¾ TĒċH Δ ĔMŬLĀŤIŌN™

Best ePub Readers For You

2011-12-27T02:06:00.000-08:00

ePub(also referred as EPUB or EPub) stands for Electronic Publishing and is a standard e-book format which is used by all popular e-book readers out there, including Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader, iPhone/iPod Touch(using various e-book apps), and more. ePub files have .epub extension.

There are various online as well as desktop tools which allow users to read .epub formats. We have covered four ePub readers which we believe you all should know about.

1. Bookworm (Online Service)

Bookworm is an online service that aims to be become a leading free platform for reading ePub books online. It is part of O’Reilly Media. It takes only three steps, create an account, upload an ePub book or magazine, and start reading.
The benefit of this service is that you can read the e-book online no matter where you are located and which device you are using.

2. EPUB Reader Firefox Add-On (Windows/Linux/Mac)

EPUBReader is a handy add-on for Firefox that can directly open any ePub format quickly. It is indeed faster and quicker than desktop software and shows the graphics far better than bookworm service.
This add-on opens the ePub file just like you can open PDF file in Firefox browser. Just hit the download link of any ePub book and select Open. If you have already downloaded the ePub book, then you can open it with Firefox.
The interface is customizable, which means you can change the background colors, etc to your own liking. The navigations buttons are given at the bottom along with the option to change the fonts.

3. Stanza (Mac/Windows)

Stanza is a desktop ePub reader and converter that is fast, light-weight, and simple. It can be used to save bookmarks and quick conversions. You can convert .epub format into tens of different other document formats including doc and pdf formats. If you want to read the ePub file in Amazon Kindle, there is an option for that as well.
The only downside is formatting and navigation, the two most important aspects. For formatting it can be compared with Bookworm service but is not as great as EpubReader add-on for Firefox.

4. MobiPocket Reader (Windows)

MobiPocket Reader is not only an advanced ePub books reader but is also a great professional books organizer. You can import books in PDF, ePub, or Office formats and organize them quickly. Just double-click a book and start reading.
The formatting of MobiPocket is better than the above mentioned tools and has an option to zoom into the book, useful for those who want to read the tiny text on the book. Also there is an advanced search box given on the top-right side which can drastically help in saving time.

Update: Also check out FBReader, which is an outstanding eBook reader, manager, and downloader.

Update 2: As a side note, you will also be interested in PaperCrop. A free tool that allows optimization of PDF file so that it takes less space and opens faster on mobile devices.

Conclusion

For quicker distraction-free reading, I found EPUBReader add-on to be the best. For traveling, I would prefer using Bookworm since all uploaded books can be accessed from anywhere in the world. For converting ePub books and reading them without worrying about Firefox crash, I would prefer Stanza. Lastly, if I am looking to organize all the books in one place, then MobiPocket Reader is the app to of choice.

We Love Developers

2011-12-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

An Awesome Watch for all you Technology Folks!

Hidden Tips & Tricks for VLC Player

2011-11-21T22:31:00.001-08:00

VLC is the most popular media player today, and overtime it has emerged as play it all player, you just name it, it will play it for you. But VLC can do a lot many things as well as which normal user do not know about. I will list couple of common hacks for VLC, you can append the list if you think if anything can be added:

Rip DVDs: VLC includes a basic DVD ripper. You probably would never use it when there are better DVD rippers available, but it helps to know that you can in fact, get a decent quality DVD rip with VLC. To rip a movie follow these steps: Go to the Media menu and choose Convert/Save. Click on the Disc tab.

* Here you can adjust the Starting Position and rip only specific titles or chapters.
* Enter file name making sure to end with .MPG, and start ripping.
* Click Save.
* Its Done.

Record videos: With the new VLC, you can record videos during playback. The record button is hidden by default. To see it, click on View>Advanced Control. The record button will now appear. Clicking on the button while playing a movie or video will start recording. Clicking again will stop recording.

Play RAR files: Do you know VLC can play videos zipped inside RAR files? They play like normal video files and you can even use the seek bar. If the RAR file is split into several files, no problem. Just load the first part (.part001.rar ) and it will automatically take the rest of the parts and play the whole file.

Play in ASCII mode: VLC media player has an amusing ability, to playback movies in ASCII art. To enable ASCII mode, open VLC media player and click on Tools>Preferences. Open the section “Video” section and under “Output” select “Color ASCII art video output” from the drop down menu. Save it. Now play any video file to enjoy the ASCII art.

Listen to online radio: VLC includes hundreds of Shoutcast radio stations. You just need to enable it through Media>Services Discovery>Shoutcast radio listings. Now, open the Playlist and browse through the stations.

Convert Audio and Video formats: In VLC you can convert video and audio files from one format to another. Several different formats are supported like MP4, WMV, AVI, OGG, MP3 etc. To access the converter:

* Go to Media>Convert/Save.
* Load the file you want to convert using the Add button and click Convert.
* Now choose the output format and output file location.

Download YouTube and other online videos: First grab the URL of the YouTube video page. Now click on Media>Open Network stream. Paste the URL and click Play.

Once VLC starts streaming the video, click Tools>Codec Information and at the bottom of the window you will see a Location box. Copy the URL and paste it on your browser’s address bar. The browser will now download the file which you can save it to your hard disk. Alternatively, you can record the video.

Streaming the screen shot of your desktop:

1.Open VLC media player
2.Press ctrl+N
3.type 'screen://' (without quotes)
4.click on PLAY

Now wait n watch ;)

The Era of Steve Jobs!

2011-10-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

On the uneventful morning of Thursday, 7.20 AM IST, I was in deep sleep at my apartment in the downtown Bangalore as it was a holiday on the occasion of some festival in India, I was brought to life by my ringtone ringing aloud, I reached for my Blackberry, It was Sanjeev calling, It was very unlikely for him or for that matter anyone to call me this early, if not for anything fatally important, I sensed there was some problem. As soon as I picked he just spoke one sentence, "Vikas you know what? Steve Jobs is Dead!"

I will remember that very minute – still lying on my bed, I was staring the wall clock ticking in front of me, Suddenly, everything went out of focus. I could hear the blood pounding my head; tears welled up in my eyes.

It is perhaps the only time that I didn't care for checking out the news and what people have to say about him on my Twitter feed; I didn't want to discuss it with anyone or Tweet about it, why doesn't the world realize that my Elvis is dead! I don’t care about news. I don’t care about a world that is a lot less exciting than it was when Steve was around. Can’t you see that my soul is being put through a meat grinder.

Every generation has its heroes. I was too provincial to love the Beatles and cry over John Lennon. I was too Indian to care much about Elvis. And I read about President Kennedy in books. But for me, Steve Jobs was all of those people. I don’t know why, how and where that happened but Jobs was my icon.

For many of us who live and die for technology and the change it represents, he was an example of what was possible, no matter how the chips were stacked against you. Jobs put life and soul into inanimate objects. Everyone saw steel, silicon and software; he saw an opportunity to paint his Mona Lisa. People saw a phone; Steve saw a transporter of love. People saw a tablet; he saw smiles and wide-eyed amazement. They made computers; he made time machines that brought us all together through a camera, screen and a connection.

Mac, iPod and iPhone — they are like every technologist ’s dream gadget- they are magical, memorable and life-changing. We really have to understand that weather we use an Apple product or not, whatever gadget we like, to some extent there is a large enough impact from the innovation which Steve brought in the form of his products. Even the ones who used to criticize Steve at some point agreed that its an irreparable loss to the entire humanity.

The idea of Steve led me to follow my heart, make tough choices, be brutally honest with myself (and sometimes annoying to people I love) and always remember that in the end, it is all about making your customers happy. There are simple ways to get along with everyone. There are easier ways to get things done. There are compromises. But to me Steve Jobs meant try harder, damn it, your customers (readers) expect better than that. Steve taught me to care about the little things, because in the end, little things matter.

Steve was my secret muse. Trust me –- he is a secret muse to many of us around the world. Mark Zuckerberg. Jeff Bezos. Dave Morin. Jack Dorsey. We are all part of the tribe called Jobs. There is a whole generation of entrepreneurs who ask themselves this one question –- what will Steve do. Natch. What would have Steve done!

Commands Not Found in Cygwin

2011-10-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

Cygwin is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows. Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications, data, and other system resources with applications, software tools, and data of the Unix-like environment. Thus it is possible to launch Windows applications from the Cygwin environment, as well as to use Cygwin tools and applications within the Windows operating context.

Cygwin consists of two parts: a dynamic-link library (DLL) as an API compatibility layer providing a substantial part of the POSIX API functionality, and an extensive collection of software tools and applications that provide a Unix-like look and feel.

If you are a Linux enthusiast and really miss greps and sed/awks on the windows box, running cygwin. You tried running it either by double-clicking the cygwin icon on your desktop or the cygwin.bat file in your "C:\cygwin" directory and got the bash-3.X$ prompt.

However, although the pwd or cd commands work, if you try ls, it says:"ls: command not found".

Here is what you need to do to fix it:

Right click on "My Computer" -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables
Add a new environment variable, called CYGWIN_HOME and set its value to C:\cygwin
Edit the PATH environment variable and add C:\cygwin\bin to it (usually separated by a ';').
You can also add C:\cygwin\bin to CLASSPATH environment variable.
As a side note, you may also want to add: C:\cygwin\usr\sbin to the PATH variable
Just click okay, exit any command prompts or bash shells (over cygwin) you may have open, and open it again - it'll work!
Note: this assumes that you have installed cygwin at C:\cygwin. If you've kept it someplace else, please modify the above accordingly.

Google Plus vs Facebook

2011-07-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

Google had released a number of Social Networks to dethrone Facebook. Some like Orkut were a hit, while others like Buzz & Wave just went past unnoticed. This time, however, Google has launched a heavyweight in the arena, named Google Plus (G+).

Key Features of G+

Well, since most of us use Facebook, it would be better if I explain you the
features of G+ like this:

- The Facebook like button has been replaced by Google’s recently
launched +1 button.
- Facebook’s Pages replaced by Sparks
- Facebook chat replaced by GTalk (Thankfully with better smileys than
FB)
- Facebook Friend list replaced by Circles
- Facebook Video Calling replaced by Hangouts (With video conferencing!)
- Geo-tag your Posts

Now, the comparison, Page LayoutGoogle has always kept its interface clean and clutter-free, take Google’s home page and Chrome browser for instance.
Same with G+. Its better than Facebook’s congested layout. Though they may look same at an initial glance, but use and details make the difference.

User Interface Facebook uses simple click and type, but Google Plus has drag-n-drop too. I personally loved the Interface of Google Plus Circles that lets you drag-n-drop your friends into circles like a dial pad.
Also, G+ uses bold and attractive icons compared to FB’s dull blue ones.

Portability
This feature exclusively in Google Plus. Being a service of Google Inc, you can access certain features of G+ directly from its other services like Gmail and Search Engine, without disturbing them.
Like, you may post on G+, see notifications, click on individual Notifications to pull out more info, all without disturbing your work on Gmail or other Google services, from the top navigation bar’s right corner.

Chatting
Google released Google Plus with Group Text Chat as well as Group Video Chat, dubbed as Hangouts. Facebook backfired with its own Group text chat and video calling in partnership with Skype.
So, is chatting similar in both FB & G+?? No, Facebook misses out on Group Video chat, and that’s where Google Plus, again, scores.
Also, if you are among the masses who hate FB Chat, then Google Plus Chat is for you. Much like GTalk, it’s way better and even supports emoticons of a nice variety, as compared to that of Facebook’s.

Managing Friends
Think there is no better way of managing your friends & family, than on G+. You can simply and awesomely drag-n-drop your friends into separate ’Circles’.

Like, my friends go into Friends Circle and work’s followers in Followers circle. So when I have to share New news, I share with both circles, but when it comes to personal posts, its just friends Pages of Interest Just like Facebook has Pages that you can like if they are of your taste to follow them, Google Plus has Sparks. You can select Sparks of your interest and they will appear in your left sidebar. You can view them for latest updates.

Privacy
Though Facebook has millions of Pages, G+ has limited Sparks, mainly due to
its Beta version. Privacy Privacy was, is and always will be a concern for netizens. Facebook and Google+ Users can control who they share their posts and pictures with, but don’t forget FB & Google store enough info about you, that once hacked into, can ruin you. It’s not easy to hack into their secure systems, but nothing is impossible.

Well, it’s clearly a win-win situation for Google+ in terms of Tech Specs & Features, but will it be able to pull Facebook’s 750 mn users…is a mystery.

