Review Of Web

Raptivity – Now Add Interactivity Quickly To Your eLearning environment

ROW — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:51:24 +0000

The market and demand for eLearning is increasing at an enormous pace, with it the need to build eLearning content in an quick and easy way is also surfacing. We have reviewed several eLearning content creators in the past. Our subject for this review is Raptivity. Now make no mistake, this is not a full fledged eLearning content creator but serves as an add-on to them by helping to add STUNNING interactivity in no time.

Intro

Raptivity – A Rapid Interactivity tool provides you with pre-built interactions which are based on best practices in the industry.These pre-built interactions can be called the back bone of Raptivity. On the one hand they are capable of providing nice looking interactivities in a short span of time, and on the other hand – for the whiz amongst us – they provide a lot of customizations options. The output is in the form of a Flash (SWF) file which can be integrated with almost all eLearning tools out there. Raptivity can also help track score and responses and can provide this information to eLearning tools for SCORM/ AICC tracking with any LMS.

Raptivity has these products to offer:

Main Raptivity Software: ( also known as Raptivity Essential)
Raptivity Turbo packs: Used for 3D, Games , Videos and Simulations
Raptivity Standard Packs: which are further subdivided into Pack1, Pack 2 and Pack3
Raptivity Booster Packs: Consists of additional 235 interactions

We wish they could mention the usage of all these packs in some easily accessible location. There seems to be some overlap between usage of various packs. A first-time visitor might feel lost on the website. Also we missed “Getting Started” Links on the homepage.

Installation

Raptivity essential is about 200 MB in size. Installation was a breeze. It took around 3-4 minutes for end to end installation. We would have liked to find a mention of the size in front of the downloadable, so that one knows the approximate time to download.
Raptivity provides a free trial for 14 days. The trial version allows you to create 20 interactivities from 35 interaction models.
Once the trial is over you would need to purchase and activate the software. It took us 30 sec to activate Raptivity using online activation mode.
If you decide to format your machine or transfer the current license to another machine, make sure that you deactivate the Raptivity software before formatting your machine.
At the time of review it consumed about 50MB of memory when seen from the Task Manager. Not so resource heavy we can say.

Getting Started

As soon as you double click on the Raptivity icon on your desktop you will be greeted with the screen shown below. UI looks pretty slick. They have kept up with the tradition of Web2.0

To start creating your first Interactivity, click on ‘New Interactivity’. You will get ‘All Packs’ screen which will list Raptivity essentials along with any additional pack that you have installed.

Creating an Interactivity

For the purpose of this review, we will create a survey. Choose Essential Pack > Surveys > Smile Sheet. After specifying values for Size and no of survey questions, you will get this screen.

Survey questions, their font etc can be customized using the text editor on the bottom (marked with arrows).

Output

Here is an output of a quick little survey we created in under 5 mins. Needless to say it was a simple exercise and the task was well done by Raptivity.

Cost

The basic – Raptivity Essential – set up will cost you $550 during the offer period, (normally it goes for $750). If you’re interested for other packs, they have various combo offers on their sales page.

Trivia:

Other than Raptivity Essential, the rest of the packs are about 50 – 70 MB in size.
We tried enrolling for their Free Weekly webinar. We did get a canned reply saying we will receive another email on instructions on how to connect, but that mail never landed either in our inbox and or in spam folder. This may be a small issue, but things like this make a long-lasting impression on a prospective customer’s mind.

Parting Comments:

While I would strongly like to recommend Raptivity to focus on usability testing for their website and try to make it more user friendly, Raptivity has left me impressed me thoroughly. Other than the minor points of improvements noted above, Harbinger group has created a rock solid product. It looks like Raptivity is all set to make a level playing field for the small players in the eLearning industry where they need not worry about spending a fortune hiring designers. At a fraction of a cost and time, now they too can create impressive interactivities.

Important Links

PS: Thank You Amitabh for the review copy.

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Raptivity – Now Add Interactivity Quickly To Your eLearning environment

How to block the window that opens up every time you open Reliance NetConnect?

ROW — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:25:00 +0000

If you use Reliance NetConnect broadband you must have got used to that annoying pop up window that opens up as soon as you initiate an internet connection with it. Here is a nice little hack to get rid of that window:

Go to C:\Program Files\Reliance Netconnect – Broadband+\plugins\XFramePlugin
Open Config.xml in a notepad.
Locate http://www.reliancenetconnect.co.in/ and replace it with about:blank .
Save the file.

The next time you will initiate the connection, you won’t see the pop up.

Enjoy!

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How to block the window that opens up every time you open Reliance NetConnect?

