MediaFire - A New Service For Sharing Files And a Competitor to RapidShare

The number of people using Internet is growing at an incredible rate, so as the need to share their files. Though RapidShare allows us to share files with our friends, family etc., it has some limitations. One can only upload files having size less than 100MB and one has to wait 60secs before downloading a file. If you too suffer from such frustrations then have a look at MediaFire.

MediaFire is a service that allows you to upload as many files as you want, and of any size, for free!!!. MediaFire has got cool and neat interface.

Contrary to RapidShare which keeps a file on their servers as long as someone downloads it every 30 days, the uploaded files in MediaFire stay rest unless you choose to delete them. If MediaFire ever feels deleting data is necessary as their user base grows, you will receive an email notifying you of any impending deletion so that you can manage your files accordingly.

Mediafire supports multiple simultaneous, unlimited downloads and one doesn't need to wait for 60secs before dowloading a file.

MediaFire [via Delicious]

Send Video Emails Via Gabmail

Once we would be able to send only text messages via Emails. Though Emails revolutionized the world, we, the human beings were never complacent. So, we invented audio Emails - a better way to express our feelings. But from today, we can even send Video mails using Gabmail.

Using Gabmail one can send Video Emails to anyone. Cool news is one need not register or download a piece of software to send Emails via Gabmail. And its absolutely Free!!
The only thing one should possess besides Flash Player is a webcam to record the video.

The process is pretty simple.

• Plug in your camera.
  
• Visit Gabmail’s site.
  
• Click yes to the flash warning to take over your webcam/microphone.
  
• Record your video message.
  
• Copy the URL provided by Gabmail into your Email(such as Yahoomail,Gmail etc).
  
• Send email.

Gabmail [via Downloadsquad]

Handbook For Bloggers

According to Technorati(a blog-tracking site) 175,000 blogs are being created everyday. In other terms, a new blog is born every half second. So, blogosphere has an infant every half second. But only few of them know what exactly blogging is, what are the ethics to be followed, what are the terms used in blogging community and so on and so forth.

If you are a toddler in blogging community then you may find this book handful.This book from Reporters Without Borders provides information one must know about blogging.

Some key topics:

• Language of blogging
  
• What ethics should a blogger have?
  
• Getting your blog picked by Search Engines
  
• How to blog anonymously?

Click here to download the pdf version.

Windows Live Barcode - Enlighten Your Mobile Life

Next time get ready to see a scribbled image on your friend's or customer's business card instead of their contact details. Now please stop complaining "Are you insane? How can a scribbled image replace contact details ?" Well, it can, with a technology called "Quick Response Code".

Though it is already popular in Japan and Korea ,it's going to be more popular than ever as Microsoft launched Windows Live Barcode.

What is Windows Live Barcode?
Windows Live Barcode is a set of services that transfer information between various media (PCs, billboards, magazines etc.) and handsets via Quick Response Code (QR Code), a two-dimensional barcode. It provides a new method for people to exchange information and enjoy various online services on handsets. Windows Live Barcode aims to enhance handset utility and provide you with more convenience and flexibility.

How Windows Live Barcode Works?
To explain more simply, the concept of Windows Live Barcode is to regard camera phones as the scanners of barcode. Visit Windows Live Barcode site, create the QR Code, the 2D bar code. Print it, post it on a web site, put it on your business card, etc. Then with the camera phones having QR decoder (a piece of software to read Quick Response code) installed, you just need to scan the barcode. The encoded barcode will be decoded by the QR decoder and then the information stored in barcode will be presented on the mobile screen.

My QR Code
Advantages

• Windows Live Barcode generator is free.
  
• Information in Barcode is decoded at very high speeds.
  
• One can avoid typing information which repeats frequently.

Some QR decoders:
QuickMark
Kaywa
SmartPox

For more information on Quick Response Code visit Wikipedia.

Convert All Kinds of Files From One Format to The Other Using Media Convert

Well, if you are looking for a single application to convert various files such as audio, video, presentation, document, spreadsheets etc, into different formats then Media-Convert could be your solution.


