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Showing posts from April, 2005

Frustrated with a website? Just destroy it

Drop nuclear weapons over the target-site, thowing at random different kinds of bombs with devastating effects. Or the best way to show one's anger towards a specific site is to shoot at it like a mad man. You can even spill digital coffee or inflict cigarette burns on victims. Heck, pull in the big guns and have Mars attack! Have you ever experienced, just like God himself, how it feels to generate disasters anywhere in the World (Wide Web)? You can do it now! Click here to see what happens if I spill Coffee on my blog. Or here to see my blog burning right before my eyes. I see a flood coming. Enter the URL of a website @ Netdisaster and just choose a catastrophe, from things like meteors, flood, spilled coffee and mould. Nice. Still have some free time ? Try these Optical Illusions .

Let visitors search your blog

Need a powerful internal search engine script to allow visitors to search the contents of your site? Check out these free services. You will learn how to add search to your site without any complexing programming and without paying any money. Weblogs (or Blogs) have changed the way people surf the internet. It is perhaps the best platform to publish your thoughts to the world. Blogs could be focused on one topic or may contain totally unrelated writings. One day he may write about the lated HD-DVD technology and the next moment he may tell you how her two year old son at the milk meant for the cat. Agreed, you are an amazing writer. But what if your visitors can't find what you wrote about Firefox hacks few days back. Millions of bloggers exists all over the world who attract millions and millions of viewers everyday looking for breaking news, tricks .... Blogs show around 5-10 recents posts on the main page and the rest older ones are hidden in the archives. Some blogging software

Making music on your PC

Gone are the days when making an audio recording meant buying expensive equipment or making a trip to a studio and paying professional prices. Now you can use your computer to record vocals and instruments, edit the whole lot together to create a music track and compile and burn a CD of your work, all with the minimum of fuss and expenditure. Vnunet has an extensive guide to help you to get started from the hardware requirements and the free software you need. Making and recording music is no longer something that only those with access to a music studio or dedicated equipment can do, and the audio-recording software we have looked at in this feature means making music is even more accessible. You can then use your computer to improve the quality of the music you record or add effects that would otherwise require expensive equipment. Ars Technica carries another guide to ripping and encoding music. The instructions contained therein will satisfy the majority of casual music listeners

How to get your site indexed on MSN

While MSNBot crawls billions of web pages, not every page that we crawl is indexed. For a site to be indexed, it must meet specific standards for content, design, and technical implementation. For example, if your site’s link structure does not provide links to each page on your site, MSNBot may not be able to find all of your site’s pages. Add MSN Search Box to your site - just like Google. Here's how you can add MSN Search to your site to enable your visitors to search the Web or your site using MSN Search, just add the code shown here to your home page. Submit your URL If your site does not appear in the MSN Search results, you submit your site here . About your site description As the MSN Search web crawler MSNBot crawls your site, it analyzes the content on indexed pages and generates keywords to associate with each page. Then MSNBot extracts page content that is highly relevant to the keywords (often sentence segments that contain keywords or information in the description)

How to make money from household clutter

Want to turn your clutter into cash? If so, join the more than 100 million people around the globe who sell their stuff on eBay, the online auction community where almost anything in the world is available. Microsoft teaches you how to Sell your stuff on eBay. Unload unwanted goods and make a little dough, but be warned-whether you're selling or buying, eBay may be addictive. Irene Nolan started auctioning items on eBay in 1998 and got hooked on the rush that comes from discovering that your trash may well be another person's treasure. "I once bought four plates at a yard sale for $10 and sold them on eBay for $500. The extra income is great, and I love the thrill of the hunt." Getting set up to sell on eBay is quick and registration is free. But before you start auctioning off your unwanted goods, be sure you're aware of the fees for selling and of the potential risks involved in any e-commerce transaction. Want more evidence that eBay might just be your next

