I Won the IPL Day 1!
Posted by: culbyte on: April 19, 2009
Yes, I won the day one of IPL! You maybe thinking how one can win IPL…
I will tell you how I won. Myself and couple of my team mates selected 11 players out of 4 teams that were playing yesterday. We set the following rules:
1. each run scored by a player in our team will get you 1 point
2. each four will get 2 bonus points
3. each six will get 3 bonus points
4. each wicket will get you 20 points
5. catches will fetch 5 points
6. wicket keeper catches will get you any points
7. for stumpings 5 points
8. for run outs 5 points
9. hatricks will get 30 bonus points
10. if a player scores a fifty 5 bonus points
11. if a player scores a century 10 bonus points
12. six sixers in a over will get 50 bonus points
With the above rules we played this fantasy cricket. My colleagues teams were almost same and mine was bit different.
Now you maybe thinking which are the players that I had my colleagues did not had…
SACHIN TENDULKAR!
PRAVEEN KUMAR!!
JACOB ORAM!!!
I got aound 300 points!
If you want to enjoy and join the excitement, everyday post a team as comment everyday and see how much you score and see if you wins!!
Importance of URL in Search Engine Optimization
Posted by: culbyte on: March 7, 2009
- In: SEO
- Leave a Comment
The web page’s URL plays an important role in SEO, so the URL structures should be well thought through. Below I have tried to put together some of the URL related key things for SEO and have tried to illustrate them with the help of some examples. As we all know a page can appear at top positions in Search Engine Result Page for multiple reasons (and their combinations) including (but not limited to) pagerank, page title, meta tags, SE friendly URL structure, content of the page, usage of heading tags etc., so the examples below are just to illustrate the points mentioned and should not be looked as conclusive reason for them appearing on top positions in SERPs.
1. The URL should have important keywords of the given page
- E.g. 1 http://www.apunkachoice.com/dyn/movies/hindi/rab_ne_bana_di_jodi/
The pagerank of the above page is only 3 still in Google it appears as 3rd result for query ‘rab ne banadi jodi’. The main reason could be keywords in the URL
- E.g. 2 http://bangalore.hungryzone.com/index.php/restaurant/More-Than-Parathas/4956
The above page appears as 4th result in Yahoo! Search for query ‘more than parathas’. Notice the proper use of keywords in the URL. ‘Bangalore’ is used as sub-domain which gives some points and then other keywords are also there in the URL.
2. The URL should be as short as possible
- E.g. 1 http://in.local.yahoo.com/bangalore/tandoor/s/srt-tr:pn-2/
In Yahoo! India Search the above page appears as 2nd result for query ‘tabdoor bangalore’. Notice that the URL is very short even though it requires passing of page number and sorting order in the URL.
3. The keywords in the URL should be separated by hyphens or underscores
- E.g. 1 http://in.local.yahoo.com/koramangala-bangalore/restaurant/
In Google the above page appears as 6th result for query ‘koramangala bangalore’. Note that main keywords are in the URL and also keywords are separated by hyphen.
4. The domain name should match with the key content of your site
- E.g. 1 http://www.indiantelevision.com/aboutus.htm
The above page appears as 1st result in Google for query ‘Indian Television’. Note that the query exactly matches with the domain name.
- E.g. 2 http://www.karnatakanews.com/
The above page appears as 2nd result in Google for query ‘karnataka news’. Note that the query exactly matches with the domain name. Also notice that the pagerank of this page is also not that great and also look at the cached version you will not find text ‘karnataka news’ anywhere on the page but still this page appears as 2nd link in Google. So it looks like keywords as domain name can do magics.
5. Keywords should be put in the front portion of the URL
- E.g. 1 http://in.local.yahoo.com/bangalore/tandoor-e59ea1d727c22e5f5548275710cb08c1/p/ln-1:tb-rev/
In Google the above page appears as 5th result for query ‘tandoor bangalore’. This maybe because it has both Bangalore and Tandoor in the URL and all the keywords are placed before the lengthy id and other info which is needed to fetch the listing.
