Tech et al

Free upgrade to windows 7

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:51:00 +0000

Microsoft has unveiled its "Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program" that allows free or nearly-free upgrades to Windows 7 for people who purchase a new Vista PC between June 26, 2009, and Jan. 31, 2010.
The customers who buy windows vista equipped PCs during above mentioned period will be able to upgrade to windows 7. The PCs with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate versions of vista will get an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate when Microsoft officially introduces the new operating system. The soonest date to receive this upgrade disc is Oct. 22, the retail availability date for Windows 7. It may be weeks later, however, before many customers see those discs.
The program is a repeat of one launched in 2006 where Microsoft offered discounts for upgrading to windows vista for new windows XP PCs during oct06 to mar 07.
Microsoft has listed several computer makers, including Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba, that sell laptops that qualify for a free or discounted Windows 7 upgrade.
The FAQ regarding this program can be found here.

Conficker has got a bag full of wonders

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Now first of all what is this conficker?
Conficker is a worm that is specifically targeted at windows users(another reason why you should switch to Linux). It spreads by exploiting a vulnerability in the network stack implementation of Windows operating systems ranging from XP to newly launched Windows 7 beta. It is also known as downup and downadup. It so good(or bad) that leading Anti virus companies have formed teams to see if they can find some cure for it.

What it does?
Researchers are still working to find all its "features" but here are few that are most important:

Disables access to all anti virus sites.
Disables windows update
causes congestion is LANs
Disables Microsoft services like BITS and error reporting
researches have just recently found that it also installs fake anti virus software for just $50.

How it propagates?
After infecting a PC using vulnerability mentioned above it attaches itself to system start up. Then the worm (one of its variant to be specific) generates a list of 250 domain names across five top level domain names and tries to connect with those hosts to check for any available "Updates"(cool,innit?). Its different variants use different number of hosts and tlds.
Some of its variants attach themselves with removable media so as to infect new machines.The worm is spreading so fast that right now there are around 10 million computers infected with it.

How to find if you are infected?
Just check if your PC shows any of above symptoms. For example if you can connect to anti virus sites using proxies but are unable to do so directly then you are infected.

How to remove?
The worm disables system restore so it is of no use. It also terminates anti virus related processes and hence that gets eliminated as well. Use updated versions of Bitdefender of McAfee to remove this worm. Also download and install the emergency patch issued by Microsoft from here. Another suggestion is to disable AutoRun option. Another(really important) suggestion is to turn off the Administrative shares. The worm can remotely execute on your PC if these shares are enabled.

PS: Microsoft is offering $250,000 if you can only find out who released this worm. Well..........

PPS: If you want security products for free then check this out.

Choose your hosting solution with web hosting choice

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:50:00 +0000

In good old days when internet was invented it was only used for academic purposes. But within last few years due to technological advancements and price reduction(mainly) internet use has grown like million folds. So it is not really surprising when people launch their personal websites just for the fun of it.
The first step while launching a website be it a personal or full of some ecommerce stuff is to find a good hosting solution. As you all know every website has a page called "Home" and it is related to your actual home in every sense of the word. It is your home on the internet. So while buying some place to build this home you need to take a few things into account. Things like security, space, bandwidth make a real impact on your websites success. Now while buying/building your actual home you(we all do) take advise from someone who has more experience and knowledge about it. The same is applicable to your online home as well. There are so many web hosting solutions available that it is really impossible for a novice to choose the best one. This is exactly what you need the expertise of Web Hosting Choice for. Web Hosting Choice is for all of the people who want to launch their websites. They provide a free for all research guide to help users choose the right web host for their personal or business website. On their homepage they have provided a comparison of top ten web hosting solutions. You can also read the reviews about each and every one of the providers.An in depth comparison chart is provided that makes it easier to compare one provider with another.If you just a beginner and dont want to spend too much money then you can use the cheap web hosting link. You can easily get answers to all your hosting related questions in the faqs section which is realy cool because armed with that much knowledge you easily find the best host for you.

Windows 7 will allow downgrade to XP

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:38:00 +0000

Just like the saying "once bitten is twice shy" , Microsoft seems to have learned few lessons from the Vista catastrophe. When Microsoft announced its new operating system all attention was focused on designing something that will be light weight and will run on most of the computers with any expensive upgrade.
Even though Vista was better than XP in many ways like security(remember UAC? it was the best but most ill-implemented feature) , looks etc. it needed far more sophisticated hardware to show its capabilities. Because of these problems and negative publicity the most popular feature of Vista turned out to be the Downgrade option. Many computer vendors like Dell sold Pre-downgraded machines as Microsoft had already stopped selling XP. With Windows 7 also Microsoft has made the same promises and although one look at beta version(i know there is still long way to go) is sufficient to say that this time Microsoft is really serious, it is planning to offer the infamous downgrade option with Windows 7 as well.
Presumably with Windows 7 ultimate and Business version the downgrade rights will be attached allowing the customers to downgrade not only to Vista(?) but to XP as well. In Windows 7 Microsoft is expanding the Downgrade rights program to allow PC makers to ship downgraded machines based on anticipated demand for those systems.