Media-Convert is an online application that helps you to convert from one file format to every other file format.A lot of formats are supported by Media Convert. It can convert documents texts,archives,movies,image and sound files. One can convert files up to 50 Mb !

Media-Convert advantages :

• It's absolutely free!!
  
• More secure because you do not have to install software on your computer, which can contain viruses, spywares, etc.
  
• Access from everywhere in the world through Internet. You can use Media-Convert at the office, in a cybercafé, or with the PC of a friend, and then download the result quietly to your mp3 reader or any other media.

Create Your Highly Specialized Custom Search Engine With Google Co-op

Thanks to Google. Now we too can create our own search engine which reflects our interests. With Google's Custom Search Engine under Google Co-op, we no longer require to search the entire web. We can create our own search index (list of sites to be searched). Also we can change the look and feel of our search engine.

Google's Custom Search is "free," but comes with AdSense(ads) alongside search results. That requirement is exempted for governments, non-profits and educational institutions. Perhaps the most basic and obvious aspect of this is that it potentially creates more AdSense inventory for Google.

Two important twists

• The original creator of a search engine can allow anyone or selected colleagues, friends or community members to contribute to his index (sites to be searche). For example if I create a new search engine on "Conference Call Services" and I want my friends to contribute new sites to my index I can ask them to do so by sending them invitations.
  
• We can also make money with our Custom Search Engine by connecting it with a Google AdSense account. We make money when users click on an ad they see in our search results. If we have more than one Custom Search Engine, all of our search engines will automatically be associated with the same AdSense account.
  

Adobe Unveils Digital Editions - A Completely New Way to Read and Manage eBooks

Adobe today unveiled Digital Editions a completely new way to read and manage eBooks and other digital publications such as digital magazines and digital newspapers . It is initially available as a free public beta for Windows.

Digital Editions is a 2.5MB free download that works as an add-in to Adobe's Flash Player 9.It is built from the ground up as a lightweight, rich Internet application (RIA). Digital Editions works online and offline, and supports both PDF and XHTML-based content.A sample screen shot of Digital Editions.

Though Adobe Reader is, and will continue to be, the widely-proliferated industry standard application for viewing and printing Adobe PDF documents, Digital Editions is a focused, lightweight solution (2.5MB download) for managing and viewing eBooks. It extends the eBook capabilities that were integrated in previous versions of Reader and Acrobat, delivering a simplified, content-centric consumer-friendly user interface. Digital Editions is distributed as a web-based RIA, ensuring that users will always have the current up-to-date version of the software.

More people are consuming digital content online, such as videos, and more publishers are adopting digital formats, said Bill McCoy, general manager of Adobe ePublishing Solutions."We see there are bright spots in e-book adoption. And consumers, especially the younger generation of digital consumers, expect to get content digitally," he said.

You can download it here. Also you can browse and download eBooks and digital magazines in their free library.

Internet Explorer 7 Recommended Add-ons

Visiting Internet Explorer 7 add-ons website you find over 400 add-ons. If you don't know which one to downlaod, don't worry Microsoft is always there to help you. Microsoft recommends some good add-ons to enhance IE experience. And all of them are free.

Stay Safe and Secure Add-on
Microsoft Windows Defender

IE7's Feature Add-ons
Inline Search
IESpell

Discover New Sites and Share Your Favorites
StumbleUpon Toolbar
Del.icio.us Toolbar
Trailfire

Enjoy Games and Entertainment
Flash Player
Shockwave Player

Quickly Access Your Information
1-Click Answers
Windows Live Toolbar

Keep Up to Date on News and Feeds
Newsgator
Bloglines

Share Your Story
Windows Live Writer (Beta)

Will Google Loose Out to Guruji.com in Indian Local Search Market ?

Guruji,a new search engine in India will soon become a threat to Google in Local Search Market.Guruji is quite fast and the search results are quite convincing.The results are more relevant compared to Google.

Guruji.com has simple interface.User can search entire India or can limit his search to his city by including the city name as a keyword in the search(select city tab for better results).Thought Garage has a very interesting post about Guruji's local search results.