- E.g. 2 http://www.weathercity.com/in/bangalore/
In Google the above page appears as 2nd result and http://weather.123india.com/karnataka/bangalore.html appears as 3rd result for query ‘
bangalore weather’. If you see http://www.weathercity.com/in/bangalore/ (2nd result) pagerank is 4 and http://weather.123india.com/karnataka/bangalore.html (3rd result) pagerank is 6, so the only reason I see for this is ordering is http://www.weathercity.com/in/bangalore/ has keyword ‘bangalore’ more closer to domain name than http://weather.123india.com/karnataka/bangalore.html
Please contribute more points to the above list and correct me if I am wrong somewhere.
Click here for more articles related to Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Friendly URLs
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Shopping in Bangalore – Star Bazaar Review
Posted by: culbyte on: December 19, 2008
My today’s blog is about my experiences with Star Bazaar in Koramangala, Bangalore.
First things first, if you don’t know where this Bazaar is, it is close to Forum Mall on Hosur Road, Bangalore. Click here for full address, phone number, map and many other details of Star Bazaar. And click here for more articles about Star Bazaar.
Click here for more articles, reviews, and news about Bangalore.
What they sell?
Star Bazaar of Koramangala is of 3 sections. Ground floor is food bazaar where you will find all the provision items for your kitchen. The first floor is mix of apparels, footwear, books, CDs, and toys. The second floor is croma.
Food bazaar’s review:
It is a huge space that has all the items you will need for your daily use. Specialty of this food bazaar is in addition to dry items they have a huge space allocated for fresh vegetables. The collection of vegetables is great, they have all the regular vegetables and some rare vegetables as well and they call it ‘exotic vegetables’! And prices are nominal. Only drawback is many items they in high quantity only, it means small families will find it bit difficult!
Meat stall’s review:
On the ground floor they have a big meat stall and they sell chicken, mutton and pork. The stall is not a advisable for people who have objection to pork, because they sell it here.
Fast food and bakery review:
Star bazaar has decent sized fast food and bakery. The items available here includes mutton biryani, chicken biryani, tandoori chicken, veg., biryani, paratha, chola, salads, sandwiches, cakes etc., I tried biryani and tandoori chicken here and found biryani useless and tandoori was decent. Long back I also tried sandwiches, burgers and vegetable salads and found them good.
Apparels and footwear review:
At Star bazaar they sell apparels for kids, gents and ladies. And they sell all type of clothes including casuals, night wears, semi-formals, formals, jeans, t-shirts etc., The prices are not bad. They have a decent collection formal and casual shoes and sandals. The formal shoes price starts from Rs. 199!!
Toy’s section review:
Toys I found very costly. Though they have decent collection it is not satisfactory. I will not recommend Star Bazaar for toys.
Books / CDs review:
If your shopping is exclusively about buying books and CDs, Star Bazaar is not a great place. But good enough if you want to buy just one or two things along with other shopping.
Croma’s review:
Expect a huge collection of household electronics and mobiles. Items here are not very cheap but not very costly also. But the variety you get here is super!
Related article collections:
http://www.webyam.com/snippets/forum-mall.html
f&b kitchen-bar-bakery – details, review and experiences
Posted by: culbyte on: December 14, 2008
- In: Eating Out
- 1 Comment
Name: F&B. I don’t know whats the correct full form of this. On their business card it is given as kitchen.bar.bakery, on one of their board it is written as friends & bachoos, and on another board it is written as food & beverages. But me and everyone I know refer this restaurant as f&b thats it!
Address: F&B, Papanna Street, off St. Marks Road, near Hotel Nahar Heritage, Bangalore – 560001.
Phone: 91-80-40333888
Website: www.fandb.com
I have been here couple of times and both the times I liked the quality of food. The service was not great but it is not stopping me from going there… even while writing this blog I am planning to go there… maybe next weekend.
