New Font!!!

I have been working on the online platform at Fontstruct to create my own fonts. I have worked on and created about 10 different typographic designs and two image fonts or design fonts like the wingdings. This is one of the fonts I recently created and there are other works in progress which I will complete as soon as I have time, motivation and a computer with internet connection at hand. Coming together of all these factors is some sort of a challenge because at work it is impossible, at school it is difficult and the rest of the time is at home where I have to study. Anyway here is one font I recently created, you could download and use it as you please.

Patterns and Shapes

I designed one more image/ pattern based font. I tried to make diverse and different patterns to fit in seamlessly. Feel free to download and use it, and of course I do require your feedback about the utility or not thereof so next font I design will be better aligned for your use.

Arrows Font

I had been creating text fonts thus far and now I decided to try out a font that had no text but icons, images or clip art. Here is the result, a font full of arrows of different sizes, shapes and genres. It is free to download and use.

Free Wallpapers

I don't claim to be an artist of any kind... I just scribble with a pencil or pen like a child who has nothing to do. Similarly when I get access to a computer design software that is what I try to do and often the results turn out like the one below... I use the final output file as a wallpaper for a few days and then discard it in the trash bin of the computer.

Computer Games

I have been a gamer from the day of 286 computers. I am pretty sure many of those online haven't even heard about those obsolete machines that had only monochrome monitors and the only sound one heard was that of the fan whirring inside the CPU. Computers and technology has come a long way since then. Now everything is online on the internet and so is this cool game creation platform. I used the platform to create a game with three levels. Check it out and let me know what you think.

New Downloadable Font

Needless to say I have worked on creating new fonts some are in progress and some have been complete. Click on the font if you like it and down load it on your computer and use it. If you think it is a really cool font log on to Fontstruct and leave a high-five...

A thin font created by me...

Font creation is a great way to play with your design sense. It is not about one letter but about the entire alphabet and related punctuation marks. It is not good enough to have a great sense of design to create a font, but one needs to have forethought, and a sense of organization to be able to conceive the entire alphabet and create the font.
I will continue to work on more fonts and share them right here on my blog.

Designing New Fonts

I have been experimenting online on Fontstruct.com in a bid to build my own font. Here is the first one I created. It is kinda amateurish and has few rough edges. I hope to set them right when I design my next font. For now my request to readers is to visit the site and if you think it is good vote for it, so I get good rankings on the website.

Dasara/ Dusshera is here...

The festival of dolls or Dasara/ Dusshera has started since couple of days. The festivities are taking place in some homes in India who still remain strong in roots and have not sold out to the modernization that has swept the Subcontinent since the opening up of markets in 1991. There are a wide array of ways people celebrate this 10 day festival which culminates in the Vijaya Dashami, the day when Goddess Durga vanquished Mahishasura, the evil demon who was terrorizing the people of the world.

When I was a kid growing up in un-liberalized India, these 10 days were marked by festivities at home. Dolls of all kinds would be kept on display and kids from neighborhood would visit homes to look at the dolls and enjoy some snacks. But now kids are busy with their television programs, computers, video games, and last but not the least studies, so there is no time for visiting neighbors. Parents are busy working in their jobs trying to achieve their performance targets and getting promotions so they don't seem to have any time for festivals and ceremonies.

The one way everyone definitely celebrates this major festival in India is by sending greeting cards, and gifts to their loved ones. This is spurred on by large corporations that have stepped up and introduced special products for this season and I guess now it is the businesses that will make sure that people don't forget the festival seasons.

Computer Surprises....

I received these astounding tidbits of information as an e-mail forward. I tried some of them and was surprised. These have not been explained or debugged thus far, despite several super-brains trying their best to do so...


An Indian found that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the Computer which can be named as "CON". This is something funny and inexplicable? At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!
TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE A "CON" FOLDER


For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1.) Open an empty notepad file
2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3.) Save it as whatever you want.
4.) Close it, and re-open it.
Noticed the weird bug?
No one can explain!


Again this is something funny and can't be explained?
At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates,
couldn't answer why this happened!
It was discovered by a Brazilian. Try it out yourself?
Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)
And then press ENTER
And see the
magic?..!


Did you know that a flight number from one of the planes that hit one
of the two WTC towers on 9/11 was Q33N. In Notepad / WordPad or MS
Word, type that flight number i.e. Q33N. Increase the font size to 72.
Change the font to Wingdings.
u will be amazed by the
findings!!!

Letter to Bill Gates - totally hilarious

I received this Banta Singh joke as an e-mail forward and thought I'd post it here. This is completely hilarious and only a totally innocent and naive individual can think so much out of the box. The writer of the joke displays a child-like innocence in this letter to Bill Gates.

Dear Mr. Bill Gates,

We have bought a computer for our home and we have found some problems, which I want to bring to your notice.

