Tech Chew...

Comic 3

2007-03-02T23:05:00.000-08:00

Lose Weight - The Web 2.0 Way

2006-12-09T06:37:00.000-08:00

Lots of Web 2.0 sites mushrooming on internet in these days. Finding out good site which consits of all features and sustain in long run is very difficult. I came across a good web 2.0 site on tracking fitness and diet. Traineo is a new site with loads of Web 2.0 features and easy to use interfaces gives the user a convenient way of tracking the fitness and diet schedule.

There is a dedicated web site which is tracking all web 2.0 fitness and diet related sites.

By the way, visit my Traineo Page here.

Thanks,
Kiran

You Tube

2006-11-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Speed of Internet in Olden Days

2006-11-25T16:20:00.000-08:00

Is your computer Vista ready?

2006-10-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

Source: baugh.com

Convert your applets to Applications

2006-06-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

A nice application to convert java applets to executables. applet2app is a Java Application which can be used to convert an applet to a Java executable application. Typically, an applet requires a browser like Internet explorer, Netscape Navigator to execute. Unless it’s specifically coded, an applet can not execute as a normal Java application. applet2app adds the necessary wrapper files to the applet class files and creates a standalone Java 2 compliant executable jar file.

Download applet2app

Source: sourceforge.net

How to create a simulated collage from a photograph?

2006-06-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a very good online tool to create a simulated collage from a single photograph.

Create a unique "collage" from a single photograph. Choose one of two styles: a "joiner" style image without frames or an image created from simulated Polaroids. Every generated image is unique. This toy was inspired by the photo collages of the artist David Hockney. Works with your photos hosted on Flickr or anywhere else. Discussion and comments about this application here.

What is Ringxiety?

2006-05-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

When you hear a ringtone of a cell phone in public places, you can observed that everybody around touches their pockets to check their phones. This is a false belief that you can hear your mobile phone ringing or vibrating. There is a term coined for this phenomenon is called "Ringxiety". If you have watched a telugu movie called 'Manmadhudu'(starring Nagarjuna), there is a similar scene in the movie in which everybody in the restaurant checks their mobile phone when phone of Nagarjuna rings.

According to David Laramie from California's School of Professional Psychology,

It is a familiar and unnerving sensation: the false belief that you can hear your mobile phone ringing or vibrating.

Now the phenomenon is so widespread it has an official name: "ringxiety". People have grown emotionally dependent on their mobiles for feelings of self-worth, claim psychologists.
So when we "hear" an imaginary ring, or think vibrations on a bus are a call, it is the subconscious calculating how popular we are.

On hearing notes similar to his phone's ring, "my brain would fill in the rest", he said. British psychologists say it is a sign the human brain is struggling to adapt to today's demands. Lancaster Centre for the Study of Media, Technology and Culture professor Michael Hulme said: "You want to feel you are being contacted."

Source

Bowman to join Google

2006-05-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

The founder of famous web design firm stopdesign, Douglas Bowman, is going to join Google as full time employee with title called "Visual Design Lead". Bowman is a web design expert who is behind the success of famous websites like HotBot, Lycos, Google Calendar and Blogger. Bowman has been working as a contractor with Google since long time and designed most of the blogger templates.

Bowman mentioned about his new job on his blog as,

I recently accepted an offer to join Google as Visual Design Lead, a position that did not previously exist there. I’m charged with helping the company establish a common visual language across all their collaborative and communication products. This includes products I’ve already had some hand in like Blogger and Calendar. But it will also include other highly used products like Gmail, Writely, Page Creator, and other projects in the pipeline.

In future we may see good interfaces from Google. Good Luck Bowman.

Source: 37signals.com

How to control email spam from your web site or blog?

2006-05-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

People usually place their email ids on their blogs or personal web sites. After some days, their inboxes will be flooded with a lot of unwanted or spam emails. Even I experienced with my email id on this blog. My inbox was flooded with a lot of bulk emails after placing my email id on my blog. This spam is due to web bots, which check the email ids on the web sites and spams those email ids. Hence email ids should be placed on the sites in such a way that bots cannot identify them.