Google yourself often

Instead of taking Google for granted, we need to remember that criminals get the same easy access to information we get from a capable and quick search engine. To see what the Internet knows about you, start by going to the Google site or by using the Google toolbar. Next, either type your name in quotations or, for a more refined search, type intext: (intext with a colon) immediately followed by your name in quotes. Now type your address or phone number, and Google may turn up a church or a social group directory listing. If this doesn't surprise or outrage you, type into Google your social security number or credit card numbers. So never put anything personal, such as your social security number on a resume, on the Internet, not even temporarily. And if you find such information on a cached Web page (a page that has been taken off a live site but still exists within Google ), consult this page for more details. [ Via ]

Microsoft suggests Adsense

An article on Microsoft's small-business center has some suggestions for bloggers to make money from blogs. To my surprise, the author suggest putting Adsense or BlogAds on your blogs to generate revenue. This may be a huge embarrasment to MSN which is planning to roll out it's own adverting program soon. But is Adsense only good for lesser-known blogs ? I thought people were quitting jobs for Adsense earnings. Also, Lockergnome, NYTimes and host of other popular sites carry GoogleAds. Jeff Wuorio may need to understand blogging better. For lesser-known blogs, services such as Google's AdSense or BlogAds enable bloggers to establish ad programs. AdSense's — which lets you select several ads that are consistent with the content of your blog — pays you based on how many readers click on the ads for further information. Even better, it's free. BlogAds, on the other hand, hooks bloggers up with would-be advertisers and levies a commission in return for any ad placement

An Adobe Killer from Microsoft

Adobe may have killed the competition in online publishing by acquiring Macromedia. But Microsoft is not keeping quite. The next version of Windows will include a new document format, code-named "Metro," to print and share documents, Microsoft said Monday. Metro appears to rival Adobe's PostScript and PDF (portable document format) technologies. The format, based on XML (extensible markup language), will be licensed royalty free and users will be able to open Metro files without a special client. In the demonstration, a Metro file was opened and printed from Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Web browser. The Metro technology is likely to go head-to-head with Adobe's PostScript technology. "It is a potential Adobe killer," said Richard Doherty, research director with The Envisioneering Group in Seaford, New York. "But this is just the first warning shot. Adobe could put something that is even more compelling Longhorn. [ Via ] This is not the first time

Compare the privacy options of desktop search programs

Gartner had earlier warned that companies shouldn't use the new Google Desktop Search tool because of security concerns and a lack of features. "Google Desktop Search has great potential for business use. Its security problems and lack of corporate-ready functions, however, make it unsuitable for widespread use right now." Google was quick to react to Gartner's report and released an updated version with better privacy settings. Anick Jesdanun compares the privacy issues of the three main desktop search programs: Google stands out in recording Web sites you've visited. Say you saw an interesting article but could no longer find it on the Web. Google's program can retrieve it from your computer, even if you had never saved it. That feature cuts both way, however: Perhaps you DON'T want your computer to remember everything you've ever browsed - especially if you've been goofing off at work. Yahoo is a bit better than MSN - Yahoo won't recor

Firefox users would love this program

Mozilla Cleaner is a cache and history cleaner for Mozilla Suite, Firefox and Thunderbird. It deletes your cache, history and temporary internet files as well as cleaning e-mail trash, recycle bin, temporary folders, clipboard, windows most recently used items and user added files and folders. A cookie manager is also included enabling you to save selected cookies. The app works only on Windows XP and requires Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 or above. Available for download at The Register Version 1.42 is available as freeware on the Register site while the latest 1.61 requires payment of £2.50 through PayPal.

I don't agree with the Inquirer

In a recent article , the Inquirer mentions some "key" problems in Firefox . I am surprised to read most of them. Infact, I would prefer to call them as features: 1. Perhaps a name change to Firefox Mailer would help? Why would the Mozilla foundation want to change the name Thunderbird which is now associated with one of the best and free email clients. Mozilla calls their browser as Firefox and not "Firefox Browser" - Firefox is a product not a company. 2. No splash screen Let's do a quick poll here. How may would want a splash screen which covers the screen while the program loads. And Firefox is so quick to load that displaying a splash screen for a nanosecond make little or no sense. 3. NO FTP UPLOADS. I thought we are talking of a browser which is meant for surfing the web. You have so many free FTP clients available like Flashget which can so easily be integrated with Firefox using extensions. 4. Why deliver security fixes as "new versions", inst

Adobe Acquires Macromedia: Future of Existing Software Brands ?

