About Everything

India vs West Indies

2011-05-22T18:44:00.002+05:30

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Connect Mac to a Windows PC using CrossLoop

2009-05-05T14:59:00.000+05:30

If you are looking for ways to share files between a Windows PC and a Mac (via the Internet) or need to remotely access your Macbook at home from your Office PC (and vice-versa), keep reading.

CrossLoop, a free application for screen sharing and remote desktop access, is now available for Mac OS X as well in addition to Windows.

With CrossLoop, you can remotely fix problems on your mom’s computer or list yourself in the CrossLoop Marketplace and get paid to provide tech-support related services while working from home. It’s like running your own Geek Squad but with zero investment.

CrossLoop running on Mac - Access Windows from Mac OS X

You can use Crossloop to connect a Mac to another Mac or a Mac to a Windows PC (and vice-versa) as as long as they are both connected to the internet.

Once the connection is established, you can view the contents of another computer (screen sharing) or you can request full control to the keyboard and mouse of the remote computer and use it from your current location.

Other than screen sharing, CrossLoop may also be used to transfer files across Mac computer or from a Mac to a Windows PC so there’s something for everyone where.

CrossLoop running on Windows - Access Your Mac Desktop from Windows

To run the CrossLoop application on Windows, you must must be an administrator of the computer.

Transfer Mails from one Email Account to another

2009-05-05T14:58:00.000+05:30

There can be several reasons why you may want to switch email service providers.

Reason #1. Your existing email address gets too much spam so you plan to dump the old account and switch to a new email address (a form of email bankruptcy).

Reason #2. You are leaving your existing job for higher studies and need to transfer all personal emails from the Microsoft Exchange server to your new university email account.

Reason #3. Your ISP’s email service isn’t reliable and you therefore plan to move to a free web based email service like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, etc.

Reason #4. You think the new email service from XYZ Inc. offers more features than your existing mail provider and hence want to make the move.

Moving Emails from One Account to Another

This illustration will help you visualize how to transfer email messages across the three most popular web email services. The transfer will happen online and you just need to specify the credentials (user name & password) of your old email account (from where you want to move message out) and your new email address (where you want to move messages in).

Moving to Windows Live Hotmail

Windows Live Hotmail is integrated with TrueSwitch so you can easily transfer emails from Yahoo Mail, AOL, Gmail, Live.com, .Mac, etc. to your shiny new Hotmail address. The same service may also be used for copying old email from an existing Hotmail account to a new Hotmail address.

Moving to Yahoo Mail

Like Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail too provides integration with TrueSwitch so you can easy copy mails from Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, Juno, Rocket Mail, etc. into your Yahoo! account. With TrueSwitch, you can also copy mails from one Yahoo! inbox to another without upgrading to Yahoo! Mail Plus.

Moving to Gmail / Google Apps

Gmail (or Google Apps for Email) has a built-in Mail Fetcher feature that lets you download email messages from 5 different email accounts that support POP access. You may therefore use this feature to move your old Hotmail or AOL messages into Gmail as both these service provide free POP3 access.

The migration from Yahoo! Mail to Gmail is slightly tricky but possible. Keep reading.

Trick: Move emails from Yahoo Mail to Gmail or Outlook without POP

The free account of Yahoo Mail doesn’t provide IMAP or POP3 access so you can’t move these emails into Gmail or a desktop client like Microsoft Outlook.

The Yahoo! Mail Plus upgrade will add POP3 access to you account at $20 per year but if you want to same money, here’s a simple trick.

1. Create a new account at Windows Live Hotmail and fetch all your Yahoo! mails into this account using the free TrueSwitch Service.

2. Now that your mails are inside Hotmail, you can setup POP3 configuration to fetch those Yahoo messages into Gmail via Hotmail.

Migrating Emails Away from your ISP Account

TrueSwitch mentioned above supports all popular ISPs including Comcast, Verizon, CableVision, AT&T, etc. but if your ISP is not in the list and you don’t have the time to configure your email client for POP3 or IMAP access, check out Yippie Move.

It’s a online email transfer service similar to TrueSwitch but supports an even larger number of email service providers including the .edu addresses of certain colleges and universities in US. With YippieMove, you can choose folders (or labels in Gmail) that you want to copy to the new location without having to move the entire mailbox. The service is quick and easy but costs around $15 per email account.

Copying emails from Microsoft Exchange / Outlook

Every organization has a different policy with respect to corporate email so check with the administration if your Exchange service offers POP3 or IMAP access - if yes, you can easily transfer messages into any of the free web mail accounts directly as listed above.

Email Transfer Complete? The Next Step Now that all your message have moved to your new email address, you can set up a vacation responder in your old email account to auto-inform contacts about your new email address.

Find the Date When a Web Page was First Published on the Internet

2009-05-05T14:55:00.000+05:30

There are basically three different dates associated with any "public" web page that’s available on the Internet:

1. The publication date - this is the date when a web page or a website is first uploaded on to a public web server so that human beings and search spiders can find and read that page.

2. The discovery date - this is the date when search engine spiders first discover a web page on the Internet. Given the fact that Google has become so good at crawling fresh content, the date of first-crawl can be the same as the actual publication date (#1).

3. The cache date - this is the date when a web page was last crawled by the search bot. While webmasters can use XML sitemaps to hint search engines that a page on the site has changed, search bots are free to ignore that advice and therefore the cache date may or may not be the same as the last modified date.

To give you an example, the publication date of this article is February 25, 2008 (it’s mentioned on the web-page), the discovery date (when Google first crawled that page) is also Feb 25, 2008 but the cache date, or the day when Googlebot last crawled that page, is April 20, 3009.

Know The Publishing Date of Web Pages

Now in the above case, the author has himself indicated the publishing date of the web page but in situations where the date is not specified (or you think the mentioned date in incorrect), here’s a simple hack to help you know when a web page or web domain was last published on the Internet.

Step 1. Go to google.com and copy-paste the full URL of the web page in the search box along with the inurl: operator (e.g. inurl:www.example.com). Hit enter.

google.com/search?q=inurl:http://www.labnol.org/websites

Step 2. Now go to browser address bar (Ctrl+L in Firefox or Alt+D in Internet Explorer) and copy-paste "&as_qdr=y15" at the end of the Google search URL. Hint enter again.

google.com/search?q=inurl:http://www.labnol.org/websites&as_qdr=y15

Step 3. Google will load the results again and this time, you’ll see the actual publication date of the web page next to the title in Google search results as in this screenshot.

Video Screencast: Know when a web page was published

Using the same trick, Google tells us that the MySpace.com domain appeared in Google around 31 March 2002, Orkut on 12 Jan 2004 while Barack Obama created his Twitter account on 05 March 2007. The first publication date for Yahoo.com, Whitehouse.gov, CNN.com, Microsoft and other very old domains is mentioned as 31 Jan 2001 which is incorrect but that probably is a bug because Google’s crawler database does include pages prior to that date like this one.

These site publication dates may not be 100% accurate in all cases but they should be very close especially for new web pages and domains.

BlackBerry Curve 83XX overtakes iPhone 3G in US smartphone rankings

2009-05-04T20:09:00.001+05:30

The handset might've been surpassed in functionality and looks by its Curve 8900 successor, but nothing's got an edge on the BlackBerry Curve 83XX series in smartphone sales. According to NPD, the handset overtook the erstwhile champ iPhone 3G in the category for the first quarter of 2009, while BlackBerry's own Storm and Pearl handsets took the third and fourth slots, with the T-Mobile G1 rounding out the ranks in fifth place. Overall the smartphone market has grown from 17 percent of handset sales in Q1 2008 to 23 percent in Q1 2009. Compared to the previous quarter, RIM's gained a whopping 15 percent share of the US market -- owning nearly half of the entire scene -- while Apple and Palm both dropped 10 percent as they prep for their heroic mid-year launches.

How to place Google ads on pages

2009-05-04T17:22:00.001+05:30

The best location for Google ads varies from page to page, depending on content. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when considering where to position your ads:

What is the user trying to accomplish by visiting my site?
What do they do when viewing a particular page?
Where is their attention likely to be focused?
How can I integrate ads into this area without getting in the users' way?
How can I keep the page looking clean, uncluttered and inviting?

Certain locations tend to be more successful than others. This "heat map" illustrates the ideal placing on a sample page layout. The colors fade from dark orange (strongest performance) to light yellow (weakest performance). All other things being equal, ads located above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold. Ads placed near rich content and navigational aids usually do well because users are focused on those areas of a page.

While this heat map is useful as a positioning guideline, we strongly recommend putting your users first when deciding on ad location. Think about their behavior on different pages, and what will be most useful and visible to them. You'll find that the most optimal ad position isn't always what you expect on certain pages.

For example, on pages where users are typically focused on reading an article, ads placed directly below the end of the editorial content tend to perform very well. It's almost as if users finish reading and ask themselves, "What can I do next?" Precisely targeted ads can answer that question for them.

Accounting Video Lectures

2009-05-04T17:04:00.000+05:30

Video Titles (Broadband network access is required for viewing!)

Lecture 01: Accounting and Business (0:57)
Lecture 02: Double-Entry Accounting (0:57)
Lecture 03: Accrual and Cash Basis Accounting (0:57)
Lecture 04: Merchandising Accounting (0:57)
Lecture 05: Internal Control (0:58)
Lecture 06: Receivables & Inventory (0:57)
Lecture 07: Inventory (0:57)
Lecture 08: Inventory & Depreciation (0:56)
Lecture 09: Depreciation (0:57)
Lecture 10: Stocks & Bonds (0:57)
Lecture 11: Debt vs Equity & Financial Statement Analysis (0:58)
Lecture 12: Ratio and Financial Statement Analysis (0:55)
Lecture 13: Managerial Accounting (0:58)
Lecture 14: Cost Behavior and Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis (0:56)
Lecture 15: Differential Analysis (0:58)
Lecture 16: Budgeting & Standard Cost (0:57)
Lecture 17: Decentralized Operations (0:56)
Lecture 18: Capital Investment Analysis (0:58)

TOTAL: 18 titles available, 0 titles not currently available

10 Most successful top ways to make money online

2009-05-04T14:56:00.000+05:30

I got a plenty of hits on this site from those people who just type and search on google Ways to make money online, top ways to make money online, best ways to make money online, how to make money online etc etc. So i just though why not I should write a short post on a topic which can guide them how they can make money online in the easy way.

Money making is not a tough job on the Internet, people make it thought because this thing really need a few sacrifices in order to return you something.

Patience - People who went rich in nights, they did not do that in one day. They spent time and keep a patience on what they were doing
Time & Effort - Nothing in this world can be obtained without any effort. You need to spent time on a job in order to make a successful business. That’s the big key to success.

Anyways making money on the internet is really not that tough. You can make it in easy way or difficult way. Easy way is to find the skill you have on your own. For example may be you can write good on different topics, or may be you can make beautiful designs or may be you have good development or programming skill. If you continue with the skill you have, it is the easiest way to make money online

The harder ways can be many, from starting mini sites to earn $100 a day with Adsense TO spending money on PPC and promoting products from other people or affiliate marketing in simple words.

Here is a short list of some of the best ways to make money online.

1. Do you know how to copy/paste

You can start any sort of data entry job. This is easiest way and everybody can do that. But payout in this way is sometimes less while you have to do more effort and work. Data entry jobs can be found at many places like freelancing sites (Elance, RentaCoder, getAFreeLancer, Guru.com etc). Or there are many companies too which are looking for data entry persons. Just google it and you’ll find the top results.

2. Can you design ?

Graphic designing is a long term way to make money online with you designing skills. If you have good grip on graphic designing, you can get a lot of money by designing graphics for other people. The best way is to start a few pages portfolio website and put some of your best work on it along with the client’s testimonials (if you have). Testimonials really works and can attract more clients to you. You can also try freelancing sites to find work and clients.

3. Coding is always needed

If you are a good web developer then you have the best skill to make tons of money online. Because coding is always expensive for clients but this expense worth for them. I am myself a php web developer. I know i m the one of the best coders in this field because I have experienced a lot of things and make tons of money with this skill. In last 3 years I don’t remember but I have made more than a million myself with this skill. I am still with my long term clients because if people know you are the best, they won’t leave you and give you jobs regularly. You can start from freelancing sites and find the best people to work with them regularly and focus on your behavior with them. They won’t leave you as big companies are always in need of web developers to maintain their websites.

4. Do you have good writing power?

Content writing is another best way to make money online. If your English skills are good and you have a big bag of words in your mind, then you can start writing for other people. Try if you can focus on one topic it would be best but it is not aways required. You can write on financial topics (that’s is the one which pays most), you can write on Internet marketing topics or on health topics (another big demand).

5. Do you have something to spent? Try website flipping

Money can not always be made freely. Sometimes you can spent a little money to make more. If you have some financial resources, you can start a couple of websites, hire some writers to write best articles on the topics. Start building links for this website. Make all of your efforts for atleast one month and bring a couple of visitors each day on your website. Then sell it.

You can get $7.21 a .com domain from godaddy. Better if you could try an expired one.
A hosting budget (one time only)
One month for building FREE links.

Then you can sell a website with few daily visitors around $100 to $300 easily. This is called making money with website flipping :) Now image if you do the same with 30 websites. You can earn up to $3000 each month.

6. come on, at least you can fill a Form to make money - lol

You can try paid surveys. They can give you good money by just keeping yourself busy in filling out the surveys. There are many websites you can try like survey savvy.com or cashcrate.com etc

7. Giving SEO services to people

Search engine optimization is a big need of Internet business these days. Everyone wants to get tons of traffic in FREE ways. Free ways is to obtain visitors from search engines and for this, they have to build links or optimize their website to make it SEO friendly. If you have the right formula you can give SEO services to people. Believe me it is the highest paying job. One of my friend is taking $500 per hour for SEO service for a big company and he is proving to them that he deserve this rate

8. Forum posting Services

Of Course this one pays too. Everyone wants to promote their website and one of the promotion method is forum posting. You can get some clients easily and start posting them on different forums by giving them backlinks or sometimes clients wishes you to post on their own forum. You can easily get up to $0.50 per post easily and for each post you just to write two to five lines of text.

9. Social Bookmarking Service

You can also try by giving social bookmarking services to people. This is also one of the best ways to drive quick traffic to websites. All you have to do is to prepare a short paragraph about a site and submit it to a desired number of social bookmarking sites.

10. Sell Stuff from other people

You can also sell other people’s stuff. This is also known as affiliate marketing. you can join some of affiliate networks and start promoting products of other people. As a return you’ll your commission. See my post on what is affiliate marketing.

List of useful Resources

Elance (Freelance Website)
RentaCoder.com (Freelance Website)
W3Schools.com (For learning Web design and development)
DigitalPoint Forum Marketplace (For trying forum posting and social bookmarking)

Google gives out secret trick to Improve CTR

2009-05-04T14:52:00.000+05:30

One of the best tricks to improve your CTR (click threw rate), is to constantly make changes to your ads.

I don't know how many of you even know about the option you have in your Adsense account, to select multiple color palettes, for 1 Adsense ad.

What does this option do, how does it work, and why should I use it?

It's very simple. Instead of you manually changing the way your ad looks every now and then, you can set it to be automatic, so it changes constantly with out you needing to do a thing.

You'll have to ask Google exactly how it works.. But what I know is that it simply modifies the code which is generated, to have the option of changing the color palette.

Why should you use it?! That's a good one..
Ok Ok.. I'll explain..

Assuming your site has visitors who come back to your site, or even if you don't, and most of your visitors are first timers and will never come back again, it is good to have a variety of ads. Different ad colors attract different people, and it is good to mix and change constantly.
People who come back to a site they have visited before, will suddenly notice a slight change in your site, and then they will look for the change, and see the different ad. Which means

they got attracted to the ad (which is good).

Now, since I know you'd love to have a screen shot tutorial of this terribly complicated process, I have created one.. I made it extremely easy to follow so you'll all be happy.

You can find it right Here.

That's the end of this tip/trick..
I know you liked it, but I still like to hear comments..!
Amigo!

3 ways to make your blog profitable

2009-05-04T14:51:00.000+05:30

Few years back, nobody was aware of what the heck is blogging. But today’s nobody care about building websites. Everyone is going to stick with blogging because its sometime fun and you can even make yourself rich with blogging.

Blogging is basically an update of your thoughts that you gives to other readers. Unlike a web forum or community website, blogging is a personal publishing system. Anyways, lets keep the heck of definition away and start the topic.

There could be many way to make money with blogs. Some can bring you a lot while some can give you only few cents a day. Its all up to you that how you run your blog and how much of course.

The key to success with blogging is to update your blog as much as you can. Do an update at least 4 times a week and you are not going to lose generic search engine traffic. Because thats the traffic which brings free money and traffic.

1. Three old words - Sell Advertisement space

Of course selling advertisement space is the biggest way to make money with your blogs. As long as you have enough traffic on your blog, you have the gold chain. If you are starting a blog then choose the topic you can write most because people will stay on your blog as long as they have good information on your blog. Otherwise they will just read and go away forever. You can sell advertisement space on your blogs easily as much as from $50 to $200 per 125×125 banner. But this really need good and targeted traffic. To obtain traffic, you might need to read SEO Tips section to learn how to optimize your website search engine friendly and the best way to get backlinks to your blog.

2. Write reviews for other blogs

This is another good way to earn with blogging. You can go to some best review sites like sponsoredreviews, payperreview, reviewme etc. Then sign up as blogger and start writing reviews or posts on a topic of advertiser’s choice and give them two or three link backs. This way you get two things. One is the few dollars for writing reviews for advertisers and second is the update of your blog. Yeah , your blog is always up to date to get more traffic from Google and other search engines.

3. Write reviews for affiliate Products

Another way to earn with blogging is to start writing your own reviews or posts on different affiliate products. In an action (e.g sale or lead) you can get a good amount of commission from your affiliate advertiser. You can sign up for commission junction, neverblueads or some other good affiliate networks and find the product you can write on, and promote. A good and helpful review always returns something. People make plenty of money by running web hosting blogs, health & fitness blogs etc.

