Armate the techmate

https://testwitharjun.com/ my new home.

2021-03-26T22:54:00.005+05:30

I have a new home now - https://testwitharjun.com/ Please subscribe to the blog and get all the latest posts from me. :)

The Ultimate Guide On How To Test Your Landing Pages

2013-02-25T18:51:00.000+05:30

Here comes a whopper of information in one easy-to-read and scan visual.

Having a killer landing page for your product could make a huge difference for your business. One can’t come up with that perfect landing page in a minute. You have to test rigorously to find the best converting landing page for your product. This infographic by Invesp shows you how to test your landing pages like a pro:

Infographic by- Invesp

Text Version:

What is A/B Testing –

A/B testing or split testing is an experimental approach to compare two versions of a landing page (A and B), which are identical except for one variation that might impact a user’s behavior and to find out the most effective version.

What is Multivariate Testing –

Multivariate testing enables you to test many changes simultaneously

A/B testing Vs Multivariate Testing

A/B Testing – Test different versions of a web page, and split the traffic evenly between each page

Multivariate Testing – Test different elements within a single web page. Ideal for high traffic websites

Major Areas to Test on a Landing Page

Headline of the Page
Call to Action Buttons
Pricing Strategies
Landing Page Image
Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Sales Copy
Text font and Style
Page Layout and Design

15 Steps to successful testing campaign-

Have a clear testing plan
Have well defined clear and measurable conversion criteria
Identify the important elements to test
Use proper testing tools
Determine whether A/B or multivariate testing is appropriate
Access current traffic and conversion rates
Determine target conversion goals
Determine number of scenarios to test
Determine time span to run tests
Create variations of different testing elements
Install and deploy different test scenarios
Measure test results and findings
Do more changes based on findings
Conduct follow up tests
Track Improvements

Major Landing Page Testing Mistakes You Should Avoid

Do not have an effective testing plan
Testing with very low traffic
Testing too many elements
Not establishing the criteria of success
Not conducting follow-up experiments
Not monitoring tests when running
Not tracking external factors
Running tests for too long
Testing small changes and ignoring big concepts
Getting caught up in opinions
Not measuring the entire funnel

Now, test vigorously and prosper!

Courtesy : http://www.imgrind.com

Portect(Secure) Your website From Being Scanned By Hackers (for Vulnerabilities)

2012-09-03T11:21:00.000+05:30

Hi all users, in common sites there are more chances of vulnerabilities, by which hackers can find loopholes and can exploit your website easily. So in today's tutorial, we will teach you how you can protect your website from being scanned by third parties (other peoples) for vulnerabilities and how to block that person who is scanning your website. This tutorial will help to prevent prevent people(hackers) for doing this. So lets get started.

Steps to Setup :

1. First of all you need to create a directory to trap the scanner. So create a new directory in the root directory and name it trap or whatever you want. The main use of this directory is when someone will scan your website, he will accesses this directory and will be blocked by the IP . So this is how it'll prevent further scanning of your website. Please note that by this method, not only guests even member can also be banned.

2. Next thing we want to keep in mind is that don't need to prevent legit bots like the google bots( bots by search engines). For that, we need to set access path to make sure that these bots will not enter in the trap directory. For this ,we must add this piece of code in the robots.txt file.

User-agent: *Disallow: /trap/

So now these bots will ignore this directory and move ahead.

Now create a new index.php file in the new trap/ directory and add this code :

$agent = $_SERVER['$HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
$datum = date("Y-m-d (D) H:i:s",$tmestamp);
$ipad = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$ban = "Deny from $ipad # /trap/ $agent - on $datum \r\n";
$file = "../.htaccess";
$search = file_get_contents($file);
$check = strpos($search, $ipad);
if ($check === FALSE) {
$open = @fopen($file, "a+");
$write = @fputs($open, $ban);
echo "The IP ".$ipad." has been blocked for an invalid attempt to access a file, directory or invalid scanning attempt.;
@fclose($open);
} else {
echo "The IP ".$ipad." has been blocked for an invalid attempt to access a file, directory or invalid scanning attempt.";
}
exit;
?>

Make sure you CHMOD .htaccess to 666.
$file - you need to change this depending on where you place your trap.

Now setup is completed successfully now we need to place the bait to lure the scanners to your trap.

