Insight of Chain Business

Last Sunday one of my cousin asked me to attend a meeting, which is surprise n didn't tell anything about that before... Once after attending that I understood that it is a presentation for Referral marketing... I attended couple of such presentations before and had bad opinion on such businesses...
Here is the presentation summary:
We need to register in that site by offering Rs.400/- Later we need to purchase a product(watch, mobile, vacation plan, Coins & medallions) in online worth of Rs.30,000/- (all articles rates are around 30K) and also we need to refer 2 candidates...they need to refer 2 candidates again... So on both sides, when 3-3 transactions are done, I will get around Rs.11,000/-
The product doesn't worth 30K...but the main thing here is business.... when the chain goes on I will get maximum of 6.5 lac per week... This will be good as long as this chain goes on....But if one can't refer those 2 candidates..then he will loose.. and top of that I have observed that the company will get more benefit out of this...
I decided never to join in such businesses in my life...

My understanding and one liner statement of this chain businesses is that....
You need to give your money to make your seniors in the chain as Big shots and asking your friends(relatives) to give their money to become yourself as a Big shot...

DON'T JOIN GOLDQUEST…….. Or any other pyramidal business

MATHEMATICS behind GOLDQUEST…….. Or any other pyramidal business

The SCAM Revealed….

Pure money laundering

1st step- U register and Buy --

U have coin only company- 30000

2nd step- u bring two direct referrals--

You have coin only-Company has 90000

3rd step- they bring two referrals each---

U have coin and 1st cheque of 10,000 and company has 2,10,000

4th step- they bring two refferals each---

U have Coin and 2nd Cheque of 10000 so total you have 20,000, persons who joined at step 2 have coin and 1st cheque of 10000, so total money in incentives paid is 40000 total and company has 4,50,000

5th step-they also bring two refferrals each---

U have coin and cheques which when added to all u have already earned come to 40,000, persons joined at second step have coin and 20,000 each and people at step 3 get their first cheque of 10,000 and people at step 4 have coin only and company has 9,30,000
and here 7 members who have atleast some cheques but 24 people have nothing but just the coin

6th step

15 are earning but 48 have nothing

7th step

31 are earning but 96 have nothing but just coin

8th step

63 are earning but 192 have nothing.

9th step

31 have recovered money, 96 get little and 384 have nothing
and so on…

But always the no. who have only the coin is always much much more than the who have earned atleast some money.

And the people who have recovered money is just 31 when 384 have still to do it but to do that no. of those who have nothing will become 1286 people...

So always the ones at the bottom of the pyramid are the losers… And the only way left for them to move upwards in the pyramid(ie: earn money) is to lure others into the last layer. This is done after realizing that the last layer is always the losers. It is a sad fact that in the frenzy to get back the lost money relationships are often forgotten. It is often your close friends or family members who occupy the layer under you. Even then the chances that you will make money is very remote.
It is clear that the company, including the few people at the very top layer are making huge profits. The sad fact is that the money thus generated is not even being used in INDIA. It is flowing out of India. This is the same money that could very well be spent in strengthening our economy. If you buy a kg of rice not only are you investing in something that is useful to you, but also, you are indirectly supporting the family of some poor farmer somewhere.

STOP THIS SCAM…

BE THE CHANGE…

Hyderabad 10K Run- 25/11/07

Last year I had blast @ Hyderabad 10K Run...But this year unfortunately I missed that fun..
Big mistake was @ my end...I woke up very late as always but I reached there in time, when everybody is supposed to start running... If I would have reached early, I might met my colleagues at the common place, where we supposed to meet....But by that time everybody was dispersed...So I missed all fundoos...
Luckily I met one of my colleagues n enjoyed upto some extent...
Last year I was finished 10K(don't ask me howmuch time I took to finish it :-)) but this year I haven't completed even a single kilo meter... because my colleague is suffering from leg pain.. I can't run alone.... I went there for fun mixed with run not simply run... So we stuck at a rock band..later stage show started by Sundeep..I enjoyed alot there....
Now its time to collect my 10K Run T-Shirt, which I supposed to take before run starts... We two met our company coordinator of the event and collected the T-Shirt...The T-shirt is really awesome compared to last year.... Oflate I came to know that most of fundoos from my company didn't turnup to the event....
After that I tried to join stage show again..but they started distributing the prizes for the winners....I thought there will be no events after the prize distribution...so simply returned back to home... I switched on TV n noticed that Sophie Choudry is performing on the stage telecasting live.. I was bit disappointed for missing such a gorgeous lady's performance.... All together I can say that Hyd10K left me in full disappointment this year....

Rules of a successful job

Rule 1. - The Boss is always right.
2. Rule 2. - If the Boss is wrong, see rule 1.
3. Those who work get more work. Others get pay, perks, and promotions.
4. Ph.D. stands for "Pull Him Down". The more intelligent a person,
the more hardworking a person, the more committed a person;
the more number of persons are engaged in pulling that person down.
5. If you are good, you will get all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it.
6. When the Bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.
7. It doesn't matter what you do, it only matters what you say you've done and what you are going to do.
8. A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the butt.
9. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
10. The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get.
11. If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
12. When you don't know what to do, walk fast and look worried.
13. Following the rules will not get the job done.
14. If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.
15. Everything can be filed under "Miscellaneous".
16. No matter how much you do, you never do enough.
17. You can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work you are supposed to be doing.
18. In order to get a promotion, you need not necessarily know your job.
19. In order to get a promotion, you only need to pretend that you know your job.
20. The last person that quit or was fired will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong.
Don't get excited. It's only rules.

Forgot subject in the OUTLOOK

Forgot to mention subject, while writing an official mail and feel bad later?????

Yes…. It’s a concern for all…. A mail without a subject brings a bad impression on us.

Don't worry......... just follow the simple steps mentioned below and see the result.

Here below are the steps

1. Open your outlook

2. Press Alt+F11. This opens the Visual Basic editor

3. On the Left Pane, one can see "Microsoft Outlook Objects" or "Project1", expand this. Now one can see the "ThisOutLookSession".

4. Double click on "ThisOutLookSession". It will open up a code pane.

5. Copy and Paste the following code in the right pane.(Code Pane)

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Dim strSubject As String
strSubject = Item.Subject

If Len(strSubject) = 0 Then
Prompt$ = "Subject is Empty. Are you sure you want to send the Mail?"

If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + vbMsgBoxSetForeground, "Check for Subject") = vbNo Then
Cancel = True
End If

End If

End Sub

6. Save this and now close the VB Code editor and take a breath. From now on, this macro will make sure you do not make the mistake of sending a mail without a subject.

10 commandments of using credit cards

After the holiday shopping season, it's time to pay your credit card bills. Improper use of credit cards can negatively affect your budget. So don't let it happen to you.