If you like this post on blogging, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed from top right corner of this website. This way you can get latest updates in your feed reader or email whenever I publish any post

Increase Google Adsense Income with Simple but Effective Tweaks

2009-05-04T14:38:00.001+05:30

As an experienced Adsense publisher, you know tons of Adsense Optimization tricks that will yeild maximum advertising revenue.

To quickly recap, you know by heart that wide rectangles perform better than banner formats, that Google Ad colors should blend with page background color, that section targeting serves more relevant ads, that border-less Ads convert best, that split testing helps you shortlist the best ad formats, that Google CSE is much better than Adsense for Search.. the list goes on and on.

But what’s the next step when you have experimented with all these Adsense tweaks but the CTRs and eCPM figures are stationary or aren’t moving north as you would like them to? Well, the simple solution is – some more optimization.

1. Turn Low Performing Units into Image Only Ads

Say you have a skyscraper in your sidebar or a leaderboard at the bottom of the page. It may exhibit a very poor CTR because it’s so out of sight and visitors often tend to miss the ad unit completely.

In that case, an alternative is to use Image Only Ads for that using – Image ads are generally CPM ads so you will generate revenue each time the ad makes an impression. Image ads are also effective in places where the visitors are Adsense publishers themselves and less likely to be interested in clicking your ads.

Use Google Adsense Sandbox to see image and Flash ads that are likely to appear on your web pages for visitors from different countries across the world.

2. Harness the Comments Section of Your Blog

When people read a blog, they’ll will first read / scan the main article and then they’ll jump to the comments section.

If they have a question or need more information about the product / service mentioned in the blog post, they’ll either leave a comment or will leave the site search for more resources.

That’s why an ad unit placed in the comment section would immensely help. The visitor is in a mood to search for extra information and the Adsense unit in the comments could have an ad for a product that might appeal to the visitor. The best place for place an ad unit their is immediately under the comment textarea box.

3. Don’t Use Adsense At All

Some Adsense publishers are shy of placing ads in prominent and visible locations on their site thinking that that ads might turn away visitors. So they will put ads in some corner hoping that visitors will still find them.

Think from the perspective of Adwords advertisers who are renting space on your blog with the hope of getting prospective customers. Why would they be willing to invest in your site (by buying ads) when they are not getting the expected returns. If you want advertisers to bid on your site, it is advisable that you place ads above the page fold else don’t use Adsene at all.

4. Sell Your Website to Adsense Advertisers using Channels

You can use Adsense channels to convince potential advertisers as to why they should advertise on your site.

When you create a custom channel in Adsense, edit the channel settings and allow Targeting. Then type a marketing pitch – tell your advertisers about your site, where the ads will appear and why should they advertise on your site. Believe me, this works.

5. When Nothing Works, Put One at the Top

Thanks to tabbed browsers like Firefox, IE or Opera – a horizontal ad unit placed at the top of your web page can perform quite well because visitors often notice the areas near the browser tabs.

Whether they are planning to exit your web page by pushing the close button of the current tab or cycling to another browser tab, chances are high that your ad near the tab bar will get noticed. See implementations at Statcounter and Digital Point forums.

6. Avoid Using Common Blog Words

As far as possible, do not use the common jargon like “feeds”, “RSS”, “blog”, “XML”, etc as that might result in RSS and blog related ads even when your website belongs to a different niche.

You can again use section targeting to suggest Adsense bots to ignore the blocks of text that have irrelevant words.

7. Pick Only High Paying Adsense Referrals

Adsense for Referrals can be a good source of revenue if you spend some time picking the best products that may be relevant to your audience. For instance, I pick products related to Software, Video and Internet for this blog and allow Adsense to pick the best product automatically.

Adsense referral payments can vary from few cents to couple of dollars. For example, a newsletter signup may fetch you 5 cents while if someone signs up for Lulu, you may get $10.

I recommend using referral products that give a high return – the conversion ratio may be low but the since the gain per conversion is very high, you will have more revenue overall. One conversion for a high paying referral is much better than several small referrals put together. You can also considering highlighting referrals with a custom FONT tag.

Google AdSense Optimization Tips - WordCamp Presentation

2009-05-04T14:36:00.001+05:30

I discussed a couple of "AdSense Optimization Tips" at the recently concluded WordCamp conference. The session was primarily focused at improving the performance of your Google ads though I did touch upon topics like "AdSense Alternatives" and "Getting direct advertisers".

View the presentation online at Issuu or download the PDF slides from SkyDrive.

Google AdSense Optimization Tips

1. Don’t Feel Shy - If you are seriously willing to monetize your website with AdSense, make sure that you place advertisements in prominent locations where visitors will notice the ads.

2. The best performing ad units for AdSense are 160×600, 336×280 and 300×250. For text only ads, you should go with the 336×380 format but in all other situations, 300×250 may be a better format since it is most popular among advertisers and also supports rich media. 160×600 can easily fit in the sidebar of your blog.

3. Web visitors have a very short attention span and majority of them may simply leave after a quick glance. Their eyes follow a F pattern so you can get good results if the Google ads are placed in the areas colored red on the heat map. Sidebars and leaderboards at the top are often ignored.

4. Depending upon the layout of your website, you should consider placing the first unit somewhere in the middle of the page and above the fold.

5. Even kids would know that AdSense works best if there are no borders and that the background color of the ads matches with the background of the page. That may not always be true and sometimes colored backgrounds (like light yellow or very light grey) can convert better - look at the top AdWords unit on the Google search page.

6. If you have a website with a dark theme (like a black background), experiment using a contrast color scheme for Google ads.

7. While it is a good idea to use section targeting around the main content, you should skip adding the section targeting tags for the comment section in your blog because the comments may not exactly convey what the page is all about. The aim is to increase the relevance of Google Ads.

8. Site visitors generally look for a search button at the top left region. Use the word "search" in the submit button else some visitors may not notice them. AdSense doesn’t allow publishers to pre-populate search boxes with keywords. Always use a second search box at the bottom of your pages and if possible, host site search on a separate sub-domain (e.g., search.labnol.org/) as regular readers can easily remember that address.

9. I recommend using only text ads for the first Google Ad unit but place another 300×250 unit in the sidebar (or somewhere below the fold) - these generally serve CPM based ads and will therefore help you monetize visits from places like Digg and StumbleUpon even when the bounce rate is very very high.

The CPM of ad units will decrease as you come the page but that may not be the case with link units - they are small, text based, can fit in even small locations and perform brilliant.

10. These are recommended ad placements for a website depending upon the design (two-column or three-column). If you write long articles, try fitting an ad unit somewhere in the middle of the article or at the bottom because when readers are done with reading, they’ll probably look for more resources or related information.

11. Once your new ad placement is live, make sure you test the AdSense layout with help of your grandma or subscribe to a professional mouse tracking service like CrazyEgg to know how people interact / navigate your content.

12. Sometimes traffic flowing in from Image search engines can earn you more AdSense Revenue than regular web traffic. So upload good quality images and use text captions with alt tags to make sure that blog images rank good in Image Search results.

13. Flickr is another great source of traffic (especially from Yahoo!) and you may also use it to indirectly improve your organic rankings.

14. You can also increase relevance of Google Ads on your site by linking to authority websites using descriptive anchor text. This will also help improve your organic ranks since outgoing links and citations carry weight in the eyes of the search engine who may then consider you as an authority for that niche.

15. Look for variations in Google Analytics - AdSense reports. If you are seeing impressions for a page but no CTR or CPM, chances are that the page may be serving PSAs or the ads aren’t relevant enough. You may also use the AdSense Sandbox to figure out if visitors from other countries are unable to see ads on some page that have low (or zero) CPM.

Also see: How to Enable Analytics in AdSense

16. Placement targeting is an excellent opportunity for you to market your site to potential AdWords advertisers. Therefore always make it a practice to use descriptive text when describing your AdSense channels.

17. Archives, Tags, Category or Author pages in a blog aren’t good landing pages and are hard to monetize as well. Redirect their Google juice to single post page using NOINDEX, FOLLOW tags.

18. Reward your regular visitors (I call them influences) with ad-free content. AdSense in feeds is not a loved option either so you may have use the feed footer to find spammers & feed scrappers.

19. If you run a multi-author blog, you can very easily implement AdSense Revenue sharing through channels. Assign a separate channel to each other and use that number for his or her blog posts.

20. AdSense Premium sites like CNN, Mahalo, New York Times, About.com, etc. generally have dedicated AdSense account managers to help them optimize their Google ad units. You can study their layouts and probably implement some of the techniques in your own blog(s).

Another great resource are these official Case Studies discussed on the AdSense blog. Folks like Jensense, Problogger & Barry Schwartz are also pretty good at spotting trends early and often. I also recommend joining the AdSense forums at Webmaster World - especially follow conversations of "Preferred" or "Senior Members" as they generally have lot of experience.

With Google AdSense, one should never feel complacent because there’s always a chance to improve earnings provided you are willing to experiment. The software theory - "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" doesn’t really apply here.

Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online Microsoft Offers Secure Windows … But Only to the Government

2009-05-04T14:34:00.000+05:30

It’s the most secure distribution version of Windows XP ever produced by Microsoft: More than 600 settings are locked down tight, and critical security patches can be installed in an average of 72 hours instead of 57 days. The only problem is, you have to join the Air Force to get it.

The Air Force persuaded Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to provide it with a secure Windows configuration that saved the service about $100 million in contract costs and countless hours of maintenance. At a congressional hearing this week on cybersecurity, Alan Paller, research director of the Sans Institute, shared the story as a template for how the government could use its massive purchasing power to get companies to produce more secure products. And those could eventually be available to the rest of us.

Security experts have been arguing for this “trickle-down” model for years. But rather than wield its buying power for the greater good, the government has long wimped out and taken whatever vendors served them. If the Air Force case is a good judge, however, things might be changing.

Threat Level spoke with former CIO of the Air Force, John Gilligan, to get the details.

Gilligan, who served as CIO of the Air Force from 2001 to 2005 and now runs a consulting firm, said it all began in 2003 after the NSA conducted penetration tests on the Air Force network as part of its regular testing of Pentagon cybersecurity.

NSA pen-testers made Swiss cheese of the network, and found that more than two-thirds of their intrusions were possible because of poorly configured software that created vulnerabilities. In some cases, the culprit was an operating system or application that came bloated with unsecured features that were never re-configured securely by Air Force administrators. In other cases, systems that were configured securely became vulnerable later (for instance, when a system crashed and original software was re-installed without patches that had been on the system before the crash).

“It was really an easy target,” Gilligan says. “All the NSA had to do was scan the network.”

The Air Force, on the verge of renegotiating its desktop-software contract with Microsoft, met with Ballmer and asked the company to deliver a secure configuration of Windows XP out of the box. That way, Air Force administrators wouldn’t have to spend time re-configuring, and the department would have uniform software across the board, making it easier to control and maintain patches.

Surprisingly, Microsoft quickly agreed to the plan, and Ballmer got personally involved in the project.

“He has half-a-dozen clients that he personally gets involved with, and he saw that this just made a lot of sense,” Gilligan said. “They had already done preliminary work themselves trying to identify what would be a more secure configuration. So we fine-tuned and added to that.”

The NSA got together with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Defense Information Systems Agency and the Center for Internet Security to decide what to lock down in the Air Force special edition.

Many of the changes were complex and technical, but Gilligan says one of the most important and simplest was an obvious fix to how Windows XP handled passwords. The Air Force insisted the system be configured so administrative passwords were unique, and different from general user passwords, preventing an average user from obtaining administrative privileges. Specifications were added to increase the length and complexity of passwords and expire them every 60 days.

It then took two years for the Air Force to catalog and test all the software applications on its networks against the new configuration to uncover conflicts. In some cases, where internally designed software interacted with Windows XP in an insecure way, they had to change the in-house software.

“We started to put discipline into what people were fielding in the way of applications,” Gilligan said. “It required a lot of senior-level attention because this was not something that the IT guys were happy about. We were taking control from them and forcing them to make modifications in systems. But the benefits were huge because now the Air Force knows what is fielded; they know all the applications that run against a certain configuration.”

In addition to the secure configuration, they also got Microsoft to install automated tools to update patches and to detect and prevent someone from altering the configuration.

Having a single configuration across the network greatly reduced the time it took to patch systems. Gilligan said it used to take the Air Force well over 100 days to install patches after new vulnerabilities were discovered, because the military’s network administrators had to test the patches against multiple configurations. Emergency patches that needed to be installed post-haste took 57 days to install, leaving systems vulnerable to intruders during that time.

“Once the flaw was known, then those who wanted to attack our systems could be developing attacks in that time,” Gilligan said.

Former Air Force CIO John Gilligan

But with a single configuration, all that testing is now done by Microsoft before it releases a patch, saving the Air Force time. An added benefit of the new configuration was a 40 percent drop in the number of calls to Air Force help desks.

“Turns out when you configure things properly and don’t touch them, they actually work pretty well,” Gilligan said.

The Air Force began the project in 2005 and finished installing the new configuration on systems in 2007. In contracts with hardware providers it demanded that vendors pre-load the special Windows XP configuration onto systems before delivering them to the Air Force.

The USAF saved $100 million on a five-year license agreement with Microsoft by consolidating more than 30 contracts — made possible by the fact that it was now able to buy a single standard configuration.

Most importantly, security of the system improved. Gilligan said 85 percent of attacks were blocked after the configuration was installed.

“Once you get the standard configuration, then it becomes a much harder target to attack,” Gilligan said. “I will not say that the Air Force cannot be penetrated, but the incidents have decreased. The hope is that those who are defending the networks can focus their energies on a smaller set of vulnerabilities and more sophisticated attacks. It dampens out the low-hanging fruit and the easy attacks.”

The project was so successful that it became the foundation for the government’s Federal Desktop Core Configuration program, which was mandated last year by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to improve the security of government systems across the board. Gilligan said other departments have started with the Air Force configuration and modified it slightly to fit their unique needs and applications.

He said the next step is to expand the project to other software products, such as database management systems. He added that he’s confident the Microsoft example marks the turning of the tide against vendors that arrogantly resist locking down their products.

“They’re still in the model that they want to give all the features enabled to clients,” he said. “But I think we’ve reached a point where that model is one that is no longer effective. I’m of the opinion that all products ought to be configured with these locked-down configurations, and if the customer decides they want to undo them, then they can do that. They cannot continue fielding products where the cost that is being borne by the consumer in terms of having to maintain configurations and deal with attacks is so high.”

What this means for the rest of us is unclear. Threat Level contacted Microsoft to find out if any part of the locked down Windows XP configuration got into general consumer versions of the software or has influenced how it configures future versions of its software. The company did not respond.

Top image: Brigadier General Gary T. Magonigle and Colonel Brian Dravis present Steve Ballmer with a plaque showing the Air Guard’s appreciation for Microsoft’s support of Guards and Reservists. (United States Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Douglas Olsen)

The Highest Paying AdSense Ads May Not Always Be On Top

2009-05-04T14:32:00.000+05:30

If there are multiple Google AdSense ad units on a web page, it is generally assumed that the top ad unit (the one which appears first in the HTML source code) will serve the highest paying CPC ads. Well, that may be true most of the times but not always. Let’s understand why.

But before you dive into the example below, please watch this excellent video by Dr Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, as he explains how an ad auction works and what factors determine the position of AdSense ads on a web page for a given keyword.

The Google AdWords system assigns a "Quality Score" to every advertiser who is participating in the ad auction and this score is determined by the quality of the advertiser’s website, the historical CTR of his ads on Google and a couple of other factors.

For instance, the Google ad system is likely to assign higher Quality Scores to Sony.com or Amazon.com for the keyword "digital cameras" than an advertiser xyz.com who is trying to promote his eBay auction on the AdSense network.

Google than computes the final rank (or ad position) of each advertiser using their respective quality scores and the maximum amount they are willing to pay for a single click (CPC).

Ad Rank of an advertiser = Quality Score * Maximum CPC Bid

Coming back to our original example, let’s say four advertisers are bidding in an auction to show up on a web page that is about "digital camera".

The advertiser Sony.com has been assigned a score of 8 by Google and they are ready to spend a maximum of $16 per click. Amazon has an even quality score (9) but they have specified their maximum CPC as $14 and so on.

Now the ad position (column 5) of various advertiser in an AdSense unit is determined on the basis of Ad rank (column 4) but the actual cost (or CPC) that these advertiser have to pay per click to Google is not always in that order.

As Dr Varian explains (time 05:50), the price that an advertiser has to pay (his actual CPC) is equal to the Ad Rank of the advertiser just below him divided by his own CPC bid.

So in the case of Sony, they’ll have pay 126 (the Ad Rank of Amazon) / 16 (CPC Bid of Sony) and this is equal to 7.88.

The click cost for Amazon will therefore be 120/14 = 8.57 which is more than that of Sony but the Amazon ad will still show up below the Sony ad since the Ad Rank of Sony is higher.

Google will share a fixed portion of ad revenue (or click price) with the AdSense publisher (where these ads are shown) and therefore a click on a Sony ad will fetch him less revenues even though the ad occupies the top slot

watch supernatural season 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 online

2009-04-30T22:31:00.000+05:30

Supernatural stars Jensen Ackles (left) and Jared Padalecki (right) as Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester, two brothers who travel the country looking for their missing father, John Winchester and battling evil spirits along the way. Sam Winchester is a college student bound for law school, determined to escape his family's past - unlike his older brother, Dean.

Ever since they were little their father has been consumed with an obsession to find the evil forces that murdered his beloved wife, and recruited his two young sons to help them. They have grown up as hunters of the supernatural. Sam escaped this way of life after high school, and now has a happy life with his girlfriend, Jessica, and a promising future career. Dean, however, stayed behind with his father to join him in his "hunting". — TV.com

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Record HD-quality Screencast Videos with Screencast-o-Matic

2009-04-30T21:08:00.001+05:30

Screencast-o-Matic, the first web based screencasting app, has added some new features and revamped the screen recording interface to catch up with nearest rival - ScreenToaster.

You can now record full HD quality screencasts videos (1280×720) in your browser without even creating an account at Screencast-o-matic.