1. There is a button 'Start' but there is no 'Stop' button. We request you to check this.

2. One doubt is whether any 'Re-scooter' is available in system? I find only 'Re-cycle', but I own a scooter at my home.

3. There is 'Find' button but it is not working properly. My wife lost the door key and we tried a lot trace the key with this 'find' button, but was unable to trace. Please rectify this problem.

4. My child learned 'Microsoft Word' now he wants to learn 'Microsoft sentence', so when you will provide that?

5. I bought computer, CPU, mouse and keyboard, but there is only one icon which shows 'My Computer': when you will provide the remaining items?

6.. It is surprising that windows says 'MY Pictures' but there is not even a single photo of mine. So when will you keep my photo in that.

7. There is 'MICROSOFT OFFICE' what about 'MICROSOFT HOME' since I use the PC at home only.

8. You provided 'My Recent Documents'. When you will provide 'My Past Documents'?

9. You provide 'My Network Places'. For God sake please do not provide 'My Secret Places'. I do not want to let my wife know where I go after my office hours.

Regards,
Banta


P.S.
Last one to Mr. Bill Gates: Sir, how is it that your name is GATES but you are selling WINDOWS?

Talk about New DOTA-Clone Game

One of my favorite hobbies is online gaming. Sometimes it can get quite addictive and keep me away from doing school work, but still I try and catch a few hours of onling gaming every week. I recently came across the beta version of this new game heroes of newerth and wanted to try it out.

But before actually going ahead and installing the game on my computer I wanted to know more about the game and I found this fantastic discussion forum where every bit of information about the game was talked about by geeks and enthusiasts like myself.

There are numerous topics such as characters of the game, hot keys, tips and tricks and a whole lot of interesting stuff. If you are a gamer this is one forum you must visit frequently.

Speeding up your computer!

I have been using computers since the past 15 years, both for work and for personal use. Over the years the bulky desktop computer has made way for sleek and light laptops and tablet computers. But advancement in technology has come with its own problems, memory issues, compatibility, software upgrades, new operating systems, etc.

In my previous PC the most frequent problem I used to face was shortage of memory. The moment I started multi-tasking by opening more than 5 windows the computer would become painfully slow. Those were frustrating days and the only way to fix the issue was to spend hundreds of $$s and expand memory. A few years ago Microsoft came out with, what it claimed to be a radical change in operating system. The Windows Vista was launched and the geek in me wanted it so I bought it and installed it on my computer.

The frustration began then, slow speeds, frequent crashes and painstakingly slow operating system. I was desperately trying to get it fixed and approached several technology professionals and the standard quote was that they would charge $50 just to look at and diagnose problems in my computer. I felt let down.

A few days ago I came across this fantastic solution online. This group offers a great software solution to improve our productivity. Their promise: 30 seconds is all it takes to increase power and productivity by 500%. Well even if they live up to their promise by half i.e. improving my productivity by 250% I'd be overjoyed.

The price for this is just $12.95 and there is a money back guarantee too. The next time I have a problem with my PC I know where to go to improve my computing experience without spending hundreds on memory. I can finish my work faster and accomplish more.

Learn about file extensions online!

One of the most complex things I faced when I was new to the world of computers is the myriad varieties file names. Each file name is divided into two parts and the latter is known as an extension. One can usually identify the type of file based on its extension. For example file extension dat indicates a data file. These files are built in such a way that they can store any information type. It can be text, data, and both etc. The DAT file is perhaps one of the simplest to handle, it can be edited with a text editor. But to open the file one needs to have the software that was originally used to create it.

Coming back to the original purpose of this post, some file extensions can really fox users. When one is in such a situation there is the file extension library which has information about pretty much all types of files. The online resource can demystify your dilemma and tell you what is the exact type of file you are dealing with.

Adding features to the blog

I have been looking through various websites and freeware providers to get new and innovative features for my blog. It is sometimes frustrating to go through various features and find that it doesn't work like you expect it to. But then what is life if everything were so easy? The same logic works in other aspects of the online computer thingy....

More than a decade ago when I first started learning computers on old 386 machines, these technology gadgets seemed as if they were capable of everything... I still remember those days (I don't know whether I should call them 'good ole days') when carrying a 5 and quarter inch floppy disc made us feel cool. Then came the CD era when a shiny gold CD was considered more valuable than the valuable metal itself. Then came the internet, like a bolt out of the blue and everyone was talking about free e-mails, Hotmail, Yahoo, Rocketmail, AltaVista and several names.

But as I learnt more and worked extensively on computers I slowly became aware of the inherent drawbacks and frustrations one has to face while trying to get tasks accomplished. Sudden system crashes, especially when you are working on the important project and not saved all the changes. Codes which seem perfectly fine when you debug but don't work when installed on the webpage. Websites which look different in different computers ... oh not to mention in different browsers too...

Now I have learnt to optimise and make peace. Just yesterday I had one of the most frustrating experiences trying to set up an RSS feed on my blog. Even now though the feed seems to be working with 11 subscribers, I don't know what the feed url of my blog is.... maybe I will figure out some day in the future. Let us hope so...