Pixabella

I'm not a really big fan of politics but I really do think the whole situation with Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama is too funny for words.

Does anyone remember what was happening between them only a few months ago when they were both competing for the democratic nomination? I do, and it was pretty nasty stuff, not just from their campaigns but also from their supporters.

Yet now that the election is over we're supposed to believe nothing ever happened and they are great buddies. It just goes to show how low politicians are, they'll do anything for power and a shot at glory, even stoop to calling each other names then make up as if it never happened.

I think this is why I don't trust politicians, it doesn't really matter where they are, or how good they may seem on the surface, underneath it all they're still just politicians.

Mind you, I do hope Obama can fix up the US, it's not good having one of the world's most powerful countries on it's knees like this.

Has anyone else noticed that Gmail (Googlemail for some) now has a new theme tab in the Settings panel.

Email templates are one area of theme design that I think has been really needing a big player to popularize. Personally I really like the new email templates that Google have made available, I've got the sunset theme on my email at the moment, but I expect I'll change it soon enough.

I guess the next step is to allow HTML emails to use different templates as well. I know that the Mail program that ships with OS X Leopard has a few email templates, but I really want them to be downloadable like other templates.

Maybe I should look into designing email themes and of course I need to see what software handles email themes, but it is better to start than not.

As you know I have produced a few HTML templates that I'm quite happy with, but I have reasonable knwowledge of HTML, the language used to build websites, and it isn't too difficult for me.

A friend on the other hand runs a shop and knows nothing about HTML so ha to rely on an expert to do this for her, she's getting an ecommerce website made so that she can sell her products online. Finding an expert who knows about pulling a website and all the third party bits together is the secret to a successful website.

In my friend's case her designer is creating from scratch all the code that she needs to be able to receive Paypal payments, and she's paying a fortune to have the programmer do this for her, but the crazy thing is that she could have the job done cheaper and faster if she only knew that there are people who do this stuff all the time and re-use code from companies like Paypal to make the entire project work better.

API Coders is one of these. They do Free API Map, Photo, SOAP, Mashup and Shopping Cart Applications, and are based in India so they can afford to keep their prices down, far more competitive than anything in the west, yet their programmers are some of the most highly educated in the world.

I personally recommend outsourcing to India, it doesn't harm me or my local economy, in fact the opposite. By getting Indian programmers and designers to produce websites I can actually get my sites up much quicker, that means I can start earning from them quicker, and because my costs are lower I can use more of my profits to reinvest in my business. It's a win for me, a win for my business and customers, a win for my local suppliers, and a win for the programmer in India.

API Coders specialise in integrating code developed by other companies, like Paypal, Authorize.net, Google Maps, Flickr, etc into websites for online shops, realtors, almost any kind of business that wants to leverage of the power of a bigger service provider.

I'm amazed, speechless actually, when did India suddenly become a space nation? In the last few days the BBC has reported about India launching an unmanned probe that is going to go to the moon, put itself into orbit, then photograph the surface of the moon in detail never done before.

This is the sort of thing I usually expect to see NASA or the Russians doing, but instead it is India that is celebrating the successful launch of its rocket and probe.

Apparently the technology is all home-grown, developed by Indian scientists and technicians. Their moon probe, Chandrayaan-1, carries a bunch of instuments, some of them owned by India, and others owned by other nations, and once it's in orbit it will drop to 100km and stay in that orbit while it completes it's mission.

Part of the mission also includes shooting a dart into the moon to measure the kinds of materials found under the surface. Very exciting stuff, and good luck to India!

Money is such a convenient thing to have, and really makes buying things pretty easy if you have it, but there are times you just want to swap something for what you need, it's a system that used to work very well, it's called bartering.

The way the financial crisis is going at the moment I guess a lot more people are going to be looking at bartering to help feed their families and maintain some savings until the economy improves again.

Here in Spain bartering is common, for example we have a lot of fruit trees on our property, and I grow herbs and vegetables, and I swap these for things that other people have. One friend let me borrow her car to go shopping, and she wanted a bag of figs in return.

This is a fantastic way to get things done and it doesn't cost money whereas if I'd got a taxi or hired a car it would have cost me much more than that bag of figs, but that is what she wanted so that she could make jam.

Webhosting these days seems more and more confusing every time you look at your options, prices don't seem to be the same, some are going up, others are throwing in even more website storage, unlimited bandwidth or domains, and if you want to know about any of it you need a great site that does the comparisons for you.

Rating the various webhosting deals is probably the best way of finding your next host, at least this way you can see what other customers have said about them and what their experiences were.

In the past I've had a reseller account that lets me become a webhost for a low monthly fee, and it's a great way to start your own webhosting business without having to invest in equipment, arrange broadband connections, employ staff etc.

The only thing you need to do is make sure you become a reseller of a reputable host who won't let you down and more importantly, won't let your customers down.

Getting started in reselling isn't easy, but check out this article I found
that explains all about reseller hosting.

They tell you what you get for your money, and the risks involved, as well as give a basic explanation of the types of control panels you should look out for from your host.

I thought this was interesting on Science Daily, a room designed to be the world's most relaxing room to calm even the most stressed out minds.

What they did is put some soft mats on the floor that you lie on with your head resting on a Lavendar scented pillow, while really gentle relaxing music plays in the background.

As you look up you see an artificial clear blue sky, but you'll be bathed in green light reminiscent of a forest glade.

It sounds weird, but at the same time kinda groovy, the designers are from the University of Hertfordshire who specialise in studying relaxation and the room is only a showcase to see what is possible, but it makes me wonder if we can duplicate this at home/