AMD releases ATI Radeon HD 4890

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:54:00 +0000

AMD has released its latest graphics card ATI Redaon HD 4890. It comes with an 850 MHz core clock, memory clock at 975 MHz, 1 GB of GDDR5 memory and a maximum board power of 190 watts on a 55nm process technology, with an idle power consumption down 30% to 60 watts.
The full list of features is given below. It is expected to cost around $250 just like NVDIA GeForce GTX 275.

ATI Radeon HD 4890 specs:

956 million transistors on 55nm fabrication process
PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus interface
256-bit GDDR5 memory interface
Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support
Shader Model 4.1
Unified Superscalar Shader Architecture
800 stream processing units

+ Dynamic load balancing and resource allocation for vertex, geometry, and pixel haders
+ Common instruction set and texture unit access supported for all types of shaders
+ Dedicated branch execution units and texture address processors

Dynamic Geometry Acceleration

o High performance vertex cache
o Programmable tessellation unit
o Accelerated geometry shader path for geometry amplification
o Memory read/write cache for improved stream output performance

OpenGL 3.0 supportATI Avivo HD Video and Display Platform

o Unified Video Decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC, VC-1, and MPEG-2 video formats
+ High definition (HD) playback of Blu-ray and HD DVD video
o Hardware DivX and MPEG-1 video decode acceleration
o ATI Avivo Video Post Processor
o Two independent display controllers
o Two integrated dual-link DVI display outputs
+ Each supports 18, 24, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)
+ Each includes a dual-link HDCP encoder with on-chip key storage for high resolution playback of protected content
o Two integrated 400 MHz 30-bit RAMDACs
+ Each supports analog displays connected by VGA at all resolutions up to 2048x1536
o DisplayPort output support
+ 24 and 30 bit displays at all resolutions up to 2560x1600
o HDMI output support
+ All display resolutions up to 1920x1080
+ Integrated HD audio controller with support for stereo and multi-channel (up to 7.1) audio formats, including AC-3, AAC, DTS5, enabling a plug-and-play audio solution over HDMI
o Integrated AMD Xilleon HDTV encoder
+ Provides high quality analog TV output (component/S-video/composite)
+ Supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions
+ Underscan and overscan compensation
o Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
o VGA mode support on all display outputs

ATI PowerPlay Technology

o Advanced power management technology for optimal performance and power savings
o Performance-on-Demand
+ Constantly monitors GPU activity, dynamically adjusting clocks and voltage based on user scenario

ATI CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology

Requirements:

PCI Express based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode)
And of course at least $250

Keep your PC secure for ......FREE

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:34:00 +0000

Because of the worldwide acceptance of Windows operating systems, thousands-actually the number is far bigger than that- of viruses ,spywares and many other malicious programs have been released on the internet targeting windows user. These viruses and spywares pose a serious threat to user's data security as well as computer's functionality. As Windows is not that secure when left on its own- but don't blame poor Microsoft programmers coz even if the Redmond based company had thousands of programmers only for making Windows secure there are millions of kids out there trying to break it down- you must take a certain precautions so as to make at least an illusion of being safe and secure.

To achieve this goal you either have to invest in some commercial security solution or read on.

So now if you are still reading then I'd give a few tips so that you can secure your PC against most of the threats.

Step #1: Keep the operating system updated.

There is absolutely nothing that is more important than keeping your Windows updated as frequently as possible. My advise to you is keep "Automatic updates" on. With this your Windows installation will be updated automatically whenever you are online.

If for whatever reasons you have turned automatic updates off then follow these steps:

Open Microsoft Windows Update page at http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/

Scan the PC using "Scan for updates" link to find out what critical updates and security fixes are missing.

Select, download, and install a selection of updates, especially any Critical Updates.

Restart the PC after finished(If asked).

It takes time so wait.

Step #2: Download, install, and run some good anti spyware tool to get rid of all spyware.

Spyware is any software that is installed on your PC and tracks your online behavior without your knowledge or consent. Spyware generally can

what web pages you are visiting and send these information to advertising companies. This kind of spyware is commonly called adware.

It can also record all your keystroke and send them to some remote computer without your knowledge. So obviously your passwords and bank account numbers are not safe with these beauties around.

Note: Even though WGA satisfies most of above definitions it is not a spyware.

Following are few good and free antispywares available for download use any one of these to keep your PC spyware free.

Windows defender. If you are a vista user you don't need to download this.

Spybot -search and destroy.

Ad-Aware

Hijack this.

Step #3: Download and install a good Personal Firewall.

Zone alarm

comodo

PC Tools firewall plus

Step #4: Use a good anti-virus software

Even though Kaspersky is not free i'd like to recommend it here. This is the best antivirus software currently available. Download 30 day trial from here.

Avast!

PC tools

Step #5: Install password management software

We all need passwords for like everything , you should use different passwords for each account. But remembering all these passwords is no less troublesome than forgetting them all at once. So passwords should be stored at some location which is both safe and easy to access. Thats where password managers come in.