1. Don't ignore a credit card bill. Pay balance in full every month. Pay on time. Don't pay late. Sometimes late fees are as high as 30-40% of the outstanding amount. If you pay late, your payments begin to fall behind. You become a defaulter if you don't pay consecutively twice. The company can block your further transactions. Besides this, the company can also initiate legal action against you based on your income, outstanding amount and your bill payment record.
2. Sometimes customers pay the minimum payment and opt for credit revolving facility. You are a loser in that case. You lose on the 50-day credit period. If you don't pay on time, whatever you buy next time on the credit card, interest will be charged on the purchases from day one.
3. Stop using the credit card until the balance is paid in full. It is a loan that must be repaid.
4. Limit the number of cards.
5. Generally, if you spend more than the credit card limit, the credit card company doesn't block your transactions. But you end up paying huge interest rates on crossing the credit limit. Interest rates as high as 5% are charged on the amount outside the credit limit. Normal interest rates on credit card are between 2% and 4%.
6. If you are withdrawing cash from your credit card, then you will have to pay cash advance fee of 2-2.5% besides 3% existing interest rate.
7. If you are withdrawing money using credit card from some other bank's ATM, then the cash advance fee will be much more than usual. With this, your free credit period also ends and interest meter starts from the day one.
8. Use credit card to withdraw cash only in emergencies. You have to pay cash advance fee at the rate of 2 to 2.5% besides the regular interest rate of 3%.
9. If you are withdrawing cash using credit card from some other bank's ATM, then the cash advance fee will be much more than usual rate. With this, your free credit period also ends and interest meter starts moving from the day one.
10. Don't throw away your receipts until you compare them to your statement. Review your monthly statement for accuracy.

Free Premium RapidShare and MegaUpload accounts

Are you getting any messages like "All free slots are being used..signup to start downloading immediately..."
Here is the solution for that...

Free Premium Accounts

http://www.freerapidaccount.com

No Credit Card Needed! Completely Free!

All you need to do is simply signup and refer friends...

Signup -> Complete Offer -> Refer friends -> Get Account

MegaUpload : 5 Referrals, 1 Month unlimited usage...
MegaUPload: 15 Referrals, 3 Months Unlimited usage..
Rapidshare: 5 Referrals, 1 Month unlimited usage..
Rapidshare: 12 Referrals, 3 Months unlimited usage...

So why are you waiting for...simply signup, refer friends and enjoy downloading....

Related : Sendspace

Protect Your Laptop From Theft In Conferences, Libraries..

Your notebook is not just an expensive piece of hardware – it also contains your personal information, confidential office documents, log of websites that you have visited recently and so much more that a theft or even an accidental loss could put you at some serious risk.

And do not estimate laptop theft as a rare phenomenon. Some estimates suggest that a laptop is stolen every minute and most of them are never recovered.

While travelling or attending a conference, the easiest option to secure your laptop against theft is to put in the case and carry it on your shoulders all the time. Treat the laptop like the cash in your wallet and never leave it unattended even when you are just taking a short break for the restroom or the coffee vending machine.

Now that’s the most ideal approach but not a practical one – would you disconnect the power cord, network cable and external mouse and place the laptop back in the bag just because you want to quickly grab a glass of drinking water from the pantry next door or pick another book from the library bookshelf?

In such situations, an extremely useful utility is LaptopAlarm. It’s like an anti-theft siren that rings (using the in-built speakers of the laptop) when someone tries to logoff or shutdown the machine or removes the charging AC power cord or unplugs the external mouse attached to your laptop.

Laptop Alarm (syfer.nl) is Windows only but MacBook owners can get the free iAlertU utility (ialertu.com) that will even capture the photograph of the thief using the inbuilt webcam and send it to any email address. Just make sure these screaming alarms don’t ring inadvertently else that can put you in an embarrassing situation.

Laptops and other portable devices are frequently lost (stolen or misplaced) in hotel rooms, libraries, airport security counters, coffee shops and taxis. If you are frequent traveler, consider getting an insurance cover for your notebook. They will atleast cover cost of the laptop incase of theft, accidental damage or misplacement.

A YouTube Download Manager Similar to Real Video Player 11

Some may recall the Real Player 11 software that lets you download streaming web videos in a click. When you are watching a video on say YouTube, Real Player 11 adds a "Download this video" hover button near the video player - you just have to click this button to initiate the video download process.

Orbit Downloader is a free download manager that not only offers a similar approach as Real Player 11 but also extends it to Flash Animation movies, audio files and other media content embedded in web pages. And Orbit works with practically all web browsers including Maxthon and Opera.

As you see in the screen capture above, Orbit adds a small button when you hover the mouse over the YouTube player - click that button to download the video or song to your hard drive. And since Orbit is a full fledged download manager, it can make multiple connections to the same file so it can download faster.

Not just YouTube or Yahoo! videos, Orbit can be used with MySpace music, Pandora or even Rapidshare files. It also supports the RTSP and MMS protocols so you can try grabbing those programs on BBC and CNN.

www.orbitdownloader.com | download.com

The Easiest Way to Save Youtube Videos: Kiss The Address Bar

Kiss YouTube offers an innovative approach for downloading video clips from Youtube. No browser bookmarklets, no software to install, just remember the KISS "Keep It Sweet & Simple" principle.

While you are watching a video clip on the youtube website, just add the word "kiss" to the video URL in your browser address bar and hit enter. The video is ready to be saved on your computer in FLV format.

For instance, if the Youtube URI is something like youtube.com/watch?v=ls1954aa, you can download the clip by adding the word "kiss" in front of the youtube.com domain name. Hence the final address becomes kissyoutube.com/watch?v=ls1954aa which will have the link to save that clip.

Let Firefox Turn Off The Computer When All Files Have Downloaded

Say it's midnight and you want to call it a day. But the issue is that you are downloading some huge files from the Internet via Firefox (see screenshot) and at your current internet speed, the download will take another two hours to finish.

You could either cancel the downloads, or leave the computer in running state, or just install Auto Shutdown from mozilla.org.

As the name suggest, this extension will turn off the computer automatically as soon as Firefox has downloaded all the pending files in the queue.

If you not using Firefox, try the shutdown command in Windows that will turn off the computer after the given time. For instance, if you want to turn off the computer in next two hours, type the following in Windows Run box:

shutdown -s -t 7200 [7200 = 2 hours]

The Auto Shutdown extension of Firefox internally executes the same command.

Internet Radio Broadcasting in your Google Talk, MSN/Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger

With the help of our GTalk2VoIP service all Google Talk, MSN/Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger users now can connect to a number of Internet Radio Broadcasting stations and start listening radio streams. No additional software to install, just follow the instructions below.

Step 1. Subscribe to the service in one of the possible ways:

• 1st Way. Open your IM messenger and invite new recipient whose user id is service@gtalk2voip.com.
• 2nd Way. Go to GTALK-TO-VOIP and submit your user id by pressing "Invite!" button, then accept the invitation from service@gtalk2voip.com.

Step 2. Send RADIO command to service@gtalk2voip.com to get list of available radio stations, remember a numerical ID of any.

Step 3. Send RADIO ID command to service to get connected.

Step 4. Accept incoming call from the service.

For Google Talk users. Google Talk user can invite radio station contact into their list of contacts by adding a contact like: ID@radio.gtalk2voip.com (i.e. 100@radio.gtalk2voip.com). When contact appears online, press Call button to connect to the radio station.

