instant fundas

Map of threatened or arrested bloggers around the world

2009-11-05T20:47:00.001+05:30

Threatened Voices is a new project by Global Voices (a community of bloggers), that maps instances where bloggers and online writers have been threatened, arrested, killed, or disappeared by authorities for speaking out online since 2000. The map is accompanied by an interactive timeline that help visualize the story of threats and arrests against bloggers worldwide. The site also has extensive information and stories about those whose right to free speech were suppressed.

Never before have so many people been threatened or imprisoned for what the words they write on the internet.

As activists and ordinary citizens have increasingly made use of the internet to express their opinions and connect with others, many governments have also increased surveillance, filtering, legal actions and harassment. The harshest consequence for many has been the politically motivated arrest of bloggers and online writers for their online and/or offline activities, in some tragic cases even leading to death. Online journalists and bloggers now represent 45% of all media workers in prison worldwide.

China tops the list with 33 on record, followed by Egypt with 29 and Iran with 23.

[via Boing Boing]

Microsoft calls Zoho the “Fake Office”. Zoho responds with fakeoffice.org

2009-11-05T19:51:00.001+05:30

One of the reason why Microsoft attracts so much bad press is their trash talk. If you follow Microsoft’s recent track record you will see a pattern. It begins with Steve Ballmer or any spokesperson from Microsoft making a disparaging comment about something, usually a competitor’s product. Later the product goes on to become a huge success and those blockheaded comments come around to kick Microsoft on their ass. More often than not, Microsoft ends up eating their own words.

In a recent interview, Ron Markezich, corporate VP of Microsoft’s online Office application - Microsoft Online, said:

We're not seeing any inclination that Zoho or Google or Zimbra or any other of those offering fake Office capabilities can replace [Microsoft Office]

Mr Markezich’s comment carries a certain degree of truth. But the name calling is uncalled for.

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, made a fitting reply. Then they decided to get some chuckle out of it and registered a new domain FakeOffice.org to pitch their views on Microsoft. This is so amusing!

[via Hacker News]

ABBYY FineReader Online OCR

2009-11-05T15:51:00.001+05:30

ABBYY FineReader, one of the most intelligent Optical Character Recognition software, is now available as an online service.

ABBYY FineReader Online which is still in beta, allows you to take advantage of ABBYY’s OCR technology to convert scanned copies of text, such as those from books or magazines, to editable documents. During the beta period the service will be available for free, although page recognition is limited to 10 pages per day for each registered user.

ABBYY FineReader Online automatically detects text, images and tables, retains the layout of the original, and recreates the formatting elements, such as tables, graphics, columns, bullets and numbering. It can also correctly recognizes documents written in any combination of the 6 supported languages - English, Russian, French, German, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

The service supports a wide range of popular image formats, such as TIFF (including multi-page files), JPEG, JPEG 2000, BMP, PNG, PCX, DCX GIF, and even DjVu, and converts them into editable documents in any of the following formats: Microsoft Word, Excel, Rich Text Format, TXT and PDF.

One limitation, apart from the 10-page a day limit, is that the conversion is not real time. Your uploaded document goes into a queue probably with documents uploaded by other users. When the conversion is completed, the converted document is emailed to you. I haven’t received mine which I uploaded 30 minutes ago.

5 short links for today #20

2009-11-05T11:34:00.002+05:30

1. Flickr App Garden: An official repository of unofficial Flickr tools created by developers using the Flickr API. Yeah, it’s about time.

2. Cell Size and Scale: Ever wondered how large a coffee bean is compared to a skin cell, or the X chromosome, or the HIV or a carbon atom? This interactive Flash movie will tell you.

3. ISS construction Timeline: A fantastic Flash movie showing how the International Space Station was expanded.

4. Syncplicity offers online backup, synchronization and sharing. The free plan comes with 2 GB of free backup and synchronization with 2 computers. Referring a friend entitles you to another 1 GB of space.

5. Furk is a BitTorrent Proxy that acts a middle man between the BitTorrent network and you. It downloads torrents on your behalf and then lets you download through regular HTTP link. You stay protected from snooping Govt agencies and anti-piracy groups. Similar to BTaccel.

Can you beat the computer at Mindreading?