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).

Download keepass here.

RoboForm is a password management software with Artificial Intelligence built in that can automatically fill online forms for you.

Keywallet

But as the saying goes "the chain is only as strong as its weakest link" all these security measures only work if the weakest link i.e you are careful. Do not click on anything that says you have won a 3 day free membership of some website or a $1000000 prize from some lottery you never bought. Also do not send your confidential personal information to anybody you are not really familiar with.

Office 2007 Tips and Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:35:00 +0000

Here is a collection of Office 2007 tips and tricks. These tips are highly useful for a beginner as well as for someone who has been using it for like... months.

Create Tables to Your Own Specifications:

1. Position the cursor on the area of the document where you want to insert your table.
2. On the Insert tab of the Ribbon, click Table, and then click Draw Table.
3. Define the table size. Right-click to select the area where you want the table to appear.
4. Use the mouse to draw the internal table lines the way you want them.
To erase any lines you've drawn by mistake, press the SHIFT key, and the pointer will change from a pencil to an eraser.
It is also possible to create tables within ones you have already created.

Reuse Tables in Word:

1. Select the table that you want to save.
2. On the Insert tab of the Ribbon, click Table, point to Quick Tables, and then click Save Selection to Quick Tables Gallery.
3. In the Create New Building Block dialog box, give the table a name, classify it with some basic parameters, and then click OK.

To reuse a saved table:
1. Position your cursor where you want to insert a saved table.
2. On the Ribbon, click Insert, click Table, and then point to Quick Tables.
3. From the list, click the table you saved previously. This table will now be inserted into the document.

Pre-define the Format for Pasting in Word 2007:

In a Microsoft Office Word 2003 document, each time you paste some text or an image, you can select the format (source formatting, destination formatting, or text only) by clicking the clipboard icon. In Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, you can still do this manually or, more conveniently, set the default paste formatting mode. Here’s how:
Go to Advanced Options or click the Set Default Paste option when the clipboard icon appears, and then set your preferences. The pasted text and images will now be formatted automatically according to your settings.

Preview Type and Color Formatting:
You can see how formatting will look in Live Preview before applying it to the Microsoft Office Word document you're working on. Select a formatting option (for example, click Page Layout, click Page Color, and then point to a color), and Live Preview will temporarily apply it. To keep the result, just click the color, or keep browsing for alternatives.

Overprinting Watermarks on Documents:

You can easily insert a watermark into your document in Microsoft Office Word 2007. Click Watermark from the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon.

Save a Set of Quick Styles for Use in Other Documents:

1. On the Home tab, in the Styles section, click Change Styles.
2. Point to Style Set, and then click Save as Quick Style Set.
3. In the Save Quick Style Set dialog box, name the file, and then click Save. After you do, the name of your new style set will appear in the Style Set list, where you can apply it to any document.
Do not change the folder location when saving a style set, or your list will not automatically appear in the Style Set list. Also note that only styles appearing in the Styles gallery on the Home tab are included when you save a style set.

Add or Remove Styles from the Quick Style Gallery:

The Styles gallery on the Home tab in Microsoft Office Word 2007 includes several built-in paragraph and character styles by default, such as Normal style, Heading styles 1 and 2, and Title. However, you can customize that gallery for any document or template to include just the paragraph and character styles you need to access most quickly.

To display the Styles pane, click the dialog launch icon in the lower-right corner of the Styles section (or press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+S). To remove a style from the Quick Style Gallery, right-click the style name where it appears in the gallery, and then click Remove from Quick Style Gallery.

To add a style in the Styles pane to the Quick Style Gallery, right-click the style name, and then click Add to Quick Style Gallery. (Note that, if the style is already in the gallery, the option to remove the style from the gallery also appears here.) You can also add or remove a style from the Quick Style Gallery through the Add to Quick Style Gallery check box in the Create New Style or Modify Style dialog boxes.

Quickly Know How Many Lines or Words You Have Typed:

Right-click the status bar, and then select a parameter. Microsoft Office Word can show you, for example, line details or the number of words typed. This information is useful when you are writing a document that must have a fixed length.

For another set of tips and tricks just click on tips and tricks.

5.11 Tactical series

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:01:00 +0000

We all rely on police, firefighters, and of course on military for our safety. But what about their own safety? Because when you are dealing with some emergency then it is essential to be extremely accurate and fast. And for that gear worn by the security personal plays an important role. This is exactly where 5.11 tactical excels.
5.11 Tactical Series creates superior products that enhance the safety, accuracy, speed and performance of law enforcement, military and firefighting professionals. The series includes 5.11 Tactical Pants, footwear, knives and almost all other safety items necessary for making our safety keepers safe. Tacticalpantsusa have since long set standards for the industry by designing products that exceed the needs of the customers with functional innovation while delivering exceptional value.
In case you are wondering about "5.11 " then its a rock climbing difficulty level as listed in the Yosemite Decimal System. With skill levels ranging from 5.0 (easy) to 5.10 (difficult), 5.11 is even more grueling. 5.11 is officially defined as, “After thorough inspection, you conclude this move is obviously impossible; however, occasionally someone actually accomplishes it.” Thats exactly what 5.11 tactical series does.