After all, who would abandon his/her Facebook account with so many friends, networks & Pictures and go join Google Plus?? None huh? Well, don’t forget a similar shift did occur from Orkut to Facebook, so you never know!

Android Is Blowing Everyone Away!

2011-07-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

Android's share of the smartphone market is still blowing away all competitors in the U.S. according to new data from comScore. The only company that's hanging on is Apple, which saw its share of the market tick up ever so slightly.

10 BEST PRODUCTIVITY APPS FOR iOS

2011-06-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

You could do thousands of things with your really very precious iOS Device. And their are utility apps you could buy from the App Store at no-cost what so ever, these apps make your iPhones and iPads even better and they help you use your gadget to its full potential. Here is a list of 10 Best iPhone Apps and Web Apps that your device cannot live without.

1. Dropbox

Ever since the launch of the 1st Generation iPhone everyone is worried about File Management on their pricy little gadget and suprisingly it doesn't change for iPads. Infact one of the first ever apps i purchased on the App Store was a file storage app called Air Sharing. Come 2011and it is the era of cloud computing. And Dropbox is one of the best and the most popular cloud storage service on the internet. You get 2GB of it free and also an iOS App, which litterally means that you can now store files on your iOS device, and it automatically goes to your Mac and PC. Using the Dropbox on iOS is even more fun, you could click photos and send it to your dropbox, instantly it would reach its destination. Full Points for utility here.

My Rating: 9.2/10 |The app is available for both iPhone and iPad.

2. Evernote

Sometimes one feels what is the need of all these notepad apps, when you have one from Apple itself. Evernote gives the answer. Not only are your notes saved on the cloud. You also get an option to do more with them like taking snapshots, and attaching them to your note or even recording precious lectures, and then taking notes from them. Evernote takes the note taking experience from good to "oh its wonderful" on your iOS device and specially the iPad. I would have loved Video Notes though. But you can't just skip this app if you own an iPhone/iPad.

My Rating: 9.0/10 | The App is available for both iPhone and iPad.

3. Simplepedia

Honestly speaking, i was really impressed by the WikiReader thing. Why doesn't my iPod do that? Was my question and the app-store had a reasonable answer. Simplepedia is a simple wikipedia app, which saves the articles you browse. So when you start reading your article on your iPod Touch in a wi-fi zone and you can read it later anywhere in a non-wifi zone. What is interesting to note is that, the app has very low productivity for iPhones and iPad 3G. However it becomes a life-saver when using a wifi only model of your gadget.

My Rating: 8.5/10 | The App is available for both iPhone and iPad.

4. Google Translate

We all travel, and we all face problems with the language. Why not use your Smart-phone / smart-gadget to translate things for you. And the best you could get for free on the app-store is Google Translate. You can translate text from over 100 languages to your language or visa-versa and with proper speach tools. The app is quite simple and also stores what you have translated. You could get Word-Lens to translate straight from images, but then it is quite buggy and you'd need to shell a lot of bucks, for just translating text in 1 particular language.

My Rating: 8.9/10 | The App is available for iPhone and iPod Touch Only.

5. 2DCodeMe

There has been a recent out-burst of QRCodes on the internet. These can be encrypted links, text, or even a short message. And the bes t way to read them is to use a smartphone and donwload a QRcode Reader. Well? The hunt for a QRCode Reader begins on the App Store. Some are paid apps, some are free, some don't have the full-accecibility or some just don't read these codes. Well, 2DCodeMe is one of the best QRCodes readers you could find for free anywhere. It scans the QRCodes, saves a neatly docketed history of them , and is ready for more. It even saves the copy of the actual qr code that had been clicked. Datamatrix Barcodes are also supported.

My Rating: 9.1/10 | The App is available for iPhone and iPod Touch Only.

6. System Manager (lite)

System Manager (lite) is an iOS app that gives almost every information about your iPhone. From the number of processes running in the background to your iPod Touch/ iPhone Serial number. The App gives details of everything you want to know about your gadget. Here's a list of what all it tell s you: Battery Left, Disk Space Used, Running Applications and Background processes, iPhone/iPod Touch Serial Number + UDID and Memory Usage.

My Rating: 8.2/10 | The App is available for iPhone and iPod Touch Only.

7. Google App

No, the Google Website on your mobile safari won't do the trick. The Google App is more than that. You can use the inbuilt Google Goggles feature to use image search or search by Voice Search . And by Voice Search I mean a very a comprehensive list of dialect collections to build one of the best ever voice search tools on the internet. Also you get access to these great little doodles which Google keeps making every now and then.

My Rating: 8.7/10 | The App is available for both iPhone and iPad

8. AroundMe

On a vacation or in an unknown town you will obviously rely on the internet than ask something to a stranger. Well Around Me does just that. You can find, Banks, Cafes, Hospitals Restaurants or even the whether report of the place you are in. The App is a really useful tool in uknown places and has been on the App-Store eversince the App Store began, it has also won many awards.

My Rating: 9.0/10 | The App is available for both iPhone and iPad.

WEB APPS

9. Google Docs

Well, Google Docs trumps even the iWork here. Its a free-web app and stores the file on an easily accessible Google Cloud. You can create Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations and forms through the service and all for free. Also you don't need to sync through a wire, everything remains on the cloud. I would love to have a dedicated iPhone app though, but till then Google Docs is a big Thumbs up.

My Rating: 8.9/10 | The Web-App is compatible with both iPhone and iPad.

10. Wolfram Alpha

The Actuall iPhone App costs about $0.99 which is very naive because you can easily goto their website and use every tool for free also it has been edited to work on webkit browsers. Wolfram Alpha is a computational search engine and a very helpful tool for Science students throughout the world.

My Rating: 8.0/10 | The Web App is compatible with both iPhone and iPad.

How to get traffic for your blog

2011-04-08T01:48:00.000-07:00

My friend Fred, a talented blogger, asked me for advice the other day. Here's a partial answer, with a few apologies to Swift.

Use lists.
Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
Break news.
Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
Announce news.
Write short, pithy posts.
Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
Write long, definitive posts.
Write about your kids.
Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
Coin a term or two.
Do email interviews with the well-known.
Answer your email.
Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
Be anonymous.
Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit).Do it with every post.
Post your photos on flickr.
Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
Point to useful but little-known resources.
Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
Write about Google.
Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
Run no ads.
Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
Write about blogging.
Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
Be patient.
Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
Write in English.
Better, write in Chinese.
Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
Don't be boring.
Write stuff that people want to read and share.

Here's How Huge The Tablet Market Could Get !

2011-03-03T22:33:00.000-08:00

Apple's iPad tablet is probably the fastest-selling new consumer electronics device ever, but the potential for growth in the tablet market for Apple, Google, RIM and others is still massive.

Only 0.3% of the Earth's inhabitants owned a tablet at the end of 2010, RBC analyst Mike Abramsky notes today in a detailed, 88-page report about the future of the tablet market. That means 99.7% of the people on Earth still haven't bought a tablet yet!

In this chart, Abramsky plots the tiny smartphone and tablet user base (394 million worldwide) versus other market, such as TV subscriptions (600 million), total PCs (1.3 billion), and mobile subscribers (5.1 billion).

Abramsky predicts more than 400 million tablet users worldwide by 2014, including 185 million tablets sold in 2014. But he thinks Google Android, not Apple, will come to lead the market, representing 40% of the 2014 tablet market, versus 34% for Apple, 13% for Microsoft, 8% for BlackBerry, and 5% for HP WebOS.

Tips to improve your Google rank!

2011-02-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

To increase your visibility and authority on the web, you need some knowledge of Google rankings. Learning how Google’s ranking system works can help you make important changes that can move your website up the ranking ladder.

What follows is a quick primer on need-to-know basics for improving your site's Google ranking.

When it comes to your web pages, two different Google rankings are at work: your search result ranking and your site’s PageRank. They are related, yet distinct measures of the value of the content on your site in the eyes of the search-engine giant.

Searches: Your search ranking refers to your position on the results page for a given keyword query. Because Web users usually want quick answers, they are more likely to click links at the top of the first page of results. For that reason, you tend to get more site traffic if your site is included in the list of the top five or so search results

PageRank: Google PageRank is a tool that assigns every web page a value between 0 and 10. Those who get zeros have no influence, while those with 10s have the most influence. Page rankings are updated by Google about four times each year. This gives site owners a chance to make changes and improve their web authority over time.

Don't know where you rank? Try a Google search to see where your site shows up on the results page. You can also find web pages and toolbars that show you the PageRank for your site as well as the sites of your competitors. For example, you can use PageRank Checker to submit a URL, or you can install Google's Toolbar to view each site's PageRank as you browse.

Because Google is the most popular Internet search engine on the internet, its rankings are important to website owners, content developers, and Internet marketers. The final score is assigned using an algorithm, or mathematical calculation. Several factors are included in the analysis, such as number of inbound links, quality of inbound links and number of outbound links.

Here are four steps to take that can help lift your score and, as a result, raise your Google ranking.

1. Start link building. Part of your site's rank is based on how many links on external pages point back to your site. The more pages referring web users to your site, the better your chances of getting a higher ranking. Two of the easiest ways to generate links to your site include reciprocal links and guest posts. With reciprocal links, you place another company's link somewhere on your site in exchange for getting your own link on their site. Additionally, if you write content for a blog as a guest author, you can usually add a link back to your site in the author bio at the end of the post.

2. Use keywords, but don't overuse them. Keyword density is a term that refers to the ratio of a keyword or keyword phrase to the rest of the text on your web page. Effective use of keywords or keyword phrases can improve your rank. Beware of "keyword stuffing." Overusing keywords can hurt your ranking. It’s always best to write naturally.

3. Remember to add title tags. A title tag is made up of the words between the tags of your site's HTML header. Instead of using the default "New Page" that shows up on many page editors, change it to a title for the page that includes a relevant keyword or phrase.4. Use keyword-rich anchor text. Anchor text is the text highlighted for readers to indicate a hyperlink. When it comes to anchor text, try to use keywords as often as possible. Creating a hyperlink from words like "click here" won’t add any value to the link or your website. </DIV>

The Android Effect On HTC

2011-02-03T22:58:00.000-08:00

It took phone maker HTC about a year to figure out how to make a great Android smartphone, but when it finally got it right, it paid off big time.

The turning point seems to have come right around when it partnered with Google to manufacture the Nexus One. The Nexus One, Google's first branded handset, was a flop from a sales perspective.
But, HTC must have learned a thing or two from working with Google. The phones that followed-the EVO, and DROID Incredible -- were big hits sending HTC's profits soaring.

Android, Totally cool on pockets :)

Best Freelancing Websites!

2011-01-10T23:19:00.000-08:00

Whether you are a professional looking for a place to freelance, or you have an idea that you would like to realize but have no appropriate skills, consider below list of the top freelance sites.

Some of them allow you to join for free. Others are subscription sites where you pay a recurring monthly/quarterly/yearly fee. Besides, most also charge a transaction fee which is a certain percentage of the project budget.

You can find much more freelance sites, but most of them are not as popular as those listed below:

1) Freelancer.com (Earlier Getafreelancer.com Sweden, started in February 2004)

For professional programmers, interpreters and graphic designers. Ability to work independently and choose among hundreds of projects. Unique feature: freelancers can signup for fully functional debit MasterCard®, which can be used at ATMs, at stores and online anywhere around the world. It is like Western Union, but more simple and flexible. There is a free escrow system for freelancers and buyers.

2) ScriptLance (Canada, started in 2001)

Provides a service that helps businesses find freelance programmers and designers for their projects. Over 100 new projects posted every day, most of them are web-based. This site has the lowest fees. ScriptLance provides users with escrow payment options to help projects get completed smoothly. No recurring fees, no project posting fees. Webmaster/Programmer will have to pay per project fee at the point of project acceptance (when webmaster had selected a programmer for the project and programmer accepted the project). Best if you want really cheap coding. Join for free and get $1 signup bonus.

3) eLance (USA, founded in 1998)

One of the largest freelance site. The best site if you want a large professional job. However if you are looking at a smaller job or you cannot afford yourself spending much money you may be better off with Rent-a-coder or Scriptlance. Elance charges the freelance providers to just be listed on the site, whereas Rent-a-coder and Scriptlance only charge the providers once a project has been selected.

4) Guru.com (USA, started August 2000)

Directly connects businesses with over 520,000 freelancers who specialize in over 160 professional categories including: website design, programming, graphic design, business consulting, and administrative support. Whatever your specialization, you can be sure that the site has a wealth of projects in your field.