You may then save the recorded movie to your desktop in Quicktime (MP4) format or directly upload the screencast to your YouTube account where it will be encoded as HD for sure - see example:

The screen capture quality is brilliant and Screen-o-matic also adds some visual hints to the screencast - the cursor size is increased and mouse clicks get highlighted with a circle - thus making it easier for people to follow the mouse in the final movie.

Screencast-o-matic, like other online screencasting apps, is a Java applet and can therefore be used on Windows, Mac or Linux machines.

Intel sees green chips of recovery

2009-04-30T12:07:00.001+05:30

Intel, which believes in investing during a downturn to the tune of spending $7bn on new manufacturing facilities over the next two years, is trying to persuade its customers to think the same way.

It released a survey and statistics on Tuesday that suggested investing in upgrading three or four-year-old computers will quickly pay for itself.

The study, carried out by consultants Wipro involving 106 US and European companies, said that two-thirds of them were continuing to upgrade their computers during the recession.

Their reasons were that new PCs were more secure and cheaper to run, to the extent that they paid for themselves with energy and other savings in a matter of months - as low as 10 months for those using Intel’s vPro technology.

“Yes, it’s tough economic times but those IT departments who can, are continuing to refresh because they are worried about security, and newer PCs can reduce their operational costs,” Rob Crooke, head of Intel’s Business Client Group, told a press briefing.

Mr Crooke avoided comment on whether many businesses were awaiting Windows 7, Microsoft’s next operating system, before upgrading. He speculated that the one-third that were not upgrading as usual either “had no cash, or the industry, including ourselves, had not had the chance to explain to them the benefits.”

Figures released by Mercury Reseach on Monday night, on microprocessors sold in the first quarter, suggested conditions were bottoming out for Intel and its rival AMD.

Units declined 8.3 per cent on the fourth quarter and 9.1 per cent compared to a year ago, but this compared to an 18 per cent sequential decline in the fourth quarter.

Intel lost nearly 4 percentage points of market share to AMD - down to 78.2 per cent from 82.1 per cent in Q4, as enterprise spending was weak and AMD performed better in the consumer PC segment.

Notebook sales were also weak and units of Intel’s Atom processor, which has powered the netbook category, were down 33 per cent from the fourth quarter, at 5.6m units.

Architecture Student Proposes Bacterially-Grown Wall Across the Entire Sahara Desert

2009-04-30T12:06:00.001+05:30

To combat the Sahara Desert's ongoing growth, student Magnus Larsson has proposed a 6,000km wall that will be—wait for it—constructed by letting a bacterium have its way with the sand, forming sandstone.

The bacterium, bacillus pasteurii, turns sand into firm sandstone structures very quickly, and the proposed wall could house a sort of lengthy oasis of water and vegetation, to be used by refugees for housing. It's trying to kill two enormous birds with an equally enormous stone: Combating desertification and providing mass amounts of housing for those who need it. The proposal won a prize for sustainable agriculture, but nothing this outrageous is without its problems.

This kind of bacterial change has been performed in very small environments, but has never been tried in as large a scale as the Sahara Desert. Besides the practicality of the project, there are also environmental concerns: This massive a change to the ecosystem could cause problems we can't even foresee, from species extinctions to water shortages. Not to mention a problem that wasn't brought up in the article: How do we get this thing to stop making sandstone? I'm pretty sure experiments with ice-nine didn't turn out so hot.

But for sheer ballsiness on a grandiose scale, this idea is hard to top. Check out more photos and mockups here.

Darwin's Radio: Prehistoric Gene Reawakens to Battle HIV

2009-04-30T11:51:00.000+05:30

'The next great war will start inside us. 'In the next stage of evolution, mankind is history'.

Greg Bear, Darwin's Radio

About 95% of the human genome has once been designated as "junk" DNA. While much of this sequence may be an evolutionary artifact that serves no present-day purpose, some junk DNA may function in ways that are not currently understood. The conservation of some junk DNA over many millions of years of evolution may imply an essential function that has been "turned off." Now scientists say there's a junk gene that fights HIV. And they've discovered how to turn it back on.

What these scientists have done could give us the first bulletproof HIV vaccine. They have re-awakened the human genome's latent potential to make us all into HIV-resistant creatures, and hey've published their ground-breaking research in PLoS Biology.

A group of scientists led by Nitya Venkataraman and Alexander Colewhether wanted to try a new approach to fighting HIV - one that worked with the body's own immune system. They knew Old World monkeys had a built-in immunity to HIV: a protein called retrocyclin, which can prevent HIV from entering cell walls and starting an infection. So they began poring over the human genome, looking to see if humans had a latent gene that could manufacture retrocyclin too. It turned out that we did, but a "nonsense mutation" in the gene had turned it off at some point in our evolutionary history.

Nonsense mutations are caused when random DNA code shows up in the middle of a gene, preventing it from beginning the process of manufacturing proteins in the cell. Venkataraman and her team decided to investigate this gene further, doing a series of tests to see if the retrocyclin it produced would keep HIV out of human cells. It did.

At last, they knew that if they could just figure out a way to reawaken the "junk" gene that creates retrocyclin in humans, they might be able to stop HIV infections. The researchers just needed to figure out a way to remove that nonsense mutation and get the target gene to start manufacturing retrocyclin again.

Here's where things really get interesting. The team found a way to use a compound called aminoglycosides, which itself can cause errors when RNA transcribes information from DNA to make proteins. But this time, the aminoglycoside error would work in their favor: It would cause that RNA to ignore the nonsense mutation in the junk gene, and therefore start making retrocyclin again. In preliminary tests, their scheme worked. The human cells made retrocyclin, fended off HIV, and effectively became AIDS-resistant. And it was done entirely using the latent potential in the so-called junk DNA of the human genome.

After more research is done, the researchers believe this might become a viable way to make humans immune to HIV infection.

What intrigues me, beyond the amazing idea of an AIDS vaccine, is that aminoglycosides have the potential to unlock the uses for other pieces of junk DNA. In Darwin's Radio, certain portions of these "non-sense" sequences, remnants of prehistoric retroviruses, have been activated by aminoglycosides
In the novel, humans start rapidly evolving after their junk DNA re-awakens in response to stress. Could we induce instant mutations, or gain other new immunities by using aminoglycosides on our junk DNA?

Download Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 - Outlook Gets a Performance Boost

2009-04-30T11:47:00.001+05:30

Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007 significantly improves the performance of Microsoft Outlook and also adds support for OpenDocument format in Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007.

With SP2 installed, your Microsoft Office 2007 programs can read & write documents in the ODF format without requiring external plug-ins. The service pack also adds the Save as PDF functionality by default to all programs that are part of the Office 2007 suite.

Here’s a complete list of changes and issues that have been fixed through Service Pack 2 (SP2) of Office 2007. It’s a major upgrade (with 600+ fixes) and Jane Liles says that Outlook 2007 with SP2 is 26 percent faster on a set of common e-mail tasks and users will experience considerable speed improvements on common Outlook operations like launching, synchronizing and searching.

Download Microsoft Office 2007 SP2

Office 2007 SP2 is available for download through Windows Update or you can follow the direct link to the SP2 installer on the Microsoft Download Center. The file name is office2007sp2-kb953195-fullfile-en-us.exe and it’s around 290 MB in size. You may also order a slipstream copy of Office 2007 SP2 on a DVD here.

This release will also update stand-alone viewers for Excel, PowerPoint and Word 2007 so even if you are using an older version of Office, you may still want to checkout this update.

Outlook 2007 also includes fixes related to slow IMAP access so that may be good news for users who check their Gmail emails on Outlook via IMAP. For POP access, Outlook now downloads the newest mail first instead of the oldest mail. SP2 also fixes a number of issues related to RSS feeds in Outlook 2007.

Fastest Camera Ever Built Uses Lasers

2009-04-30T11:46:00.000+05:30

Scientists have made the fastest camera ever. It can take 6.1 million pictures in a single second, at a shutter speed of 440 trillionths of a second. Light itself moves just a fraction of a centimeter in that time.

The camera works by illuminating objects with a laser that emits a different infrared frequency for every single pixel, allowing them to custom-amplify a signal that would otherwise be too dim to see.

“We have invented a new type of imaging technology that overcomes the fundamental limitation between sensitivity and speed,” said Keisuke Goda, an optoelectronic specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s the world’s fastest camera.”

High shutter speeds enable moving objects to be clearly photographed. The less time a camera’s optical eye is open, the less time a subject has to move. But this comes at a price: less light enters the camera, causing the image to be underexposed. That’s why sports photographers use high-powered strobe lights.

Workarounds include the use of extra-sensitive chemicals in traditional films, or amplification of signals captured by the photoelectronic light sensors of digital cameras. But film is relatively limited in its range, as are digital cameras. At the speed of Godas camera, there isn’t enough light to magnify.

“The camera has a built-in optical image amplifier that overcomes the tradeoff between sensitivity and speed,” he said. “It could be especially useful for microscopy. On the meta-microscale, even slow-moving objects require a high temporary resolution, because your field of view is so small.”

The technology is dubbed STEAM, short for serial time-encoded amplified microscopy. It illuminates objects with an infrared laser that cycles through a series of different wavelengths, one for each pixel on the sensor.

When reflected light hits the camera’s sensor, each pixel picks up its dedicated wavelength, and is given an electronic boost of a matching wavelength. That amplifies the original dim signal, composed of just a few photons, until it becomes visible. This can’t be done in a conventional digital camera, because the sensor doesn’t know what the original wavelengths were.

For now, STEAM can only produce images composed of just 3,000 pixels, a far cry from the multi-million-pixel cameras used by consumers. But Goda’s team intends to develop a multi-megapixel camera that can take 100 million pictures per second, with a frame rate of they’re hoping to up this to mega-multipixel mode competitive with standard digital camers, taking 100 million pictures per second, with a shutter speed of just one-trillionth of a second.

Apple plots course for middle of mobile

2009-04-30T11:43:00.000+05:30

Apple seems almost ready to bridge the gap between the iPhone and the Macbook with a new type of mobile computer.

(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET)

Is the world finally ready for the mobile minitablet?

It's become quite clear over the last several months that Apple is ready to bridge the mobile computing gap, with plans to develop a device that fits somewhere in between the iPhone and the MacBook. A recent Wall Street Journal article proclaimed that during his medical leave, CEO Steve Jobs has been working on that midsized mobile device, bigger than an iPhone but smaller than a MacBook.

And just this week, BusinessWeek reported that Apple is developing a "media pad" that would let users watch videos on a larger screen than an iPod Touch or Amazon Kindle, but on a device that's more portable than notebooks and lacks a keyboard.

The personal computer industry has long tried to make such a device a reality, but apart from some early success for the Kindle, no one has managed to convince the public that the attempts released to date--such as the Ultra Mobile PC--are worth buying. Instead, PC companies looking for increased mobility are finding ways to shrink the notebook PC as opposed to a finding a new way to use computers.

As far back as 2000, Microsoft founder Bill Gates was evangelizing Tablet PCs, but a combination of price and uninspired software doomed that category to niche status. Intel and Microsoft then turned the hype machine to the UMPC (later rebranded MID, or Mobile Internet Device), which several years later aren't exactly flying off store shelves.

More recently, PC companies have embraced Netbooks, small inexpensive mininotebook computers that are designed for basic Web surfing and e-mail. Netbooks, however, are further depressing the PC industry's gross margins and attempt to cram a full-fledged notebook user interface into a small package, and it doesn't seem that Apple is all that crazy about this category.

But Apple has developed a few unique ideas for mobile computing over the past two years that have resonated with designers, developers and users; namely, the iPhone OS and the App Store. So, is the timing finally right for the tweener computer?

BusinessWeek reported that the iPad (name stolen from Silicon Alley Insider for its brevity) would be about the size of the Amazon Kindle, but with a screen that covers a greater portion of the surface. The Kindle is 7.5-inches long, but the screen is just 6 inches; by comparison, the iPhone sports a 3.5-inch display, while the smallest MacBook uses a 13.3-inch display.

Previous attempts at making keyboard-less devices with 7-inch or 8-inch screens--such as UMPCs and MIDs--haven't captured the public's imagination. Microsoft and Intel had high hopes for the concept in 2006, which was also known as Project Origami inside Microsoft. Samsung made perhaps the best-received UMPC, but that wasn't saying much, and interest in the category quickly faded after the launch of the iPhone.

The main issue with UMPCs was a lack of compelling software. They were designed to run Windows XP, which itself wasn't designed to run on a device with such a small screen and limited methods of input. And at launch, Windows Vista was actually a step backward in terms of its suitability for mobile devices.

Samsung's Q1 was perhaps one of the best UMPCs/MIDs, but it never amounted to much in the market.

(Credit: CNET)

Intel tried to shift MIDs to Linux to get around the resource problems of Windows Vista, but its partners have yet to gain any traction. And neither attempt was able to galvanize third-party developers into creating applications designed specifically for a mobile platform.

Apple's iPhone OS, however, was designed for a small-screen mobile environment. Installing the iPhone OS 3.0 on the iPad would allow Apple to preserve the user interface from the iPhone and iPod Touch and keep the device simple: a more complicated (and power-hungry) operating system isn't needed for a computer like this.

This would also allow Apple to take advantage of the App Store, giving the iPad thousands of applications at its disposal right from launch. One potential problem with that approach is that developers will have to rewrite their iPhone applications to adapt to the larger-size screen on this new device, said Craig Hockenberry of Iconfactory, creators of Twitterific.

Hockenberry, who is very confident that Apple has such a device in the works, doesn't think this will be a huge obstacle, but developers will have to gauge whether the extra development effort is worth their time. One thing Apple could do is set aside a separate section of the App Store for iPad-optimized applications, while finding a way to run older iPhone applications in some sort of compatibility mode.

"It wouldn't be hard for Apple to have a "Classic" environment on a tablet that provided a 320x480 window for running one or more iPhone applications," Hockenberry said in an e-mail. "It would be a smart thing for them to do: there are instantly tens of thousands of apps and users are presented with a familiar interface (something that looks a lot like Dashboard in Mac OS X.)"

The iPad could also be the first Apple product to surface with a chip designed by P.A. Semi, which Apple didn't buy on a lark. A custom chip could solve two problems for Apple--the need to keep software compatibility with the ARM-based chips used to run the iPhone while delivering more performance for HD video playback or more robust games that competitors might not be able to immediately match.

What might such a device cost? There are two schools of thought on price.

UMPCs, at around $700, were considered too expensive but because they didn't offer any value, not because of the sticker price itself. It would not be hard for Apple to argue that an iPad with an HD screen, thousands of applications, and a superior mobile browser is worth just slightly more than what people were willing to pay for the original iPhone.

A $699 iPad would slot nicely between the iPod Touch and MacBook in Apple's product lineup and preserve Apple's profit margins, while allowing the company to reduce the price over time if needed similar to the original iPhone.

But Apple could also hook up with a wireless carrier--we'll save the AT&T versus Verizon debate for another day--to subsidize the iPad. The company has reportedly been in talks about distributing MacBooks through wireless carrier friends like AT&T, which already sells 3G-equipped Netbooks with a data plan subscription.

A device such as this would be infinitely more attractive with wide-area wireless networking, as opposed to just Wi-Fi--especially if carrier subsidies bring the price down to around $499, just above the largest iPod Touch. It's hard to see something this big replacing a mobile phone--you're not going to hold one of these up to the side of your head--but there are certainly plenty of headsets available in the world.

This is the last frontier of the promised convergence between computers and communication devices: the midsized device. That shift has already happened to the smartphone, but it seems very reasonable that for many people, smartphone screens are too small for serious computing.

If Apple is indeed working on such a product, it will have to get the implementation right to avoid duplicating the failures of so many other mobile computing aspirants. But by having awakened the public to the promise of basic mobile computing, Apple could be best positioned to capitalize on the need for something more.

Apple is building a moat (of semiconductors)

2009-04-30T11:42:00.000+05:30

Apple is collecting chip gurus. The big question is why.

The Wall Street Journal delivers a nice roundup of Apple’s recent hires: Raja Koduri, former CTO of AMD’s graphics group, and Bob Drebin, another AMD alum. And let’s not forget former IBMer Mark Papermaster. Papermaster, who leads Apple’s iPhone and iPod unit now, was the subject of a non-compete tug-of-war. Papermaster is a microchip expert—not that he’d ever pass Drebin or Kodui in the hall to talk shop or anything crazy like that.

Toss in Apple’s acquisition of P.A. Semi and the company is looking downright chipper.

The Journal writes:

Besides a desire to beat rivals to market with new features, Apple’s shift is also an effort to share fewer details about its technology plans with external chip suppliers, say people familiar with the moves.

In other words, Apple is building a moat around its iPhone and iPod businesses. Apple can expand into chips, be extremely focused and provide a leapfrog advance. New chip capabilities make their way into Apple products (rest assured it won’t share) and the company gets to play defense.

Mobile advances have a way of winding up in every mobile device eventually. If Apple’s chips can integrate with its software to deliver distinguishing results it can distance itself from the pack.

It’s unclear whether Apple’s chip fetish will work, but on paper the idea makes a lot of sense.

How to get a high-resolution image from a low-resolution camera

2009-04-30T11:40:00.000+05:30

My last post discussed how you can make ultra-high-resolution images with a simple point-and-shoot by using GigaPan robotic camera mounts. But for most folks, plunking down three or four hundred bucks on hardware for the novelty of high-res panoramic shots is out of the question. With some patience (and a steady hand) though, you can achieve similar effects with off-the-shelf photo stitching software.

There are a number of options available, ranging from the Photomerge feature in Adobe Photoshop CS4 to free sofware like Autostitch, recommended by a commenter on my last post. But i2k Quickage, a new option announced yesterday caught my eye because it promises to let you create high-res images from any camera, including camera phones–and claims that it’s been used by NASA to stitch images of the space shuttle into one large montage for analysis.

Created by a company that also develops sophisticated medical software (such as retinal imaging tools) i2k Quickage is compatible with any cell phone equipped with a camera (including the iPhone and Blackberry). The company’s website includes an interesting (though undoubtedly biased) comparison chart of competitive stitching software. Don’t miss the full analysis link for detailed information. Three versions (Quickage Express, Quickage Pro, and Quickage Enterprise) start at $49.95, but you can get a free trial of Quickage Express and Quickage Pro (for Windows or Mac) that’s fully functional for seven days.