Adobe Inc. will acquire Macromedia Inc. for approximately $3.4 billion. The new company will be called Adobe Systems, Inc. This has not occurred yet, and will not occur until approved by stockholders and government regulators. Until the close of transaction, the companies will continue to operate business and usual. The combined company will not be able to create a joint product roadmap until after the transaction is closed. Macromedia Flash Paper which allows you to print any document to PDF or SWF format truly sums up the merger of two publishing giants. According to Joe , the Macromedia acquisition could extend Adobe's reach beyond browsers and operating systems to new platforms, such as cellular phones. Macromedia has had pretty good success wooing carriers to Flash. The presence is important, because there are many business functions for which a cell phone or PDA--and not a computer--would be the primary client. Macromedia's success with cell phone manufacturers and carri

Use Hotmail to Store Files

Much like GMailFS and the Gmail Shell Extension that were discussed previously, RoamDrive allows users to store files using the free space available on their Hotmail accounts. Unlike the other two, however, RoamDrive can store files without any size restrictions and has features like automatic compression. The developers also plan on releasing a "Pro" version that supports Gmail and Yahoo Mail, and can link your Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo accounts for a massive amount of storage. [ Via ] ed. Is it only a matter of time before email companies start cracking down on this?

Microsoft Security Update has RSS feeds

Microsoft security update e-mail would will be discontinued in July. However, you can subscribe to their RSS feed. This feed delivers the headlines on major security update releases, which are usually released on the second Tuesday of each month. To subscribe, add this URL to your RSS reader: http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/updates.xml The Security Newsletter for Home Users provides general notice about major new security update releases. You can preview it on the Microsoft Security at Home Web site http://www.microsof...

Don't use a public computer with desktop search

If a desktop search tool is installed, pause or disable it. Better yet, don't use the computer. Anyone who has access to your computer can tap into your private files and Internet travels. Kim says - "Keep sensitive information out of your desktop search programs". Google's Desktop Search, which runs continuously, creates a copy (or Cache) that lingers after the original is deleted. This makes it difficult -- to say the least -- to manage sensitive information. In addition, Google by default indexes secure Web pages. So if you shop online or manage your stocks at a Web address that begins with HTTPS:, rather than HTTP:, those pages are also saved. These pages often contain confidential information, such as credit card numbers. Further, it indexes your temporary Internet files and saves AOL Instant Messages. Google can also index password-protected Word or Excel files. And you don't need the password to view the cached file that appears on the search results lis

Protect your pricesless pictures from terrorists

Jacques Lowe preserved his priceless collection of photo negatives in an underground bank vault in New York but when the terrorist hit the Twin Towers, the negatives were lost forever. There are many important things stored digitally now that, if they aren't preserved, will simply vanish in time, our place in history is what's at stake. With the advent of digital cameras, some 59% of digital camera users make backup copies of their digital photos, but less than half have backups for their backups. Some use online photo sites like Shutterfly, Snapfish or EasyShare Gallery service. With P2P networks, copies of encrypted digital files would be distributed across a shared network of servers around the world For professionals, loss of data means loss of business, loss of historic moments. A Swiss researcher's proposal is to preserve the individual bits from the image file as a series of light and dark dots indicating the ones and zeros of the file. If properly stored, microfilm

Dear Google Team - Can I ask a favor ?