5) Rent-a-coder (USA, started in 2001)

The site has about 20,000 registered buyers. When you get a project done through Rentacoder you put the entire project fees into an escrow account. You don't release the fees until the project is complete. This is good because it gives reassurance to the coder that they are going to pay you, but it also can be difficult if you have a large project, because you have to pay the entire amount into an escrow account, although you can put the project into stages and pay based on each stage.

Most Addictive Games On Facebook!

2011-01-06T23:40:00.000-08:00

Facebook is more than just a social network. Both the young and old are being glued to their computer screens or mobile phones, just being on Facebook. There are tons of applications and games on Facebook, and the games available can get you hooked for hours and hours! Here are the top 5 addictive games that Facebook users find simply irresistible. You will definitely have fun with these games.

1. Farmville

Farmville is considered to be the most addictive game on Facebook, topping the list with more than 50 million active users. Farmville is a simple game that will keep you coming back for more. As its name suggests, it’s all about farming. In this game by Zynga, you can plow land, plant vegetables, harvest crops and manage livestock. When you begin playing this game, you are given a virtual piece of land and some coins. You can proceed to earn more coins mainly by harvesting crops. You can also gain experience points when you plow land. You can interact with others on Facebook by inviting friends to be your neighbors. You can also send gifts to friends. So, if you live in a house that has no land for farming in real life, Farmville is the right game to give you that virtual experience you never had!

2. Texas HoldEm Poker

Next in line, for Facebook games that users enjoy most, is Texas HoldEm Poker by Zynga. If you like the thrill of betting, without having to risk losing real money, Texas HoldEm Poker can definitely satisfy you. When playing the most popular poker game in the United States of America, your aim is to come up with the best 5 card groupings. All you need to get started on this game is another player. Two cards are dealt to each player, and the round of betting begins. When it’s your turn to bet, you have four choices – to Fold, Check, Call or Raise. At the end of the game, the person who has the best five cards combination wins the game. This poker game is highly addictive, so beware before you start!

3. FrontierVille

FrontierVille is another extremely popular game by Zynga. Similar to Farmville, this role playing game has to do with livestock, experience points and coins. The difference is, it allows you to become an American Old West pioneer. In FrontierVille, you can plant trees, harvest crops, build inns, clear land, create furniture and get rid of pests. You can purchase energy, which is highly essential in this game. You can also buy animals. What’s more interesting, in this game you can also have a spouse and children, and give them tasks to complete. As with Farmville, you can give gifts to friends and use FrontierVille to interact with others on Facebook.

4. Mafia Wars

Mafia Wars is another very popular game on Facebook. Yet another game created by Zynga, Mafia Wars records almost 7 million users every day. The goal of this game is to create a criminal empire. Just like other games, Mafia Wars also requires experience points to hire extra members and then perform more tasks. Mafia Wars is a game where players have limited energy and health stamina, so games are timed as you fight others. You gain more experience points by completing tasks and can proceed to the next level up. There are special tasks available, such as winning fights, which can win you a bonus. To add to your excitement, Mafia Wars also has special events in it, such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

5. Café World

Yet one more very addictive game on Facebook is Café World. Having about 19 million active users, Café World will not take you by surprise if you are already crazy about Farmville and Mafia Wars. Sharing similarities with the other games created by Zynga, this new addition to the family brings you through many levels. In Café World, you become the owner of the café. As the cook of Café World, you decide what dishes you want to cook with the stoves given to you. You can go on to purchase additional stoves when you have more money. You can customize how your café looks and plan your cooking. You can change the way your avatar looks, as well as the attire of your chefs. All in all, this is a very appealing game that makes you really feel like you own a café. There are a huge number of games available on Facebook, and they will continue to increase to satisfy the craving of online gamers. But as of now, these are the top 5 addictive games on Facebook. Have fun, and here’s to many hours of excitement and pleasure for you!

HOW TO: Vote For Julian Assange — TIME’s 2010 Person Of The Year

2010-12-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) is an annual issue of the United States news magazine Time that features and profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that “for better or for worse, …has done the most to influence the events of the year.”Julian Paul Assange is an Australian journalist, publisher and Internet activist. He is best known as the spokesperson and editor in chief for WiikiLeaks, an international new media non-profit organization that publishes submissions of otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous news sources and leaks (Details via Wikipedia).

Earlier WikiLeaks, faced lots of problems, lost support from PayPal, got their DNS stopped, they are countless indeed, but still Wikileaks is in command. If you believe Wikileaks is a powerful tool publishing useful sources and Julian Assange needs a hike for this, you can choose him as TIME’s 2010 Person Of The Year.

#1 – Go to Time Magazine’s Website and find Julian Assange’s profile or use this direct link instead.

#2 – You can find this voting slider, use the slider to rate influence and you can pick slider values 1 – 50 – 100, which goes from less influential to most influential. Choose a value and enter the CAPTCHA to vote.

After voting, the slider shows this :

You can post your vote to Facebook and Twitter to let others know about it. You can also ‘Like’ that page and get notified on Facebook when Person of the Year 2010 is announced.

Excerpts from Time website,

He is a new kind of whistle-blower: one made for the digital age. Those before him (like Daniel Ellsberg) were limited in the ways they could go public with their information. But in founding WikiLeaks.org, Julian Assange gave himself the freedom to publish virtually anything he wants, whether it’s the true nature of Iraqi prisoner abuse, the double role Pakistan plays in Afghanistan or the personal e-mails of Sarah Palin. Assange’s site, which he started four years ago, has made public a trove of secret and classified documents — close to 500,000 pages on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars alone.

The Long & Short of Writing for the WebThe Long & Short of Writing for the Web!

2010-11-29T07:30:00.000-08:00

Recently I was reading a list of copy writing guidelines on how to make web pages attract and keep a reader’s attention. The list contained familiar items you’ve probably seen before: write a catchy headline, talk benefits vs features, and focus on a single message instead of many.

One recommendation, however, rang false to me: keep your text short. The author recommends this because “People don’t read on the Web”. Instead, the author claimed, they “scan” text instead.

There are several problems with this assumption, however. First, people do actually read on the Web…scanning is simply the first step in the process. Second, short text can be just as poorly written as long text (and often is). Third, people actually seek out and enjoy reading longer texts.

People Scan First, then Read

The fact that people scan when on the Web has little to do with length of text. The act of scanning, or glancing through and quickly examining headlines, subheadlines and other emphasized text, is not a substitute for reading: it’s merely the first step of reading. People scan quickly to find the good stuff…it’s the most efficient way to find it.

Despite feeling overwhelmed people are incredibly efficient at finding information. Once the scanning bears fruit and we find a headline delivering the promise they’re looking for, we slow down and begin reading word for word for more detail. We dive in. We might not read long…only long enough to find an answer…but we are “reading” at this point. And if the piece is longer, such as a piece from a newspaper or magazine, people will read all of it. It’s not so much that people don’t read, it’s that we start by scanning large amounts of information for the good stuff. Then, and only then, do we dive in and read.

Text Length doesn’t Equal Quality

For a bad writer short copy is easier to write than long copy. They simply stop writing sooner. All things equal short text is preferable, but since when are all things equal? It is important how short text gets short. If text is kept short merely to stay within the guideline, chances are it doesn’t do all that it needs to do. But if text is short as the result of careful writing and revision, with a strict adherence to saying all that is necessary as briefly as possible, then your text won’t just be short, it will also be good. (and thus read)

Short copy shouldn’t be a goal, it should be an ideal. Like Einstein’s famous quip “make it as simple as possible, but not simpler”, in writing we want to “write as concisely as possible, but don’t leave anything out”.

People Enjoy Longer Texts

Finally, people often enjoy longer texts. Given the choice between a well-written short piece of text and a well-written longer piece of text, many would choose the longer version because it naturally has more of what the reader wants to know. It answers more questions. It goes in depth and provides context and detail. People who are interested, truly interested in a topic will read everything they can about it. How often do you hear people say things like Sunday is my time to sit down with the paper (or an iPad) and read what I didn’t have time to read before?

Additionally, e-readers like the Kindle, the Nook, and the iPad are exploding in use, while services like Instapaper also suggest that people desire to read longer texts with less distraction. In this way longer text can become a powerful differentiator…if you are telling an interesting story and your competitor isn’t then you’ve got an upper hand.

In conclusion, explaining people’s behavior on the web as simply “scanning” is too simplistic. Short text can be as poorly written as long text, and in some cases short text is less desirable than longer, well-written text.

Writing well often means writing short text. But writing short text doesn’t mean you’re writing well.

Secrets of Simplicity: rules for being simple and usable

2010-10-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

Secrets of Simplicity: rules for being simple and usable

View more presentations from cxpartners.

Social Media Evolution in India 2005 - 2010

2010-10-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

Social Media Evolution in India 2005 - 2010

How to Configure Pidgin for Google Talk for Windows

2010-09-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

1. Open Pidgin.

2. Go to Accounts tab, Choose "Manage Accounts" and then select the "Add" option. The Add Account

window will appear with several fields requiring information. In the "Protocol" drop-down box, choose XMPP.

3. Type your Google Talk username on the "Screen Name" field. Make sure you do not include the domain name. As an example, if your username is Alexandra@gmail.com, just type in Alexandra. As for the "Server," input the domain name, gmail.com. Enter your Google Talk password in the "Password" field and leave the "Local Alias" field blank. Check the boxes for remembering the password and new email notifications if you want to have these options.

4. Click on "Advanced" tab if you are using a proxy server that is preventing you from accessing Pidgin in your computer.

5. Check the "Force old port" box and uncheck the box below it that says "Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams."

6. In the "Connect port" field, type 443.

7. Type "talk.google.com" in the Connect Server box.

8. Input the protocol and proxy settings in the "Proxy type" field. If you
don't know these settings, select "Use Global Proxy Settings."

9. Save your settings.

GoDaddy.com On Sale!

2010-09-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

GoDaddy is probably the king of domain registrations and hosting solutions with it being the registrant of a significant percentage of registered domains. Now the big daddy of domain registration, e-commerce and hosting services has put itself up on sale for a staggering $1 billion.

According to WSJ, GoDaddy is up on the block for a cool sum of $1 billion. GoDaddy, which heavily advertises raunchy advertisements, specially during the Super Bowl posted revenue between $750 and $800 million in 2009 and is by far the biggest domain registrant and service provider for websites.

GoDaddy.com currently handles about 43 million domain registrations, the sale for Go Daddy Group Inc will be handled by Qatalyst Partners. GoDaddy has been known to provide steep discounts on domain registration including 99 cent domain deals to lure customers towards them. However, it would be interesting to see who they lure with the $1 billion price tag.

Change Your Facebook Profile Layout With PageRage

2010-09-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

The recent Facebook design update has generated a lot of negative feedback from users who do not like the new layouts. If you are one of the people who did not like the new Layout, PageRage provides the much needed option to change the look and feel of your profile page with tons of new layouts.

To customize your layouts you will need to add the PageRage application to your profile and select from the wide range of layouts for your profile. There is slight catch though, you will need to install and use Yontoo a layer technology that allows you to change the look and feel of any web page before you can see the new layout. The profile will not be visible to you unless you install the additional add-on.

Yontoo only supports Firefox and Internet Explorer for now, so if you are using a browser like Opera or Google Chrome the layouts will not be visible to you. Go ahead and apply some new layouts to your Facebook profile, so share the profiles you choose with us.

Visit PageRage

Courtesy: Techie Buzz

15 Google Chrome Extensions Worth Installing

2010-09-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

Google Chrome has been cited as being the greatest browser since Firefox, and it has even more of a claim to fame now that it offers free extensions. Unlike the Firefox add-on typical measurement of value, “is it worth the slowdown?”, Chrome extensions offer convenience with fast page renders, regardless of the platform or the number of other extensions currently attempting to load. This article showcases fifteen extensions that all users should consider Installing.

1. Google Mail Checker: This is a self-explanatory extension. Click it to open Gmail when it notifies you of an unread message.

2. RSS Subscription Extension: This extension detects when there is an RSS feed that can be subscribed to, indicating such by placing an icon into the address bar. Clicking it will deliver the feed.

3. Xmarks: This extension will effectively allow Xmarks users to tie Chrome into their account, which allows bookmarks to be seamlessly shared across Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

4. iMacros for Chrome: iMacros, currently in beta, is a popular extension that allows you to record what you do with Chrome and therefore automate tasks. This extension is especially handy if you use a lot of sites and are constantly logging in and out of accounts.

5. Aviary Screen Capture: Instantly captures part of a Web page in a neat and convenient interface that is easy to use.

6. Picnik Extension: Similar to above, but there is the added option to select one image in particular from a drop down list of your captures.

