Mike's Blog

Malligai En Mannan Mayangum-Great song

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:34:00 +0000

A visit to Saibaba Temple Shirdi from Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:15:00 +0000

I was thinking of going to visit Shirdi Sai baba temple. I have just started collecting some info related the travel as Shirdi is in Maharashtra and I was searching for the various travel options through Google.Parallely I was enquiring to visit some of the popular travels. When I enquired I come to know getting tickets to such a distant place was not so easy. Also as I was planning to Visit Shirdi alone no travel operator nor through the package travel options was not possible for me. The cost of the package trip would cost approx 3600Rs and for a Deluxe journey Rs4400.

So I have decided to go by train 2627 Karnataka Express an express train which goes to New Delhi. I have tried for tickets it was wait listed 94 and then again I have tried tickets through Tatkal it had cost around Rs750 for sleeper class. I have planned to stay one night at Shirdi and for my return travel my train ticket was waitlisted at24 andI thought the ticket would get confirm. I tried to book some hotel room calling from Bangalore no one was ready to accommodate a room for me as I was travelling alone. Even hotels like Sai leela initially confirmed me to come then after coming to know that I am single they refrain to accommodate me. In that moment I have prayed to my Lord I have decided to have a Darshan to you even If I happen to sleep in the street of Shirdi also I would be very happy the holy place where your foot was touched.

The train reached promptly around 2:00Pm next day and was searching for an auto to Shirdi from Kopargoan.The shared auto drivers are very reasonable and they charged Rs20 per head.In the Auto I have met another devotee from Bangalore. We have got a accommodation in a small hotel near to Sai baba Temple itself.The crowd was continuously flooding as it was a holiday and there was no blockage and the line continue to move fast and had Darshan within an hour.We have planned for one more Darshan in the night and had at around 10:00PM.The crowd was very less.

The next day morning I was trying for kakad Arthi an early morning Arthi to Sai around 4:30Pm.Normally for that some special tickets will be issued only for VIP and Government officers.I woke up around 3:00, ‘O clock and gone to temple around 3:40am.There was a huge crowd waiting to have Darshan .I couldn’t able to make a direct Kakad Arti Darshan as the crowd was so huge I could see that through only Tv.We had Darshan at around 5:40am after the kakad Arti.Then I had bough some Prasad sold through the co operative stores and had purchased some more laddu as well stored in a Gate 2 at northern part of the Ashram. Bought 2 packs of Laddu(each pack cost 10Rs).

While on the return journey my ticket status was WL 8 and I could manged to get a seat and come back safely to Bangalore due to the blessings of Sai baba without any hassles.After the Darshan you would be relieved with your mental stress if any.

My actual travel expense all inclusive was around Rs3000/-

Tips:

If you go with family or alone avoid taking risks and don't go without having a confirmed booking.Try for a Tatkal booking you need shell aroundRs1500 for To and fro and it is reasonable to travel than an hectic and long bus journey.
Try to book through some good hotels like Sai leela who have booking facility at bangalore itself.
To have early morningArti darshan wake up early around and go to the Q around 2:30Pm.Without the special or VIP privilege you shall get Darshan.

Movie maker Jumping /skipping movies while publishing?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:45:00 +0000

Movie maker is a wonderful media utility we can say as a blessing for the Microsoft vista users with enhanced features.

Recently, I have recorded some TV programs and was occupying a memory size of around 3.5 GB size.I want to publish some clippings in YouTube I was trying to remove the TV commercials in between the program.

When I publish the movie after dissecting the options in the movie maker and tried publishing the video then I have observed that some of the movie portions were cross jumping and was very much confused to fix the issue.

I have searched various options given in the various Microsoft forum but couldn't find any useful solution.

It is the inherent problem the movie maker have when handling some of the big files and when we try to chop and then publish that wont work properly again it is a slight limitation with the movie maker.

What you needs to do to avoid this jumping movie/skip movie?

The only solution is cut the bigger file in to smaller ones there are some freeware tools available to dissect the portion of a video clip.You can think of considering the free video dub tool to dissect the mpeg TV video files and then publish using movie maker(.Free studio manager4.1.1.1 you can consider installing) .Please do share if you come across my experience like if any.

How to recover the deleted file from recycle bin?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:51:00 +0000

If you have accidentally erased any of the important files and mp3 or mpeg or jpg files then the simple and the free solution would be recuva recovery free tool.It is a product from Piriform.They are the producer of the famous registry fixing and temporary files cleaner tool of CCleaner.

The restoring job is very user friendly.If you have difficulty in restoring the files through normal scan then you need to select deep scan.It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

In my test I was very happy about its performance.

To restore the files you need to provide

The format of the file
The path of the file.

The recent version of this tool has launched on 28,November 2008 had the following features.

Improved recovery of orphaned JPG images in FAT32.
- Launch wizard button now working properly in all cases.
- Improved scan canceling on large files.
- Fixed bug that caused Wizard icons to not be displayed in 16 bit color.
- Check for updates now included in tab-stop.
- Various minor UI tweaks.

You can download this tool from the following link.

About Seismic Zone and the earthquake resistant building in Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:50:00 +0000

In my several of earlier posts I have raised my concerns about the consideration of the seismic factors on the high raise apartment has been taken care or not.I just browsed to find out the seismic zone where Bangalore is placed.