Top 5 Facebook Apps and How You Can Make the Most Out of Them

The Observer — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:22:35 +0000

The title pretty much describes it all; we at Review of Web took the time to check out some of our favorite Facebooks apps and pick 5 most valuable apps for your Facebook profile. Without further ado, let’s take a look at our picks.

1. Ayos iShare – File Storage

Ayos iShare is definitely one of the best file storage application designed for Facebook. You can use it to store files, documents, videos, even MP3s and post them on your profile page or share it with friends. 2GB of storage is provided for your files, so you wouldn’t have to worry about running out of disk space — it is not as whopping as Google’s 7GB and counting enjoyed by Gmail users, but it is still more than enough. You can easily share brochures and samples to your digital products; great for attracting new customers and spreading the words.

2. SplashCast – Your Very Own Multimedia Channel

SplashCast for Facebook is a platform designed to enable you to post videos, podcasts, and presentations on your personal multimedia Channel. It already has a lot of great multimedia contents, plus you can upload your own and compile them together into an appealing stream of contents that will attract friends and viewers. If you are running tutorial or how-to sites, or if you are selling books about certain topics, you can surely compile a nice preview and redirect viewers to the actual product.

3. 30Boxes Calendar – Events and Schedules on the Spot

If you are already familiar with 30Box amazing features, you can now add similar features to your Facebook profile page. Use it to share events or schedules with your Facebook friends or list your upcoming promotional offers and share it with them.

4. Class Notes – ScanR to the Rescue!

Want to share hardcopy documents with your Facebook friends? Use Class Note to help you without hassle. Use your phone’s camera to take pictures of documents and Class Notes will convert them into PDFs, ready to be shared on your Facebook profile.

5. SlideShare – (Claimed to Be) World’s Largest Presentation Sharing Community

If you are sharing presentations and PDFs on a constant basis, SlideShare for Facebook will be the perfect application for you. You can upload documents and presentations to SlideShare to make it available for sharing with friends or embed them on your profile page.

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Top 5 Facebook Apps and How You Can Make the Most Out of Them

20 Best Web Apps of 2009

How to connect two computers with each other?

ROW — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:07:00 +0000

Prerequisites:

LAN cards on both the machines – All computers these days have one.
RJ45 connectors – You can get one from the market, quite inexpensive.
A basic knowledge of computers, just enough to understand the instructions below.

Here is what you can do step by step to connect two computers with each other:

Insert Cables: Plug in the cable – having RJ45 ends at both the ends – to the two laptops.
Change WORKGROUP: Change the WORKGROUP of one of the machines. Here is how you can do that. Right click on My Computer, select Properties and chose Computer Name tab. Click Change button to change the WORKGROUP name. Make sure it should be exactly as the one on other machine.
LAN Properties: Now go to My Network Places > Click on View Network connections > Right click on "Local Area Connections" and select properties.
IP Properties: On the next window, scroll down and highlight "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)". Click Properties.
Assign static IPs: Now see the screenshot below. For one of the machines, write down the IP address, Subnet Mask and Preferred DNS Server exactly as shown below. For other machine, keep all the other numerals same except the IP address, change that to 192.168.2.50.
Share Drives or Folders on either of the machines: If sharing drives, right click on the drive name, hit “sharing and security” and under Sharing tab click on “If you understand the risk but still want to share the root of the drive, click here”. As soon as you click the link he same tab will show you a section “Network sharing and security”. Select share this folder on the network and Allow network user to change my files.
Run and Ping: Go to Start and hit Run. Enter \\192.168.2.50 on the machine where you have assigned the IP 192.168.2.51 OR vice versa. You should be able to see the shared drive/folder of the other machine.

Enjoy!

PS: The steps above are written keeping in mind Windows XP but should be applicable to Win Vista/Windows 7 with some minor modifications.

PPS: Just in case even after doing these steps you are not able to connect, try to disable firewalls of both the computers. (Control Panel > Security Center > Windows Firewall)

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How to connect two computers with each other?

The Best Windows Partition Manager is also FREE!

ROW — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:44:00 +0000

So I got a new personal laptop Lenovo T400, with T9400 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 9c Li-Ion battery. I have been used to working on company provided laptops for a long time now, so never worried about the admin functions that are required with a new purchase. Installing firewalls, anti-virus, partitioning, generally our network operations guys do such stuff.

Since this laptop came with a single partition, I have to choose a partition manager so as to segregate my programs installations and files into different drives. ( If things go wrong or I have to reinstall my OS, I can simply reformat the C: drive without touching the other drive(s)).

My search started with BIG G and I hit this page soon. Since the HOME edition of EASEUS had the smallest size and the best price in the world, I chose this edition and installed it. For sure, it lived up its expectation.