Below are the screens of both Guruji and Google when I searched for "icici bank" branches in Hyderabad(a city in India).

Guruji


Google

Clearly the results of Guruji are far better when compared to Google.Guruji provides me with the address as well as telephone numbers just like Yellow Pages.

Whom Does Indian Orkut Members Love And Hate ?

Orkut, which has faced tremendous pressure from Indians for allowing a hate group campaign against India has some interesting data on the site.

The site has distinct communities comprising millions of members stating personal views on a variety of subjects. Orkut has some communities which are against and in favour of some politicians.Hindustan Times has revealed some data to the public.Excerpts

• President Kalam fascinated maximum appreciation leaving out all political leaders from India.
  
• The number of community groups for Dr. Kalam stands at a whopping 17, with the top group showing 31,103 fans.
  
• Prime Minister Dr. Singh's sole group has just 413 members.
  
• Sonia Gandhi has only five groups under her name of which three are hate groups. Her top group comprises 1,520 members.
  
• Vajpayee's name finds three groups with no hate group. His top group comprises 1,883 members.
  
• L.K.Advani, has just one group with 170 members.
  
• Arjun Singh has earned a dubious distinction as the most hated politician(for his prostance on reservations) with a whopping 22 hate groups, with the top group having 3,609 members.
  
• Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who has a total of six groups has just two hate groups.

Source:Hindustan Times

Use Random Email Generators - Keep Your Original Email Safe From Spammers

We are often asked to enter our email address on various sites for various reasons. I don't know about you, but I feel pretty discomfortable providing my email address to many of those sites. Reasons -

• I'm not aware whether they are spammers
  
• I don't want to clutter my personal email with messages from those sites.
  
• What if the site continually bugs me(such as asking to visit their site)?

But still I want to browse that site to know what's inside.

In order to avoid such a scenario we've got sites which provide us with temporary E-mail IDs. We can provide these IDs whenever we're suspicious about a site/person.

MyTrashMail

• Free service. Premium services also available.
  
• Email size is limited to 2MB per email.
  
• Every account can hold up to 4MB.
  
• Email stays to 5 days in your account.
  
• Supports attachments.

DodgeIt

• Free service. Premium services also available.
  
• Email stays upto 7 days in your account. Then it's deleted.

Mailinator

• Free service.
  
• Attachments aren't allowed and any given mailbox will only hold 10 messages at once.
  
• After a few hours, all emails are auto-deleted.

How they work?
Imagine you are at a coffee shop. A salesperson comes and asks for your email id to send you lastest information about their products.Now you can't give him your real email address.So,what you can do is give him an email id created instantly in your mind such as forsales@mailinator.com. Later you can always type in the address to check mails from him(if at all you're interested). So simple!!!

But be careful.Don't ask anyone to send your/their personal information to this ID as others can alos see your mails.

Everything About Google - Google CheatSheets

Google Cheat Sheet lists all Google services and tools as well as background information. The Cheat Sheet offers a great reference to grasp of basic to advance Google query building concepts and ideas. Especially useful for novice users. Contains two pages(pdf).

The author of this page claims that these were written for educational purposes and has no affiliation to Google. To contact him you can use his E-mail Id:eazyrhymez@gmail.com.

The two pages of Google Cheat Sheets cover:

• A list of all Google domains
  
• Company information
  
• Google Form Elements
  
• Google Services
  
• List of fun Google services and tools
  
• List of 15 official Google Blogs
  and more! Click here to downlaod.
  

Note:This information was last updated on April 23, 2006 (Version 1.05)

Google Cheat Sheets[via Adelaider]

Hair Strands Act as Thermometer for Eating Disorders - Study

Next time you visit a doctor get ready for a surprise - doctors check your hair strand instead of your pulse!!!Yes,a recent study by a team of researchers at Brigham Young University proved that hair strands reveal evidence of a person's diet and can help doctors diagnose eating disorders.

Health experts can determine whether someone is suffering from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa(loss of appetite), a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.