Seismic Hazard of Karnataka

Source:

http://asc-india.org/seismi/seis-karnataka-goa.htm

The seismic hazard map of India was updated in 2000 (5) by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). According to the new map, the state of Karnataka lies in Zones II and III. The coastal districts as well as the northern interior districts along the border with Maharashtra, lie in Zone III, where a maximum MSK intensity of VII can be expected. The remaining districts, as well as the city of Bangalore lie in Zone II. Interestingly, the Bellary region, which experienced a strong earthquake in the 1840's has been downgraded to Zone II.

The 1984 BIS Zoning map had placed it in Zone III. It must be noted that BIS estimates the hazard, based in part, on previous known earthquakes. Since the earthquake database in India is still incomplete, especially with regards to earthquakes prior to the historical period (before 1800 A.D.), these zones offer a rough guide of the earthquake hazard in any particular region and need to be regularly updated (See also: GSHAP Hazard Map for Karnataka & Goa).

See my earlier posts:

http://eastindian-mike.blogspot.com/2008/10/recent-collapse-of-high-raise-apartment.html

http://eastindian-mike.blogspot.com/2008/09/lifestyle-greenage-apartments-bangalore.html

Interestingly an article in Hindu written by CVR Murthy has drawn my attention( dt 10/06/2006).

Quake-resistant buildings needed now

Many unprofessional players in the real estate area exploit the common man's ignorance on this aspect

About 60 per cent of India's land area is under the threat of moderate to severe seismic hazard. Nine earthquakes in the Indian tectonic region over the past 17 years have provided constant reminders of the vulnerability of Indian construction.

It was the Bhuj earthquake of 2001 that stirred-up maximum concern on the vulnerability of Indian constructions, particularly the modern reinforced cement concrete (RCC) constructions.

The Indian public is under-informed and under-educated on earthquake resistant design and construction. Let us highlight the seismic vulnerability of the large number of a class of reinforced concrete multi-storey buildings being constructed in the urban areas.

These buildings have open ground storey to accommodate parking and 230 mm size columns in the ground storey.

The typical RCC buildings in India are made of frames consisting of vertical and horizontal members. The former are called columns while the latter members consist of (a) slabs, that is, the flat, plate-like parts of the building on which people stand, walk and conduct themselves in the building and (b) beams, that is, the stiff, rib-like parts of the building running under the slab but between columns which support the slabs.

Stilt structures

The typical buildings being built in India accommodate parking in the ground storey. Most buildings having parking in the ground storey have no masonry walls built between any columns.

While having parking in the ground storey is not the concern, having all masonry walls removed and leaving the columns bare is the crux of the matter. Such buildings are abruptly flexible and weak in the ground storey and perform poorly during earthquakes.

Many unprofessional players in the real estate development industry are doling out substandard civil engineering products and exploiting the ignorance of the common man on many technical aspects of civil engineering. For example, most RCC frame buildings in the present context use the same 230mm (9-inch) wide columns in them irrespective of the number of storeys they support above them.

Let us focus on the use of 230 mm wide columns in a special class of buildings.

A stark feature of these columns and also the most unsafe aspect of the buildings they hold is that their size is fixed - 230 mm. Irrespective of the overall height of the building (1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 14 or even 21 storeys), the location of the building (in severe seismic zone or in low seismic zone), the type of soil strata underneath the building (soft soil or hard rock) and the distance between adjacent columns (2m, 3m, 4m or even 5m), the column size is unbelievably the same: 230 mm.

The person who built your apartment may not necessarily be qualified to make earthquake-resistant buildings. This is because quake design has not been taught in any college at the under-graduate level since Independence; graduates from government colleges in Gujarat passing out in 2007 will be first set to have basic knowledge on earthquake resistant design .

Open ground storey buildings have consistently shown poor performance during past earthquakes across the world; a large number of them have collapsed.

The presence of walls in upper storeys makes them many times stiffer than the open ground storey. Thus, the upper storeys move almost together as a single block and most of the horizontal displacement of the building occurs in the soft ground storey itself. Thus, such buildings swing back and forth like inverted pendulums during earthquakes and the columns in the open ground storey are severely stressed.

If the columns are weak (do not have the required strength to resist these high stresses) or if they do not have adequate ductility they may be severely damaged or even lead to collapse of the building.

Neglected

In the current design practice, stiff masonry walls are neglected and only bare frames are used in design calculations. Thus, the inverted pendulum effect is not captured in the structural design.

There are several features associated with the open ground storey buildings with 230 mm wide columns that make them vulnerable during earthquakes. The vertical members in buildings support the horizontal members. So, vertical members must be stronger than the horizontal ones.

After the Bhuj earthquake, the Indian Seismic Code IS: 1893 (Part 1) - 2002 has included special design provisions. First, it specifies when a building becomes soft or weak. Second, it specifies higher design forces for the soft storey.

C.V.R. MURTY

Mumbai attack and the questions

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:25:00 +0000

The recent terrorist attack at Mumbai brings a lot of sad and a grief feeling to the mind. The brave ones who fought against the terror and who lost their life. Also for the victim civilians who died due to such an attack. We should pray let their soul rest in peace and would always remember with the historic tragedy.Those who have lost their life for the war against terror should be given importance in the history books like any other war this country underwent in the past.