Examples:

Ruslan: RADIO


service: Welcome to GTalk2VoIP - Free Voice Gateway for Google Talk, MSN and Yahoo!
Type 'HELP' for more information
You entered: RADIO

LIST OF AVAILABLE RADIO STATIONS:

100 - Classic Country Music from Heartland Public Radio [http://128.177.3.80:4064/]
101 - Cowboy Cultural Society Radio - an American tradition since 2002 [http://205.188.215.232:8028/]
102 - Atlantic Sound Factory - ASF Radio [http://69.31.50.146:80/]
103 - 100.7 Jack FM, San Diego [http://38.116.132.31:9024/]
104 - 102.7 FM The Fringe [http://64.72.124.89:8134/]
105 - 181.fm - The Buzz (Your Alternative Station!) [http://scfire-nyk0l-1.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1022]
106 - 181.fm - The Mix Channel (70s, 80s, 90s and Today's Best Music) [http://208.53.158.167:8032/]
107 - 181.fm - The Eagle (Your Home For REAL Classic Rock!) [http://208.53.158.126:8030/]
108 - .977 The 80s Channel [http://scfire-ntc0l-2.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1040]
109 - 1.FM - Channel X [http://209.51.161.54:8072/]
201 - KCRW World News [http://scfire-ntc0l-2.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1047]
202 - Sporting News Radio [http://scfire-chi0l-2.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1057]
203 - KPFK - Southern California's 90.7 FM News, Talk & Music [http://64.27.31.66:80/]
204 - WBUR 90.9 FM, Boston's NPR News Station [http://205.234.188.21:80/]

Ruslan: RADIO 100

service: You entered: RADIO 100
Please, accept call from gtalk2voip

Incoming call from service@gtalk2voip.com at 6:38 PM on Sunday
service: Connecting to FM Radio Station [100]: Classic Country Music from Heartland Public Radio
Connected to: Classic Country Music from Heartland Public Radio

Please note, that...  

• If radio has not started to play in 5 secs, try to drop the call and connect again.

Related: FM is on GTalk

Find Any Email in GMail With Simple Search Commands

While some GMail users download email locally to Outlook or Thunderbird and then use desktop search programs like Copernic or Windows Desktop Search to find emails, GMail itself has some powerful search capabilities.

Let's look at some common search scenarios and possible solutions:

Q: I have hundreds of unread emails in my Gmail Inbox but not all of them show up on the main page. Can I bring up view in GMail containing only unread messages.

A: label:inbox is:unread

Q: My boss sent me a PDF document last month that I can no longer locate in the Inbox. Can you help me find it.

A: from:Name_Of_Boss filename:pdf after:2007/07/01 [yyyy/mm/dd]

Q: I received an email from Paypal support last week. I am not sure if I deleted the message, archived it or marked it as Spam.

A: from:Paypal in:anywhere

Q: I have dozens of unread email messages in the Inbox but I am in a hurry to check them all. Show me just the messages that are for me.

A: is:unread after:2007/09/03 to:your.email@address.com

Q: Ryan is a good friend who send me pretty interesting PowerPoint / Word files that often have inspirational quotes, beautiful natural landscapes and funny slide shows of Cats. I love it all but they take too much space.

A: from:Ryan has:attachment [Select all and then delete]

Q. I accidentally deleted an important email message from a colleague. My GMail trash is already overflowing. How do I retrieve that particular message.

A: label:trash Name_Of_Your_Colleague

Q: I use GMail to automatically backup my WordPress blog. The database backup are stored via email attachments as Zips. Since I am running short on GMail storage, I would like to delete all backups that are older than two weeks.

A: filename:.zip before:2007/08/15 wordpress

Q: While chatting over Google Talk, Veronica sent me a link to her Flickr pictures.

A: in:chat from:veronica flickr.com

Q: Show me all emails from my Boss that he marked Urgent or Important in the subject.

A: from:Boss_Name subject:(Urgent OR Important)

Q. I have two contacts in GMail with similar names - Peter King and Peter King Junior. Can I see emails the received from the former contact.

A: from:Peter King -Junior

Search Shortcuts: Instead of typing label:unread, you can simply type l:^u

Important: Unlike Google web search, GMail won't suggest search results that contain plurals or misspellings of your search query. For instance, a search for "computer" will only show email with that exact word - you won't see messages containing the word "computers".

Turn Your Mouse Pointer Into a SpotLight, Perfect for Presentations

Spotlights are commonly used in concerts and musical theatres to focus an audience's attention on a performer as he moves around the stage.

MouseLight has borrowed the concept from theatres and applied it your computer where the actor is the mouse cursor and the stage is the desktop screen.

When you are doing a PowerPoint presentation or a software demonstration and want the audience to focus on some specific area of the screen, MouseLight puts a circular spotlight around your cursor and highlights that area allowing your audience to follow you - the rest of the screen outside the spotlight circle is dimmed automatically.

There's another advantage of MouseLight - If you are work on a large screen or a dual monitor, it's so common that you keep losing track of the mouse pointer. With MouseLight, just press the hotkey and you'll immediately know where the cursor is placed on the screen. No guesswork required.

MouseLight is available for Windows only, Mac users have a similar application called Mouseposé. MouseLight for Windows is available for $20 while the Mousepose for Mac costs only $10.

Not to be confused with Apple Desktop Search Software which is also known as SpotLight.

FM is on GTalk

FM is on your GTalk now ( Teen Taal 110...,only hindi songs)

for this u need to follow these steps...,

1) add this id in ur GTalk: service@gtalk2voip.com

2) then add: 110@radio.gtalk2voip.com

after completion of these 2 steps

then make a cal to 110@radio.gtalk2voip.com than u wil be directly connected

to teen taal FM radio station

Related : Internet Radio Broadcasting in your Google Talk, MSN/Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger

Download Your Favorite Blogs and Websites for Offline Reading

Offline Explorer, wget, WinHTTrack Copier, Teleport.. there are tons of software utilities (both free and commercial) that let you download web pages to your local hard drive - they'll mirror complete websites, image galleries and everything else when your computer is connected to the web.

But there are some issues with most of these offline browsers. How do you browse or search web pages once they are saved locally? How do you update the local information when the source data has changed? Can you transfer the web content from computer to your mobile phone or the USB pen drive?

Enter Webaroo - a free offline browser cum search engine that is not-so-geek and should solve all the above problems.

Once you install Webaroo, you suggest a list of blogs, websites, videos, podcasts or any online content that you would like to browse offline. If you are too busy to make suggestions, you can install readymade Webaroo packs - popular websites arranged in categories. [like the News pack will have CNN, ABC, WSJ, etc]

Webaroo then creates an offline copy of the site that you can browse or search as if you are connected. Based on your settings, Webaroo periodically checks the original web pages for modification and if there are any, the software automatically updates the local cache.

The software also provides visual hints for outgoing hyperlinks that are already available in the local cache.

