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Best jQuery Plugins of 2011

2011-12-08T12:02:00.000+08:00

jQuery was first released in 2006. Nearly 5 years later, it’s still going strong – due largely in part to the community that’s been built up around it. This community of developers constantly releases plugins that allow web developers to easily add amazing functionality to their projects.

Continuing our “Best of 2011? series, the focus this week is on jQuery plugins. Over the past eleven months we’ve seen a lot of great new plugins being released, which made choosing our favorites extremely difficult.

Isotope

Isotype is a jQuery plugin for creating dynamic and intelligent layouts. It also lets you reveal & hide items with filtering, re–order items with sorting – all done with captivating animations.

FitText

FitText makes font-sizes flexible. Use this plugin on your fluid or responsive layout to achieve scalable headlines that fill the width of a parent element.

FlexSlider

FlexSlider is an awesome, fully responsive jQuery slider plugin. In other words, it resizes to fit the screen on which it is displayed, and looks good doing it.

Sausage

Sausage is a jQuery UI widget for contextual pagination. It complements long or infinite-scrolling pages by keeping the user informed of her location within the document.

arbor.js

Arbor is a graph visualization library built with web workers and jQuery. Rather than trying to be an all-encompassing framework, arbor provides an efficient, force-directed layout algorithm plus abstractions for graph organization and screen refresh handling.

Mosaic

Mosaic automatically generates sliding boxes & captions, allows slide & fade animations with custom directions, and preloads images within boxes.

Supersized

Supersized is a fullscreen background slideshow built using the jQuery library.

Source : http://webdesignledger.com/resources/best-jquery-plugins-of-2011

Finding Your Passion in Web Design

2011-12-08T10:21:00.004+08:00

The youth is powering our digital age and they will control the future of our web. The position of freelance website designer seems lucrative and very enticing from the get-go. Set your own hours, work on whatever you want, get paid to work from home and learn as you go. What could be better?

Problems begin to arise when freelancers situate themselves in all markets and spread their techniques too thin. There is a subset of jobs in digital design and development which freelancers should focus into. It can provide huge benefits to master single areas in a market so expansive as the web.

Check out a few of the examples below and analyze your own skills. Try listing your objectives out to see what you think you’d be best at and where you’d need improvement. The drive from within to better yourself comes with the affection of a manageable task. In this case we’re considering the entire Web Design market.

Finding your Passion

Before considering what area of web design to pursue it’s important to spend some time thinking about this choice. Critically evaluate your current conditions and skill set. What task(s) do you enjoy the most in the creative process?

Ultimately there is a split seen generally between digital design and programming. The answer for which side you lean towards is already within you. Consider which activities you would rather be doing and try spending a few hours doing research.

Would you enjoy messing around in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator creating and editing graphics? Or maybe the task of creating an automated application library sounds more enticing. Look into the backend of both and try to feel that inner passion waiting to come out.

Web & Graphics Design

The market is larger than most of us conceive it to be. As a web designer you are required to complete a litany of additional work other than just “website design”. This includes logo and branding design, icons and graphics, wireframing and possibly Photoshop re-touches.

The path of a digital artist requires a large amount of concentration. It is recommended to attack one piece of software at a time and practice with 2-3 new tutorials every day. Recommended choices include:

Adobe Photoshop (standard web design, graphics, photo manipulation)
Adobe Illustrator (vector artwork, polishing logos/typography)
Adobe Flash (creative animations, slideshows, video and audio players)
Adobe Fireworks (icons, smaller graphics, wireframe templates)

This list was compiled under Adobe software, although there are other free alternatives. Adobe commands the digital software market and leads with a huge team of developers and innovators.

If you’d enjoy learning any of these programs but don’t have money for purchasing them you can download free 30-day demos. There are also classes taught among colleges and some private schools which have teachers show you the basics to working with these tools. Video tutorials are another option if they’re easier.

The quickest way to understand where your passion truly lies is to mess around in each one. There are countless tutorials online and most will offer project files as a free download. Pixel2life is a community of digital professionals who catalog and share unique tutorials on all of the software mentioned above, in addition to many other languages.

Paths as a Developer

Learning how to develop web applications tends to strike those interested in sciences and maths. Web development is nothing but converting ideas in plain language into a logical structure. This can be done in any programming language – PHP, Python, Ruby, C++ – and all ideas will scale beautifully among every language.

It will take some practice and requires a bit of headway to get started, but can be very rewarding. As a tip for getting started try writing out a list of flowing actions and steps for how your program will work. Write this so it’s easy to understand and very clear about what you’re trying to build.

From here you can start your favorite IDE and get coding. Breaking down tasks into smaller pieces makes programming simpler. Everything in life can be broken down into smaller steps and this holds especially true for logics-based programming. If this is a difficult task for you to understand or sounds boring, perhaps your path is better left towards design.

Backend v Frontend Coding

The appeal to programmers is how elegant the whole application creation process can be. There are only a limited number of ways to complete a task. Along with this there are an even smaller number of “correct” ways to implement a structure into a system set forth by documented best practices.

Those who enjoy finding the correct answer to problems will love the feeling of solving bug fixes and creating new backend libraries. These languages are used to house the code which runs in the background to display functionality to users.

Though to some backend code will look very convoluted and overly complex. Frontend development focuses on parsing languages. These include HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, along with any other environments which are parsed in the visitors web browser. The learning curve for building HTML/CSS layouts is extremely small. Most can pick up a book or follow a short tutorial series online and be creating websites within 5-7 days.

JavaScript development has also taken off and seen huge success through open source libraries such as jQuery and MooTools. Frontend developers used to cringe at creating large JS functions. The language is bloated and confusing to begin with, along with the choppy implementation of differing browsers.

Things have recently changed and I find JavaScript development to be some of the most exciting code I’ve written. Access to open frameworks allows for complicated Ajax effects to shorten into just a few function blocks. If you’re interested in user interface design and creating animations/page effects spend some time researching jQuery and JavaScript development.

We’ve examined both areas of web design and development, broken down individual tasks and even taken a small step towards defining individual job roles. Times are changing and these languages and software could be useless 5 years down the road. Keep up with changing times, there’s always more to learn.

The important thing to remember is every decision is just part of the process. Nobody became a professional web designer overnight. And nobody I know has managed to study and retain any programming language’s full discography in a night, either. Spend some time each day with projects that catch your interest and you’ll find that spark of inner passion much sooner than later.

Source : http://webdesignledger.com/tips/finding-your-passion-in-web-design

Jake Rocheleau is a social media enthusiast and Internet entrepreneur. He can be followed on twitter - @jakerocheleau His presence on the web can be found atJakeRocheleau.com.