Edit the index file in your root directory and add this piece of code at the bottom :

Since the bots or scanners check links while crawling, they will see this line of code and immediately travel to our /trap/ folder and get trapped in it. When a bot or scanner will try to access the directory, they'll get an error message "access denied". You can use this in many situation e.g. you can use this in your admin directory where you have the ACP so that no one will access it.

Last but not the least, you must know that this is not 100% guarantee of the security as it can still be bypassed (but only 10% chance of bypassing) because 90% of skids attempts to scan the site and they never know how to bypass this restriction :)

Credit: Egyhacks

How Much Does it Cost to be an Iron Man

2012-08-09T14:23:00.002+05:30

So until and unless you are blessed with some supernatural powers, you really aren’t a superhero. But if you still want to fulfill your dream, you need to have money, a lot of money.
Estimating costs of being superheroes is always awesome and the lavish life of Tony Stark is a mere dream. But estimating the cost of being Iron Man, returns the following figures:
Iron Man suit: $110,302,000
Jarvis super computer: $10,000,000
Swanky house: $25,000,000
Cost for R&D got seven Iron Man suits + War Machine: $1,464,000,000
Fancy sports cars: $3,415,000
And calculating other side-costs, it sums into a total of $1.6 billion. Although the actual figures may always skew up, it’s fun knowing you can never afford such expenditures.

Credits: Reality POD

Friend blog

2012-08-01T16:53:00.000+05:30

Dear all,

My roommate, friend, everything to me has come up with his new technology blog, please endorse him and keep updated about the new technologies...
http://nandutech.blogspot.in/

Thanks and regards,
@rm@te
about.me/armate

Just How Big Is Apple

2012-04-30T12:03:00.001+05:30

Source: Best Computer Science Degrees

Different tools to check different things...

2012-03-03T15:05:00.000+05:30

Google Tool to Check Your Website’s Performance on a Mobile Phone
Google AdSense obviously sees a lot opportunities for displaying ads on websites viewed on a mobile device. It has developed a free online tool called How to Go Mobile, which helps you check how your website performs on a mobile phone.

Enter the URL of your website you want to check and select what you intend to do with your website. This includes options like content publisher or if the website is used to generate leads or about a business that is online as well as offline.
The online tool will carry out relevant checks and show up details like Loading Speed, how images appear, text format and navigation.

Check How Secure Your Password is with Microsoft Tool

Passwords are an important part of our online life. They are the keys to our online homes and it is important to make sure we do not misplace them or allow them to fall into the hands of untrustworthy people.

Microsoft’s Password Checker

Just visit this link, and type in the password you want to test out.
It will indicate if the password you are using is weak or strong.

A good password is usually an alpha-numerical combination along with a mix of special characters. Ideally this will help create a password that cannot be easily broken or guessed.

Password Meter

Password Meter is a nice online tool that shows how strong your password is across various parameters.

Online Tool to Compress and Optimize Image Files from Browsers

Kraken is a free online tool that has mixed both features and allows users to download all images from a webpage and while doing so also optimize them with resizing.

Tracing...

2012-03-03T14:32:00.001+05:30

## Connections Make The World Go Round ##

The computer world, at any rate. Every single time you open up a website, send an email or upload your webpages into cyberspace, you are connecting to another machine in order to get the job done. This, of course, presents a major problem, because this simple act is what allows malicious users to target a machine in the first place.

## How Do These People Find Their Victim? ##

Well, first of all, they need to get hold of the victim's IP Address. Your IP (Internet Protocol) address reveals your point of entry to the Internet and can be used in many ways to cause your online activities many, many problems. It may not reveal you by name, but it may be uniquely identifiable and it represents your digital ID while you are online (especially so if you're on a fixed IP / DSL etc).

With an IP address, a Hacker can find out all sorts of weird and wonderful things about their victim (as well as causing all kinds of other trouble, the biggest two being Portnukes/Trojans and the dreaded DoS ((Denial of Service)) attack). Some Hackers like to collect IP Addresses like badges, and like to go back to old targets, messing them around every so often. An IP address is incredibly easy to obtain - until recently, many realtime chat applications (such as MSN) were goldmines of information. Your IP Address is contained as part of the Header Code on all emails that you send and webpages that you visit can store all kinds of information about you. A common trick is for the Hacker to go into a Chatroom, paste his supposed website address all over the place, and when the unsuspecting victim visits, everything about your computer from the operating system to the screen resolution can be logged...and, of course, the all important IP address. In addition, a simple network-wide port scan will reveal vulnerable target machines, and a war-dialler will scan thousands of lines for exposed modems that the hacker can exploit.

