A-be-ce-darian

We moved to custom domain

2007-06-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

We moved to our own domain

Kindly visit www.tech-orchard.com

Who in the World Wouldn't Like to Work For This Company??

2007-05-05T03:24:00.000-07:00

Came across this lip-dub video clip while browsing randomly. What a great work culture these guys have. Absolutely amazing. Everyone in good sync.

These guys work for a company called Connected Ventures. Look at the spirit these guys have. And all this was done only in a single take. Great work guys.

Now how many of you would decline a job offer from this company?

Beautiful Human Typeface

2007-05-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

Typography plays a key role in designing a site. A study conducted reveals that even the font used impacts reader's perception of an email. If the typeface used is made out of humans then.....

These beautiful Love Letters were designed by Rowland Scherman a photojournalist and photographic artist. This typeface would surely attract eyeballs if used as a nameplate as Stephen Coles of Typographica has in his site.

If you are keen, you can get an eye chart for $150.00 from here.

Scherman shares the story of this typeface here

Find a Man in The Picture

2007-03-03T02:32:00.000-08:00

Carefully look at the picture below and try to find a man in it.

If you find a man in 3 seconds then your right brain is more sharp than normal people.
If you find him in 1 minute then your right brain is developed normally.
If you find him in 1-3 minutes then your brain is slow in reacting and if you take greater than 3 minutes then your right brain is extremely slow.

One thing is sure there really is a man in there

Found on A Rising Tide

How About Sitting on Keyboard Keys???

2007-02-27T09:02:00.000-08:00

If you are a crazy geek and want to furnish your home with geek stuff then here is a cool and perfect chair for you. On seeing this chair one would quickly identify you as a geek perhaps crazy geek as soon as they enter your home.

This chair shaped like a keyboard key is being manufactured by a Japanese company Duende. This stool comes in black background with white letters and white background with black letters. But it would be so nice if it had letters 'Home' instead of 'sit'.

Amazing And Unseen Realtime 3D in Flash

2007-02-21T09:45:00.000-08:00

Flash has revolutionized the web. But I think it is yet to revolutionize the web. If you are not in sync with my statements just hover your mouse over the frame below
3D sphere
Ralph Hauwert’s 3D Bump Mapping Demo in Flash

3D Rhino
Ralph Hauwert’s 3D Bump Mapping Demo in Flash

Surprised!!!! Ralph Hauwert a Flash platform developer has developed these amazing 3D Flash objects with a new tool called Papervision3D - A high performance 3D engine for Flash 8 and Flash 9.

Each Googler Makes $431,861.80 for Google

2007-02-11T01:59:00.000-08:00

TechBeef dug into the financial statements of some top companies and found quite interesting results(may not be precise) in different segments. But the chart shown below caught my attention.

As you can see in the chart that each Google employee makes $431,891.80 for Google. That's really an incredible amount. That's the reason why Google pays so much attention towards its employees.

Though Microsoft is way ahead of Google in terms of profit, it's no where near to Google as far as profit per each employee is considered.

Picture Courtesy : Techbeef

Digg is Hot on Digg - 5 of Top 10 Stories Are About Digg

2006-12-18T19:49:00.000-08:00

Someone said "If you want to reach the homepage of Digg, write about Digg". If you have any doubts on this quote check out the image below. Surprised!! 5 of "Top 10" stories are about Digg.

Below are the listed stories that made to top 10(for those who can't see the image properly)

1. Digg Unveils New Features - Kevin's Blog Post Explains with Video (8556 diggs)
2. Kevin Rose... OUTSIDE of Digg!!! (2104 diggs)
3. The Last 3 Years of the Digg Homepage Interface (1574 diggs)
4. Interview with Digg Team >> New Stats-New Features (1318 diggs)
5. Digg Silenty Minimizes Friends Feature (844 diggs)

And guess, if Digg had a section mentioning "Top 15" stories, there would have been 2 more stories about Digg on that list.
6. Awesome New Digg Apparel! (365 diggs)
7. The new Digg actually validates against the W3C (762 diggs)

If you analyze the stories, all are more or less related to new features introduced by Digg and one story explains about Digg's Architect Kevin Rose.

Is Digg really hot or is it just a hype?????

