I’ve been hellava busy recently on some projects, had no time to post anything, but couple of days back someone sent this. And I am forced to put this on, it’s lovely. Enjoy.

A little girl asked her mother, “How did the human race come about?”

The Mother answered, “God made Adam and Eve; they had children and, so all mankind was made.”

A few days later, the little girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, “Many years ago there were monkeys, and we developed from them.”

The confused girl returns to her mother and says, “Mom, how is it possible that you told me that the human race was created by God , and Papa says we developed from monkeys?”

The Mother answers, “Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about the origin of my side of the family, and your father told you about his side.”

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Fun & Humor Funny, Humor

2008 Rank	2007 Rank	Name	Country	Score
1	1	Harvard University	US	100
2	2=	Yale University	US	99.8
3	2=	University of Cambridge	UK	99.5
4	2=	University of Oxford	UK	98.9
5	7=	California Institute of Technology	US	98.6
6	5	Imperial College London	UK	98.4
7	9	University College London	UK	98.1
8	7=	University of Chicago	US	98.0
9	10	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	US	96.7
10	11	Columbia University	US	96.3
11	14	University of Pennsylvania	US	96.1
12	6	Princeton University	US	95.7
13=	13	Duke University	US	94.4
13=	15	Johns Hopkins University	US	94.4
15	20=	Cornell University	US	94.3
16	16	Australian National University	Australia	92.0
17	19	Stanford University	US	91.2
18	38=	University of Michigan	US	91.0
19	17	University of Tokyo	Japan	90.0
20	12	McGill University	Canada	89.7.
21	20=	Carnegie Mellon University	US	89.6
22	24	King’s College London	UK	89.5
23	23	University of Edinburgh	UK	89.3
24	42	ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)	Switzerland	89.1
25	25	Kyoto University	Japan	87.4
26	18	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	87.1
27	32	Brown University	US	85.2
28	26	Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris	France	84.8
29	30	University of Manchester	UK	84.4
30=	41	University of California, Los Angeles	US	84.3
30=	33=	National University of Singapore	Singapore	84.3
32	37	University of Bristol	UK	84.1
33	29	Northwestern University	US	83.3
34=	33=	University of British Columbia	Canada	83.0
34=	28	Ecole Polytechnique	France	83.0
36	22	University of California, Berkeley	US	82.9
37	31	University of Sydney	Australia	82.4
38	27	University of Melbourne	Australia	82.3
39	53=	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong	81.4
40	49	New York University	US	81.3
41	45	University of Toronto	Canada	81.1
42	38=	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	81.0
43	33=	University of Queensland	Australia	80.7
44	46	Osaka University	Japan	80.1
45	44	University of New South Wales	Australia	79.8
46	47	Boston University	US	79.1
47	43	Monash University	Australia	78.7
48	93=	University of Copenhagen	Denmark	78.5
49	53=	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland	78.2
50=	117=	Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland	78.1
50=	36	Peking University	China	78.1
50=	51=	Seoul National University	South Korea	78.1
53	48	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands	78.0
54	71=	Dartmouth College	US	77.8
55	55=	University of Wisconsin-Madison	US	77.7
56	40	Tsinghua University	China	77.0
57	60	Heidelberg University	Germany	76.9
58	58	University of California, San Diego	US	76.3
59	55=	University of Washington	US	75.8
60	161=	Washington University in St Louis	US	75.7
61	90=	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan	75.3
62	74=	Emory University	US	75.0
63	71=	Uppsala University	Sweden	74.9
64	84	Leiden University	Netherlands	74.8
65	50	University of Auckland	New Zealand	74.5
66	59	London School of Economics	UK	74.2
67	89	Utrecht University	Netherlands	74.0
68	105	University of Geneva	Switzerland	73.9
69	57	University of Warwick	UK	73.8
70	51	University of Texas at Austin	US	73.3
71	73	University of Illinois	US	73.2
72	61	Katholieke Universiteit Leuven	Belgium	73.1
73	83	University of Glasgow	UK	73.0
74	97=	University of Alberta	Canada	72.9
75	65=	University of Birmingham	UK	72.3
76	68	University of Sheffield	UK	72.2
77	69	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore	72.1
78=	63	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands	71.8
78=	67	Technical University of Munich	Germany	71.8
78=	92	Rice University	US	71.8
81=	114=	University of Aarhus	Denmark	71.5
81=	74=	University of York	UK	71.5
83=	97=	Georgia Institute of Technology	US	71.3
83=	76	University of St Andrews	UK	71.3
83=	64	University of Western Australia	Australia	71.3
86	70	University of Nottingham	UK	71.0
87	142=	University of Minnesota	US	70.2
88	106	Lund University	Sweden	70.0
89	96	University of California, Davis	US	69.9
90	85=	Case Western Reserve University	US	69.8
91=	100	University of Helsinki	Finland	69.6
91=	93=	Université de Montréal	Canada	69.6
93=	128	Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Israel	69.5
93=	65=	Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munchen (Munich)	Germany	69.5