You'll also be impressed by the brilliant interface of Webaroo. It's a highly recommended tool especially for mobile workers who travel frequently or remain offline most of the time. Webaroo will make sure that you do miss any of your favorite news sites or blogs.

And if you own a Windows Mobile phone like the O2 or HP IPAQ, you can even browser the saved web content in your phone.

How to Find Email Addresses of People Who Plagiarize Content

Content plagiarism is a serious concern on the Internet. You spent an entire day writing that comprehensive review of the Nikon D80 DSLR camera only to realize that hour later, some lesser-known websites and blogs have reprinted your article word-by-word without giving you any credit.

To get your content removed from the another website, the first step (that works in 99% of the cases) is to send a friendly email to the owner of that site.

But sometimes finding the email address of the person, who ripped off your content, may be the toughest part. Here are some indirect tricks to help you locate email addresses of offenders.

Step 1. If the offending site is self hosted, you are very likely to find the email address of the website owner through the public whois database. I prefer DomJax (review) for quick retrieval of website registry information.

Step 1(a). If the website is self hosted but the whois information is private, try the following query on Google (replace xyz with the actual site address)

xyz.com -inurl:xyz.com - This might show up some real email addresses for that domain.

Step 2. If the site is hosted on Blogger, WordPress or other blogging platforms, leave a comment in any of the blog posts. Most bloggers generally read and respond to user comments.

Step 3. Now the trickiest part - there's no "Contact Us" form on the website and there's place for you to write comments. Well, don't give up yet because you still have good options:

3(a). Use Technorati or Google Blog search to find other sites / blogs linking to that offending site. It's quite possible that the offender may be maintaining multiple websites that are cross-linked for maximum Google Juice. There are chances that contact information is available on one of his/her legit sites.

3(b). If the person is blogging under an alias (say "PeterCool008") - search for that term on Google. It's very likely that he has used the same alias when registering on other web forums and social networking websites.

When you get hold of his public profile on some site like Digg, MyBlogLog or say DigitalPoint forums, look for the IM aliases. If his YIM! is xyz, you know that an email addressed to xyz@yahoo.com will, very likely, land in his inbox.

Alternatively, most web forums allow Private Messaging. Sign up for that forum yourself and send a private message / email. That may be the last resort.

Never quit - I know it takes some effort to track down the plagiarists but that should not deter you from actively pursuing your case. Remember that search engines, including Google, still have issues figuring out the original source of web documents.

Turn XP into Vista - Show Thumbnail Images in Windows Taskbar

Visual Task Tips is just a 90 kb utility that makes your Windows XP taskbar look like the one that ships with Vista.

You can hover the mouse cursor over any application in the taskbar and instantly see the latest thumbnail screenshot of that Window without actually switching to that application.

Pretty useful when you have tons of similar application open on your screen and the application titles aren't descriptive enough.

Get Visual Task Tips at visualtasktips.com [freeware]

Don't Lose Work If IE 7 Browser Crashes or Hangs All of a Sudden

Say you have over half a dozen websites open inside IE 7. But suddenly your Internet Explorer window closes without warning or simply freezes and stops responding. You have no other option but to kill the IE 7 process (iexplore.exe) via the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del).

In either of the cases, there's no record of web pages that were open in your IE window prior to the crash. What do you do in such a situation?

Firefox 2 users are lucky because the Mozilla browser has an excellent Session Restore feature that auto saves the browser tabs and will restart exactly to the previous state in the event of a crash or freeze.

While Internet Explorer version 7.0 has no such feature to recover work from a crashed session, you can download a free add-in called IEPlus to bring the very useful "Session Restore" feature of Firefox in your IE browser. [see screenshot]

The next time your IE crashes, you won't have to search the browser cache to recall the names of the websites that were open - IEPlus will just ask for your confirmation and will auto-restore the browser automatically to the previous state. Nothing is lost.

And if you click the "No" button in the confirmation dialog, IEPlus shows you a list of websites that were open in IE prior to the crash - you can open sites selectively, a lovely feature that's missing even in Firefox.

IEPlus on Download.com

Which Version of Adobe Flash Player Is Running On My Machine

If you are not sure whether Adobe Flash Player is installed in your web browser and if installed, what version of the Flash Player are your running - here's a simple trick.

Visit this page on Adobe.com. If you have the Adobe Flash Player plugin, the page will display the exact version of the Flash Player. If Flash is missing on your machine, you won't see the line the says "Adobe Flash Player is Installed."

Make sure you perform this check separately for IE and Firefox / Opera.

What's new in Flash Player 9 that's on Adobe Labs

While the latest version of Adobe Flash Player is 9.0.47.0, Adobe have recently released an updated version of Macromedia Flash Player 9 (9.0.60.184) that supports H.264 in addition to the original On2 VP6 codec (but not Sorenson Video).

Why upgrade to Flash Player 9 with H.264 support

What that means in simple jargon is that you can now use the same Flash Player 9 to play Quicktime .mov and the iPod .mp4, m4v videos in your web browser without installing the Apple Quicktime plugin. Video encoded in Quicktime or MPEG-4 formats (not divx or xvid) will play in the Flash Player just like other Flash Video files (e.g. YouTube) and SWF movies.

Before you download Flash Player 9 H.264 version, make sure you clean up you existing installation of Flash Player 9 / 8 else the upgrade will fail.

Adobe Labs, Tinic Uro and Dan Rayburn have more indepth information about the new Flash Player 9 and how it compares with Quicktime and the existing On2 VP6 codec.

Switch Your Laptop Between Home and Office Network Easily

People have been Shared a network connections profile manager called NetSetMan, who frequently travel with their laptops. Each time they get to a new location, they have to manually change settings of their network card and browser proxy server before connecting to the internet.

Though NetSetMan has a free full version, some comments have pointed out that the license prohibits use of the software at work or any commercial purpose.

If you need to shuttle your notebook computer between home and various office locations, the other good alternative is Net Profiles that again helps you effortlessly change your network connection settings .

With Net Profiles, you create various profiles for each of your network settings and you can easily switch from one to another. Can also be used for managing network printers, mapped drives and multiple Wi-Fi wireless networks.

Avoid Office Embarrassments; Stop Web pages from Autoplaying Music or Videos

Lot of websites (especially myspace) embed background music (and sometimes video clips) in web pages that automatically begins to play as soon as you open the site in your web browser - there's no confirmation.

Music and Videos that autoplay in the browser is not that big an issue if you keep your speakers muted or use the headphones, but it can be very embarrassing in all other cases - you don't want your cubicle neighbours to know that you just visited an amateur website.

Here's how to block autoplay of music and videos that's embedded in webpages:

Internet Explorer - Got Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced. Scroll down in Settings, and then under the Multimedia heading, uncheck Play sounds in web pages and Play videos in web pages.

Mozilla Firefox - Install the Stop Play extension available at Mozilla.org. Stop Play plugin disables autoplay of embedded media but you can play it later when you want. Alternatively, you can completely block the audio-videos files from auto-downloading that also speeds up web browsing.