The lead author and an assistant professor of integrative biology at Utah’s BYU, Kent Hatch said hair acts like a "tape recorder." Just as it can be used to determine if someone has consumed drugs or has been exposed to excessive amounts of mercury and lead, hair can reveal what someone has been eating, Hatch said. "Your body records your eating habits in the hair. So, we can use that to tell the nutritional health of an individual," he asserted.

Source:TheMoneyTimes

Edit Your Image Online

Pictures play a vital role in our daily lives.So as editing pictures.Since I don't have any desktop based picture editing software at one of my aunt's house I had to depend on "Online Image Editing Softwares" for editing her images.I found some good sites where we can manipulate our pictures pretty comfortably.

Cellsea
This is my favourite online application.The best part is, there is no registration process.The interface is pretty cool.I feel as if I'm using a desktop application while working on it.It provides many features such as resizing ,croping,rotating,coloring an image and many more.We can save the edited image to our PC or mail it to a friend or upload it to Flickr.

Picture2Life
This is my second favourite application.I ranked it second because to use this application we need to register with it.The rational for asking to register is we can save the edited pictures on their server(site).It differs from other applications by providing an animation feature.

Phixr
Phixr is another application with rich features.This too requires registration(someone corrected me) doesn't require registration. It provides almost all features as other online applications.What makes it unique are its facilities such as clubbing two pictures together,saving the image in different formats etc.

There are many other tools available such as Spinshot,ImageAuthor but I personally like the above mentioned tools.

Information About Cookies

Cookies are undoubtedly the inherent part of Internet.They help both users and websites save valuable time and provide a better way of communication.Let's digg about cookies in detail.

What are Cookies ?
Cookie is a small piece of information sent by a Web server[like www.gmail.com] to a Web browser[like internet Explorer]. The browser stores the message in a text file. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies can be best explained by a typical daily used E-mail.Open your favourite email site such as Yahoo or Gmail .Now type in your id and password and check the box "Remember my ID in this computer" and click sign in.Once you are signed in close the browser without logging out.Now if you open the earlier site again ,you will not be prompted for your id and password ,instead you will directed to your inbox.This is because when you checked the box "Remember my ID in this computer" the website had put some piece of information as a simple text file in your harddisk ,which is nothing but a cookie.

This cookie can only be read by the server which actually placed it.Once you log out, the cookie is automatically deleted.These type of cookies are called "Temporary cookies".There are also "Permanent Cookies" which won't get deleted even after logging out or closing the browser.

What are they used for ?

• Personalized Start Pages
  
• Online Ordering Systems
  
• Website tracking
  
• Targeted marketing

What about Security ?
An HTTP Cookie cannot be used to get data from your hard drive, get your email address or steal sensitive information about your person. Early implementations of Java and JavaScript could allow people to do this but for the most part these security leaks have been plugged.

For more information click here

Create Your E-mail Icon With E-mail Icon Generator

E-mail Icon Generator creates an E-mail icon for you. Yes, you can create an E-mail Icon just like me(as shown in the figure).This is a free service.

All you need to do is just click here and enter your email address in the text box provided.Also select your E-mail service provider(such as Yahoo,Gmail etc) and click the "Generate" button.The icon will be generated automatically.You can save the icon to your desktop and use it later in your blogs,websites etc.

Check Out What's Hot From Google,Microsoft,Yahoo,IBM and Adobe

Looking for "to be launched" products from Google,Microsoft,Yahoo,IBM and Adobe ? Then you should visit their labs section where they showcase some of their cutting edge products, which are yet to be released.

Google Labs
Google labs showcases a few of their favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time.You can test those products and use them if you like them.You can help Google by reporting bugs if you find any.

Microsoft Live Labs
This is where Microsoft showcases its yet to be released products.For latest products check out their projects section.

Yahoo Next
Yahoo Next is a showcase of some of Yahoo!'s newest and coolest projects - the cutting edge of what Yahoo!'s doing today and working on for tomorrow!

Adobe Labs
Adobe Labs provides you with the opportunity to experience and evaluate new and emerging innovations, technologies, and products from Adobe.