How to Get Money from Founders Fund

2011-12-08T10:06:00.003+08:00

By Courtney Rubin

Partner Bruce Gibney talks about what's hot, Facebook, and why Monday morning meetings aren't necessary.

Founders Fund, investors in Facebook and Space X, last week announced it had raised $625 million for its fourth fund, larger than the first three funds combined. Want some of their money? A promising robotics idea could help.

"We'll be looking at that [space] more in the next five years," partner Bruce Gibney told Private Equity Hub. There's been relatively few promising robotics companies until now, he said, "but people are becoming more commercially disciplined–they're taking it seriously now as a business rather than as a science project."

The fund, founded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, is also interested in artificial intelligence, which it currently has three companies in stealth mode.

How does the six-year-old fund make decisions about its investments?

Unlike most venture capital firms, not at Monday morning meetings.

"We’re just highly skeptical about most traditional decision-making models, which we think are focused on process and not results," Gibney said. "At most venture firms, you have to be at Monday meetings, when maybe you should be meeting with a great company. Everyone has to talk for roughly the same amount of time. And there’s this strange pressure to approve someone’s deal, even if you’re skeptical of it, because you want to get your own deal approved. We think [that approach] doesn’t produce particularly good results."

Gibney noted that Founders Fund partners don't need regular Monday meetings because they have similar hobbies and overlapping social lives. For example, partner Ken Howery was Gibney's college roommate and Howery now lives with Luke Nosek, another partner.

But the larger the deal–initial investments tend to range from $500,000 to $5 million–the more consensus is required. "And we seem to achieve consensus on all our significant deals," Gibney said. "Those on which we all agree tend to be the best, too," he said.

Gibney also explained how the fund's investment in Facebook stacked up against its principle of backing entrepreneurs doing valuable work.

He pointed out that in 2004, Facebook was not an obvious investment candidate.

"It wasn't clear that social networking would be important or big or could even work technologically," he said.

Friendster, which the fund also invested in, became slower as it became more popular, he noted. "It turned out that managing these connections was computationally complex," Gibney said. "[Figuring that out] was something that we think was important and quite valuable and in that way, it fits in with our core thesis.

Source : http://www.inc.com/courtney-rubin/how-to-get-founders-fund-backing.html

Courtney Rubin

Inc. contributing editor Courtney Rubin was for five years a London-based staff writer for People magazine. She has reported stories on six continents, in countries including Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Rubin, a former senior writer for Washingtonian magazine, has written for the New York Times magazine, Time, Marie Claire, The Guardian and other publications. She is the author of The Weight-Loss Diaries(McGraw-Hill, 2004).

Solution to Contacts Appearing Offline on Windows Live Messenger 2011

2011-12-07T12:47:00.003+08:00

Pic Source by : www.computertipsfree.com

Sign out and exit MSN 2011
Head to Control Panel >> Programs >> Programs and Features >> Choose Windows Live Essentials 2011 and click on Uninstall/Change, Finally in the popup window, choose Repair All Windows Live Programs.
Go to C:\Users\WINUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft . Delete the Windows Live Contacts folder
Go to C:\Users\WINUSERNAME\ delete the Contacts folder
If after signing in the problem persists go to C:\Users\WINUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Messenger . Backup the entire folder yourmsnuser@hotmail.com and then proceed to delete it. If you have emoticons and display pictures you will then be able to restore them from the backup.

Source : http://msnmessengertips.com/contacts-appear-offline-windows-live-messenger-2011/

How to Install Ubuntu as a dual-boot with Windows without Any Partitioning

2011-12-07T12:36:00.003+08:00

You may install Ubuntu operating system on your computer without any partitioning of your hard disk. These is a way by which you can install Ubuntu as a dual-boot with Windows without any partitioning. If you install Ubuntu in this way, you don't have to worry about partitioning. Many Windows user fear to partition their hard disk but wish to use Ubuntu. But they fear to partition and data loss. But you don't need to fear about data loss. Ubutunt offers you a great way to install Ubuntu in your computer beside Windows operating system. Moreover, you may delete Ubuntu form your computer easily. You just uninstall Ubuntu and that's all. This page provides you the information about installing Ubuntu as a dual-boot with Windows without partitioning.

Steps to install Ubuntu as a dual-boot with Windows without partitioning

Follow the following steps to install Ubuntu as a dual-boot with Windows without partitioning:

At first, insert Ubuntu CD/DVD in your computer CD/DVD ROM. Now, the cd will be automatically run. If you don't find that pop-up window or the CD does not run automatically, find the autorun file on the CD through Microsoft Windows Explorer and double-click on autorun.

You will see the Ubuntu CD Menu with three options. Choose the option Install inside Windows.

Now, you have to select a drive which has much space to install Ubuntu. For example, you want to install in C drive as in a folder. So, you have to select and fill several fields. Change the following things to setup Ubuntu:

Select the drive from Installation Drive drop-down menu to install Ubuntu.
Select the disk size to install Ubuntu by selecting the Installation Size drop-down menu.
Select the Language as you like to install Ubuntu on your computer from theLanguage drop-down menu.
Give the username and password by which you want to login your computer in the Username and Password field.

After finishing the above steps, click on Install button.

Very soon Ubuntu installation will be started. It may take 7 to 20 minutes to install Ubuntu on your computer.

After finished installing, a window will appeared which will confirmed you that Ubuntu installation is completed. Now, it needs restart to your computer. ClickReboot now and then click on Finish button.

At last the Ubuntu CD will be ejected automatically and you will see the dual-boot menu. You will see like the following menu:

Please select the operating system to start:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Ubuntu

Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice. Press ENTER to choose.

For troubleshooting and advanced startup options for Windows, press F8.

Choose Ubuntu from there and very soon Ubuntu will start. Now, login to your computer by using username and password.

That's all. In this way, you can easily install Ubuntu as a dual-boot with Windows without partitioning .

Source:http://rancidtaste.hubpages.com/hub/Install-Ubuntu-as-a-dual-boot-with-Windows-without-partitioning-How-to-Install-Ubuntu-without-Any-Partitioning

How i met your mother season 7 episode 12 - Symphony of Illumination.. check it out.!!

2011-12-06T11:07:00.004+08:00

When Robin receives bad news, she decides to lie about it to the gang.