Related: How to Stop GIF Animations in Browsers

Coffee Chart: What's Inside Your Favorite Coffee Drink

The next time you order some coffee at your favorite coffee shop, this coffee chart should come in very handy - it illustrates the small differences between the common espresso flavors.

This excellent coffee selection diagram is a work of Lokesh (thanks IndiaUncut) - the chart helps you with the complex pronunciation of coffee names as well as the ingredients inside.

Microsoft Hackers Now Have an Official Blog

"Hackers @ Microsoft" - that's the name of a new Microsoft blog officially launched on blogs.msdn.com which also hosts thousands of other blogs written by Microsoft Employees.

The pitch says - Microsoft employs some of the best hackers in the world and actively recruits them and develops them. At his or her core, a true hacker is someone who is curious and wants to learn how systems work. This can and of course at Microsoft is done in an ethical, legal manner.

Microsoft does have hackers, and its time to introduce you to some of them and show you what it is, exactly that they do. The new Microsoft Hackers blog is located at blogs.msdn.com/hackers.

Create Family Tree Charts inside Microsoft Office

A family tree diagram (aka pedigree charts) depicting the ancestors and descendants of your family with their pictures, birthdays, and other interesting stories can serve a wondeful personalized gift for your grandparent's upcoming wedding anniversary.

Or can you can hang them as a painting on the wall of your living room. Or just post it on your blog website so that the whole world knows about the various generations of your great family and the intresting events in their lives [like how did your great-grandpa first met your great-grandma]

Creating a family tree or even a family history book from scratch is really very simple - all you need is the names, photographs of your family members, some important dates and those special stories[probably your grandma can be a big help here].

Once this basic databases on paper is ready, download any of the following Microsoft Office templates depending on what kind of chart you want to create. It's that easy:

Family History Book for Microsoft Word

Family Tree Template for Microsoft Excel

Family History Template for Word - Theme 2

These family tree templates have everything from your mom-dad's courtship days to medical history to family traditions to past vacations.

And if you are interested in just designing the family tree, just head straight to the tree section skipping the other details. No standalone family tree maker software is required - And if you don't have Microsoft Office, you can still use templates from Zoho Writer, Writely, Zoho Sheet or even Google Spreadsheet.

Create an Organization Chart Without Visio or Powerpoint

Forbes has a new website where anyone can create org charts for their company or browse through the organizational charts of other publicly listed U.S. companies like Google, Microsoft, Dell, Yahoo!, etc.

The org chart software is completely web based and free but can help you create professional looking organization charts via a simple Flash based drag-n-drop interface just like Microsoft Visio or SmartDraw.

To make a connection, drag a person over his/her boss, wait for the boss to turn orange and then release. To make an unconnected employee the boss of someone already on the chart, drag the boss over the employee and wait for the flash. Once it flashes, move the boss above the employee and release.

Wait, there's something even more useful. You can search the Forbes org charts database for company names or even individual employees in a manner similar to Google Finance (search as you type). Clicking the employee name will show his current status / position in the organization.

You can navigate the org charts using a Google Maps like navigation controls. The charts can later be printed as picture diagrams or text outlines.

Forbes Org Charts - Corporate Org Chart Wiki

Make Flowcharts, Home Office Layouts and Other Diagrams Online

Best4c is another web based Visio to help you create flowcharts, network diagrams, floor plans and other designs online.

The application is complete web based but has the look-n-feel of a desktop application with collapsible palettes on one side and property pane for the selected shape on the right.

You drag-n-drop objects / shapes on the drawing canvas and can easily rotate or resize them - since they are vector images, they do not suffer from pixelation when you expand the size. And the inbuilt library of graphic images is impressive.

With all the baggage, Best4c flowchart editor is pretty responsive and loads quickly in your web browser. Works across all browsers.

Make GMail the Default EMail Client in Firefox

Download the free Google Talk chat application and open the options dialog. You'll see a general setting that says "Open GMail When I click on Email Links" - select that and exit.

This will set Gmail as your default mailto: handler. This means that when you click on any hyperlinked email address, a Gmail compose window will open in your default web browser. The To: address field will be prepopulated with email address.

This trick works if you are in IE - the GMail compose window would open inside Firefox.

To make this work inside Firfox, implement this small change:

1. Type about:config in the address bar.

2. Type mailto: and hit enter.

3. You'll see a setting called network.protocol-handler.external.mailto that is set to false. Double click it to toggle the value to true.

Your system will work just the way you want.

Windows Installer Issue: When Programs Refuse to Uninstall

Sometimes when you try to uninstall some software using the Add/Remove programs module in the control panel, the Windows Installer will ask you to specify the folder that contains the original installation files.

This problem will also surface when you are trying to install a new version of the software when a previous version already exists on the machine for which the installer files are no longer available. [the issue is specific to InstallShield Express]

In that case, you are likely to see the following error - "Another Version of this Product Is Already Installed. Installation of This Version Cannot Continue."

I faced this Windows Installer related problem very recently while trying to install Adobe Captivate 3 over an older version. I could not install Captivate 3 as I had deleted the previous installation files from my desktop.

Tried deleting the entries from registry editor and also the program files folder but nothing worked.

Then tried pointing the old installer to the new setup but that threw another error - "the installed product does not match the installation source(s). Until a matching source is provided or until the installed product and source are synchronized, this action can not be performed."

Finally, the following trick worked - extracted the files to a new folder and ran command at the DOS command prompt for force installation:

MsiExec.exe /I installer.msi REINSTALLMODE=voums REINSTALL=ALL you may have to replace the installer.msi filename] Works like a charm. To be on the safe side, run the setup.exe again to repair/reinstall the installation.

Remove Unwanted Clutter from Firefox Right-Click Menu

When you do a fresh installation of Firefox, the contextual menu (which appears when you right click) is tiny and pretty containing only the most essential menu items such Save Image, Copy Email Address, View Page Source, Copy Link Location, Search Google for, etc.

But things change as you add new Firefox extensions.

For instance, I have six Firefox extensions (FireBug, DownloadThemAll, JSView, ScrapBook, Yoono, FlashGot) and they have all added several new items to the right-click menu.

The contextual Firefox menu wore a cluttered and extremely confusing look until I installed Menu Editor - a must have Firefox extension.

As the name suggests, Menu Editor lets you rearrange (move) existing menu-items, group similar commands or remove items that you rarely use (e.g., View Page Source is useless for non-techies and they can safely hide it).

You can also use the Menu Editor extension to re-arrange and trim your Firefox Menu bar on the top (that has the File, Edit, Help commands)

The extension definitely makes you feel more productive because, with the junk removed, you'll find the frequently used menu items much much faster. [See the Firefox contextual menu after the Menu Editor treatment - much better]

Menu Editor | Screenshots [Access it from the Firefox Add-ons Dialog]

Real Video Player 11 Can Rip YouTube Videos. Wanna try it ?

The new RealPlayer 11 is like a powerful download manager for Internet Videos - it allows you to watch, download and burn streaming videos clips from YouTube and most other video sharing websites including Google Video and MySpace.

Real Player 11 will put a "Download this video" button on web pages that have embedded video content - you can click the button to start the video download process. Firefox and IE are supported.