7. FlashBlock: With another self-explanatory name, FlashBlock effectively blocks all of the flash on a Web page unless you specify that a certain domain may retain its functionality. This extension adds convenience with keyboard shortcuts.

8. AdThwart: As the name suggests, this extension effectively removes ads for your viewing pleasure.

9. AdSweep: This is quite similar to the aforementioned extension, except it sweeps away ads and does so using a different blacklist than its younger sibling extension. Mixed together, however, you can achieve great anti-advertisement viewing.

10. Brizzly: This extension is definitely a time saver, allowing users to quickly glance at their recent Facebook and Twitter updates. A simple click is all it takes, automatically streaming social updates with embedded videos and images included. It also offers the ability for the user to update their status as well.

11. Google Alerter: There exist some extensions to notify users of unread mail, new pings in Google Wave or Google Voice, but this extension is an all-in-one convenient package of uber Google checking. It will check Reader, Wave and Gmail for new, unvisited pings.

12. Chromium Delicious Plugin: Recent Delicious bookmarks can be easily saved and retrieved through this extension.

13. ChromeMilk: This extension is a handy to-do list for those who can’t ever seem to remember that they need to pick up the milk while they are out on the road. Pro members can get themselves a version for their iPhone so that they really don’t have any excuses.

14. LastPass: This is more of an extension for Xmarks, which is one of the aforementioned extensions. It allows passwords to seamlessly sync across multiple profiles and browser types.

15. Fittr Flickr: Flickr is a handy website on its own, but this extension adds new functionality, such as a lightbox style gallery, more photo information and the inclusion of keyboard shortcuts. If Flickr was great before, this extension makes it unbeatable.

——
Guest post by James Adams, who writes for an online ink supplies specialist located in Manchester, England. He covers newly launched, reviews products like the T0715 and, if he has enough free time, contributes posts about art and design for their blog.

Consumers are listening to Social Media…but are companies??

2010-09-02T14:23:00.000-07:00

New research from RightNow Technologies in the field of social media marketing shows that 23% of people have not used a company based on negative comments they have read on Social Networking sites about them.

The way Social Networking is these days it’s impossible to stop negative comments, that may be out there, being seen by others. However one of the perks of Social Media is that it enables others to talk about instead of you always talking about how good you are and builds a genuine and authentic view of your company.

However it is possible, with listening and monitoring to what is being said, to avert a problem such as this by responding and trying to resolve the issue. At least then people can see you are listening to what consumers are saying – even when it’s negative – and are willing to help where you can. And it would seem that’s what consumers wants.

The research also showed that 60% said they will welcome contact from a company after posting a negative comment on a Social Networking site. It’s better to be responded to than ignored altogether!

Interestingly the survey also found that 42% of those people who have boycotted a company after reading a negative comment about them were previously a customer of the company. This either suggests that they had previous issues with the company anyway or we are easily influenced by others.

Whilst we always say to our clients even if you don’t want to have a presence on Social Networking, consumers and potential consumers are on there and they just might be talking about you (negatively or positively) so you need to be listening to what is being said…otherwise you could be losing customers without even knowing it.

But from the words of Social media experts, if you’re product (or services) sucks, Social Media can’t fix it!

Download Fedora 13 DVD/CD ISO

2010-08-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

Fedora Linux version 13 has been released and available for download. Fedora Linux is a community-based Linux distribution. Fedora is sponsored by Red Hat, Inc. Fedora is considered as the second most popular distro, behind Ubuntu Linux.

Fedora 13 Desktop (image credit - the fedora project)

What's New In Fedora 13

The new features in Fedora 13 are:

Automatic print driver installation
Automatic language pack installation
Redesigned user account tool
Color management to calibrate monitors and scanners
Experimental 3D support for NVIDIA video cards
A new way to install Fedora over the Internet
SSSD authentication for users
Updates to NFS
Zarafa Open Source edition, a new open-source groupware suite
System rollback for the Btrfs file system
Better SystemTap probes
A Python 3 stack that can be installed parallel to an existing Python stack
Support for the entire Java EE 6 spec in Netbeans 6.8
2.6.33-based kernel in Fedora 13.
See release note for more information.

Fedora 13 Download

You can download Fedora Linux 13 via the web/ftp server or via BitTorrent (recommended).

32 bit vs 64 bit Fedora 13 Version

For almost all PCs select 32 bit version. For e.g., most machines with Intel/AMD/etc type processors. Good for desktop usage. Almost all multimedia plugins and software works with 32bit edition.
Choose 64 bit version to take full advantage of computers based on the AMD64 or EM64T architecture (e.g., Athlon64, Opteron, EM64T Xeon, Core 2 Due, Core 2 Quad, and so on). For servers and advanced feature such as hardware error detection, access to more than 4GB RAM and so on; use 64bit version.

Fedora 13 DVD ISO download

Visit mirror to download Fedora ISO image 32 bit i386 DVD ISO (3.1 GB)
Visit mirror to download Fedora ISO images 64 bit DVD ISO (3.4 GB)

Fedora download: Fedora 13 CD ISO download

There are total 5 ISO images (5 CDs):

See complete list of torrents here .

Fedora Linux 13 Download Mirrors

Please see Fedora mirror download and release page for further information.

Play Google Pacman Whenever You Want!

2010-05-24T10:15:00.001-07:00

A few days ago, Google featured a new Doodle on their search page to celebrate the 30 year birthday of Pacman. Unlike other Google Doodles, this one was actually a real game that you could play right on the search page.

Lots of people enjoyed playing the game and lots more people were annoyed at the game sounds that played when the page loaded. Those who enjoyed playing the game might have been disappointed to see that it is now gone from the Google search page.

Earlier today, I saw a post on Killertechtips.com which told me how I could download a copy of the Google Pacman page. I wasn't satisfied with a downloaded copy and I decided to look around for the original page and after a few minutes, I found it.

The new permanent home for Google's Pacman is:

http://www.google.com/pacman/

Now there's no need to download a copy of it. All you have to do is bookmark the page. You can even set this page as your default search engine if you really enjoy it.

If you still want to download a copy of this game, just go to the link above and use the "Save As" menu in your web browser to save a copy of the page.

Here are three tips for playing the game:

It can now be muted by clicking the sound icon on the left corner of the game board.
You can play a two player game by clicking the "Insert Coin" button under the search box.
You can easily resize the game by holding down a CTRL key and scrolling your mouse wheel.

Many people think that this is the best Google Doodle ever made. What do you think?

22 Ways to generate traffic to your Blog/Website.

2010-05-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

I have observed that driving traffic to a blog is once of the most innate desire of every blogger or one who owns a website. Although the process can be really tricky, but if taken seriously and meticulously, it can certainly bring about lot of traffic and hence the revenue!

So, in response, here are 22 ways to generate traffic to your blog:

1. Article Marketing.

2. Forum Marketing.

3. Google, Yahoo, and AOL Group.

4. Viral Marketing - Giveaways & Bonuses.

5. Squidoo.

6. Social Bookmaking sites.

7. Social media sites.

8. BUM Marketing.

9. Viral Videos at Youtube.com

10. Press Releases.

11. Post regularly.

12. Submit your posts to social media sites.

13. Submit to My Yahoo!

14. Submit to Google's Reader.

15. Ping your post to ping sites such as ping-o-matic.

16. Submit your blog to web directories such as DMOZ.

17. Submit your blog RSS feeds to as many RSS Directories as possible.

18. Submit your blog to Search Engines.

19. Comment on other Blogs.

20. Participate in Forums(Leave a Link there).

21. Submit to Social bookmaking sites.

22. Submit your blog to blog directories.

These are few of the sources and techniques I could find on the web with little bit of googling and research.

PS: Anything which have been missed, can be mentioned in the comments!

aPAD: Cloned iPad from China!

2010-05-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

China is known for its clones of popular technologies, generally just like the real thing, but usually of lower quality or functionality.

However, one of its iPad clones--dubbed the APad--seems to be a product worth looking into. Of course, it looks the same as the iPad and has all of the same features, but Apad has some things that the iPad was criticized for not having: a camera, for one. The APad also features a USB port and memory card expansion slot. It also runs on Google's Android system. In short, more features and functionality for half the price of the real thing.

This proposition seems interesting: A cloned iPad for 50% off the price of a regular iPad. That’s $249 for a fully functional iPad. I can’t wait. :P

Defending The Javascript Hack in Facebook Album.

2010-04-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

Protect Facebook Private Photos and Albums from Being Viewed by Anyone Using Javascript Hack

If you have just created a new Facebook account, by default the Facebook users that are not your friend would not be able to view your Facebook profile. They would see a message that says “Vikas Mishra only shares some of his profile information with everyone. If you know Vikas Mishra, send him a message or add him as a friend.” Since people couldn’t even see anything on your profile unless they are your friend, logically they can’t see your private photos or albums too right? Only half right…

There is one working javascript hack that has been discovered more than a month ago which allows anyone to view Facebook private photo and album without being in the friend list. All the user needs to do is login to their Facebook account first, then go to the main user profile page and paste the javascript below at the address bar and hit enter.

javascript:(function(){CSS.removeClass(document.body,%20'profile_two_columns'); tab_controller.changePage("photos");})()

When it works, it shows the Facebook album photos instantly and if not, you get the error message “There are no photos to display. Photos of Raymond may not have been tagged, or may not be visible due to privacy.” I have done more tests and found that this is caused by a privacy setting in Facebook allowing “EVERYONE” to view photos and videos of the user.

Fortunately there is a fix to protect your privacy and prevent anyone from viewing your private album photos in Facebook. Simply follow the steps below on how to configure a more strict privacy setting for your Facebook profile.

1. Login to your Facebook account
2. Click on Account at the top right and select Privacy Settings
3. Click on Profile Information
4. Select either Only Friends or Friends of Friends for Photos and Videos of Me.

To me, this does seemed like a bug and Facebook should definitely fix it. Even if the user did configure that everyone can view their album/photo, but if their profile is set to private, the same should happen for the album photos too. Found any friend that didn’t have their photo protected? Let them know about it while waiting for Facebook fix the bug.

KDE SC 4.4.2 arrives with various bug fixes

2010-03-31T16:47:00.000-07:00

The KDE developers have released version 4.4.2 of the KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC), the latest bug fix release for the popular Linux desktop. In addition to several translation updates and stability improvements, the second KDE 4.4 update addresses a number of issues found in the previous 4.4.1 release.

KDE SC 4.4.2 features fixes for the Plasma desktop environment, the KDE User Interface Library (kdeui) and the Dolphin file manager. Other changes include updates for the Okular document viewer, KAlarm and the JuK audio player.

More details about the release can be found in the change log and KDE 4.4.2 Info Page. Source packages for self-compilation and binary packages for various Linux distributions are available to download from the project's website. The next point update to KDE 4.4, version 4.4.3, is scheduled to arrive on the 4th of May, 2010.

KDE is licensed under a combination of the LGPLv2, BSD, MIT and X11 licenses for core libraries and the GPLv2 or GPLv3 for applications. At the time of writing an official announcement about the update, had yet to be made.

Update: The developers have now officially announced the release of KDE SC 4.4.2, code named "Colibri".

Lubuntu Desktop Project

2010-03-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

The objective of the Lubuntu project is to create a variant of Ubuntu that uses LXDE, The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment, as its default GUI. The ultimate goal of the Lubuntu project is to earn official endorsement from Canonical.

Members of the Lubuntu team take care of LXDE and other packages that are part of the planned Lubuntu install. You can join the Lubuntu Team and contribute to creating a lighter, less resource-hungry and more energy-efficient flavour of Ubuntu.

They look forward to work together with volunteer developers on a truly international and inspiring Free and Open Source Software project! More info also on http://lubuntu.net

How To Restore Grub In Ubuntu

2010-03-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

If you install a dual boot of Windows on your Ubuntu machine, you may find that your Grub bootloader are wiped out and you can’t boot into any of your OS. If this is the case, the only way is to restore Grub back in your Ubuntu system.

Restoration of Grub is very easy. All you need is the Ubuntu Live CD (you should already have it if you install Ubuntu).

Boot up your live CD
In the desktop, open terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal).

sudo grub

This will set it to grub mode

find /boot/grub/stage1

This will locate your boot partition. If you already know the location, you can ignore this step.

root (hd0,0)

Replace the (hd0,0) by your boot partition number. If your Ubuntu is installed in the second partition, then change it to (hd0,1)

setup (hd0)
quit

Reboot your system. You should be able to access the Grub bootloader now.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1 released

2010-03-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the first beta release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) Desktop, Server, and Netbook editions and of Ubuntu 10.04 Server for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) and Amazon’s EC2. Codenamed "Lucid Lynx", 10.04 LTS continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop and Netbook Editions continue the trend of ever-faster boot speeds, with improved startup times and a streamlined, smoother boot experience.