Secure your PC [part 1] : ESET Smart Security

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:16:00 +0000

I do not think that it is really necessary explain the necessity of using a good security solution for your PC. With so many security solutions available making the choice of good one is the real problem that needs to be addressed. I will - in this and next few articles- try to cover the leading security solutions and the services provided by each.

1. ESET Smart Security :

ESET Smart Security is designed to be a complete solution in the field of computer protection against infiltrations and attacks . It is a total security solution for a PC equipped with firewall and other modules. Provides optimal protection when used at default settings and is not too taxing on the system.If all components are used simultaneously, the effectiveness of the whole program is multiplied.

key features of "ESET Smart Security :

integrated firewall and antispam module
improved graphical user interface
operating modes for common and advanced users.Common mode has all settings at default while advanced user mode allows you to configure things your way.
improved and automatised cleaning
true incremental updates

ESET Smart Security provides:

Protection:

ThreatSense technology combines multiple layers of detection protecting you from Internet threats before it is too late. The included antispam and personal firewall features provide you with a total security solution.

Precise Detection:

ESET accurately identifies known and unknown threats.

Lightweight Design:

ESET Smart Security requires less memory and CPU power and does not slow down the system while it is running in the background.

Scanning Speeds:

ESET Smart Security is a highly efficient program ensuring fast file scanning and product updates, while running quietly in the background.

ESET Smart Security is a product designed to provide comprehensive protection against a variety of threats. It features the following:

NOD32 Antivirus + Antispyware

This component is in fact an improved version of the award-winning scanning engine of NOD32 Antivirus v2.7.

Anti-malware engine

comprehensive protection against adware, rootkits, spyware, Trojan horses, viruses, worms and other types of malicious software

A personal firewall with port stealthing and advanced filtering features

An antispam filter with Bayesian filtering, whitelisting and blacklisting.

You can download the trial version or buy the commercial version here.

Mortgage and more

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:44:00 +0000

They say the credibility of the information is only as good as its source and i have found an example that does justice to this saying. Danny Thornton has 7 (yup SEVEN) years of experience in mortgage industry and is an active blogger since Feb 2008. His Mortgage and More Blog provides readers with real information about mortgage industry and to do justice to the "more" in his blog's title he also posts pictures like one shown above(I know that's lovely).

Firefox For Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:25:00 +0000

Mozilla has released Alpha version of their new mobile browser and it has been codenamed Fennec. This release will initially be available only to the users of Nokia N810 and N800 Internet tablet.Fennec has a new user interface that adds touch screen support and other features that are appropriate for mobile phones and other handheld devices. As this release is currently available only for two models most of us will have to wait until it is actually made available for out mobile phones. But Mozilla provides another way of experimenting (or feeling) with Fennec for,

Just choose the correct operating system and proceed with installation. For Fennec alpha walkthrough check out this demo video.

Fennec Alpha Walkthrough from Madhava Enros on Vimeo.
Fennec comes with an Awesome Bar just like Firefox 3 that combines history, bookmarks, and search. For navigation Fennec supports a full screen mode.

According to Mozilla the Fennec offers,

Easy navigation to Web content:

Bookmarks, including tags
Smart URL bar ("awesome bar")
Tabbed browsing with thumbnail images
Integrated Web search - built into the URL bar
Easy access to multiple search engines

2. Web content:

Maximize content by auto-hiding controls and URL bar
Zoom in and out

3. Security:

Instant Web site ID
Password manager
Popup blocker
Clear private data

4. Devices services integration:

Click on a phone number to initiate a call
JavaScript API to get device location
Popup blocker
Clear private data

Also:

Searchable download manager
Preferences pane

I can only hope that Fennec looks just as great with my mobile coz it has got a screen way smaller than a Nokia N810.

Free Games And Softwares

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:36:00 +0000

While i was surfing blogosphere i found a blog thats all about "Free games and Softwares ".
The blogger has put a lot of effort into the reviews and has also provided the game snapshots alongwith requirements. If you visit this blog you will find reviews about games ranging from
pacman,crossword to arkight. The blogger also talks about other blogs where one can get useful information about things like travelling, shopping, making money online , paid bloggging etc. So hop over to http://fullcrazy.blogspot.com/ and dont forget to leave him a thanks. Enjoy!

October Sky

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:46:00 +0000

Nearly Five years after the project was cleared by Indian Gov. CHANDRAYAAN-1 is scheduled for launch on October 22. If the "October Sky" remains clear then the spacecraft will begin its Eight day long journey towards moon traveling nearly 3,86,000 kilometers to settle in its final orbit.

Chardrayaan-1 is the first Indian Mission to the Moon devoted to high-resolution remote sensing of the lunar surface features in visible, near infrared, X-ray and low energy gamma ray regions. This will be accomplished using several payloads already selected for the mission. In addition a total of about 10 kg payload weight and 10 W power are earmarked for proposals, which are now solicited. The mission is proposed to be a lunar polar orbiter at an altitude of about 100 km and is planned to be launched by 2007-2008 using indigenous spacecraft and launch vehicle of ISRO. The mission is expected to have an operational life of about 2 years.