2009-11-04T20:06:00.002+05:30

Mindreader is simple browser based mindreading game. The rules of the game is this: the user enters a sequence of 1s and 0s and the computer tries to predict the user’s next entry. The goal of the game is to fool the computer into making the wrong prediction by entering an unpredictable sequence of numbers.

Every time the computer makes a correct prediction, it advances one position around an oval race track. If the user manages to get the computer make a wrong prediction, the user advances one position. The first one to make one complete round around the track wins.

It may sound simple but if you try it you’ll realize that it’s very difficult to beat the computer. Because there are only two inputs the guessing game becomes easier for the computer and hence tougher for you to beat.

Mindreader is inspired by Shannon's "A Mind-reading(?) Machine" and Hagelbarger's "SEER, A SEquence Extrapolating Robot", both of which were built out of relays and vacuum tubes in the early 1950's. As legend has it, they had their machines compete against each other, and Shannon's won, by a margin of 55-45.

Also see: Can you answer this one?

Compare My Docs compares documents online

2009-11-04T15:50:00.001+05:30

Compare My Docs is a new service that lets you compare multiple Word or rich text documents online to find differences. The service lets you upload up to six versions of the same document and see what's been changed, edit and save the changes.

Compare My Docs color codes any changes it finds between the different revisions of a document and gives you a quick and easy way to accept, reject, or set aside a change. When finished, you'll have a version that has all of those changes you made, which can be saved either as a Word doc or rich text file and downloaded back to your hard drive.

The service has one major limitation that it can compare only texts. Any images or charts are stripped out of the document, and so if you save the final copy to your hard drive be sure to add the images back to it.

Another problem Compare My Docs suffer from is that it tends to bring the browser down while it’s uploading the document and loading the interface. Both Opera 10 and Firefox 3.5 froze for several minutes when I tested it. If you are doing something important in other tabs in your browser like composing a mail, make sure you save those before you try this application.

[via Cnet]

TimeToGoAppi – Powerful task scheduler for Windows

2009-11-04T12:05:00.001+05:30

TimeToGoAppi is a very advanced task scheduler application for Windows that goes beyond the capabilities of the default Windows task scheduler, which is actually rather poor. TimeToGoAppi allows you to automate a wide range of tasks on your computer including but not limited to shutdown/hibernate/restart, launching programs, terminating programs, connecting/disconnecting Internet etc.

To use TimeToGoAppi, first you have to create an Action by clicking on the “Add” button.

Now from the drop down list, select an Action you want to schedule. Available actions are:

Shutdown, Restart, Hibernate, Logoff, Lock computer
Launch program, Terminate program
Launch screensaver
Power monitor off
Connect/Disconnect Internet
Wake up PC from Hibernate/Suspend
Display message

The event that triggers any of the above actions can be:

A certain time of the day or any particular day
A certain period of elapsed time
A certain period of PC idle time
Termination of a certain process
A certain percentage of CPU utilization

When waking up the PC from hibernate/suspend, TimeToGoAppi can launch a program immediately after waking up or play a music file – an action that can used as an alarm clock. TimeToGoAppi can also lock the mouse or keyboard at any time of the day.

All these actions can be set to repeat at different times for each day of the week. It also allows you to save actions with different settings and load them whenever you require.

If you will recall, some time ago I wrote about a similar program called Marxio Timer. Both Marxio Timer and TimeToGoAppi has almost similar tools although TimeToGoAppi does pack some extra power. But Marxio Timer takes the crown for simplicity and better interface design.

Browse FTP sites in Windows 7 Explorer

2009-11-03T14:41:00.001+05:30

Did you know you can browse files on an FTP server in Windows 7 Explorer just like you browse a local drive? I didn’t, until I discovered this trick on WindowsObserver.

In Windows 7 open up a Windows Explorer window and type in the address to the FTP server in the location bar. If the FTP server requires login, it will prompt you to enter the username and password. You can also select Anonymous Log in, if the server allows, and Save Password at the bottom of that dialog box.

Once that data is entered and you press the Log On button you will see your FTP server as if it was part of your local drive:

You can browse the entire drive structure, perform all the same things you can do in Windows Explorer including drag and drop, copying and moving files, deleting files etc. Of course these operations will depend on your settings and permissions on the server.

I’m told this functionality was there in Windows Vista as well, but it’s better advertised in Windows 7. When you browse an FTP site Internet Explorer on Windows 7, you get this alert.