The Ubuntu 10.04 family of variants, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and Mythbuntu, also reach beta status today.

Desktop features
————————

Social from the start: We now feature built-in integration with Twitter, identi.ca, Facebook, and other social networks with the MeMenu in the panel.

New Design: Cleaner and faster boot, new notification area, new themes, new icons, and new wallpaper bring a dramatically updated look and feel to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu One: Choose any folder in your home directory to sync, choose from millions of songs for purchase in the Ubuntu One Music store. Watch http://one.ubuntu.com/blog for the launch of the Ubuntu One Music Store public beta.

Please see http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/beta1 for details.

Server features
———————-

Cloud computing: The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud installer has been vastly improved in order to support alternative installation topologies. UEC components are now automatically discovered and registered, even with complex topologies. Finally, UEC is now powered by Eucalyptus 1.6.2 codebase.

UEC and EC2: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS continues the tradition of official Ubuntu Server image releases for UEC and for Amazon’s EC2, giving you everything you need for rapid deployment of Ubuntu instances in a cloud computing environment. UEC images, and information on running Ubuntu 10.04 on EC2, are available at:

http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/10.04/beta1

Stability and security: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS brings many improvements over Ubuntu 8.04 LTS to keep your servers safe and secure for the next five years, including AppArmor profiles for many key services, kernel hardening, and an easy-to-configure firewall.

Ubuntu Netbook features
———————————-
Ubuntu Netbook Edition is optimised to run on Intel atom based netbooks. It includes a new consumer-friendly interface that allows users to quickly and easily get on-line and use their favourite applications. This interface is optimised for a retail sales environment.

It includes the same faster boot times and improved boot experience as Ubuntu desktop.

Kubuntu features
————————

Kubuntu 10.04 LTS will be the first LTS to feature KDE 4 Platform and Applications. KDE 4 has come a long way since its early releases and is now suitable for the high demands of LTS users. Being an LTS we have focused on bug fixing and stability for this release, but we did find time to add features such as touchpad configuration, Firefox KDE integration, Kubuntu notification improvements, and cross-desktop systray menu standardisation. Kubuntu features the Plasma Desktop while Kubuntu Netbook Remix comes out of preview status with the Plasma Netbook workspace.

See https://wiki.kubuntu.org/LucidLynx/Beta1/Kubuntu for more details.

Edubuntu features
————————-

Edubuntu in Lucid features a more complete live environment containing more software from universe and all existing language packs as well as our usual educational software in their current version. For Lucid the text installer has been removed and so is LTSP for the time being. We expect to have LTSP back on the DVD for the next beta. The DVD is then much smaller than it used to be but will still provide a complete education environment based on Ubuntu Lucid.

Also included on the Edubuntu DVD is a small repository containing the required packages to transform the regular Edubuntu desktop into a LTSP server or install the Netbook edition interface.

Mythbuntu features
—————————

Mythbuntu 10.04 introduces MythTV 0.23. This new version is significantly faster and should feel more responsive and stable than older versions. It also integrates better into the OS with better support for things like ConsoleKit and Upstart.

Please see http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Release_Notes_-_0.23 for more details about changes introduced in 0.23.

See http://mythbuntu.org/10.04/beta for information about the Mythbuntu beta release.

Other
——-

* On the Desktop: GNOME 2.30, KDE SC 4.4, XFCE 4.6.1, OpenOffice.org 3.2.0, X.Org server 1.7.5

* On the Server: Apache 2.2, PostgreSQL 8.4, PHP 5.3.1, LTSP 5.2

* "Under the hood": GCC 4.4.3, eglibc 2.11, Linux 2.6.32.9, Python 2.6.5

The full release notes can be found athttp://www.ubuntu.com/testing/karmic/beta1

About Ubuntu
——————

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, and servers, with a fast and easy installation and regular releases. A tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included, and an incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks away.

Professional technical support is available from Canonical Limited and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about support, visithttp://www.ubuntu.com/support

To Get Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1
———————————————

To upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1 from Ubuntu 9.10 or Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, follow these instructions:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LucidUpgrades

Or, download Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1 here (choose the mirror closest to you):

Africa:

* http://ubuntu.saix.net/ubuntu-releases/10.04 (South Africa)

Asia:

* http://mirror.rootguide.org/ubuntu-releases/10.04 (China)

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but are not sure, first try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel on FreeNode, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

More Information
————————

You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this preview release on our website, IRC channel and wiki. If you are new to Ubuntu, please visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu’s very low volume announcement list at:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

[Discuss Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1 on the Forum]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-announce mailing list

Author Introduction!

2010-03-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

This post out of nowhere, is just a formal introduction to the readers of this blog, if in case, also due to the off-league name, looks like search engine find it difficult to index this blog, so this was, to some extent necessary, please bear with it. :)

Hii Techies!

My name is Vikas mishra cybernazi, I maintain this TechBlog. An Software engineer by qualification and a ethical hacker by Passion.
My interests include Open Source, Free Software, Object Oriented Programming , Web Scripting, Social Entrepreneurship etc. I enjoy exploring Linux and writing about it. To know more about me visit my home page.

Tech Blog:
www.cybernazi.co.cc
www.vaagmi.com

Linux Blog:
http://cybernazi-linuxfreak.blogspot.com/

Personal Blog:
http://defaultview.blogspot.com/

Follow My Tweets at:
http://twitter.com/cybernazi

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/vikasmishra007

Adobe's response to Steve Jobs' regarding Flash on ipad .

2010-03-13T07:16:00.000-08:00

Why won't the ipad have Adobe Flash technology? Anup Murarka director of technology strategy and partner development for the Adobe Flash platform and Aaron Filner, group product manager of Flash platform, focusing on AIR, answer some of the reasons why Steve Jobs doesn't put Adobe Flash onto the ipad. Things like:
1. It will chew up battery.
2. It will crash or be buggy.
3. It doesn't work with touch interfaces.
4. It won't perform well enough.
They take on each of these complaints about Adobe Flash and explain what has changed with the Flash 10.1 player.

Cool features in Fedora 13, Goddard

2010-03-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

Recently, I have been a little out of touch with Fedora news. With the release of Fedora 13 alpha, I finally got a chance to get back to work. Went through the list of new additions in Fedora 13 alpha and as expected, Goddard has some really cool new features. I have jotted down some of my favourites in this article.
boot.fedoraproject.org

boot.fedoraproject.org (BFO) is one of the unique features in Fedora. This effort by Fedora community hopes to completely remove DVD installations in long term. It allows users to download a single, tiny image and install current and future versions of Fedora without having to download additional images.

This method is similar to Pxeboot, can also be considered as a Fedora branded version of boot.kernel.org.

System Rollback feature with Btrfs

Btrfs lets you take light weight snapshots of the filesystem which can be mounted or booted into selectively. This means, before doing something crazy with your sytem, you can easily take a snapshot of the partition and in case something bad happens, just boot into the older snapshot.

In Fedora 13, codenamed Goddard, if you have selected one or more partitions as btrfs, then it will automatically create new snapshots with every yum operation. You will also be allowed to select which snapshot to boot into. This is indeed an amazing addition.

Design Suite Spin, to make Fedora look even better

This suite will contain all the required applications targeted at designers. Here is a list of the applications that are going to be included.

The Fedora Design Suite includes well-selected applications, fitting a variety of use cases. Whether you decide to work on publishing documents, creating images and pictures or even 3D content, the Design Suite has a fitting tool.

Network Manager finally has a Command Line

I have always been a command line fan but when it comes to managing multiple network connections(including wireless), I always ended up using Network Manager, wondering if they will ever add a command line support. I am sure this added support would have brought a smile on all of the CLI junkies like me .

Zarafa, a complete Open Source groupware suite is now available in Goddard

Zarafa is an open source groupware suite that can be used as a drop-in Exchange replacement for Web-based mail, calendaring, collaboration and tasks. Features include IMAP/POP and iCal/CalDAV capabilities, native mobile phone support, the ability to integrate with existing Linux mail servers, a full set of programming interfaces, and a comfortable look and feel using modern Ajax technologies.

NFSv4

NFSv4 aims to offer increase performance and seamless transition for the end-user. Fedora is the only distro till now using it.

You might want to check out some other Fedora spins coming out with Fedora 13, Goddard.

A whole list of the main, new features in Fedora 13 can be found here.

Post Courtesy: http://linuxers.org/

How To Import Blog Post Into Facebook Automatically

2010-03-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

It has become a growing trend whereby bloggers and website owners use Facebook’s multi-functional platform to spread their new articles over a wide array of readers. The application I am going to talk about today would be the built-in “Notes” application.

Facebook Notes in Detail

Facebook Notes, from what I can perceive is actually a mini blog for Facebook users. I have seen many friends posting their own Notes before, emotional Notes usually. The use of Facebook Notes does not just stop there.

Stretching further we have the “Import an External Blog” function. That is the function you can use to synchronize your website (blog) articles to Facebook Notes.

How does Import External Blog work?

FB Notes will be notified as your RSS feed is updated. It reproduces another a copy of your article and post it on your FB News Feed. However, the setback for this function is that you will not have hits to your blog because your readers actually read your article on Facebook.

I personally think having more readers to read your article on many platforms is better than limiting reader’s access to your articles only on your website.

How To Do It

As you can see at the bottom of the Facebook user interface, you can see the Application Bar, or whatever it is called. Let’s call it application bar for the time being.

At the most bottom left there is a button named Application. Click on that you will see the past application you have used before and the lot. Look for the application calledNotes that has an icon of a notepad.

On next page, you will get to see all of your friend’s notes. On the right panel, there is this Notes Settings.

If you want to start writing notes right away, you could just click on the Write a New Note located at the top of Notes Settings. Otherwise, click on the Import a blog link.

Next you will see a textbox where you get to type in your RSS feed address.

Type in your RSS feed address, tick the disclaimer and import away.

Owning a Web Domain-made easier than ever!

2010-03-03T14:34:00.000-08:00

If you have a website, especially something that serves for business purposes, I’m sure you’re aware how costly it could be. You’ll have to spend some for domain name registration and for a hosting account. Not to mention the price that you’ll have to pay for a designer or developer if you don’t know much of the technical stuff in setting up a website. Here’s a really nice deal for those who would like to cut the expenses down and probably have more funds to allot for marketing and promoting your website.

Doteasy is one the best domain name registrars right now. And not only that, they also provide web hosting packages from free to unlimited hosting depending on what you need for your website. With over 160,000 domain users, they are giving away a great discount with their domain name registrations services. You can now register any domain name like .com, .net, or .org for only $7.95 (375 INR). And with this, you already get a free hosting package.

With their free web hosting plan, you get to use a lot of free stuff provided by them such as web tools and applications to help you get your website to function as intended. They have a great email feature as well. Aside from that, they also guarantee 99.9% uptime and no ads on your site, which most free web hosts can’t do. To take advantage of this really nice offer, just use the coupon code 1003BPM when registering.

And if you the free hosting plan isn’t enough for your growing website, then you can try out their unlimited web hosting which only costs $9.95 (around 450 INR) per month. If you’re seriously running a business, this is definitely a good way to start things up and with less risk.

Courtesy: Ahmike

Amazing Boot Time of 1 Sec in LINUX.

2010-03-03T14:21:00.000-08:00

Impressed by the 7 second boot time of Chrome OS? Then this will blow you away!

The great thing about Linux is that due to its open source nature, it can be pushed to further limits than a closed source OS. It can be designed to work with extremely constrained resources, and its modular nature means that you can get away with removing a lot of features without affecting its working. It can be pushed to work in mere kilobytes of RAM, or on computers of a mere 20MHz, and now it has been shown to boot in under a second.

People are generally less forgiving of long boot times for their devices than they are for their PCs. While a 3 to 4 minute boot time on a PC is merely annoying, on a PMP, it is a intolerable. MPC Data Limited provide the service of optimizing embedded systems to achieve a boot time of under 1 second in many cases.

In a video demonstration, they show a small Linux-based appliance which, in under one second, boots Linux, and loads an application which displays the video feed from a camera on an LCD screen. The appliance can take pictures and allows you to browse through them. A rather simple example:

It is no surprise that a majority of the smartphone OSs today are based on Linux, webOS by Palm, Maemo by Nokia, Bada by Samsung, and Android by Google. Even iPhone OS by Apple is based on UNIX, although it is closed source. 2009 was the year of Linux on smartphones, and it seems 2010 won't let down either.