Canon PowerShot SX1 IS

2009-04-30T01:10:00.000+05:30

CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
Detailed editors' rating

Average user rating: Write your own review
See all user reviews

Product summary

The good: Relatively fast; good HD video; raw file support.

The bad: Big; quirky interface; some image artifacts.

The bottom line: A top megazoom option, the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS offers a 20x zoom lens and HD video, which you can't get in a similarly priced dSLR, and delivers more features and slightly better performance and photo quality than the cheaper SX10 IS.

Specifications: Digital camera type: Full body ; Resolution: 10 megapixels ; Optical zoom: 20 x ; See full specs

Price range: $599.00 - $599.99 check prices

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by:
Lori Grunin
Reviewed on: 04/27/2009
Released on: 03/15/2009

Photos:
Canon PowerShot SX1 IS

Would you pay as much for a megazoom as you would for a dSLR? That's the question you need to answer before plunking down the same amount of cash for the Canon PowerShot SX1 that you would for the EOS Rebel XS or the Nikon D60 with their 18-55mm lenses. Packing some higher-end features over its brother the SX10 IS, including a CMOS sensor (albeit the same 1/2.3-inch size and 10-megapixel resolution), 30fps 1080p HD movie capture, and support for raw files, the SX1 delivers slightly better performance and image quality as well.

Physically, it's almost identical to the SX10, including the same 20x 28-260mm equivalent lens. It's equally comfortable to hold and shoot, retaining perks like the articulated LCD and four AA-powered operation. It's a little heavier, 1.5 pounds, which makes it feel like a dSLR, but the big grip gives you plenty of holding room. A button to jump into review mode sits near the indented thumb rest on the back, joined by the exposure compensation and focus area selection buttons. Because the SX1's body is matte black plastic, rather than the reflective graphite of the SX10, the light blue labels are easier to see.

On the right side of the back is a dial concentric to a four-way navigation switch with the function button in the middle. Although I generally like the controls, the dial feels too mushy; like the SX10's, it doesn't respond appropriately, as if it needs to spin too far or not as far for any given operation. As a result, for example, I frequently overshot desired shutter speeds. It really feels like it needs better tactile feedback. The zoom switch didn't feel terribly exact, either. This is a typical problem with stepped zooms (these lenses don't really cover a continuous zoom range, instead stopping at a series of preset distances).

Of course, the flip-and-twistable LCD remains a user favorite, and the SX1's is a wide-aspect 2.8-inch model compared with the 4:3 aspect 2.5-incher on the SX10. Keep in mind that when you're shooting photos at full resolution in 4:3 aspect, the effective image size of the LCD is as if it were a 2.5-inch model. Canon does use the extra area on the sides for displaying some information. Unfortunately, the electronic viewfinder isn't particularly great. It updates slowly and looks pretty coarse.

More annoyingly, the camera lacks a dedicated toggle between the LCD and EVF. Instead, you have to cycle through the four different display settings: low-info LCD, detailed LCD, low-info EVF, detailed EVF. That makes it nearly impossible to quickly jump back and forth. Similarly, though there's a dedicated movie record button, moving between capturing HD movies and standard 4:3 stills can get confusing. You have to press a button to toggle between the two aspect ratio modes, and the camera captures in whatever your indicated settings are for that aspect ratio: press button for 16:9, start movie record, stop movie record, press aspect button, press shutter for photos. It sounds simple, but I frequently forgot to toggle the aspect ratio back after shooting a movie, and ended up shooting lower-resolution, wide-aspect stills. And raw isn't available in 16:9 mode, which can complicate mistakes like that. You should be able to set a movie size and only have to worry about pressing record. A final annoyance: it remembers all your settings when you power off except the current metering mode. None of these seriously detract from the overall usability of the camera, but forgetful shooters (like me) or infrequent ones might find themselves having a few more settings accidents than they'd like.

Though a movie mode remains on the dial, it's become rather superfluous; in addition to the dedicated button, Canon integrated the movie resolution settings into the function menu along with the standard white balance, color adjustment, exposure bracketing, flash compensation, metering, and still size and quality controls.

Some of the more novel features include a Face Self-timer, which shoots a specified number of seconds after a face is detected, and a custom timer, which lets you also specify the number of shots to take (sort of a limited intervalometer, since you can only take up to 10 shots). As with the SX10, this camera introduces Canon's Servo AF, the company's AF tracking mode. With this camera, since the continuous shooting is so slow, I find the Servo AF has too much time to get confused, and since EVFs black out when a shot's taken you can't verify that it's focusing on the right thing; I have lots of in-focus fences and out of focus people in my test shots. (And lest you suggest I should have used the Face Detect AF, that doesn't work unless you're shooting faces looking at you, not moving crowd shots.) I find the Servo AF less than useful since EVFs black out when a shot's taken so you can't verify that it's focusing on the right thing. The rest of the capabilities, for the most part, are the same as the competition. These include PASM, full auto, and a handful of scene modes; my favorites are a custom setting slot on the mode dial and 3.9-inch macro and zero(!)-inch Super Macro modes. (Need more details about the standard feature set? Check out the PDF manual.)

Overall, the SX1 delivers excellent performance, especially for a category notable for sluggish products. It wakes and shoots in 1.4 seconds, and under optimal focusing circumstances can lock and shoot in 0.4 second. Even under harder to focus, low-contrast conditions it takes only 0.6 second. Shot to shot JPEGs typically take 2.8 seconds, and raw is even faster at 2 seconds. While its 2.9 frames-per-second burst can't beat the ultra-high-speed continuous shooting of models like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 or the Casio Exilim EX-FH20, it's still very good for its class. And it can burst raw at about 1.5fps. My only caveat about the camera's performance is from a repeated, but unfortunately not repeatable, problem with the AF system I experienced, in which it would indicate focus had been locked even though the scene was completely out of focus.

Canon PowerShot SX1 IS photo samples

Generally, photo quality tends to be the weakest aspect of megazooms, but so far the SX1 seems deliver the best for its class. While its colors aren't quite as good as the SX10's--oranges, yellows, reds, and purples are slightly off, though you probably couldn't tell without a side-by-side comparison--it has a better tonal range with less contouring in shadow areas. It has a better noise profile, with lower noise at all ISO levels, and without the blue channel artifacts I noticed in the SX10's photos. However, as with most models at this level, detail becomes visibly degraded at ISO 400 and beyond. It's pretty sharp, but by the numbers it fares worse than the SX10 for sharpness; I attribute this to some visible haloing in the blue channel I saw in the test charts.

The camera retains the separated stereo mics of its ancestors and can zoom--pretty quietly--during recording. And the video quality is quite nice--relatively sharp and saturated, with fast refocusing and exposure adjustment--especially played back on a large TV.

Though it's as big as and priced like a cheap dSLR, the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS delivers similar performance plus a 20x zoom lens and HD video that those can't provide. And while it's relatively expensive for its class and has some interface quirks, as long as you don't need ultra-high-speed burst shooting, it's probably the best megazoom option we've tested thus far.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Canon PowerShot SX1 IS

1.4

1.7

0.6

0.4

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1

1.4

0.7

0.4

Canon PowerShot SX10 IS

1.5

2.1

0.8

0.6

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50

2.3

1.8

1.3

0.7

Olympus SP-570 UZ

3.3

2.5

1.8

0.8

Nikon P80

2.9

2.4

1.4

1.1

Typical continuous-shooting speed (in fps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1

10.6

Canon PowerShot SX1 IS

2.9

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50

1.6

Canon PowerShot SX10 IS

1.4

Nikon P80

1.3

Olympus SP-570 UZ

Spammers Can Get Your Email Address from Google Profiles

2009-04-30T01:07:00.001+05:30

A word of caution for people who have their email accounts on Gmail and are planning to use a vanity URL for their Google Profile.

Vanity URLs are available across all Google Accounts but you can pick a custom username for your Google Profile (like this) only if your Google Account is not associated with a Gmail address.

Gmail users have two choices - they can either continue using the default cryptic URL for their Google Profile (like this) or they can have their Google email username in the Google profile URL.

Now that may sound tempting because a URL like google.com/profiles/google_username is definitely search friendly and more easy to remember than google.com/profiles/121221 but before you jump, here’s a quick warning.

When you add your Gmail user name to the Google Profile, you are indirectly exposing your email address to spammers. They can simply take the username from any Google Profile, append @gmail.com and they have gold in their hands because its you real Gmail address.

All public Google Profiles are indexed in search engines so think twice before turning vanity URLs with your Gmail username. Hat tip Seer.

5 Basic Math Apps for the iPhone and Your Kids

2009-04-30T01:02:00.000+05:30

My iPhone has become my kids’ occasional babysitter. Whenever we have to wait longer than 60 seconds, I hear the familiar refrain of “Dad, can I play a game on your phone?”

I don’t always indulge them because they also need to learn the art to waiting patiently, but when I let them play, the game they most often reached for was Race to Everest. It occurred to me that game time could be spent on something more productive than a glorified game of “I Spy”.

So I went over to the iTunes store and picked out what seem to be some of the highest user rated math applications. We played them for a week and here’s what we think about iTunes selection of basic math games:

Cute Math

With no difficulty settings and very easy problems, this game is the most basic of the bunch. Under the Cute Math umbrella are six mini-games. The first two were basic counting exercises with cutesy sound effects. There are also simple addition and subtraction games. Both have animation to help kids figure out the solutions, but the link and instructions for starting the animation is small and somewhat hidden.

Finally, there are a couple of games that test what the kids have learned in the other games, throwing random addition and subtraction at them. The games are OK, but seem to be targeted at the 4-6 crowd — too simple for our needs.

Wired: Certainly is cute. Kids enjoyed the bright colors and happy sounds.

Tired: Very basic - will be outgrown quickly.

Cute Math (iTunes link), $1.99

Math Magic

Math Magic provides another good looking interface - a simple background is the setting for a straightforward quiz of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division.

Beneath each equation are four possible answers that the user must choose from. When the correct answer is selected, a young child’s voice congratulates the user with one of several exclamations. Get it wrong and the voice gives a word of encouragement and the user tries again until the correct answer is chosen. Don’t know an answer? Shake the phone to move to the next problem.

Wired: Great looking interface, easy to jump between types of problems.

Tired: Preferences are limited and a little confusing. Sound gets very annoying very quickly, but can be turned off. Multiple choice leads to guessing.

Math Magic (iTunes link), $1.99

Number Rumble

We were pretty excited about this one because it’s from Leap Frog and their toys have been very popular in our house for a long time. This game was the only one of the bunch that presented in landscape mode, all the others were normal portrait.

The visuals and sound were great. The game resembled a slot machine - after selecting the operator (+, -, / or *), the user gives the phone a shake and the numbers spin before settling on an equation. The user then turns a third wheel to identify the correct answer.

We wanted to like this, but there were a couple of very quirky things about Number Rumble that prevented us: the interface locks you out from turning the third wheel to select the answer until the sound effect that reads the equation is done … every … single … time, making for a lot of boring delays. Secondly, despite my phone being in silent mode, Number Rumble’s sound still played at top volume. This is the only app I’ve seen that ignores the volume shutoff.

Wired: Best presentation of the bunch - looks and sounds great.

Tired: No customization. The sound effects overrode the phone’s silent mode.

Number Rumble (iTunes link), $2.99

Pop Math Lite - Kids’ Choice

In individual testing, my focus group of three seven-year-olds all picked this game as their favorite. The game features floating bubbles with a mixture of equations and answers written on them. Simply touch an equation & match it with its answer and the bubbles pop. Pop enough bubbles and the screen clears and you level up. The game allows you to select the operator or a mixture of all four basic math functions.

There are no preferences to adjust difficulty or the level where you begin. As a parent, this isn’t my favorite because I’m not a big fan of learning through multiple choice, which often quickly devolves to guessing. While this version is available for free, there is also a full version for $0.99 that includes higher numbers in the equations and more backgrounds.

Wired: Kids’ favorite, looks good.

Tired: No preferences. Multiple choice answers.

Pop Math Lite (iTunes link), free

Math Drills Lite - GeekDad’s Favorite

I have to admit that, at first, this game was pretty unappealing to me. It lacked the pretty colors and sounds that the other games had and its calculator-like input was boring compared to the other interfaces. But after spending some time with it, I’m convinced that this is the best basic math app out there. Not only does Math Drills have the deepest ability to customize, allowing specification for types of equations, variety, help, sounds, colors and much, more, but the game also does the best job of teaching math.

Math Drills Lite has both review and practice modes, with the bulk of the teaching coming in review mode. Between the equation and the input, there are a selectable variety of help assistance that help kids comprehend what the equation is asking. From number lines to blocks and facts, there are plenty of ways to visually learn how to solve the math problems … or you can turn them off . And the questions that are missed are brought back up, so kids have the chance to understand what they got wrong and get another shot at understanding.

Math Drills Lite is available at no cost, however there is also a full version for $1.99 that tracks up to 10 different users’ progress, emphasizes problems that history has shown a child struggles with and offers even more customization than the already impressive Lite version.

Wired: The best teacher, the most customization & our choice as the iPhone math app to download.

Tired: Not the prettiest rose.

Math Drills Lite (iTunes link), free

list of sites to watch cricket matches online on pc through internet

2009-04-28T20:47:00.003+05:30

I am giving away my effort freely, to watch live streaming cricket matches, here are list of few sites where you can see, just go there and look if any link is working.

www.cricheats.com
www.cricout.com
www.desimanzil.com
www.cricketlivelinks.com
http://richiweb.ch.vu/
www.cricever.com
www.crictime.com
www.webcric.com
www.webcric.blogspot.com

you can also directly go to live streaming server sites, and search for specific match
www.ustream.tv
www.justin.tv
www.blogtv.com
www.freedocast.com

AOL Pimps Twitter and Pushes Bebo Aside

2009-04-28T09:44:00.001+05:30

A year ago AOL acquired social networking service Bebo for $850 million. It was one of the biggest acquisitions of the year. I haven’t heard much from Bebo since the acquisition.

This morning I was on aol.com (yes I use AOL) and noticed a large full width banner that reads, “Tweet Tweet! Got a Twitter account? Keep up with your tweets at AOL.com!”

AOL allows you to pull in a variety of other services including Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Facebook and MySpace. Bebo is still listed in the My Networks panel but to see it, you need to scroll over to the right. In the premier slot is Twitter - you need to provide AOL with your username and password to access your Twitter account via AOL.

It’s shocking that AOL has decided to push its $850 million acquisition on the side for the current media darling. At a minimum they should rework the widget to feature Bebo along with the other networks or push out Facebook or MySpace. Basically AOL is suggesting that Bebo isn’t as important as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Do You Want Facebook to Open Up? (POLL)

2009-04-28T09:39:00.002+05:30

Facebook made a big move today to open up user activity streams to outside applications and websites. We argued that the site remains fundamentally closed because outside developers can't access the full stream of all users' activity and information due to limiting privacy controls and friend connections. A very interesting debate broke out in the comments on our post and it makes us wonder about the following question. Do people really want Facebook to open up or do they prefer it to remain by default private?

There are good arguments in favor of both keeping Facebook info private by default and opening it up by default. Which would you prefer?

Would you accept Facebook making your account public in the future?(online surveys)

Eric Marcoulier articulated two arguments well in favor of openness when he said today that, "FaceBook's Open Streams is a great step forward, but it's still authorization-based. Call me when someone can build 'Summize for FaceBook.' [Summize is now known as Search.Twitter.com] I don't care about privacy on FB (others feel same). I'm sure someday I'll be able to set my profile public and be a happy guy."

As the founder of a service that exists to spread data around (Gnip), Marcoulier no doubt is excited to think about all the mashups and analysis that could be done with Facebook data if it were more open.

That's not a typical response to this matter, we'd guess. Facebook is dramatically different from most other social networks because, by default, user data can only be seen by friends who have been given permission to see it. That means privacy for users and less access for developers.

There's something to be said in favor of privacy. The internet is chipping a whole lot of it away very quickly. Private communication can be more comfortable and free for many people because it implies that trust is present. If there were no private communication available online, that would be a disaster.

But, do you want Facebook to be private by default and continue putting such emphasis on privacy? Or, would you be happy with a little less privacy and a little more rapid communication and innovation built on top of your social network? Everyone knows their grocery store does nothing but sell addresses to advertisers when shopping activity is exposed to 3rd parties, but people expect cool new features from Facebook. They might be willing to be flexible in order to get them.

A middle ground might be to allow anonymous, aggregate analysis of user activity data and social connections. Outside parties could know not that you sent a message about being pregnant to your ex-boyfriend's mother on Facebook, for example, but could populate a database of conversations between people with certain traits, certain connections, and on certain keywords with their names removed. That might be unrealistic as well, we could see some partial form of that kind of data availability. That much is probably just a pipe dream!

Facebook is likely to announce support for inbound OpenID from other networks within the next few hours, probably at an event starting at 4pm PST. That's interesting, but it's not really important at all compared to this big question. What will be done with all this Facebook data? Anything? Are users willing to let things be done with it?

How to Download Images from an Outlook Email

2009-04-28T09:36:00.000+05:30

I don’t understand why but Microsoft Outlook doesn’t provide an easy mechanism for users to download images that may be embedded inside an email message. You can right-click an inline image in Outlook and copy it to the clipboard but there’s no option to you save that picture on to a local folder.

However, as you would expect, there are three easy workarounds to this problem:

Option #a: You can copy the image to the clipboard and paste it into a photo editing tool like Paint or Photoshop.

Option #b: Open the email message and save it as an HTML file (File -> Save As -> Web page) - this will save all the embedded pictures in one folder. It’s the same trick that’s often used to extract pictures from PowerPoint slide-shows and is recommended when you want to download multiple images from the same message.

Option #c: This is my favorite. Open the e-mail message and under the Message tab, select Other Actions -> View in Browser. This would open your mail inside the default web browser as a regular HTML web page and you can right-click to save an embedded picture.

Trick #c probably works with Office 2007 only so if you are using an earlier version of Outlook, please use the #b option.