IBM alphaWorks Services
This is where IBM unveils some of the many innovative Research & Development projects from its development labs around the world.

Five Websites an Infant to Internet Should Know

If you are a toddler in Internet and looking for some pretty good sites to start with, then this post would help you.Today I'm going to talk about 5 websites which are mostly talked about and which make our lives easy.One way we can say these 5 websites are icons of Web 2.0.

del.icio.us
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website - the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too.So,you can get to your bookmarks from anywhere, no matter whether you're at home, at work, in a library, or on a friend's computer.

With del.icio.us you can keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music etc.Also you can share favorites with friends, family, coworkers, and the del.icio.us community.

Digg
Digg is a user driven social content website.Everything on digg is submitted by the digg user community (that would be you). After you submit content, other digg users read your submission and digg what they like best. If your story rocks and receives enough diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of digg visitors to see.

YouTube
YouTube is a free online video streaming service that allows users to view and share videos that have been uploaded by its members.

Watching videos on YouTube couldn't be easier—just go to the site and browse around, or search for subjects that interest you. To save your favorites for later, you need to sign up as a member, and then click the 'Add to Favorites' link underneath the videos you want to watch later. You can also create playlists to group favorite videos together into your own personal categories.

Flickr
Flickr is the best way to store, sort, search and share your photos online. There is a huge mass of photos in the world, and Flickr provides a way to organize yours, and for you and your friends and family to tell your stories about them.

The best way to learn about it is to upload some photos, explore the site, join some groups and make some friends.You can add tags,descriptions etc for your photos.

Technorati
Technorati indexes the live web within minutes, providing its users with up-to-date information about the topics and authors they care about. Technorati is the authority on what is happening right now on the live web including the blogosphere.

Technorati lets you track online conversations about you, your sites, your company, and your products. Technorati connects you to the most influential weblog authors, drives targeted traffic to your sites, and allows you to connect to the millions of other individuals in the blogger community.

Did I mention that all these sites provide their services for free?

Source:Delicious,Digg,Flickr,YouTube,Technorati

Think Twice Before You Comment Online

Yes.The blogosphere which has its reputation for free speech is no longer going to be the same.Looks like blogosphere's free speech is under attack.There are few incidents where people ended up paying millions of dollars for posting libels on their/others sites.

In the past two years, more than 50 lawsuits stemming from postings on blogs and website message boards have been filed across the nation. The suits have spawned a debate over how the "blogosphere" and its revolutionary impact on speech and publishing might change libel law.

Today ,a Florida woman has been awarded $11.3 million in a defamation lawsuit against a Louisiana woman who posted messages on the Internet accusing her of being a "crook," a "con artist" and a "fraud."

So guys,think twice before you comment.

Source:USA Today

Get the Color of a Pixel Under Mouse Pointer

One of my friends is planning on to start a new blog.He completed the layout of his blog,but he now has a problem in choosing colors for his blog.He wants to get the color code pointed by his mouse.

After some googling we're able to find a software which retrieves the color code under the mouse pointer.ColorPix is a free easy to use software(just 602KB) which retrieves the color under the mouse pointer and transforms it into a number of different color formats.

You can use the built-in magnifier to zoom in on your screen, click on a color value to copy it directly to the clipboard, and even keep ColorPix on top of all other applications and out of the way.

Best of all, there's nothing to install - just download the tiny app and off you go.
Click here to download the software.

Source:Nathanm

Find the IP Address of a Particular Site

If you want to know the IP address of a particular site for any reason, then just follow these steps:

1.From the Start Menu click "Run".
2.Then type "cmd".
3.Now type the below command at the prompt

ping [sitename]

Ex: ping www.google.com



Soon you'll get the Ip Address of that site.You can use that IP address to locate where exactly the server is.There are many sites which help us to know where exactly the server is.

Find What You Want on Google Search Precisely

Many of us use Google Search almost for finding any topic.But, we do little to find how to make our search more relevant.Google offers a collection of search facilities to make our search more relevant and accurate.