Courtesy: Thinkdigit

Google fixes Buzz-Bugg!

2010-02-17T16:24:00.000-08:00

Google has fixed a Web flaw that gave hackers a way to take control of Google Buzz accounts.
The flaw was patched late Tuesday, just hours after being disclosed on a Web-hacking blog run by Robert Hansen, CEO of SecTheory.

The bug lay in the m.google.com domain used by Google Buzz for mobile, and could have been exploited by hackers to manipulate other people's Google Buzz accounts. This type of flaw, known as a cross-site scripting error, is common, but it can have nasty consequences on widely used sites such as Google. In addition to taking control of Buzz accounts, scammers could have leveraged the flaw to create hard-to-detect phishing pages that used the Google.com Web domain.

In a Wednesday e-mail message confirming that the bug had been patched, Google spokesman Jay Nancarrow said that the company has "no indication that the vulnerability was actively abused."

Launched just last week, Google Buzz has had a rough rollout. Over the weekend, Google was forced to make changes to the service after users complained that it exposed potentially private information by automatically publishing lists of users' closest Gmail contacts.

Integrate Facebook, Twitter, and Buzz into Your Gmail

2010-02-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

With over 9 million posts and comments in two days, Google Buzz has stormed the web like a swarm of locusts. An array of strong features, integration with Gmail, and lots of press have turned Buzz into an overnight phenomenon.

If you’re like a lot of us, you’ve suddenly found yourself using your Gmail even more than you already were. Spending so much time in Gmail and Buzz though inevitably takes away from your Facebook and Twitter, and who wants to sacrifice their tweeting and facebooking?

The Solution for Central integration of all these microblogging platform gives you all the way more flexible options for firing more updates to your followers all the time, Here is how you do it:

1. Activate “Add any gadget by URL” in Gmail Labs — you’ll find it near the bottom of the list.

2. Now go to Settings –> Gadgets. Here you’ll find a place to add Gadget URLs.

3. Add the TwitterGadget App. Any iGoogle gadget will do actually, but the best one in my opinion is TwitterGadget, a fully-functional Twitter service for iGoogle and Gmail. This lets tweet from the sidebar or open up your Twitter with all of your tabs intact. It even supports multiple accounts.

To add it, copy and paste this URL into Gmail’s Gadget settings:

“https://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml”

4. Add the Facebook Gadget. In the same way you added TwitterGadget, you can add Facebook to your Gmail. While Google has an official Facebook gadget, it doesn’t play nicely with Gmail, so we suggest using the app Ari Milner users: Facebook Gadget by iBruno. It will expand into the rest of your Gmail for easy Facebook management.

To add it, copy and paste this URL into Gmail’s Gadget settings:

“http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104971404861070329537/facebook.xml”

5. That’s it! Google Buzz, Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail are now all wrapped up into one. Pretty nifty, no?

The Google Nexus One vs iPhone 3GS

2010-01-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

When Google announced that it was building its own smartphone with the help of the folks at HTC, it was a no-brainer that the phone would try to improve upon the iPhone. Now that Google has revealed the Nexus One to the world, we can take a look at how the newest Android-based smartphone compares to the iPhone.

Google Nexus One vs iPhone: Under the Hood

The Google Nexus One runs on a super fast 1 GHZ snapdragon processor, which makes it the fastest smartphone currently on the market. The Nexus one has 512 MB of RAM and also comes with a 4 GB Micro SD card that can be expanded to 32 GB.

In comparison, the iPhone 3GS runs at 600mhz and has 256 MB of RAM. It comes in 16GB and 32GB varieties.

Clearly, the Nexus One wins the raw speed test, which is not surprising. It would make little sense to come out a half year later and not use a faster processor. It should also be noted that with its processor speed and 512 MB RAM, the Nexus One should have little problem running multiple applications at once. Of course this power comes at a price, as TechCrunch notes that the Nexus One battery life is sub-par even compared to the iPhone.

Google Nexus One vs iPhone: Graphics and Camera

The Nexus One comes with a 3.7 inch display capable of delivering 800x480 graphics. Most desktop computers run at 1024x768, and while they are capable of much more than that, it is clear that smartphones are catching up fast. The Nexus One also has a 5 MP camera with auto-focus, flash and 2x digital zoom, and it is capable of recording video at 720x480 quality.

The iPhone has a 3.5 inch display and is capable of delivering 480x320 graphics. It has a 3 MP camera with auto-focus, but no flash. The video taken by the iPhone is at 640x480 resolution.

The Nexus One's superior camera isn't a surprise, but the 800x480 display is a nice feature to see on smartphones. While capable of higher resolution and running on a faster processor, the Nexus One will still have stiff competition from the iPhone is the graphics department. The iPhone uses the PowerVR SGX graphics chip, which is a quite capable chip, so we'll have to wait for speed tests. It should be noted that, currently, few applications for the iPhone really take advantage of this chipset.

Google Nexus One vs iPhone: Extras

Like the iPhone, the Google Nexus One has a proximity sensor, light sensor, accelerometer and a digital compass. Both phones use the touch screen for user input, but the Nexus One also has a trackball. Google's phone also has Haptic feedback, which provides tactile feedback to the user.

One additional feature of the Nexus One is the use of a second microphone to help with noise cancellation. This will not only help when speaking on the phone, but also when using voice controls.

The Nexus One also supports Google Voice and Google Maps Navigation, two great apps. But in the app department, the iPhone is the clear winner with a thriving market of well over 100,000 apps and over 3 billion apps downloaded. It will take a while before the Android market is able to match the iPhone app store.

Google Nexus One vs iPhone: Pricing

The Nexus One comes in at $70 cheaper with a $529 price tag compared to $599 for the 16 GB iPhone 3GS. The Nexus One will work on all networks, though currently it only supports T-Mobile. With a 2 year contract, the Nexus One runs $179 compared to $199 for the iPhone, which means you aren't getting as much of a price break from T-Mobile as AT&T offers for the iPhone 3GS.

It should also be noted that service on T-Mobile's network is slightly cheaper than with AT&T, so over the course of the contract, the Nexus One will come in several hundred dollars cheaper. The Nexus One should be offered on other carriers later this year.

Google Nexus One vs iPhone: Conclusion

There is little doubt that Google's new phone tops the market as the most powerful smartphone in the world. The fast processor, memory and excellent resolution combined with a quite capable camera make it the smartphone to beat. Android's web browser is also more capable than the iPhone's Safari browser, which is incapable of displaying Adobe Flash, and while it doesn't have nearly as many apps, it does support Google Voice and Google Maps Navigation.

The Google Nexus One

As an all-in-one device, it is a much closer race. The iPhone's app store is overflowing with thousands and thousands of cool applications, while the Android store is playing catch up.

Ultimately, the right phone for any given individual comes down to a matter of opinion and taste. The Nexus One is a very powerful device, but three months from now a new Android-based device will no doubt knock it off that mountain. And three months after that, the newest iPhone will match or beat the Nexus One's specifications. And three months after that, a new Android-based device will overtake the next iPhone as the biggest and baddest smartphone on the block.

That's the nature of technology. What the individual must weigh is whether the 100,000 apps on the iPhone's app store and the unique controls are more to their liking than the raw power, better voice quality, trackball and touch interface and apps like Google Voice give the Nexus One the edge.

Google Nexus One to get Flash

2010-01-09T11:24:00.000-08:00

As the hoopla surrounding Google’s launch of their first phone the Nexus One dies down, there is some great news on the horizon that wasn’t necessarily known at launch time.

And this news is good, real good.

The Nexus One and its operating system, Android 2.1 are going to be getting Flash 10.1 courtesy of Adobe, something Apple might want to take note of if they want to keep staying ahead of the curve.

Great news for current and upcoming Nexus One owners as this phone keeps looking better and better as the days go by.

Here is the demo Adobe released, enjoy:

Google goes for speed, security in Chrome OS

2009-11-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

Google released its Chrome operating system to the open-source community today and said it has designed the netbook OS to be faster, simpler and more secure than existing ones.

However, Google also made it clear that Chrome will not be able to replicate everything that other operating systems do. For example, Chrome OS will only run Web-hosted applications and its peripherals will have to comply with specific hardware reference designs. This means it will not even be able to run applications built for Google's own Android mobile operating system.

As such, when the first Chrome OS netbooks hit the market at the end of 2010, Google expects them to be "companion" devices whose owners will also have conventional PCs in their houses.

As such, it seems that the Linux-based Chrome OS will also require that end-users be very comfortable with cloud computing and its basic idea of keeping applications and their data stored in a vendor data center.

In exchange, Google is promising an operating system that it says will be exponentially faster at booting up and significantly more secure than conventional PC operating sytems like Microsoft's Windows and Apple's Mac OS.

Google is taking the right approach by narrowing the scope of the Chrome OS to netbook devices and Web applications, said Gartner analyst Ray Valdes. "It would be a mistake for Google to try to do a conventional operating system. That war was fought and won long ago, mostly," Valdes said.

To succeed, Chrome OS will have to revitalize the netbook market, which has been slowing down as conventional laptops get cheaper and the line between these two types of devices gets blurred, Valdes said. It will also be critical for hardware vendors to make a genuine commitment to the Chrome OS, and not just use it as a bargaining chip to get better Windows license prices from Microsoft, he said.

In a demo, Google officials showed a Chrome OS device booting up in seven seconds, and said they hope to make that even faster. The Chrome OS interface will be Google's Chrome browser and will be based on application tabs. Because Chrome OS doesn't need the usual OS software to support local applications and processes, it can run much faster.

Using LinkedIn to Your Advantage.

2009-11-22T05:41:00.000-08:00

Many readers asked me more or less the same question "how can I use LinkedIn to grow my business?".
There is no straight answer to this question, but I will share how I use LinkedIn. Maybe you can take one new tip away for your LinkedIn strategy.

First, you need to have a complete profile. Make sure that you have a professional picture of yourself. I see a lot of profiles with pictures that belong on profiles of MySpace and Facebook. LinkedIn is a business social networking site; your picture should reflect nothing less than business.

A complete work history and a list of all your skills is a must. Whoever reads your profile wants to know who you are from a business point of view. If you own a business, the key message of your business should be part of the description on your current position.
Don't be afraid to ask for recommendations. Recommendations are like a score cards; the quality of the recommendations is as important as the quantity. Here's another tip; you can selectively show recommendations. If you have a lot of recommendations, only showcase the very best ones and preferably from people that are either higher up in your job hierarchy or from clients, if you own a business. Recommendations from colleagues and friends are nice, but not very impressive for visitors who don't know you.
Here are a few tips on how to use LinkedIn to get an introduction to a key person in a company you want to get either a job opportunity or to gain a new business contact and/or client.
The new LinkedIn company search lets you search for specific companies. The same advanced search criteria as the person search are available. Once you found the company profile you were looking for, you can then see a list of the people who are employed at this company and how they are related to you from a LinkedIn network perspective.
If the person that you want to contact is no more than in your second level network, you could try an introduction via one of your first level contacts. This is possibly the most effective way to contact somebody you don't know, introductions through a mutual friend.
There's a good chance that this person is either on your third level network or not connected to you at all. In this case there is another approach available to you. You should read this person's profile carefully and seek out which group this person belongs to. LinkedIn allows you to contact fellow group members directly with no restrictions.
Maybe you belong to the same group. If not, join the group right away. LinkedIn has a limit of 50 groups you can belong to. To overcome this limit, you can temporarily drop one of your existing groups and join the group you want to contact this person. Later you can reverse this action.
Once you joined the group, you can contact the person you're interested to talk to. This is not an introduction via a friend; this is a direct email to a fellow group member. For this reason you should keep the first contact focused on the objectives of the group. Ask a question, comment on an article or a comment this person posted, find anything about this person you could refer to. Keep in mind that you contact this person to share common interest and not to start a sales pitch. Once you established a conversation, then you move on to your primary reason why you contacted this person in the first place.
I can't tell you how to do this, but you should always be respectful and be not too pushy. Don't sell yourself, but rather refer yourself or your product.
If you don't get the desired result with this person from this company, move on to the next contact from the LinkedIn list of company employees via the company search.
Yes, this is a lot of work. But the chances of a successful connection are much higher than traditional cold calling. It's up to you where you want to spend most of your time prospecting.

Google's New Programming Language Go!

2009-11-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

Google has released its new programming language, named “Go”. Google describes the Go as: A systems programming language expressive, concurrent, garbage-collected.