Google Adsense Discourages Placing Images Next to Ads

2006-12-18T18:48:00.000-08:00

One of the many tricks for higher Adsense click through rate is laying images side-by-side Ads. Laying an image next to an Ad makes people believe that the Ad is associated with the image and eventually they click on it.

But Google Adsense policy on placement of ads and images strictly discourages the above mentioned practice. Their policy states

"We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads. If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn't actually being offered. That's not a good experience for users or advertisers.

Publishers should also be careful to avoid similar implementations that people could find misleading. For instance, if your site contains a directory of Flash games, you should not format the ads to mimic the game descriptions."

Examples that wouldn't comply with Adsense policies.

This policy doesn't mean that one shouldn't place images on a page containing Google Ads, it only asks us to be sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse visitors.

Digg's New Incarnation With Tons of New Features

2006-12-18T06:53:00.000-08:00

I don't know how many of you have decorated your house for Christmas and bought new gifts for your loved ones. But, the most popular social website Digg has already decorated its site and loaded it with tons of new features. A Christmas gift for Digg lovers!!

Digg's Kevin Rose has just announced some cool new features which indeed are a result of users feedback over the past few months. Also, the homepage has been revamped completely.

Changes and new features

Digg has changed its fixed width layout to flexible layout which is particulary helpful for wide screen monitors.
Navigation has been moved to the top allowing users to quickly switch between sections.
Topics under navigation bar are customizable thus allowing us to track only interested topics.
New sorting methods for popular items.
Dedicated section for videos.
Videos now can be played directly within Digg.
Dedicated section for podcasts. Most popular podcasts will be listed in the sidebar.
Podcasts can also be played withing Digg.
Profile enhancements.

Watch the video for new features

Source:Digg Blog

IBM and Yahoo Team Up to Launch Free Enterprise Search Product

2006-12-13T20:08:00.000-08:00

IBM with Yahoo launched a new, free enterprise search product. This product is particularly aimed at mid-sized businesses (or even large enterprises!). This new product named as IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition is perhaps the first product from Yahoo(and IBM) which is considered as a serious threat to Google.

IBM OmniFind Yahoo Edition has been designed to be simple to install and use, and can index up to 500,000 documents from more than 200 file types, like Adobe Systems’ PDF and Microsoft’s Word and Excel. This search application is available for Linux or Windows servers. Also this application can be customized and tuned to enterprise needs and supports more than 30 languages.

The look and feel of search results will be much similar Yahoo's search results but without any ads. But the search results contain links to Yahoo thus bolstering the company's search traffic.

On the other hand Google might be closely watching this new application. Google already has an enterprise application called as "Google Mini" but comes with a cost of $1,995 (including hardware) that indexes upto 50,000 documents and a more sophisticated tool at $8,995, which can index upto 300,000 documents.

Google Launches Click to Call Service in India

2006-12-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

Google has announced its "Click to Call" service in India. This service is a great boon to both advertisers and customers in India. With this service companies can reach large number of customers as people in India started to embrace Internet more and more.

With this service customers can directly call advertisers that too with free of cost. Here is how it works

The customer has to click a green telephone button next to an ad.
Upon clicking the button, the ad would expand and show a window where the customer has to submit his telephone number. Then he/she has to press the button “Connect For Free.” Eventually, the user would get a direct call from the advertiser.

This is a more secure method as Google will not share our phone number with the advertisers. This service is very effective as people don't have to pay anything from their pockets while reaching their advertisers.

Diggers Help a Guy in Quitting His Job

2006-12-02T21:17:00.000-08:00

If you are in a dilemma whether to quit your job or not, then seek the help of diggers(of digg.com). Yes, that is what the publisher of geekcapital blog has done. You may find this silly, but this is an undeniable fact.

Geekcapital publisher is also one among the many workers who hate their bosses. So, he quickly made a post "Get me out of this job" on his blog on November 30,2006 and made a deal with digg users that if his post reaches the homepage of digg, he will tell his boss what he honestly think about her and he'll quit his job and go to a pub with his friends.

Though he created that post for some laugh, it actually got dugg to the homepage with 7000 diggs. As promised, he eventually resigned his job. He also promised to post a video covering all those events. But unfortunately, he was threatened by his company with Legal Action as any such video coverage would defame the company.