Multiple videos can also be downloaded simultaneously and you can even burn the video content onto a CD or a DVD disc using RealPlayer itself.

If you are happy with good-old Firefox extensions for downloading Youtube clips, RealPlayer 11 can even be used as a universal video player to watch videos in Flash, Windows Media, Real and Quicktime formats. [very similar to VLC Media Player]

I have some Real Player 11 invites courtesy Mike and will be happy to pass them to you. Available only for Windows though a Mac version is expected later this year.

Looking for a Job ? Get a Video Camera

Job seekers in India now have an opportunity to impress employers with their presentation and communication skills without meeting the prospective boss physically - just create a 2 minute video and upload it to Monster.

Monster India, one of of popular job portals here like Naukri.com and TimesJobs, have launched a new feature called "Video Resume" where job applicants can upload video files for free along with their regular text-only resumes.

Once your video is approved by the system, employers will be able to search and scan the video files like other text resumes.

Video resumes could be a good way to gain the attention of the recruiter when he has to shortlist only some candidates from a list of few hundred resumes. It's the same as adding a picture to your profile on some social networking website - the profile views will be much higher.

The video resume files on Monster India are accepted in most common video formats and can be upto 50 MB in size (less than 2 minutes).

Use Notepad, Vim or Any Text Editor with Firefox for Writing Text

Ever tried editing your Blogger Templates or Wordpress Themes in Firefox ? Or a Wikpedia story that spans several paragraphs ? Editing large blocks of text in Firefox is both confusing and dangerous because it's so easy to make mistakes.

Here's an extremely useful Firefox extension for you called "It's all text" - though the name offers no hint about the purpose of the extension, it enables you to edit or write text in Firefox using any external text editing software like Notepad, GVim, etc.

It's-all-text extension adds a small "edit" button near the textboxes in Firefox and if you click that button, the existing text opens up inside your favorite text editor.

You can edit the text and then close the editor - your text will automatically appear in the Firefox textbox. [think round-trip editing]. There will be a short Ajax style glow to hint that the text has changed.

The extension will be very handy for editing long blogger templates, Wikipedia entries, composing new blog posts in Wordpress web editor, writing blog comments, editing files in Web based FTP programs or replying to forum threads in Internet message boards.

Geeks may configure Firefox with Vi or Emacs while others may configure it with Notepad, UltraEdit or other text editors. Highly recommended.

Shorthand Typing: Write Emails in Outlook More Efficiently

When we compose a new email message in Outlook or reply to an existing email, the body of our email will always have some text phrases that we type repeatedly. For instance:

When you get a blog tip, your reply may have - "Thank you for the tip."

When someone wants your phone number, you'll write - "You can reach me at 123-322-323 anytime during the day."

Hate typing the same text in different emails over and over again ? Here's an alternate solution:

You probably know of an old feature in Microsoft Outlook (and most other Office applications) called AutoCorrect that recognizes spelling errors and replaces them with the correct words as you are typing.

Other than fixing typos, AutoCorrect can be used for creating shortcut command for auto typing long lines of text.

For instance, you can set "familygreeting" as an AutoCorrect entry for Outlook some long line of text like "Hope you and everyone in your family is doing good." Whenever you type familygreeting in the message, Outlook will replace that with the greeting text. More text with less number of keystrokes.

The Autocorrect feature in Outlook can be accessed from Tools -> Options -> Spelling -> Spelling and Autocorrection

You can use this excellent feature to auto insert long email addresses or your website URL in the email message. Warning: Don't use common English words as autotext entries since Outlook will not warn you before making the replacement.

Convert Powerpoint Presentations to Flash with GMail PPT Viewer

GMail now has an inbuilt PPT viewer that lets you view Powerpoint attachment as a Flash picture slideshow in the web browser itself without requiring Microsoft PowerPoint application.

This slideshow feature of GMail will be useful since you no longer have to download the full PPT attachment in order to view that 16th slide of the presentation.

Here are two additional situations where it may help:

1. If you have to view a presentation on some computer that has no copy of PowerPoint, gmail yourself the PPT file and watch the slides inside the web browser.

2. GMail converts every slide of your Powerpoint presentation to a Flash (swf) file - if you manually advance the entire PPT slideshow using the arrows, all the slides will become available as Flash files in your browser's temp folder.

Just a quick way of transforming Powerpoint slides into SWF documents without using any desktop conversion software. The swf files may then be embedded in your blog for sharing with readers. Nothing great since Scribd can also convert your PPT to Flash paper.

Do you know if GMail Powerpoint viewer can read PPS (Powerpoint Show) formats.

Search Video Clips from Popular Video Sharing Sites In One Place

How do you find videos on the web related to some topic? The Youtube website is probably a good place to start but if you confine the search only to YouTube, you will miss so much exciting stuff that exists in other places.

Google Video, MySpace, DailyMotion, iFilm, Metacafe, Revver, Veoh, Reuters, Yahoo! Videos, BrightCove, MSN Soapbox, AOL, Grouper...these video sharing websites may not be as big as YouTube but they still have a great fan following and host tons of video clips that may well be of your interest.

We often ignore searching video content on these "non-YouTube" sites because of lack of time - fortunately, this problem is now a thing of the past with uLinkx - a comprehensive video search engine to help you conveniently search multiple video websites from one place.

uLinkx provides RSS search feeds for your video search queries. And you can also watch any of these videos without leaving the uLinkx website - no more hitting the back or forward buttons in your browser.

My favorite feature is the Live Video search which is like a common wrapper for all video sharing sites. You execute a live query on YouTube or sites right inside uLinkx.

Other than video search, uLinkx can be used for bookmarking video clips from multiple sites or organizing them in video playlists. [image a single playlist that streams videos clips coming from different sources like YouTube, Metacafe and Google Video]

Wishlist - more customizable RSS feeds and support for BrightCove and Blip.tv. I also faced problems subscribing to the Video search feeds in Newsgator but they worked fine inside Google Personalized homepage.

Add a "Save as PDF" Button to your Websites and Blog Pages

Want site visitors to print or download your blog posts as PDF documents ?

PDF Online, the free PDF conversion service that helps you create PDF files of your Microsoft Office documents, has released a new online tool for converting HTML web pages to PDFs.

Here's how the new service works - bloggers add a small Javascript snippet in the blog templates, visitors can click the "Save Page as PDF" button and the current web page will be rendered as a PDF document.

Though the "SavePagesAsPDF" service is in closed beta, you can still give it a try as show below:

Real Example - Print Google.com as PDF

When the SavePageAsPDF service goes live officially, you will be able to track all the PDF conversion activities on your website helping you visualize the most popular content on your blog.

More on the service at pdfonline.com/ and pdfonline.blogspot.com/.

This will be in direct competition with HP Print Widget that also allow printing blog posts and RSS feeds as PDF documents.

