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	<title>Ravi's Rants &#187; Cool Sites</title>
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		<title>Typing Test: Wow, am I good or what?</title>
		<link>http://ravisrants.com/2008/12/14/typing-test-wow-am-i-good-or-what/</link>
		<comments>http://ravisrants.com/2008/12/14/typing-test-wow-am-i-good-or-what/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:02:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ravi Jayagopal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cool Sites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ravi's Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Timepass]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Ok, I promise not to brag too much&#8230; Here is a really cool typing test. I&#8217;m averaging a speed of about 104 words per minute (in 3 tries  &#8211; proof below UPDATE: My latest score as of September 2, 2010 WooHoo! 119.12 words per minute! Take the test yourself by clicking on the link below, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Ok, I promise not to brag too much&#8230;</p>
<p>Here is a really cool typing test.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m averaging a speed of about <strong>104 words per minute</strong> (in 3 tries  &#8211; proof below <img src='http://ravisrants.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<blockquote><p><img src="http://ravisrants.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/typingtest.jpg" alt="Ravi's Typing Test Results" /></p>
<p><img src="http://ravisrants.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/typingtest2.jpg" alt="Ravi's Typing Test Results 2" /></p></blockquote>
<h2>UPDATE: My latest score as of September 2, 2010</h2>
<p><a href="http://ravisrants.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/typingtest4.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-412" title="typingtest4" src="http://ravisrants.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/typingtest4-300x124.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="124" /></a></p>
<p>WooHoo! 119.12 words per minute!</p>
<p>Take the test yourself by clicking on the link below, and don&#8217;t forget to share your results in the comments below <img src='http://ravisrants.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/" target="_blank">Click here to take the Typing Test: http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/</a></p>
<p>- Ravi</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Hey You, Come Stalk Me</title>
		<link>http://ravisrants.com/2008/08/19/hey-you-come-stalk-me/</link>
		<comments>http://ravisrants.com/2008/08/19/hey-you-come-stalk-me/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:07:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ravi Jayagopal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cool Sites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microblogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Online Services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Remarkable]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seth Godin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web2.0]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ravisrants.com/2008/08/19/hey-you-come-stalk-me/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Twit&#8221; is no longer just a mean word I signed up for Twitter a while ago. But I never &#8220;got it&#8221; &#8211; until recently &#8211; when I figured out the awesomeness of microblogging. Seth Godin wrote this on his blog: &#8220;My goal in creating this blog is to spread my ideas and keep me from [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>&#8220;Twit&#8221; is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twit" rel="nofollow" target="_new">no longer</a> just a mean word <img src='http://ravisrants.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>I signed up for Twitter a while ago. But I never &#8220;got it&#8221; &#8211; until recently &#8211; when I figured out the <em>awesomeness</em> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-blogging" rel="nofollow" target="_new">microblogging</a>.</p>
<p>Seth Godin wrote <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2004/12/blog_disclosure.html" target="_new">this</a> on his blog:</p>
<blockquote><p><b>&#8220;My goal in creating this blog is to spread my ideas and keep me from having to write a book about every single thing that pops into my head. I&#8217;m an amateur, not a professional.&#8221;</b>
</p></blockquote>
<p>&#8220;Micro&#8221; blogging takes this and turns it on its head &#8211; and <em>completely</em> frees me from even the &#8220;gotta write a meaningful post&#8221; world of &#8220;macro&#8221; (a.k.a &#8220;the usual style of&#8221;) blogging.</p>
<p>Microblogging lets me put out stuff that is interesting, stuff that I want to share with my followers, but is too trivial to take up space on my blog.</p>
<p>Though many folks use it in a more social and personal context (&#8220;watching Spiderman now&#8221;, &#8220;woke up late&#8221;, &#8220;eating lunch&#8221; types), it has a <em>much</em> more powerful and serious side to it that is just begging to be taken advantage of.</p>
<p>Now I&#8217;ve started leaving behind <a href="http://twitter.com/RaviJayagopal" target="_new">a trail</a> of my online activities on twitter &#8211; for my tribe: Web sites I&#8217;m visiting, articles I&#8217;m reading, videos I&#8217;m watching, books I&#8217;m reading&#8230;</p>
<p>Whether you twitter or <a href="http://www.tumblr.com/"  rel="nofollow" target="_new">tumble</a> or <a href="http://www.spoink.com/"  rel="nofollow" target="_new">spoink</a>, do it so that you can make meaning for your followers.</p>
<p>I invite you to <a href="http://twitter.com/RaviJayagopal" target="_new">come stalk me</a> <img src='http://ravisrants.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
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		<item>
		<title>If I Had To Pick Just One Blog To Read&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://ravisrants.com/2008/01/19/if-i-had-to-pick-just-one-blog-to-read/</link>