So now that you know some of the basic dangers, you're probably wondering how these people connect to a victim's machine?

## Virtual And Physical Ports ##

Everything that you recieve over the Internet comes as a result of other machines connecting to your computer's ports. You have two types; Physical are the holes in the back of your machine, but the important ones are Virtual. These allow transfer of data between your computer and the outside world, some with allocated functions, some without, but knowing how these work is the first step to discovering who is attacking you; you simply MUST have a basic knowledge of this, or you won't get much further.

## What The Phrases TCP/UDP Actually Mean

TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, a TCP/IP packet is a block of data which is compressed, then a header is put on it and it is sent to another computer (UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol). This is how ALL internet transfers occur, by sending packets. The header in a packet contains the IP address of the one who originally sent you it. Now, your computer comes with an excellent (and free) tool that allows you to see anything that is connected (or is attempting to connect) to you, although bear in mind that it offers no blocking protection; it simply tells you what is going on, and that tool is NETSTAT.## Netstat: Your first line of defence ##

Netstat is a very fast and reliable method of seeing exactly who or what is connected (or connecting) to your computer. Open up DOS (Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt on most systems), and in the MSDOS Prompt, type:

netstat -a

(Make sure you include the space inbetween the "t" and the "a").

If you're connected to the Internet when you do this, you should see something like:

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP macintosh: 20034 modem-123.tun.dialup.co.uk: 50505 ESTABLISHED
TCP macintosh: 80 proxy.webcache.eng.sq: 30101 TIME_WAIT
TCP macintosh MACINTOSH: 0 LISTENING
TCP macintosh MACINTOSH: 0 LISTENING
TCP macintosh MACINTOSH: 0 LISTENING

Now, "Proto(col)" simply means what kind of data transmission is taking place (TCP or UDP), "Local address" is your computer (and the number next to it tells you what port you're connected on), "Foreign Address" is the machine that is connected to you (and what port they're using), and finally "State" is simply whether or not a connection is actually established, or whether the machine in question is waiting for a transmission, or timing out etc.
Now, you need to know all of Netstat's various commands, so type:

netstat ?

You will get something like this:

Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP network connections.

NETSTAT [-a] [-e] [-n] [-s] [-p proto] [-r] [interval]
-a Displays all connections and listening ports.
-e Displays Ethernet statistics. This may be combined with the -s option.
-n Displays addresses and port numbers in numerical form.
-p proto Shows connections for the protocol specified by proto; proto may be TCP or UDP. If used with the -s option to display per-protocol statistics, proto may be TCP, UDP, or IP.
-r Displays the routing table.
-s Displays per-protocol statistics. By default, statistics are shown for TCP, UDP and IP; the -p option may be used to specify a subset of the default..Have a play around with the various options, but the most important use of these methods is when you combine them. The best command to use is

netstat -an

Because this will list all connections in Numerical Form, which makes it a lot easier to trace malicious users....Hostnames can be a little confusing if you don't know what you're doing (although they're easily understandable, as we shall see later). Also, by doing this, you can also find out what your own IP address is, which is always useful.

Also,

netstat -b

Will tell you what ports are open and what programs are connecting to the internet.

## Types Of Port ##

It would be impossible to find out who was attacking you if computers could just access any old port to perform an important function; how could you tell a mail transfer from a Trojan Attack? Well, good news, because your regular, normal connections are assigned to low, commonly used ports, and in general, the higher the number used, the more you should be suspicious. Here are the three main types of port:

# Well Known Ports These run from 0 to 1023, and are bound to the common services that run on them (for example, mail runs on channel 25 tcp/udp, which is smtp (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) so if you find one of these ports open (and you usually will), it's usually because of an essential function.

# Registered Ports These run on 1024 to 49151. Although not bound to a particular service, these are normally used by networking utilities like FTP software, Email client and so on, and they do this by opening on a random port within this range before communicating with the remote server, so don't panic (just be wary, perhaps) if you see any of these open, because they usually close automatically when the system that's running on them terminates (for example, type in a common website name in your browser with netstat open, and watch as it opens up a port at random to act as a buffer for the remote servers). Services like MSN Messenger and ICQ usually run on these Ports.# Dynamic/Private Ports Ranging from 49152 to 65535, these things are rarely used except with certain programs, and even then not very often. This is indeed the usual range of the Trojan, so if you find any of these open, be very suspicious. So, just to recap:

Well Known Ports 0 to 1023 Commonly used, little danger.
Registered Ports 1024 to 49151 Not as common, just be careful.
Dynamic/Private Ports 49152 to 65535 Be extremely suspicious.