Psiphon : Access Blocked Sites in Countries Where The Internet is Censored

2006-12-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Last month Reporters Without Borders published an article "15 Internet Enemies". It lists 15 countries which crackdown hardest on the Internet. These countries block all those websites which criticize the government or their practices. If your country is one among them, then you must use Psiphon - a new software that allows users in Internet censored countries to access blocked websites via uncensored countries.

Psiphon is a censorship circumvention solution that allows users to access blocked sites in countries where the Internet is censored. Psiphon turns a regular home computer into a personal, encrypted server capable of retrieving and displaying web pages anywhere. This is a completely free software and released under GPL open source license.

Let's make it more clear, if you want to access any blocked website in your country, all you should have is a friend in a country where there are no restrictions on Internet. Now, ask your friend to install Psiphon on his computer. After installing psiphon your friend will provide you with an ID and a password along with an URL. Then type in that URL in your browser, after which you will be prompted for an ID and password. Supply those fields with ID and password given by your friend. That's it!! Now you can find a blue bar in your browser where you can type any blocked website address.

But, when a psiphon provider's computer is down or off the psiphon users will no longer have access to psiphon. psiphon users will need to wait until the psiphon provider's computer is back up and running again.

Don't forget to read psiphon FAQ

Zoho Plug-in For MS Office - Edit Your Documents Both Online And Offline

2006-12-01T04:14:00.000-08:00

Great news for all those who have embraced online documents and spreadsheets. But, this time the news is not from Google but from Zoho. Zoho released a cute plug-in for Microsoft office. This plug-in allows us to edit our documents both online and offline.

Using Zoho's plugin we can edit our documents offline in MS Office and save them online to Zoho account directly from within Microsoft Word and Excel without opening browser. This is a wise move from Zoho as we can experience the speed of desktop applications and store, share and collaborate them online.

Zoho architect Raju Vegesna said “People are asking for this. Till now, they have to go to Zoho.com, login, and upload documents. We have them doing this an average of five times per day. This(plug-in)will let them go straight to Zoho without having to go to Zoho.com, upload, etc.”

Now comes the big question..
Will Google try something as Zoho and release it's plug-in for MS Office? Let's wait and see.

Click here to download Zoho's plug-in for MS Office.

Sawlogs - Record, Store And Share Your Dreams

2006-11-29T06:59:00.000-08:00

Everyday morning we fumble for that damn alarm which cuts us off from our dreams. If some dreams are beautiful some turn out to be nightmares. But still we love our dreams. But they last only for that moment. We forget them easily and a new dream pops up. How about remembering those dreams for ever? How about letting the world know what you dream about? Well, here is a new Web2.0 tool Sawlogs that allows to record your dreams.

Sawlogs is an online tool that lets you record and store your dream journal online in a secure, password-protected area — and at the same time lets you share the dreams you'd like to make public with the other folks using Sawlogs. It's just like sharing your bookmarks, audio and video.

Also with Sawlogs you can discover who dreams like you, discuss dreams, get stats and facts about your dreams.Here are some interesting dreams of others I have come across

Hole in the Ceiling
My Chance Meeting With George Bush
Monkeys turn into Dinossaurs
Wolves in a library
Ghost and Underwater

Once you post your dream and made it public others can rate your dream and comment on it.

What are you waiting for? Dream it. Log it. Share it.

PortableApps.com Unveils PortableApps Suite

2006-11-23T05:18:00.000-08:00

Have you heard about PortableApp? If not here is a small introduction. A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device (such as USB drive) and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

Portable applications developer PortableApps.com announced the first release of its new PortableApps Suite. PortableApps Suite is a combination of several popular software programs like Firefox, OpenOffice.org and Thunderbird along with an integrated menu and easy-to-use backup utility.

Screenshot of PortableApp Menu

With this suite you can

Carry your web browser with all your favorite bookmarks
Carry your calendar with all your appointments
Carry your email client with all your contacts and settings
Carry your instant messenger and your buddy list
Carry your whole office suite along with your documents and presentations
Carry your antivirus program and other computer utilities
Carry all your important passwords and account information securely

The PortableApps Suite is available in multiple Editions for drives of every size.