Both the times I went their for weekdays (Monday to Saturday) buffet (checkout other buffet options in bangalore). They charge Rs. 400 (including tax). Here the buffet is bit different, you will not find traditional tables where all the eateries are displayed. Yes, even though its a buffet you cannot go and pick your food. Don’t worry, you can order your food and it will be delivered on your table. I can call it ala cart buffet.
Confused?? The system is like this – Book your table, go to restaurant, take your seat, ask for menu, you will find all the items including starters, main course, desserts but no price will be mentioned against it, now keep ordering for whatever you want and as many times as you want, everything will be delivered on your table, enjoy the food, and finally pay flat Rs.400 (including all the taxes). This is good and different right?
Some more plus points of this restaurant are:
- The variety: They serve many kind of seafood, they serve at least 4 types of chicken, they also serve lamb and in main course they have steam rice, fried rice, chicken biryani and noodles too!
- The ambiance: The ambiance is comparable with any top class restaurant of the town (checkout other restaurant options in Bangalore).
- Kids zone: If you think taking kids to restaurants does not allows you to have your lunch peacefully… that is not a issue too, they have a small kids zone with toys that I think will keep kids busy for at the least 30 minutes.
The only thing that I did not liked about F&B is their service at times they take extremely long time to serve things which spoils the whole mood. So my advice is keep lot of time if you want to enjoy your lunch!
Photos:
F&B, Bangalore
If you have already been to F&B, please contribute to this blog by maybe writing your experiences with the restaurant or maybe you can recommend a dish!
Related articles / blogs:
http://www.webyam.com/bookmarks.php?tag=eating-out
Browser Review – A close look at Google Chrome
Posted by: culbyte on: November 30, 2008
- In: Browser
- 2 Comments
I am using Google Chrome as my primary browser for more than two months now. I liked this browser and thats why I am using it as my first choice browser! I thought I should share my experience of this new browser.
Well, I installed Chrome on my laptop two months backand soon it became my browser of choice! So I took a moment to ask myself why am I using this new browser is it really that great. The answer was NO! But still I use it. So I spent one more minute thinking if it is not really out standing then why my fingers automatically goes towards Google Chrome icon whenever I need a browser. The answer was simple, Chrome has few cool features and a cool design. In following paragraphs I will write about Chrome’s cool things as well few things that are irritating and if not fixed quickly I may stop using it!!
The speed – The speed is really good. Much better than IE and more or less same when compared to Firefox. But good thing is Chrome does not have any toolbars so first time browser loading is extremely fast.
Lot of space – The real estate is very well managed. There are no toolbars, there is no menu bar (menu appears on clicking of a button which does not occupies much space), ctrl+f takes only the amount of space it really needs (though the placement of find box is not something we are used to) and same is true with loading / connecting statuses (though sometimes I am not happy as I am not able to see the full URL).
Home with thumbnails – This is great! I don’t have to type the site’s name that I use everyday. One disadvantage I see in this feature is privacy! If I open browser in front of anyone they will easily know what I browse frequently and this is something I am not comfortable with!
Click here to know Indian browsing habbits
Search in address bar – When you start typing characters in the address bar generally we see the list from our browsing history. But Chrome shows / suggests us other websites too… based on the popularity!
Find highlights all the occasions – Definitely the find option is much any other browser. When I search for something it highlights all the occasions of the search term and also tells me about number of times the searched term is there on the page. Though its not very big enhancement it adds lot of value!
Problem side of Chrome:
The speed – The speed can be improved!
No dictionary – This is the most important thing that makes me go back to Firefox. Currently to write this blog I am using Chrome, but every second I am missing the spell correction feature! I am afraid how Google missed on such an important feature!!
Download – The download system is not easy to use and very confusing. Tracking my downloads is not easy in Chrome as compared to Firefox. I think Google should not have reinvented wheel as far as download flow is concerned!
