Ubuntu Wood

Minimalistic Rough Red Ubuntu

Flashy Ubuntu

Rest In Peace Microsoft

Art Ubuntu

Uber Ubuntu

Sunset Ubuntu

Ubuntu Streaks Brown

Minimalistic Ubuntu

Metal Ubuntu

….. and here are some sexy Ubuntu wallpapers!!

Sexy Legs Ubuntu

Sexy Ubuntu

Josie Maran Ubuntu

Sexy Yellow Ubuntu

and here’s my favorite…

Sexy Tattoo Ubuntu

So what are you waiting for? Start downloading them and give some life to your desktop!

1. Don’t work for less than you can afford to, but do offer a discount to customers or clients who sign contracts with you.
2. Find people who will refer jobs to you. If they send you nightmare jobs, make sure they’re balanced out with rewarding (profitable!) ones.
3. Surround yourself with supportive people and don’t be discouraged by anyone. If your idea is good and you’re determined to stick with it through the first few difficult years, your chances of success are great.
4. Be flexible in your thinking. Prepare to change the way you work, the products you use and the services you offer, in order to meet the demands of your customers.
5. Admit your mistakes, correct them and carry on.(For example, if you purchase a piece of equipment that does not meet your expectations, send it back, sell it or exchange it!)
6. Develop a good relationship with your bank manager and creditors. Show a genuine interest in solving problems. Pay as much as you can afford to, to everyone to whom you owe money.
7. Get trained! You’ll be spending a lot of time doing things that have nothing to do with your area of expertise, like bookkeeping, marketing, and IT support!
8. Avoid isolation. Even if you work closely with your clients, you won’t be part of a gang anymore. Develop your own network of entrepreneurs that you see regularly and bounce ideas off. Ideally they’ll allow you to vent your anger and share your successes.
9. Separate your work and personal life. Set your working hours and stick to a strict timetable. When you’re not available to clients, leave a message on your answer machine letting them know when they can expect a reply from you. Let them know how to reach you in an emergency.
10. Plan some ‘thinking time’ into every day. If you pack your diary with back-to-back activities, your business will never grow.
11. Plan time to do something you enjoy at least a few times a week - recharge your batteries!
12. Write a business plan so you’re clear about what you’re doing, and update it every year.
13. Develop an excellent telephone manner and react quickly to any complaints or problems.
14. Confirm orders personally and immediately, especially those you receive on email.
15. Never lose sight of the big picture – look for innovative, little-explored directions in which to take your business.
16. When you find someone cleverer than you, employ them!
17. Solicit advice from people who know, for example, other entrepreneurs and reputable small business advisers  (The BERR offers lots of information and support for new businesses.)
18. Don’t enter a business or a venture that you know nothing about. You’ll be running to catch up for the rest of your business life.
19. Have an existing, loyal customer base and start locally.
20. Be aware that you will get through any initial investment quickly, so ensure you are covered financially until at least the end of the second year.
21. Focus on a specific goal and work at it until it’s achieved
22. Never worry about how to get things done when you are first developing your idea.Money and resources will come together once you have set your goals and begun to work at them.
23. Make quality in every aspect of your business your primary focus and aim. If it isn’t, you will eventually go out of business.
24. Use the Internet. Use email. Build a website (if you aren’t familiar with websites, try HTML for Dummies), send out email newsletters, buy online banner advertisements and register your site with all the major search engines.
25. Delegate. You might have to hire a good PA, lawyer, or marketing professional to ensure you’ll be profitable in the future.

Source: iVillage.co.uk

Here’s a step by step method to integrate StumbleUpon ‘Likes’ with Firefox Bookmarks:

1. Check if
   • You are using Firefox 3, if not, you can download it from here.
   • You are using StumbleUpon Toolbar version 3.23 or above or download the latest version from here.
2. In Firefox 3, Click on Tools -> Addons.