Standard Edition: Includes the menu, backup and icons mentioned above as well as ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Firefox Portable (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Sunbird Portable (calendar/task manager) and Thunderbird Portable (email client) and runs comfortably from a 512MB drive.

Lite Edition: Uses AbiWord Portable (word processor) instead of OpenOffice.org Portable and runs comfortably from a 256MB drive.

Base Edition: This is just a simple edition with some basic folders. This has PortableApps Menu, PortableApps Backup utility and custom folders, icons and autorun. It’s less than 1MB.

Generate Color Themes For Your Webpages With Adobe Kuler

2006-11-18T21:17:00.000-08:00

Looks like Adobe is into full action. It has recently rolled out Adobe Digital Editions and Adobe Soundbooth. Now, it has rolled out a new tool for designers to play with. A tool to generate cool color themes.

Kuler is a new product from Adobe Labs which helps to create color themes for webpages, designing projects and for other creative works. Kuler is lot more cooler, as, one doesn't need to dowload and install it. All you need to have is a web browser. It's completely an online product and free!!!

Adobe has also added a little social touch to it. We can even share our created themes with others. This is really a great feature for those who are bad at creating new color themes. One can visit "Popular" and "Highest Rated" sections which have lots of color themes rated by existing Kuler members.

Creating a color theme with Kuler is just like playing with a toy. Play with the color-wheel spectrum and sliders provided by it and the Hex, CMYK values are automatically generated for you.

Related:
Adobe Digital Additions
Get Color Pixel Value

Call Bill Gates if Your Country Crosses One Billion Population

2006-11-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has four major R&D centres across the world. If Microsoft at Redmond is a well known R&D center, others are located in Europe (in Cambridge, UK), India and China . While US and UK R&D centers were setup for obvious reasons, India and China centres were set up for a special reason - size of those two countries' populations!!!

Gates said at an Innovation Day event in Brussels that "It is the size of those two countries'(India and China) populations which made the choice of location an easy decision."

"Basically, wherever there is one billion people, we are putting in a research centre," said Gates. "When people ask me, 'When are you going to put the next one into my country?' I say, 'When you have a billion people, give me a call.'"

The sheer number of well-educated people entering the workforce in those countries means the rate of innovation will soar, he said.

So, to see a Microsoft R&D center in your country, wait till one billion population mark.

Enhance Your Skype Experience With Pamela

2006-11-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

Skype is undoubtedly the widely used tool for communicating with others for free and sometimes at minimal rates. Many of them use Skype for placing personal calls to conducting interviews, seminars and so on. With Skype becoming more and more powerful the need for some good features is growing.

Pamela from Pamela-Systems is one such tool which provides rich and abundant features to enhance our Skype experience. Pamela is a Skype certified software add-on that makes Skype even more effective and fun!! Pamela is available in four different versions - Basic(free), Standard, Professional and Business. It's upto us to choose. Advanced versions allows us to even record the Skype calls/video.

Some good features of Pamela are:

Free Skype answering machine
VideoMail (Video answering machine)
Auto chat replies
Birthday reminders
Skype call/video/chat recording
Email Forwarding
and many more....

Click here to visit their site.

Mixxer: A Language Exchange Site For Everyone

2006-11-13T06:25:00.000-08:00

There are many students, teachers, employees who wish to learn a different language. Reasons for learning a new language differ. Some learn out of interest and for some it's compulsory. Books can help us. However, a book cannot replace the methodology of "learning by speaking".

If you are too a new language learner then Mixxer can provide you with some help. The Mixxer is a free educational site for language learners and teachers to find a language partner for a language exchange. The language partner is someone who speaks the language you study as their native language and is studying your native language. The partners then meet online to help each other practice and learn a foreign language.

The program most commonly used among Mixxer language partners is Skype. Once we register with the site, we can search for a partner and can contact him via Email or Skype.

Know When Your E-mail is Read

2006-11-09T06:17:00.000-08:00

E-mail is one of the main sources of communication. We use E-mails for all sort of communication - from conveying wishes to sending important information across the internet. If the E-mail sent is a trivial one, no need to worry. But, what if the E-mail sent contains information that the recipient must see it in a day, week or a month? How would we know whether the recipient has read it or not? No standard E-mail services such as (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail) notify us when the E-mail sent is read by the recipient.