Spacecraft for lunar mission is :

Cuboid in shape of approximately 1.50 m side.
Weighing 1304 kg at launch and 590 kg at lunar orbit.
Accommodates eleven science payloads. Out of these Six will be Indian instruments.
Read more here.

SecureZIP Express software give-away and contest

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:04:00 +0000

PKWARE, the inventor of the .zip standard, is giving away a non-commercial use license of SecureZIP Express and the opportunity to win great prizes in the new “Decrypt and Drive” contest!
With SecureZIP Express you can compress/decompress and encrypt files that you store or send. Compressing files is a great way to save storage space, especially on thumb drives and CD’s, and we all have files we should be securing! The software also includes a digital certificate so you can exchange files securely with others without using passwords. Only the person the file was encrypted for can open it when you use a digital certificate. The software is fully licensed for non-commercial use and has no toolbars or spyware! For years, PKWARE has given free .zip software away and wants as many users as possible to receive the benefits of SecureZIP.
PKWARE is giving away great prizes including a Honda scooter, bicycles, Wii games, gas cards, and more! Visit www.DecryptandDrive.com to play the game daily and/or download the free software. You need to have SecureZIP, and the digital certificate it installs, on the computer you play the game from. You can also get SecureZIP Express at www.securezip.com

Good luck! Hope you win something cool

person-to-person outsourcing and India

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Mon, 26 May 2008 04:28:00 +0000

Outsourcing of services by medium- and large-sized companies from US and Europe to low-wage countries like India, Russia, (also known as “offshoring”) has been going on for few years now. This trend is clearly helping the low wage countries to meet the demands of increasing population. The "aging" of developed countries has resulted in a lucrative market for "young" developing countries like India and China. With a large number of skilled workers available for relatively low wages the companies in US and Europe can drastically cut down their production costs. Indian companies like Infosys and Wipro are one of the leading outsourcing companies.
A new trend called person-to-person offshoring is rapidly catching up with these industry based outsourcing techniques. Person-to-Person Offshoring (PPO) consists of those services that can be offshored by entrepreneurs who are trying to bootstrap their new organization as efficiently as possible. With technology advances and the growth of the Internet, small offices, home businesses and even everyday individuals can utilize PPO services.

PPO includes

online tutoring
website development
graphic design
database, software(games or APIs) development
writing and translation services
accounting and tax preparation services
architectural, home and landscape design services
marketing and sales support services
creating drafts of legal documents

Different models are used for PPO.

The “individual” client signs a contract directly with a vendor in a low-wage country, whose employees (e.g., tutors, admin) work on a full-time or a part-time basis, or as sub- contractors.The payments are usually made through credit card.

Indian companies like Satellier,BluentCAD, ASE Designsoft, Exceed International and DimensionICAD ,Xpitax, SurePrep, CCH, IFR, Datamatics, OPI and kpoexperts.com are rapidly making a name for themselves in this category.

The vendors providing PPO services enroll in an online marketplace by paying a monthly subscription fee plus a fixed percentage of the revenue if they win the project through this marketplace.

Available marketplaces:

Guru.com: Guru.com, a Pennsylvania-based company, seems to be the largest marketplace with more than 700,000 registered vendors and freelance professionals. Indians contribute a large chunk of this number.
Elance.com: Elance.com, a California-based marketplace, is known for its outsourcing
solutions supporting medium to large enterprises with around 125,000 registered vendors.
GetAFreelancer.com
RentACoder.com: The vendoes registered here accept only coding related projects.

The traditional jobs available in India are not sufficiently enough to keep rate of unemployment under control. The population is constantly increasing with a large part of it formed by youngsters with higher skills sometimes well beyond the job requirements. PPO is really helpful for these people as they can work on their own terms and that too from the comfort of their homes.From economical point of view the money these individuals get through this -the "relatively low" term notwithstanding - is really good considering Indian cost of living.The growth of PPO will help to reduce the heavy numbers choosing the traditional sectors of engineering and medical which will again help in reducing the sky high prices of enrolling in these sectors.

To SOURAV and his Knight Riders

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:12:00 +0000

They say when the going gets tough the tough gets going, and Sourav Ganguly has once again proved that he was and still is THE best. With KKR already out of the race for semifinal spot and people(read media and "fans") asking all the stupid questions (i think we sort of like it when Dada proves us wrong) today's match was always going to be played for pride.

Had it not been for Ganguly's presence in the middle i wouldn't have given KKR the slightest chance of winning after they managed a fine mess of 106/6 in fifteen overs with seventy needed of next five. But i knew that the Bengal tiger was playing a waiting game ready to pounce at the right moment.One could easily see the determination in his eyes but he was running out of partners at the other end. Umar Gul provided him the necessary support by hitting two consecutive sixes at the end of sixteenth over. In a space of 5 balls the duo put on a staggering 28 runs to change the whole course of match.After that it was everything Dada.By not taking a run off the last ball of nineteenth over Ganguly took it upon himself to score fifteen runs off last over. And the Prince of Kolkata did it in a style that suits him more than anybody else. Two mighty hits and the game was over with three balls still remaining.
It felt really great to see the proud(and handsome) man smiling and shaking hands all the way to dugout. I hope the so called fans who deserted their team and their very own Dada after a few failures, have learned their lesson for one last time and they wont repeat such a mistake again.