Then I searched for other options. Second option is using [dot], [at] and [underscore] notation. In this notation, my email on blog is shown as kiran[dot]mall[at]gmail[dot]com. Recent bots are much more intelligent. Then even can identify email ids in this notation. Finally, I changed my email id on my blog as an image. There are lots of email id image converters, out of which I found this site as good one. Bots cannot identify email ids on this case. But you should not give your email id in "alt" attribute of the "image" tag.

Otherwise, you can try disposable email services to quickly create unusual email id to receive emails. Sites like http://www.spamgourmet.com/ gives you free disposable email addresses that can be setup to receive only restricted number of messages.

Category: Internet

Optimize your CSS

2006-05-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is backbone for any website design. Whatever technology you use, CSS is a must for your site. As long as HTML is used in the web, css will be there along with it. Every website uses css today and it is difficult to point out a site which doesn't use css for it's design. CSS simplifies your HTML and reduces the size of HTML file too.

Chrono Tron introduced a site which is a very good resouce for web designers. CleanCSS is an interesting websites which checks for anamolies in your css file and optimizes it too. Since css file is very good ingredient for website design, optimizing css is an important factor too. Try it today.

Related:
Advantages of CSS
CSS Tutorial

Category: Web Design

Favicon - How to create?

2006-05-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

Have you ever observed a small icon is shown on left side of the URL in the address bar of the browser? This icon is shown in your bookmarks dropdown too when you add the web site to your favorites. So, a favicon is an icon in your favorites. Favicons are shown in tabs of the browser if your browser supports multi-tabbed windows like Firefox or IE 7.0. For example, reddit.com has a small toy type favicon for it's website.

Creating and adding a favicon to a website is very easy. First of all we need to create an image file with .ico extension of 16 x 16 size.

-Open Paint program in Windows XP.
-Select Image > Attributes and select width as 16 and height as 16.
-Select View > Custom and zoom the picture to 800%.
-Create an icon like graphic that resembles the logo of your web site.
-Keep your graphic simple and transparent.
-Save the image as favi16.png.
-Download a freeware tool called png2ico to convert .png file to .ico file.
-Unzip this tool to your local drive and copy favi16.png file to the extracted directory.
-Run the following command at command prompt.
png2ico favi16.ico --colors 16 favi16.png
-Upload the created favi16.ico to the directory where your html files are stored.
-Then include the link tag in between the head tags of your html page with the following attributes.
rel="icon" href="favi16.ico" type="image/x-icon"
-Then include another link tag in between the head tags of your html page with the following attributes to support all the browsers.
rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"

(Note: Blogger doesn't support these tags in the post and hence I'm not able to mention complete tags here.)

Republish your website and close your browser. When you open your website next time, favicon is shown in the browser. I have created a new favicon for my blog and your see it in left side of url in the address bar of the browser.

Category: Internet

Google Video - New web based upload tool

2006-05-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

Google Video has launched a new we-based uploader to upload the videos easily to Google Video for storing, sharing the videos with friends and relatives. This is easier and faster and no software is required to be installed. Once the video file is uploaded, you can watch and share it. Only limitation with this service is, you cannot upload video files of more than 100MB. If you have any video file sizing more than 100MB, you have to use Google video uploader software.

This kind of service is already provided by YouTube and SelfcastTV.
Source: Google Blog

Google Notebook

2006-05-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

Google Notebook is live today. This application lets the users to save text, images, and links from the web pages to an online notebook, and can share the saved notes with others. Multiple notebooks can be created to categorize the saved notes. Notes can be searched in private notebooks as well as in public note books. When you find an interesting text or an image or a link in of the web pages you are browsing, you can save these items to Google Notebook by selecting the item and selecting "Note this (Google Notebook)". This is illustrated in the following image.