It has proved once again that human life is very uncertain and no one knows that they are alive tomorrow. Unimaginable attack. The way TV live broadcast in the channels clearly shown that a situation was like a war happening in an English movie. I was just thinking and it made me to think that historical invasion would have been always like this.

I was just drilling down with my own questions about the people involved in the terror and the tackling of the issue:

How dare they are to come to a place whose sea route itself they are not aware off?
The lads were very young what has been driving them to commit suicide?
Are they not aware they are damaging?
Are they not aware the purpose of their life is to destroy?
If they are not aware what else is the compelling force made them to involve in such kind of activity?
Who are there parents? Are they not aware of about their son what he is doing? Are they willingly surrendered or sold their son for money? If they sold them for money means for destruction which means they are aware?
By doing destruction what they are going to achieve?
Has God given this life to destruct some body?
The intelligence agencies should be aware of such a possible attack(Even chairman of Taj Hotel confirmed that). Why a tough action has not been taken?
What was the gap between the intelligence reports and the law enforcement and the security agencies?
Assuming the limitation to governmental workforce why public has not been made aware to report such clandestine activity?
Why government should not use the public intelligence and propagate its theme against terror that the citizen responsible?
There is definite responsibility for the Government to give a feeling of security to the human lives. But are they looked up seriously?
We have enough history to know that we are always vulnerable for attacks why the coastal guards couldn’t track such movement?
Are we protective or shielded against any more vulnerable attacks?
Our satellite and the intelligence reporting gadgets doesn't have the system to analyze the movement of such an explosive material from one place to another?
Have they monitored the internet traffic and the key suspicious information's searched through search engine?

Is it possible?

Every citizen of the country should be made aware and to be cautioned to share the knowledge about the unwanted social element in the system to the governmental intelligence agencies .

When I mean it is the responsibility of the citizens. The informer citizen shouldn't have any hassles to provide the information and they should be protected.

I would strongly believe that the investigating and intelligence minds are equally very stronger than any other country.I am very well aware that when the government gives appointment orders to some of the senior positions like IAS,IPS or a DSP post there is still a process to check the personal credentials of the people.There is a social engineering method which is practiced by CID of the government and personally to assess a person without his knowledge and a report will be submitted to government before an appointment. The same method was literally adapted while nab one of the sandal wood smuggler in south India by name Veerappan whom he not even aware off.

Some of the highest interrogative minds of the world are there in our country and I am doubtful whether the government uses them effectively or not?If we just give a full hands and power to such minds they would even map the minds who have such possible motive.

The government shouldn't ignore the intelligence reports it is again 1 out of 100 kind of feeling.Nothing has happened as reported so we keep silent that attitude.If one happen out of 100 then we have seen the worst at Mumbai incidents.We should aware that many of the incidents have been prevented through the intelligence reports.

Now all the system are awake this anti social elements will rest and watch every thing to settle and when the system is weak and wait till such time to sleep (including the public like you and me), the they will try for a possible attack. It is like driving a long night journey through the car and if the driver by chance nap for some seconds it would be a mess and ends up with accident.The government playing the role of a driver and let it not mess again.

How to monitor the internet speed ?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:08:00 +0000

If you are on look out for one then online eye an internet speed monitor that is able to measure ,track and analyze the connection.

We could view the following

Speed of the data being transferred at the real-time.
Shall analyze and view the historical trend data with bar or line graphs
To monitor your internet LAN connections.

Track your internet upload and download over a period of time .Helps us to analyze the usage over a period of time.
You would precisely able to find the number of MB the data transferred and should check within the limit if your broad band connection charges for any additional upload or download.

You could also set an alert or caution to your limits.
Today the cost of broad band connection is cheap and people who have taken unlimited download connection need not think of having this feature.

Otherwise it is a could tool to consider.

Any TV free 2.24

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:32:00 +0000

This is a freeware tool we can download and install in the system and watch TV channels worldwide and FM channels.

This freeware has been launched very recently.But I could not see much benefits on the TV channels which we surf the reason being to view the most of the channels we need to get the licensee.

But we could watch some channels like BBC news,Sony TV etc.The FM radio of this tool does a fair job.

If you want to have a web based access on TV channels .It is just Ok click to download.

To download Youtube videos.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:06:00 +0000

This is in continuation to my earlier post about the downloading the video files through Mozilla Firefox box browser.You can also use the YouTube downloader a free tool.

We could able to view the video files through offline from 50 0ther sites as well.It requires adobe flash playerv8.0 or a newer one and Vb6 runtime files.

You can download and save the YouTube videos in.flv format .It also comes with an option to convert the video files into its original formats.

But in my test with Vista operating system that option was not working. But instead of considering the down load url like keepvid you can consider having this s/w.

To download click here

Tips to download YouTube Video through Firefox browser

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:21:00 +0000

To down load Youtube videos normally I used to copy the you tube url and paste in a download site and then down load.I have a free downloaded FLV player installed in my system to play this video.

I have noticed some setback with some url not allows to download. Then I have found an interesting tip that we could over come such issues without download a clip just play the video once and then you can save as a FLV video format.

How to do with the Firefox browser?

