” material — the tag will bend and twist at your command.’ Other specifications have not yet been released.



Nokia Aeon
Nokia's research and development team have kicked it up a gear with an attractive "aeon" concept phone showing up in the R&D section of the company's website. The most prominent design feature of aeon is a touchscreen that stretches over the full surface area of the phone, similar to BenQ-Siemens's Black box concept.


"Currently mobile technology isn't quite up to realizing this fantasy, but we'll sleep better tonight knowing that at least one of the cellphone industry's biggest names shares the same dream as we do".

Synaptics Onyx Mobile

Synaptics introduces the Onyx mobile phone concept, which comes equipped with a touch-sensitive LCD panel instead of a regular keypad, allowing you to answer the handset “by simply holding it to your cheek, messages sent by swiping them off the screen with the whole finger.

Pantech Pivot Point
Designed by Lunar Designs for Pantech, Pivot Point is a futuristic mobile phone concept, sporting a “swiveling screen that can be set up like an easel for easy typing.”



Motorola PVOT Phone
Designed for developing nations, the Motorola PVOT concept is a hand crank, rechargeable AA battery-powered phone. You get one minute of use for every 25 cranks. Other features include a 125 x 125 Dot Matrix LCD and an “Eraser Shield” keypad.



Dual-Screen Cell Phone
Alloy Total Product Design’s “The Polygon” boasts two displays: a standard high-resolution display for viewing data and a touchscreen for accessing menus, etc.

Recent Telecom News

In this section I will be giving you the links leading to the latest news in the field of telecom, which have appeared in the leading dailies of India. The updation will be done on every day or two, so keep visiting.

The Tribune April 02
Cyber cafes in day, call centres at night
Chandigarh, April 1 The Reliance WebWorlds in Amritsar and Jalandhar have had a complete role makeover. From being the hi-tech internet cafes, these will now double up as small business process outsourcing (BPO) units, during night hours.
More...

The Hindu April 02 Cellphones: BSNL extends grace period VISAKHAPATNAM : BSNL has extended the grace period of its pre-paid cellphone connections due to non-availability of recharge and top-up coupons. More...

Deccan Chronicle April 02 Pune to go wireless Mumbai, April 1: Taking a leap over Bangalore and Hyderabad, Pune will become the first Indian city to have a high-speed wireless Internet network even before the Centre’s much-awaited spectrum policy is announced More...

The Hindu Business Line April 02 BSNL contests 36% cut in access deficit charges New Delhi March 30 The proposed 36 per cent reduction in access deficit charges announced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India could run into rough weather with the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd filing an appeal with the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal contesting the revised regime. More...

Deccan Chronicle April 02 Mobile operators plan to invest $20bn in 2 yrs New Delhi, April 1: Indian cellular operators have lined up investments of about $20 billion over the next two years to bring over 80 per cent of the population under mobile coverage. More...

The Hindu April 02 BSNL introduces three new services MADURAI: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)has introduced three new toll-free services for the subscribers of Madurai, Dindigul and Theni districts. More...

The Hindu Business Line April 02 `TRAI must regulate DTH pricing' In a significant order, TDSAT on Saturday directed TRAI to come out with price regulation for DTH. More...

Business Standard April 02 FDI in Hutch fails DoT test Says cap breached on account of Singh, Ghosh stakes. More...

The Hindu Business Line April 02 Reliance Communications: Hold Investors can retain their exposure in the Reliance Communications stock. More...

The Hindu Business Line April 02 Airtel cuts mobile ISD tariffs New Delhi March 31 Private telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Saturday took the lead in dropping international long distance telephone tariffs for its cellular users by up to 11 per cent. The move follows a 36 per cent reduction in the access deficit charges (ADC) initiated by the telecom regulator. More...

The Hindu Business Line April 02 New access deficit charges from today New Delhi March 31 The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has not stayed the reduction in access deficit charges (ADC) ordered by the telecom regulator, paving the way for cheaper international long distance calls. More...

Business Standard April 02 DoT issues notice to Hutch, Aircel The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued show-cause notices to GSM operators Hutchison Essar and Aircel Digilink for launching push-to-talk (PTT) services in the country. More...