If you click on this from an IE Windows where your currently browsing a FTP site the address will be carried over to the Log on As window in Explorer.

If you are using Windows XP, you can use NetDrive, a software that mounts remote FTP servers on your computer as local drives. This lets you view and browse files on the FTP server on Windows Explorer. I’m not sure whether this software works on Windows 7, but I guess you won’t need it.

Why it's a bad idea to send large files by email

2009-11-03T11:00:00.002+05:30

Email service providers continue to push the upper limits of allowed attachment size. Currently both Gmail and Yahoo supports attachments up to 25 MB in size, but people want more. Why do email service providers limit the attachment size when everything else such as bandwidth and disk space is virtually free? Because the mail protocol wasn’t created to handle file transmission. As a commenter on Google Operating System explains, sending large files through email is a very bad idea.

People who demand large message size limits rarely understand the limitations of the email transmission.
Because of the MIME encoding used when sending binary attachments, your files expand 33% when sent via email. In other words, a 15MB attachment requires 20MB plus the message text, plus message headers.
When you carbon copy 20 of your friends & coworkers, a separate message is sent to each. 20MB x 20 = 400MB. That's half a freaking CD.
If 5 of those friends are on the same small company email server, downloading those messages saturates the entire bandwidth of their T1 data line for nearly 9 minutes. Because each message has separate headers, it isn't easily cached and gets completely downloaded by each recipient.
Compare this to uploading the same attachment to a web server, FTP server, file transmission service like YouSendIt, or video streaming site like YouTube. One copy is uploaded. The download is typically 8-bit so minimal expansion factor. The small business' network can cache the content, so it's only downloaded once then fetched locally from the web caching server.
Bottom line, sending a large attachment via email is relocating using the U.S. Postal Service as your moving company. It is painful, limited, and expensive.

When the file size is anything over a few Megabytes, the best way is to upload it to some free file sharing service. But for the technologically illiterate people, even that is too much to ask for. For such users there is PodMail – a free service that lets a user to send and receive files of unlimited size through email. PodMail is very easy to use and integrates with your email. Sending files through PodMail is just like sending attachments.

Update: PodMail is no longer available

The Complete Guide to Google Wave

2009-11-03T10:20:00.001+05:30

Haven’t got your Google Wave invite yet? Don’t worry. Sooner or later you will get it. In the meantime, you can get yourself acquainted with Wave by reading “The Complete Guide to Google Wave” written by Lifehacker’s founding editor Gina Trapani with Adam Pash.

Currently the guide is available online for free at www.completewaveguide.com. It features eight chapters and two appendices, but it’s going to expand as Google Wave continues to grow. Later in January 2010 a PDF and print version of the book will be made available for buying.

The online guide runs on a Wiki allowing other users to contribute to it as well.

Simple English Wikipedia – concise and to-the-point

2009-11-02T17:01:00.001+05:30

You know what happens when you write long winded articles in your blog or post a verbose comment in a forum? Someone will come in and say “tl;dr”. Well, some Wikipedia articles leave me with the same feeling. Wikipedia writers and editors are so thorough that they like to cram all the information that they can accumulate into the articles. Although that makes Wikipedia a great place for researching on a subject, it’s unsuitable when you need quick information – something which is short and easy to understand.

Simple English Wikipedia is a version of the Wikipedia encyclopedia that was born in 2004 to cater to the special needs of students, children, or adults with learning difficulties or short attention span developed as a result of addiction to things such as Twitter. ^{[citation needed]}

Articles in the Simple English Wikipedia use fewer words and easier grammar than the Ordinary English Wikipedia. Because of the simple language the Simple English Wikipedia helps people understand unfamiliar topics or complex ideas. The Simple English version tends to stick to commonly accepted facts and rarely tells you more than you want to know. For instance, compare these two different articles on “Special Theory of Relativity”.

Ordinary English Wikipedia article:

Special relativity (SR) (also known as the special theory of relativity or STR) is the physical theory of measurement in inertial frames of reference proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein (after the considerable and independent contributions of Hendrik Lorentz, Henri Poincaré and others) in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies".[1] It generalizes Galileo's principle of relativity–that all uniform motion is relative, and that there is no absolute and well-defined state of rest (no privileged reference frames)–from mechanics to all the laws of physics, including …… *yawn*

The Simple English Wikipedia article on the other hand, begins matter-of-factly

Special relativity (or the special theory of relativity) was developed and explained by Albert Einstein in 1905 because he was unhappy with the explanations of electromagnetism in the physics of the time. Einstein thought these explanations did not agree with the principle of relativity…

The second article is definitely easier to comprehend.