Within 2-3 mins the program EASEUS partition manager was up and running. In next 6-8 mins it allowed me to partition the C: drive into two drives. The process works something like this:

You take a C: drive and “Resize” it to allot some free space to it. – This step needs 2 reboots of the system. Total Time: 4 – 5 mins
In the next step, this free space is converted to a Partition by clicking on “Create Partition”. This step doesn’t require any re-boot. Total time : 2 – 3 mins

As soon as you click on OK, while allotting free space or while creating a partition, operations go into a pending state. You have to click on Apply button on the left bottom for them to take effect. Though you can do both the steps above by a single click of the “Apply” button but I preferred to do them one after the other. (Just wanted to be sure nothing goes wrong).

The utility worked like a charm and deserved a review here.

So EASEUS has many editions, which one should you choose?

While this comparison chart can give you a good idea, for most of the basic needs I think HOME edition would work best but yes if you are a business you may have to look into Professional or Server edition. (since EASEUS TOS won’t allow HOME edition to be used for business purposes)

Download EASEUS partition manager

PS: I am not an affiliate for this product and above is my personal experience with this utility.

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The Best Windows Partition Manager is also FREE!

How to Configure Windows 7’s Firewall

The Observer — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:15:19 +0000

A firewall is essential when it comes to preventing malicious software and hackers from gaining access to your computer. With Windows 7, you can actually fine-tune your firewall settings to match your daily usage while still keep your computer well protected. To access the advanced settings and help you get started right away, follow these next few steps.

First of all, you need to disable your Windows firewall to gain access to recommended settings. To do this, go to Control Panel> System and Security > Windows Firewall and then click on the “Change notification settings” link on the left panel. Disable both private and public network firewall and click apply to continue. At the Windows Firewall control panel page you see after clicking OK, you will notice a new button labeled “Use recommended settings” — this is what we are after — so go ahead and click the button.

A popup will ask for your confirmation, and you can safely click Yes to continue. Windows will analyze your current computer state, along with installed applications, and determine the right firewall settings for your computer. After the process is completed, you can continue with fine-tuning the firewall settings to suit your needs.

To access the advanced settings for Windows 7’s firewall, click “Advanced Settings” on the left panel of the Windows Firewall control panel page. You will see a new page with Inbound Rules, Outbound Rules, Connection Security Rules, and Monitoring links on the left panel. You can disable available rules or create new ones — for Inbound and Outbound Rules, this is essentially important and allows you to set the firewall to work according to your needs — and manage monitoring preferences from here.

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How to Configure Windows 7’s Firewall

WordPress for iPhone: Maintain Your Blog On-the-Go

The Observer — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:33:02 +0000

Accessing your WordPress-powered admin panel from your mobile phones may seem impossible — or at least hard to do — a couple of years ago, but with the help of native WordPress for iPhone apps managing and maintaining your site on-the-go will be as easy as it can possibly get.

IPhone users now enjoy the luxury of being able to maintain their blog on-the-go with the help of Wordpress for iPhone. The latest version (2.1) allows you to create posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your iPhone or iPod touch.

The user interface of Wordpress for iPhone is extremely intuitive, allowing you to access features with a few simple touches. Uploading photos, even photo-blogging extensively, will not be a problem at all because the app integrates nicely to iPhone’s camera and multimedia features.

Categories and tags as well as old posts and media will be accessible as well; they are streamed to you as soon as you configure your app. Since the Wordpress for iPhone works for both self-hosted Wordpress platform as well as free Wordpress.com blogs, so you will have no problem at all configuring the app to work with your site. It supports SSL-encrypted connection for streaming data, so you wouldn’t have to worry about security issues at all.

The Wordpress for iPhone 2.1 is now available on iTunes. You can also install the app on your iPod Touch, so get your copy right away.

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WordPress for iPhone: Maintain Your Blog On-the-Go

Video Games Future: Most Anticipated PC Games in 2010

The Observer — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:55:44 +0000

The gaming industry is on fire! A lot of interesting games will be released in 2010, bringing new developments and whopping tech leaps to the table. Which games are the most anticipated ones? Check them out right here.

Just like 2009, MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) will still be creating headlines in 2010. The two most anticipated MMORPG comes from two of the world’s greatest sci-fi titles: Star Wars and Star Trek. Star Wars: The Old Republic features a superb open-world platform that will enable you to determine every possible aspect of a mission, including making decisions on the outcome of the quest you are having. The graphics are fabulous, and it will surely be one of the best MMORPG game ever released. Star Trek Online gives you the unique mixtures of starship combat and on-foot missions, allowing you to explore the universe along with thousands of other players online.

Several offline games must also be anticipated, promising superb graphical improvements and addictive gameplays to gamers around the world. Mass Effect 2 will be the sequel everybody is waiting for, but the crème de la crème would have to be Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. This latest installment of the Command & Conquer series guarantees you mind blowing real-time strategy battles that will keep you playing for victory.