95	132=	Korea Advanced Inst of Science & Technology	South Korea	69.3
96	110	University of Virginia	US	69.2
97	77=	University of Pittsburgh	US	69.1
98	117=	University of California, Santa Barbara	US	68.8
99=	77=	Purdue University	US	68.6
99=	80=	University of Southampton	UK	68.6
101	82	Vanderbilt University	US	68.5
102=	151=	University of North Carolina	US	68.4
102=	119	University of Southern California	US	68.4
104	80=	University of Leeds	UK	68.3
105	90=	Pennsylvania State University	US	68.2
106=	62	University of Adelaide	Australia	68.1
106=	140=	University of Zurich	Switzerland	68.1
108	177=	University College Dublin	Ireland	68.0
109	231=	Technion— Israel Institute of Technology	Israel	67.9
110	102=	Georgetown University	US	67.6
111	111	Maastricht University	Netherlands	67.4
112	102=	Tohoku University	Japan	67.2
113	85=	Fudan University	China	67.1
114	151=	Tel Aviv University	Israel	66.7
115	85=	University of Vienna	Austria	66.6
116	123	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium	66.4
117=	108	McMaster University	Canada	66.2
117=	88	Queen’s University	Canada	66.2
119	101	University of Rochester	US	66.1
120	112=	Nagoya University	Japan	65.9
121	120	Ohio State University	US	65.8
122=	109	Durham University	UK	65.4
122=	79	University of Maryland	US	65.4
124=	114=	University of Otago	New Zealand	65.3
124=	102=	National Taiwan University	Taiwan	65.3
126	163=	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands	65.2
127	224	Stony Brook University	US	65.1
128	130=	Eindhoven University of Technology	Netherlands	64.8
129	112=	University of Waterloo	Canada	64.6
130	121	University of Sussex	UK	64.1
131	114=	University of Basel	Switzerland	63.9
132	140=	University of California, Irvine	US	63.8
133	140=	Cardiff University	UK	63.4
133=	130=	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark	63.4
133	101=	University of Liverpool	UK	63.4
136	124	University of Ghent	Belgium	63.1
137=	146	Free University of Berlin	Germany	62.6
137=	122	Texas A&M University	US	62.6
139	126=	Humboldt University of Berlin	Germany	62.5
140	157	Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon	France	62.4
141	155=	University of Science and Technology of China	China	62.3
142	148	Wageningen University	Netherlands	62.0
143	125	Nanjing University	China	61.9
144=	173=	University of Groningen	Netherlands	61.8
144=	163=	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China	61.8
146	134	University of Arizona	US	61.5
147=	149=	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	61.2
147=	144	Freiburg University	Germany	61.2
149	132=	Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie,Paris VI	France	61.0
150	192=	National Autonomous University of Mexico	Mexico	60.9
151	177=	Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey	US	60.7
152	145	University of Bath	UK	60.4
153	137=	University of Aberdeen	UK	60.3
154	307=	Indian Institute of Technology Delhi	India	60.1
155=	304=	VU University Amsterdam	Netherlands	59.8
155=	142=	Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen	Germany	59.8
157	159=	Tufts University	US	59.6
158	136	Kyushu University	Japan	59.5
159	126=	University of Western Ontario	Canada	59.4
160	149=	Queen Mary, University of London	UK	59.1
161	217	University of Lausanne	Switzerland	59.0
162=	197=	Chalmers University of Technology	Sweden	58.7
162=	129	Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne	UK	58.7
164	139	Simon Fraser University	Canada	58.5
165	135	University of Florida	US	58.4
166=	223	Chulalongkorn University	Thailand	58.3
166=	168=	Göttingen University	Germany	58.3
168	155=	University of Notre Dame	US	58.1
169	209=	University of Frankfurt am Main	Germany	58.0
170=	166=	University of Calgary	Canada	57.9
170=	137=	Indiana University Bloomington	US	57.9
170=	147	University of Lancaster	UK	57.9
173=	192=	KTH, Royal Institute of Technology	Sweden	57.8
174=	151=	Hokkaido University	Japan	57.6
174=	269	Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)	India	57.6
174=	191	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	US	57.6
177=	185=	University of Leicester	UK	57.5
177=	188=	University of Oslo	Norway	57.5
179	200=	University of Cape Town	South Africa	57.4
180=	107	University of Colorado	US	57.3
180=	180=	Waseda University	Japan	57.3
182	168=	Macquarie University	Australia	57.1
183=	154	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium	56.9
183=	231=	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russia	56.9
185	208	Brandeis University	US	56.8
186=	194	University of Barcelona	Spain	56.4
186=	188=	University of Canterbury	New Zealand	56.4
188=	203=	Technical University of Berlin	Germany	56.1
188=	233	Pohang University of Science and Technology	South Korea	56.1
190	165	Stuttgart University	Germany	55.9
191	175=	University of Massachusetts, Amherst	US	55.8
192=	214	University of Bern	Switzerland	55.4
192=	173=	University of Bologna	Italy	55.4
194	180=	University of Reading	UK	55.3
195	187	University of Antwerp	Belgium	55.1
196	175=	University of São Paulo	Brazil	55.0
197=	264=	University of Buenos Aires	Argentina	54.8
197=	221=	Dalhousie University	Canada	54.8
199	197=	Kobe University	Japan	54.5
200=	248=	University of Athens	Greece	54.3
200=	185=	University of Twente	Netherlands	54.3

