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Showing posts from April, 2007

Turn Off the Computer Screen to Combat Global Warming

The severe threats posed by global warming are real and alarming but we ( office workers, geeks, or anyone who uses a computer ) can help make a difference without making any major changes to our work lifestyle. Here are some essential tips for computer users (released by Tufts University) that will help in reducing the rate of climate change, if not reversing the damage already done. Take a printout and stick it on the wall . » Turn off your monitor screen manually when you are not using your computer for 15 minutes or longer (e.g., during lunch hour or during meetings). » Turn off your computer at night and when you are not using it for several hours. The same also applies to copiers, scanners, printers and fax machines. One computer left on 24 hours a day will cost you $115 - 160 in electricity costs a year and dump 1,500 pounds of CO 2 into the atmosphere. A tree absorbs between 3-15 lbs of CO 2 each year. That means that 100-500 trees would be needed to offset the yearly emissio

Quiz Time: Identify this Famous Googler

Can you spot and identify a very popular Google Employee in these group photographs. Answer coming soon. Hint: 20%, PDA Previous Quiz: Identify Logos of Internet Companies Update: That was Orkut Buyukkokten who wrote the Orkut service during his 20% time at Google when Googlers are free to work on projects of their interest. Orkut is pursuing PhD in Computer Science at Standford University and his research projects are focused on efficient usage of PDAs. The folks who got that right are Nitin, Mitesh , Anand , Tom , Vivek , Piker and Haochi . Thanks for joining.

Convert PowerPoint Presentations into iPod or YouTube Video

Want to publish your Powerpoint PPT slideshows on Google Video or Youtube ? Or watch them without a computer on an iPod, mobile phones or your large TV screen using a DVD Player ? Get PPTmovie, a conversion software that turns PowerPoint slides into movie formats like MP4, MPEG or AVI. The software will also record any background music or audio narrations through the microphone and sync it with the video slideshow. The tool costs around $50 but you can have it absolutely free today courtesy GiveAway website. [The free download link expires at 11:59 PM PST] Download PPT Movie at GiveAway of the Day . While PPT Movie will help you burn those PPT slideshows on a DVD disc or publish them on the video sharing websites that accept AVI, you may consider SlideShare for embedding Powerpoint slides as Flash in webpages. Related: Convert PPT to AVI or MPEG with VideoScout

HP Pavilion tx1000 Convertible Tablet PC

I have been using the HP Pavilion tx1000 Tablet Notebook for over a month now. It's my first experience with a Tablet PC and the going has been quite good and impressive so far. The HP tx1000 tablet is a convertible notebook meaning it can used a normal laptop or swivel it 180° around the hinge, fold and use it as a slate. The tablet automatically senses the rotation and changes the display from landscape to portrait mode. HP Pavilion tx1000 specs are pretty solid - 2 GB of RAM, AMD Turion 64X2 Dual core processor and an NVIDIA graphics card. Though it ships with Home Vista Premium, the machine is powerful enough to run the Ultimate edition of Vista without problems. The tablet has a unique touchpad (with hollow dots arranged in a grid) which is very different from the smooth pads that we see in most laptops. This gives you an extra grip and better control over the mouse pointer. The unit weighs around 4 pounds with the standard battery that lasted around 2 hours in tablet or slate

Convert Long, Complicated Web Addresses Into Small URLs

The web addresses at places like Google Maps, Amazon.com, Expedia, eBay Auctions, Digg.com or even Google Searches are often long, cryptic and almost impossible to remember. Thankfully, there exists more than a dozen URL shortening services on the Internet that convert them these extra long URLs into short and sweet links that you can easily copy-paste in emails, Usenet groups, IM's or even SMS text messages. Here's a quick review of the most popular URL redirection services to help you pick the right one for your job. TinyURL.com - This is a name synonymous with URL redirection with maximum number of users. You can drag their bookmarklet in your browser and create short URLs in a single click. The advantage is that users can preview the web address embedded in TinyURL before visiting the actual website. With Preview , Without Preview urlTea.com - A relatively new but promising URL shortening service. It allows you to describe or annotate the destination website in the short