Meanwhile, Marshall hangs Christmas decorations on the house in the â burbs

with help from his neighbor

Trailer :

Download Link:

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4103681615/How.I.Met.Your.Mother.S07E12.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION.mkv
http://fileserve.com/file/8KJu5yN/How.I.Met.Your.Mother.S07E12.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION.mkv
http://depositfiles.com/files/ggvwsjaq1/How.I.Met.Your.Mother.S07E12.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION.mkv
http://filejungle.com/f/9snk5u/How.I.Met.Your.Mother.S07E12.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION.mkv
http://wupload.com/file/2607354597/How.I.Met.Your.Mother.S07E12.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION.mkv

Siri Alternative Apps For Android

2011-12-06T10:56:00.001+08:00

The fifth generation of the iPhone, named iPhone 4S, has already been released with its exclusive feature: an awesome voice assistant named “Siri”. If you have not ‘converted’ by now, you’ve probably decided a long time ago that you love your Android phone too much to cross over.

Well, the fact is that if Siri is the edge that the iPhone 4S can give to its fans, Apple will probably need to work harder for the iPhone 5, as there are just too many Siri alternatives for Android, and we’re gonna feature 10 of them in this particular post.

The assistants featured here will be able to voice dial, send text and emails, search information on web, update social media status, manage contacts and reminders, check in with Foursquare, find local shops, etc. Oh, one more thing: 9 of them are even free! So choose your favorite today to make your Android become your best assistant!

Vlingo Virtual Assistant

Vlingo Virtual Assistant will complete whatever action you’ve told it to do and it is highly recommended by most Android users. Some even claim that Vlingo is more powerful than Siri in term of usability, capability, accuracy and speed.

As a full-fledged assistant, it can voice dial, get directions, open apps, send text and emails, search the web, find local shops, buy movie tickets and book hotel rooms, update Facebook or Twitter status, check in with foursquare, etc. Pretty much everything you need! (Free)

Speaktoit Assistant

Speaktoit Assistant is a brilliant voice assistant for your Android device. It understands (almost) everything you say as voice commands and responds to it accordingly.

The assistant is able to help you to get maps, send email, launch apps, find information and news, look up weather reports, dial, text and email friend from contacts and even connect with various services like Twitter and Facebook. (Free)

Voice Actions

Voice Actions is an awesome app which enables Android users to command their phones via voice commands with Google’s PHENOMENAL Speech Recognition. You can simply start a conversation with Voice Actions by sending voice command and ask any question.

With the voice command, it’s able to play music, launch browser, painting, send text messages and emails, voice dial your contacts, open favorites and recent contacts, set alarms and reminders, search Ebay, Amazon and Wolfram, control Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, volume etc. (Free)

EVA Intern

EVA lets you control Android phone with natural language. It’s using text-to-speech technology and voice recognition to turn your phone into a completely hands-free powerful device. The coolest part is – you can activate EVA by just shaking your phone.

Its features include making memos, calls, expense reports, getting basic stock quotes, announcing incoming calls, mapping addresses and locations, posting on Facebook, starting applications, loading web pages or bookmarks, managing contacts, contact groups, lists, calendar, etc. (Free)

Edwin, Speech-To-Speech

Edwin is a speech recognition app for Android phone. It requires SpeechSynthesis Data and TTS Extended apps to be installed. The translate function is fun. It’s a must-try Android voice utility.

The assistant is also equipped with solid features like tweeting, SMS, search, date and time management, translation, weather forecast, calls, application launcher, etc. (Free)

Cyberon Voice Commander (UK)

Cyberon Voice Commander allows communication between people and Android phones through voice. It lets you control phone without even using hands (for Android 2.2 and above) and eyes.

Cyberon Voice Commander allows you to say commands like “call contact“, “digit dial”, “redial” or “callback”, “call history”, “find contact“, “start application“, etc. ($5.99)

Hands-Free Voice Dialer

Hands-Free Voice Dialer is the ideal Siri alternative for virtual voice assistant. You can just speak any command naturally and it will reply with a confirmation before it executes the given command.

This version allows you to make voice commands like “Call Jim Harris at mobile”, “Next song”, “Shuffle play music”, “Find contact for Ed Bly”, “Send a text to Jay Snow”, and “Set my Facebook status”. (Free)

TopVoiceControl

An amazing free voice assistant app for Android with text-to-speech feature. It has a very user-friendly interface to show all the commands you can speak to Android phone.

Features include number dialing, application launcher, service enabler, text-to-speech and acting without key-pressing when only 1 recognition result is available. (Free)

Sonalight Text By Voice

Text by Voice turns your Android phone to a hands-free and eyes-free device through speech recognition. It reads incoming SMS aloud and you can simply reply a text message just by voice. (Free)

PhoneVoice

PhoneVoice is a text-to-speech utility for Android phone which is able to send you notification in voice form for incoming calls and SMS. Useful for people who are driving, on meeting, having important appointment or doing work. (Free)

Source :

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/siri-alternative-android-applications/

Author: Kay

Kay is a tech-savvy and a regular writer at Hongkiat.com. He also maintains K-Director technology blog. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Advised Hack Brings Siri to Jailbroken iPhone 4

2011-12-06T10:40:00.002+08:00

By Christina Bonnington

A new hack delivers the Siri digital assistant to jailbroken iPhone 4 units, but we advise would-be tinkerers to think long and hard before acting on the invasive software surgery. You might think you know your way around an iPhone hack, but this one has trouble written all over it.

This downloadable version of Siri, called H1Siri, is available in the Cydia app store. The language accompanying the 100MB file claims to provide full Siri functionality on GSM or CDMA iPhone 4 units running iOS 5 or 5.0.1. However, this particular exploit seems like bad news for a number of reasons.

First, it’s illegal. The guys at iDownloadBlog were able to confirm this because the hack uses copyrighted binaries from the iPhone 4S.

Second, your Siri requests won’t go through Apple’s servers with this version of Siri — instead, they’ll go through the servers of the Chinese hacking team that developed the exploit. What’s more, CD-Dev Team, the group behind the hack, has confirmed that their servers are currently down, so even if you did download H1Siri, it may not work.

iDownloadBlog was not able to get the hack to work, but did hear from others who had gotten it to work “in short bursts.”

Doesn’t really seem worth the effort, if you ask Gadget Lab.

Hackers the world over are trying to bring Siri to iOS devices other than the iPhone 4S. They’ve had varied success, primarily stemming from the fact that Siri interacts with Apple’s own servers, and each bit of data that’s sent to those servers bears markers that identify the request as coming from an iPhone 4S. If your request doesn’t include that unique 4S identifier, you’re out of luck.