DidTheyReadit is a service that sends us a notification when our E-mail is read. When we use DidTheyReadit, e-mails that we send are automatically and invisibly tracked. The instant the recipient opens our message, DidTheyReadIt automatically notifies us.

Sample return receipt

Once registered with the site, open your personal E-mail account (such as Yahoo,Gmail) and compose an E-mail to your friend. However, you have to append ".didtheyreadit.com" to the recipient address. For example if your friends Email Id is "friend@yahoo.com" you have to change it to "friend@yahoo.com.didtheyreadit.com".

This service from DidTheyReadit is free. But, you can only send 10 messages per month. However, premium services are also available where you can send more messages.

Posts related to E-mails
Send Video Emails
Create Your E-mail Icon

Find Out Your Internet Connection Speed With Speedtest

2006-11-06T05:47:00.000-08:00

If you feel that you are being cheated by your Internet Service Provider, then use Speedtest to find out the exact speed of your connection.

Speedtest is an online tool to check the speed of your connection. Though there are many other online tools available such as Speakeasy, this tool has a cool interface and is pretty fast when compared to others. Also you can test your connection speed against different geographically located servers.

You can also share your results with others via the link provided by Speedtest.

Speedtest [via Lifehacker]

Delicious Site From Yahoo - Yahoo! Food

2006-11-02T04:57:00.000-08:00

Yahoo today launched a new service. A service which makes us all hungry. Yahoo! Food, a new site devoted to food that will feature videos and other content from celebrity chefs.

"People are searching the Web and Yahoo every day for life's biggest question -- what's for dinner?" said Deanna Brown, general manager of Yahoo Lifestyles. Most of the content on the site comes from its partners such as Rachael Ray, Reader's Digest etc.

You can find recipes for special occasions, special days, everyday and so on and so forth. The videos and the content about a recipe specify ingredients needed and directions to prepare.

Soon Yahoo! Food is going to contain a database of thousands of recipes.

Top 500 Supercomputers List

2006-11-02T01:38:00.000-08:00

Ever tried to know about the fastest supercomputers? I did. I always wanted to know what are the fastest supercomputers available, where they are located and what are they being used for.

Top500 is one website where we can find a list of top 500 supercomputers. It also provides information such as what are they being used for, their location, their speeds, the number of processors used etc.

The main objective of the Top500 list is to provide a ranked list of general purpose systems that are in common use for high end applications.They compile the list twice a year with the help of high-performance computer experts, computational scientists, manufacturers, and the Internet community.

Click here to visit their website.

Google Talk Now Allows us to Leave Offline Messages

2006-11-01T03:27:00.000-08:00

The much awaited feature from Google Talk is now out. We can now send offline messages to anyone in our contact list!!

Till now, when we send a message to someone not signed in, an error is displayed stating: "<email address> is offline and can't receive messages right now." But now we can send messages to our friends though they are not signed in.The message from Google talk appears like this "<your friend> is offline. You can still send this person messages and they will receive them the next time they are online."

The great thing about this new feature is, the offline messages sent to us can also be viewed in our gmail account. However offline messages won’t work if the recipient hasn’t enabled chat history. What's happening here exactly is, the offline messages written by us are sent directly to the recipient's gmail account and will be stored in the chat history. However if we disable chat history there is no way the messages get stored. So, ensure that your chat history is enabled.

This is how it appears if the offline messages are viewed in our Gmail account

Now Yahoo will be a bit worried.

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

2006-10-31T04:37:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-31T02:25:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-25T06:19:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

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 ?

2006-10-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

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 ?

2006-10-21T03:53:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-09T06:33:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-07T22:45:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-03T05:46:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

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

Podcasting - What is it And How it works?

2006-09-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

If you browse the net quite for sometime ,then you would definitely come across the word "Podcasting".Some quick questions in mind.........

What is Podcasting?
Do we need an iPod to listen to podcasts?
Will I be charged for listening podcasts?