Update: You can directly embed the URLs in your blog posts without using any javascript. Use the following values for cURL instead of encodeURIComponent(document.location.href)

Classic Blogger - <$BlogItemPermalinkURL$>
Blogger XML Template - data:post.url
WordPress -

Run Windows Vista, Office 2007 Together Without Installation

Too lazy to install the new Office 2007 or Windows Vista on your machine ? Worried that the new software might break existing stuff on your computer or may not work at all ? Here's something for you - Windows Vista cum Office 2007 inside Windows XP.

Microsoft today released a free combo VHD edition of Windows Vista and Office 2007 Professional which includes Publisher, Excel, Outlook, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, and Word.

You can download this all-in-one package from Microsoft Download Center and run it on your Windows XP computer without making any modifications by using the free Microsoft Virtual PC software.

Start the Virtual PC software and just open the Windows Vista cum Office 2007 image - the software will run independent of your existing XP SP2 setup and will not alter or install anything on the computer.

Excited ? There's a small catch - though the Office 2007 / Vista image file is free, it is a bit bulky (~2 GB to be exact) and requires addition 10 GB of free hard drive space for running smoothly inside the Virtual PC software.

If you think your Broadband connection can take the load, get the Office 2007 cum Vista installer from microsoft.com/downloads/ (file available in VHD image format).

Software Serial Numbers and CD Keys on Google

Software License details of Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, Microsoft Office, Windows XP and tons of other software can easily be located on Google by running this simple query:

"Belarc Advisor Current Profile" "Software Licenses" "Software Name" key:

These are actually real software inventory reports generated by Belarc Advisor, a popular tool often used to backup software licenses.

The only problem is that innocent users have placed these HTML reports in public directories of their web servers, the search engine spiders index them and in-turn expose the secret software keys to the whole world.

Though most new Adobe and Microsoft software will require additional web or phone activation, that is not mandatory if the Belarc reports have Volume License keys. Scary.

How to Stop GIF Image Animations from Playing in IE or Firefox

Unlike Macromedia Flash movies, you cannot right click a GIF animation to stop it from playing over and over again.

Here's a very simple trick to prevent GIF graphics from animating in your web browser window - once the web page has stopped loading and GIF frames start to animate, just hit the ESC key on your keyboard.

That will immediately disable all the GIF animations on that webpage. In order to replay the animated images, you'll have to reload the page by pressing F5 or Ctrl+R.

If you want to permanently block GIF animations in your browser, do the following:

In Firefox - Type about:config and change the value of string image.animation_mode from normal to none.

In Internet Explorer - Tools -> Options -> Advance. Uncheck the box in Multimedia group that says "Play animations in web pages"

Good Looking Profile Picture for Posting on the Web

The popularity of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook or Bebo have created a demand for Photoshop experts because people want to look perfect and glamorous in their profile photographs on social websites.

For this reason, Snappy Snaps, a photo company in UK, has launched a special "photo airbrushing service" that turns any normal photograph into a flawless image.

You get lean thighs, wrinkle free face, no dark circles under the eyes, white straight teeth and an overall slim look without dieting or a visit to the beauty parlor - it's all done using the good old Photoshop.

No wonder, this Snappy Snaps image transformation service is massively popular especially among the MySpace and Facebook crowd.

Including a picture is the best way to increase responses to your profile but what type of photograph should you upload on your profile - the Yahoo! Dating portal has some solid advice that definitely goes against the airbrushing rule:

• Don't forget to flaunt your smile.
• Choose a photo of just one person – you!
• A clear, well-lit picture will make you more appealing.
• Show off how you look on an average day.

Turn Your Printer and Scanner into a Copier Machine

Got a printer and scanner but no Xerox copy machine? With no effort, you can combine the printer and scanner to build your personal digital photocopier machine and make copies of your documents at the click of a button.

This is possible through iCopy, a free software utility that combines the scanner and printer into a versatile copier that requires no installation - you can even run the iCopy software from a USB drive.

Here's how iCopy works - you insert the document / paper inside the scanner, enter the number of copies that you want and hit the big blue copy button.

iCopy also provides you control over the image settings and quality so that the final document copies consume less ink during print. It works with all printers and any TWAIN-compatible scanner (nearly all scanners are TWAIN compatible).

iCopy Photocopier software is available at sourceforge.net.

When both Domain Name & IP Address are banned, Use Calculator to Access that Website

How to bypass the internet content filtering software of your school or office using just the calculator application (Start->Run. type calc.exe). This unique Mathematics based trick will probably work when websites are blocked in your institution or corporate network based on the host name or their IP address.

The trick is to convert the human readable website address that's blocked (like bebo.com) into an IP address (208.75.184.160) and again translate this value to a decimal address which is probably not blocked by the website filters.

Here's a step by step guide to render www.myspace.com to a decimal address:

1) get its IP address (216.178.39.74), by pinging the name (if you have a direct internet connection) or if you only have access via a web proxy then find it out by using network-tools.com.

2) start your PC's calculator, and change it to scientific mode (using the "View" menu)

3) enter each of the four IP octets, one by one, converting them to binary (enter number and click on the "Bin" radio button)

Thus 216.178.39.74 becomes
216 = 11011000
178 = 10110010
39 = 00100111
74 = 01001010
Notice how any binary numbers less than 8 digits long have had leading zeroes added to pad them out. Reassembled into IP address order, you get 11011000.10110010.00100111.01001010

4) Remove the dots, so you get one huge line of binary, thus: 11011000101100100010011101001010

5) Copy this binary string

6) Go to your scientific calculator, and hit the "Bin" button FIRST (as you are about to enter binary), THEN paste in the binary string.

7) Click on the "Dec" button on your calculator, and you will get the converted value of 3635554122

8) Add the hypertext protocol prefix and paste into your browser's address bar: http://3635554122

I used to be in a place that had websense, where both website names and their corresponding IP addresses were blocked. However was able to get limited access by converting the IP address to decimal, which websense (at the time) did not know about. This might have changed since, or if your school runs an old version it might still work. Note that if you surf away from the page you might hit websense blocks again unless you manually reconstruct the next address you want to get to.

An Effective Home Remedy For Fixing Scratched CDs or DVD disks

It's a three step process -

• apply a layer of banana, then
  
• spread it using the banana peel and finally
  
• wipe the surface using a soft cloth.

This method may bring some of your old but priceless CDs back to life.

Before You Leave the Windows Laptop or MacBook Unattended..

What is the best way to protect your laptop computer against theft? Most would say that treat your laptop (or tablet) like the cash in your wallet and therefore never leave it unattended, even for a minute.

Easier said than done - it's not always practical to carry that heavy notebook with you all the time. For instance when you are in a conference, you won't like to carry the computer to the restroom or to the nearby coffee vending machine but that time maybe more than sufficient for a thief to walk away with your expensive notebook.

So what's the next best option to ensure that your laptop and the extremely important data doesn't disappear ? Either lock the Laptop with security cables or get the free utility called Laptop Alarm.

Laptop Alarm is like an anti-theft siren that only rings (using the in-built speakers of the laptop) when someone tries to logoff or shutdown the machine or removes the charging AC power cord or unplugs the external mouse attached to your laptop.