Simple English Wikipedia is a good place to go if you need to answer questions coming from a fifth grader. Like say your kid wants to know why the Second World War took place. Simple Wikipedia will come to your rescue. However, not all Wikipedia articles have a simple English version. At the time of this writing, the Simple English Wikipedia had 58,145 articles, as opposed to more than 150,000 in the original Wikipedia.

Quick Tip: The quickest way to get to the simpler version of a Wikipedia article is to replace “en” in the URL “en.wikipedia.org” with “simple” to make it read “simple.wikipedia.org”. If however, a simpler version of that article is not present you will find yourself reading the original article (even though the URL says “simple”).

How to enable RAW image support in Windows XP, Vista and 7

2009-11-02T12:40:00.001+05:30

Most digital cameras today support the RAW image format. Unfortunately, Windows doesn’t. RAW images cannot be viewed in Windows image viewer or Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Explorer doesn’t show thumbnails of RAW images. Thankfully, the Windows Imaging Component for Vista and 7 makes it possible for 3rd party tools to add support for RAW image formats to Windows, complete with thumbnails in Explorer.

FastPictureViewer WIC RAW Codec Pack is such a third party platform that brings support for more than 20 different RAW image formats to Windows. The codec pack currently supports the TGA raster image format along with the 20 raw image formats from more than 13 camera manufacturers, covering about 300 camera models.

FastPictureViewer WIC RAW Codec Pack supports both 32 and 64-bit editions of Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP SP3. The package also ships with a Windows XP thumbnail provider, that enables thumbnail view support in XP SP3 Explorer. This codec pack also enables you to set RAW images as desktop wallpapers.

Windows XP users can also use the official Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer that enables users to view photos captured in RAW image formats from supported Canon and Nikon digital cameras.

To enable thumbnail support for other image formats not natively supported in Windows XP, you can use ThumbView.

Svchost viewer tells you what service each svchost.exe is running

2009-11-02T11:16:00.001+05:30

What is Svchost?

Svchost is short for “Service Host”. Many components of the Windows operating system are implemented through what are called "services" - programs that run in the background that aren't necessarily associated with whomever is logged into the machine. A fair number of those services are implemented in DLLs rather than in stand-alone executables to ensure reusability. But a DLL is only a library of functions that can't be run on its own. It can only be called by executable programs. Svchost was created to fulfill this purpose.

Svchost is a standalone program whose job is to execute services that are implemented in DLLs. Since there are so many services to run, these are collected into logical groups and assigned to one svchost.exe. This is why you see so many instances of svchost.exe running. (Thanks AskLeo)

Svchost viewer

Svchost viewer is a small application that lists all the services which are running under each instance of svchost.exe. It gives a brief description of each service, the amount of memory it’s currently using, the amount data of data it has read and written and whether the service can be paused or terminated.

It’s an extremely useful tool to have if you want to diagnose problems relating to svchost.exe, or just to know what’s going on under the hood.

Svchost viewer is portable and runs on Windows XP, Vista and 7. (requires the .NET 2.0 framework)

Windosill – A peculiar Flash puzzle game

2009-10-31T15:37:00.001+05:30

Windosill is an intuitive puzzle game implemented in Flash that can be played online or downloaded to your PC or Mac. Windosill is the story of a small toy car that escapes from a child’s cupboard and enters into a surrealistic world of curious objects. The toy car takes you through a series of scenes which you have to explore – click, prod, poke and pull. The goal of each level or scene is to reveal a small box that would unlock the door to the next scene.

Initially you might feel a little lost, but once you clear the first couple of scenes you will understand the “rules” of the game. The real joy of playing this game comes from the amusing little animation that results when you interact with different items on the screen. The puzzles are cute and completely defy logic; they are almost magical – but this is what makes the game so intriguing and pleasurable.

The first part Windosill consist of 11 scenes and are free to play. To play the second part you have to pay $3.

If you get stuck on any scene and want to have a little help, there is a walkthrough available.