Wow! You have an opportunity to make $$$ from your home videos. Google is now accepting video uploads directly from content owners. Those interested can go to https://upload.video.google.com and load their digital videos to Google Video, itself a relatively new service that, when queried, returns excerpts of close-captioning transcripts of television programs, still images from broadcasts and other programming information. And there are enough reasons to use this program. Eventually your work will be included in Google Video , where users will be able to search, preview, play and purchase it. You may designate a price for playback of Your Authorized Content in the Uploading Form itself. I consider myself an amateur video enthusiast and have tons of video on my computer. This new opportunity from Google, after AdSense, definitely thrills me. Free bandwidth, free hosting and free backup for life - I can't ask for anything more. The main problem is How to upload a 50 MB WMV video fi

Google Newsletter is gathering dust

Google-Friends mailing list was launched with much fanfare by Google to inform users with what's happening at their favorite search engine. This newsletter was planned to go out approximately once every two months with updates on Google search features, business partnerships, and products in development. The newsletter was originally hosted on Yahoogroups (or egroups) which is a main competitor to Google's own Google Groups but later the Google-Friends mailing list was moved to Google Groups . Google still invites users to sign-up for this newsletter even though the last issue was sent a year back. I am pretty sure that Google Friends Newsletter has died. Google is now using the more popular Google Blog to send out product information and other updates. I won't call this a good move. Why to abandon a more popular technology like email in favor of RSS feeds. There's is no doubt that RSS is the best thing that can happen to the web but right now, it's only tec

Preventing kids from pirating movies, music and software

Online piracy is the illegal copying and sharing of copyrighted materials for business or personal use. This can mean downloading music, movies, games, or software without the permission of the copyright owner as well as sharing music, movies, games, and software copies that you own. If your kids are pirating digital files, you could be subject to steep fines or other penalties, and they could be exposing your computer to viruses, spyware, and other unwanted software. MS suggests some ways to help you prevent your kids from downloading illegally: 1. Warn your children about the risks Your child could expose your computer to viruses, you could be fined up to $30,000 (this fine can vary by country). 2. Supervise your child's activities on the computer Keep the computer in a central room in your house. Specify certain times your child can and cannot use the computer and make sure they understand which activities are acceptable and which are not. 3. Give your child a limited user acc

Filehand 3.0 Desktop Search will be available soon

FileHand Search , a unique desktop search tool and winner of a 2004 Shareware Industry Association award for best utility using .Net, is preparing to release version 3.0. Filehand will continue to be free. This again brings the obvious question - How do they plan to make money ?. Actually, they will also be releasing a new API that allows any .NET application to access the Filehand lookup functions, and an ASP.NET demonstration that uses the API to provide a web accessible search engine. The API won't be free but a free demonstration version will be available. Filehand allows you to search files and Microsoft Outlook items. The results contain a clickable link to your document, an estimate of the relevance of the found document to your search terms, and an extract of the the document. Filehand 3.0 will feature numerous enhancements over it's predecessor Filehand 2.0 . Some of the features worth mentioning are: Index any file that has a supporting iFilter installed on the user

MSN Desktop Search wins again

MSN Desktop Search continues to impress people. Just a couple of days back, Ars Technica reviewers rated MSN Desktop Search as their personal favorite. And now MSN seems to have found another fan - The Forbes Magazine. Microsoft's MSN desktop search beats its competitors hands down, primarily because of a superior user interface that integrates better with other Windows programs. Consent decree or no, Microsoft has once again managed to leverage its operating system dominance to its advantage. MSN, by contrast, was almost shockingly intuitive for a Windows user. The results were shown in a list format, and e-mails could be sorted by sender, subject and date, just as in Outlook. It was very easy, via tabs on the desktop search, to switch between searches of documents and searches of e-mails. Like the other programs, it took the MSN program an afternoon to create an index of all the e-mail and files on my hard drive. But once the index had been created, it updated automatically in

Yahoo! 360 Invites available

Get a yahoo 360 invitation here. If you need a Yahoo! 360° invitation, please leave a comment . I guarantee that you will receive one. Great Yahoo! invite giveaway. Yahoo! 360 is a blogging and photo sharing tool from Yahoo! . I particularly like the "Blast" feature where you write a message with a link and it pops up on your friend's screen with your photo. Every time you sign in, you'll automatically see the latest stuff your friends have shared. Forrester reviews Yahoo! 360° : Central to the whole service is the concept that you want to communicate and connect with the people that you already know, rather than try to meet new people. To this end, your home page on the service shows the most recent content published by people within your network. This might be a blog post, a photo album, review, or an updated profile item. This page is constantly refreshed as the people in your network update the information on their spaces. This fundamental concept of linking pe