One of the most successful Siri hacking attempts thus far comes from a French team at Applidium, but the blog post detailing the hack seems to have been removed. Another hacker, Pete Lamonica, was able to use Applidium’s instructions to hack Siri to control a thermostat, while another developer then used Lamonica’s method to start and unlock his car. Both of the latter two cases still used an iPhone 4S, it must be noted, and simply hacked Siri’s capabilities, and not her host hardware.

Lamonica tweeted this morning that he would be investigating H1Siri, but didn’t recommend others interacting with a third-party-managed Siri server.

iPhone hacker Grant Paul also tweeted reservations about the hack. “Please note: if you use a proxy to access Siri, you may be sending your Email, SMS, Calendar, Contacts, Location, etc though that server,” Paul said.

Besides all that, jailbreaking itself isn’t necessarily a good idea.

Apple’s official statement from spokesperson Natalie Harrison on jailbreaking is thus:

“Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”

Apple provides more details on its stance regarding jailbreaking iOS devices in a 2010 post on Apple’s support forums. Apple says jailbreaking can lead to app and device instability, compromised security and a shortened battery life, among other things.

So proceed with caution if you must, but I think this hack is one best left to observing via YouTube.

Source : http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/siri-hack-bad-idea/

Christina is a Wired.com staff writer covering Apple, robotics, and everything in between. She's also written for Gizmodo and Wired magazine. Check out her Google+ profile here.
Follow @redgirlsays and @gadgetlab on Twitter.

5 Cloud Names That Could Be Part of M&A Wave

2011-12-06T10:32:00.001+08:00

Cloud computing is shaping the information technology sector in a very drastic way, and companies are willing to pay dearly for the growth in this area.

SAP (SAP) signaled that it wanted to expand its offerings in this space, by acquiring SuccessFactors (SFSF) at $40 a share, a significant premium to the stock’s closing price on Friday.

SuccessFactor’s board already has approved the transaction, and it will be funded by existing cash on hand and a &8364;1 billion term loan facility. Both companies expect the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2012, and it is expected to be slightly dilutive to SAP’s 2012 earnings. It will be accretive in subsequent years.

SAP has recognized that it needs additional exposure to its cloud computing offerings, and management believes adding the fast growing SuccessFactors is a solid choice.

SuccessFactors is growing exceptionally fast, with revenue rising 77% year over year in the third quarter of 2011, and 59% in the first nine months of the year. SuccessFactors has one of the largest scale of paying users, with more than 15 million subscription seats. It also has more than 3,500 customers in 168 countries.

With such a heavy premium being paid for SuccessFactors, SAP sees the potential for cloud computing, particularly through its core applications and analytics offerings. Bill McDermott, co-CEO of SAP, believes the two companies “will create tremendous business value for customers, with potent synergies to accelerate our growth in the cloud.”

Deutsche Bank (DB) says there may be a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the space, as the SAP deal and the Oracle (ORCL) deal to buy RightNow Technologies (RNOW) could signal “a sign that large companies are feeling confident about current macro conditions and are willing to put cash to use in acquisitions.”

With such a large premium being paid for SuccessFactors, it brings renewed interest in the space. Acquisitions in certain sectors tend to happen in bunches, as executive teams see the need to compete with rivals. Microsoft(MSFT), IBM (IBM) and other large technology companies have made it a priority to continue growing cloud computing revenue. Specifically, IBM has said that it wants to have $7 billion worth of revenue from cloud computing by 2015.

Here are five names that might be part of the cloud M&A wave.

1. Citrix Systems (CTXS)

Citrix Systems is another cloud computing name that has been rumored to be a takeover candidate. The company is known for its “GoToMeeting” application, which allows users to remotely access meetings from wherever in the world. It also offers a host of other “GoTo” products, including “GoToMyPc”, which allows a customer remote access to his Mac and PC from any Internet-based computer. Shares trade at 25 times projected 2012 earnings, and have returned 3.5% year to date.

2. Taleo (TLEO)

Another name to consider name to consider off is Taleo. Like SuccessFactors, Taleo is another human capital management (HCM) company. Shares are moving higher on the acquisition, and Raymond James (RJ) analyst Terry Tillman says the company could see some action.

Tillman wrote: “Our sense is the initial stock reaction for various publicly-traded HCM names is positive given a likely belief that a domino effect will occur whereby other leading software companies look to buy assets in this space in order to thwart SAP’s move.” Stifel Nicolaus noted in an analyst report that Taleo is “an interesting acquisition target given its mid-teens operating margins, larger size compared to other players and focus on larger enterprises with a direct sales force.” Shares trade at 29 times projected earnings, and have returned 19.2% year to date.

3. Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD)

Tillman also mentioned Cornerstone OnDemand as a potential name to watch, as information technology companies see “increasing pressures around building scale and delivering on a suite strategy in the space.” Cornerstone OnDemand is one of the smaller players in the space, with a market capitalization of just $727 million. The company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) includes a series of products geared towards learning and talent management solutions. Shares have lost almost 15% year to date.

Deutsche Bank’s Tom Ernst Jr. agreed, saying this could spark a wave of consolidation.

4. Ultimate Software Group (ULTI)

He mentioned Ultimate Software Group in a research note as a potential name to consider among publicly traded HCM companies, in light of the SAP-Successfactors acquisition. Shares are sitting near their 52-week high, and have returned almost 33% year to date. Revenue has grown by 18.8 year over year, and shares trade at a forward multiple of 62 times projected 2012 earnings.

5. NetSuite (N)

One last name to consider as a potential acquisition target is NetSuite. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is a majority owner in the company, and the company operates in the SaaS market. The company provides products that help companies with their suite of applications, including accounting, customer relationship management, professional services automation, and e-commerce. Shares have returned 72.4% year to date, but trade at 2105 times projected 2012 earnings.

Source : http://www.forbes.com/sites/thestreet/2011/12/05/5-cloud-names-that-could-be-part-of-ma-wave/2/

By:Christopher Ciaccia, technology writer at TheStreet

'Counter-Strike: Global Offensive' Heading to Consoles in 2012

2011-12-05T10:19:00.002+08:00

The popular first person shooter is headed to consoles in new-and-improved form in 2012.

I’ve played a ton of video games, but if I had to choose I’d have to say that no other first-person-shooter even comes close to Counter-Strike: Source. It’s the perfect game. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine how Valve could improve upon it at all.

But the Bellevue, Washington based game maker is going to try. In 2012 Valve will release an updated version of the popular online shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, or CS GO, not just to PC but also to Xbox 360 and PS3.

Judging by the below video, not a whole lot has changed – which isn’t a bad thing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it isn’t a terrible motto when it comes to games like Counter-Strike, which have enormous followings and a serious mod community to keep things fresh.