Improving your pagerank and site visibility

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Wed, 21 May 2008 04:23:00 +0000

As we all know Google accounts for 68% of all searches every year. So you dont really need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that to be successful online you need blessings of mother google.Here i have listed few important tips for a wannabe webmaster.

1. Link building is important:

WHY? read this.
Google considers a link to a particular site from another site as a vote given in favor of that site. So you should try to build more and more links pointing towards your site.One way is to be friendly with other bloggers and ask them for link exchange while other is by writing good content that others may find useful.

2. Link credibility:

As votes from superdelegates are considered more important same is valid for links. A link from pagerank 5 site carries more weight than 10 from some good-for-nothing sites.
Google also considers link relevance. In simple words it means that if you write about computers and get a link from a site thats all about cooking then it will count for almost nothing.

3. External links to internal pages:

Dont concentrate only on your homepage.Try to get as many links pointing to individual articles as possible.For this post exchange program for Smorty is really good.

4. Dont be a copy-paster:

Though there are millions of sites out there and hardly few subjects are left untouched (like Paris Hilton's day to day life) it is not advisable to just copy-paste the content from some other site. Google maintains a copy of each and every indexed page in its cache to provide faster searching.This also means that google is capable of detecting duplicate content.

5. Optimize your web page:

You should try to provide your visitors as much interactive interface as possible. This is the only key along with good content to built visitor loyalty. You can use google's website optimizer
for this.

6. Manage your Keywords :

It's important to choose the right keywords for search engine optimization. Use keyword tracking tools to find high ranking keywords and try to use those without crossing a certain limit. You should use keyword density checker tools to find if you are using your keywords in right proportions.

A random tip:
Use google webmaster tools to improve your site's performance. These tools are free and extremely easy to use. Keep in mind that SEO is a process which takes long time to show results.

Tips for Office 2007

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:03:00 +0000

Microsoft Office Word:

Change the Microsoft Office Word Smart Quote Auto-correct Setting->

By default, Word replaces straight quotes with smart quotes. To change this setting:
1. Click the Office button.
2. Click Word Options.
3. Click Proofing, and then click AutoCorrect Options.
4. Click the AutoFormat tab.
5. Clear the Straight quotes with smart quotes check box.
6. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
7. Clear the Straight quotes with smart quotes check box.
8. Click OK twice.

Editing in Print Preview

After you have worked on a document in Microsoft Office Word, click the Office button, point to Print, and then click Print Preview.
You can still edit in print preview mode:
Disable the magnifier by clearing the Magnifier check box on the Preview tab, and edit the document as you want.

Line Breaks Without Bullets

When you're creating a bulleted or numbered list in Microsoft Office Word or Microsoft Office PowerPoint, you might want an item to appear in the list without a bullet or without incrementing the number. You can start a new line without a bullet by pressing SHIFT+ENTER. The next time you press the ENTER key, the new line will continue the bulleted or numbered list.

EXCEL:

Copy Data from a Table in a Web Page to Excel->

If you see a data table on a Web page and you want to import it into Microsoft Office Excel:
1. Copy the URL (address) of the page.
2. In Excel, on the Data tab, in the Get External Data section, click From Web.
3. In the New Web Query dialog box, paste the URL into the Address box.
4. Select the table that contains the data that you want to work with, and then click Import.
5. In the Import Data dialog box, indicate where you want the data to appear, and then click OK.

Move the Cursor in Any Direction During Data Entry->

By default, the cell pointer in Microsoft Office Excel moves down when you press ENTER after entering data in a cell. You can, however, change the direction in which the cell pointer moves.
1. Click the Office button, click Excel Options, and then click Advanced.
2. Select the After pressing Enter, move selection check box if it isn't already selected, and then on the Direction menu, click the direction in which you want the pointer to move.

Also, when working in a document, you can make the pointer move in the opposite direction from the one you've chosen by holding down the SHIFT key while you press ENTER.

Showing Formulas in Microsoft Office Excel Instead of Their Results->

Sometimes you want to display formulas in an Excel worksheet instead of their results. Here’s how:
1. Click the Office button, and then click Excel Options at the bottom of the menu.
2. Click Advanced, click Display options for this worksheet, click Show formulas in cells instead of their calculated results, and then click OK.

For more tips and tricks read this article.

PSLV-C9 blasts off from Sriharikota

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:44:00 +0000

Setting a world record, India's Polar rocket on Monday successfully placed ten satellites, including the country's remote sensing satellite, into orbit in a single mission.
India's PSLV-C9 blasted off into space, carrying ten satellites including the country's latest remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2A, from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre here on Monday.
Scientists cheered as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its thirteenth flight, soared into the clear sky in a perfect lift off at 9.23 am from the second launch pad.