Phrase Searches
Google normally ignores common words such as 'and','how','what' etc., because, those words slow down the search process.So ,if we search for an exact phrase such as "cats and dogs" , we get results containing pages with cats and dogs terms separately but not the exact phrase.In order to get the exact phrase just mention the phrase in double quotes.
Ex:"cats and dogs".

Negative terms
If your search term has more than one meaning (for example: apple.Apple may mean a fruit or a computer or an iPod)you can focus your search by putting a minus sign ("-") in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid.
Ex:apple -fruit.

"OR" search
To find pages that include either of two search terms, add an uppercase OR between the terms.
Ex:apple OR orange

Domain search
You can use Google to search only within one specific website by entering the search terms you're looking for, followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name.
Ex: rss site:http://meakkineni.blogspot.com

Numrange search
Search for results containing in a given range by adding two dots(..).
Ex:notebook $1000..$5000

Star search
If you remember only a part of your search term or if you are unclear about your search term or if you want to find a term which starts with or which ends with or is embedded between two unknown terms ,then you can use this star search.Just include a '*' wherever you are unclear
Ex:To find all blogs in blogspot use the search term *.blogspot

File type search
If you prefer to see a particular set of results with a specific file type (for example, PDF links), simply type filetype:[extension] along with your search terms. Google currently supports 12 file formats.
Ex: blog filetype:pdf (This query retrieves all pdf files containing blog term).

Source:Google Help

Tagging - A New Way to Categorize Items

After the unprecedented surge of Web 2.0, "Tagging" has become an integral part of Internet.Tagging has particularly made the life of bloggers easy.Not only bloggers ,but also blog readers take advantage of Tagging.

Tagging is a new way to categorize items (such as blog posts,bookmarks etc.) with the help of little keywords called as "Tags" or "Labels".Tags are one-word descriptors to help you organize and remember items.Tags are completely chosen by us.For Example - If you like/write an item on movie,then the possible tags are "Movie","Film","Actor","Actress" so on and so forth.Now, if you click on any tag all the articles related to that tag appear in front of you as a bunch.

You can assign as many tags as you like to an item.Multiple tags are generally seperated by commas.If you want to reclassify any item ,you just edit/delete the tags or add some more tags.So simple.

Sometimes we find a large collection of tags as shown belowThis large collection of tags is called "Tag Cloud".Inside the "tag cloud," tags are displayed larger and bolder when they are used more often. Thus, you can quickly see what tags other people are using, what items they are categorizing, and which tags are most popular. Clicking on separate tag links will show you other items that share a given tag.

Advantages

• Tagging can be a lot easier and more flexible option than fitting your information into preconceived categories or folders.
  
• A human reader can probably tell the purpose of the page by quickly scanning the list of tags.
  
• You can drive traffic to your sites by using Social Bookmarking sites such as Delicious ,Technorati etc which support tagging.
  
• If the server supports tag searching, a reader would be able to find all pages that use a particular set of tags.
  
• If the page's author wishes to reclassify the page, all that is required is for them to change the list of tags.There is no need to relocate the page within a complex hierarchy of categories.

While using tags in such an organizational system is flexible and easy, tagging is not without its drawbacks. Typically there is no information about the meaning or semantics of a tag. For example, the tag "apple" might refer to the fruit, Apple Computer.

Note:For tags in this blog click on "Labels" option.

Web 2.0 - A New Incarnation of World Wide Web

When I first heard the word "Web 2.0",I dismissed it as some new programming language(since it has got a version number).To my consternation,I found that word everywhere.Only then, my curiosity increased about the term and I searched for it in Google and found some interesting results.
The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly(O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazine, and conferences) and MediaLive International (Medialive International, Inc. produces information technology tradeshows and conferences).According to Wikipedia Web 2.0 refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services — such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies — that let people collaborate and share information online in previously unavailable ways.

In their first conference opening talk, O'Reilly and MediaLive summarized key principles they believed characterized Web 2.0 applications:

• Web as a platform.
  