Windows 7 Logon Screen Rotator

2009-10-30T15:46:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I wrote about Windows 7 Logon Screen Editor. Today I bring you Windows 7 Logon Screen Rotator. As the name implies, Logon Screen Rotator lets you not only change the Windows 7 logon background but also randomize it so that a new background is displayed every time you start your computer.

Windows 7 Logon Screen Rotator is a simple tool that anybody can use. Just right click on the initially empty window to add your favorite images. You can also add folders containing your images by clicking on the Folder tab. The “All Image” tab shows you the list of images which are currently in queue for rotation, while the “History” shows you the time and date when the background was changed and also the image applied.

The “Button set” tab lets you choose between three different button style – a feature we saw in the Windows 7 Logon Screen Editor too.

The “Settings” tab carries a few options where you can change the frequency of logon background change – everyday or on every logon. Other options include setting the size of history logs and reverting back to the default logon background.

Connectify turns your Windows 7 computer into a WiFi router

2009-10-30T15:17:00.001+05:30

Connectify.me is a new application that enables any Windows 7 computer or laptop with a wireless network interface card to be used as a Wifi (or wireless) router.

Installing and running the application is simple. Just download the EXE file from the website and follow the installation steps. Once installed, a Connectify logo will appear on your system tray. Choose a name and password and click on the “Internet Sharing” button to turn your computer into a WiFi router.

Other wireless devices like PCs, laptops and mobile devices can now see your WiFi router-turned-Windows 7 PC, and connect to it. Connectify is probably the easiest way to share an Internet connection with multiple users and PCs on your home – no wires, no hassles. You can even setup a WiFi Hotspot center on your neighborhood, for free or otherwise. The application itself is free though.

Connectify runs only on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 machines. Other machines connecting to the router can however run any OS.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Decreased Productivity – Stealth browsing in Firefox

2009-10-30T12:42:00.001+05:30

Looking for ways to bluff at work and secretly browse the web? You are lucky you came here. We have extensive guides to help employees goof off at work. And here is another addition.

Decreased Productivity is an addon for Firefox that sanitizes the appearance of web pages allowing you to discretely and efficiently navigate the web without anyone noticing.

Decreased Productivity adds two buttons to Firefox’s status bar. One button allows you to switch to “work-safe” mode for the currently viewing page, and the second button turns “work-safe” mode ON for all opened Firefox windows.

Instant Fundas as it appears with work-safe mode ON

Clicking on these buttons applies a style sheet that removes all color and visual styling from the page. The text is turned black on a white background, images are faded making them almost almost invisible and only moderately visible on mouse over. It hides all flash, java or other embedded applets.

Decreased Productivity brings features to Firefox similar to the ones you find in Ghostzilla, although the latter is better at stealth.

Decreased Productivity also helps those who frequently post comments on blogs or in forums by providing a context menu and hot keys to common markup languages like HTML, BBCode, Markdown etc.

You might be also interested in how to hide your browsing trails in Firefox.

Taskbar Meters: Cool CPU and Memory usage meter for Windows 7

2009-10-29T17:05:00.001+05:30

One application that resides permanently on my system tray is the Task Manager icon, that displays CPU utilization. I have been doing this ever since I switched to Windows XP from Windows 98. Today I noticed a new application released by the Codeplex community.

The application called Taskbar Meters consist of two simple but gorgeous CPU and memory utilization meters, one for each, that live in the taskbar. Taskbar Meters uses the taskbar itself to show the resource utilization info, as seen in the screenshot on the left.

Just pin the application to the taskbar to keep track of your computer’s resource usage. You can configure the update frequency and the percentages that determine "yellow" and "red" states.

The jump list gives you quick access to the Task Manager and the Resource Monitor too. Neat.

Change Logon Background with Windows 7 Logon Screen Editor

2009-10-29T16:40:00.001+05:30

A small but fantastic change in Windows 7 is that it officially supports changing of logon background screens. The only way to do it however, is through a registry hack, that is until now. Windows 7 Logon Screen Editor eliminates the hassles of editing registry and changing file names. All you have to do is click “Set Background” and select a picture. To test the new screen simply click on the Test button.

Windows 7 Logon Screen Editor also includes a few extra customization tricks. Click on the “+” button to change the shadow and button transparency settings.