Google Notebook is an extension for IE or Firefox browser. Once this software is installed, a small icon is shown in right bottom of your browser window. A popup window is shown in bottom right of the browser when you clip text or image is very handy.

Google Notebook is directly linked with Google search results. One new link called “Note This” provided with the Google search results. Using this link, we can bookmark the link in Google Notebook. Notebook items have support of drag and drop with clean Ajax interface.

This application has no support for tags. I think this is one of the disadvantages of this tool when compared to online bookmark management tools like del-icio-us, furl etc. In fact, Google has a different tool for saving the bookmarks called Google Bookmarks .

You can take a look another tool called Clipmarks when we talk about book marking tools.
Clipmarks is similar tool where you can save text, image online and share them too. Just like how you can take magazine and newspaper clippings, Clipmarks allows you to do this online. Tools like this are designed to share your clipping with your friends and relatives. del.icio.us is a book marking tool designed for storing and sharing bookmarks. del.icio.us doesn't allow you too keep your bookmarks private.

Related:
1. Overview of Google Notebook
2. Download Google Notebook
3. Google Notebook - FAQ

Category: Google

What is Web 2.0?

2006-05-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 has become the most elastic word in current web trend. If you are aware what is Web 2.0, please ignore this post. The concept of Web 2.0 initially started with the brainstorming session conducted by O’Reilly and MediaLive International.

Everyday at least 2 or 3 companies are starting web sites coining new concepts under the category of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is the second generation of web trends after dotcom boom.

Most of the Web 2.0 sites are giving more democracy to the users. Unlike initial dot com sites where information is one way, Web 2.0 sites give the user a kind of collaborative sharing of data. If you look at digg, reddit, these sites are designed for the people. Another thing I like about Web 2.0 sites is user-friendly Interface.

One good example to differentiate between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 is Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. The content in Encyclopedia Britannica is controlled by a group of experts, whereas the content in Wikipedia is created and maintained by the people. Anyone can contribute to the content of Wikipeida.

The most important ingredient of Web 2.0 is Ajax. The concept of Ajax became so popular with the introduction of Google Maps. Ajax adds the flavor of interactiveness to the web sites. Other ingredients include RSS, XML syndication, feeds, XHTML and very enhanced UI like rounded edges and cool colors.

Web 2.0 applications enriches themselves from their users. These applications learn from their users using collaborative intelligence. Google is concentrating this area. They are trying to improve the search results based on the feedback and response from the searchers. Other interesting site is del-icio-us, an online bookmarks management and sharing application. We can take our internet books along with us and at the same time we share our bookmarks with others.

Tim O'Reilly gave a simple definition for Web 2.0: Harnessing collective intelligence. An excerpt from his speech,

YouTube, the video sharing site, and MySpace, the social networking site, have similar dynamics. The users not only provide the content, they provide the marketing. These sites have become hugely popular without spending a nickel on advertising, because they rely on word of mouth.

Now consider the alternative -- dot-bombs like the infamous pets.com. They treated the customer as a dumb consumer, and the web merely as a broadcast medium, with millions of dollars of Superbowl advertising substituting for customer enthusiasm.

But even more important than their enthusiasm, the users of successful internet applications supply their intelligence. A true Web 2.0 application is one that gets better the more people use it. Google gets smarter every time someone makes a link on the web. Google gets smarter every time someone makes a search. It gets smarter every time someone clicks on an ad. And it immediately acts on that information to improve the experience for everyone else.

Techcrunch is tracking the updates on this front and it post reviews on new Web 2.0 sites on their blog.

Related:
List of Web 2.0 Applications
Web 2.0 List

Category: Web 2.0

How to create PDF files free?

2006-05-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

I came across a very good tool to create PDF documents from any file type that is printable. You need to have Ghostscript to use this tool. CutePDF's Free version supports 64-bit Windows means Windows 98 and higher versions. To convert a document into a PDF file, just select Print Device as CutePDF Writer in Print menu of the document.