• Harnessing Collective Intelligence (Example:Wikipedia)
  
• Network effects created by an architecture of participation.(Example:Blogs)
  
• End of the Software Release Cycle.Earlier companies used to release a software as a product,but now they're releasing it as a service which needs constant monitoring.For example Google must constantly update its indices to rank webpages.
  
• Rich User Experiences (Using technologies like AJAX.Google Maps mainly uses AJAX) .
  

Many find it easiest to define Web 2.0 by associating it with companies or products that embody the above principles.
Examples:Digg,Delicious,Wikipedia,Writely,Google Maps etc.

You can read more about Web 2.0 here and here

Tags:Web 2.0

Know About Human Interactive Proofs

Whenever we sign up for a new account in Yahoo,Hotmail,Google and so on,at the end of the registration process we'll be asked to enter the characters present in a randomly generated image as shown in the picture.Why so???What exactly they want from us?

The answer to the above questions is.....
They want to prevent their sites from automated registrations.

Let's see what exactly are these automated registrations.Web services are increasingly becoming part of people’s everyday life. For example, we use free email accounts , we use online polls to gather people’s opinion. But all these Web services designed for human use are being abused by automated computer programs.

These automated computer programs register thousands of free email accounts every minute.These real-world issues have recently generated a brandnew research area called "Human Interactive Proofs (HIP)" which are mainly character based.

These HIPs mainly explore the gap between human and malicious attacks in terms of reading poorly printed or manipulated characters.Figure Above shows a character HIP used in MSN Passport,which consists of distorted characters and random arcs. A user needs to recognize the characters and correctly types in the space below the HIP to prove he/she is a human.

Now,what if a person doesn't know english??To overcome this a new technique called "Face HIP" is designed where a user will be asked to click on 4 points(Ex 2 eyes and 2 mouth corners)on a randomly generated distorted face embedded image.If the user can correctly identify these points, the face HIP concludes the user is a human;otherwise, the user is a machine..

Get White House News Instantly

Guess which website now provides Podcasts and RSS feeds?? If your guess leads to some tech blogs,news websites or any general site then you are wrong.This time it's White House Website!!!!!!!

Yes.Now you can get the main headlines related to White House on to your desktop instantly .One can also listen to Presidential Speeches,White House Press Briefings etc., which are available as Podcasts.

One more quick guess.......
Who would be the first person to subscribe to this feed?
Answer is simple.Bin Laden.

Related Links:Know About RSS

Tips on Safe Usage of Notebook Computers

Almost every person is now planning to buy a laptop ,but almost every other person is giving a suspicious look on the battery of the laptop.Reason - The laptops are exploding due to battery overheat.

After some reported incidents of explosion,many companies are recalling their Notebooks.The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is aware of at least 47 incidents involving smoke or fire associated with notebook computers, from January 2001 through August 2006. To promote safe use of notebook computers, batteries and chargers, CPSC offers the following tips:

• Do not use incompatible computer batteries and chargers. If unsure about whether a replacement battery or charger is compatible, contact the product manufacturer.
  
• Computer batteries can get hot during normal use. Do not use your computer on your lap.
  
• Do not use your computer on soft surfaces, such as a sofa, bed or carpet, because it can restrict airflow and cause overheating.
  
• Do not permit a loose battery to come in contact with metal objects, such as coins, keys or jewelry.
  
• Do not crush, puncture or put a high degree of pressure on the battery as this can cause an internal short-circuit, resulting in overheating.
  
• Avoid dropping or bumping the computer. Dropping it, especially on a hard surface, can potentially cause damage to the computer and battery. If you suspect damage contact the manufacturer.
  
• Do not place the computer in areas that may get very hot.
  
• Do not get your computer or battery wet. Even though they will dry and appear to operate normally, the circuitry could slowly corrode and pose a safety hazard.
  
• Follow battery usage, storage and charging guidelines found in the user’s guide.
  
• If you are suspicious about your laptop battery,check the website of your laptop manufacturer.Many manufacturers have put (on their websites) the serial numbers of batteries which may cause damage.If you are still conspicuous contact them through phone.
  

Picture courtesy:The Globe and Mail