My personal favorite? Spec Ops: The Line! This Dubai-set tactical combat shooter may not be the best there is, but it will be more than what you could imagine from this kind of game. 2010 will be an interesting year indeed

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Video Games Future: Most Anticipated PC Games in 2010

SEO for Dummies: 3 Steps You Can Do to Start an SEO Campaign

The Observer — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:31:09 +0000

Not all web developers understand search engine optimization. The process is actually easy yet complicated at the same time, but these 3 steps I’m about to tell you will get you started right away.

1. Fill Your Site With Quality Unique Contents

The best thing you can do to prepare your site for search engine optimization is to fill your site with quality contents. Write articles, how-to’s, and other informational contents and post them at your site. Not only you will optimize your site for search engine optimization purposes, you will also entertain visitors and keep them coming back. If your site is an online store, you can still add a blog that discuss products you are selling as part of your site. Remember, the contents have to be unique; if you don’t have time to write them hire freelance content writers to do the job for you instead of going to online article directories and copy stuffs.

2. Update, Update, Update!

One of the key to successful SEO campaign is regular site update. Yes, you still have to cope with maintaining updates according to sets of keywords you are using to keep your site optimized, but you should update regularly. Again, this simple step can also be done with the help of freelancers if you don’t have the time or expertise to do it yourself, and it will keep your visitors entertained while your search engine rankings improve.

3. Use Keyword Phrases In Your Title Tag

This may sounds simple, but pages with keyword phrases in their title tags will enjoy better search engine rankings. Don’t push your efforts too far by spreading keywords all over the content or page; just add it as part of the title tag and present some in the actual content. Don’t worry about keyword placements too much, and keep your contents — and pages — readable to visitors.

Simple, right? Go right ahead and optimize your site for search engine crawlers.

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SEO for Dummies: 3 Steps You Can Do to Start an SEO Campaign

Reliance Netconnect Broadband vs Tata Photon+. Which one to choose?

ROW — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:50:34 +0000

So, with the worsening power conditions in my city – Bangalore – I had to get a wireless broadband for myself. The kind of work I do online, I can’t afford a second of internet outage and always require a very high speed internet connection.

As my research for the ideal broadband progressed, I zeroed-in on two choices Reliance Netconnect Broadband or Tata Photon+. I thought of taking wireless connection as my secondary connection – only to be used when left with no power and when my UPS had drained off – with primary being the ever reliable Airtel broadband.

Reliance Net connect broadband comes in two flavors, pre paid a well as post paid while Tata Photon+ is available in post paid option only. Since one of my friends had an awful experience with the customer service of Tata Plug2Surf (the earlier technology of broadand used by Tata). I thought of starting my in depth research in Reliance NetConnect. Through the ads served on the Google, I got a site which offered a bonus for getting a reliance net connection through them so I filled up a form. There was no reply even after 48 hrs of filling up a form. So I called up the Reliance Customer Care and asked if they can send a person at my home for the demo. I got an assurance that a person will show up within 24 hours but again No reply. The process of me calling “customer (un)care” and Reliance not sending the demo for executive – after giving me assurance – continued for 3 days.

Getting no help, I tried taking help of local Reliance World folks. Well, they were no better either and were not willing to provide a demo at my home. Somehow, after tirelessly calling all Reliance World stores in the city, one of the store guy obliged and came at my home to provide the demo. The speed was surprisingly very good. In fact can easily be compared with my Airtel wired broadband.I went ahead and bought the prepaid plan.

You may wonder how is the connection working out for me now? It’s been three weeks now and the connection is simply great. I was able to take a 4 hours long video conference through netconnect and was able to go on my company’s VPN without getting disconnected even once. With all the issues I mentioned above, I just pray that I didn’t get to deal with the customer service of Reliance Netconnect.

So what should you do before you plan for a wireless broadband at your place?

Get a LIVE demo done at your place. I can’t emphasize the importance of DEMO enough. (This high speed broadband doesn’t work at my friends home at all !). Test the internet speed using speedtest.net, If you see the speed is good and Reliance netconnect screen shows 5 signal bar at your place, GO FOR IT! If not, start exploring Tata Photon+ connection.
Choose between prepaid and postpaid plans.You have to buy a Rs 3500/- worth stick first for both the connection types.
With prepaid plans, as of now Reliance is offering a 10GB download free for the first month.
With postpaid plans, as of now Reliance is offering a discount of Rs 200/- for the next 12 months on your rental with first month free.
Pray -like me – that you don’t have to deal with Reliance customer care.

Related: Check out my earlier discovery on how to check your prepaid reliance netconnect usage.

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Reliance Netconnect Broadband vs Tata Photon+. Which one to choose?