Technorati Favorites: Not Worth It Anymore

The Technorati Favorite Blogs list that showcases the top 100 most favorited blogs on Technorati (out of 75.2 million blogs) has now lost much of it's original charm. Ever since the "Technorati Favorites Exchange" meme gained popularity among bloggers, tons of relatively lesser-known blogs have managed an entry into the Technorati list displacing several popular bloggers including Dave Winer and Doc Searls. Even Jeff Jarvis, John Battelle and Gawker are on the exit route though guys like Michael Arrington, Darron Rowse, Merlin Mann and Frank Warren are still way up in the Technorati ladder. It takes almost 150 votes to get on Technorati Favorites list and that number is easy to achieve once you participate in any these Technorati link exchange programs. By swapping Technorati votes, you not only get to displace the legitimate members of the Technorati list (like the ones mentioned above) but your site even derives some Google Juice (read, backlinks) similar to the 2000 B

Track Visitors on Your MySpace or Flickr Profile

Who's viewing your MySpace profile page ? How many people have checked your Flickr or Yahoo! 360° page ? Where are these MySpace visitors coming from ? These are some very common questions among myspace.com users. While there are stats companies like SiteMeter or Statcounter to track visitors on websites, their solutions cannot be used for snooping MySpace or Flickr visitors as these social sites do not permit javascript codes. Here's a workaround - use MyBlogLog which is owned by Yahoo! MyBlogLog now has an easy HTML-only solution to track your MySpace profile visitors for free. It will also help you track Flickr, Wordpress.com or Yahoo! 360 users. Create a new community on MyBlogLog (if you don't have one already) and open the Get Widgets link in your MBL community. There you'll see a link that says "Have a Wordpress, Flickr, Yahoo! 360, or Myspace Blog?" Click that link and copy-paste the HTML tracking code in your myspace.com profile page. If a MyBlogLog v

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.

Online Advertising Rates for Cost-Per-Click Ads (CPC)

      Popular websites like Forbes, ESPN, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Lonely Planet, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, etc. offer pay-per-click or CPC based advertising programs through Quigo . Unlike text links, these CPC text ads are javascript based (like Adsense / Adwords) and therefore do not bring any Google juice for advertisers. You pay only when a visitor clicks your ad. Website Advertising Rates (Blogs - Text Links) As the CPC rate chart below indicates, the bid amounts can vary anywhere between $0.20 and $6.00 for displaying CPC ads on these high traffic web properties related to TV, magazines and newspapers. The bids are likely to go up during events like holidays, elections, etc. Forbes.com Home Page $1.50-5.51 ComputerWorld.com $3.00-4.03 InfoWorld.com $3.00-6.02 USATODAY.com Home Page $1.00-6.54 FoxNews.com $0.50-3.12 ABC News - Home Page $1.00-4.03 ABC News - Technology $0.40-1.53 chicagotribune.com $0.40-2.21 Los Angel

The Missing Pages from Office 2007 and Windows Vista Manual

Microsoft introduced some innovative packaging for Windows Vista and Office 2007 installer DVDs. They ship inside a hard, plastic container that's also shrink wrapped. What Microsoft forgot to provide you is a separate manual or instructional video that would demonstrate how to open these Vista or Office 2007 boxes. An Office 2007 customer had a real hard time opening the DVD casing and he therefore posted a step-by-step picture guide on Flickr illustrating how to open the Office 2007 box. The process should be similar for Windows Vista. His advice - use a pocket knife or pair of scissors to slice the transparent, circle-shaped top seal along the edges and then lift the red Post-It flag at the top left corner of the box. Detailed Tutorial available on Flickr.com. Microsoft designed these software boxes to last a lifetime, this photo essay should help you open the box without scratching the case. This tutorial also shows how Flickr (or any photo sharing website) can be used for w

Google Brings 3D Mouse for Google Earth and SketchUp

Google today added a new item to their online store - a 3D pressure sensitive mouse that makes flying or navigation inside Google Earth a breeze. Using this mouse, users can fly through Google Earth, change directions, camera views or even work on 3D models inside Google Sketchup, a free CAD software. Called SpaceNavigator, this mouse is compatible with most 3D software including Maya, AutoCAD and NASA World Wind, a competitor of Google Earth. This may also catchup with architects and designers who use 3DS Max and Revit Building to create virtual walkthroughs for clients. Google Store | Developer Homepage Supported on Windows XP, Vista, Linux and Mac OS X. It's made by 3D Connexion, a company owned by Logitech.