## The Hunt Is On ##

Now, it is essential that you know what you're looking for, and the most common way someone will attack your machine is with a Trojan. This is a program that is sent to you in an email, or attempts to bind itself to one of your ports, and when activated, it can give the user your passwords, access to your hard drive...they can even make your CD Tray pop open and shut. At the end of this Document, you will find a list of the most commonly used Trojans and the ports they operate on. For now, let's take another look at that first example of Netstat....

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP macintosh: 27374 modem-123.tun.dialup.co.uk: 50505 ESTABLISHED
TCP macintosh: 80 proxy.webcache.eng.sq: 30101 TIME_WAIT
TCP macintosh MACINTOSH: 0 LISTENING
TCP macintosh MACINTOSH: 0 LISTENING
TCP macintosh MACINTOSH: 0 LISTENING

Now, straight away, this should make more sense to you. Your computer is connected on two ports, 80 and 27374. Port 80 is used for http/www transmissions (ie for all intents and purposes, its how you connect to the net, although of course it's a lot more complicated than that). Port 27374, however, is distinctly suspicious; first of all, it is in the registered port range, and although other services (like MSN) use these, let's assume that you have nothing at all running like instant messengers, webpages etc....you're simply connected to the net through proxy. So, now this connection is looking even more troublesome, and when you realise that 27374 is a common port for Netbus...

Make your folders invicible...

2012-03-03T14:28:00.000+05:30

1)Right Click on the desktop.Make a new folder
2)Now rename the folder with a space(U have to hold ALT key and type 0160)or(press F2 and then hold down ALT and type 255 and finally press ENTER)
3)Now u have a folder with out a name.
4)Right click on the folder>properties>customize. Click on change icon.
5)Scroll a bit, u should find some empty spaces, Click on any one of them.
click ok Thats it,

now u can store ur personal data without any 3rd party tools

Watch your window shakking--Funny computer Trick:

2012-03-03T14:21:00.002+05:30

Copy & paste the scripts given above in your location bar
and watch your window shakking...you can change the values ..enjoy

javascript:function Shw(n) {if (self.moveBy) {for (i = 35; i > 0; i--) {for (j = n; j > 0; j--) {self.moveBy(1,i);self.moveBy(i,0);self.moveBy(0,-i);self.moveBy(-i,0); } } }} Shw(6)

javascript:a=0;x=0;y=0;setInterval("a+=.01;x=Math.cos(a*3)*200;y=Math.sin(a*2)*2;moveBy(x,y)",2);void(0)

A simple trick to make your internet speed increase by 20%:

2012-03-03T14:20:00.003+05:30

A Simple Tweak which will increase your Broadband Speed by 20% for sure. 100% works.

Make sure you Log on as Administrator, not as a user with Administrator privileges.

Follow the steps as given below-

step 1) Click on Start Button.

step 2) Select Run From Start Menu.

step 3) Type gpedit.msc

step 4) Expand the [Administrative Templates] branch.

step 5) Then Expand the [Network] branch.

step 6) Highlight(Select by Single Click) [QoS Packet Scheduler]

step 7) Double-click [Limit Reservable Bandwidth] (Available in Right Side Panel)

step 8) Check(Select By Single Click on it) [Enabled]

step 9) Change [Bandwidth limit %] to 0 %

step 10) Click [OK] Button.

step 11) Restart Your PC.

step 12) Now Check Your Broadband Speed, you will see your pages loading faster.

A Trick to Make your Firefox Faster:

2012-03-03T14:18:00.001+05:30

This Firefox Trick is Very Usefull So just do the corresponding Changes And Enjoy.

This tricks will improve the speed & load time of firefox browser and you will be able to surf more faster.