Laptop Alarm is Windows only but MacBook users can get the free iAlertU utility that will even capture the photo of the thief using the webcam and email it to any specified address.

Get LaptopAlarm (Windows Notebook) | iAlertU (Apple Notebook)

Caution: The Laptop Alarm won't work in the case when the thief is clever enough to turn off the laptop by pressing the power button.

How to Play MP3 Songs Stored on your Home Computer at Work

Problem: You have tons of MP3 music files, podcasts and other Windows Media Audio songs on the hard drive of your home computer neatly organized in playlists. You hat burning this music to CD but still want to listen it while in office or from other computers in your home or want to share the same music with your friends who can be in any part of the world.

Solution: All you need is SimplifyMedia and the popular iTunes media player - both are available for Mac and Windows. It is expected that SimplifyMedia will support WinAmp, Windows Media Player pretty soon.

It works like this - you add the music folders to SimplifyMedia watch-list on your home computer that contain the songs you would like to access or listen from other computers. When you are in office, you again login into SimplifyMedia and start iTunes where you'll find the same home music library under Shared Playlists. Hit play and the music or podcasts stream over the internet. Quite simple.

When you install Simplify Media software on additional computers, you are connected automatically when you log in with the same screen name. To share the music with other friends, you can invite them via email and they too can listen to our iTunes music playlists on their computers.

However, you cannot use this system to copy songs from the home computer to work or transfer them to the iPod.

Free Video Editing Software for Producing Movies

You want so many video editing features for free ? Well, it may be possible as here are some good options for editing that don't cost a dime.

But before you read this list, check the CDs that shipped with your handycam - most camera manufacturers like Sony, Canon and Panasonic generally provide a decent video editing software with the camera. OK, back to the list of free video editing software:

Windows Movie Maker - The best video editing tool for Windows that's absolutely free and chances are you already have it installed on your computer as part of XP SP2. Microsoft Movie Maker has all the basic video editing tools plus a good collection of transitions and video effects.

There's an in-built movie titler that lets add you styles to text titles including ticker taps, zoom and even the scroll effect. And if you are feeling lazy, just hit the AutoMovie command to have the entire video produced for you with intervention.

Avid Free DV - Avid Free DV, poor cousin of Avid Xpress Pro, has all the basic video and audio editing features and allow you to put video in two tracks simultaneously. They have an extensive collection of tutorials online to help you get started quickly.

Support both Mac OS and Windows XP platform. Infact, you can even play with keyframes for generating custom moves and transitions. Ships with the Avid Title tool.

JahShaka - An open source video editing software that is currently in Alpha stage but has features found only in expensive video editing software suites.

Works on Mac, Linux and Windows. The interface might take some time for you to get started otherwise the software is definitely the most powerful one out there. And the price is just right. $0. Also does 3D effects which you won't find in other free video editors.

Jumpcut.com - Jumpcut is a web based video editing software and now it's even part of the Yahoo! family. You upload a video or small clips just like importing inside a desktop software.

There are dozens of transitions and special effects. You can import photographs from your Flickr or Facebook account to mix them with the videos. The jumpcut editor is intuitive enough and there is good title support as well. And your movies are published online automatically. Perfect for quick vlogging and video podcasting.

Finally... While the above video editing software should satisfy the needs of most home movie makers, you can probably consider Adobe Premiere Elements or even Muvee AutoProducer for more features and better control over the final output. They have trial version to help you try out the software before actually buying it.

Run Google Talk in Firefox Sidebar

The Google Talk Gadget is clearly more usable than the stand-alone GTalk desktop client or the floating AJAX version in GMail.

Here, each chat session opens up as a tab (like Firefox browser tabs), it can show previews of images or video and the chat client can easily be embedded inside webpages.

There's however a small problem - while we have browser windows in front of us all the time, the same may not hold true for the webpage (like the Google personalized page) where we have embedded the GTalk gadget.

So here's an alternate option - put the Google Talk client in the Firefox sidebar so it always stays in the foreground no matter what website you are on currently.

To add Google Talk to your Firefox sidebar, bookmark the following URL (right-click and choose Bookmark this link)
talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/client

Now goto Bookmarks menu, navigate to the above bookmark, right click and choose Properties. Tick the checkbox that says Load this bookmark in the sidebar.

An employee of an investment bank writes that their organization has banned Google talk in office but using the above method, he was able to circumvent the GTalk ban and could chat with friend out the firewalls of his office.

Access Orkut, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Xanga from School or Work

How to access Bebo, Myspace that are blocked at school ?

Following our previous trick on accessing restricted websites that are blocked by your employer, college or government, there have been several requests from college students and office workers asking for workarounds to access social networking websites that are blacklisted.

The most common websites that are blocked in schools include Bebo, MySpace, Hi5, Xanga, Orkut, Facebook and in some cases, Youtube. We share a couple of options to bypass the internet ban and they includes using proxy servers, special mobile websites and screen sharing software:

Trick A: Most solutions to unblock websites suggest using web proxies to bypass restrictions. Open Directory has a comprehensive list of public anonymous web-based proxy servers that you may want to try. [How proxies work ?]

But chances are that your school administration has already blocked access to most proxy servers as well. In that case, you have some more options:

Trick B: Surf the web using Mowser, a new service that's free and converts any website into a mobile phone friendly format. The other option that may help access blocked website is Bitty Browser, a miniature web browser that is meant for embedding inside other web pages. Another solution may be Google Mobile Search.

Trick C: Finally, a option that will always work provided you have your sister or mom at home to help you - Use a screen sharing software like Microsoft Tahiti, CrossLoop or Yuuguu.

Ask someone at home to accept your screen sharing invitation request and browse the web at school using your home computer. This will enable you to access any website or instant messenger like Skype or Yahoo from the school or work computer. You may also try remote control software that comes with Win XP Pro instead of screen sharing apps to access restricted sites.

Accessing unauthorized web sites using the above tricks may be considered a violation of school or work policies and might put you in trouble. Use them at your own risk.

Convert an Image into a Dot to Dot Puzzle - Birthday Party Ideas

I think everyone must seen in news papers and magazines. Draw the picture with quotation of "Chukkalu kalapandi"...

For new parents (especially mommies) struggling to find creative games and activities for their child's next birthday party, here's something very creative that will also keep the kids engaged.

PictureDots is a fun only service that will convert any of your favorite digital photograph or image into a numbered dots puzzle.

Upload a picture, create dots on the picture (like tracing an outline) using the mouse pointer and save the puzzle.

You can print the dots on a paper and distribute this "personalized puzzle" among the children - if they come to know that connecting the dots will create a face like their school teacher, they'll find the game all the more exciting.

Picture Dots.com - Create dot-to-dot puzzles.

Convert Long, Complicated Web Addresses Into Small URLs

urlTea.com - A relatively new but promising URL shortening service. It allows you to describe or annotate the destination website in the short URL itself. For instance, http://urltea.com/g20 is the same as http://urltea.com/g20?my_site but the latter makes more sense to the visitor. And you can also use Google Talk or Yahoo! Messenger to create short URLs through a buddy called teabot@urltea.com.