Plug-n-Play Hardware KeyLoggers - Useful but Dangerous

If you are using a public terminal in an internet cafe, college library or even inside the posh business center of an hotel or airport lounge, do check the connection between your keyboard cable and the desktop - the white AA battery sized hardware device in the picture is actually a keystroke logger. Hardware keyloggers may soon become a challenge in schools and offices as these devices get affordable and widely available. These deceptive KeyGhost hardware keyloggers plug-in between your keyboard and Desktop PC and will largely go unnoticed by the computer user. Once plugged in, it tracks and records all computer keystrokes in it's internal Flash memory. The keystrokes can later be retrieved using any text editor. The same company also develops USB Keyloggers that resemble a thumb drive but record all keystrokes on PC or Mac. They even support wireless keyboards. While most antivirus and antispyware can safely detect and block software keyloggers, hardware keyloggers that attach

Google Adds Picture Thumbnails in Search Results

Google is experimenting with image thumbnails in organic search results (see screenshot) - Try a Google search for terms like Apple, BlackBerry or Vladimir Putin and you may experience the new Google results layout first hand. In case of Vladimir Putin, Google added results from Google News, Google News Archives and Google Blog Search - all on the main Google search page. Currently, the website thumbnails are displayed only for the Google News results placed after the top three organic search results. Hope it's just a temporary experiment else it may bring some bad news for regular web sites that are also displayed in the organic results - thumbnails will help draw the attention of search engine users and may alter the traffic on regular websites that are display in Google Search results sans the thumbnail.

The Simpsons Discover the Perils of Google Maps

Are you a Simpsons movie fan ? You will absolutely love this Googling video. [time: 37 seconds] Marjorie Simpson was ego-surfing on Google when she suddenly finds her hubby Homer Simpson on Google Maps. "All this time I thought Googling yourself meant the other thing." Thanks Rakesh .

FeedBurner Introduces Adwords Like Negative Keywords Filter

Feedburner today introduced a new Adwords like feature in their FeedBurner Advertiser Network (FAN) program that will allow advertisers to suppress display of ads on blogs and RSS feeds that contain "pre-defined" keywords. This comes exactly a day after the Scansafe report which stated that 80% of blogs contain "offensive" content including porn, offensive language and hate posting. Google Adsense automatically serves non-paying Public Service Ads on pages that contain stop words (see figure) and it also gives Adwords advertisers an option to define their own negative keywords or URLs where the ads should be hidden. The process is similar in FeedBurner - advertisers simply submit their custom list of negative keywords for each of their campaigns. The FeedBurner ad server will then suppress ads when those keywords appear in the feed or blog post. Not just foul or offensive language, Feedburner's AdClimate will help advertisers serve ads in places where they&#

AOL.in - AOL India Website for Email, News, Cricket & Bollywood

The much awaited AOL India Portal has just gone live. AOL.in is primarily focussed on local news, cricket , education and bollywood movies. Similar to Yahoo Ourcity , AOL India has city guides for select Indian metros where you get information about the eating joints,shopping hubs and the city's night life. AOL India is also offering a free @aol.in email address and since they launched just moments ago, chances are that you can grab an email user name of your choice. AOL India search is powered by Google and users get the option to limit their search to India specific websites. AOL.in maybe designed to take on Yahoo! India portal but they still have some way to go especially in terms of content.

Blogger Template Code for Google Adsense Ads

You may have noticed that there are no Google Ads on the homepage of Digital Inspiration . That's because the content on the blog mainpage is updated so frequently that contextual advertising bots (read Adsense) may not be able to serve really relevant ads. We do run Google advertising on individual posts (called Itempages in Blogspot jargon) and Archive webpages but not on the frontpage. Implementing this style of advertising in your Blogspot blog is easy though it helps if you know a bit about editing Blogger Templates and Template Tags. Here's a snippet of the HTML code from our Blogger Adsense template that will help you display Adsense Ads only on Itempages but not on the Mainpage. This template will also convert your blog post titles into hyperlinks only on the homepage and archives but the titles will continue to appear as static text in individual post pages. <MainOrArchivePage> <Blogger> <BlogDateHeader> <h2 class="date-header">&