Closing of multi tabs – When I have multiple tabs open and if I try closing the browser as a whole, the browser must ask me whether I really want to do this. This must be a simple fix… Goolgle please fix this ASAP!
Set wallpaper (find lots of quality wallpapers download links for free)- Image context menu does not have one important option that I frequently use, i.e. option to set an image as wallpaper / background. If this is deliberate please do some research I am sure tons of users use this option!
Not able to see full link address – This I covered earlier also. While saving of real estate is good, not showing the full URL is extremely bad!!
That is all I am able to think from top of my mind. Feel free to write your comments (comments form is all yours 
). I think this is the only way we can make this browser better.
Thanks!
Shopping in Bangalore – Photos and review of Forum Mall
Posted by: culbyte on: October 21, 2008
Undoubtedly most popular mall of Bangalore city. There cannot be a single person who does not know Forum!
Forum Mall
Well why it is so popular?? Whats so special about this mall? What is there inside Forum? Let me cover all of these questions!
It has almost everything that a typical Indian shopper will look for… including food, dressing, shoes, mobile and what not! Best thing about Forum is, if you don’t get what you are looking for… you will always find it somewhere close to Forum!! My challenge, at least food lovers will not be disappointed here… there is Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, KFC and a food court if you are not okay with any of these brands!
Forum Mall
Inside Forum:
Landmark: One of the most popular and customer friendly chain. Wanna buy watches? or books? or toys? or CDs and DVDs or anything of this type? this should be your shop of choice and Forum has one. Forum has one of the biggest Landmark shop spread through 2 floors!
Landmark inside Forum Mall
Pizza Hut: We all know let it be your kid’s birthday or delicious pizza… Pizza Hut should be the destination of choice! Again Forum has one of the very big outlet of Pizza Hut! It’s open till 10.30 PM maybe little late also! If you are not Pizza Hut fan… no issues you have Pizza Corner just in front of Koramangala side entrance of Forum.
Pizza Hut inside Forum Mall
Sangeetha Mobile: One of the most trustworthy mobile store chain of India. You can find one in Forum. By any chance If you don’t get the kinda phone that you’re looking for… no worries… you have The Mobile Store at the corner of 80 feet Road which is so close to Forum again!
Supermarket: There is a supermarket in the ground floor of this mall. This supermarket has wide variety of fruits, vegetables and monthly provision items. If you don’t find this supermarket useful… you have Tata’s Star Bazaar, Pantaloon’s Big Bazaar, Food World, and ‘Monday to Sunday’ all in 50 to 100 meters’ radius!
PVR: For cinema lovers this is the best place in the Bangalore city! PVR in Forum mall has 11 screens that runs hollywood, bollywood and regional language movies. Other popular multiplex of Bangalore include INOX and Lido.
Other popular brands at Forum Mall include Mochi, Westside, Zodiac, and ‘United Colors of Benetton’ etc.,
United Colors of Benetton inside Forum Mall
Some more facts about Forum Mall:
The area of this fabulous mall is 6.50.000 sq. ft. and it has four levels. In weekdays 40,000 people get into this mall and in weekends at least 60,000 people enter Forum! It has six floor parking facility which is not common in Bangalore.
Thanks!
Related articles are bookmarked here at webyam:
http://www.webyam.com/bookmarks.php?tag=lifestyle
http://www.webyam.com/bookmarks.php?tag=eating-out
http://in.local.yahoo.com/srp.php?busi=shopping&addr=bangalore&search=Search&lat=&lon=&locac=0
Eating Out in Chennai – Review of Restaurants!
Posted by: culbyte on: September 27, 2008
I know a bit about food and restaurants in Chennai, India. So I thought I should write a blog on that!