PSLV-C9 is carrying:

India’s latest Remote Sensing satellite, CARTOSAT-2A

CARTOSAT-2A weighing about 690 kg carries a state-of-the-art Panchromatic camera (PAN) that is capable of taking black-and-white pictures in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1)
Eight nanosatellites built by universities and research institutions in Canada and Germany are also being launched under a commercial agreement with Antrix Corporation. The weight of these Nanosatellites vary from 3 to 16 kg with a total weight of about 50 kg.

No vulnerabilities are being exploited : Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:28:00 +0000

Microsoft Corp. late Friday denied that vulnerabilities in its Web and SQL Server software had been exploited to hack hundreds of thousands of Internet pages.

"Our investigation has shown that there are no new or unknown vulnerabilities being exploited. This wave is not a result of a vulnerability in Internet Information Services or Microsoft SQL Server," said Bill Sisk, a communications manager at Microsoft's Security Response Center, in a note posted to the group's blog.

Sisk said the post was in response to reports that over half a million pages, including some belonging to the United Nations, have been compromised by SQL injection attacks. Once hacked, those sites were modified to download malware to visitors' PCs.

Early on Friday, Panda Security said it had notified Microsoft of what it called a "security issue" in the company's Web server, Internet Information Services (IIS). However, Panda stopped short of dubbing the problem a "vulnerability."

Sisk said that the site hacks were essentially run-of-the-mill SQL injection attacks. "[They] are not issues related to IIS 6.0, ASP, ASP.Net or Microsoft SQL technologies," he claimed.

Microsoft's IIS team also chimed in to deny that the attacks were exploiting any bugs, known or not, in its software. "For end users, the investigation also shows no indication of an unpatched vulnerability in IIS, SQL Server, Internet Explorer or any other Microsoft client software, so we recommend customers apply the latest updates to be protected from these attacks," said Bill Staples, an IIS product manager, in an update posted to the software's support forum on Friday night.

And although there has been speculation that the attacks were related to a vulnerability mentioned in an April 17 advisory, Sisk said that wasn't true either. "We have also determined that these attacks are in no way related to Microsoft Security Advisory 951306," he said.

Sisk and Staples urged Web site developers to follow Microsoft's guidelines to protect their domains from SQL injection attacks.

Source: computerworld

Recycled plastic material

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:49:00 +0000

Long ago(in 1862 to be precise) first man-made plastic was created by Alexander Parkes.But even Parkes wouldn't have imagined the different ways in which plastic has become a part of day to day life. Everything that was big and bulky was replaced by light and richly colored plastic.Being a cheap,throwaway substance plastic found many applications like bags,water bottles, cups etc.But this wide range of applications has alongwith it ,brought its own set of problems. The Plastic bottles take 700 years before they even begin to decompose in a landfill.Currently there are hundreds of billions of bottles in the landfill with more billions adding up every year.This posses a serious threat to the environment and this problem can only be solved by using recyclable plastic materials like HDPE( High Density Poly Ethylene).Due to this recyclable materials plastic can be used over and over.
HDPE has characteristics like stiffness, strength, toughness, resistance to moisture, permeability to gas. It is used for many packaging applications because it provides excellent moisture barrier properties and chemical resistance.In HDPE Film form it is used for snack food packaging and cereal box liners.General uses of HDPE include bread trays, films for grocery sacks, HDPE Milk Bottles and household chemicals and injection-molded beverage cases.
Because of its chemical resistance HDPE has many applications in industrial sector as well.

Suspicious Orkut albums will be opened to police

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:28:00 +0000

Google is to give Brazilian police access to 3,261 private photo albums on social networking website Orkut, which may contain child pornography.

The move is part of a strategy announced by the head of the company in Brazil, Alexandre Hohagen, to a Senate Committee set up to investigate cases of paedophilia in the country.

During a hearing this week, Alexandre Hohagen and Felix Ximenes, director of communication for Google Brazil, claimed they are currently implementing more effective image filters that will detect and prevent the uploading of child pornography.

Ximenes told The Register the new filter is 60 per cent more efficient than the current technology. "But I can't tell how you it works, or we would just be telling how to fool it and throwing away months of development."

Orkut has more than 60 million users, most of them in Brazil. According to Sergio Suiama, the federal prosecutor for Sao Paulo, in the last two years nearly 90 per cent of the 56,000 complaints in Brazil about net-based paedophilia were linked to the website.

Ximenes said that until September 2007, all requests for information about users suspected of crimes such as racism or paedophilia were sent to Google US to be examined.

"But since then we have been dealing directly with that, providing the police with user IPs and navigation logs whenever it is requested. It's happened in more than 1,000 cases so far."

He said giving investigators personal information about suspects and access to their private albums "is not an issue", but conceded that Google has not yet received any official communication, so he can't say when this information is to be handed out.

Ximenes and Hohagen told the Senate panel that Orkut will keep users' navigation logs for six months, instead of the current 30 days.

However, he explained there was a legislative grey zone regarding child pornography in Brazil.