TIME and PC Magazine Join the Underground Blogosphere

Thousands (or maybe millions) of email messages and IMs are circulated around the blogosphere each day containing links to blog posts with the hope of getting some link-love and extra web traffic. Since most bloggers cannot afford the services of PR companies to spread awareness about their blog content, they do the "pitching" themselves. Guru Steve has labeled this secret but well-known phenomenon of blog-networking as Underground Blogosphere . Now it's not just the small or lesser known Z-list bloggers who are vying for attention, popular magazine publications such as PC Magazine and TIME are emailing bloggers with links to stories published on their websites. Here's an email from the PR agency of TIME magazine: Yesterday, TIME revealed a list of 200 people who may appear on the annual TIME 100 list, which showcases the most influential people who shape our world (link: http://tinyurl.com/23xeeb). A few people you and your readers would be specifically interest

Twango - An Excellent File Hosting Service Inspired by YouTube

Twango is a free file hosting website where you can upload and share Microsoft Office documents, Flash Videos, PDFs, pictures, audio mp3 files, video clips and even ZIPs. Files, as large as 100 MB, can be uploaded to Twango via the web browser or as email attachments. Why another file hosting service when we already have established players like Rapidshare , YouSendit, YouTube, Scribd or Flickr ? First, Twango lets you upload, manage your documents and media files from one central location. And it makes it extremely easy for your audience to view, embed or subscribe to your content. If you have ever been to YouTube, you'll have no problems getting familiar with Twango - it sports a familiar look-n-feel and employs the same concepts for tags, channels and comments. The difference - while Youtube is just for videos, Twango handles everything from music to PDFs to images in a YouTube-like interface. [Am still wondering why Twango has not become popular with podcasters yet ?] Like Y

Create Animated GIFs Online from your Photos

GIF Animations [multiple picture frames in one file] can be used for creating image slideshows, screencasts, text banners or even stop motion animation movies. Some profiles on social sites like Twitter also use animated GIF avatars to attract eyeballs. Related: How to Create GIF Cinemagraphs To create an animated GIF online, all you need is a set of images (in any format like jpg, png, etc) and Glickr.com, a free site that will convert them into an animated GIF movie of predefined sizes that you can use as profile avatars or post them on blogs. Individual images can be as large as 1 MB and you may directly grab your Flickr pictures inside Glickr.com. You may also change the speed of your animations [like how frequently the image transitions happen] Some people find animated images as annoying as blinking webpages but they are a good medium for sharing photo slideshows in situations where Flash is not an option.

Adobe Can Grab the iTunes Podcasting Pie from Apple

Valleywag says that Podcasting (read, podcast directories) battle is over and Apple has won the battle with iTunes software. Would you agree here ? RSS inventor Dave thinks there's still lots of opportunity in Podcasting players while labeling Odeo and Podshow as "fakeouts." Podcasting father Adam Curry isn't impressed calling this an "apples to oranges comparison". True, Apple rules at the moment but chances are high that the market dominance enjoyed by Apple iTunes will be significantly reduced once Adobe Media Player hits the scene. iTunes is a memory hog and the Apple Podcasting directory can only be accessed from the iTunes software. You cannot download podcasts from iTunes directory outside iTunes. Despite these limitations, iTunes is still the king because there aren't any real competitors. Also, Adobe will offer content producers an opportunity to monetize podcasts with pre-roll ads and will also track and report viewer statistics (using coo

RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 or Atom - How Do You Subscribe to Blog Feeds ?

A small orange icon that says XML or an orange square with waves indicate that an RSS feed is present on a web page. But some blogs and websites go an extra mile and provide syndicated feeds in multiple formats such as Atom, RSS 1.0, RSS 0.92 and RSS 2.0. The screen capture is from Joi's blog - site visitors can subscribe to his blog writings via three different feeds (Atom, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0) but internally, these feeds are all XML documents, have the same content arranged in reverse chronological order and differ only in representation / content formatting. Should you worry or get confused about these extra "geeky" subscription options ? The answer is no because chances are good that your desktop news reader or web based aggregator can handle feeds in any of these syndication formats. Just put the site address in your RSS reader and it will pick the right format automatically. And if you are subscribing to some blog with multiple feed formats through Firefox live bookm

Picasa 2.7 No Longer a Memory Hog, Supports Google Video

Picasa users have a reason to celebrate. Google has just updated your favorite photo management software to version 2.7 and the new release is lightning fast when compared with Picasa 2.6. Other than performance enhancements, Picasa 2.7 has better integration with Blogger and also allows you upload videos directly to Google Videos from Picasa. Earlier, this video uploading facility was only available to paid users of Picasa web albums. As expected, Picasa 2.7 no longer ships with a separate screensaver but integrates nicely with the Google Photo Screensaver that was released only last month. Picasa 2.7 is available for XP, Vista and Windows 2000. Download Picasa 2.7 [5.1 MB] The new features aren't mentioned in the Picasa Changelog but FileHippo has the latest installer. More Picasa 2 Tutorials and Tricks:    Create Photo Collages with Picasa    Download Yahoo! Photos to Picasa Web Albums    Create Large Wall Posters in Picasa