The most exhaustive Windows desktop search tools comparison

Adam Baratz has done an elaborate comparison of the popular desktop search tools here . To him, indexing is not really anything big, it already exists in Windows - the real novelty of desktop search apps can be found in their interfaces. The central design problem in these programs isn't finding the best way to catalog your information, but finding out how to let you best traverse it. Adam covers the more popular tools like Google Desktop , Copernic , MSN , Yahoo! Desktop Search and Ask Jeeves Desktop Search . I was a little surprised to see that there was no mention of Blinkx and Filehand which are free as well as very promising with some unique features like Smart Folders and Fly-By previews. MSN Desktop Search remains Adam's favourite. MSN Desktop makes a strong first impression and continues to impress as you use it. It catalogues the most file types and has limitless possibilities for expansion. It's easy to use, but gives power to users who desire it. A number o

Desktop Search competition turns fierce with Blinkx 3.0

Blinkx today unveiled the newest version of its PC search software to enhance the way it finds information on the desktop and across the Internet. The software has both a new look and new functionality. It can now search some 200 file formats. It can also index local Lotus Notes content and E-mail. Its audio/video search works particularly well because Blinkx indexes actual content using speech-to-text technology, in addition to searching close-captioned text and metadata like competing audio/video search engines. Blinkx 3.0 features improved security, a document-preview function and the ability to index new files, such as Lotus Notes e-mail messages and attachments, says Suranga Chandratillake, the company's founder and chief technology officer. The product recognizes more than 200 file formats, he notes. Also, Blinkx 3.0 pops up a preview of a document when the user hovers over its search result. Both the speed at which Blinkx is upgrading its search tool and the quality of the

Adobe announces next version of Creative Suite

Adobe today announced new versions of Adobe Photoshop® CS2, Illustrator® CS2, InDesign® CS2, GoLive® CS2. Adobe® Creative Suite 2 is a unified design environment that delivers the next level of integration in creative software. New features and tighter integration among suite components simplify creative and production tasks, enabling you to work more efficiently than ever before. Version Cue® CS2 includes enhancements in file versioning and review management, while other new features like Adobe Bridge, Adobe Stock Photos, color consistency, and unified Adobe PDF file creation offer greater productivity and collaboration. Visit Adobe Creative Suite page.

Google Crossword - Test your Google Power!

Take a print of the Google crossword and fill it using the clues below: Across 1. Advertise your product 6. Donate your computer's idle time 9. Just added another Gig 10. Use Google on your mobile phone 14. Explore the world from your PC 15. Try out new Google products 16. Download APIs and open source code 18. Ask a question, set a price, get an answer 19. Shop smarter 23. View web pages in other languages 26. Search and browse mail-order catalogs 27. Search over 8 billion web pages 28. Create mailing lists and discussion groups 29. Query from your mobile phone or device 30. Express yourself online Down 1. Earn more revenue from your website 2. Find a taxi using real time position of vehicles 3. Search through journal articles 4. Search your own computer 5. Search recent TV programs online 7. Get driving directions 8. Search a specific school's website 11. Search for images on the web 12. Instant message your pictures to friends 13. Find, edit and share your photos 17. Brows

Google plays a prank

Google Gulp - a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty. Plus, it's low in carbs! And with flavors ranging from Beta Carroty to Glutamate Grape, you'll never run out of ways to quench your thirst for knowledge. Plus, it's April 1 today. If you can't get Google Gulp from Google , try it on eBay! . Looking for April Fool’s jokes on the Net? Stop reading now if you don’t want them ruined for you. The Washington Post has a rundown of those they’d found as of this morning. See the Post article for a few others, and this article in the Mississippi Sun-Herald for a history of April Fool’s jokes. Finally (among the ones I’ve found), you have to be a real physics geek to enjoy this joke by Peter Woit of the blog Not Even Wrong. [ Via ]