Step 1:

Watch full Youtube video in Firefox bowser till you see the replay button on the youtube screen and don’t close the firefox browser.
Step2:

Go at following folder D:or C:\Documents and Settings\ADMIN(your system name)\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles (one by one)See the screen shot below

Step3:
Click single folder there you will get folder “Cache”. click on it. You will find a lots of unknown type files in this folder.

Step 4:

You can view the time stamp of your view and the see the size of the file .You could identify the youtube video with the memory size and the time stamp.(there might be so many small files also available at the cache).

Step5:

Copy that file and paste in the video folder and rename the file with the extension .flv.

Step6:

Play the video with FLV player.If you are with Vista’s latest codec’s package you need not worry for having to install a separate FLV player.

Crude and the puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:35:00 +0000

The short and most visible bubble is the speculation and the price hike of Crude and the fall of the crude oil.The analysts predictions expects a fall in the range of 40-45$ a barrel.

The OPEC countries had announced a cut in their production by about 15lac barrels a day a safeguarding measure prevented further free fall.

See the 2 different news over 6 months period.

Source:Money control.com
News on 21/11/2008
“Crude prices dropped 7% to below the USD 50 per barrel mark. This is the lowest level since May 2005. Prices slumped as bearish US jobs report intensified concerns of a long and deep global recession and further crushed fuel demand expectations. In after hours access trading, Nymex crude is at USD 48.47 per barrel.

Deutsche Bank is now forecasting prices of crude to continue to tumble to USD 40 per barrel before the end of the year. Traders say if the equity markets continue to decline, one may see watch crude follow on their yields. Falling crude is also a positive for consumers. Right now the national average is USD 2.2 per barrel.”

NEWS Dt july 4,2008

Source:uk.reuters.com.

TOKYO, July 4 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures were steady
on Friday after settling at a record the previous day, when they
also hit an all-time intraday high of nearly $146 a barrel before
trimming gains on the dollar's rise against the euro. * Front-month U.S. crude for August delivery CLc1 was up 4
cents, or 0.03 percent, at $145.33 a barrel on the Globex
electronic trading platform. On Thursday, it settled higher by
$1.72, or 1.2 percent, to a record $145.29, after trading from
$143.22 to $145.85, an all-time intraday high. * NYMEX crude has hit a record for five of the past six
trading sessions. Prices are up 51.4 percent from the beginning
of the year and 103 percent from a year ago.
[ID:nL03150097] * Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi reiterated his belief on
Thursday that the current rally in oil prices was being propelled
by speculators rather than any shortage of crude oil.

The Indian oil ministry has not given any favorable reply about the price reduction.The inflation rate has fall down well within the range of 8.9 as of November 2nd week.Inflation rate has fall down without any price reduction in the fuel price.

Any way the government had planned a provision for the oil marketing companies to a tune of 245lacs crore for the oil marketing companies working at a crude price of 125$ per barrel.Definitely government’s burden is getting reduced by not doing any change but at the same the private oil marketing companies are exploiting this opportunity to their advantage.

The outlook look like the crude may settle at a price of 60-70USD per barrel foreseeing a period of 6 months.Keeping those parameters in mind the government shall consider reducing the petrol price which in turn substantially reduces the inflation.

The soft target and the victim due to this is the middle class hard working and the earning revenue generating community .But the government’s inaction is still a puzzle on this with crude.What is happening really?

Read notify –Email tracking utility

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:19:00 +0000

What is Read notify?

Read Notify can track all your outgoing email or you can choose which ones you need to track. Read Notify will send you an instant message letting you know that your email is being read right now. You can also log in to track email sent and see which ones have bounced, which ones have been opened, and how many times the email has been opened.

How it will be helpful?

Useful to track the location and the time of opening and reading the mail and how many times the mail has been opened .How many times the mail has been forwarded and have an idea who reads the mail.

Useful for the marketers /sale agents.
To locate the geographical location of the readers
Investigative journalism
To do spy work.

We can interpret many data based on the read notify mail receipts. It has many features like notifying the PDF readers etc.

How it should work?

This is based on the input of a test conducted through a Gmail account.

When we send an email to someone and want to get notified when it is opened, we add the domain name of our Email Reading Notification service to the receiver. (readnotify.com in our demonstration).
When the email is sent it goes through the email server of the ERN service, so they add to it an image or more hosted on their web or ftp server for example.
When we open the email, normally a request is sent to the web or ftp server that hosts the image added to the email. (Gmail -as we saw- protects its users by blocking the display of images by default!)
With the request for the image goes lot of informations about the environment from which it was initiated and the ERN services take advantage of that to build their email tracking system.

Grey area:

Normally read notify mails usually will get past firewalls unless you are emailing to large companies. Some ISP's like Earthlink (spamblocker) will kick it out. Also Gmail will sometimes put it in the spam folder.

Over all it is a very useful utility and can be used judiciously.

How to extend Laptop battery life

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:04:00 +0000

There are some points we tend to ignore while using the Laptop particularly the Battery life of Laptop.There are some simple useful tips if we follow that can improve up on the battery life.