3. Select ‘StumbleUpon‘ and click on ‘Options‘.



4. Click on the Search & Tagging tab, and remember to select/check the Save favorites to a Firefox bookmark folder box. Then start downloading your StumbleUpon Favorites by clicking the ‘Download Favorites’ button.



5. Once your StumbleUpon Favorites have been downloaded, you’ll get the following popup saying ‘Download complete‘.



6. Access your ‘StumbleUpon Favorites‘ through your ‘Firefox Bookmarks‘ by clicking on Bookmarks -> StumbleUpon.



You can click on the above image for a full sized one.

You can add me on StumbleUpon by clicking here. Happy Stumbling!

PowerToys is the perfect recipe for you. Microsoft has a range of tools that will change your experience once and for all. The tools are all goodies that you would eventually end up using in your day to day computing.

Some of my favorite tools are ‘Open Command Window Here’, ‘Alt-Tab Replacement’, ‘Tweak UI’ among many others.

I’ve found use for the ‘Open Command Window Here‘ tool, when we face the usual problem of being unable to delete files in Windows. It gives an error saying a particular file cannot be accessed which is exactly the one you want to get rid of this. Using this tool, you can directly open your command prompt at that location and use your long lost DOS commands to say bye-bye to those unwanted files.

‘Tweak UI‘ is a great tool which has tons of modifications that allows you to configure various trivial but cool settings which you never knew were possible.

‘Alt-Tab Replacement‘ is so cool that you would open more windows deliberately, just so that you can swap between windows.

I could go on about the many other tools that are available, but I’m going to leave it for you to check out and explore the features that the other PowerToys have to offer. Believe me, no matter what your interests are I’m sure you will find something that really interests you.

Once you download the 452mb .iso and burn it on a CD, just restart your computer and boot up the Live CD. Once the CD boots, Ophcrack automatically loads and is on its way to crack your password.

Ophcrack Live CD requires physical access to the machine, but if you have physical access you can literally crack every password on a machine in a very short time.

Features:

• Runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (intel).
• Cracks LM and NTLM hashes.
• Free tables available for alphanumeric LM hashes.
• Free tables available for Windows XP and Vista.
• Brute-force module for simple passwords.
• LiveCD available to simplify the cracking.
• Free and open source software (GPL).
• Loads hashes from local SAM, remote SAM.
• Loads hashes from encrypted SAM recovered from a Windows partition, Vista included.

The latest version of Ophcrack Live CD is Version 2.0 and there are separate versions for Windows XP and Vista. Get Ophcrack Live CD. You can also get L0phtCrack (aka LC5 which was bought by Symantec) from mirrors like sectools.org.

You can use KML files to send addresses or show a location to someone. To make one, you need to know the latitude and longitude of the place, and visit the online Google Earth KML Creator. Once made, the files can be viewed on any online mapping service that supports the KML file format. Here is a KML file displayed in Google Maps, showing all the national parks of India. Adding these KML tags to your Flickr albums will allow you and others to find your photos for any search conducted on their location name.

Do you have alternative uses for KML files? Let us know in the comments below!

MySpace.com has launched the Indian version of its popular social networking site at http://In.MySpace.com. We believe that this move may be a tad too late in a country almost dominated by Orkut.

Orkut too is not taking this lying down. It has put in quite a few updates in the last few days, one of them being the launch of its mobile version at http://m.Orkut.com. It has also leveraged its OpenSocial platform to come out with a few FaceBook-like applications.

Coming back to MySpace, the desi version runs exactly like its international counterpart with the only noticeable difference being that all the contests and promotions will be (thankfully) tailored for the Indian audience.

Amit Agarwal points out that the current URL was chosen because MySpace.in and MySpace.co.in were already taken by domain squatters!

What do you think? Is MySpace too late to the party or will a big-wig, India centric social network finally appeal to the Indian masses. Let us know in the comments below!

1. Virgle - Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.

2. Dajare - Google Japan (google.co.jp), is on an attempt to “organize the world’s laughter.”

3. gDay - Search into the Future with Google gDay. Using technology right out of a fiction movie, Google has made it possible to search the internet as it would be 24 hours into the future.