CutePDF's vision is, PDF is the de facto standard for electronic documents and forms exchange. Our philosophy is to make PDF utilities easy, versatile and affordable for every user: from beginner to pro.

Download CutePDF Free Version
Download Ghostscript

Category: Freeware

Google Desktop 4 - Google Gadgets

2006-05-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

Google has released latest version of desktop search 'Google Desktop 4'. This latest version has support of 'Google Gadgets'. Google Gadgets are small application on desktop like clocks, weather tickers, media players and Google Videos. Developers can also develop customized gadgets for Google Desktop. Some features of Google Homepage can also be added to Google Desktop.

Google Desktop can be seen as a Sidebar on the desk where all the Google Desktop applications can be accessed. Users can Add/Remove gadgets, Configure gadgets, Auto-hide the gadgets and Dock it too.

Google Desktop Gadgets list includes Email, Latest News, Weather, Photos Scroller, Stock Ticker, Web Clips (RSS & Atom Feeds), Scratch Pad, Todo Lists, Calendar, Clocks and etc.

Note: To enable Google Desktop sidebar, right click on Google Desktop icon in system tray and select 'Sidebar'.

Related:
Google Desktop Blog
Download Google Desktop

Category: Google

Microsoft Unveils Future Workplaces

2006-05-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

How will be the IT offices in future? Microsoft has unveiled it's latest developments in the area of future work locations to imporove the productivity of the individuals workers in IT areas. Microsoft has developed a Center for Information Work(CIW) for research to design information work locations and to improve the productivity of IT workers and enterprises.

Microsoft has developed a campus of 3,500 sq.ft in their Redmond Campus to give the users a tour of future work places. Around 25,000 people have visited this center since it's inception in 2002.CIW's main aim to improve the productivity of the work places using software-based productivity concepts.

The CIW includes StraTech, a monitor so large it partly wraps around the person viewing it.

CIW features DigiDesk, a touch-sensitive work space demonstrates advanced visualization and modeling of information, smarter integration of metadata, and more sophisticated pattern recognition.

The CIW demonistrates the next-generation work spaces that gives an idea how future software will integrate information across all your technology devices. This image shows a TabletPC too.

Related: CIW Virtual Tour
Source : Microsoft Press Release

Windows Live Messenger Beta

2006-05-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

The Windows Live Messenger Beta, which will be a competitor IMs like Yahoo Messengers, Google Talk, is available for all to download. This new IM will replace MSN Messenger.
Key features of this IM include,
1.Folders Sharing: By just dragging-and-dropping, users can share files and photos with other users. Then a Sharing Folder, which can be accessed by both the users using Messenger, will be created on both the user's computers. I think this is a great concept which will replace sending files and photos as e-mail attachments or tedious photo & file sharing.

2.Video Conversation: Using webcams, users can video chat in full-screen video with good synchronized audio and video service.

Other features include Offline Messages (this feature is not available in MSN Messenger), Cordless phones designed for Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Contacts etc.

Related:
Windows Live Messenger FAQ
Download Windows Live Messenger Beta
Windows Live Messenger Blog

SlickRun - A command line utility

2006-05-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a very good command line utility for windows. I'm using it now and I found it is very useful esp. it reduces a lot of mouse clicks to select a particular program. Here is the description of the utility from the makers of this program.

SlickRun is a free floating command line utility for Windows. SlickRun gives you almost instant access to any program or website. SlickRun allows you to create command aliases (known as MagicWords), so C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe becomes MAIL. Enter a web URL into SlickRun and it will launch your browser and navigate to the specified address. Run multiple programs in a few keystrokes, jot a note, look up a definition... SlickRun is the most natural way to interact with your computer.

Download SlickRun

Microsoft Answers - Windows Live QnA

2006-05-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is going to launch an invitation based Answers service called Windows Live QnA. This new service will be a competetor to Yahoo Answers and Google Answers. While Google Answers is dependent on expert's answers, Yahoo Answers and Windows Live QnA are dependent on answers from the users and answers ranked by the users.