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Education Universities' Ranking

If you want to stream a video file to the visitors of your website, The simplest of the process is:

1. Create a video file in a common streaming media format
2. Upload the file to your web server
3. Make a simple hyperlink to the video file

When the visitor clicks on the link the video opens directly in the proper player (if installed on the users machine) on the users machine.

Although this is the easiest way, but there are many cases when you want the video to play with-in the web page. For this you need to use special HTML tags to embed the video in a web page. Lets’s discuss 3 of the major types of video/movie files.

Real Media

To insert a real media into a web page, you need to insert the following code.

<OBJECT CLASSID=”clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA”

HEIGHT=”300″ WIDTH=”200″>

<PARAM NAME=”SRC” VALUE=”myvideo.rm”>

<PARAM NAME=”CONTROLS” VALUE=”ImageWindow”>

<PARAM NAME=”CONSOLE” VALUE=”myvideo”>

<PARAM NAME=”BACKGROUNDCOLOR” VALUE=”blue”>

<PARAN NAME=”center” VALUE=”true”>

<param name=”loop” value=”true”>

<param name=”autostart” value=”true”>

<embed src=”myvideo.rm” width=”300″ height=”200″ controls=”ImageWindow”

backgroundcolor=”blue” center=”true” console=”myvideo” loop=”true” autostart=”true”></embed>

</OBJECT>

Typically the OBJECT tags are used for compatibility with Internet Explorer and the EMBED tags are used for compatibility with Mozilla. One of the main attributes which you would like to set is the autostart property. Set it to “true” if you want the video to play automatically, else set it to “false”.

You can adjust various other attributes in the PARAM tags and the embed tags according to your specific requirements. For a detailed description of all the parameters and their functions please see the real media guide.

Windows Media

Use the following code to embed windows media into a web page:

<OBJECT ID=”MediaPlayer” WIDTH=”300″ HEIGHT=”200″ CLASSID=”CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95″

STANDBY=”Loading Windows Media Player components…” TYPE=”application/x-oleobject”>

<PARAM NAME=”FileName” VALUE=”myvideo.wmv”>

<PARAM name=”autostart” VALUE=”true”>

<PARAM name=”ShowControls” VALUE=”false”>

<param name=”ShowStatusBar” value=”false”>

<PARAM name=”ShowDisplay” VALUE=”false”>

<EMBED TYPE=”application/x-mplayer2″ SRC=”myvideo.wmv” NAME=”MediaPlayer”

WIDTH=”300″ HEIGHT=”200″ ShowControls=”0″ ShowStatusBar=”0″ ShowDisplay=”0″ autostart=”1″> </EMBED>

</OBJECT>

For various supported parameters list, please visit here.

Quicktime movie (.mov)

To embed quicktime movies into a web page:

<object classid=”clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B” codebase=”http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab” height=”250″ width=”320″>

<param name=”src” value=”myvideo.mov”>

<param name=”autoplay” value=”true”>

<param name=”controller” value=”true”>

<param name=”loop” value=”false”>

<param name=”type” value=”video/quicktime”>

<param name=”target” value=”myself”>

<embed height=”300″ pluginspage=”http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/” src=”myvideo.mov” type=”video/quicktime” width=”200″ autoplay=true controller=true loop=false target=”myself”>

</object>

A list of all the supported parameters is listed here.