Clever Implementation of Adsense Referrals

Chris Abraham , a great blogger, is also one of the smartest Adsense geeks out there. Chris' blog posts are generally short, crisp but have descriptive titles and tags necessary for increasing the site's Google juice. The same holds true for his image posts. The images have good text descriptions, meta tags and alt information required to rank high in Google and other image search engines. Coming to Adsense, let's take a look at some Adsense implementations from his blog that are smart, absolutely legal and should be converting quite well for him: 1. Adsense Referrals - Noticed something special in the following screen capture ? The Adsense for Referrals link is actually the Javascript code provided by Adsense but it blends so well with rest of the sentence text in the blog post both in flow and meaning. 2. Adsense for Content - Chris gets a majority of visitors via search engines and he knows how to convert that traffic into Adsense dollars quite well. Take a look at th

Recharge Your iPod Without the Computer using USB iPod Chargers

You've just checked into an hotel but there aren't any computers inside the room to charge your iPod battery. Or sometimes it's just too much a hassle firing up your laptop just to recharge that iPod. No worries, you can still recharge the built-in iPod battery without connecting to a computer. Here are some good options to charge iPods sans the computer: 1. Apple iPod USB Power Adapter - This USB based iPod recharger from Apple itself costs $29. Simply plug the AC power adapter into a any electric socket and connect the other end to your iPod for recharging. 2. Sonnet iPod USB Power Adapter - This iPod charger is much like the Apple product but considerably cheaper ($20). Just plug the power adapter into an electrical outlet, and then connect the included USB cable between it and your iPod. 3. ion iPod Charger - Ion USB based iPod charger has just launched in India and it can recharge your iPod battery or for that matter, any MP3 player and mobile phone that charges thr

How to Remember Names of People You Meet in Parties or Work Meetings

How To Remember People's Names Some of us are really bad when it comes remembering names of people we come across at work or social gatherings and this inability to recall someone's name may put us in really embarrassing situations. Here's some great help from Videojug - they have created an entertaining but informative video to assist you remember names of new acquaintances without going overboard. Ask someone else - If you want to address someone but your memory fails you, discreetly ask a mutual friend their name. You needn't be embarrassed - far better to do this than to call them "Oi". Association - Anchor their name to a particular feature. In your mind, a simple "Tom" might become "Tom with the eyebrows"; "Tom wearing blue"; or "Tom with the crazy hair". Next time you see them, that feature will remind you of their name. Related: Watch and Learn Anything With Video Tutorials

The Privilege of Being an Adsense Premium Publisher

Google has a premium Adsense service exclusively for websites who receive more than 5 million search queries, or 20 million content page views per month. Now that may well be out of reach for most of us but you can see the Adsense Premium program in action on sites likes LinkedIn, CNN, About.com, AOL or MySpace. Google pampers their premium Adsense customers with perks and advantages that are strictly forbidden for regular Adsense publishers. Here's a quick rundown of Adsense premium features using the Adsense implementation of About.com, a New York Times website: Creating direct links to AdSense for search results - Adsense policies do not allow publishers to pre-populate Adsense for search box with keywords or create direct links to Adsense for search pages. However, the screenshot that you see on the right is captured from About.com Desktop Video page - these "video offers" are actually links to Adsense for search pages that contain no content, only Google ads related

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

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.