4. Google Dialect Translation - Google aims at translating regional dialects of Korean to and from Standard Korean.

5. Gmail Custom Time - Dictate when you want Emails to appear in recipients’ mail boxes. You will never find yourself sending a late mail again.

6. Orkut is Now Yogurt

Wanna have some?

7. Google Calendar is Feeling Lucky - Google added the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button to its calendar feature. When you tried to create a new event, you were given the regular option of entering the correct details and hitting “Create Event,” and also the new option of “I’m Feeling Lucky” which would set you up with an evening date with, among others, Matt Damon, Eric Cartman, Tom Cruise, Jessica Alba, Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Anna Kournikova, Johnny Depp, George W. Bush, or Lois Griffin.

8. Google Wake Up Kit - Never miss a meeting again. Google helps you to get out of bed even from the deepest of slumbers. You can even sync with your Outlook.

9. New Airplane in Google Docs - A little easter egg was added, where a user can click the file menu and directly under new document is “New Airplane” which immediately opens a copy of a Google branded paper airplane. To reach the file menu, click the new menu, then “Document” then a new window opens.

10. Google Manpower Search - As a part of Google China, this new feature is powered by 25 million volunteers who do the searching around the clock. When the user entered a keyword, volunteers will search any possible answers from a mass of paper documents as well as online resources. The user is expected to get the search result within 32 seconds.

11. Google Books ‘Scratch and Sniff’ - A new section in Google Books allows users to ’scratch and sniff’ certain books. Users are asked to “…please place your nose near the monitor and click ‘Go’” which then ‘loads odours’.

12. Discounted airline fare by Virgin Blue - If you’re willing to stand! Yeah, you read that right, if you are willing to STAND!!

13. Yuvi & Deepika tie the knot - Finally the rumours about the sought after Indian Cricketer and Bollywood actress, come to an end. Or has it?

14. Tech2 Exclusive: India May Ban Facebook, Orkut and Foreign Social Networking Sites - India talks about banning popular Social Networking sites on grounds of Privacy and Security.

15. TechCrunch acquires Tiger Beat, will rename it CrunchKids - “Get ‘em while they’re young”, says TechCrunch’s Arrington

16. ProBlogger launches PayPerTweet - Online Marketing, Brand Building and of course Get Paid for Tweeting. Heard of Cost Per Thousand Tweets?? LOL!

17. No Bullet points on Slideshare - An unprecedented way in making presentations more effective: No bullet points and deceptive chart junk.

18. Google buys Truemors - In an all cash $5 Billion deal, Google takes over Truemors for its superior News gathering capability.

19. Mahalo Daily Steve Jobs Interview

20. Mood Technologies launches the MusicMask - Turn your face into a music instrument and play music by making different facial expressions.

21. WATSearch, The world’s first social search engine raises 3 million in funding - WATSearch empowers you with a tool to search for profiles across various social networking communities like Orkut, Facebook, Hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace.

22. Aviary Dodo, Turn the Clock on Images - What you’ll look like after 25 years. You can turn the clock back or forward in time and this tool generates an images based on the current one.

23. Time TravLR, Launch your website yesterday - Using a combination of Web 3.0 and 50% more AJAX, get websites done even before you know you need them.

24. Betamax to HD-DVD Converter - One Touch Recording / Conversion between the 2 Formats.

25. GoogleTalk goes Green - Google Talk servers will start automatically sending your conversations using IM-speak instead of normal words.

26. IRS Considers Tax Exempt Status for Bloggers - Bloggers need not pay tax for money earned through Blogging, as they provide a valuable public service by sharing information for free. Yaaaaahhhhhhhhhoooooooo!!

27. Flying Penguins - A promotional trail for the BBC iPlayer leads to the discovery of a colony of Flying Penguins.

28. Microsoft, Yahoo agree on buyout price - Microsoft takes over Yahoo’s datacenters, Web properties, and ad platform for $47.2 billion

29. Trust Banners, Guaranteed Brand Loyalty Advertising - Are your customers confused about buying your product? Use Trust Banners to help them to get decided and also stick to your brand.