You can install the “go” from the Go language website and preview it for yourself..and mind it..Free!

Google’s Go is an open source programming language specially designed for users’ reliability and good functionality of programs. Google has open-sourced an experimental programming language that attempts to crossbreed a dynamic web-happy language like Python with a compiled language like C++.
Dubbed Go … Google says the language is type safe and memory safe, and it is specifically designed for building software that runs on multi-core machines. Systems and servers are written as lightweight processes called goroutines. Although Google says that Go is experimental, it’s still seen as a new and good language:)

The language, “Go” has also been criticized for some reasons, one for Google stealing the language created years ago by a developer and devoted a full book on it called, “Lets Go!”

More about the Google Go from http://golang.org

Google Releases Chrome OS.

2009-11-20T11:34:00.000-08:00

Google released its Chrome operating system to the open-source community on Thursday and said it has designed the netbook OS to be faster, simpler and more secure than existing ones. However, Google also made it clear that Chrome will not be able to replicate everything that other operating systems do. For example, Chrome OS will only run Web-hosted applications and its peripherals will have to comply with specific hardware reference designs. This means it will not even be able to run applications built for Google's own Android mobile operating system. As such, when the first Chrome OS net-books hit the market at the end of 2010, Google expects them to be "companion" devices whose owners will also have conventional PCs in their houses.

Source: Global Media

How do spammers send from my email address?

2009-11-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

This is absolutely a frequently-asked question, and not at all "greenhorn" (thanks to my handy thesaurus for that one). To answer it requires an understanding of SMTP -- the standard used for sending email between servers -- which stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

Like many "mature" Internet standards, SMTP was invented back in the days when the Internet was a kinder, gentler place. A time when there was no spam, and the only users of the network were experimental souls, with good karma, who were trusted by all the other users. Yes, there really was such a time!

Although SMTP has been enhanced quite a bit since then, many mail servers still operate with an assumption of trust. An evil spammer can pretend to be another mail server, connect to your mail server, and offer up a message that's not only addressed to you, but claims to have come from you as well! It's forgery, plain and simple; and forgery that's made simple by the implicit, blind trust that many mail servers have for each other.

In fact, the spammers can send messages that pretend to come from anybody -- that's one of the tricks in the phishers' toolbag, allowing them to forge messages "from" your bank. Not only that, but spammers can send email to your friends and business associates, while pretending to be you. Not good at all.

How to prevent the problem

The simple answer is that recipients need a spam filter that will detect and filter out those forged messages. (Well, I would say that, wouldn't I?)

There are also Internet standards that help other people's spam filters to detect forgeries of your email address. The main ones are SPF/SenderID and DomainKeys/DKIM. In simple terms, they allow you to publish information that tells a receiving email system whether a message "from" you is likely to be forged or not.

It's a good idea for email senders to support all these standards, to help prevent spammers forging your email addresses. First, your email administrator should publish an accurate SPF record for each domain you own. Second, your email system should sign all your outgoing email with DKIM. Talk to the people running your email system and ask them if they're doing both these things. (If they're not, ask them why and post their excuses below!)

For various reasons, the standards aren't 100% foolproof, but they're useful as part of the spam filtering process. I don't have enough space to go into much detail in this post, but if you'd like me to talk in more detail about this in the future, do please write in below.

No discussion of sender forgery would be complete without a mention of backscatter (or "outscatter") -- rogue auto-replies that go to the message's forged sender.

Source: www.ComputerWorld.com

Search Business : not suiting Microsoft

2009-11-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

Throughout its history, Microsoft has earned a reputation for tenacity when entering markets created, and initially dominated, by innovative start ups.

Competitors and observers have jeered when Microsoft put out a first basic product that didn't come close to matching the market leader's. But Microsoft has a history of stubbornly staying the course, refining its wares, investing in development, until gradually the products become strong enough to push out the competition.

That was the case with its Internet Explorer browser, its SQL Server database, its Exchange messaging server and its enterprise software applications.

But there is one market where Microsoft's doggedness has failed to pay off: search.

Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars since the late 1990s, Microsoft has been unable to deliver a search engine whose popularity matches the company's expectations.

Along the way, Microsoft has seen billions of dollars in search advertising revenue flow into the coffers of its hated rival Google, whose stranglehold on this market keeps growing stronger. The consequences of failing at search aren't limited to missed revenue opportunities. Rather, the inability of Microsoft, Yahoo and others to contain Google have let it grow into a powerhouse that is using its advertising riches to pursue broad ambitions that threaten to disrupt core Microsoft markets -- office productivity and collaboration software, PC and mobile operating systems, Web browsers, and consumer online services.

Now Microsoft is again trying to get search right. In late May, it launched the latest version of its search engine, which it named Bing, and is reportedly spending $100 million to promote it.

However, it's clear that while Bing isn't a fiasco, it also isn't a marvel with earth-shattering innovations capable of pulling the rug from under Google's feet.

Search-engine experts have praised some of its features as innovative, and Microsoft's downward trend in search market share has been reversed, albeit not dramatically.

"Bing offers a much better experience overall compared with its predecessor Live Search," said industry analyst Greg Sterling, from Sterling Market Intelligence.

"However, it doesn't seem like it will in the near term challenge Google in a significant way. It's not rocketing up to 25% or 30% of the market,"

n January 2005, Microsoft took the wraps off of a beta version of a consumer search engine it had spent two years building from scratch. For years, Microsoft had used Yahoo's search engine to power MSN Search.

The following year, Microsoft removed the beta label from the search engine, branded it with its new Live moniker and stopped using Yahoo's search engine for good.

Every time Microsoft talked about its search engine, it criticized Google, saying that Google's technology left much to be desired and that the search experience in general was frustrating and ineffective. At the same time, Microsoft promised that its search engine would offer vast improvements across the board.

Not much has changed in Microsoft's discourse, nor in the dynamics of the search market. When launching Bing this year, Microsoft called it a "decision engine" that would let consumers move "beyond search." That hasn't happened and Google still reigns.

Still, search industry experts point out that there are emerging areas in search that offer opportunities, such as mobile, which is nascent.

Another area is semantic search, whose promise of engines that understand the meaning of queries and of the Web pages they crawl remains unfulfilled because it's very hard to scale up. Microsoft acquired a semantic search company called Powerset, but it's clear that the Powerset technology isn't widely implemented in Bing.

Then there's the social-media space with sites like Facebook and Twitter, which have a lot of potentially valuable content for search engines. Twitter recently started collaborating with both Microsoft and Google to make its content easier to crawl and index on their search engines.

In the case of Facebook, Microsoft could have an edge, because the two companies have a technology and advertising partnership. In fact, Facebook announced plans to make it easier for Bing to crawl and index its public status updates, but not with Google.

In the meantime, one thing Microsoft can be counted on is to keep keeping on.

"Microsoft has gotten out of the starting gate with Bing and has proven it has the legs and the desire to run the whole race," said Gartner analyst Allen Weiner.

Now all that remains to be seen is whether Microsoft can make this a race worth watching.

Ubuntu 9.10 Released!

2009-10-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

The Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop and Server editions are released, Ubuntu 9.10 Server for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), and Ubuntu Netbook Remix, continuing Ubuntu's tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

Read more about the features of Ubuntu 9.10 in the following press releases:

Desktop edition http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-910
Server edition http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-910-server-edition

Ubuntu 9.10 will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers.
Users requiring a longer support lifetime on the server may choose to continue using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, with security support until 2013, rather than upgrading to 9.10.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/ReleaseLanguages/9.10

Ubuntu 9.10 is also the basis for new 9.10 releases of Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, UbuntuStudio, and Mythbuntu:

Kubuntu       http://kubuntu.org/news/9.10-release
Xubuntu http://xubuntu.org/news/9.10-release
Edubuntu     http://edubuntu.org/news/9.10-release
Mythbuntu         http://mythbuntu.org/9.10/release
      Ubuntu Studio https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/9.10release_notes

To download Ubuntu 9.10, or obtain CDs, visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Users of Ubuntu 9.04 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 9.10 via Update Manager. For further information about upgrading, see:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free of charge.

Find out what's new in this release with a graphical overview:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910overview

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren't sure, try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:

#ubuntu on irc.freenode.net
http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

Ubuntu 9.10 for ARM architectures
------------------------------

---

Ubuntu 9.10 is available for the ARM architecture. Users should only
download these images if they have access to ARM chipsets or devices, as
they will not run on Intel-based machines.

Install instructions and images can be found here:

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/arm

Helping Shape Ubuntu
--------------------

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways
you can participate at:

http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/

About Ubuntu
------------

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, netbooks and servers, with a fast and easy install and regular releases. A tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included, and an incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks away.
Professional services, including support, are available from Canonical Limited and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about support, visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/support

More Information
----------------

You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this release on our website:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's
very low volume announcement list at:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

--
ubuntu-announce mailing list
ubuntu-announce@lists.ubuntu.com
Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

PS: I have already downloaded the 32 bit version of Ubuntu 9.10, Will add to the GLOSS FTP by saturday !

Tweak your GTALK

2009-10-04T15:17:00.000-07:00

When we talk about Instant Messengers(IM), Gtalk emerges as the unanimous choice for everyone, This Chat engine, has over time added many features for the ease of users of various ages and profession, be it voice, privacy and other tweak features, for those of you who are actually unaware of Google Talk’s tweak feature ( which can be used using the command line). Here, is a comprehensive list of such entries. If you know of any other entries please do let me know as well.

Here’s a complete list of what you can do with Gtalk in run command prompt or you can also create a new shortcut and paste the following commands with the desired parameters, It should work perfectly!

“C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe” /parameter

/nomutex: Open more than 1 Gtalk.
/autostart: Check the registry settings to see if Gtalk needs to be started. If the “Start automatically with Windows” option is unchecked, it won’t start.
/forcestart: Similar to /autostart, but forces Gtalk to start.
/S upgrade: Used when upgrading Google Talk
/register: registers Google Talk in the registry, includig the GMail Compose method.
/checkupdate: check for newer versions
/plaintextauth : uses plain authentication mechanism instead then Google’s GAIA mechanism. Used for testing the plain method on Google’s servers.
/nogaiaauth: disables GAIA authentication method. The same as above.
/factoryreset: set settings back to default.
/gaiaserver servername.com: uses a different GAIA server to connect to Google Talk. Used for debug purposes only, there are no other known GAIA servers.
/mailto email@host.com: send an email with Gmail
/diag: start Google Talk in diagnostic mode
/log: probably has something to do with the diagnostic logging

How to Free up your RAM using Command Prompt!

2009-08-31T13:23:00.000-07:00

Hey People, those like me who have systems with lesser RAM, now have a reason to cheer up!
I have found out a simple command in windows, which will free up your RAM, and hence speeding your system, quite a bit !

This will very useful while playing high end games, using software like Photoshop/Premiere-Pro and many others like Virtual Box.

Here is How, Copy these codes to a Notepad file:

%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

Then save this file as extension of .bat , and run this command whenever you feel your system has become a bit tired or when it starts to run slower than the usual.

What Say!

2009-08-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

Today I installed a program and it asked if I had read and agreed to the terms and conditions. I hadn't, but I clicked 'yes' anyway. The program didn't know I lied, and began to install. :)

How to download files from Rapidshare without waiting

2009-08-30T02:27:00.000-07:00

Rapidshare is one the most known websites in the Internet where users can upload and download tons of files without any program and without staying on queue for a long time. (Waiting a lot of time is a thing which is well-known to clients for the ED2K and de-centralized Kad networks such E-mule). If you still want to improve the way you download files from Rapidshare because you don’t want to wait for the resources to be available (the famous countdown) or because you want to download more than 1 file, here is a freeware solution for you.

Rapidshare Auto Download is a nice, free download manager for the Rapidshare website. Here is a list of its most important features:

Download a group of links from Rapidshare (one by one).
Download incomplete downloads until all links are downloaded.
Auto Shutdown.
No more wait for the link to be generated!
Versatile schedule for your downloads.

Download Rapidshare AutoDownload from HERE

Surprisingly Amazing Maxthon Web Browser!!

2009-08-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

These days whenever there is talk about web browsers, nothing comes as a first choice except Mozilla Firefox, I truly agree that it is definitely an outstanding browser, but there are definitely strong recommendation for Firefox, like memory management and browsing speed.

But when we talk of other web browsers, other contenders are Chrome, Safari and IE. Recently I tried Maxthon Web Browser, to your astonishment let me tell you, I really loved it, I mean, this one came up surprisingly closer in features and even includes few features that even big one missed.