OpenDNS ShortCuts Make Your Browser Address Bar More Powerful

Do you use the browser address bar as a Google or Yahoo search box ? Here's a much better and more useful solution from OpenDNS. Long time readers of Digital Inspiration may know that we are big fans of OpenDNS service as it makes our internet much faster and more secure with a very simple tweak. Just change the default DNS server address provided by your ISP with the following DNS addresses and you may immediately notice that websites load much faster on your computer: 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220 The DNS server can be changed from the TCP/IP Properties section. [Control Panel -> Network Connections -> Local Network Connection -> TCP IP Properties] OpenDNS today launched another useful service today called OpenDNS shortcuts that make your browser address bar more useful and somewhat intelligent - you can control how the address bar reacts to your commands. With OpenDNS shortcuts turned on, the address bar of your Firefox, IE or other browsers can be used to

Adsense Page Impressions and Google Analytics Pageviews Do Not Match

Newbie Adsense publishers are sometimes puzzled when their Google Adsense page impressions are different from the pageviews reported by web stats software like SiteMeter, Statcounter or Google Analytics. First things first. The page impressions column in Adsense stats shows how many times a webpage containing Adsense ads was viewed by a visitor. Even if your webpages have multiple ad units, they'll will still account for a single page impression per page view in Adsense reports. There are several reasons why the hit count (or page views) reported by Adsense is lower than the numbers displayed by your stats package: 1. Users may have installed ad-blocking software (like AdBlock plus ) or have modified their Windows hosts file to block their computer from downloading Adsense scripts. In either of the cases, Adsense Javascripts won't be executed though your site stats script will still register a page impression. 2. Adsense doesn't have enough ad inventory for your page. In

The Best Video Tutorial Websites - Watch and Learn Almost Anything

Ever wondered how to use chopsticks ? Or how to change your car battery ? Or apply mascara ? Or how to seduce your boss ? You can find video answers to almost anything you can think of in the following websites: VideoJug.com [Life Explained on Film] - The largest online collection of "How-To" video tips and demonstrations on topics as varied as cooking Indian food, home improvement tips, folding t-shirts, impressing your boss or how to kiss someone passionately. You can download VideoJug video guides to your iPod, embed them in webpages or if you're on a slow connection, just read the text transcripts. You will be a more practical person after spending some time on VideoJug - 100% useful stuff. SuTree.com [Watch and Learn] - Sutree is an online aggregator of video tutorials, how-to's and lessons neatly arranged in various categories. SuTree has over 5000 instructional video clips in their database and growing on topics like parenting, software tutorials, electronics

How Google Hires Engineers: The Hiring Process

Google is the best company to work for in America according to Fortune magazine. No wonder , the search company gets 3000 new job applications each day - that's more than a million every year. But here are things from a very different perspective. Career consultant and Silicon valley veteran Patti Wilson has written a thoughtful piece on the hiring process at Google and how the company benefits from the "20 percent time" perk. Patti's comments are based on feedback from her clients who have been interviewed by Google including those who got hired, who got rejected and even those who rejected the job offers from Google. Sramana , one of my favorites, has a full copy of this must-read article - Googlemania. How Google recruits engineers: You are phone screened, the brought in to interview, then interviewed again (5 to 10 people have talked to you). Then you are hired as Member of Technical Staff. You will not know what group or manager or project you will work on unt

Google Apps Web Hosting and Internal Server Errors

A quick recap if you are new to Google Apps - this Google service can be used to host websites for free using the Google Page Creator module. Google web hosting gives you 100 MB of file storage space and undisclosed bandwidth. If your Google Apps domain is xyz.com, the files you upload on Google Pages become available at xyz.com/[file name]. Though Google Page Creator neither supports sub-directories nor can you buy extra storage space or bandwidth, it is still a very decent option for hosting simple websites that are comprised of HTML, CSS, Javascripts and Images. Now the big problem is that Google hosting service is not too reliable when used with Google Apps for your Domain. There are frequent errors like Internal Server Error 5B, Error 503, 502 Server error, etc when trying to access pages hosted through Google apps . The surprising part is that these webpages return server errors only when they are accessed directly using the domain address (like xyz.com/abc.html) - the problems d

Generate a Contact Us Form With Your Email Address, No Scripting

Do you want to add a simple "Contact Me" page on your blog but fear of spam is holding you from sharing your personal email address on the webpage ? No problem, check out Contactify. Contactify creates an instant personal contact form for your email address - people can send you email messages via that contact form though your email address remains hidden. Contactify also adds a CAPTCHA on the contact page andthat further reduces the chances of getting spammed through web-bots. You can now provide an option for people to contact you in message forums and discussion groups without revealing your email address. Even users of Blogger, MySpace, Wordpress.com etc may find this service handy since these blogging platforms don't support scripting. Just point your "contact us" link to Contactify and readers san spam bots can reach you. [ Contactify Me ] Contactify .com - Email without Address [Thanks Mike ] Related: Your Email Address is a Webpage