Well,let's see about Podcasts in detail.Podcasting is a method of distributing audio content over the Internet,so that it can be listened to at the user's convenience.The term was was a contraction of "iPod" and "broadcasting".

Even though the term was derived from iPod,one doesn't require an iPod to listen to podcasts.You can listen podcasts on any MP3 player for that matter even on our computer.And its absolutely free.

Typically there are three steps involved in setting up your personal computer to receive podcasts.
Step 1:Download Podcast Software
To make our computer receive podcasts we need to download a software.This software automatically checks for updated audio content in your favourite website and downloads it for you.This software is usually free.
Some of the softwares are:
iTunes
Juice
Doppler

Step 2:Setup and subscribe to podcasts
Once you have downloaded the software setup it (some simple steps).Now you have to subscribe to the feeds of your choice as you just do for RSS Feeds.

Step 3:Listen to the audio
Once a new episode from your favourite site becomes available,the podcasting software automatically downloads it for you.You can listen it on the spot or later.You can also download it to your iPod or any MP3 player.

Related Links: Also Know About RSS

A Simple Illustration of RSS for Abecedarians

2006-09-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

RSS an abbreviation of "Really Simple Syndication" is a powerful way to distribute headlines to wide number of people.

If you are a beginner and willing to try "RSS" for the first time,then you may find this post helpful.Follow the below steps to get an overview of RSS

Step 1:Open the site you want to get updates or headlines.
For example Abecedarian

Step 2:Right click on the orange icon or the link which claims to provide the feed as shown in the figure and copy the link location using the "Copy Link Location" option.

Step 3:Now open Bloglines website which is one of the many "Feed aggregators".Sign Up with that site.It's free.

Step 4:Click on MyFeeds.Then click on Add option provided by Bloglines.

Step 5:Paste the link you got from your favourite website and click Subscribe button.

The rest will be taken care by Bloglines .It collects all the headlines with a brief introduction and displays it for you.If you like a particular article ,you can click on the headline link and navigate to your site.
You can unsubscribe from any feed at any time using the option provided by your respective feed aggregator.

Follow the above steps to add more feeds.

Related Links : Know About RSS

Know About RSS - A Powerful Way to Distribute Headlines

2006-09-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

Earlier if we want to keep updated ourselves with the articles of our choice or products of our interest ,we had to visit all the websites one by one - a very frustrating task.Or we had to subscribe to their Newsletters via E-mail - which is cumbersome.

So,how do we get information about our interests which is accurate,updated and which changes at irregular intervals?The solution is "RSS".RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication".It is an easy way to distribute updated content/headlines to wide number of people.

How does RSS work?
RSS works like this

The website authors maintain a list of headlines on their website.
This list of headlines is called an "RSS Feed".
In order to read those feeds and organize them we have a special program(actually its an application) called "RSS aggregators".

How would I know whether a website offers its headlines as a feed?
Typically ,a website which offers RSS feed will have any one of the following

An orange button with the letters "XML" or "RSS"
A link such as "Syndicate this Site"
Buttons of different "RSS aggregators".

If you use firefox you can find an orange button in the address bar which indicates that site provides RSS feeds.

In case of button or link,we have to right click and copy the link with "copy link location" option.Once we have the link ,we have to submit it to RSS aggregator program.

Where can I get RSS aggregator program?
RSS aggregators are of two types

Desktop based(needs to be downloaded) such as FeedReader
Web based(we should register with it) such as Bloglines

In both the cases we have to submit the feed link ( which we got from the website of our choice ) in their respective add sections.Now ,the RSS aggregators do their job of collecting headlines from the website.

What if I don't want to receive feeds anymore?
You can unsubscribe from any feed at anytime in case you don't like it and don't want to receive headlines anymore from a particular site.

Advantages:

No need to visit each and every site.
Updated content.
Fast and reliable.
All related information at a single place.

About This Blog

2006-09-27T03:57:00.000-07:00

Hi.I'm Ramesh and I'm the guy behind this blog.I work for a reputed software company.I'm from India.

My aim is to provide good content that is really useful to others. This blog contains all technology related news,updates,tips and reviews. Also I would like to write about some interesting news. My blog will be helpful to beginners too.

I would be happy if you leave a comment on my posts. Please also suggest me if I can improve.