Anjappar – Authentic Chettinad Restaurant:
I have been here several times and I was never disappointed by the quality of food and service. Good place only if you are a non-vegetarian (veggies stay away!). One of the not to miss item is Kaadai (a bird). Ambiance is average but they keep playing some good music. Always a bit full so its better to book before going. They have several branches, the one off the Nungambakkam High Road is extremely good!
Click here for non-veg recipes
Safari – Typical Muslim Food Restaurant:
This is a small restaurant located at the Royapettah Hospital signal. Though the ambiance is not great they maintain it neat and clean and there is a a/c hall too. Again you must be a non-vegetarian to enjoy the food here. Not to miss items include mutton kurma with paratha or pepper paya with paratha. You can also try mutton biryani!
Click here for biryani recipes
Yadgaar – Economical Non-Veg Restaurant:
This restaurant is located at a very prime location. It is in the compound of Devi multiplex which is in the heart of mount road which is a most important road of Chennai city. Items that are good here includes (but not limited to) mutton biryani, chicken biryani and afternoon meals. Not a great ambiance again but not a bad place too. Not a good pick if you are planning to take your friends or colleagues for a treat, but for a individual or couple not a bad option!
Click here for chicken recipes
Hotel Topsee – L.B. Road Adyar, Chennai:
I been here 3 to 4 times so I think I am eligible for writing review of it Not ready to shell out lot of money still want to have nice dinner?? Then this is the place. The food here is not outstanding or anything like that but definitely a very decent restaurant in and around Adyar. They have car and bike parking facility. Sorry but again recommended only for non-veggies!
The above list is the flavor of Chennai, meaning the restaurants and cuisine that surely belongs to Tamil Nadu. Chennai also has all the regular chains like Chicking, Pizza Hut, Dominos, McD… what not!!
Related articles / blogs:
http://culbytes.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/eating-out-in-bangalore-review-of-restaurants/
Eating Out in Bangalore – Review of Restaurants
Posted by: culbyte on: September 23, 2008
- In: Eating Out
- 1 Comment
I thought I should share my experience of eating out in Bangalore, so is this blog:
Cafe Masala at Eva Mall Brigade Road:
Go for buffet. If you love Indian food and buffet is okay with you go to Cafe Masala. Buffet here is too good and definetely value for money. In week days buffet for two will cost around Rs. 550 (including tax) and in the weekend it will cost you around Rs. 900 (including tax). You may think weekend buffet is bit costly but surely worth considering the kababs that they serve! Yes the kababs in the weekend buffet are excellent and that is why they call it weekend Special Buffet. Oh! I should not forget the variety of desserts they have… don’t forget have kulfi… it is out of the world!! One more thing if you like fish you will surely appreciate the tavva fish here. You know of a place like this?? write comment!
Find more Bangalore restaurants known for buffet!
Sunny’s close to UB City:
Ready to shell out some money and you like to have authentic italian food?? yes Sunny’s is the place. Must to have list includes ‘Golden Grilled Prawns’ (will cost you Rs. 350 for just 5 prawns! But worth!!), Salads (any salad) and Seafood Pizza. Service is good, ambience is good but not great, value for money okay and food awesome!! Don’t forget to have bread with olive and mustard oil!
Click here for restaurants in and around UB City
Dominos Pizza at 80 Feet Road Koramangala:
First things first take a table near window at first floor! Yes it is worth mentioning you get a beautiful view from here!! Dominos’ menu is not new to many of us but you can go to this outlet for their great service. Note, this outlet is open till 11 PM… not bad na??
Empire Restaurant at the enterance of Shivaji Nagar:
‘Empire Restaurant ho to bolo de thaali!’ Sorry… it means if it is Empire Restaurant say give me thaali (food plate). Order for a non-veg thaali here and then don’t have anything else on that day. Yes! It will fill your stomach, heart and soul. And thaali here will cost you only Rs. 105! Can you believe this?? (it was Rs. 99 few weeks back). Well, what do you get as part of this thaali? Chicken Kababs, a mutton piece and gravy, coin parattas, ghee rice and some vegetables too!
