Know IT World - By Trishant

Orkut.com is an online community website designed for friends. The main goal of the service is to make your social life, and that of your friends, more active and stimulating. Orkut’s social network can help you both maintain existing relationships and establish new ones by reaching out to people you have never met before. Who you interact with is entirely up to you. Before getting to know an orkut member, you can even see how they’re connecting to you through the friends network.
orkut named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten. It is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships.
About the Author:
Orkut Büyükkökten is a Turkish software engineer who developed the social networking service called orkut while working at Google. He developed orkut as an independent project while working at Google, the outgrowth of a company policy whereby all employees at Google can spend 20% of their time working on personal interests.
Originally from the Turkish city of Konya, Büyükkökten obtained a B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and Information Science from Bilkent University in Ankara, and earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. His research at Stanford focused on Web search and efficient PDA usage.
History :
Orkut was quietly launched on January 22, 2004 by Google, the search engine company. Orkut Büyükkökten, a Turkish software engineer, developed it as an independent project while working at Google (permitted by its policy).
Originally, the orkut community was felt to be elite, because its membership is by invitation only. However, at the end of July 2004 orkut surpassed the 1,000,000 member mark, and at the end of September it surpassed the 2,000,000 mark. As of July 2005, 73% of orkut’s members were from Brazil, followed by 6% from the United States, 5% from Iran and 3% from Pakistan. Brazilians were below 50% from August 9 to August 20, 2004. It is believed that this happened because a lot of the Brazilian users had changed their nationality to something else due to a hoax, telling that users with their countries set to Brazil got slower speeds and a greater chance of getting an error page.
Problems:
Due to the massive load on the server, orkut has a bad habit of breaking down, running slow or returning one of its infamous “Bad, bad server. No donut for you.” Error messages. These slowdowns mostly can be noticed during the day hours in America (south and north), which probably explains the reason as well, as more than 80% of the orkut users are from the American continent, more than 70% from Brazil alone.
Getting started on orkut:
To get most out of orkut and to have more friends, you’ll need to complete the “personal” section of your profile by following these steps:
1. Visit your home page and click the “profile” button under your photo.
2. Click the “personal” tab to the right of your name.
3. Select “edit” below this tab.
Fill in as much information as you’d like. When a potential friend visit this section of your profile, they’ll be able to add you to their “hot-list,” “crush-list” or send you a teaser.
To use orkut for business networking, you’ll want to fill out the “professional” section of your profile. The following steps will help you do so:
1. Visit your home page and click the “profile” button under your photo.
2. Click the “professional” tab to the right of your name.
3. Select “edit” below this tab.
Enter the information you wish to share with potential business contacts.
Orkut makes it easy to find people who share your hobbies and interests, look for romantic connections or establish new business contacts. You can also create and join a wide variety of online communities to discuss current events, reconnect with old college buddies or even exchange cookie recipes.
Change Orkut Language back English:
If you would like orkut to return to English, you can click “orkut in english” at the bottom of each page. You will only need to do this once for orkut to appear in English each time you log in.
To change to another language, please follow the steps below:
1. Visit your homepage and click “settings” under your profile photo.
2. Choose your primary language from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
3. Click “update.”
Change orkut to another language:
Orkut is currently available in English, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Dutch and Russian.
Once you change your language interface on the settings page, orkut.com will appear in your language each time you log in.
To change your orkut language, please follow the steps below:
1. Visit your homepage and click “settings” under your profile photo.
2. Choose your primary language from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
3. Click “update.”
If you select one of our supported languages, your interface will now be in your language. If you select a different language, you will still see orkut in English, but you will have the option to search for communities in your preferred language.
How to join a community:
If you’re interested in joining a community, simply browse to that community and click the “join” button below the community photo.
There are two types of communities on orkut.
1. Public
2. Moderated
Public:
If the community is public, you’ll automatically be added to it.
Moderated:
If the community is moderated, the community moderator will need to approve your request before you are actually added to the community.
If you’d like to search for communities on orkut.com, click on the “Communities” link in the blue bar at the top of the page to search by name or browse by category.
How are the friends on my homepage ordered?
When you view your friends using the “my friends” box on the right-hand side of your homepage, the orkut members who have recently logged on are featured at the top of the page.
You can see an alphabetical list of all your friends by clicking the “Friends” link in the blue bar at the top of the page.
When you view other people’s profiles, you will see their recently logged in friends at the top of the page. While we usually feature your most active friends at the top, keep in mind that orkut friend order isn’t an exact science and they sometimes mix up who logged in last!
How to personalize the orkut email invitations:
To personalize the text of your orkut invitations follow these steps:
1. Select the “Home” link in the blue bar at the top of the page.
2. Click the “settings” button under your photo.
3. Click “edit invitation to join” at the bottom of the box.
4. Enter the text for your orkut invitations in the white dialog box, and hit the “update” button when you are finished.
How to set orkut notifications to be send to a different email address:
You can have orkut notifications sent to a different email address by changing the primary email address in your profile. Please note that changing your orkut email address will not change your orkut login.
To change your email address in orkut, follow these steps:
1. Select the “Home” link in the blue bar at the top of the page.
2. Click the “profile” button under your photo.
3. Click “edit profile” below your picture.
4. In the box on the right-hand side of the page, click the “contact” link.
5. Click the “edit” link to the right of your primary email address.
6. Enter your new primary email address and click the “verify” button.
7. A verification email will be sent to your new primary email account. To complete the change, please click on the link in this email.
*Make sure you include all of your email addresses in the secondary email fields to ensure that friend requests sent to your alternate accounts reach you. Don’t worry, these additional email addresses are not visible to other orkut members.
How to send a message to everyone in a community?
You can send a message to all the members of a community if the community owner has selected this option and the community has less than 1,000 members.
If you do not see the link "send message" in a community or the community has more than 1,000 members, messages will be disabled for all members, including the owner.
As an alternative, you may want to post your message in the community forum with the steps below:
1. Click the link "new topic" at the bottom of the forum.
2. Enter a subject and message.
3. Click "submit" and you're done!
What’s a bookmark?
The bookmark feature helps you keep track of members you want to remember. To create a bookmark, please follow these steps:
1. Visit the profile of the member.
2. Click the “add to bookmarks” button below their photo.
This allows you to create a list of bookmarks. This list is for your use only, and other members won’t know if you’ve bookmarked their profile. To view your bookmarks, please follow the instructions below:
1. Select the “Home” link in the blue bar at the top of the page.
2. Click on the “list” button under your photo.
3. Click the “view bookmarks” button that appears under your photo.
Maximum number of friends allowed on orkut:
You can have up to 1000 connections on Orkut. If you reach that limit, you will not be able to add new Orkut friends. This 1000 limit also includes Open Orkut Invitations - people you have invited to join Orkut but they haven't done so yet.