The user interface and many of the maps are going to see some minor tweaks, and graphics will be updated (though not a ton apparently.) But the major change is the release to consoles. Will the game-play translate to Xbox 360 and PS3? Obviously there are many schools of thought when it comes to shooters. Plenty of people swear by mouse-and-keyboard. Others attest to the incomparable power of the console controller. Either way, I’m pretty sure the game will work just fine ported over to the consoles.

Now Valve just needs to send me a beta download code and all will be good and right with the universe.

Source : http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/12/02/counter-strike-global-offensive-heading-to-consoles-in-2012/

BlackBerry Playbook costing RIM $485 million

2011-12-05T10:10:00.001+08:00

By Christina Bonnington, wired.com

RIM can’t catch a break. Not only is the company coping with dismal PlayBook tablet sales, it’s also taking a near half-billion-dollar hit for sitting inventory that must now be sold at rock-bottom prices.

RIM announced on Friday that the company wouldn’t be meeting its financial targets for the year, primarily due to the unsuccessful performance of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. It pushed 150,000 units this quarter, compared with 250,000 last quarter, and 500,000 in the first quarter of the year.

The company is offering the troubled tablet for dramatically discounted prices through Dec. 3. Prices were slashed $300 across the product line-up, and quickly sold out at retailers like Best Buy by last week’s Black Friday. Nonetheless, RIM announced today that it’s recognizing “a pre-tax provision in the third quarter of fiscal 2012 of approximately $485 million, $360 million after tax, related to its inventory valuation of BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.”

Quick to note an “increase in demand,” RIM’s co-CEO Mike Lazaridis offered up continued support for the tablet.

“RIM is committed to the BlackBerry PlayBook and believes the tablet market is still in its infancy,” he said in today’s press release. “Although a number of factors have led to the need for an inventory provision in the third quarter, we believe the PlayBook, which will be further enhanced with the upcoming PlayBook OS 2.0 software, is a compelling tablet for consumers that also offers unique security and manageability features for the enterprise.”

RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook jumped on the tablet trend a bit prematurely. The device had a number of software issues right out of the gate, most notably problems with Flash content. It garnered lackluster reviews that led to a limited distribution network as carriers like Sprint opted not to sell the device.

And no, RIM’s PR troubles don’t end with substantial loss warnings. In a microcosmic example of adding insult to injury, a couple of its employees just sparked an international incident.

The pair of RIM employees on a non-stop, Beijing-bound flight knocked back a few too many drinks and started misbehaving so badly that the plane turned around and dropped them off in Vancouver. Due to industry regulations regarding the number of hours a flight staff can work, the flight, which originated in Montreal, was grounded for 18 hours and its 314 passengers were put up in hotels for the night.

The two RIM employees were arrested for their behavior, and have to pay Air Canada a fine of $35,878 each. They’re also on one-year probation from flying Air Canada, and are suspended from RIM pending further investigation.

Source : http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/12/rims-troubles-continue-blackberry-playbook-costing-company-485-million.ars

Wikileaks reveal that governments use malware for surveillance

2011-12-02T10:25:00.001+08:00

By Ryan Paul

The latest round of documents published by Wikileaks offers a rare glimpse into the world of surveillance products. The collection—which Wikileaks calls the Spy Files—includes confidential brochures and slide presentations that companies use to market intrusive surveillance tools to governments and law enforcement agencies.

A report that Wikileaks published alongside the documents raises concern about the growing use use of mass surveillance tools that indiscriminately monitor and analyze entire populations. The group also points out that some of products described in the documents are sold to authoritarian regimes, which use them to hunt and track political dissidents.

The details revealed by Wikileaks echo a recent report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that discussed the surveillance industry. The publication analyzed approximately 200 documents from 36 separate companies as part of a special investigative project called The Surveillance Catalog. The material released by Wikileaks corroborates much of what the WSJ reported, but includes a broader range of material.

The documents published by Wikileaks include 287 files that describe products from 160 companies. The group says that these files are only the first set of a larger collection and that more will be published in the future. The project is being carried out in collaboration with activist groups such as Privacy International and press organizations such as the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Washington Post.

"[The surveillance industry] is, in practice, unregulated. Intelligence agencies, military forces, and police authorities are able to silently, and on mass, and [sic] secretly intercept calls and take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers," wrote Wikileaks in its report. "In the last ten years systems for indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm."

Surveillance products revealed in the Spy Files cover a wide range of different communication technologies. Many are designed to circumvent standard privacy and security safeguards in mainstream consumer technology products so that they can collect as much data as possible. Some are even deliberately programmed to operate like malware.

One example of commercial malware designed to aid criminal investigations is DigiTask's remote forensic software, which is described in a confidential slide presentation that Wikileaks included in its document collection. DigiTask is a German company that characterizes itself as a market leader in building special telecommunications systems for law enforcement agencies. The company promises that its software—which is designed to work on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and some smartphones—can circumvent SSL encryption by intercepting the keys on the local system.

The software will capture the content of encrypted communications—including instant messaging conversations, e-mails, and the user's Web activity—and will relay the data to the party conducting surveillance. The software also includes key logging, remote file access, and has the ability to capture screenshots. The company cites "zero day exploits" and "social engineering" in a bulleted list of ways that its remote forensic software can be installed on the computer of a surveillance target.

Source : http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/12/wikileaks-docs-reveal-that-governments-use-malware-for-surveillance.ars

Google: The New Online Shipping King

2011-12-02T10:21:00.002+08:00

Google is reportedly creating a service that would offer cheap, fast shipping. Online retailers can’t wait to sign up.

In a salvo against Amazon.com’s Prime membership, Google is preparing to partner with online retailers to create a low-cost shipping service, according to The Wall Street Journal. So far, Google has reached out only to big businesses, such as Macy’s, Gap, and Office Max. “Numerous” others are said to be interested, and Google hopes to launch a pilot of the new service in the San Francisco area sometime next year.

To use the service, a customer would place their order on a retailer’s website, then choose a Google option for same-day or possibly next-day delivery. Google would not sell items directly to customers. Instead, it would manage the shipping logistics, partnering with United Parcel Service and other local services.

Amazon’s Prime membership costs $79 a year and offers free two-day delivery and a reduced price on next-day delivery to subscribers. In the past year, Amazon has expanded its members’ perks, including a free Netflix-like video stream. It’s also encouraged customers to search for products directly on Amazon, instead of using a Google search.

Prime’s popularity has raised the bar for online shipping, since many web business’ shipping options often ‘pale in comparison,’ The Journal notes.