To Do This,..
just Type about:config in the address bar,
Then look for the following entries, and make the corresponding changes.

network.http.max-connections-per-server =32
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy =16
network.http.max-connections = 64
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server = 10
network.http.pipelining = true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests = 200
network.http.request.max-start-delay = 0
network.http.proxy.pipelining = true
network.http.proxy.version = 1.0

Lastly right-click anywhere and select New- Integer.
Name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to 0.
This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Now Enjoy :)

The Foods of India by States

2011-11-23T17:34:00.001+05:30

This rough guide to Indian food by state is courtesy Zomato.com, an online guide to Indian restaurants. It does miss the Mughlai food of Delhi and the Biryani of Hyderabad.

20 Educational Social Media Graphics

2011-11-05T15:52:00.003+05:30

Securing your wireless network.

2011-10-25T17:02:00.003+05:30

The whole aspect of security of wireless networks has become very important ever since terror e-mails were sent to media by alleged terrorists. Terrorists used unsecured wireless networks to hack into an individual's Wi-Fi network and sent e-mails just before bombs went off in Ahmedabad and New Delhi.

It is in this environment protecting your unsecured Wi-Fi network becomes very important lest somebody misuses the same.

Here are 10 simple ways in which you can secure your wireless network :

1. Change default administrator usernames and passwords :
Most routers or access points come enabled with a default set of username / password combinations. These combinations are well documented and available online for hackers to use. If a hacker can access your device's administrative pages they can modify the configuration and control all aspects of your device. These username / password combinations can be changed from the administrative panel and should be set to something difficult to guess.
Keep a password which is difficult to guess and not easy to crack. A good password is 8 characters long, not easily guessable, contains mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers and preferably contains special characters like $,*,%,!.

2. Turn on encryption :
All wireless devices support some form of encryption. Encryption technology scrambles messages sent over the air and ensures that they cannot be intercepted by hackers. Several encryption technologies exist for wireless communication today. WPA is the strongest commonly available encryption technology for home devices. While WEP can also be used cracking WEP is just a matter of few minutes. We would advice corporates to go for WPA with EAP Authentication, TKIP / RC4 Encryption or WPA 2 with EAP Authentication, AES-CCMP encryption for better security.

3. Change the default SSID :
Access points and routers all use a network name called the SSID. Manufacturers normally ship their products with the same SSID set for all routers. For example, the SSID for Netgear devices is normally 'NETGEAR'. The default SSID can be changed from the administrative panel and should be set to something unique.

4. Enable MAC Address filtering :
Each wireless device possesses a unique identifier called the physical address or MAC address. Access points and routers keep track of the MAC addresses for all devices that connect to them. Wireless routers offer the option to key in the MAC addresses of your home equipment so as to restrict the network to only allow connections from those devices. It ensures that rogue users cannot connect to the wireless router without using advanced MAC spoofing techniques.

5. Disable SSID Broadcast :
The wireless access point or router typically broadcasts the network name (SSID) over the air at regular intervals. This feature was designed for businesses and mobile hotspots where wireless clients may roam in and out of range. For the home user, this roaming feature is unnecessary, and it increases the likelihood someone will try to log in to your home network. Fortunately, most wireless access points allow the SSID Broadcast feature to be disabled by the network administrator. Your SSID name can be manually entered into your devices to prevent the need for SSID Broadcasts to be enabled.

6. Do not auto-connect to open wireless networks :
Connecting to an open wireless network such as a free wireless hotspot or your neighbour's router exposes your computer to security risks and attacks. Although not normally enabled, most computers have a setting available allowing these connections to happen automatically without notifying the user. This setting should not be enabled except in temporary situations.

7. Assign static IP addresses to devices :
Most home wireless devices use dynamic IP addresses. DHCP technology is indeed easy to set up. Unfortunately, this convenience also works to the advantage of network attackers, who can easily obtain valid IP addresses from your network's DHCP pool. Turn off DHCP on the router or access point, set a fixed IP address range instead and then configure each connected device to match. Using a private IP address range (like 10.0.0.x) prevents computers from being reached directly from the Internet.

8. Enable firewalls on each computer and router :
Modern network routers contain built-in firewall capability, but the option also exists to disable them. Ensure that your router's firewall is turned on. For extra protection, consider installing and running personal firewall software on each computer connected to the router.

9. Position the router or access point safely :
Wireless signals normally reach to the exterior of a home. A small amount of signal leakage outdoors is not a problem, but the further this signal reaches, the easier it is for others to detect and exploit. Wireless signals often reach through neighboring houses and into streets. When installing a wireless home network, the position of the access point or router determines its reach. Try to position these devices near the centre of the home rather than near windows to minimise leakage. Many routers allow you to reduce the range of your router from the administrative panel to prevent the signal leakage.