According Windows Live, "Ask any question and get the 411 from people who have the answers you're looking for. Everybody's an expert on something--including you--so tap into that collective brain power and contribute your own."

Some screenshots are placed in Windows Live QnA's Blog. Users can post questions related to business, health, arts, sports, technology and more. You can register your email address for this invitation only service.

Source 1, 2

AdSense Vs AdCenter

2006-05-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

Finally Microsoft is following in Google way...from a Leader to Challenger. Microsoft now officially entered world of context sensitive advertising. Started the project with the name MSN AdCenter, later they changed the name to Microsoft AdCenter. What is the reason behind this re-branding? There has been a lot of news about contextual advertising that compete with Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network since two months. Microsoft may drop Yahoo ads on it's web sites to some extent. Microsoft is saying their AdCenter advertising is superior to Google's AdSense in many ways.

Via
How does search advertising work?
-Advertisers can pay only when people click their ads.
-Advertisers can set their own price per click.
-Advertisers ca see when clicks lead to sales.
-Advertisers target ads to the times, places, and customers they want the most.

Related:
-Search Engine Watch
-MSN Advertising

Goowy - A personal Webtop

2006-05-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

I came across an excellent site called Goowy while browsing through the shravan's blog. This is a new site with intergrated desktop-like webtop for IMs, email, address book, calendar, file uploading and sharing, to do lists, RSS feeds and more.

Below is a brief summary of all of the great services you get with goowy.

Goowy desktop
The desktop page is a quick start dashboard for all of the things that you can do with the goowy (re) application. Either click on one of the actions or navigate goowy using the bottom navigation toolbar. If you want to change your default start page you can do so in Options General Settings.
Goowy IM
Instant message with all of your buddies (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and more) all in one place, anytime and anywhere. Just add your username and password for your IM accounts and goowy will bring them all together in a cool web based interface.
Goowy driveUpload
Organize and share your personal files with goowy drive. You can upload files and access them from anywhere using goowy. We even have a cool mini music player built in so you can listen to your music on any computer right through goowy.
Goowy mail
A powerful webmail application that delivers desktop-like email functionality including drag and drop, auto-refresh, right clicks, keyboard shortcuts and more, in an elegant, easy to use interface. goowy calendarNow its easy to organize your life. Pull up the calendar and add your important events,
invite friends and be reminded of your upcoming schedule.
Goowy contacts
Manage all of your contacts in goowy. You can import contacts from your existing mail application or add them manually. When you add contacts they will appear in your mail, calendar and through out goowy.
Goowy minis
Minis are mini applications that you can configure and personalize that give you access to information and functionality from across the web all in one place. Check out our minis for web search, flickr photo search, quote of the day, weather, news, rss feeds, itunes top songs, bookmarks and more.

This site is designed with good graphics, desktop like screens and good programming. Try this service if you are interested.

Are Computer Science courses losing charm?

2006-05-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

Are computer science courses losing their charm? There is falling enrollments, lack of research, lack of attention in this discipline. Computerworld thrown the following questions to the famous professors in US universities Kenneth P. Biman, Randal E.Brynt, John Canny, Jaime Carbonell, Bernard Chazalle, William J Dally.

1.How important is computer science as a discipline today?
2.Which areas in CS will show the most important and interesting advancements in the next few years?
3.Is the looming end of Moore's Law a key driver for CS today?
4.How can CS be made a more attractive choice for students?
5.How should CS programs be modernized?

Source

SelfCastTV - Another Video Sharing Concept

2006-05-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Most of you might have been familiar with YouTube, a video sharing site. Other companies are following the concept. Blinkx software, makers of blinkx Pico the smallest desktop search engine in the world, today announced their video sharing service called SelfCastTV which is alternative to Google Videos and YouTube.

SelfCastTV allows the users video uploading and sharing. Also, SelfCastTV users can embed their video fields into their web pages using a url/code provided by the SelfCastTV.

Related Links:
SelfCastTV Blog
YouTube Site