How to make an animated gif badge !

Hi there, I recently got the latest Adobe Creative Suite 3 (trial ware).
So I thought why not try make an animated gif (badge) as ready made ones are hardly enough.I have provided pics links to make it easier.
So here goes!

Software I used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Knowledge reqd : Adobe Flash.( A little bit to create a small flash file)
OK! So Lets Begin!

(1)Start Flash CS3. A flash screen appears.Open a New Flash File. Since our aim is to create badges with width around 80 to 85 pixels and height around 15 pixels, change size from Property window.Pic 1.
Pics 2 3
Choose whatever background u wish and other stuff as per your creativity. Go on experimenting as you wish!

(2) If you want some background image or any file then first import it into flash library as follows; File menu, Import and in it Import to Library. Pic4
If you want to edit an already present gif, import it onto stage.

(3) Goto the Timeline section. Pic 5
Create a set of frames as u require. Pic 6 (I expect a minimum knowledge of Flash).Pic 7

(4) Then publish it as a gif. simply goto File menu and then to publish. in publish window check the box next to gif for publishing gif and then check settings of gif. Pic 8 9 10.

(5) Your gif will be published.

On a Rainy Day

So finally the dry spell seems to be over atleast for now. The dry spell following the torrential rains have been bad. The good news is that the rains are back to work.
Its raining a lot nowadays. I thought to share some of the pics I recently clicked from the Mumbai Local Train on an rainy day.
The Pics are clicked from a VGA Camera of my mobile in a moving shaking train. Hence clarity in some cases is less.

Sahib, Plz try our product !

He is a person in formal attire and oil slicked hair at our door-step. Oh, How can I forget his tie which neither suits him nor the hot n muggy Indian Climate. His language is also polished to the limit! He then speaks with utter most respect,

" Sahib, plz try this product. This is the best and the latest. This was researched in JAPAN. Sahib, plz buy it. Its the cheapest and of the best quality. "

OR

" Madam, this is our latest offering. Buy one and get one free. Buy it now as offer is limited. "

Nowadays, Sahib has been replaced with Sir.
Sound Familiar ?
Yes, He is our very own "Door to Door Salesman". A sight common in every part of India. Its not only small scale companies but also Telecom giants, Home-Care Companies, Financial Institutions who use them.

He has to be a perfect speaker and user of Communication skill. He must posses excellent attention catching power and convincing power. He looks out for the customers' weak points and must exploit upon them safely without invading their privacy. He must prove his product's competence and must convince the customer for buying it.
After all he has to impress his customers.

Like a CEO of a company, he has a target to achieve before the deadline. He is as important as business executive for the company. However neither is he a CEO nor a business executive but a simple Sales Man with polished looks and habits. He works at the grass root level for the company and reaches out to the remotest of remote of viable markets.
Where other forms of product exposure fails, salesman has a vital role to play. After all he interacts directly with his customers.

However, they also belong to the worst irritating class of people whom a person would want to meet at door step. As technology has advanced, so are their skills and format or canvassing.
Telephone and e-Mails are the latest trends.
Every Mobile/Land line owner might have received calls from Financial Institutions regarding Loans and Credit Cards.

Recently I had an interesting experience in dealing with a new genre of sales-man. The invitation to friends house for dinner turned out to be a bait for enrolling me into a group forming scheme, which he was a part of. Since he was bad at canvassing he had invited his another friend who had enrolled him to persuade me into it.
Well the general modus operandi of such schemes are as follows:

Step 1 : Data Bombardment. They storm you with lots and lots of data to get you interested.

Step 2 : Now they mention the name of the company whose scheme he sells and tries relating it to the data he earlier bombarded.

Step 3 : They then start telling you about the importance of money and the so called "economic freedom" and start telling you about making groups.
If you try asking them, why to join or what about investment part; they quickly tell you that all your doubts will be answered later forcing you to keep mum and listen! He then explains that how easy it is to earn loads of money by enrolling simply a few people. He then tries bringing interest by extrapolating the data for a year and gets the amount you will get to Lakhs and Lakhs!

Step 4 : Then he gets to the main stuff about enrollment or Investment slowly and safely.

Step 5 : he then gives his own example as to how much money he has made and how his life is better because of this. Then he will ask you when r u joining ?????


Initially I thought maybe he has some doubt in studies as he is a junior from my own engineering branch. Then I could feel he was using his skills in Marketing. How he was trying to relate his buisness with things related to me(mother-tongue,Native place etc). As time passed I was getting tired of this continuous data bombardment and simply asked him to cut the crap and come to the point.
I felt sad that my good friends uses such method for selling their products.

I simply hate facing them on my doorstep!