30. Njection, Real Time Tracking of Police Officers - The information available on the Njection.com will give its visitors a detailed view of where police officers are in their area and how well they are responding to crime in their neighborhood.

31. eHarmony.com founder, finds his new love at Match.com - Dr. Neil Clark Warren, founder of eHarmony.com find a match of 27.3 out of 29 dimensions on Match.com

32. TechCrunch suing Facebook for $25 million - Tech Crunch’s founder Michael Arrington is suing facebook for statutory damages related to his picture being used in ads without explicit permission in Facebook.

33. DailyBlogTips Acquired for $168,000 - Daily Blog Tips founder Scocco sells the Daily network but will continue to work as an editor for the blogs.

34. John Chow Cola - The Official Blogger Drink - Post Ideas “POP” into your head, with special Neuro Enhancers!

35. Hummer giveaway at a Crazy internet Marketing Contest - A Brand New Hummer valued at over $58k has been added to the prize pool for a contest at Winningtheweb.com.

36. Chris Pirillo quits his job over a fight with his wife - LOL!

37. Joel Comm finds way to get rid of Spam completely - His new solution, Instant Whitelist assures 100% Email Deliverability.

38. Blogging Fingers finally crosses 23k RSS Subscribers - From around 1k subscribers to 23k in just 1 day, Blogging Fingers is now competing with John Chow over night!

39. Ades Blog is going fully on RSS - No more Ades Blog, Only Ades RSS. Please subscribe to still receive posts.

40. Google buys Microsoft for $1 Trillion - Hehe!!

Bonus Prank!: Kyle Kendrick gets traded to a team in Japan! - Baseball player Kyle Kendrick getting “Punk’d” by teammate Brett Myers. They tell him he is being traded to a team in Japan! This is a comcast broadcast of the video.

Jennifer who blogs at Jensense put up a detailed explanation of the changes in the policy and now provides us with a standard template that one can use. Ajay has a slightly more elaborate version and I’ve created the Privacy Policy for Tech Spikes based on that.

It has been made compulsory by Google that each and every blog which earns revenue via Google Adsense publish its privacy policy and notify readers each time a change is made. If you are feeling lazy but want to put up a Privacy Policy for your blog, you may choose one of the following three options.

1. Use my Privacy Policy as a template and suitably modify it for your blog.
2. Use the template made available at Jensense.
3. Use the Privacy Policy Plugin.

For those who have a blog but do not use Google Adsense but still want a Privacy Policy, you might want to check out either the Disclosure Policy Generator or DMA’s Privacy Policy Generator.

WinDirStat is a free tool that comes packed with features to help you manage your hard drive space. It lists the size & percentage of disk space used for all folders & sub-folders on your computer and also gives you a graphical representation of your files, sorted by the type of file extension. One can scan specific folders, multiple local drives and even network drives without any restrictions.

The current stable version 1.1.2 and the key features are

• The directory list, which resembles the tree view of the Windows Explorer but is sorted by file/subtree size,
• The treemap, which shows the whole contents of the directory tree straight away,
• The extension list, which serves as a legend and shows statistics about the file types.
• Coupling. Select an item in the directory list: The treemap highlights it; and vice versa.
• Zooming.
• Built-in cleanup actions including Open, Show Properties, Delete.
• User-defined cleanups (command line based).
• Works with network drives and UNC paths.
• ‘Create disk usage report’ option.
• ‘Submit bug report/Feedback’ option.
• Online help.
• Language can be set to Czech, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, German, English, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Russian.

WinDirStat is compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. Do note that the program comes in two variants: Ansi and Unicode. Windows 9x and ME users must use the Ansi variant. All others should use the Unicode variant.

Download WinDirStat 1.1.2 (Contains both Ansi & Unicode releases)