Reverting back to the original logon background is easy too. Just click Default Background.

Oxelon Media Converter – Convert media files from Explorer context menu

2009-10-28T11:40:00.001+05:30

Oxelon Media Converter is an audio/video file converter software that I fell in love with at first sight. It’s neat, spartan interface appealed to me. Oxelon Media Converter even integrated with the Windows Explorer context menu allowing me to convert media files directly in Explorer by right clicking on them. I was sold.

Things I liked:

Oxelon Media Converter supports a wide range of audio and video formats allowing conversion from one to the other. Supported formats are:

Video Formats: 3GP, ASF, AVI, DV, DVD MPEG2, FFM, FLV, GIF, MOV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2 PS, MPEG2 TS, NUT, PSP, RAW YUV, RM, SVCD MPEG2, SWF, VCD MPEG1, VOB, YUV4MPEG, M1V, M2V, M4V.

Audio Formats: AC3, AAC, AIFF, AMR, AU, FLAC, MMF, MP2, MP3, OGG, VOC, WAV.
Integrates with Explorer context menu. You can right-click on the selected files, choose "Oxelon - Convert to Video" or "Oxelon - Convert to Audio" from the menu. Context menu integration can be disabled, if you want to.
Oxelon Media Converter is one of the few video/audio encoding tools that can use any number of threads to take advantage of multi-core multi-processor systems. Users can adjust maximal amount of threads in the Settings making it possible to take advantage of even an eight-core system (and more).
Settings to adjust video size, video bitrate, frames per second, audio channels, audio bitrate and sampling rate.
Supports "Direct Stream Copy" that lets you convert media file format without re-encoding. This allows you to change audio codec inside the video file without video recompression, or vice-versa. This also allows faster file conversion.
Supports drag and drop from Windows Explorer for conversion.

Things I didn’t like:

The application directs you to it’s homepage every time you close it, which is annoying. Some people just know how to piss others.

Oxelon Media Converter is free and works with Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Similar Software: Media Coder, SUPER, Free Studio Manager, DivXmachine – shell integrated DivX converter

Free download ACDSee Photo Editor 2008

2009-10-28T10:44:00.001+05:30

After ACDSee for Pentax 2.0 (which is still available, by the way), comes another promotion for readers of the Polish version of the CHIP magazine. This time they are giving away license keys of ACDSee Photo Editor 2008, the latest version which sells as $50.

ACDSee Photo Editor 2008 has all the tools, inspiration and clear instruction you need to turn your digital photos into truly captivating keepsakes. Create personalized greeting cards, scrapbook pages, invitations and more. With Photo Editor’s easy to use artistic text, layout and editing features, you’ll be amazed at what you can do with your photos.

ACDSee Photo Editor 2008 feature highlights

How-tos: Guided walk-throughs that teach you how to be creative with your photos. They walk you through different creative tasks you want to do with your photos, step by step, from start to finish.
Adjustments: Displays up to 8 different previews of your original photo, right on screen, each preview showing a different variation of the adjustment or effect you’re applying.
Image Basket: Displays thumbnails of any photos you’re working on, so you can see what you’ve got and get an idea of the work you’ve done.
Vignette Tool: Creates stunning portrait-style photos that can go into your family album, or used to make gift cards or pages in a family tree project.
Cookie Cutter Tool: Quickly crop an object or your entire work area into fun shapes including letters, numbers, animals, and more. Give your project a custom look or create unique captions from photos – the possibilities are endless.
Text Support: Add clever, descriptive, or funny text to your projects. Choose the style and size – you can even place text in thought bubbles or curve it to a built-in or custom path. Then add a drop shadow for that final look.
Properties Bar: Appears below the toolbar when you click a tool to show you all the options for that tool. So you can tweak and customize the effect to get the creative results you want.
Auto-Adjustments: One-click Auto Color Balance, Auto Levels, Auto Sharpen, or Auto Contrast.
Repair Tool: Easily remove blemishes, spots, or scratches from a photo and get the results you’re looking for almost instantly.
Gradients: Apply pre-set color gradients, or create your own and apply them to text and objects in your photos for a blended color scheme that you probably thought only a professional could create.
Batch Processing: Any adjustment effects you want to use can be applied to more than one photo at a time with just a couple of clicks.