Remembering 7/11, Mumbai

  Today is July 11 or as we Mumbaikars remember it as 7/11, a date that no Mumbaikar can easily forget. Previous year on this very date, Mumbai was struck and STRUCK where it hurts the most. The Life-Line, Local trains of Mumbai were bombed, that too during the evening rush hour in the elite First Class compartments. OK not elite, but meant for those with larger wallets and obeying the rule of 3 seats per row. This rule of triad or 3 seats per row is that only 3 persons can sit in one row (In Second Class, the linear packing fraction ie. people sitting in a row is more than 3). Infact this is used to test whether a person belongs to the class or not.

  As always, the brain behind these unpardonable terror acts are safe in their haven in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Huji and Hizbul-Mujaheddin and ISI have been blamed. Even though all available evidence have been provided to Pakistan's government, I doubt they will co-operate. They still haven't thought about extraditing back Dawood Ibrahim (who also finds place in the wanted list of international terrorists) and others convicted in the Mumbai 93 Serial Bomb blasts. Infact as per Intel. sources,he operates under the patronage and protection of ISI and is teamed up with terror outfits.

Though a year has passed, the security situation hasn't improved much. How many times have I seen, security check points (Whoa! don't imagine much, I mean tables put up on platforms for frisking and checking!) void of personnel on duty. Also, when they tried frisking every person entering at Church gate station, it led to a build up and angry protesting crowd.I hope the cameras put up are still working and used by police. The Stations and track are porous and anyone can easily enter and leave with no notice.

Apart from placing flowers and lighting candles on the day, neither can any improvement in security situation be seen nor in the alertness of public n police. Mumbai seems to have forgotten the blast and the victims. May be not they wanted to, but the hard life forces them to do and move forward. People still use trains as there is no alternative. They know trains are and were never safe, but no way trains can be avoided in a linear city like Mumbai. With Roads having craters bigger than that on Jupiter! and traffic snarls that make a 1hr drive a endless journey and with waterways completely ignored and underused, the Government has left Mumbaikars with no option. But, i will not complain that my State Government has neglected My Mumbai, as they have meted justice to all districts of the state by neglecting all of them!

Some Pics.

For More Photos

Revisiting the metal beast called Mumbai's Life-Line

So finally, after a lot of chaos, rioting, violence in the previous year,the quadrupling work between Virar and Borivali appears to be over. Posters warning of the new 'very high voltage' overhead cables have been put to warn the elite roof travellers to refrain from dare devil acts on train roofs. Our Union Railway Minister, flagged off the first train. My friend has captured some moments before flagging off --> Click here

For the occasion, the Borivali station was cleaned(literally washed clean!)and painted. It was like a bride getting ready to married off!
The same had happened in Mahim, after the train bombings. The station was cleaned, whitewashed and maintained spic n span for a dignitary was going to visit the station.

So if any big-shot visits the station regularly, it will be maintained. cleaned and white-washed! Hence, I request them to pay a visit to every station at least once a month. We, in general public would be grateful to them!

I stumbled upon this interseting blog -->Virar local
Check my other posts
Mumbai   Local Train Post1   Malayalam Language posts
Railway signs in India --> Railway symbols

Mumbai Floods AGAIN !

Oh, Not Again!
On Saturday June 30, Mumbai was again brought to knees by the mighty Monsoon, evoking terrible memory of July26,2005 deluge.

Santa Cruz recorded 430mm rain
Colaba recorded 187mm rain
(24hr rainfall. Source: Regional Met Centre,Mum)
As always Suburbs, being the catchment area received highest rainfall.
Avg. rainfall(2.30am-2.30pm)
Vikhroli(389.2mm)
Tulsi Lake(381.1mm)
Borivali(351.83mm)

    This is second time (June 23-24 and 30) within 2 weeks that Mumbai has faced the brunt of torrential rains. However the situation was no different.Life-Line Of Mumbai, Local Train Services were very badly affected. Central railway n Harbour railway were completely stopped. Western Railway fared better and ran with delay of 30-40 min.Low lying areas like Milan Sub-way,Kalina,Airport region,Bandra,Hind Mata,Worli, Harbour routes to name a few got flooded.

    I am thankful to God that my locality didn't get that flooded on any of these deluge days. However many were not so lucky! 5 have been reported to have died due to electrocution, wall collapse, strong currents on June30.

Times Of India quoted, "Everything goes down the drain except Water!"

 
26July2005 and 30June2007 pics.

 
    Every year, Mumbaikars face the same problems during monsoons but the intensity is increasing at an alarming rate! Dug roads, pot holes, clogged gutters and storm-water drains, inundation, car and other damages and monsoon related diseases are the core issues that need to be tackled. Tax paying Mumbaikars account for a sizeable amount of the total tax collected in India, still gets ill-treated. Various departments like MMRDA, BMC and others failed to work in tandem. One example of that was flooding observed in East Andheri, where water from Western Express Highway flooded parts of East andheri.