Neobux Online Money Making Strategy

2009-04-27T14:25:00.000+05:30

Hi! It’s been quite some time before I wrote a new post. I’ve been busy with school. But don’t worry, I’ll continue updating this blog with new posts once or twice a week. For now, please enjoy this informative post…

Are you earning very slow with neobux? Don’t you have any referrals? Don’t fret! This guide will help you earn money faster with neobux without spending anything!

There are a lot of strategies for earning money with neobux. What I will share to you is a common strategy that I read from a website months ago. This involves renting referrals using your own neobux balance. This way you’ll earn faster without investing your own money.

About renting referrals…

Neobux allows you to rent referrals for 30 days. These referrals will help you earn money. You get $0.005 per referral click if you are a standard member.

Renting referrals costs $0.28 (before, it costs $0.30!) per ref per month (30 days). But for your first 2 rents, you are given a discount. I don’t know the exact cost now because when I first rented, the normal renting was $0.30/ref and the discounted rent is $0.25/ref. Anyway, let’s assume that it is still $0.25/ref.

This means, if you rent 3 referrals for the first time, it will only cost you $0.75. Then if you rent 3 referrals for the second time, it’ll cost the same as your first. After that, your next rent will cost $0.28/ref.

The strategy…

Once you’ve made $0.80 or preferrably $1 in your neobux balance, you can transfer it to your renting balance in order to rent referrals. Once you’ve transferred it to your renting balance, go and rent 3 referrals. That will cost you $0.75 there will be 0.25 left (if you transferred $1). You will need the extra $0.25 later for recycling (to be explained later).

Let’s compute how much you could earn with 3 referrals…

let’s assume that:

3 referrals click 4 ads a day ($0.005 x 4ads x 3 refs): $0.06 ref earnings per day

You click 4 ads a day ($0.01 x 4): $0.04

Your total daily earnings ($0.04 + 0.015): $0.10

That is a lot more than you could do alone. But, we’re not done yet. You are only allowed to rent referrals once a week. That will give you time to earn enough to rent 3 referrals again. What you will do is to rent 3 referrals each week. Everytime your main balance reaches $1, transfer it to your rental balance. Pay for another month in order to keep the referrals that are expiring.

Repeat this process untill you are making $1 a day. After that, you will eventually rent larger packs of referrals.

Once you reach 500 referrals, or untill you’re satisfied with your earnings, stop renting and just maintain the 500 referrals. Save up for an upgraded account ($90). That will let you earn more for every referral.

This will take time but it’s better than clicking without referrals. It’s also a good way of making money without spending anything from your own pocket.

Now as for the recycling that I mentioned earlier. Not all rented referrals will be active. That is why you are allowed to replace a rented referral for new one if you see that they are not clicking. Replacing inactive referrals is called recycling. Recycling a referral doesn’t change the renting days. That means if you recycle a referral that has 20 days left, you will have a new referral for also 20 days.

Recycling costs $0.08 per referral. That is why there are also strategies for recycling referrals. What I will share to you, is another common recycling strategy for neobux.

The recycling strategy…

1. Recycle referrals that have not clicked for 3-4 days that have average clicks of 2.0 above
2. Recycle referrals that have not clicked for a day or 2 that have averages less than 2.0
3. Don’t recycle referrals who are upgraded members (those who click more than 4 ads per day).
4. Let inactive referrals with less than a week left to expire.

That’s basically it. Just tweak the strategy to fit your preference and to see what works for you.

One more thing, don’t enable the autopay function unless you have lots of rented referrals (100++). If you enable it with just a few referrals, it’ll only continuously reduce your renting balance and main balance (if the renting balance becomes $0).

For more information about the autopay function, hover your mouse to the “i” icon next to the “AutoPay is disabled!” notification in your rented referrals list. You could also read some posts about it from the forums.

Also, don’t forget to click all ads everyday so that you will always be credited for all of the clicks your referrals make.

That’s it. This is the method I use for making money online with neobux. I suggest to read the neobux forums to find some more neobux earning strategies. Feel free to modify and experiment to see what works for you but do the math first before trying anything.

Good luck! :)

IPL season 2

2009-04-18T21:53:00.003+05:30

Castle episode 5: A Chill Goes Through Her Veins

2009-04-09T13:02:00.000+05:30

watch smallville season 08 edpisode 18 eternal

2009-04-05T11:47:00.000+05:30

india vs new zealand 2nd day test match

2009-03-26T00:04:00.008+05:30

Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames.

Missed call finder for india and pakistan

2009-01-05T18:08:00.003+05:30

Below is the link to find the area from where you have got a missed call.
http://www.informationmadness.com/cms/index.php?option=com_search_misscall&Itemid=124

Audio Word List of Barrons

2009-01-05T18:04:00.000+05:30

These are links to Audio Word List of Barrons.

Courtesy :

This Audio WordList is made by a person named " Prof.M.Krupa Shanker " from Hyderabad.

QUOTE
The List contains from A to Z..

Download :

http://rapidshare.com/files/6350406/Abase_to_amulet.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6352851/Anathema_to_Barb.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6355523/Barefaced_to_Charisma.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6359620/Charlatan_to_Dispassionate.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6363685/Dishevelled_to_Frolicsome.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6367709/Formidable_to__Inkling.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6368351/Innate_to_Inviegle.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6370720/Inverse_to_Mace.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6374192/Machiavellian_to_Narrative.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6379707/Nascent__to__Precocious.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6384763/Precursor_to_Rout.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6389301/Rubble_to_Swerve.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6394432/Swill_to_Vignette.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/6395946/Vilify_to_Zephyr.mp3

Naruto Shippuuden 86-87 with subtitles high quality

2008-12-06T01:02:00.000+05:30

Naruto Shippuuden 86-87 with subtitles high quality

Naruto Shippuuden 85 with subtitles high quality

2008-11-21T12:03:00.000+05:30

Naruto Shippuuden 84

2008-11-13T23:27:00.000+05:30

Nehru Gandhi Family Secrets

2008-11-10T21:29:00.002+05:30

I found it on net, I m not pressing that it's true, but some of these i have heard since my childhood. Its worth reading it. But my personal opinion is that, it's true, because the facts given correlates everything, every rumor and news.keep reading!!
Nehru Gandhi Family Secrets

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Health Technology history india

india vs australia final day match nagpur live

2008-11-10T12:41:00.000+05:30

Watch live video from private on Justin.tv

password: manavcricket.techindiaforum.com

watch india vs australia test match

2008-11-08T14:39:00.002+05:30

Watch Naruto Shippuuden 83 RAW

2008-11-07T09:11:00.001+05:30

watch saw v online free

2008-11-06T17:11:00.000+05:30

TechCrunch: An Example of a Great Blog Design

2008-11-06T17:10:00.001+05:30

Smashing Magazine has lot of good things to say about the new design of TechCrunch. I couldn’t agree more with their opinions though the bulky pages may not be that friendly for readers who are on a slow web connection.

"TechCrunch’s new design removes every single unnecessary graphical element from the page. What’s left is just the content, advertising and navigation. Subtle lines and grey shades give the page structure, yet the interface is almost invisible and places content straight into the front row. For a blog that posts several new articles a day, this format is ideal because it facilitates fast and easy access to the content."

TechCrunch - Tech Blog of Michael Arrington

Always on Top: Keep Any Window Visible Always

2008-11-06T17:08:00.000+05:30

Imagine a situation where you are browsing the web in Firefox and simultaneously watching some video podcast in Windows Movie Player or QuickTime.

That Firefox window is running in "Maximized" mode so each time you switch to Firefox, the media player window disappears as it moves to the background behind Firefox.

So what do you do to prevent that video clip from hiding even while you continue to work in a browser?

Enter "Always on Top" – it’s a free utility written in Autohotkey that will stick any program window to the foreground of your desktop with a simple keyboard shortcut. Some examples:

Browser running in foreground but QuickTime is always visible

Keep the notepad or calculator handy while using an Excel Spreadsheet

To get started, download the Always On Top utility from box.net (<200k)>

You no longer have to worry about arranging windows side-by-side to copy-paste information from one window to another.

If you like to disable sticking and restore the default window behavior, just press the same Ctrl+Space shortcut again.

Video Demo - Always on Top Utility

The program is written in Autohotkey with a single line of code:

^SPACE::  Winset, Alwaysontop, , A

Camtasia Studio 6 Review

2008-11-06T17:05:00.000+05:30

TechSmith today introduced Camtasia Studio 6 almost an year after Camtasia Studio 5.

Some of the new features that I really enjoyed in Camtasia Studio 6 include that 3D Tilt Effect (see picture), HD quality video output, new hotkeys, YouTube support and more options for time-lapse animators.

3D Tilt effect makes your screencasts look more professional

Camtasia Studio 6 includes built-in preset for YouTube meaning you can produce your desktop screen videos in a format that is best suitable for uploading the video on to YouTube. There are new presets for mobile devices like iPhone, iPod, etc. as well.

The biggest enhancement in Camtasia 6 is the ability to produce HD quality videos (H.264 format) without bloating the file size. There’s a new HD preset that you may use for producing screencasts that will be watched on large screens.

The new Camtasia Video Preview window

If you are into Time Lapse animation, you’ll especially enjoy the new 0.1 second image transition limit that will help you squeeze more pictures in the same duration thus improving the time-lapse effect.

Tata Sky become first DTH service to provide DVR

2008-11-06T09:03:00.002+05:30

Faced with increased competition from Airtel Digital TV and Big TV, Tata Sky has launched a new service Tata Sky+, which uses the much awaited personal video recorder (PVR) technology.

PVR allows viewers to Pause TV, Rewind and even Record one channel while watching another channel. The recording can be done maximum for 45 minutes which is done on an in built Hard Disk.

The set top box for Tata Sky+ would be different from existing one and priced at Rs.8999 with a Rs.50 per month usage fee.

The new service is aimed at premium customers and have a sleek look to it with a black and red colour combination (thankfully its not red and white, the object of controversy during the recent Airtel TV-Big TV ad campaigns).

Free Microsoft Software for College Students in India

2008-11-06T09:00:00.000+05:30

Catch them young. Bill Gates is in India and among other initiatives, he launched the DreamSpark program for all technical students in India.

Software Titles available free of charge to College Students

The software suite includes Windows Server, Microsoft Visual Studio, Expression Studio, Virtual PC and more. You could simply walk into any NIIT or Aptech training institute and show your college identity card to get free DVDs.

Both undergraduates and graduate students are eligible to receive free software from Microsoft.

Alternatively, if you have a high bandwidth connection, you may download the software online from dreamsparkindia.com.

Microsoft DreamSpark will be expanded to include high school students by early 2009.

TMPGEnc XPress v4 6 2 266 Incl Keyfilemaker And Patch-EMBRACE

2008-11-06T08:59:00.001+05:30

Here is the latest version of this popular and easy to use video encoder. I remember using this before it had any mpeg-4 features and it was just for mpeg-1/2. This application is a jack off all trades, but a master of none, For example there are much better encoders for each format (mpeg-1/2, mpeg-4 asp/avc). But this does simplify things for inexperienced users.

Description: TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress gives you the freedom to take almost any video file and encode it to your desired file format including DivX, AVI, QuickTime, MPEG 4-ISO, H.264, DVD-Video, DVD-VR, HDV camcorder, Blu-ray Disc and much more. This powerful software provides you with functions and features ranging from a simple cut-editor tool to multiple powerful video filtering and effects.

Release Name: TMPGEnc.XPress.v4.6.2.266.Incl.Keyfilemaker.And.Patch-EMBRACE
Size: 29.2 MB

Homepage - NFO - Torrent - Rapidshare

applications

2008-11-06T08:56:00.002+05:30

I saw a collection of applications released on the 4th so I thought I would bring you the highlights. Please read the nfo’s for install instructions unless you think you are leet enough to work it out on yourself. I’ll try not to jack off in this post .

Release Name: Ashampoo.Burning.Studio.8.v8.04.READ.NFO-TE
Size: 38.1 MB

Homepage - NFO - Torrent

Does your burning software do everything but you can’t find anything? Did installing it take up several gigabytes of hard drive space and fill up your Taskbar? Ashampoo Burning Studio 8 is different. It’s compact, fast and amazingly easy to use. You just choose from a list of tasks and the software guides you through every step. And even though it has all the functions you would expect from a complete burning suite, the entire software takes up less than 80 megabytes on your hard disk.

Release Name: Divx.Create.Bundle.v6.8.5.11.Incl.KeyMaker-DVT
Size: 20.5 MB

Homepage - NFO - Torrent

DivX for Windows gives you everything you need to create and play high-quality DivX videos on your PC and beyond.

Release Name: PhotoInfoEx.v1.28-Lz0
Size: 7.95 MB

Homepage - NFO - Torrent

PhotoInfoEx gives comfortable review of digital photographs and connected to them in-built information (EXIF, IPTC). The program is maintaining a number of file formats of images, both ordinary ones like Jpeg and Tiff, and specific formats like RAW (Crw, Nef, Raw, Raf, Dcr and so on).

Release Name: R-Crypto.v1.2.3284-DOA
Size: 2.33 MB

Homepage - NFO - Torrent

R-Crypto is an easy-to-use system utility that protects your confidential information and personal data on a desktop, notebook, or a removable data storage device against unauthorized access.

Release Name: R-Drive.Image.v4.3.4318-DOA
Size: 10.4 MB

Homepage - NFO - Torrent

R-Drive Image 4.3 is a potent utility providing disk image files creation for backup or duplication purposes.

Release Name: Total.Recorder.Developer.v7.1-DOA
Size: 5.99 MB

Homepage - NFO - Torrent

Total Recorder Developer Edition is an edition of Total Recorder that allows you to integrate the capabilities of Total Recorder (sound recording,
editing, processing, and playing) with other applications.

Release Name: Total.Recorder.Professional.v7.1.Incl.All.Addons-DOA
Size: 7.04 MB

Homepage - NFO - Torrent

The Professional Edition is the main edition from the Total Recorder product family. This edition provides many powerful functions for the recording, converting, editing, and processing of sound.

India Australia 3rd Test Delhi Live

2008-10-30T09:34:00.001+05:30

Create a logo for free

2008-03-04T20:07:00.000+05:30

Do you want to create a logo for free? No need to look anywhere else! Cool Text does the job! I know people who aren’t good at photoshop are always wondering how to create a logo for free! This graphics generator comes in play and lets you choose what kind of image you want, gives you access to over 1,200 fonts and does the job in a few clicks!

There are some already made logos which you can edit if you run out of ideas! Just fill out a simple form and create a logo for free. There is no registration process involved in creating your free logos.

Some Examples are:

Click here to create your Logo For Free

FLV to AVI converter - Batch FLV Converter

2008-03-04T20:06:00.000+05:30

I was searching for a good FLV to AVI converter when I came around “Batch FLV Converter”. And I must say, Batch FLV Converter is a great software to help you convert any FLV files to MPEG/AVI etc. This is a total newbie friendly software and after converting the files, you can then play the video in all common media players, like Windows Media player etc.

Bottom line is, For any user who wants to convert FLV to AVI, It’s the software for you. Some people might not have the codecs installed when you are looking to share your favorite videos over the world.. but with Batch FLV Converter, you can without worrying send them the files and they can run/view it easily!

It’s a free FLV to AVI converter so feel free to download.. (Links below)

Download Batch FLV Converter : 1.58 MB Only
WebSite: Source

Apple, unable to put 1,000-film rental offering

2008-03-04T20:04:00.000+05:30

As the topic says, Apple as promised, were not able to pull of 1000 film rental offering. Steve Jobs announced iTunes movie rentals would be available by the end of February and they will put 1,000 movies on it. Well February has come and gone, it looks like it never happened!

According to Macworld, the total number of movies currently available are only 399 and if all movies that can be purchased or rented are taken together, only 770 are displayed. To make matters worse, the company’s Apple TV device, which it promised would be the hub for all rentals, offers only 351 movies at this time.

Source: MacWorld

Bit Torrent introduced on iPhone

2008-03-04T20:03:00.003+05:30

Wow? First a Solar Charger for a iPhone and now this?Always wondered if you can download movies to your iPhone or your favorite episode? Look no more! Now you can download anything that you want to your iPhone.. check out the app that does the job for you!

It went through a lot of beta testing and developers worked very hard!! as they quoted!

“P2P torrent on the iPhone, a sad tale of woe, misery, abject failure… and then eventually success!”

Persistence finally paid off :D

Check it out HERE

The Six Most Hated Irritants in Windows XP

2008-03-04T19:53:00.000+05:30

Imperfections in Windows XP are as many as its excellent features.Well, i have not listed all the annoyances when you come across Windows Xp.But, here are some of the most hated things about Windows XP.

1. Error Reporting
When a program crashes you will receive a message asking you if you want an error report to be send to Microsoft.Most of us just click on “Don’t Send”.So why not prevent this window from coming up in the first place.This can be done by a simple registry hack, but there exists another way to do it.Get the System Properties dialog box by just right clicking on my My Computer and choosing properties.You can also use a Keyboard shortcut :

[Windows] + [Pause Break]

Click on the Advanced Tab and then Error Reporting and Select Disable Error Reporting.

2. Confirm File Delete
Are you sure you want to send ‘Whatever it may be’ to the Recycle BinEven after selecting “YES” the file is not permanently deleted it can be restored from the Recycle Bin.To get rid of this irritant right-click on the Recycle Bin and Select Properties.Uncheck the option “Display delete confirmation dialog” .

3. Show Desktop Icon Not Shown

It must be the most useful Windows shortcut.What if you accidentally deleted it ?The quickest way to restore it is to got to Start > Run type in “regsvr32/n/i:U shell32″ and press [Enter].The Show Desktop Icon appears in the Quick Launch Bar.

4. Cannot Remove From Add/Remove Programs

You Un-installed an old program a long time ago .It’s gone for good.But still appears in the Add/Remove Programs.This is not at all a problem.Just Go to

“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall”

and remove items you want to.

5. Disable Auto-play
Every time you insert a CD, the auto-play(or auto-run ) feature takes over.You can prevent windows from scanning the CD and suggest a application with a simple registry tweak.

Open the Registry Editor,and navigate to

“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom”

Change the value of the Auto-run DWORD value to “0″. If the DWORD is not present , then create it and set the value to “0″.