Dimming the screen.
Cutting down programmes running at the background
Using less external devices.
Using hard disk drive rather than CD/DVD
Hibernating systems instead of stand by mode
Optimize your power options according to your needs using control panel options.
Avoid heavy multi tasking as much as possible.
Defrag your hard disk regularly.
Cut down external devices
Add more RAM

Apart from the above please Take care of your battery - Do not leave a charged battery dormant for a long periods of time. Once charged, you should at least use the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Also, do not let a Li-On battery completely discharge.

Kaspersky Mobile secuity

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:13:00 +0000

With the advent of the latest technology in the mobiles .The more problems start spooking by the way of virus.Already many viruses exist in the mobile phones.The Kaspersky’s recent mobile security7.0(KMS 7) enters the picture with reputation of being very good antivirus on the Desktop segment category.

The features includes the following

Net work firewall
Anti-Spam (SMS through rules)
Anti theft.
Set up Scan of every file or data every day/weekly or even more.

The packaged CD of KMS 7 offers installers for smart phones based on windows mobile 5.0/6.0, and Symbian OS 9.1/9.2(with series 60v3 UI).

The soft ware can be purchased through internet and the validity period is for an year.Also this offers a trial period also for mobile security.

Anti theft feature

Once the mobile is configured the Anti theft feature can be invoked.If you loose the phone.A specially formatted SMS needs to be sent to your mobile phone number, which will be acted up on by KMS7.It then cleans out your SMS inbox, contacts and personal files.So that your mobile shouldn't stuck to a wrong person.If the thief replaces the SIM,the SIM WATCH automatically sends SMS to 2 specified phone numbers without the knowledge of the thief.

Can consider having this for your mobile too.

Cost :USD29(Rs1200 approx)

Logmein-Desktop sharing utility

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:48:00 +0000

What it is Logmein?

It is a desktop sharing utility and you can share the desktop via a website that allows you to remotely access any pc that you have set up on this website.

You need to register the pc which you want to remotely access on this website. Once you have done this all you need to do is log on to this website and you will be able to access your chosen computer remotely.

Choosing the remote control option once logged in you will see the desktop of the pc as if you were sat in front of it and open files, read and send e-mails and even hear e-mail notifications!

This site is also helpful if you are having computer problems and you know a computer boffin as they can access your computer from anywhere in the world and fix it for you!

How it is useful?
We shall keep the monitor on at the workplace and shall access at home.

Points to note:

The computer you want to access has to be switched on and have internet access, if not you will not be able to log in.
You can drag and drop files from one desktop to another or use the file manager facility to transfer your files between pc's. Printing is no problem. You can either transfer the files from the remote pc to your pc or print remotely ie choose the printer connected to the pc infront of you and print to that.(Note that is available with paid version) .
The remote printing option will not work some times and need to transfer the files to your local machines such times.
When some on switch off your computer at the other side it will say that the other computer is offline.

Like Crossloop this is also a desktop utility but there is no need for some one at the other side only criteria is that the system should be switched on.

Tailpiece:

The company has actually been cooking up an application for the iPhone (and iPod Touch), too, called LogMeIn Ignition. The release version seems to be good and impressive.It works well with the windows machine. Logmein client installed in desktop and able to view its desktop on iPhone's screen. The app allows for viewing the entire scaled-down screen of the remote computer or zooming in to a potion of it, just like you would view a photo or a Web page on the iPhone.

Syncplicity –File/Data Synchronization services

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:30:00 +0000

What Syncplicity?

Syncplicity is a new service in the market of file synchronization services where we already have FolderShare, SugarSync and Dropbox.This services can be synchronised with Google Docs and Facebook.

The key benefits

Real-Time Backup:
Sharing made Simple
Access anytime, anywhere

· View Multiple Computers one view

If you use multiple computers and keep a track of the changes you have made in which machine has which version of the report that may confuse us .This services help us to synchronise the changes uniformly through all the system.

Syncplicity with multi system:

While installing Syncplicity in the second computer or add new folders to the server, it will offer to sync (download) the files already on the server to the second machine. If you agree, you can tell it where to put the folder. If a folder by the same name already exists in your specified location, Syncplicity asks whether you wish to merge the two. If you don't, you can enter a different location. Sending sharing invitations to multiple colleagues can be time-consuming: For each recipient, you have to click 'Add Someone' and then type in their e-mail address; you can't enter multiple addresses.

Effective versioning::

It preserves different editions of your files as they are synced, added, and removed. You can access an older version of a file by right-clicking the file and examining a list of the versions Syncplicity has tracked since the original upload. The list includes buttons for downloading a version to your local computer or reverting to that version.

Limitations:

Presently work with XP and vista presently.(not support linux and mobile)

Syncplicity lacks a remote-access feature( but work with Windows' built-in networking and Remote Desktop tools).

The free account caps 10000 files and 2GB storage and 2 PCS and limit versioning control and the limitation of the period they keep.(Deletes older documents version over 30days).

The paid monthly services for 10$ for an account of 40GB and an addition of 50GB at a cost of 10$.Though the best of features it is quite expensive.

Considering the future needs of effective memory management to keep the data in a secure place(a bank locker kind of) like this kind of services would be a good option.Might be this kind of memory management services may be a very dependable option with more enhanced capacities in future.

To subscribe syncplicity click here

Spin Spotter to check media bias and inaccuracies

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:18:00 +0000

What is Spinspotter and what it does?