I know few more good restaurants in Bangalore… but sometime later
Click here for related articles
Related story: http://rimsim.blogspot.com/2008/08/yahoo-local-india-launches-2-more.html
What is data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom
Posted by: culbyte on: September 19, 2008
Hi, in this blog I am trying to compare and understand the terms data, information, knowledge and wisdom!
Broadly speaking data can be anything, can be a word in any language like ‘Water’ or even a noun like ‘Beijing’ but when you say ‘Bucket is filled with water’ or ’2008 Olympics took place in Beijing’ its an information, and knowledge can be defined as one’s skills that helps him / her accomplish something e.g. ‘fixing of an issue with a television’. Having said all this what is wisdom and where does it fits? is the question. I will say wisdom is above all this.
Wisdom can be said as sum of one’s knowledge, common sense, prudence, sensibility, experience, intuitive understanding… in fact the right combination of all of these along with a capacity to apply these well! Yes undoubtedly its a heavy thing!!
Go to webyam.com to see what people are reading
In general we spend lot of time and energy in attaining information and the knowledge but we don’t put much effort in increasing the level of our wisdom. And sometimes we go the extent of saying wisdom is a God’s gift or comes by birth. But we can increase wisdom’s level as well, it may not be as easy as attaining some knowledge or information but it is possible.
Here are few things that you can do to increase the level of wisdom:
Open-mindedness – When you listen to someone listen to the speaker with an open mind, meaning don’t keep any presumptions, and also interpret it with open-mind and common sense.
Find links to sayings of Imam Ali (a.s.) related to wisdom, foolishness, friendship etc.,
Always be ready to throw away all your assumptions about anything and do a fresh start, meaning sometimes things that we were believing for long time maybe wrong, so be ready to recognize it and understand anything at any point of time! (Earth was believed to be flat before we found that its oval in shape)
See what is being said rather than who is saying it – sometimes it may happen like your worst enemy speak truth that maybe for your good! Or best of the advice may come from a 12 year old boy!
These are few things I have put together from top of my mind… feel free to add anything you think may help in increasing our wisdom level!
On the side note, always make sure your knowledge and wisdom levels goes together or your wisdom level is higher than the knowledge. The reason for saying this is if knowledge level goes up without wisdom going up, the control maybe lost, meaning you may start thinking whatever you know is correct and that is final and in the process you will not be able to appreciate others’ thoughts. Also as a final result you may end up as a extremist! it may sound too much or strange but this can happen if you don’t keep your knowledge and wisdom in balance. At some point it does not remains an individual’s problem but it becomes a society problem!!!
Following my own comment, I am open on your thoughts on the subject
Click here for related articles
Being religious is different, being communal is different
Posted by: culbyte on: September 14, 2008
I always thought these are the two things that everyone should know to clearly differentiate. Being religious is never equal to being communal. Let me put together few points so that you can appreciate the difference.
If you are religious it means you love and respect your religion and appreciate its recommendations etc. And if you are communal it means you hate others’ religion and always try to find some bad things about others’ religion. Now that I have clearly defined terms ‘religious’ and ‘communal’ you can easily find out, you belong to which category! The problem with communal people is, they always think they are religious and they love their religion but the fact is they don’t love anything but the hatredness.
Find links to web pages related to topic religion
If a person is religious he/she will follow his/her religion happily and peacefully and in the process he/she will learn to respect others’ religion because he/she knows how it feels when somebody talks something wrong about his/her religion.
I will say be religious because all the religions teaches humanity and brotherhood. But the moment you feel like you are hating others’ religion better get out of this business and live a normal life and don’t get into the religion business! Also half knowledge is always dangerous, at any point of time if you think you are hating others’ religion, please take some time to know that religion, then I am sure you will not hate it.
I think I have conveyed my point. Now I don’t want to keep writing for the sake of writing 
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