10. Turn off network during extended periods of non-use :
The ultimate in wireless security measures, shutting down your network will most certainly prevent outside hackers from breaking in! While impractical to turn off and on the devices frequently, at least consider doing so during travel or extended periods of downtime.

Latest Invention: Camera that Sees Hidden Things

2011-10-18T15:43:00.000+05:30

Latest Invention: Camera that Sees Hidden Things

Dr. Reza Zoughi, a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology together with his colleagues managed to develop a patented camera that works similar to body scanners used at airports.

The invention uses microwave and millimeter signals to scan a certain material or structure with picture reproduction at the rate of 30 images per second.

All the signals sent by the camera are received by a laptop that then plays the pictures in real time. The camera features a battery similar to those used in laptops. The battery allows the device to work for hours.

It is worth mentioning that the invention can be used for different purposes, includinginspection of aircrafts, thermal insulating materials inside the spacecrafts and also in the medical field where specialists can use it to scan for cancers for example.

In addition, the device can be used in detecting illegal movements of products in airports and other places.

It would be interesting to note that the camera has been a long term goal for Zoughi, who started thinking about such device back in 1998. He is now working on a number of improvements, one of which would allow the camera to generate 3D/holographic real-time images.

Enjoy...

Some interesting Facts on Windows 8

2011-10-11T10:08:00.001+05:30

Windows 8 is the code name given to next release of Windows.
Windows 8 introduces a new user interface specifically for Touch, also supports keyboard and Mouse. Its called Metro Style UI.
Just like the Start button, Start menu in earlier version of Windows, Windows 8 has Start Screen which houses different apps in the form of tiles. Some tiles are Live
You can switch to desktop with Desktop App
Windows 8 has 2 Touch keyboards – Full size Touch keyboard and Split thumb keyboard.
The keyboard layout automatically adjusts to the Windows language chosen.
Language settings automatically apply to whole computer rather than specific programs
Supports ARM based chipset
Fast boot times, boots in 8 sec
Metro Style Apps can adapt to various form factor, from slates to huge monitors.
Metro style Apps can work on x86, x64 and ARM
Windows 8 requires a 1024 x 768 minimum resolution for Metro style apps
You can login to Windows 8 in different methods apart from Local user account- Log on to Windows using Windows Live ID (any email account), using PIN or using picture password
There’s Windows Store to get different Apps.
You can install your purchased Apps on upto 5 Windows 8 PCs.
Windows 8 comes with Internet Explorer 10 optimized for Touch browsing.
Multi-monitor support has been enhanced. can display Start Screen on one Monitor and Desktop on another.
Display different backgrounds on each monitor or stretch the background image across both
Can have duplicate or unique task bars on each monitor.
Secured Boot makes it more resistant to low level attack. Windows authenticates boot components to prevent attack during boot
Windows Developer Preview is a Evaluation Copy and it expires on 3/12/2012 5:29AM . (12^th Mar 2012) Just run Winver.exe to check.

Celebrate Steve Jobs Life

2011-10-11T10:04:00.001+05:30

How To Get A Job In Tech Industry

2011-10-04T12:00:00.003+05:30

With the country still deep in recession, the jobs situation seems to be worsening with each passing day. Americans are seriously hurting, and with through-the-roof unemployment combined with stagnant wages, large-scale economic recovery seems a long ways off. A few industries, however, seem impervious to decline, and tech is one of those industries. Indeed, with Android and iPhone sales raging to record numbers and Facebook bigger than ever, the big 3 companies in tech especially seem to be having no problems with growth and employment.

Naturally, a lot of us would like to work for them. But how? This infographic details the lay of the land in tech right now, where the hottest cities are, and who is hiring for what. Perhaps most importantly, it lets you know the hottest emerging fields in tech, and the kinds of degrees that can get you there. If you have been considering grabbing a master’s degree in a tech specialty, there may be no better time than right now.

Typealyzer – What Type is Your Blog?

2011-10-04T11:55:00.001+05:30

I came across an interesting site this morning.

Typealyzer.com sets out to analyze a blog based on the content and determines the personality type of the blog.