The spin spotter is an one online spotter to identify the media bias. Through the tool called ‘Spinoculars’ which sits in the user tool bar(browser), the site allows you to flag certain indications of potential biased reporting

Not only spotting the biased reporting but as well share the info with others.So that a community can get the truth the news articles.

Users of SpinSpotter also get a Trust rating. Accurately mark instances of bias, and users will vote you up and increase your Trust rating. Inaccurately mark statements of fact as media spin, users vote you down and your Trust rating plummets.

SpinSpotter gives much more weight to an experienced and reliable user — a trusted user’s down vote can counteract thousands of up votes from untrusted users.

The site derives its strenght from the advisory board of prominent US journalist who have set objective rules for what constitutes ‘Spin’ uniquely guided from crowd sourcing and algorithm that constantly learn from users as input.

How to use the tool now?

The tool is in Beta version , right now exclusively a Firefox browser 3 but expected with IE browser soon. ’Spinaculars’ installs in seconds (134K). It only takes a minute to register a username for yourself.

Please see the demo given by the company.

Audacity a sound editing tool

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:18:00 +0000

Audacity

I was on look out for converting the old audio tapes into an MP3 format.I could successfully done and it helped me to displace the cassettes which was cluttering at my shelf. I come to know about this open source program and installed in my system. I was amazed to see the performance of such a nice sound editing software.

What is audacity?

Audacity is a digital audio editor application. Audacity is a digital audio editor and mixing platform, complete with a graphical user interface and cross-platform OS support. It's one of the most popular open-source downloads in the world.

What is the typical use?

It is a very simple audio recording tool which can be added in you computer and with ease of use and with the following features.

Importing and exporting WAV, AIFF, MP3 (via the LAME encoder, downloaded separately), Ogg Vorbis, all file formats supported by libsndfile library
Version 1.3.2 also supports Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
Recording and playing sounds
Editing via Cut, Copy, Paste
Multi-track mixing
A large array of digital effects and plug-ins. Additional effects can be written with Nayquist
Amplitude envelope editing
Noise removal
Support for multi-channel modes with sampling rates up to 96 kHz with 24 bits per sample
The ability to make precise adjustments to the audio's speed while maintaining pitch (Audacity calls it changing tempo), in order to synchronize it with video, run for the right length of time, etc.
The ability to change the audio's pitch without changing the speed.
Converting cassette tapes or records into digital tracks by automatically splitting one wav (or the other supported types) track into multiple tracks based on silences in the track and the export multiple option.
Multi-platform: works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix-like systems (including GNU/Linux and BSD) amongst others.
Os supported Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista.
Audacity can also be used for post-processing of all types of audio, including podcasts.

Other comments:

Audacity uses destructive rather than non-destructive editing. All effects are applied as permanent changes to the waveform, and are not dynamic or real-time.

Audacity lacks dynamic equalizer controls - equilization must also be applied as a permanent effect.

Audacity does not include support for keyframe-based effects. Support for scrubbing is also not included.

Audacity it will be stored as high memory occupying WAV files in the hard disk.Till such time we export into an MP3 or WMV file.

It is really a great audio editing tool.

For the procedural learning click here

For Audacity down load click

To see the Video demo

See how to remix

File shredder a useful tool to shred files beyond recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:10:00 +0000

What File shredder does?

File shredder is a free tool that deletes completely or not giving a chance to extract the data even though it deleted from the recycle bin and fear from the hard drive that it can be recovered.

It enables you to delete files beyond recovery, using multiple passes, DoD 5220-22.M or the Gutmann method. The program can wipe individual files or entire folders (with optional subfolders), and also integrates with the right-click menu for convenient access from within Windows Explorer. File Shredder can also wipe the free disk space on selected drives, allowing you to erase traces of files that have been deleted previously by using standard deletion methods.

What it does?

To remove, or shred files permanently without any trace from your system you have to use a program that is capable of rewriting the files with random series of binary data multiple times. This process is often called shredding. That way, the actual content of the file has been overwritten and the possibilities to recover such a shredded file are mostly theoretical.

You have a choice of five different shredding algorithms. It's as easy a program to use as you can imagine. Just choose your files, tell the program to shred them, and they'll be gone forever.

It flushes out the old data completely from the hard drive.During the flushing process it would use the memory space of the hard disk

This free tool was recommended by magazines like PC world etc.

To down load the tool please click here.

About Wealth and way to riches

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:56:00 +0000

I was just reading Dr Jospeh murphy’s power of subconscious mind and I was impressed by this particular page and lines about money.

STEP UP THIS WAY TO RICHES.