Source : http://daily.inc.com/2011/12/01/google-the-new-online-shipping-king/

Worldwide Browser Market Share

2011-12-02T10:16:00.001+08:00

By Peter Bright

Microsoft's browser gained a fraction, 0.01 points, for a total desktop share of 52.64 percent. Firefox dropped 0.37 points, for a share of 22.14 percent. Chrome gained 0.56 points, standing at 17.62 percent. Safari is down 0.43 points to 5.00 percent. Opera's share was essentially unchanged, down 0.01 points to 1.55 percent.

All in all, an unusual month. Chrome continues to be the only steady climber, but in November, its gains appeared to come at the expense of Firefox and Safari. Google's browser has been gaining at a rate of about half a point to a point each month, with no signs of slowing down. With Firefox treading water at best, and declining at worst, Chrome should overtake the Mozilla browser within the next four to six months.

Further evidence of this transition comes from StatCounter. StatCounter counts raw pageviews rather than making any attempt to gauge the number of users, so its numbers are not directly comparable to the Net Market Share figures we use. However, they are still instructive: in November, global traffic from Chrome overtook traffic from Firefox for the first time ever.

The mobile browser market continues to show substantial volatility. Safari and Opera Mini appeared to trade about 7 points—with Apple the loser in that transaction. The Android browser also declined. More surprisingly, Symbian and BlackBerry OS's browsers both saw growth, up 0.48 and 0.73 points, respectively.

Aggregating across both mobile and desktop markets, Internet Explorer's market share did still fall: mobile browsing grew during November, and this was enough to offset that tiny 0.01 point gain.

The version breakdowns for Chrome and Firefox follow the same pattern as has been seen over the past several months. Chrome's automatic upgrading is working well for most users, albeit with a slowly growing tail of non-upgraders.

Firefox's users are having a much harder time of things. Mozilla's failure to provide a robust automatic update process and refusal to force extensions to use a fixed, consistent programmatic interface means that upgrading requires manual intervention, and stands a good chance of breaking extensions. As a result, its rapid releases aren't showing the same clean cut overs and high adoption that Chrome achieves.

Internet Explorer's version breakdown is quite astonishing. The drops in both Internet Explorer 7 and 8, and gains by Internet Explorer 9, are consistent with recent history. The gain by Internet Explorer 6, however, is not. That browser's share has grown, from 7.5 percent to 8.33. This 0.83 point gain is more than even Internet Explorer 9 managed; that added only 0.47 points to its share in November.

Without Internet Explorer 6's gains, Redmond's browser would have lost share this month. While Microsoft is no doubt pleased that its downward slide has been halted—at least for November—the manner in which it has done so should temper that pleasure.

Here at Ars, Internet Explorer and Chrome both gained; Safari and Firefox both fell. Among mobile browsers, Android is closing the gap with Safari.

Source : http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/12/internet-explorer-stops-its-slide-as-chrome-nears-firefox.ars

Apple Blames Glitch for Siri’s Anti-Abortion Bias

2011-12-02T10:05:00.005+08:00

By Christina Bonnington

With a calming voice and no dearth of sassy responses, voice-controlled digital assistant Siri charmed the masses when the iPhone 4S first launched. Over the last week, however, it seems as if she’s gone political on us.

If you ask Siri where the nearest good Italian food joint is, she’ll return an array of tasty results. But try something like “Where can I find an abortion clinic?” and the virtual personal assistant directs you to Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) websites. CPCs do not provide abortion services, they instead advise women considering abortion to go through with their pregnancies. Often, when CPCs showed up in results, they were also far from the user’s location.

Breaking its usual vow of media silence, Apple said that this search anomaly was unintentional.

“Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn’t always find what you want,” Apple representative Natalie Kerris told the NY Times Wednesday evening. “These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks.”

Which makes a certain amount of sense. Siri doesn’t understand a lot of things. Some of the topics she best understands are those that make use of integrated third-party services, like Yelp and WolframAlpha. According to TUAW, the relationship with Yelp is why a specific search for “Planned Parenthood” works, but one for an “abortion clinic” does not.

But with Apple’s firm stance on issues like pornography, many people jumped on the conclusion that Apple was pushing its moral and political agenda on iOS users. The ACLU has even set up a petition to fix the apparent stance of Siri.

Some developers that I spoke with felt that the search results were an oversight on the part of developers. Web developer Ernst Schoen-Rene thought it likely that the majority of Siri’s programmers were male, and “they were trying to come up with some answers to searches that Siri didn’t handle organically.” When they made their dictionary of terms, women’s issues just didn’t come to mind. Thus, the results for those words are less than optimal.

Others, like software developer Al Sweigart, felt that Siri could have returned these crisis pregnancy center results completely unintentionally and disinterestedly. Whatever search algorithm Siri does use to return results, Sweigart felt that it’s possible that the CPC-laden results stem from tricky SEO tactics used by web sites trying to game the search engine.

Source : http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/siri-results-unintentional/

Introducing the new Google bar

2011-12-02T10:01:00.001+08:00

A new Google bar helps you navigate quickly between products, and share the right stuff with the right people easily on Google+.

Web Designers Forum that you Shouldn’t Missed

2011-12-01T11:42:00.002+08:00

Photo source: www.orphicpixel.com

Whether you hit a design block, encounter technical difficulties in terms of HTML / CSS / Javascripts, in the search for open source scripts or simply just seeking for design feedbacks; you probably should be looking for a site where people of the same interest gathers – forum.

As a designer-cum-developer I find myself visiting forums quite frequent, not to chat but rather to check out what’s new, what’s in trend or the hottest topics discussed. Participating in forums discussion not only allows you to share your interest and techniques with fellow peers, but as well as mutually gaining in terms of skills and knowledge. Here’s a list of forums I’ve come across or been really active in. Full list after jump.

Digital Point – HTML Web Design

One of the biggest webmaster communities online.

Web Design Forum.Net

Get your web design and development questions answered.

CSS Chat

CSS & Web design forum.

Designers Talk

Web design forums for designers to website design.

Estetica Design Forum

Graphic design forum and web design forum.

Freelance Gossip

Webmaster Forum – Web Design and Development – SEO – Freelance.

Graphic Design Forum

HTML Forum

Free webmaster HTML help and discussions.

Kirupa Forum

Shocked resource for making designers better developers.

Open Web Design

Site Point

Resources, Design, HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, MySQL and more for your web site.

Web Designer Forum (UK)

Web Design CSS Forum free Design Templates for Web Designers and Developers.

Web Design Forum

Web Design Forum , Website Hosting, Web Development Templates Discussion.

