VOIPers - Go Green

Skyrocketting oil prices, unabating inflation, rising daily costs, etc, etc - I think its time to go green. Electric bikes are hitting the market like never before and there's no better time than to buy one - start, now!!!

There are a number of big players like Hero Motors, TVS Motors, Kinetic Motors who have introduced some e-scooters and are introducing more models in coming months.

Also, there are a number of small players like Yo Bikes (Yash E-bikes?), Vijaya Electrics, Atlas Cycles, Avon Cycles to name a few.

Some of the best information sites for E-bikes include EVFuture.com which includes a complete list of players in this niche space and also includes pictures of vehicles with prices for some of them(http://www.evfuture.com/products/electric_scooters).

Watch out for the following models:

Hero Ultra's VeloPlus (http://www.ultramotor.com/India/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?gProductId=73#)

Hero ultra's Marathon (http://www.ultramotor.com/India/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?gProductId=70)

Hero Ultra vehicles are available at your nearest "Digital Shoppy" dealers (http://www.digitalshoppy.com/).

Yo Smart (http://www.induselectrans.com/yo_smart.htm) and Yo Speed (http://www.induselectrans.com/yo_speed.htm)

Also, check out Vijaya Electric's Glide25 (http://www.vvelectricscooters.com/scooter.html)

Don't forget to check out (http://www.kabirdass.com/), Scooty Teenz Electric (http://www.scootygals.com/teenzelectric.aspx), Elektra 2.5 (from CAL-ON motors, info@cal-onmotors.in, calonmotorsltd@rediff.com, www.cal-onmotors.in), E-GO Electric bike and other vehicles at your nearest store.

The prices of these vehicles range anywhere from low 20,000's to 40,000's (rupees) depending on various technical specifications. Also available are e-bikes, electric mopeds or bicycles apart from electric cars.

If you are located outside India, don't forget to check out some sites like http://electricscootersworld.com/, http://www.egovehicles.com/, http://www.neoscooters.com/electric_scooters.asp, http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/electric-bikes.

Well, before you buy your next scooter, think about your carbon footprint, your responsibility to environment and the future. Like all VOIPers do, go green and buy that e-bike you have always dreamt of - Cheers!!!

TokBox - Video without Frills

TokBox is a new way for your Video calling (conferencing) needs. You dont have to download anything, you can do your video calls from within a browser and the best part is its absolutely free. Its a very good tool (Video over Http) for those who dont have the space, patience or the time to download video conferencing tools and the quality of service seems to be very good.

How it works - You sign up and they give you a link. When you want to talk to anyone, give them the link. They click on it and you can start chatting. You can put your TokBox on your webpage, blog or any other social networking site (http://www.tokbox.com/view/about).

There is a TokBox SDK which helps you integrate TokBox with your existing code base (http://www.tokbox.com/view/developer).

There is a forum where you can rush for help (http://forums.tokbox.com/) and also a blog (http://blog.tokbox.com/).

Overall, the tool is very good for Video over IP and should attract more number of users in the future.

Get your own TokBox at www.tokbox.com.

Vtorial.com - Free High Resolution Video Tutorials

Vtorial.com is a website for free high resolution video tutorials. This is the place where you would want to go to make your learning easier through videos and faster as you may not need to go through text tutorials for the most part. Well, as they say "a picture is worth a thousand words", this website is an effort in making the statement true and worthwhile (http://www.vtorial.com/).

The videos on the site range from tutorials for CAD/CAM, GIS, Graphics, Operating systems to entertainment and more. You can become a member of this site to get access to a lot of goodies. You can also get a Vtorial e-mail id created. There's also a Community section and a Blogs section where you can get your queries answered by experts and also look for latest technologies in this emerging field.

Also dont forget to check out the "Cool New People" section and "Top Rated Videos".

Wireless for FON and $$$$$

FON is the largest Wifi sharing community around the world. Their motto - you share a little wifi and you get a little wifi for free. Their community wifi router, La Fonera, allows everyone to share Wifi in a secure environment. You can connect to thousands of Wifi FON spots worldwide for free - whereever you are you can find a FON spot on their map (http://maps.fon.com/?lang=en). They have an international blog page (http://www.fon.com/en/external/blogs) and some more information at (http://labs.fon.com/).

The FON shop has Wifi routers, antennas and some toys and gadgets (https://shop.fon.com/FonShop/shop/US/ShopController).

The best part is apart from getting access to internet on wifi for free, you can also earn some money. For this you would have to join their community and become a "Bill".

Also, FON is secure, it segragates your personal usage with those of other FON users. For more information, see (http://www.fon.com/en/info/security).

I was browsing through the fon maps page and could find only a handful of Wifi hotspots in and around Hyderabad. So, if you would like to make a quick "Dinero", dont forget to become a "Fonero" - A very good community for road warriors.