Be bold enough to claim that it is your right to be rich and your deeper mind will honour your claim.
You don’t want just enough to go around .You want all the money you need to do all the things you want to do and when you want to do them. Get acquainted with the riches of your subconscious mind.
When money is circulating freely in your life, you are economically healthy. Look at the money like the tide and you will always have plenty of it. The ebb and the flow of the tide is constant. When the tide is out you are absolutely sure that it will return.
Knowing the laws of your subconscious mind, you will always be supplied regardless of what form money takes.
One reason many people simply make ends meet and never have enough money is that they condemn money.What you condemns takes wings and fly away.
Don’t make a god of money .It is only a symbol. Remember that the real riches are in your mind. You are here to make a balanced life –This includes acquiring all money you need.
Don’t make money as your sole aim.Claim wealth, happiness , peace,true expressions and love and personally radiate love and good will to all.Then your subconscious mind will give you compound interest in all the fields of expression.
There is no virtue in Poverty. It is a disease of mind, and you should heal yourself of this mental conflict or malady at once.
You are not here to live and hovel, to dress in rags or to go hungry. You are here to lead a life in abundant.
Never use the term “filthy lucre” or ‘I despise money” You loose what you criticise. There is nothing good or bad, but thinking of it in either light makes it so.
Repeat frequently I like money I use wisely, constructively and judiciously .I release it with joy, and returns to thousand fold.”
Money is not evil any more so than copper, lead, tin or iron which you may find in the ground.All evils is due to ignorance and misuse of mind powers.
To picture the end result in your mind causes your subconscious to respond and fulfil your mental picture.
Stop trying to get something for nothing. There is no such thing as free lunch. You must give to receive. You must give mental attentions to your goals and ideas and enterprises and your deeper mind will back you up. The key to wealth is application of the laws of the subconscious mind by impregnating it with the idea of wealth.

To get the details of his Books please click.

Snipping Tool Vista

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:24:00 +0000

In my earlier post I have mentioned about Z screen automatic screen shot tool. Here for those who are having above version of Vista Basic have the Snipping tool. This tool shall be used for capturing screen shots.

"You can capture a portion of your screen so you can save, annotate, or share the image"

I would say most of the Vista users may not have aware of this functionality that they have with their system.

To go to the Snipping tool

Open the Snipping Tool. Click Start>All Programs>Accessories. The Snipping Tool window will open and a white overlay appears over the screen.

Select the type of snip. Click on the arrow next to the New button and and choose from the options

Free-form snip. To draw irregular shapes and lines, such as triangles and circles.

Rectangular snip. Draw a custom and precise line by dragging the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.

Window Snip. Capture the browser window or dialog box in a snip.

Full-screen snip. Capture the entire screen, such as desktop background.

Capture the snip. Use the mouse or tablet stylus to drag around or select an area or program for snipping.

You can annotate and share the image. The snip will be automatically copied to the mark-up window. The toolbar hosts options for saving, creating, copying, e-mailing and editing the snip. I would say this is a slight set back with this option the images are copied are not set to any predefined folder /no autonaming and Saving feature when we do multiple screen shots. If you compare this feature Z screen edges out.

To save a snip, press the Save Snip button. In the dialog box enter a name for the file and choose a format if need be.

Annotations in the Snipping Tool include the ability to draw/write with a customizable pen, use a highlighter and clear selections with the eraser. These are simple to use tools for minor edits.

To share a snip, click the arrow on the Send Snip button and select an option from the menu.

To turn off the white overlay projected on the screen when the Snipping Tool, click Options. Clear the check box Show screen overlay when Snipping Tool is active.

To assign a shortcut key to the Snipping Tool, right click the Snipping Tool icon, click Properties and select the Shortcut tab. Enter your preference in Shortcut key.

Snips can be saved in a range of formats including HTML, PNG, GIF and JPEG.This a plus point where Z screen we have only JPG and PNG formats.

Any how we can do some gimmicks with this tiny application for Sure.

Do you want Automated Screenshots then it is Z screen

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:31:00 +0000

Z screen

Do you want to take automated Screen shots.Have you ever felt a pinch of feeling that when ever you take a screen shot you need to open the MS Paint and then paste it .When ever you want to take screen shots continuously you cant do the laborious process to Paint and paste the screen shots. If you are looking for one like me then you can consider going for using Z screen which performs the job well.

It is an open-source screen capture program that allows for region/window/full-screen screenshots.

It would take a screen shot and store in a folder path by default or we can set our own destination folder path. It saves in the folder path with custom naming conventions with variables(%mi to retrieve the current minute (or %t to get the title of the active window for instance)

It can FTP screenshots and put the URL in your clipboard in a single keystroke. Then we can share the url path to any one online instantly. Ie when saving remotely the URL is copied into clipboard with a single keystroke so that a user may paste that link via irc, email, im, etc.The default destination has been taken as Imageshack or Clip board.It has been confirmed by the coder that he is been doing the changes with FTP or File option instead.

It can also interface with image editing software. It is a C#.NET 2.0 program hosted on Sourceforge.net and built by BrandonZ (inf1ni).

It also can interface with image editing software such as Microsoft Paint, Paint.NET or Adobe Photoshop so that editing may be done before a screenshot is uploaded, saved, or put in clipboard.
ZScreen uses PNG and JPEG. It uses PNG for anything below 350KB and then switches to JPEG after that barrier.

Here is the entire process of taking a crop shot with no steps left out. Press your hot key (control + shift + l for instance), click your left mouse button once and drag down and right, and release. Instanteously paste into a chat window (control + v for instance) and press enter.

Please note the key buttons

There are other softwares available but they are shareware and paid one like

Ashampoo magical snap,My screen recorder,Gladwin, Screen discoverer,Photo snapper,Vidi windows, Cap True etc.

I have tried with Photosnspper with a 30days trial version .It captures the photshots automatically within a preset time and it would cost around 24USD.Also Gadwin in the trial version the screen shots are water marked but it also does a very fair Job.