Webdigity

Resources, web design, php, internet marketing.

Webforumz

Web design and development forum.

Webmaster Talk

Web design, coding, SEO.

Wtricks

Discuss about web design and development, read good tutorials and get free downloads.

TalkFreelance

Freelance Webmaster, Web Design & SEO community.

Source : http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/17-forums-web-designers-shouldnt-missed/

Researchers find big leaks in pre-installed Android apps

2011-12-01T10:51:00.003+08:00

Researchers at North Carolina State University have uncovered a variety of vulnerabilities in the standard configurations of popular Android smartphones from Motorola, HTC, and Samsung, finding that they don't properly protect privileged permissions from untrusted applications. In a paper just published by researchers Michael Grace, Yajin Zhou, Zhi Wang, and Xuxian Jiang, the four outlined how the vulnerabilities could be used by an untrusted application to send SMS messages, record conversations, or even wipe all user data from the handset without needing the user's permission.

The researchers evaluated the security of eight phones: the HTC Legend, EVO 4G, and Wildfire S; the Motorola Droid and Droid X; the Samsung Epic 4G; and the Google Nexus One and Nexus S. While the reference implementations of Android used on Google's handsets had relatively minor security issues, the researchers were "surprised to find out these stock phone images [on the devices tested] do not properly enforce [Android's] permission-based security model." The team shared the results with Google and handset vendors, and have received confirmation of the vulnerabilities from Google and Motorola. However, the researchers have "experienced major difficulties" in trying to report issues to HTC and Samsung.

Using a software tool they developed, called Woodpecker, the NC State team analyzed each pre-loaded application on the phone, probing for "capability leaks"—sensitive application and operating system privileges left exposed to other applications in ways that would allow them to be accessed by a malicious app without requesting permission from the device user.

The leaks they found fell into two categories: "explicit" capability leaks that allow applications to exploit a public interface or service of another app without making a permission request, and "implicit" leaks that allow other applications to inherit permissions from another application signed with the same digital certificate (this allows applications from the same developer to automatically interact with each other). The explicit leaks pose a serious security leak, while implicit leaks could "misrepresent the capabilities available to an app," but were not as serious a problem.

They focused on 13 pieces of Android phones that deal with potentially sensitive user information or phone capabilities—such as geo-location, access to address books, and sending SMS messages. Across all of the phones, the researchers found 11 of these 13 privileged permissions were explicitly leaked by pre-installed apps. The worst offender was the HTC Evo 4G, which was discovered to have eight explicit leaks.

By exploiting these leaks, the researchers found "an untrusted app on these affected phones can manage to wipe out the user data on the phones, send out SMS messages (e.g., to premium numbers), record user conversation, or obtain user geo-locations—all without asking for any permission."

The survey only focused on pre-installed apps on these phones. It's possible that additional vulnerabilities could be exposed by legitimate apps added to Android phones, and, as the researchers point out, it would be difficult to assess the vulnerability of applications purchased through app stores because the stores don't list the permissions used by the apps. But pre-installed apps remain the biggest potential target for attackers since they have the largest installed base.

By Sean Gallagher

Source : http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/researchers-find-big-leaks-in-pre-installed-android-apps.ars

What is Cloud Computing?

2011-11-30T12:15:00.005+08:00

Recently i found a great video that describes What is Cloud Computing , What is Cloud server ?
the answer is inside the Video.. enjoy it.. :D

And these are the difference Among Cloud server and Virtual Private Server and Dedicated server

Cloud hosting offers many advantages over normal VPS or Semi-Dedicated server hosting services due to the number of servers that are being used for a single cluster, and if you or your business rely greatly on your website, Cloud hosting is the best suitable option for you. The enhanced architecture powering Cloud hosting solution utilize groups of high specification servers, network attached storage devices to reliably serve every web page, and image of a website. Inside each storage device, drives are replicated to each other in a RAID configuration to create a first level of redundancy.

With Virtual Private server, you will not get guaranteed resources that you will pay for, which means other user of the VPS node could squeeze in on your allotted resources but this is not case with Cloud server, you will get the guaranteed amount of resources you are paying for and it's always available when you need them. In addition to all these features, you will also get the ability to customize the resources of Cloud server anytime. VPS is not at all reliable when compared to Cloud server because VPS is based on software virtualization platform. Each platform of servers have their merits and demerits but here there are no demerits of Cloud server, so now it depends on you whether to choose VPS or Cloud server after understanding the needs and the service that you are looking.

While cloud hosting is starting to gain momentum, dedicated servers have been the backbone of hosting for years. Dedicated servers are ideal for websites that demand a high level of disk space and bandwidth, as well as businesses that need flexibility and customization in their servers. Unlike cloud hosting, dedicated servers reside in only one physical location.

With dedicated server hosting, a server is leased by the individual client and not shared with any other users. Dedicated hosting offers extreme flexibility, since none of the hardware or software is shared, allowing the end user to have ultimate control over features, such as software and the preferred operating system. The hosting company can also provide maintenance of the server, usually as an add-on service.

The level of support available obviously varies with the service plan, but dedicated hosting typically includes updated patches, which protect information on the server against hackers.

If you are considering dedicated hosting, keep in mind there is no set standard for dedicated service providers to follow. Although each dedicated service provider may use the same standard terms, the way each defines them will likely differ.

For instance, some providers may view a fully managed server as one with a control panel that is web based. Others may see it, however, as providing system engineers who are dedicated to all network and server components and operations of the provider.

Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 4

2011-11-30T10:38:00.003+08:00

Microsoft has released the fourth preview of Internet Explorer 10. As is the case with previous Platform Previews, the release is aimed at developers: the new features are important to those creating rich, complex Web applications, but will have less impact on Web users.

However, even Web developers might struggle to get too excited about the latest preview, because they probably won't be able to run it: it only works on the Windows 8 preview release that Microsoft shipped at its BUILD conference in September.

The new features include Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), JavaScript typed arrays and binary file manipulation, and HTML5 video subtitling. Typed arrays and support for binary files enable much better performance for JavaScript applications that handle binary data, such as images and audio.

CORS provides a safe way for JavaScript applications to use services offered by different providers. Traditionally, JavaScript has been restricted by the same-origin policy: a script can only have full access to content that is hosted at the same domain, port, and protocol. This provides security by preventing theft of, for example, cookies and page data by objects included from other sites.

CORS allows one application to expose its data to another application even when the same-origin policy would otherwise deny such access. This is useful for creating "mashup" applications that combine Web services from multiple different providers.