6. Balloon Pops

If you are running Windows XP with Service Pack 2(SP2).You may receive warnings in pop-ups
from the Security Center Service,telling you that the firewall or anti-virus is not on.Or the Automatic Updates is switched off and so on.You will want to disable Automatic Updates if it is interrupting your work , or if you want to download them manually .You can disable Windows Firewall if you are not prone to intrusion.

To get rid of pop-ups go to the Control Panel and open the Security Center and open Automatic Updates or Windows Firewall or what case may be, and turn them off.
To disable the warnings that pop-up when these services are turned off,go to the Control Panel
and go to Security Center and click on “Change the way Security Center alerts me”.Here,deselect the alerts you don’t want to receive..Click OK and exit.

7. Low Disk Space

Another common irritant is the low disk space warning that comes frequently when a partition is low on disk space.This is a very annoying.Here is the registry hack to take care of this problem.

Open the Registry Editor,by going to Start > Run type in “regedit” and press [Enter]
Navigate to

“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer”

Right_click on a blank area on the right side of the editor and create a new DWORD value.Name it “NoLowDiskSpaceChecks”, double-click on it and enter the value “1″.Click on OK and exit the Registry Editor.When you restart your computer the warnings will be turned off.

Softwares to Tweak Windows XP

2008-03-04T17:36:00.000+05:30

If you can’t get enough of the default options in Windows XP, and want to tweak it to the utmost level without getting into the registry and messing up with stuff, you could download any one of the following software that let you tweak Windows XP easily:

TweakUI

TweakUI gives you access to modify settings that necessarily cannot be changed in Windows XP. Over a hundred default settings can be modified by using the TweakUI Control Panel Applet. Integrating very well with the default interface, this tool is very lightweight as well.

Download Tweak Windows XP

FreshUI

FreshUI comes from the makers of Fresh Diagnose, and is a separate program that can be downloaded here. It lets you tweak lots of settings than TweakUI, and is great for users who’re a bit advanced. You can restore the modifications you’ve made with a single click. Its scope is more wide than TweakUI.

Download Tweak Windows XP

Find ICICI Bank Branches nearest to your place

2008-03-04T17:35:00.001+05:30

MapMyIndia.com, a site that provides digital maps imagery for Indian cities and towns has recently started a new service that lets you locate any ICICI bank branches closest to your location.

Just point your browser to http://locator.mapmyindia.com/icici/ and select your state, city and type the name of your locality or key in a landmark to find ICICI bank branches nearest to you.

7 Interesting and Useful Things to do with your USB Pen Drive

2008-03-04T17:30:00.001+05:30

If you’ve got a USB Pen Drive, you can use it for a variety of things, that includes adding portable apps and lots more.

But, your Pen Drive can serve for some interesting purposes as well - some you wouldn’t have imagined about. Put it to some good use, here’s a quick list of what you can do with it:

1. Install a Linux Distro

Pen Drive Linux guides you through procedures on loading your USB Drive with a Linux Distro. If you’re a geek, you’ll love this setup. If you’re just a normal user, this may come to your use in a variety of situations - you go to a friend’s computer, which is infected with pesky viruses. You need not worry, boot with your Linux-loaded pen drive and do your job, safe and secure.

2. Install MojoPac

I usually don’t recommend software that you’ll have to pay for using, but this one is something I can’t resist myself from recommending to you dear readers. Yes, this is a wonderful app that’ll install itself into a pen drive, and run on top of Windows. You can run your favourite Windows apps, most of them run perfect on this MojoPac layer. The advantage is that none of the modified settings affect the original Windows over which your MojoPac is running on. Quite cool, isn’t it?

3. Automatic Backups

You’re probably using your USB Pen Drive as a backup device to hold your important documents, but why not make the process easier? Install Allway Sync or Microsoft SyncToy. Both can let you sync files on your computer with your USB Pen Drive with ease. You don’t have to do manual copy & paste files - just insert, click and you’re done.

4. Additional Memory

Vista can use your USB Flash Drive just like your RAM - such a capability is integrated into the OS. Windows XP just can’t use it as additional memory - your flash drive is just a flash drive. Not anymore if you have eBoostr installed. This software program aids XP in using your Flash Drive as a memory device. You might want to give this a try if your computer is hungry on resources and needs some speed boost.

5. Perfect for Gifts

Indeed, these funky USB Drives are perfect for gifts. There are lots of creative things you could do with it, and then present it to your loved one. If your friend is a businessman/freelancer who has to work with multiple computers, a USB Pen Drive can serve as a perfect gift for the person will have files to carry around. In case your close friend is just a casual user, you could load it with some photos and gift it to that person. Get a pen drive, put your photos in, let them autorun as a surprise when the thumb drive is put in.

6. Exhibit your Skills

Are you a computer/web based worker? Chances are you want to exhibit your skills - what you’ve done in the past. Why not load them on to your USB Drive? For instance, if you’re a graphic designer - you could use it to present your skills, stuff that you’ve worked on in the past and show it off to your clients. Probably, they might hire you right away (Thanks Skellie)

7. Enjoy Music, hassle free

If you’re a serious audiophile, and still got to work in multiple computers, accessing your music collection can be painful. But there’s Winamp to the rescue. You can use Winamp to put your music collection in your USB thumb drive, all still organized and easily accessible. Winamp Portable Edition makes your media library portable, and organized for hassle free listening.

Adsense layout strategy to get more clicks on your ads

2008-03-03T18:13:00.000+05:30

The number of clicks you get on your ads greatly depends on the way you layout your ads. Especially AdSense like content related advertisement programs will help you bring more revenues if you place your ads applying more thought.

Most of the people who hosts their blogs on blogspot platform, the prime traffic driver would be Google search and Yahoo Search. Most cases the link referred by a search engine would be pointing to a single blog post or article. And the link referred by most of the site referral or link exchange or blog roll would be to your blog home page. So we have to apply different ads layout strategy for your individual blog post or article page and for your blog home page.

Ads layout for individual blog article page: As the individual blog article page referred by search engines and RSS feed readers will drive users directly to your blog article, is only because of the referred content. In this case it is must that the ads should be adjacent or within the article content.

You can put your AdSense code soon after the blog article heading and before the starting of the content.
Also you can put one more AdSense code soon after the content got over.

Preferably, you can use the square ads in above two places. And in order to selectively place your ads in the above two locations, only for individual blog article you have to make use of the and tags around your AdSense code. This will make sure that the ads will be showed only for individual blog article page.

I feel text ads would bring more clicks compared to the image and video ads in this place. See the image below to have a clear picture on ads placement.

Ads layout for home page: You are aware that, link promotions, site referrals and your frequent blog readers would directly come to your home page.

In order to serve ads for home page its always better to have long horizontal banner ad on top of the blog, this would attract the attention of user when he enters the blog and while closing the page.
One more point you have to consider is that most of the internet users in this world are right-handed people, so they use to keep their mouse pointer on the right side of the while they are reading the articles. So it is always better to have a large vertical banner on the right side.

This can be selectively achieved by placing your ads between the and tags in the blogger old template. In this place also I feel text ads would bring more clicks compared to the image and video ads.This particular ad placement is evident from the ad layout in the Google search result.

Ads layout common to home page and individual page: Try to keep a large vertical banner on the right side and a long horizontal banner on top. Text ads would be preferred if you have more content oriented articles and image and video ads would be preferred where your blog niche is about offers, vehicles, gifts, real estates, FMCG and electronic goods.

How Many Videos Have You Watched on YouTube ?

2008-03-03T17:58:00.001+05:30

You may have spent countless hours on YouTube watching cats falling off the dinner tables but do you know the exact number of video clips that you have ever watched on YouTube ?

YouTube tracks statistics for all their videos but now they have decided to share some basic stats with their members.

Login to your YouTube account and then click this link - youtube.com/iyt - its your personalized YouTube homepage. Customize this page and add the statistics modules.

1. You will now know the number of YouTube videos that you have ever viewed on YouTube.

2. If you upload videos on YouTube, you will also see total views - that’s the number of times your own videos have been viewed on YouTube by other members.

YouTube offers aggregated stats for all your videos - if you want to track statistics for individual YouTube videos, check out TubeMogul - it’s like your personal Google Analytics for YouTube.

Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 Weekly Update - March 2, 2008

2008-03-03T17:56:00.000+05:30

News Flash! Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron LTS (long term support, 3 years as opposed to the normal 1 year) is due out in less than two months! From now until its release, we at TadBit will be providing a post every week to keep you updated on its development. So far, many new updates have been proposed. These updates include a improved version of the Human theme, (the original Human theme has been the bundled theme since the beginning) Firefox 3, (this of course depends on Mozilla though) and better disk management. Originally, there was going to be a completely new theme for Hardy but they decided to put that off until 8.10 because that’s the start of a new LTS cycle. Currently, the dates are as follows:

March 6^th, 2008- Hardy Alpha 6 (last Alpha before the release)

March 13^th, 2008- Deadline for Artwork

April 17^th, 2008- Release Candidate

April 24^th, 2008- Final Release

A list of all important dates can be found here. That about wraps it up for this issue, if you have any ideas about what I should throw in the next issue then please comment on this post. Look for interviews with developers, news, and much more in the up coming weeks. For those few brave people who want to try the latest Alpha version, Alpha 5 can be found here. Don’t forget to scroll down for cool Ubuntu links, have a great week!

Cool Links:
Ubuntu Brainstorm
Ubuntu Alpha 5
Kubuntu Alpha 5
The Ubuntu Fridge
Ubuntu Forums
Full Circle Magazine

Symonds vs. Harbhajan - Quite Funny

2008-03-03T17:55:00.001+05:30

I was recently forwarded an email. The title or subject of the forward was “Symonds and Harbhajan.” I had no idea what that was. Google being my friend, I searched it up. (Results) If you watch the famous Indian sport, cricket, then you should know who Symonds and Harbhajan are. The issue, you might be asking… racism. Click MORE to check out the monkey vs. dog image and a video. Although it has long been resolved. The animated gif image is what makes it funny. (Point of the post.)

Andrew Symonds has accused Harbhajan Singh of racial abuse, an allegation that might sour the relationship between the two teams in the ongoing cricket tour. The two have had a running battle since Australia toured India for a one-day series last October.
Harbhajan has been charged under Level 3 of the International Cricket Council’s Code of Conduct following the exchange with Symonds in an incident that took place Friday during the second Test between India and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Source

Here is the YouTube video -

Harbhajan-Symonds sledge: Experts question Ponting

UPDATE: India cricketer Harbhajan cleared of racial abuse charge - Source

AND this gif image representing them…

(Click me)

15 Unfortunate Domain Names - A reason to why you must think!

2008-03-03T17:52:00.000+05:30

How about you think before you register your next domain name. Here is a solid proof oh why you MUST think before you register your domain. Don’t be so eager to register it so nobody would take it, nobody wants it anyway.

The list

Who Represents - Find the agent that represents any celebrity.
http://www.whorepresents.com/ (Whore Presents)
Italian Power Generator - Italian Power Generator Company.
http://www.powergenitalia.com/ (PowerGenitalia)
Therapist Finder - Need one? Go here.
http://www.therapistfinder.com/ (TheRapistFinder)
Pen Island - Pen land.
http://www.penisland.com/ (PenisLand)
Mole Station Native Nursery
http://www.molestationnursery.com/ (MolestationNursery)
IP Computer Software
http://www.ipanywhere.com/ (IPAnywhere)
Speed of Art
http://www.speedofart.com/ (SpeedoFart)
ViaGrafix - A company selling CAD software and learning CDs. Want CAD? Go here.
http://www.viagrafix.com/ (ViagraFix)
New York State’s Canals - Things to do.
http://www.nycanal.com/ (NYCAnal)
IHA Vegas - holiday rentals
http://www.ihavegas.com/ (IHaveGas)
Auctions Hit - eBay competitor
http://www.auctionshit.com/ (AuctionShit)
Dickson Web - Manufacturer of instruments for monitoring temperature, humidity and pressure.
http://www.dicksonweb.com/ (DicksOnWeb)
Big Al’s Online - Online fish supplies store.
http://www.bigalsonline.com/ (BiGalsOnline)
WebOne
http://www.webone.com/ (WeBone)
Cook Islands
http://www.budget.co.ck/ (Budget.co.ck)

8 Simple Memory Tricks You Should Practice

2008-02-29T15:18:00.000+05:30

I am really bad when it comes to going out grocery shopping. I am told to get this and that, come back with that and those. If you know what I am saying. Many people have trouble with remembering simple things. They either forget in the split second they think about something else or it stays there until they actually need to put the memory in use. And when they need it… brain freeze!

Say you just finished meeting, you are told to complete certain tasks, on your way home, you repeat over and over what you need to do when you get home. You get home, shower, whatever you do, then you sit at your desk, stare at your computer… completely blanked out. Its “on the tip” of your tongue but won’t word out. Ah, you are screwed, you should have taken some notes! Oh, and where is the TV remote? your glasses? your keys?

- Here are memory tricks you should practice.

Visualization - this is one of the most important trick. Visualize. Everything! Look at the surrounds. Colors. If you need to remember a persons name, try imagining them doing something crazy (very crazy), you will be like ah, you are that girl that did that… in your head. Staple their name on their face. Relate the name to the person. Bill… smart, geeky… you get it… CEO type. We hope.
Make it a habit - Do it over and over, get used to it. Get used to taking notes. It will be hard in the beginning but later, you will be surprised. Don’t be lazy! Stick “Don’t Be Lazy” notes everywhere in your room. (I have that.)
Sing - Got a list of items for shopping? Make a song. Or relate it to a well known song. Rhythm would be nice.
ABCs - If you can’t remember a movie, person, or a place name - try reciting the alphabet. When you hit the letter of your movie, person or place name, it will automatically trigger.
Remember that - tell yourself to remember it. Say “remember that” and you will remember it.
Track & Trace - forgot your keys? Track and trace back where you walked, what you remember you did last, think about the surroundings.
Talk it out - say things you need to remember over and over again. The more times you say it, the more effectively your brain will store the information.
Incorporate - Use the above 7 tips and tricks together to remember that milk you have to get from Walgreens

Google, a hacking tool?

2008-02-29T12:43:00.000+05:30

Earlier this week, the (in)famous hacking group, The Cult of the Dead Cow(cDc), created a tool that turns the search giant into a massive vulnerability scanner. It has the ability to find passwords and other sensitive information in a matter of minutes. Many may know cDc as the creators of programs such as Black Orfice which achieved the utmost fame just 10 years ago. With this new tool, Goolag scanner, even unskilled soccer moms can acquire password information.

Although, this tool could be used for malicious purposes, it can also help administrators to find vulnerabilities on their own sites before someone else does. Goolag scan is currently a win32 only application, but cDc is in the process of making a Linux compatible version. The tool can be found at http://goolag.org but please use it responsibly. Get!

How to: Disable System Tray

2008-02-29T12:41:00.000+05:30

Tired of those system tray icons? Here is a way to get rid of the bunch. Follow these six simple steps.

Note: This edit deals with a fridgin’ REGISTRY EDITOR don’t mess with things you don’t know. Next thing you know, your ’start’ button will say ‘end.’ Play safe!

1. Open the run programs dialog box (either by hitting Win+R or finding the Run icon in the Windows Start Menu)
2. Type “regedit” to open the Windows Registry Editor
3. Find this section: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
4. Create a new DWORD Value by right-clicking and selecting new DWORD or clicking Edit, then New, then DWORD
5. Name your DWORD Value NoTrayItemsDisplay
6. Set the value to 1

Top 10 Open Source Applications

2008-02-29T12:39:00.000+05:30

Who says that just because something is 100% free that it can’t also be good? In this post, it is my mission to debug myths about open source applications being poor quality. Here are the top 10 (in no particular order) open source applications.

1. Amarok
In my opinion, Amarok is the best (on any platform) media manager and audio player on the planet! The minute you add something new to your collection, it already updates it before you even have the chance to check if it’s there or not. Amarok is a Linux only application that works natively with the KDE environment. If you have a Linux distribution, Ubuntu recommended, you can download it and experience the wonder of this amazing program. Get it!

2. Firefox
Everyone’s favorite web browser, the free and open, Firefox. This browser is lightweight, has tons of great extensions and themes, and is one of the most secure browsers out there now. Firefox is unique because it works on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh. Not many browsers could say that, now could they? Get it!

3. OpenOffice
One of the greatest office suites out there today has to be OpenOffice. Unlike Microsoft Office, OpenOffice is free and open which means anyone can get and edit the source code. It also has features that you need to pay for in Microsoft Office, like foreign language spell checking. OpenOffice is available to everyone using a Windows or Linux operating system, so next time you need to write a document or make a slideshow, think OpenOffice. Get it!

4. VLC Media Player
In my opinion, VLC is the best media player I’ve ever used. Never have i had a codec problem, syncing problems, or compatibility problems. It’s also lightweight, and free and open (like everything on this list). VLC works on both Windows and Linux operating systems with flying colors. Get it!

5. Pidgin
Pidgin is an open and versatile instant messaging program for both Windows and Linux. It combines AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, ICQ and many others into one application. Pidgin also supports video conferencing, chat rooms(including IRC), voice conferencing and tons of addons. Get it!

6. XChat
What would this list be without an IRC client? If you’re looking for a good one, you’ve found it! XChat supports everything a normal IRC client would except more. More than 100 addons, support for python scripts, the list is endless! XChat currently works on both Windows and Linux operating systems. Get it!

7. Frozen Bubble
As you were reading this, you may have asked your self, “Where are all the games?” Well, heres one! It’s called Frozen Bubble, it is a nice relaxing game you can play any time. Heck, I’m playing it in between writing this article. It is currently available for Linux only but a port for Windows and Macintosh is in the works. Get it!

8. OpenArena
Here’s yet another game, it’s called OpenArena. OpenArena is a fast paced FPS based on Quake III Arena plus it is free and open source. Luckily, OpenArena is available to anyone with Linux, Windows, and Macintosh operating systems. Get it!

9. The Gimp
Can’t leave the computer graphics enthusiist out now can I? The Gimp is a free and open alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It has many of the same features and some people even prefer The Gimp to Photoshop. The Gimp is available to anyone with a Windows, Linux, or Macintosh operating system. Get it!