Typealyzer Logo

Typealyzer analyzes writing style in the blog based on text patterns, etc and determines the type of blog. Of course, naturally I put ShanKri-la to the test and we came out as

ISTJ – The Duty Fulfillers

The responsible and hardworking type. They are especially attuned to
the details of life and are careful about getting the facts right.
Conservative by nature they are often reluctant to take any risks
whatsoever.

The Duty Fulfillers are happy to be let alone and to be able to
work in their own pace. They know what they have to do and how to do
it.

I am not sure if that is flattering or demeaning but I tend to take things positively. Even though the title seems a little discouraging, the details are more friendly and some of it even true.

I do like to work in my own pace – I feel no urge or desire to post for the sake of posting everyday or to some schedule. Of course, you know that as a regular reader.

One little secret I’d let you in is that actually I like reading others work more than I do writing. This results in me devouring a lot of stuff from the web but only writing about a select few that I really feel excited about here. I hope this shows in my writing than just being ‘dutiful fulfiller’.

Behind Typealyzer.com

There isn’t a lot of information about the site (no About page for starters) in the home page. But, the site does have an active Google Group for Typealyzer.

Reading through a few posts reveal that Typealyzer only analyzes the text directly on the url provided. So, I could have been really dynamic this whole year but Typealyzer determines the blog type by just the 10 posts in my home page.

So, try putting different pages of your site url to see what you get. For eg, search results page or archives page, etc.

Alternately, my wife’s Indian recipes blog SpicyTasty.com came out as ESFP – The Performers – the entertaining and friendly blog.

Our iPhone blog TopiPhoneResource.com came out as ESTP – The Doers – the active and play-ful type.

Let us know in the comments what type of blog is yours.

3 Really Awesome LinkedIn Labs Products You Should Try Out

2011-10-04T11:52:00.001+05:30

You probably don’t sign into LinkedIn as frequently as you do on Facebook. Personally speaking I don’t; though I spend a lot of effort at least a few times every month maintaining my professional profile in tip-top shape. The free LinkedIn account without many of the frills like InMail well serves most of us. But did you know that there’s a little section called LinkedIn Labs that’s tucked away in one corner of the professional networking site?

Not many visit LinkedIn Labs because it is not well advertised. As LinkedIn itself says – LinkedIn Labs hosts a small set of projects and experimental features built by the employees of LinkedIn.

It’s not Google Labs by any stretch of the imagination, but still has products you can try out. Here’s taking a look at three which I think add something to your professional networking.

Resume Builder

If creating resumes are one of the jobs you shy away from, Resume Builder helps you out. You can turn your LinkedIn Profile into a beautiful resume in seconds using available templates and a bit of customization. Sign-in with your LinkedIn profile ID and choose from the 11 templates available to design the look of your resume. You can create multiple resumes and also manage them.

Editing functions are provided via the Outline mode and Edit profile. Both allow you to rearrange the content. Download and print the final resume in PDF format. You can also share your resume with a URL. Privacy settings help you control who gets to see your resume.

If you have really put some thought into your LinkedIn profile, the resume builder is one of the easiest, no-hassle ways to create a resume.

Instant Search

Instant Search is your own little search engine for LinkedIn. And it’s fast. As soon as you start typing in the query, profiles get displayed. Instant Search searches through your contact list (connections) and shows the hits as profile thumbnails.

Signal

Signal helps me make sense of all Twitter updates posted across my connections. You can quickly go through the Twitter stream and save the ones you want to keep or reply later. What makes Signal a good social search tool is the set of filters on the left. You can search across your Twitter stream and research what potential contacts and connections are saying. It’s also a good tool to track the visibility of your brand or your product. Signal is a powerful search engine to look for jobs, answers, and groups too.

Admittedly, the number of products isn’t that many in LinkedIn Labs. Which ones are your favorites? What kind of products would you like to see gets added here?

UnLock Files Locked by System Processes with EMCO UnLock IT

2011-10-04T11:50:00.003+05:30

EMCO UnLock IT is a freeware that can unlock files and folders that are locked by system processes. Many a times, while trying to delete, rename or move a file, we get a Windows Error message saying that the action cannot be performed as the file/folder is in use by any other process. Finding the process that is preventing this can be frustrating and time consuming. This is where EMCO UnLock IT comes to the rescue.