Every time abuse is reported within Orkut, the administrators must immediately delete the images, destroying the proofs.

"There is no Brazilian legislation ruling these situations, and according to US law, if we keep these images or forward them to anyone else we are committing a crime," says Ximenes. "We are only allowed to forward them to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, in the United States, before deleting them from our database."

He says the company is working on a collaboration between Brazilian authorities and the US organisation.

The private photo albums, considered by some as a safe haven for criminals, were introduced in November 2007, and allow users to block access to the pictures by anyone outside their direct network.

"We created this to protect the privacy of those who didn't want personal pictures to be seen by anyone," says Ximenes. "And it is being well used by the majority of the users."

Google apparently has no plans to disable this option. "Every technology can be used for good or evil. What we are doing is trying to stop and prevent bad ways of using this technology," says Ximenes. ®

Source: The Register

Video of Vista running 100 apps simultaneously

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:13:00 +0000

"I'm runnin a stock Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with 4GB of RAM. I counted 108 apps total and gave up bored after I had running anything from Photoshop, Visual studio 2008, Office professional 2007, Safari, and Media Center all the way down to that rescource hog, Minesweeper"

read more | digg story

Office 2007 tips and tricks

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:48:00 +0000

Copying a Worksheet:

Here’s how to copy a worksheet to another place in your Excel workbook:
1. Click the tab of the worksheet that you want to copy.
2. Leave your mouse pointer on the tab.
3. Press and hold down the CTRL key.
4. Press and hold down your left mouse button and drag the worksheet that you want to copy to the left or right. Watch for the little black arrowhead that follows your mouse pointer as you drag left or right.
5. When you release the mouse button, Microsoft Office Excel inserts a copy of the worksheet where the arrowhead is pointing.

Customize Your Quick Access Toolbar

In each 2007 Microsoft Office system program where you see the Ribbon (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and parts of Outlook), you also see a Quick Access Toolbar, which appears by default above the Ribbon, beside the Office button. To add the commands you use most to the Quick Access Toolbar in each program, right-click a command on the Ribbon, and then click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. You can also click the arrow that appears at the right edge of the Quick Access Toolbar, and then click More Commands to open the Customize tab of the Options dialog box for the program you are using. In this box you can add commands that don’t appear on the Ribbon, or create a custom Quick Access Toolbar for an individual document or template.

For Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

Use Search to Find E-Mail Messages
In Microsoft Office Outlook, e-mail search helps you locate messages by keyword or phrase. You can also use search folders to find mail by type of message.

To locate specific keywords or phrases within e-mail messages:
Type a word or phrase in the Search box at the top of your Outlook Inbox. The search starts automatically as soon as you stop typing. Search results will appear in the main window of your Inbox. To return to your normal Inbox, click Clear Search (the green ×) to the right of the Search box.

You can enable search folders from the mail pane on the left of your Inbox. To expand the folders tree, click Search Folders. Outlook comes with three default search folders: For Follow Up, Large Mail, and Unread Mail.

To add new search folders, click File, point to New, and then click Search Folder.

To build a custom search folder:

1. Click Search Folder, and then either click a predefined folder name, or scroll down and click Create a custom Search Folder.
2. Click Choose, give the new folder a name, and then click Criteria to fill in the search terms.

2003 to 2007 Document Information Panel

With the Document Information Panel in Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 and Office Professional Plus 2007, you can edit document properties directly in the program.

1. Click the Office button, and then click Prepare.
2. Click Properties. The Document Information Panel appears below the Ribbon.
3. Enter the appropriate information and save the document.

Keep in mind, search engines like the ones included in Windows Vista and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 use document properties to deliver search results that are more relevant. So if you want to make something easier to find, make sure your document properties are up to date.

For Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

Choose a Signature for Different Recipients in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
If you want to use a different e-mail signature for different recipients (a different one for coworkers than for customers, for example), you can change your signature with two mouse clicks. Right-click your signature, and then click the other signature that you want to use.

Zooming to Fit a Selection

1. Select the range of cells that you want to focus on.
2. Click the View tab, and then click Zoom to Selection.

Fine-Tuning Objects in Presentations

When working with text in Microsoft Office PowerPoint, you can use the F2 key to switch between selecting text in a placeholder and selecting the placeholder itself. So the next time you've edited some text and want to reposition it on the slide, instead of clicking the tiny edges of the box, just press F2. The entire text box will instantly be selected for you, ready for alignment.

Expand your social network with 3gb.biz

noreply@blogger.com (onkar) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:44:00 +0000

Missing your old friends? Sick of all those boring social networking sites?
3gb.biz community is a relatively new social networking site where you can connect with your old friends and upload your photos ,mp3s , blog about things you like.You will be able to chat with your friends and hear your favorite music tracks. The community provides excellent privacy features which are hard to find anywhere else. As a user you can keep your profile private so that only users permitted by you will have access to.A blocked user list is also provided so that you can block someone from contacting you.You can blog about anything from rocket science to your personal life,the good blogs get listed on the homepage which is really cool. So join the community and start inviting your friends.