10. Virtualbox
Virtualbox is THE BEST virtualization software out there today. Unlike VMware, it is 100% free and open and supports more operating system types than VMware. Virtualbox was recently acquired by Sun Microsystems so there’s bound to be even more improvement. It currently runs on all Linux, Unix, Windows, and Macintosh operating systems. Get it!

So far, these are the best open source applications in my opinion. If you disagree, why don’t you comment this article and tell us all which applications you like best?

When Some Specific Websites Do Not Open On Your Computer

2008-02-29T12:05:00.002+05:30

Your computer is connected to the Internet and you can reach most websites just fine but there’s a problem when you try to open some particular website(s).

Though that website is unreachable from your computer, it is definitely not down because you are able to access the same website from another computer at home.

Facing a similar problem ? Here’s how to diagnose and fix the issue:

Fix 1: Check your Windows HOSTS file - Make sure there’s no entry in the hosts file that maps the website’s address to localhost or an incorrect IP address like 127.0.0.1 - it is a possibility if you have imported some third-party hosts file.

cmd /k notepad c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Fix 2: Find Faults in the Pipeline - Paypal website may be up and running but it is possible that the real problem lies with a router that is between you and the computer hosting the Paypal website. Do a traceroute and check for messages like “Request Timed Out” - they will help you find the location of the breakdown.

Type the following command in the Run Window:

cmd /k tracert www.paypal.com - remember to replace Paypal with address of the website that is unreachable.

Fix 3: Clear DNS Cache - The DNS cache keeps a record of sites that you have recently visited on your computer. If that gets corrupted, you may have issues opening sites that were previously accessible without problems.

Type cmd /k ipconfig /displaydns in the Run window to see the cache entries. If that unreachable website is listed in the cache, type cmd /k ipconfig /flushdns to clear the cache.

Fix 4: Website May Be Blocked - The chances are rare but it is possible that access to some particular website may be have been restricted by the Office firewall. To test this, send an email to www@web2mail.com with the problematic website URL in the subject field. If the website is up, you will get a text copy of the web page in an email message.

Fix 5: Suspend the Anti-Virus and Firewall - If you are running an external software firewall or anti-virus program (like Norton, ZoneAlarm, etc), exit and restart the web browser. Is the problem solved now ?

When nothing works, open 192.168.1.1 and reboot the modem. If that fails, restart your computer and as a final step, call your ISP support.

Firefox 3 Performance Gets a Boost

2008-02-28T17:16:00.001+05:30

"Mozilla has been working hard at making Firefox 3 faster than its predecessor, and it looks like they might be succeeding. They've recently added some significant JavaScript performance improvements that beat out all of the competition, including Opera 9.5 Beta. And it comes out to be about ten times faster than Internet Explorer 7! Things are really starting to fall into place for Firefox 3 Beta 4 which should be available in the next week or two."

It Took 16 Months, But Google Relaunches Jotspot

2008-02-28T17:13:00.002+05:30

Google acquired hosted wiki service Jotspot in October 2006. The service immediately stopped taking new users, although existing users were supported. Now, nearly sixteen months later, Jotspot has been relaunched under the Google Apps team, as Google Sites.

Google Sites looks absolutely nothing like Jotspot, other than the fact that both are hosted wikis. All of the structured data templates launched by Jotspot in July 2006 have been stripped out. Users now have a choice between just five basic templates - a standard wiki, a dashboard where google gadgets can be embedded, a blog-like template for announcements, a file cabinet for file uploads, and a page for lists of items. Instead of creating structured templates, users will now simply embed spreadsheets, presentations and word documents from Google Docs, as well as Google Calendars, YouTube Videos and Picasa Albums.

Like Google Docs, Google Sites wikis can be made private, shared with others, or made public. Users can select from a variety of templates, but cannot yet customize the look and feel of the site. Somewhere down the road, Google says, they’ll release an API for the new service as well. Editing is done with a rich text editor that allows for basic formatting.

Google Sites is a free product, with limitations on support and storage (10 GB). Users can upgrade their Google Apps account to a standard edition, also free, and map their own domains to the site. A premier edition is also available for $50/user/year that includes a service level agreement, support and more admin capabilities.

All wiki pages have RSS feeds associated with them to allow users to track any changes.

Existing Jotspot users will continue to be supported on the old platform for the near future, and they will also be given instructions for porting their Jotspot wikis to Google sites.

In an interview today, Google’s Management Director of Enterprise Matthew Glotzbach called the combined products under Google Apps a “Microsoft Sharepoint killer” because it’s allowing businesses to collaborate without all that expensive Microsoft software. It may not be a Sharepoint killer yet, but Google Apps constitutes 2-3% of Google’s total revenues. Some point soon, its going to start hurting Microsoft.

Sample screenshots:

minimize

CrunchBase Information

JotSpot

Website:	www.jot.com/
Location:	Palo Alto, California, United States
Acquired:	On October 31, 2006 by Google

JotSpot provides structured wiki software for small to medium-sized businesses. The company was founded by two co-founders of Excite and was sold to Google in 2006.

JotSpot has been closed to new registrations since its acquisition.

On… Learn More

Google Sites

Company:	Google
Website:	sites.google.com
Launch Date:	February 27, 2008

Google Sites, launched on February 27th, 2008, is wiki suite targeting small and medium-sized businesses as part of the Google Apps team. Google Sites is the relaunched version of JotSpot, which Google… Learn More

AdSense Click Fraud in India - How The Whole System Works?

2008-02-28T17:04:00.001+05:30

A recent report on Click Fraud suggests that the maximum number of invalid clicks on Pay Per Click ads originate from India. And this is not the first time - its widely believed there there exists a large “work from home” crowd in India who want to generate “quick cash” by clicking Google AdSense ads.

During a recent trip to Google Hyderabad for BarCamp, I met someone who explained me the whole modus operandi of these secret ad clickers.

Pick any issue of Deccan Chronicle newspaper (the English Daily of Hyderabad) and open the Classifieds section - you will see dozens of ads that promise you regular Google AdSense income while working from home. (see this newspaper clipping on the right).

You basically create a website and then write a few articles to get accepted into the official Google AdSense program. Once you become an AdSense publisher, you join any of these “bogus” AdSense network and are introduced to other members who are in the same boat as you.

Now Google would quickly ban your AdSense account if you click Ads on your own website so what these networks do is ask members to click on Ads appearing on websites of other members. So it like a reciprocal behavior - you click my ads and I will click yours.

Do members of such local AdSense networks make money? I have doubts. They may make a few dollars before Google discovers the click fraud activity, bans the account and returns the accumulated earnings to advertisers.

But in any case, the fraudulent clicks have been generated and added to the global “Click Fraud Index”. No wonder, India tops the chart.

Remove Backgrounds from Photos without Photoshop

2008-02-28T17:02:00.001+05:30

Adobe Photoshop contains tools like the background eraser and an extract filter to help you quickly erase complicated background images from digital photographs.

Want to do something similar but without Photoshop ?

Just upload your picture to FotoFlexer, an online photo editor, and open the Geek tab. There you’ll find an intelligent tool called "Smart Scissors" that works much like the Magnetic Lasso selection tool of Photoshop.

Draw a rough boundary around the image that you want to separate from the background and you will notice that "Smart Scissors" magically snaps the curves to the nearest edge (see screenshot on the right).

Once satisfied with the selection, click "Create Cutout" and you’re done.

You can use this free FotoFlexer service to extract picture of a particular person from some group photograph or you want to merge two photos - cut a portion from the first image using Smart Scissors and place in over the second picture.

The cutouts can be saved as JPGs or a PNG so I guess it maintains the transparency as well. Have fun.

Microsoft World Wide Telescope - Video Demo

2008-02-28T16:57:00.003+05:30

TED shows us the first video demo of the WorldWide Telescope, a free technology that lets you visually explore and experience the universe from the desktop.

Microsoft has taken some of the best images from the various satellites and telescopes of the world and woven them seamlessly to produce a most comprehensive view of the universe.

They say its like navigating the universe on a magical carpet. Don’t miss it. You will be able to download WorldWide Telescope on your desktop in a month or two.

WorldWideTelescope.org | TED | Scoble’s Review |

Google Lego Calendar

2008-02-26T15:21:00.001+05:30

We already know that Google has a history Lego obsession. And recently, blogger Keso received this neat Google branded Lego calendar from Google China. Now, yes, it’s kawaii, but would seriously be pain in the neck when you have to remodel it at the beginning of the month - every month. :)

Add Google Talk Badge To Your Blog and Chat with Readers Live

2008-02-26T15:18:00.002+05:30

Like Meebo Me, Google Talk now allows you to chat with people who may not have signed up for Google Talk or a Google Account.

This is possible through a new Google Talk Chat Badge that bloggers can embed in their web pages to chat live with blog readers and other site visitors.

It really doesn’t matter whether your readers have a Google Talk account or not - they can talk to you through the web page as long as you are signed into your GTalk account.

Another use of Google Talk - If you run a support website where you provide live support to customers via IM, Google Talk could be a wonderful option for you because its free and definitely very reliable.

The Google Talk chat badge on the blog will be automatically disabled if you set your Google Talk status as "Busy". And you chat with more than one person at the same time as each session will open in a separate tab (see screenshot).

Google Talk Chatback Badget | GoogleTalk Blog | Thanks Haochi.

Effective Ways To Get Out of a Negative Mindset

2008-02-24T16:53:00.002+05:30

It is too easy to get into a negative mindset which invariably leads to unhappiness and depression. To avoid being overwhelmed by negativity we need to make a conscious effort to avoid the experience. When life seems like a perpetual dark tunnel these are some suggestions to change your outlook on life.

Don’t Cherish Destructive Thoughts.

Often we don’t realise how much we subconsciously cherish negative thoughts. It may seem counter intuitive, but often a negative frame of mind occurs because we won’t let go of the negative thoughts and ideas. Sometimes the mind clings on to these thoughts with a feeling of self pity or injured pride. We don’t like the negative frame of mind, but at the same time are we consciously trying to overcome it? The problem is that if the negative thoughts go round and round in our mind they can become powerful and we lose a sense of perspective. Just make a conscious decision to ignore the negative flow of thoughts and sentiments and be persistent in these attempts.

Do You want to be Happy or Miserable?

We should feel a negative mindset is a choice. If we feel a victim to our own emotions and thoughts, nobody else will be able to help us. We should feel that by holding on to a negative frame of mind, we are inevitably choosing to be unhappy; each negative is a conscious decision to be miserable. If we really value the importance of our own inner peace and happiness, we will aspire to cultivate this through good, uplifting thoughts. Next time you feel the onset of a depressed state of mind, just ask yourself the question: Do I want to be happy or Miserable?

Spend Time With Positive People

The best antidote to negativity is simply to spend time doing positive, uplifting activities. Sometimes if we analyse and examine our own negativity it does nothing to reduce it. By engaging in useful fun activities, we forget about the reasons for our negativity; this is often the most powerful way to overcome a depressed state of mind.

Don’t Accept Negativity from Other People

We live in a world where there are no shortage of pessimists, critics and doomongers. There will always be people who can find the negative in life; but, there is no reason why we have to ascribe to their world view. For example, often in an office environment there is a negative attitude to the workplace, but, even if there are faults and limitations we don’t have to allow them to make us a negative person.

Let Go of Thoughts

If you can learn to control your thoughts, you can control the experience and emotions of life. The best antidote to negativity is learning the art of meditation. Meditation is more than just relaxation; it is a change in consciousness. We move from the limited perspective of our mind and discover an inner source of happiness.

Live in the Heart

The nature of the mind is to be suspicious and critical. If someone does 99 good things and 1 bad thing, the mind will invariably remember the bad thing. If we allow ourselves to be drawn into highlighting the mistakes of others we will invite a negative mindset. However, if we live in the heart we are not drawn to the faults of others (even if they are insignificant). It is in the heart that we can have a true sense of oneness with others, their faults seem insignificance and we can feel a sense of identity with the achievements of others.

Don’t Sit Around Doing Nothing

The worst thing for a negative frame of mind is to mope around feeling sorry for ourselves. Ruminating on our bad luck / worries / fears will not diminish them in any way. Exercise can be a powerful way to bring about a new consciousness. Negativity is often associated with boredom and lack of purpose. Stop endlessly checking emails and surfing web, look for something good to do.

Force Yourself to Think of 3 Positive Thoughts.

If you are feeling really miserable and have a low sense of self esteem, try thinking of 3 good things that you have done. At time our own mind can be our worst enemy and very self critical. It is important not to lose a sense of balance; for the various bad things we have done, we have also done some good things.

Don’t Think Anything You Wouldn’t Say in Front of People

We often think things we would never say in front of people. If you are annoyed, disappointed with someone else, imagine what you would say to them in person. Sometimes when we are with people we are forced to behave; even if we are not particularly sincere the effort to avoid negativity can help us to overcome our bad mood.

Watch live cricket scores

2008-02-24T12:46:00.003+05:30

Hackers use Google to find website vulnerabilities

2008-02-24T12:41:00.002+05:30

With great power comes great responsibility. It was only a matter of time until the total internet dominance by Google came back to bite them and perhaps everyone else.

SAN FRANCISCO: Infamous computer hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) has said that it was offering a software tool that lets people use Google to scan websites for security flaws.

CDC says a "Goolag Scanner" program based on work done by a hacker using the name "Johnny I Hack Stuff" is available for free download at its website.

The tool lets people with fundamental programming skills check websites or Internet domains for weaknesses that could be exploited by hackers, according to CDC.

The group said it uncovered "some pretty scary holes" through random tests of the tool in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

CDC advised website operators to use to tool to find and patch vulnerabilities before hackers use it for crime or mischief.

"If I were a government, a large corporation, or anyone with a large web site, I`d be downloading this beast and aiming it at my site yesterday," CDC spokesman Oxblood Ruffin said in a message posted at the website.

Ubuntu Howtos

2008-02-24T12:32:00.001+05:30

Introduction

Welcome to the UbuntuHQ howto archive. As you can see, this wikipage is a work in progress. The easiest way to find a specific howto is using Ctrl+F.

If you register, you can contribute in a few ways:

Submit more tips, tutorials, howtos
Clean up this page by moving, removing, renaming, existing links
Rewrite this introduction in better English
Make suggestions for improving this page
Spread the word

Link:
http://www.ubuntuhq.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_Howtos

8 ways to train yourself to be creative

2008-02-24T12:31:00.001+05:30

To be creative, you have to first believe you are creative.

A short time ago I received an email from a young entrepreneur asking me how he was suppose to compete in a marketplace where the competition was high and more established companies had big advertising bucks. I mentioned a few ideas to him but the one that concerned him the most was creativity. Give him numbers and he’ll work them, but tell him to come up with some creative idea, forget it.He said he doesn’t have a creative bone in his body.

People who tell themselves that have already lost unless they decide to do something about it.

The development of a creative thought process is no different than learning martial arts. At first, someone shows you how to stand, execute proper body movement, and teaches you a Kata (a.k.a form - a set of movements that help develop your technique).

Once these techniques are learned you must practice them to become a good fighter. When fighting, it is taught that the best place for your mind to be is no where at all, called Mushin (means “no mind”). The point of Mushin is to blank out your mind so that you are in a state of “openness.” In other words, it allows you to simply react and not worry about what might happen when fighting.

The same can be said when learning to be creative. You first learn what techniques help develop a creative thought process and then you have to practice them while keeping your mind open to endless possibilities no matter how ridiculous they may seem.

But how do you train your mind to become a well-oiled creative thinking machine?

Like the first sentence of this post says, you have to first believe you are a creative person. Following that you need to exercise your mind in various ways.

Let’s take a look at some creative mind-pumping ideas and activities that will help widen your mind’s creative eye.

I. Listen

Don’t Jump the Gun
It is important listen to everything and not judge or come to your own conclusion prematurely. This is vital if you are to create a product that wins in the eyes of your customers and employer. Remember, listening does not equal simply hearing.

Examining
Try listening to a different radio station (or TV channel). See if you can figure who the intended audience is. Who would be the dedicated listeners and who might be the occasional? What influential people might be listening to this station? What is it’s market?

II. Brainstorm

Brainstorming can be an effective way to generate creative ideas; however, before brainstorming about your subject at hand, try warming up the creative juices.

Warming Up
Grab a pencil and blank piece of paper and just start writing. If nothing comes to mind, write that, then write whatever comes to your mind next no matter what it is. Then expand.

In another example, grab yourself a pencil and paper and create something new and describe it, no matter how absurd it may seem. Try creating a new life form. Where does it come from? What is its goal? Or try creating a person. Who is she? Expand on the idea.

These are good exercises to get you in the mindset of thinking outside the box.

III. Counter the Negatives with Positives

This is probably one of the more important ones to do. Whenever you want to do something but your mind tells you that you can’t, write that thought down and then next to it write down 2 or 3 reasons why you can. Do this quickly and often. Soon you will notice that you have trained your mind to automatically react with a positive thought whenever you think of a negative one.

IV. Be Ready

If you’re searching for creative ideas, keep a pen and pad handy at all times, you never know when a thought might pop into your head - or maybe someone else’s thought spawns a new thought of your own that you can build off of.

For example, one of my favorite shows is Kitchen Nightmares. I was watching an episode one night and Gordon Ramsay was offering up business advice to the store owner. During the show, I kept getting up and jotting down a few ideas that he had mentioned that I wanted to expand on for my blog. The result was an article you can read here.

V. Learn

Obviously, the more you know about everything, the more you can come up with creative ideas by linking things together. You wouldn’t know how Physics and landscaping might go together unless you knew at least a little bit about both.

Therefore, the more you know, the more you can create.

Ideas to help you expand your horizons

read blogs
take classes
read books
try something you’ve never done before
teach something to someone
participate in a group or online community
talk to people you might not otherwise talk to

Can you add to the list?

VI. Evaluate

Often times I find when I’m stuck in a rut and can’t come up with a creative idea, I evaluate things.

Magazines
If you’re stuck, try flipping through a magazine and evaluate the ads. Which ones catch your attention and why? Who is the target audience? What might you do differently if you were to write the ad? On the ones that catch your attention, how can you modify what they did to what you’re doing?