The software has got a simple and elegant interface and it can also integrate with the Windows Explorer. Simple select the files and it will show the list of processes that are locking the file. The program will attempt to close the processes and if that doesn’t work, you can even terminate the processes that are locking the file. It will also show you the details of the process that is locking the file. You can then try to unlock the resource or terminate the process directly that is locking the file. The program tries to close a process in safe manner. You can even use it to unlock DLL files being used by other processes. You can even use it to get rid of any trojans or malwares that have infected the file.

The program is a freeware and works on all the version of Windows.

3 Software to Download Wallpapers in Bulk

2011-10-04T11:28:00.001+05:30

A good Wallpaper really brings freshness to a desktop, but the problem is it takes time to browse, select and download them. Don’t worry, there are few ways to download wallpapers in bulk. I want to share 3 software which do gets the job done.

#1. Pulse

Windows Vista/7 users can download Wallpapers in bulk using Pulse. It’s a freeware app which downloads wallpapers based on your keywords. It uses ReWalls (as it’s a Russian site, please use Google translate for English version of it) as wallpapers resource but I’m sure it will support many more sites in the future. You can also set the app to change wallpaper for every minute, hour or so. If you don’t like the Wallpaper set by Pulse, then you can replace it with the next one. It’s still in beta, so don’t panic, you may find some bugs.

It Works fine on Windows 7 and Vista. I’ve personally tried it on my Windows XP desktop, it downloads wallpapers without fail but doesn’t set them.

Link: Download Pulse

#2. Natgeo Wallpaper Downloader

Here comes another freeware app known as Natgeo Wallpaper downloader, as the name suggests, it can only download wallpapers from Natgeo, but as you know Natgeo is a very good resource for wallpapers (More than 5000 Wallpapers are available for download). Unlike Pulse, you don’t need to type the keyword, instead you can select any category. You can also select the resolution of the Wallpapers.

If you’re running XP, for changing Wallpapers automatically you can use Wallpaper changer Power toy.

Link: Download Natgeo Wallpaper Downloader | Download Wallpaper Changer Power toy

#3. DownThemAll!

I’m not much of a Firefox fan, but if I want to download images in bulk, then I use Firefox. DownThemAll! is a very popular Firefox add-on, When you run it (through right-click context menu), it shows all the links, images and videos available to download from that page. So, if all you want is images, then filter the selections using image extensions (JPEG, PNG etc). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an alternative for Chrome.

Do you know any other way to download images in bulk? Also, if you know any Downthemall! alternative for Chrome, please let us know!

[Infographic] Microsoft Explains Evolution of Email!

2011-10-04T11:26:00.002+05:30

Email has come a long way, from writing instant letters to cousins and friends aboard to actually becoming a way to exchange files, information and links. Email accounts are now often used to fire-up interaction on other services like chat, social networks and more.

Here in an infographic by Microsoft, which shows how Email has evolved over the last few decades.

I personally use email a lot more since I was in college. This is because work still relies a lot on Email compared to social networks. But earlier, jokes, funny images and interesting links were shared via Email. Now almost everyone does this on their respective Facebook or Twitter profile. I wonder if such networks with replace Email in the future.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: Microsoft Presspass

[Tutorial] Take Screenshots on Android Phones Without Rooting

2011-10-04T11:25:00.000+05:30

Taking screenshots is easy in Windows Mobile and iPhone, but it is complicated when comes to Android. Since Android is being one of the most used mobile platforms but while taking screenshots, it shows the errors. There are several apps to do this, but all apps need your phone to be rooted.

As rooting destroys the manufactures warranty of your phone and many such other issues, lots of people like me, do not root their phone.

Here we will guide to take a screenshot in any android phones without rooting.

Using Android SDK

Connect your phone to your PC
You must have the Android SDK installed in your computer. (make sure that your Java developer kit is updated). You can read a complete tutorial on how to install it, from their official page .
Open the folder where you have the Android SDK installed and navigate to -> Tools

Now open the file named ddms in it

Now in the device list provided, select your device and go to Device -> Screen Capture. Alternatively, you can do this by tapping Ctrl + S together.

Now, You will get a screenshot of your android phone in your monitor

That’s it ! You got the screenshot ! You can save it, rotate it, copy it. Once you have installed the Android SDK manager, you just want to follow the steps 4 & 5. Since you can directly get it into the computer, it i’s really easy to share or post on blogs tutorials etc.

Hope this tutorial had helped you.

Link: Android SDK