Starting from tabbed browsing its ability to name to URLs which means you assign a name to website and type in the name to visit the site.Other features include a Super acceleration mode which speed up frequently visited sites and its quite fast.

A Web filter, ad-block tools and the best is the antifreeze feature which checks the freezing of various tab which is good as it prevents loss of work and time.Well this is browser to go for. It has got all standrad faetures and plus few killer ones too. If not as standalone you can use this as your portable browser, believe me, it won't let you down.

Download Maxthon HERE
Download Portable Maxathon HERE ( In case you don't want to Install any thing :P )

Check This Out!

2009-08-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

Closr.it is a amazing web based Free service to share and zoom your big pictures . although its name says it all. It very easy to use , just Upload your images into Closr.it server and Closr generators generate the Nice widget you see below

You can share direct URL of your widget with your friends or embed it into a website.

Most Amazing Wiki inspired Web Tools and Applications!

2009-08-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia, Wiki is a website that use wiki software which allow anyone to add, edit any number of Web pages using simple WYSIWYG text editor within the browser.These are my favorite 12 Free Wiki inspired Web Tools and Applications, they are really amazing, try them if you can.

1) Wikirank : Wikirank is a Free service that allow you to track what people are reading on Wikipedia.
* Compare Wikipedia Topic
* Go where the action is.
* See what’s popular.

2) Recipester : Recipester is a wiki-based community for sharing tips and tricks about topics you are expert in. With recipester, anyone can easily submit a new article, edit pages and share knowledge and solve specific problems of software in a revolutionary way easier,quicker and more effectively.

3) Swirrl : Swirrl is a web Based wiki-like data collaboration application that allows you to store, share, edit and analyze information online . But it also has spreadsheet and database functionality too. It Mainly focused on business use, rather than consumer use.

4) Luminotes - Your Personal Wiki Notebook : Luminotes is a Open source WYSIWYG based personal wiki notebook for organizing your notes and ideas. It's specially designed for note taking and note keeping without the hassle of learning special markup codes. You simply start typing.

5) Nuospace : Nuospace is a web based enterprise wiki powered by document management features. you and your workmates can easily collaborate effectively with each other,No need to study wiki markup or to work with a designer. Text can be edited within your browser using the WYSIWYG editor. Edit your pages online just the way you would in a regular word processor.

6) Piwik : Piwik is a downloadable, open source (GPL licensed) web analytics software program. piwik help you to archived detailed reports on your website visitors: the search engines and keywords they used, the language they speak, your popular pages.

7) wikidot : Wikidot.com is a farm of Wiki Sites and Wikidot is a web based tool to create a website without knowing HTML, PHP, JavaScript. Their mission is to provide free and professional wiki publishing, collaboration and communication solutions to anyone who needs it and wants it.

8) WikiSpace - Wikis for Everyone : Wikispace is a online collaboration tool which allows multiple users to interact and work together . Wikispace come with WYSIWYG Page Editor is as easy to use as a word processor. you can format your text, insert images and files, add widgets, and link to other pages using a simple toolbar.

Create a your own wiki and invite an unlimited number of people to it. You can also create an unlimited number of pages and discussion posts on your wiki and easily Collaborate with each Other.

9) PBworks - Online Collaboration and Project Management : ProjectOffice is a Free online project management tool to manage projects and tasks, manage time, track issues and collaborate on wikis. With ProjectOffice project managers can create projects and tasks, import and export projects and files from Excel and MS Projects, assign tasks to project members, track time, expenses and issues.

10) Springnote - free online notebook based on wiki : Springnote is an free OpenID enabled web application that aims to provide a collaborative online notebook by capturing the essence of wiki. it allow you to create pages, to work on them together with your friends, and to share files.

Springnote Key Features

* Notebook creation
* Springnote Editor
* Page Hierarchy System
* Free 2GB File Storage
* Effortless Interlinking
* XHTML compatible
* OpenID Authentication

11) Wetpaint : Wetpaint is a free wiki hosting service, which allow you to build a rich, online community and Wikis by Utilizing the best features of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks.

12) ProjectOffice - Web Based Project Management Solution: ProjectOffice is a Free online project management tool to manage projects and tasks, manage time, track issues and collaborate on wikis. With ProjectOffice project managers can create projects and tasks, import and export projects and files from Excel and MS Projects,using wikis.

BOLT: An Ultra fast and Lightweight Mobile Browser!

2009-08-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

Although there are many mobile browsers available, but almost all of them, which I have used have some disadvantages. But, recently I came across a great mobile browser – BOLT that is fast, light weight, appealing to use, bandwidth efficient and most importantly it’s available for free.

Yes, bolt browser is great for internet browsing on mobile, having many nice features with blazing internet speed, supporting almost all mobile phones based on J2ME features. Basically this Internet browser is optimized to work even in a low-end mobile phones, giving the best browsing experience making you feel as if you are browsing right from your computer.

To list some best features of BOLT are:

* Supports video play back even in the basic mobile model

* More faster than other available substitutes

* Ease of use and soothing and gentle looks

* Screen can be divided into two parts for better browsing experience

* Low usage of data while browsing web pages

Bolt was launched during the world mobile congress in Barcelona last year and within one year of its launch, the product has been a big hit proving how good the browser must be. Though, it is still in beta stage, the browser works extremely perfect,the best part is about how videos from YouTube were streamed on even the basic mobile models.

So, if you too want to experience amazing fast internet on your phones, then just download BOLT browser from HERE.

How to display Gtalk online status on your webpage/blog.

2009-08-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

You might have seen online status in websites and blogs where people display their gtalk online status(in a similar way, how I have done, on the right of this page :P ), here's how you too can add it on your website or blog :

Gtalk online status

Login to your Gmail account and then go to this link http://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/New to generate your gtalk badge which you can embed in your website or blog.

A Google Talk chatback badge will let visitors to your web page chat with you. They'll be able to chat with you whenever you're signed in to Google Talk.

You can also use your badge in your email signatures.

Session on LINUX PROGRAMMING

2009-08-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

Backed by the popular requests of umpteen number of second years, who were facing hard time cracking nut with Linux Programming, so this one was one of the most awaited sessions.

GLOSS being the Pinnacle in Various Open Technologies in SASTRA, had to take up this responsibility!

Thus, the Session on Linux Programming was scheduled for Thursday, 13th August, 2009.
venue being our usual hot spot, that is TIFAC-CORE Seminar Hall-1, The posters were put up by Tuesday(11th,Aug'09), both colored and plain at various Topographic Points :)
The poster was as usual, beautiful, designed by Sanjeev Gopinath V, who designs all the amazing posters in GLOSS. This Poster can be viewed HERE.

The Evening before the session all the arrangements and planning was made, which included setting up 2 Linux machines (One native and one dual boot), preparation of various slides and other relevant materials.

Then came the anticipated evening, we gathered by 4.50 pm near the Tifac Entrance, and started our arrangement for the session as in the Projector, Booting Machines, AC and stuff..

But a slight confusion had put many students in the soup, To our surprise, there was another session by a club, which led to some confusion in the hall plan, which was later sorted gracefully!

The Session started by 5:15, with attendence of little more than some 40 students, The Session was Co-hosted by Me, Karthik and Sanjeev.

The Agenda for the first session of Linux Programming was:

Introduction to the World of Linux.
Introduction about Open Sorurce Software and FOSS.
History, Installation and features of Linux.
Destop Environment, File Management, Internet in Linux.
Word Processor,Multimedia and Games in Linux.
Screen Shots of all the Equivalent applications in Linux.
A Live demonstartion of Linux Machine running Ubuntu 8.10.
Live Introduction to all the features of Linux.
Introduction to Terminal.
Directory structure of Linux.
Introduction to Basic Commands in Linux.
Introduction to Shell.

Here are the Slides for the Session.

Introduction to LINUX by Cybernazi

View more presentations from cybernazi.

Linux Application

View more presentations from cybernazi.

Introduction to LINUX Applications by Cybernazi

View more presentations from cybernazi.

Link to the Slides: SLIDE 1 , SLIDE 2 , SLIDE 3.

Slides can be Directly Downloaded Here SLIDE 1 , SLIDE 2, SLIDE 3.

Next Session of Linux Programming will follow up on next Thursday, 20th August'09 Venue will be same, Check out the Posters for more details.

PS:

Special Thanks to Sudha and Komal to help us with the session management.
Students who want to install Linux in their Laptop, can bring their Laptop along in the next session.
New Comers who were not able to attend this session, due to some reasons, can very easily follow up in the fuure sessions.
Future sessions will be Equally Open to students of other years too.
In the Next Session, all the Students will be given a separate Login [on RHEL 4 (Nahant Server2)] to practice the same.

Poster for the next session can be seen HERE. :)

Amazing Freewarez of the Month !!

2009-08-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

EjectUSB 1.6 Free
Designed to be a simple utility to close all programs running from a specified drive or folder
and then attempt ejection if a drive was specified. Extended functionality includes flushing the file cache,
closing Explorer windows and removing registry entries and Recent Document shortcuts referencing the specified
drive or folder.
File Size: 258 KB
OS: Windows/All

Secunia PSI v1.5 Free
The free Secunia Personal Software Inspector makes it easy to find and fix old programs on your PC,
even those that lack automatic update features. It scans your computer to find out what versions of what
software you have installed, and it reports on which might contain known security holes.
File Size: 604
OS: Windows 2000,Windows XP,Windows Vista,Windows Server 2003

Online Armor Personal Firewall v3.5 Free
Online Armor Free provides both a firewall and a whitelist approach to program security for Windows NT, 2000 and XP.
It does not show pop-ups for many known good programs, and it scans all your installed programs when it first runs.
File Size: 10538
OS: Windows 2000,Windows XP,Windows Vista

Word Reader v5.2 Free
This is an easy-to-use Free Word Reader. You can read Microsoft Word 2007 (*.DOCX), Microsoft Word 97-2003(*.DOC),
Hyper Text Markup Language (*.Htm,*.Html), Plain Text Format (*.TXT), Rich Text Format (*.RTF).
File Size: 5.69MB
OS: Win 98/ME/NT/2K/XP/2K3/Vista

Explore&Burn v1.2 Free
This is an intuitive and easy to use freeware CD/DVD burning application, integrated with Windows Explorer.
It is the easiest and fastest way to burn files and ISO images on your computer to CD or DVD. Explore&Burn is
extremely lightweight comparing to other bloated burning applications today on the software market and does just what you need.
Just select the needed files in Windows Explorer and burn it on CD or DVD in just a few clicks with easy to use wizards.
burn ISO images from your hard disk to physical media quickly and easily.
File Size: 2.70MB
OS: Windows XP/2003/Vista/7

ProduKey 1.36 Free
This is a small utility that displays the ProductID and the CD-Key of MS-Office, Windows, and SQL Server
installed on your computer. You can view this information for your current running operating system,
or for another operating system/computer - by using command-line options. This utility can be useful
if you lost the product key of your Windows/Office, and you want to reinstall it on your computer.
File Size: 41.8KB
OS: Win 98/2000/XP/Vista/Win7

Orca Browser for USB 1.2 Build 3 Free
This is an extremely fast and user friendly web browser, designed to add more functions on to the latest
version of Firefox 3.x.
Not only does Orca Browser contains all the features, such as security, low memory usage, spell-checker, built-in download manager,
etc. from a typical Gecko based browser, it also improves the speed, adds built-in features like an AD Blocker, Flash Blocker,
Online Profile Storage, auto Form-Filler, and a Outlook-Style RSS Reader.
File Size: 9.03MB
OS: Win 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Win7

Microsoft Process Monitor 2.6 Free
Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity.
It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements
including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process
information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more.
Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.
File Size: 1.25MB
OS: Win 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Win7

Password Cracking made easy!

2009-08-15T04:07:00.000-07:00

Warning . . never ever leave your computer unsupervised for a second. I mean come on, . . . wait lets back track. I love discovering all kinds of toys and any information on technology. . especially software on how to make my life more simpler.

I have compiled a list of all kinds of programs for password recovery. Well the idea makes sense. Hey its great to have things out there to recover a password when you forget it. But . . what happens when those apps fall into the wrong hands. Hell i found something may even crack or bypass a CMOS password. Yikes! No ones safe.

I tested all of them out, and I enjoy Kon-Boot for technical reasons. Its more simple than any others like OphCrack or Pc now login. . . I don't know whether to be happy there are programs like this or to cringe upon the idea that these apps are easily accessible and anyone can get there hands on them. Even the noobies.

Download Ophcrack LIve cd HERE

Download Kon-Boot LIve cd HERE

Download PC Login Now HERE