How to get your free license

1. Go to this promotional page and enter your email address in the text box. The checkbox is optional, it’s for receiving newsletter.

2. You will receive a license key in your inbox.

3. Download ACDSee Photo Editor 2008 trial version and register with the key you received.

[via 4 Free on Internet]

mug.gd – The most evil URL shortener

2009-10-27T15:14:00.001+05:30

There is a general opinion among webmasters and bloggers that URL shorteners are evil. As Joshua Schachter, the founder of Delicious, explains:

The worst problem is that shortening services add another layer of indirection to an already creaky system. A regular hyperlink implicates a browser, its DNS resolver, the publisher's DNS server, and the publisher's website. With a shortening service, you're adding something that acts like a third DNS resolver, except one that is assembled out of unvetted PHP and MySQL, without the benevolent oversight of luminaries like Dan Kaminsky and St. Postel.

URL shorteners not only break the whole structure of the web, but the links become dependent upon the continued existence of these third party middlemen. (See VapURL, the disposable URL shortener).

mug.gd is a new URL shortening service that was built to prove how evil URL shorteners can become, if they want to.

mug.gd allows you to shorten a link, and at the same time replace any phrase occurring on the destination page with your own phrase. The service allows you any number of replacements you want.

Clicking on the shortened URL takes the visitor to a page that wraps the original page in a frame with the words and phrases replaced with those of your choice. mug.gd enables you to falsify any page by cleverly replacing words from the original article and an average user won’t even notice the barely visible bar at the top that warns the visitor of the changed content.

Here is an example: http://mug.gd/ExyN

Also read, how to find out the destination before clicking on short URLs and how to edit any webpage.

Windows 7 Transformation Pack for Ubuntu

2009-10-27T12:22:00.001+05:30

A year ago we saw how we could make Linux look like Windows XP. Now a new transformation pack is making rounds - the Windows 7 Transformation Pack made especially for Ubuntu.

The Windows 7 Transformation Pack contains GDM theme, Icons Theme, GTK Theme, Windows 7 Wallpapers, Windows 7 Sounds, Gnomenu theme, Panel Backgrounds, Cursor theme and DockBar. Looks damn good!

Also see Seven Transformation Pack for Windows XP

First DirectX 11 benchmark demo released

2009-10-27T11:22:00.001+05:30

If you own a spanking new DirectX 11 video card, you might want to know how it fares in the DirectX department. Tom’s Hardware in a blog post announced that the “supposedly” first DirectX 11 benchmark demo has been released by Unigine Corp. The demo named “Heaven” runs on Unigine’s proprietary engine and is available for free download.

Heaven has native support for OpenGL, DirectX 9, 10, and 11. The demo also provides support for ATI's Eyefinity, offers a comprehensive use of tessellation technology, and even pulls its testers into a virtual world with interactive fly/walk-through modes.

"The distinguishing feature of the benchmark is a hardware tessellation that is a scalable technology aimed for automatic subdivision of polygons into smaller and finer pieces, so that developers can gain a more detailed look of their games almost free of charge in terms of performance," the company said. "Thanks to this procedure, the elaboration of the rendered image finally approaches the boundary of vertical visual perception: the virtual reality transcends conjured by your hand." – whatever that means.

Heaven requires .NET framework 2.0, OpenAL, and the latest stable video drivers to run. To test the tessellation feature your video card should have DirectX 11 support. The demo also requires 256 MB of memory, ATI Radeon HD 2xxx and higher, or Nvidia GeForce 7xxx and higher.

5 short links for today #19

2009-10-26T16:21:00.001+05:30

1. I'm up here, boys: “Windows 7 launch is a lot like seeing an old girlfriend suddenly show up on your doorstep…”. Possibly the best Windows 7 analogy I have read ever.

2. Microsoft Fix it Solution Center is a site where you can browse or look up some common errors encountered in Windows and other Microsoft products and get the solution. This is an official Microsoft support site.

3. LiteFlick: Another site that make uses of the Flickr API to bring a string of most interesting pictures of the day. Pictures can be filtered by various tags.

4. Newspaper Comics: The comics page is one of my favorite page in a newspaper. And I know I’m not the only one. Another newspaper comics lover has created this online archive containing hundreds of old comic strips.

5. Tips and Tricks for Google Sites: A great collection of guides to help you customize your Google Sites website.