		<comments>http://ravisrants.com/2008/01/19/if-i-had-to-pick-just-one-blog-to-read/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:05:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ravi Jayagopal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cool Sites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inspirational]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Purple Cow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ravi's Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Remarkable]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seth Godin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ravisrants.com/2008/01/19/if-i-had-to-pick-just-one-blog-to-read/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If I had to pick just one blog, and could read only one blog for the rest of my life &#8211; including my own blog (the one you&#8217;re reading right now) &#8211; I would pick Seth Godin&#8217;s blog. Seth&#8217;s blog is (hyperbole alert) amazing, educational, informative, remarkable, mind-blowing, extraordinary, purple, eye-opening and goose-pimple-raising good. Seth&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>If I had to pick just one blog, and could read only one blog for the rest of my life &#8211; including my own blog (the one you&#8217;re reading right now) &#8211; I would pick <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com"  rel="nofollow" target="_new">Seth Godin&#8217;s blog</a>.</p>
<p>Seth&#8217;s blog is (hyperbole alert) amazing, educational, informative, remarkable, mind-blowing, extraordinary, purple, eye-opening and goose-pimple-raising good.</p>
<p>Seth&#8217;s books, his blog and his words have become such an integral part of my life, that I ended up creating a separate category here. I still have to go back and tag some of my older posts, but you can <a href="http://www.ravisrants.com/index.php?s=seth" target="_new">read all of the posts</a> where I&#8217;ve written about or referred to Seth Godin, <a href="http://www.ravisrants.com/index.php?s=seth" rel="nofollow" target="_new">by going here</a>.</p>
<p>But don&#8217;t read just Seth&#8217;s blog. You don&#8217;t have to. </p>
<p>Read some of the best blogs out there, along with Seth&#8217;s, all on one page by <a href="http://www.linkoverload.com/index.php?channel=blogfix" target="_new">clicking here</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Animoto.com: Making your pictures come alive on video</title>
		<link>http://ravisrants.com/2007/09/15/animotocom-making-your-pictures-come-alive-on-video/</link>
		<comments>http://ravisrants.com/2007/09/15/animotocom-making-your-pictures-come-alive-on-video/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:57:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ravi Jayagopal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cool Sites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Industry News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ravi's Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web2.0]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ravisrants.com/2007/09/15/animotocom-making-your-pictures-come-alive-on-video/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I found this amazing site yesterday through one of the feeds on LinkOverLoad.com. Awesome video coming right up&#8230; Animoto basically turns your pictures into a fantastic MTV-style video, with some great soundtracks available on their site for free, or you can use your own audio &#8211; with your pictures almost flashing in rhythm to the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>I found this amazing site yesterday through one of the feeds on LinkOverLoad.com. Awesome video coming right up&#8230;</p>
<p>Animoto basically turns your pictures into a <em>fantastic</em> MTV-style video, with some great soundtracks available on their site for free, or you can use your own audio &#8211; with your pictures almost flashing in rhythm to the beats of the soundtrack, with some great-looking special effects.</p>
<p>When I signed up, uploaded my pictures, picked a great-sounding track they had on their site (for free) and tried to create my video (remember, their software supposedly creates all of this in an automated fashion), I got this very friendly error message:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hi there,</p>
<p>We&#8217;re sorry to inform you that we have experienced an error in the<br />
 production of your recent video, &#8220;Beautiful People&#8221;.  Rest assured, we&#8217;re<br />
 on the case and we&#8217;ll have it rendered as soon as we can&#8211;but, depending<br />
 on the complexity of the issue, it could take a little time.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll email you the moment it&#8217;s ready.  Thanks for understanding!</p>
<p><snip>&#8230;
</p></blockquote>
<p>That didn&#8217;t bother me, as they are still in beta, and still hammering out the rough edges. What did surprise me, is that they promptly sent me this email the next day:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hi there.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ve finished your video, so it&#8217;s time for you to go take a look.<br />
  Head to:</p>
<p>http://animoto.com/play/&#8230;..</p>
<p>We hope you like it!  Give us some feedback when you get a chance to<br />
 let us know what you liked and how we can improve.  Remember, no two<br />
 Animoto videos are ever the same so keep making videos and see what unique<br />
 pieces you can generate.</p>
<p><snip>&#8230;
</p></blockquote>
<p>I excitedly clicked over, and was simply blown away by the results (see video below).</p>
<p>Remarkable idea, great (almost perfect) execution, instantly viral! Pass this along&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>Video from <a href="http://www.animoto.com" rel="nofollow" target="_new">Animoto.com</a></strong></p>
<p><object id="W46ec3db91ccda1d3" width="432" height="250" quality="high" data="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/46928cc51133af17/46ec3db91ccda1d3" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="opaque"><param name="wmode" value="opaque" /><param name="movie" value="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/46928cc51133af17/46ec3db91ccda1d3" /><param name="scaleMode" value="showAll" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="flashvars" value="" /></object></p>
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