Hope this’ll help, good luck.

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Video Media Player, Movies, Quicktime, Real Media, Stream Video

A recession, by definition, is when the GDP declines for two or more consecutive quarters; In reality, it’s a period of economic slowdown that is marked with companies earning less, paying less, and generally things in life are a little down.

So, what should you (a business) during such hard time?

It’s time to review your marketing strategies and inject some fresh ideas. Given below are some most effective and affordable marketing ideas that will help you win sales during a recession.

Give Your Clients Something Extra

If possible, provide additional features within your existing services to your clients. This is far better than just reducing your prices and will go a long way in satisfying potential and existing clients. Satisfied clients are sure to bring in new clients for your business.

Follow-up on Old Leads

Browse through old inquiries or any other lead and follow up on every single on of them that had not been converted into orders. This might ask for lots of patience, but remember you don’t have to lose anything – and lots to gain if you can pull it off.

Get in Touch With Your Existing Customers

Your existing customers are what keep your business running during these tough times. You will need to take special care of them, keep in regular touch with all of your customers. Let them know that you appreciate their business and their loyalty. Remember, they are also in the same boat facing rough economic weather.

Increase Your Customer Base

What? Increase in clients in these times? Yes! It might seem a little odd, but you can enhance your customer base even during the recession. Go through the services you offer, and carefully formulate couple of affordable packages for small clients. As long as it’s not making things worst, you should try this. This way you’ll have a broad base of new customers, and as they grow, they can become your regular (more profitable) customers.

The above marketing strategies will not put any much extra burden on your pocket, but can pay you additional bonus – both during and after the recession.

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Business Strategies Business Strategies, Marketing, Recession

A very good piece of text i received today from a friend:

A holy man was having a conversation with God one day and said, ‘ God, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.’

God led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

God said, ‘You have seen Hell.’

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water. The people were equiped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, ‘I don’t understand..’ It is simple,’ said God . ‘It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.’

Learn to share and make friends.

Remember friends are the family that we choose for ourselves…

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Inspirational Wisdom Inspirational Wisdom

Recently while developing a database backed php website, the client demanded to have all forms on one site say www.client-forms-website.com, and all the data to be submitted and stored on www.client-database-website.com.

Curl was the ultimate solution. curl is the client URL function library. PHP supports it through libcurl. To enable support for libcurl when installing PHP add –with-curl=[location of curl libraries] to the configure statement before compiling. The curl package must be installed prior to installing PHP. Most major functions required when connecting to remote web servers are included in curl, including POST and GET form posting, SSL support, HTTP authentication, session and cookie handling.

Leaving out all the fancy stuff, this is what I implemented:

On www.client-forms-website.com:

Created a file “receive-form-data.php” with following code.

<?php

// Move posted data into variables.

$firstName= @$_POST[firstName];
$surName= @$_POST[surName];
$email= @$_POST[email];

//The $curlPost variable is being used to store the POST data curl will use. When forming the $curlPost variable which will be used by curl_setopt later be sure to urlencode your data prior to passing it to curl_setopt.

$curlPost = “firstname=”.urlencode($firstName).”&surname=”. urlencode($surName).”&email=”. urlencode($email).”&submitted=true”;
$ch = curl_init(); //set the handle of the curl session to $ch
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, ‘http:// www.client-database-website.com/process-posted-data.php’); //set the URL of the page to pass data.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0); //sets whether or not the server response header should be returned, 0 means no header.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); //by default curl will display the response straight to the browser as the script is executed. To counter this we enabled the CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER option.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1); //tell curl to send the form response via the POST method.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $curlPost); //option used to store the POST data.
$data = curl_exec($ch); // $data stores data returned from the remote server.
curl_close($ch);

if ($data==1) header(“location: http:// www.client-forms-website.com /thankyou.html“);

else if ($data==0) header(“location: http:// www.client-forms-website.com /error.html“);

?>

On www.client- database -website.com:

Created a file “process-posted-data.php’” with following code.

<?php

$firstName= @$_POST[firstName]; $surName= @$_POST[surName]; $email= @$_POST[email];

/* Function/lines of code to Store Data go here.*/

If (success) echo 1;

else echo 0;

?>

This is working great. Have fun.

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PHP PHP, Tips, Web Development