You can now chat with me live, right here on my website. Plus you don’t have to create any ID whatsoever. It’s simple and easy. And fast and quick!

I love this. This will allow users to chat with me in realtime (if I am online on Yahoo! Messenger) and express their views or whatever.

With the Pingbox, Yahoo! becomes the first major IM service to provide a tool such as this for users to integrate on their favorite social network or website. In fact this flash based tool is easy and customizable and you can put it up on any website.

I have done it here. Will be doing it on my other webpages, where I can. You can do it too. Create your own Pingbox.

Nokia has finally unveiled it’s much touted iPhone rival device earlier code-named the ‘Tube’. The new device is the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The phone has a 3.2″ touchscreen device and is intended to be more of a multimedia device as is evident with it’s positioning (under the XpressMusic brand) in Nokia’s lineup.

Everybody, please accept my Belated Eid Greetings. I have been quite busy this time around what with not getting my nights’ sleep and then having to attend office while I was fasting!

It was tough. I also had a gloomy Eid this year. Seems the parents of my fiancee’ want our engagement to be called off. I have never experienced such stupidity before. All this has kept my mind off the blog and engulfed in a deep sorrow.

I just can’t believe that all this is happening to me! I’m shocked and speechless about all of this. I am unable to share this dark event of my life on my blog with you as I deem it fit to be off the records. This would enable me to atleast feel better when I visit my own blog instead of having to read a dark chapter of my (love) life. I hope issues are resolved and things return to normal. If not, then only God knows what’s gonna happen next.

I came back just now after going to the dealer where I had submitted my N82 for getting a checkup. It had stopped working all of a sudden and wouldn’t start no matter what I tried!

Anyway, after I got my hands on my mobile, I found that they have flashed (?) my mobile and when I ran it, it was flushed and all my settings, contacts etc., were gone.

So, it’s like one of those movies where your knowing friend goes in and a brand new blank replica of him/her comes out after that zap thing!

I have my mobile but after it’s been brainwashed. Luckily it works now. Thak God for that. I have a tedious task of loading all the apps that were installed by me on it but it is good to have the phone back.

When I asked the guys at the service center as to what the reason was for the strange behavior of the phone 8 days back, they said, “There’s no reason mentioned on the paper that came back to us with the phone from Nokia. It could be a software (operating system) issue”. Well, looks like a top secret repair or update! Beats me, why they don’t want to tell me the reason for the sudden failure of the phone.

Anyway, as of now, I have my phone back and it’s back to square one for me. I have install and put in all the important apps that I had installed previously.

I have recently updated my photos blog, TrendySnaps (After quite sometime) with some new pics and hope to keep doing it more regularly.

I have also associated the blog, which is hosted on Blogger, with a sub-domain on fiqbal.com.

It can now be accessed on TrendySnaps.fiqbal.com.

I will keep uploading new pics there by email, which I think is a marvelous way to post to your blog. I wonder if WordPress has this feature or not? Does anybody know anything about this? If you do, please feel free to drop a few lines which shed as to how I can apply the same with my blog!

Well, it seems these are difficult times upon us. What with the bloodbath on wallstreet creating ripples all over the world! I mean no one expected companies like Lehman Brothers and Merill Lynch to close their shutters. While AIG was lucky enough to get a federal bailout package, the other companies didn’t exactly find a savior anywhere.

And the wondrous thing is that all this happened while I was away… from my blog. Heaven know what’s up next. Dollar is getting stronger, Indian Rupee has reached new lows (lowest level in 2 years) and oil seems to be going down but is not yet out!

Hurrican Ike has struck but didn’t cause as much damage as was being speculated. Ah… Speculation. That is a small word that explains a lot of things this world has suffered ever since the start of this year. If you do not suffer from STML (short-term memory loss, for the uninformed) then you might be able to recall that it was this speculation on wall street (a sentiment that was mirrored elsewhere) that caused the rise in oil prices to record highs of US$ 147 (the prices have since come down to the US$ 90 range).

I mean I couldn’t believe myself when I heard that gold (yes, the yellowie metal) was touching new highs and had almost doubled as well owing to a weak dollar at a time when I was planning to stock on it for my wedding. Of course, gold prices have also dropped ever since.

Maybe things are getting back to normal. Slowly, I guess, but surely. But then, maybe this is the beginning of a recession which may stay for a year or so. I really don’t know.

It’s time to save that extra dollar and put it away for the forthcoming rainy day. Though, To Almighty God, I pray to keep that rainy day… away, away, away.

Ryan has posted a list of confirmed features for the upcoming WordPress 2.7 :

* New admin UI based on the crazyhorse experimental UI branch with new menus and navigation
* New edit post page that allows dragging and dropping of meta boxes. Boxes can be expanded and collapsed as before and now also completely hidden.
* Ability to hide columns on the content index pages
* Inline editing of posts and pages on the content index pages
* Comments XMLRPC API (Who wants comment moderation on the iPhone? Me.)
* Reply to comments from the admin
* Keyboard hot keys for managing comments
* Threaded Comments and new wp_list_comments() API
* Sticky Posts
* Automatic plugin install and integrated plugin browser
* Automatic upgrade of WordPress
* HTTPOnly auth cookies
* New HTTP request API
* A new SSH2 filesystem abstraction for updates and installs over sftp

After watching what 2.7 has to offer, I think I had a lot of those features on my mind (that needed to be added to Wordpress). So, this is something good. The WordPress development team is in touch with users. What the user needs, is what the team provides. So what, even if it’s a little late?

One of the most needed and important update included in 2.7 is the WordPress Auto upgrade feature. This would ensure that we don’t have to shut the blog, upload new update and upgrade database and bring the blog back up and so on…

So, let’s just wait and see what exactly more pops up in the first Beta of WordPress 2.7.

Incidentally, today has been quite stressful for me. At work, I had to deal with very stupid people and actually work with them (sic.).

In the evening, I was looking out for a used car and when I did find an interesting ad, I took up my N82 (which was lying on the table) and started to dial the number on the ad when I noticed the phone wasn’t working.

This was quite surprising for me and so I checked it. I plugged in for charging. No activity. I took out the battery and then put it back in and tried turning it on. Nothing. I, took out the battery again and tried plugging in the charger and turning on the handset. Still nothing. I get dressed (as fast as possible, I assume you can understand that!) and run to the road and catch a taxi and head down to the store from where I purchased it (it was, luckily, less than a mile from my home).

It is quite tough right now, what I am going through. It’s been two damn long days ever since I last spoke with my fiancee’ Jiya.

The last time I spoke with her was Thursday. Friday was the last time I ever could reach her cell. Since Friday night, Jiya has been incommunicado with me. It is now Sunday night here and I am not able to talk to her for the third straight day.

After I called up my own home (I really don’t like calling Jiya’s home since I don’t go along so well with my to-be in-laws), I found out that Jiya’s niece put her cellphone in a water jug!

Oops!!! That’s something. You tell me. I am sooooo mad. Even then, I can’t express my frustation, disappointment or anger at her. Her cell’s not working (Yeah, I know it’s drenched in water). Before you lecture me about her coming online, I should tell you that her computer’s not working too.

Talk about bad luck. This could be one of the situations that rate the baddest!

And to add insult to injury, Jiya’s birthday is on 9th Sept. I have to call her up tomorrow at midnight if her cell’s back up, that is.

I am so angry and close to crying and I really don’t know what to do. I just pray that God Help me!

Riding high on the success of his latest blockbuster, Singh Is Kinng, Akki has been signed by Levi’s to be it’s first Indian brand ambassador.

Click to view exclusive photos of Akki posing for Levi’s Jeans 501.