    Instead of trying to make Mumbai, an another Shanghai; lets first get it back to the Old Mumbai, that the British handed to us. Our state govt and central govt fail to get a grip on the situation and every year Mumbaikars are left to fend for themselves. But we as citizens, should awaken and actively work for it. The Land Mafia,corrupt n spineless politicians and bureaucrats, passive public are the roadblocks to be cleared.We as active citizens must find time for active paticipation. We should actively and enthusiastically take up responsibility of our locality, look after it and preserve it. We must aggressively protect the last remaining mangrove reserves n salt pans and prevent the greedy Land Mafia and govt from snatching them. We should actively take part in ALM's (Area Local Management) and restrain ourselves from spitting, filthing on Roads and drains. I still dont understand, why people spit and add to the filth when they see filth on road!

Better start now than its too late. Lets revive the old glory back!

Day 5 - Malayalam links and others

I will be giving you some nice sites related to Malayalam as i had promised.

Did you know, Islam and Christianity first touched Indian soil at Kerala!
Jews arrived in Kerala around 537BC.
St. Thomas,one of the 12 apostles of Lord Jesus arrived in Kerala in 52AD.
India's first mosque and believed to world's second mosque is in Kodungalloor believed to be built around 629AD.

Leaving History aside,
Kerala is one of the few Indian states with high sex-ratio(1058f:1000m) and high literacy rate(90.92%). results from kerala govt

Check out these malayalam related websites:

Learning Malayalam

Excellent Site for Text editor,forums,fonts,etc

Omniglot
wiki1
wiki2
malatutor
lang-xchg
Tutor cd

Fonts:
deepika
kaumudi
keral
spiderkerala
indulekha
debian fonts

Kerala Govt Websites:
www.kerala.gov.in
Kerala CM
for Kerala district websites, the general address is
http://[district_name].nic.in or
http://www.[district_abbreviation].kerala.gov.in

Akshaya - Akshaya is the pilot project of Kerala government’s IT mission, which aims for 100 per cent e-literacy in the state

Hope you find them interesting!

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Day 1..Day2..Day3.a.Day3.b.Day 4..All Malu posts

Other posts:
Poltical India
Moto SLVR L7,7i,7e,l9
My college

Day 4 - Learning Malayalam Language

Ok after Consonants, its the turn of Vowels
They are

അ ആ ഇ ഈ ഉ ഊ ഋ (america art erect eel usha ooh! Rishi )

എ ഏ ഐ ഒ ഓ ഔ അ. അ:( apple area i orange vote ouch umm Aha )

Lets now check the last set of letters ( called chiluh aksharam )

[iNN(stress), inn, irr, ill, iLL(stress)]
usage: baloon rain deer drill stool
They are generally used at the end of words.

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However there will be little difference in some Malayalam words and letters as some still use older Malayalam script.

Check out the pics i have clicked using my Moto SLVR L7 mobile. the pics are from my Mal learning book, which i had misplaced years ago and unfortunately found it only after learning the letters. But still good enough to revise!
Devnagari script and Malayalam Script

Chilluh Letters and others( used to add vowels in words)

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Day 1..Day2..Day3.a.Day3.b.All Malu posts

Other posts:
Taj Mahal
Reservation in India

Day 3 - Learning Malayalam Language(Modus-Operandi2)

Sorry Folks, I couldn't post new articles in the last weeks of prev Month, as my internet connection wasnt working up to the mark.
Lets finish consonants.

Row3
ട ഠ ഡ ഢ ണ (Tta Ttha Dda Ddha Nna)

ട (Tta)
Simply S !
ഠ (Ttha)
Simply Letter 'O' !
ഡ (Dda)
Write 'n' and smooth curvy 'w' together. 'w' starts from the right leg of 'n'.
ണ (Nna)
Write ഞ (Nja), but the Ta(ത)in the Nja(ഞ) is replaced by na(ന).

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Row4
ത ഥ ദ ധ ന (Ta Tha Da Dha Na)

ത (Ta) and ന (Na)
Letters revisited!
ഥ (Tha)
Write L, with little bigger horizontal line. take the leg and take it to left as in the letter.
ദ (Da)
write the usual Rra(റ) but replace the right left with 3.
Also u can say it is hriswa 'इkar' attached to letter 3(Oo of Hindi)
ധ (Na)
simply smooth curvy w or rotate Na(ന) by 180deg.

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Row5
പ ഫ ബ ഭ മ (Pa Pha Ba Bha Ma)

പ (Pa)
Similar to Va(വ), but with a longer horizonatl line
ഫ (Pha)
Similar to Pa, but the leg is reconnected to base line '_' like a hindi 'इkar'.
ബ (Ba)
This is what u get when left leg knotted Rra(റ) is joined to Va(വ)
ഭ (Bha)
write hindi 'इkar' to S or to Tta(ട)
മ (Ma)
first write Rra(റ), then join both legs with a base line '_' followed by a slant line( acute angled)from first leg to upper part of right leg.

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Row6 n Row7

They were easier now as i had been practising and accustommed to above letters. hence i am not posting about them

Day 1..Day2..Day3.a.Day4All Malu posts

Other posts:
Taj Mahal
Ant-grasshopper Story Retold
KeralaClick.com Directory