Gadwin

Any one who wish to have an automated screen shot in their system shall always consider this. In the beta version it does the job Very well.

Want to down load Z screen.

Microsoft World Wide Telescope(WWT)-Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:52:00 +0000

I was just seeing the Microsoft world wide telescope equivalent to Microsoft Virtual earth and Google sky .I have installed in my system recently and had a tried the experience.

The system requirements are :

Intel Core 2 Duo chip running at 2GHz
1GB of RAM with 2GB recommended
Minimum hard disk space of 10GB recommended.
Was running with Vista or with XP SP2
GA (1024 x 768) or higher resolution monitor
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing and scrolling device
Microsoft® DirectX® version 9.0c and .NET Framework 2.0
Required for some features; Internet connection at 56 Kbps or higher through either an Internet service provider (ISP) or a network. Internet access might require a separate fee to an ISP; local or long-distance telephone charges might also apply

Required for some features; Internet connection at 56 Kbps or higher through either an Internet service provider (ISP) or a network. Internet access might require a separate fee to an ISP; local or long-distance telephone charges might also apply

Data from sources including the US space agency Nasa allows users to switch between views at different wavelengths and through different telescopes. Nasa contributed imagery from its Mars Rovers, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

MIND BLOWING

There are various varieties option to explore the sky like Nebula, Surveys Planets, Supernova, Star cluster, Galaxies, Black hole, cosmic events etc.It would be in depth, One way it shares the in depth knowledge of the research the humankind had done. But exploring that sky had given a very thrilling experience and it would always useful for the one who have passion for Astronomy or Astro physics .

In comparison to Google sky, Stellarium is an open source alternative to Microsoft's offering for Astronomers to glide through images of more than one million stars and 200 million galaxies.

Optional layers allow users to explore images from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as animations of lunar cycles.

Other applications have been available for longer.

For example, Stellarium is a free open source tool that gives people a chance to access more than 210 million stars, in addition to planets and moons. WorldWide Telescope the software allows users to record and play their own tours of the Universe.

I have done some experience but thrilled it is simply Awesome.

To down load World Wide telescope(WWT) click here.

RBI cuts repo rate by another 50 basis points and CRR by 100 basis points

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:09:00 +0000

It is a timely move that RBI did finally by reducing the repo rates by 50basis points and cut with CRR by 100 basis points effectively bring additional liquidity to the system by another Rs85000crore.

As the major impact was to real estate sector already the major real estate companies like Parsvanth developers have very openly sought that we don't require any bailout package from the government as they did for the aviation sector(extending credit terms) but we require only policy change like a steep cut in CRR and Repo rate cut to 5.5%.Also he had indicated that his organization will identify 15% of the non performers and retrench them which is inevitable.

The worst hit sector was real estate sector and the big players started feeling the heat and openly accepted the crisis in terms of liquidity.This move by the government would definitely boost the sentiments in the real estate sector.Inspite of the banks move on increasing the margin money for the Home loan from 20-25% and to maximum of 40% will not cause much impact.The good news is for the consumer in the personal,carloan and home loan segment could see the real benefit in the coming months.

Investing in stocks would be an attractive option, as the deposit interest will also come down in the future.It is a positive cue and definitely boost the sentiments of the stock market in the coming months.

Thanks to recession as the figure sequentially started falling down on the fourth week of October as the global commodity prices also falling down then it is a positive sign for the Indian economy.

The only one left out is the correction of the fuel prices ,there might be certain factors petroleum ministry might look into .One is the OPEC countries stopped producing 1.5 million barrels a day from November first onwards.Already crude price is highly fluctuating and impact on the decision of OPEC will reflect after one or 2 months.Moreover average price for the inventory built up over months is also a concern.

Though the crude price rules around $67 a barrel the oil marketing companies are still making a loss and the government is sharing the loss by way of subsidy.

Even then only pending action from the government is the reduction of the Petrol and diesel price.Once it is through we can see the substantial impact in the inflation index. Then it would definitely vouch the Indian economy is stronger.

AVG antivirus 8.0.175- a free down load

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 06:48:00 +0000

I have installed Nortan antivirus in my system but I haven't renewed last year .Hence, every time login to my Vista operated Laptop it would high light as a security threat.On this aspect we need to appreciate Vista because of it security features.

Hence, I was looking for some options then I come across the AVG antivirus software.It fairly does its job and it covers the basic security features.

As noted the interface of AVG Free has been improved and it is easier to see what protection AVG is providing and what needs attention via icons in the main part of the screen. Tabs along the left hand side give quick access to important information on updates and ongoing scans.

In addition to traditional antivirus protection, AVG Free now offers protection from Spyware without installing extra software.

An extra feature added with AVG 8 is the LinkScanner. Also available as a standalone download, LinkScanner works with Internet Explorer and Firefox to check links found in Google, Yahoo and MSN searches to make sure that there is no risk to clicking on the links. There is a slight delay as the pages are checked but it is worth the short wait in exchange for avoiding malicious (or hacked) sites.

Limitations:

Only a base level protection but doesn't protect the system from key loggers,spam phishing and malicious file down loads.
Doesn't scan the network drives and any connected server operating system
While updates any free version of AVG will be given less priority in support.

To download AVG antivirus click here, Size:49.4 MB