Wi-Fi stands for Wireless Fidelity and refers to any type of 802.11 network—802.11b, 802.11a, dual-band, etc. It is the most prevalent high-speed wireless technology standard used currently to connect PCs, laptops and handheld computers to each other and the Internet.
A Wi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wired networks. It is a wireless technology like a cell phone. Wi-Fi enables computers to send and receive data indoors and out; anywhere within the range of a base station, and can provide real-world performance similar to the basic 10BaseT wired Ethernet networks, presently used in many offices. And the best thing of all, it’s fast.

Wi-Fi technology is powerful. Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11b or 802.11a to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. The main features of 802.11a and 802.11b specifications are summarised below:
802.11a—It is an extension to the 802.11 technology and is deployed in wireless LAN environments and provides up to 54 Mbps on 12 channels in the 5 GHz band.
802.11b—It is also an extension to the 802.11 technology. Similar to 802.11a, it is also deployed in wireless LAN environments but provides up to 11 Mbps transmission on 3 channels in the 2.4 GHz band, a frequency shared by other wireless technologies like Bluetooth, HomeRF, some cordless phones and microwaves.
Everyone can use Wi-Fi, almost anywhere. Most computing devices, including notebooks, PDAs and cell phones, will eventually connect to 802.11-based wireless networks. So Wi-Fi is expected to become an even bigger and hotter technology for both home and businesses in the years to come.
Home Wi-Fi networks can bring a whole new dimension to a family’s digital experience. Wi-Fi can make the increasingly ubiquitous home PC even more powerful and exciting. Think about it. With your TVs, computers, stereos, kitchen appliances and other electronic devices connected through Wi-Fi, your home can become a centre for your whole family to learn, play and communicate in a multimedia-rich, audio and visual manner—wirelessly! You can also say that long awaited goodbye to the messy or unsightly cables around the house.
For small businesses, Wi-Fi can mean connectivity between mobile salespeople, floor staff and back-end support departments. The built-in flexibility of a Wi-Fi network eliminates the need to move cables and installation of hubs and routers, hence making it easy and affordable for small business to make changes and scale.
Large corporations and campuses use enterprise-level technology and Wi-Fi products to extend standard wired Ethernet networks to public areas like training classrooms and auditoriums. For instance, Intel has deployed Wi-Fi networks in many of their offices worldwide, providing anytime, anywhere connectivity for employees in offices. Many corporations also provide wireless networks to their offsite and telecommuting workers. Large companies and campuses often use Wi-Fi to connect buildings.
Service providers and wireless ISPs in Singapore such as SingTel, StarHub, Blue Engine and Yellow Spots are already using Wi-Fi technology to distribute Internet connectivity for businesses and commercial complexes through almost 200 public wireless hotspots. These hotspots are found in public places like Changi Airport, Suntec City, and Coffee Club outlets. Hotspots may be the fastest-growing segment of Wi-Fi services as more and more travellers demand fast and secure Internet access wherever they go. In fact, we can soon expect Wi-Fi networks to emerge in urban areas, providing coverage throughout the central city, lining major highways, and giving travellers network access anytime, anywhere.