Below are my efforts at making a Times New Roman Rupee font and an Arial Rupee font. I’ve used the same grave symbol ` (button above the tab key) to be the Rupee symbol.

Here are the Times New Roman Rupee Font & Arial Rupee Font. Available for download in ttf and odf.

Click to download:

Times New Roman Rupee (210)
Arial Rupee Font (223)

How to install:

1. Click on link above, save file, OK
2. Unzip and extract files
3. On Windows Vista, right click on “Times New Roman Rupee” and press install.

Click to download:

Design your own house now! – http://dragonfly.autodesk.com/designer

Art and the Eternal Why?

The Invisible man – http://v1kram.posterous.com/liu-bolinthe-invisible-man

Design I like

This guy finds nice minimalistic posters/art work n puts them up – http://gentlepurespace.com/blog/

Awesome awesome logos – http://creativefan.com/the-20-best-logos-from-2009/

Chotu Kids Story BOoks

Awww – this is what i want to do – www.stickmans.net/saddestbear/default.html

From here: http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php

• Useful. As practitioners, we can’t be content to paint within the lines drawn by managers. We must have the courage and creativity to ask whether our products and systems are useful, and to apply our deep knowledge of craft and medium to define innovative solutions that are more useful.
• Usable. Ease of use remains vital, and yet the interface-centered methods and perspectives of human-computer interaction do not address all dimensions of web design. In short, usability is necessary but not sufficient.
• Desirable. Our quest for efficiency must be tempered by an appreciation for the power and value of image, identity, brand, and other elements of emotional design.
• Findable. We must strive to design navigable web sites and locatable objects, so users can find what they need.
• Accessible. Just as our buildings have elevators and ramps, our web sites should be accessible to people with disabilities (more than 10% of the population). Today, it’s good business and the ethical thing to do. Eventually, it will become the law.
• Credible. Thanks to the Web Credibility Project, we’re beginning to understand the design elements that influence whether users trust and believe what we tell them.
• Valuable. Our sites must deliver value to our sponsors. For non-profits, the user experience must advance the mission. With for-profits, it must contribute to the bottom line and improve customer satisfaction.

Web Credibility Research from Standford: http://credibility.stanford.edu/research.html

Evaluation Strategies

What exactly do users take into account when deciding what to believe on the Web? Do they really notice that privacy policy or read that detailed fact-checking procedure? When and how might information seekers attempt to verify what they find online? How do they integrate past experience and general assumptions about information on the Web with what they see and read on a specific site to make a decision about credibility?

Design

We find that a broad range of design decisions — ranging from visual elements to information architecture to the use of advertisements — can powerfully influence whether visitors are likely to find a site credible. Like human communicators, Web sites benefit (or suffer) based upon their appearance. Part of the goal of our project is to understand which design elements have an impact on credibility.

Individual Factors

When and why might individual differences amongst site visitors tend to dominate whether they accept or reject what they read? Does everyone respond to errors, typos, or poor design with the same level of incredulity? Expertise, for example — whether it be general fluency with the Internet or knowledge in a particular domain such as health — can impact how people decide what to believe on the Web.

Context and Content

Whether an information seeker is motivated to find credible information, how important the information is to her, whether she has the time and resources to devote to diligently evaluating what she does find, and the content domain of the information (e.g., health, news, entertainment, etc.) are all examples of important contextual factors in credibility evaluations made on the Web. We seek out exceptions — often driven by unique contextual factors — to the general rules of Web credibility evaluation discovered in our research.

Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility

http://credibility.stanford.edu/guidelines/index.html

How can you boost your web site’s credibility?

We have compiled 10 guidelines for building the credibility of a web site. These guidelines are based on three years of research that included over 4,500 people.

1. Audience – Who the target audience is everything.
2. Colours – the psychology, the socio-cultural associations, the natural harmony, the emotional response
3. Imagery – quality, relevance, originality
4. Fonts – max 3, depends on the message/tone (serious/fun/blah), can be used imaginatively (add the funk)
5. Layout – focal point, organized, easy to understand, usable
6. Take a step back – if it feels right, its right
7. Take further step back – ask someone else.

Communicate.

Loud and Clear.

I like.

Ever got a missed call and wondered and wondered who it could possibly be from? Well, know you can know! Well, not exactly. Through the free missed call lookup service you can now see the location and the operator of any mobile phone in India.
I came up with the idea when a ‘shady’ friend of mine sent me border-line ‘shady’ messages when she got a new number.  The data available is not 100% up-to-date and is mostly restricted to GSM phones. Will try to update as and when.

Post script: Since this was such a technical project involving php and mysql (finally understand it a bit!), the need to make it ‘arty’ is more than needed. Ideas include tracking its growth using Google Analytics and some devious viral marketing schemes. Facebook for one. Sending out SMS’s (SM-messes :) to whole bunch of ppl with this link seeing if they respond. Saying ‘I’m your garbage. Trace me’. Haha.  Hmm.. viral marketing warplan needed! Full on combat! End result a pictoral representation of Analytics data? To show how humans function like viruses. Matrix style.  Okay whatever.

Simply Pink is a simple, minimalistic WordPress theme intended to look more like a small personal website than a blog. It is center-aligned, fixed-width and has two columns. It has been tested for compatibility in Firefox and Internet Explorer (7 so far, 5 and 6 tomorrow). It has not been validated so far In fact, it has failed the XHTML validator terribly so far. Some 9 errors.

The aim is to make it a nice, simple portfolio style site somewhere down the line.

DIY Maps. This seems to be the coolest but hardest to configure. I’m trying to configure it here. Not happening so far. Sigh. My dream.

IPCCP is also a cool wordpress plugin.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ipccp/. Testing right now.

Delhi University’s Independent Student Newspaper

The parent or the child? I’ll never know

Smita Srivastava, also known as Maaaaaaaaaaa, is an awesome artist. Check out her work here!

Death by Type! by some guy on deviant art. My new obsession.