Your Competition
Get online or flip through the yellow pages and evaluate your competition. See if something they are doing spawns an idea for you. Is there something there you can build on that they could have but didn’t?

Self-Evaluation
Grab a piece of paper and draw a line down the center. Label the left side “My Weaknesses” and the right side “My Strengths.” List all your weaknesses and then under the strengths side, combat those weaknesses with your strengths that might compensate.

You now have a blueprint of what you need to work on and what you have to build off of.

Ask Questions
When stuck on the problem of trying to be creative, ask a series of questions to gain a new perspective of your product or idea.

What can I substitute?
What can I add to it to make it a little better?
What is not needed?
What is the opposite of this?
Where did this come from?
How has something like this been used?
What else can it be used for?

Can you add any?

VII. Exercise Your Creative Thought Process

Try some of these activities from time-to-time.

Every day pick any topic and write it down; then create a flow chart and see where the flow takes you.
Think of a product. How could it have been invented in a different way but produce the same result?
After reading half a book, close it and write or think about how you would end the story.
Read non-fiction books and solve the problem before it’s answered.
Do crossword puzzles, it gets you thinking about all kinds of stuff.

After a while, by doing these exercises you’ll find that your mind approaches ideas in new creative ways.

VIII. Travel

One of the best ways to generate creative ideas is to go to new places or simply just get out and go for a walk. Don’t have the money to travel? No problem. Go where you need to go but get there in a different way.

New experiences and going to new destinations is a great way to gain new perceptions that can generate creativity.

So there you go, 8+ ways to to mold you into a creative thinking machine.

Do you consider yourself creative?

Gmail Shortcuts

2008-02-24T12:28:00.001+05:30

Shortcut Key	Definition	Action
c	Compose	Allows you to compose a new message. + c allows you to compose a message in a new window.
/	Search	Puts your cursor in the search box.
k	Move to newer conversation	Opens or moves your cursor to a more recent conversation. You can hit to expand a conversation.
j	Move to older conversation	Opens or moves your cursor to the next oldest conversation. You can hit to expand a conversation.
n	Next message	Moves your cursor to the next message. You can hit to expand or collapse a message. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
p	Previous message	Moves your cursor to the previous message. You can hit to expand or collapse a message. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
o or	Open	Opens your conversation. Also expands or collapses a message if you are in 'Conversation View.'
u	Return to conversation list	Refreshes your page and returns you to the inbox, or list of conversations.
e	Archive	Archive your conversation from any view.
m	Mute	Archives the conversation, and all future messages skip the Inbox unless sent or cc'd directly to you. Learn more.
x	Select conversation	Automatically checks and selects a conversation so that you can archive, apply a label, or choose an action from the drop-down menu to apply to that conversation.
s	Star a message or conversation	Adds or removes a star to a message or conversation. Stars allow you to give a message or conversation a special status.
!	Report spam	Marks a message as spam and removes it from your conversation list.
r	Reply	Reply to the message sender. + r allows you to reply to a message in a new window. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
a	Reply all	Reply to all message recipients. +a allows you to reply to all message recipients in a new window. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
f	Forward	Forward a message. + f allows you to forward a message in a new window. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
	Escape from input field	Removes the cursor from your current input field.
+ s	Save draft	Holding the key while pressing s when composing a message will save the current text as a draft. Make sure your cursor is in one of the text fields -- either the composition pane, or any of the To, CC, BCC, or Subject fields -- when using this shortcut.
#	Delete	Moves the conversation to Trash.
+ i	Mark as read	Mark your message as 'read' and skip to the next message.
+ u	Mark as unread	Mark your message as 'unread' so you can go back to it later.
[	Archive and previous	Archive your conversation and move to the previous one.
]	Archive and next	Archive your conversation and move to the next one.
z	Undo	Undo your previous action if possible (for actions with an 'undo' link).
+ n	Update current conversation	Update your current conversation when there are new messages.
q	Move cursor to chat search	Move your cursor directly to the chat search box.
y	Remove from Current View*	Automatically removes the message or conversation from your current view. From 'Inbox,' 'y' means Archive From 'Starred,' 'y' means Unstar From 'Trash,' 'y' means Move to inbox From any label, 'y' means Remove the label * 'y' has no effect if you're in 'Spam,' 'Sent,' or 'All Mail.'
.	Show more actions	Displays the 'More Actions' drop-down menu.
?	Show keyboard shortcuts help	Displays the keyboard shortcuts help menu within any page you're on.

Combo-keys - Use the following combinations of keys to navigate through Gmail.

Shortcut Key	Definition	Action
then	Send message	After composing your message, use this combination to send it automatically. (Supported in Internet Explorer and Firefox, on Windows.)
y then o	Archive and next	Archive your conversation and move to the next one.
g then a	Go to 'All Mail'	Takes you to 'All Mail,' the storage site for all mail you've ever sent or received (and have not deleted).
g then s	Go to 'Starred'	Takes you to all conversations you have starred.
g then c	Go to 'Contacts'	Takes you to your Contacts list.
g then d	Go to 'Drafts'	Takes you to all drafts you have saved.
g then i	Go to 'Inbox'	Returns you to the inbox.
g then t	Go to 'Sent Mail'	Takes you to all mail you've sent.
* then a	Select all	Selects all mail.
* then n	Select none	Deselects all mail.
* then r	Select read	Selects all mail you've read.
* then u	Select unread	Selects all unread mail.
* then s	Select starred	Selects all starred mail.
* then t	Select unstarred	Selects all unstarred mail.

MS office and many more applications on Linux

2008-02-24T12:14:00.004+05:30

I am working on linux desktop, and usually find difficulty in editing word documents through openoffice or abiword.But this problem can be solved through crossover linux.

Your Windows Applications, Seamlessly Integrated On Linux

CrossOver Linux allows you to install many popular Windows productivity applications, plugins and games in Linux, without needing a Microsoft Operating System license. CrossOver includes an easy to use, single click interface, which makes installing a Windows application simple and fast. Once installed, your application integrate seamlessly with your Gnome or KDE environment. Just click and run your application, exactly as you would in Windows, but with the full freedom of Linux.

CrossOver Linux lets you use many Windows plugins directly from your Linux browser. Plugins work on any x86 based Linux distribution and will integrate with most browsers including Firefox 1.x, Netscape 6.x, Konqueror, Mozilla, and Opera. CrossOver also integrates with Gnome and KDE to let you transparently open any Word, Excel or PowerPoint file. But even better, you can open these attachment types directly from any mail client.

One Application: Two Delicious Flavors!

We've created two versions of CrossOver Linux — Standard and Professional — to serve our home-user/enthusiast and corporate markets even better. CrossOver Linux Standard provides individual users with the ability to run a wide variety of Windows software cleanly and economically. CrossOver Linux Professional provides corporate users with the enhanced deployability and manageability features their environments demand.

Feature	CrossOver Linux Standard	CrossOver Linux Professional
Runs All CrossOver-Supported Windows Applications
Runs All CrossOver-Supported Windows Plugins
Enhanced Deployability Features
Multi-User Support
Volume Discounts Available
Educational Discounts Available
Support Level	6 months Level 3 (limited/installation)	12 months Level 2
Delivery Format	Download only	Download or CD
Single User Cost	$39.95 Buy Now	$69.95 Buy Now

download for ubuntu and debian desktops
http://rapidshare.com/files/94448282/crossover-pro_6.2.0-1_i386.deb.html

Apple Reveals The Brand New iRack

2008-02-24T12:07:00.002+05:30

Customer Care Numbers

2008-02-24T12:02:00.001+05:30

I find that lot of people search for customer care numbers of various Indian banks and services. So, here is a small list. Hope this would be useful for all. Will try to keep this updated. If you find that any of these numbers don’t work, or have a alternate number, please leave a comment.

ICICI Bank Customer Care Number
- Bangalore - 4113 1877
- Karnataka - 98455 78000
- For other cities, click here. Phone Banking workflow click here.
Citibank Customer Care Number
- All Citibank customers - Bangalore - 2227 2484. For other cities, click here
- Citibank Suvidha account holders - Bangalore - 2227 2265. For other cities, click here
- CitiBusiness Customers - Bangalore - 2229 4653. For other cities, click here
- Citibank Credit Card - Bangalore - 2227 2484. For other cities, click here
- Priority service to CitiGold Customers, Diners Club Members & Citibank Gold Card members - Bangalore - 2229- 4653. For other cities, click here
HSBC Customer Care Number
- Banking related - Bangalore - 2558 9595
- Credit card related - Bangalore - 2558 9696
- For other cities, click here
HDFC Customer Care Number
- Debit card related - 9945863333
- Banking related - Bangalore - 5500 3333. For other cities, click here
- Credit card related - Bangalore - 6622 4332. For other cities, click here
ABN AMRO Customer Care number
- Bangalore - 4124 5555
SBI Credit Card Customer Care Number
- Karnataka - Bangalore - ~~98441 05454~~ (people are reporting that this number does not work. If you know a number that works, please let me know!)
- All India Toll Free - 1600 180 1290 (works only on BSNL and MTNL Line)
- Try : 1800 180 1290 too. May work!!!
- Other lines : 39 02 02 02
UTI Bank Customer Care Numbers
- Bangalore (M G Road) - 2537 0615
- Bangalore - 2531 7830
- Mumbai - 022 5598 7700
- For other cities, click here
IDBI Bank Customer Care Number (Phone Banking)
- Karnataka - Bangalore - 080 22297000
- Mumbai - 022 66937000
- Delhi - 011 23627000
- Chennai - 044 28295550
- For other cities, click here
Manhattan Credit Card Customer Care Number
- Bangalore - 3030 1969. (this number seems to work in Mumbai too! Give it a try in your local city!)
Standard Chartered Credit Card Customer Care Number
- Bangalore - 2558 8888 (updated). For other cities, click here
Deutsche Bank Customer Care Number
- 6601 6601 (this number is available in Aurangabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolhapur, Kolkata and Mumbai. If dialing from Gurgaon / Noida please prefix 9511 before dialing.)
Airtel Customer Care
- Dail 121 from your airtel mobile
- Karnataka - 98450 98450 - For prepaid if you are calling from landline
- Karnataka - 98450 12345 - For postpaid if you are calling from landline
Hutch Customer Care
- Karnataka - Dial 111 from your Hutch phone or dial 98860 98860
BSNL Mobile Customer Care (Cellone & Excel)
- Karnataka - Dial 94480 24365
- For other cities, click here.
Reliance Mobile Customer Care
- Call 3033 3333 Or dial *333 from your Reliance Mobile
- For other numbers, click here.
Reliance Broadband Customer Care
- Call 022 - 3033 7777 Or dial *377 on your Reliance phone
SpiceJet Customer Care
- From BSNL/MTNL : 1800 180 3333
- Others (GSM/CDMA): +91 98718 03333
LIC Policy Details (Life Insurance Corporation)
- Call - 1251 or
- New Delhi 011 - 2332 9595
- Mumbai 022 -2612 5555
- Kolkata 033 - 23341765, 23211893/94/95
- Chennai 044 - 28602626/28602929
- Hyderabad 040 - 2329 7455
- Bangalore 080 - 2248 5210
- Pune 020 - 2553 6161
- Ahmedabad 079 - 2550 7777
Yahoo! India Customer Care
- I am not sure if these numbers work, but give it a try & leave a comment!
- Bangalore : (080) 39805078
- Chennai : (044) 39119494
- Yahoo! US “Customer Service”: 1-866-562-7219 (for yahoo.com)
- Yahoo! Small Business/Store: 1-866-800-8092
- Other US Yahoo! numbers to try
  - +1 866-850-4303
  - +1 866-562-7228
  - +1 408-349-1572
  - +1 408-349-3300
  - +1 408-329-5151
  - +1 800-318-0631

If you feel some service is missing and would be useful to list, drop a comment.

Microsoft SkyDrive Offers 5 GB of Online Storage Space, Out of Beta

2008-02-22T17:33:00.002+05:30

Windows Live SkyDrive, a free online storage service from Microsoft, just got better and bigger. They now provide 5 GB of storage space which is the same as offered by AOL XDrive.

SkyDrive was earlier available only for users in US, UK and India but now they have expanded the service to included many new countries including Australia, France, Switzerland and Canada among others.

Windows SkyDrive provides RSS feeds for their folders so your subscribers will know the moment you upload new files. You can also embed files / folders in web pages for your readers to download files directly from your website.

skydrive.live.com | SkyDrive Team Blog

Do You Maintain Multiple Google Accounts ? Solve That Headache of Logging In and Out

2008-02-22T17:29:00.002+05:30

Life can get complicated if you operate more than one Google Account and have associated different Google services with different accounts.

For instance I have two Google Accounts - one is associated with Google Analytics, AdSense and Blogger while my second Google Account is connected to Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar and Orkut.

Now that’s a problem because each time I open Google Docs or Gmail, I have to log out from Blogger or Google Analytics because they have separate login credentials. This is so tiring and unfortunately Google won’t let you to merge two separate Google accounts.

If you are also in a similar situation as me, there’s something you can do to reduce your login-logoff cycles:

Blogger: The trick is to convert your blog into a team blog but you still remain the sole author.

Go to Settings -> Permissions and type the email address associated with your second Google Account. Thus you will be able to create or edit blog posts, modify blog templates, approve comments and do everything else using either of your Google accounts since both enjoy admin privileges.

Google Analytics: Like Blogger, Google Analytics also allows you to add new users with administration accounts.

Go to Access Manager inside Google Analytics and click the "+Add User" link - change the access type as "Account Administrator" and you will be able to manage Analytics reports from either Google Accounts.

Google Calendar: Go to Settings -> Share this calendar. Add the email address of your second Google account here and set the permission as "Make changes & manage sharing" - You can then manage your Google Calendar from either account.

Orkut - While it is not possible to add co-users in Orkut, you can try a different approach - make your main Orkut account a friend of the secondary account. So if you are logged into Orkut using your secondary Google account, you will still be able to view Scraps left by other friends.

Google Mail: Gmail offers a useful Mail Fetcher feature that automatically downloads email from one Gmail inbox into another.

You can set this mail fetcher for the Gmail address associated with your secondary Google Account and check emails even when you are not logged in into your primary Gmail Inbox.

In case of Google AdSense, I have setup a couple of CSV reports that are delivered to my Inbox every morning so I do need not check my AdSense earnings manually.

Reduce the File Size Of PowerPoint Presentations

2007-05-04T17:37:00.002+05:30

Gur Saran has a large ppt slideshow that weighs around 25 MB and he's looking for options to compress the PowerPoint file and share it as an email attachment.

If you have such a bulky PowerPoint presentation, chances are that you have embedded some high-resolution images and photographs in the presentation that's causing the PPT file size to explode.

You can however significantly decrease the size of PowerPoint presentations in some simple steps:

1. Click the Compress Picture button (available in Picture Tools Format ribbon of PowerPoint 2007) and select "Options". Now choose Email (96 ppi) as the target output and click OK. This should change all the pictures used in your Presentation to an optimal size.

(For PowerPoint XP and 2003, the "Compress Picture" setting can be accessed from the Picture Toolbar or by right-clicking any image used in the PPT and selecting "Format Picture". Choose the Web setting.)

The picture compression trick should solve most of your PowerPoint file size woes. If the issue still persists, read the next two tips.

2. Incase you are using any BMP wallpapers or scanned TIFF images in the PowerPoint presentation, convert them to JPG and reinsert.

3. Are there any audio mp3 file or movie clips embedded in the Presentation slides. You may upload them on a website (like Twango) and place a hyperlink in your presentation.

Your PowerPoint Presentation should now be light and more manageable. The other solution is to use Scribd or Slideshare where your friends can even download the original PPT file or watch it online as a Flash object.

The Official Dell Ubuntu Homepage is now live

2007-05-04T17:37:00.001+05:30

We'll soon have an option to buy Dell desktops and laptops pre-installed with Ubuntu 7.04, one of the most popular Linux distros. This was announced by Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu, on Dell's corporate blog.

The Dell-Ubuntu tie-up announcement should generate enough excitement among Linux cheerleaders and even in China where Naked PCs are popular, though for different reasons.

Currently, a Microsoft sponsored tagline that says "Dell recommends Windows Vista™ Business." is pasted on almost every webpage of the Dell.com website.

Not sure if that'll change in near future because Dell is likely to advocate Ubuntu only for consumer PC's and not businesses. You may however be surprised to learn that Dell founder & CEO Michael Dell is an Ubuntu fan himself and his home laptop runs on Ubuntu.

Dell has just launched a placeholder website for Ubuntu at dell.com/ubuntu.

Overall, this development may bring down the prices of Dell machines and help Dell make inroads into the Linux community. For Ubuntu, it's an excellent opportunity to become mainstream.

How Fast Do Search Engines Index Fresh Content

2007-05-04T17:36:00.001+05:30

Yesterday was a unique day in the blogosphere. Following the crackdown by Digg staff, the infamous hex key - 09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0 - was written all over the Internet from blogs to news portals to social websites.

Legal issues apart, this mutiny at Digg gives us a great opportunity to compare the indexing behaviour of search engines and how frequently search bots scroll the web in pursuit of fresh content.

We executed a search for 09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0 (without quotes) on all major web and blogs search engines and here are the results.

Microsoft owned Live search has just 18k pages containing the HD DVD key while Google has indexed over half a million documents containing that number.

In case of Blog Search Engines, Bloglines (owned by Ask.com) found 6160 blogs and RSS feeds that mentioned the HD DVD key while Technorati suggested the number as 2200. Google Blog Search results were ~5.5k.

2007-05-04T12:15:00.000+05:30

This stylish and fantastic Bubble Head or egg-head webcam is a concept by Nanjing OIOI Design. The webcam is aimed at youth and students. The Bubble Head web cam has more functionalities than just shooting video as standard web cam. This web cam also incorporate a clock around the lens that shows the time even when the web camera is not in use, and have stubby little flexible arms that can hold a pen or pencil.
The unique and functional bubble egghead web cam is expected to be a next hot “sale item” if the concept makes it to mass production. Below is a photo to show you the several designs of this web cam concept, sure one will be your favorite.