Microsoft has positioned its Platform Previews as a way to let developers test and provide feedback on new features so that they can inform Microsoft of bugs, and guide the development of new specifications. The first two Platform Previews for Internet Explorer 10 were made available to users of Windows 7. This preview, however, is not. If you want to use it, you'll have to use the Windows 8 Developer Preview.

The third preview was in the same position; Microsoft did not release a Windows 7 version of Platform Preview 3. Instead, the version of Internet Explorer that shipped with the Windows 8 Developer Preview was the third preview. Though Internet Explorer 10 will support Windows 7 when released, Web developers wanting to test the software now will have to use an unsupported, not-even-beta operating system to do so. And while they can do so using a virtual machine, doing so will disable most or all of the hardware acceleration features found in the browser, making it a second-rate experience.

This is a decidedly odd move. Internet Explorer 10 is going to be fundamental to Windows 8 in a way that no past version of the browser has been. HTML and JavaScript offer developers a way for developers to create new touch-friendly Metro-style applications, and this support will be built on Internet Explorer 10.

But as important as Metro-style applications are to Microsoft, the browser will still have a substantial user base on Windows 7, and the Web developers of today are far more likely to be using Windows 7 than they are Windows 8. Regular non-Metro Web applications still matter. Effectively excluding this group from the preview—the group most likely to have valuable feedback and insight—makes one wonder what the entire purpose of the scheme is.

Source : http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/11/internet-explorer-10-platform-preview-4-windows-7-users-need-not-apply.ars

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Teardown Reveals Easily Swappable Innards

2011-11-30T10:08:00.003+08:00

The Galaxy Nexus houses simple yet elegant hardware, though it is not terribly easy to repair. Photo courtesy of iFixit

Rumors of Google’s next-generation Nexus smartphone have been floating in the ether for months. As we approach the phone’s imminent release, only a fortunate few have been able to get their hands on one, including not only we at WIRED, but also the gadget tinkerers at iFixit, who just posted a full teardown of what lies beneath the Nexus hood.

First, the Galaxy Nexus is way easier to open than any Apple phone. Unlike the iPhone, the Galaxy Nexus doesn’t use any esoteric screws to attach the case to its frame, and this allows quick access to the phone’s innards. There’s also minimal adhesive sticking the motherboard to other components, making a full teardown relatively easy. This will come in handy if you abuse your phone enough to warrant cracking open the hood for a look-see.

Removing the Galaxy Nexus’ battery is also a breeze, as snapping off the thin, plastic back panel requires virtually no effort. Of course, this could be a bad thing if you’re prone to random acts of klutziness, but it also means that should your battery die, you’ll be able to swap it for a back-up relatively quickly. And believe us, you’ll want this option because the the Galaxy Nexus’ brilliant screen is a definite power-sucker.

Take note, however, if you’re the pioneering type who likes to swap smartphone batteries in the field: The battery that comes with the stock Galaxy Nexus includes an NFC antenna inside of it (NFC technology powers some of the cool features that come with Ice Cream Sandwich, like Android Beam, for instance). So unless you’re swapping that battery cell out for similar one, don’t expect to be waving your Google Wallet around anytime soon.

Try your best not to crack the Nexus’ screen. It stretches across nearly the entire face of the phone, and is sullied by only the slimmest of bezels, which means you’re getting loads of viewable real estate. Unfortunately, Samsung fused the outer layer of glass to both the super AMOLED display and the display frame. So, if you break the display, you must buy all three new components for replacement.

The screen notwithstanding, the phone has very few parts that directly adhere to each other. In fact, only the volume switch and the vibrator motor are soldered to other pieces, making part replacement infinitely easier. The only other major drawback affects the hardcore tinkering crowd. While there’s little adhesive that connects the motherboard to other parts, accessing the motherboard itself by pulling off the inner case isn’t simple. iFixit’s crew says it involved “lots of careful prying” to loose the parts from its protectiveshell. It’s frustrating, but not a deal-breaker.

All in all, iFixit gives the phone a six out of ten repairability rating, above average marks hampered mostly by the complications involved when cracking screen glass. So when Google finally drops the actual release date — which may come in early December, as rumor has it — try not to drop the phone itself if you pick one up.

Source By : http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/11/samsung-galaxy-nexus-teardown/

Mike is a Wired.com staff writer covering Google and the mobile beat. He's written on a number of different tech topics, from startups to social media. Check out his Google+ profile here.
Follow @mj_isaac and @GadgetLab on Twitter.

How to add social media sharing button

2011-11-09T15:26:00.008+08:00

This tutorial will teach you how to add social media sharing button (Facebook, Twitter, Google +1 (plus one), LinkedIn) widget on your Blogger or BlogSpot blog.

Demo : See the left side of your browser..

Social media share buttons are everywhere. They are very popular because webmasters and bloggers get more traffic from Social Network sites through it. Share buttons like Facebook Share, Facebook Like, Facebook Recommend, Twitter Tweet, Google +1 button, StumbleUpon, Tumblr button, Digg This, and LinkedIn Share boost traffic back to your website. They make it easier for visitors and readers to share your content to their friends and connections.

"share buttons" widget is very easy to install to your blog. All you need to do is edit two parts of your Blogger template (the main code and the page elements).

For this tutorial, we have gathered four most popular share buttons today: Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet, Google +1 (plus one) button, and LinkedIn Share. They are all in vertical count (or tall) format and will show up on the left side of your blog.

Below are the steps on how to add floating Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet, Google +1 (plus one) button and LinkedIn Share buttons to the left hand side of Blogger or BlogSpot blog.

1. Log in to your Blogger account.

2. Click Design.

3. Click Edit HTML.

4. Look for HEAD tags

5. Copy this code:

6. Place it below HEAD tags
7. Click the Save Template button.

8. Click Page Elements, located before Edit HTML.

9. Click Add a Gadget on the sidebar or any Add a Gadget you see on your page elements.

10. A new window will show up. Scroll down and look for HTML/JavaScript in the selection.

11. Click on the button with a plus (+) sign next to HTML/JavaScript.

12.copy this code and paste to it

<style> #floatingbuttons{background:#F9F9F9;background:-webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0, #fff), color-stop(1, #F9F9F9));background:-moz-linear-gradient(top, #fff, #F9F9F9);border:1px solid #ccc;float:left;padding:0 0 3px 0;position:fixed;bottom:15%;left:0;z-index:10;border-radius:0 5px 5px 0;box-shadow:2px 2px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.3);} #floatingbuttons .floatbutton{float:left;clear:both;margin:5px 4px 0 4px;} .addbuttons{clear:both;text-align:center;padding-top:5px;} .addbuttons a span.getfloat, .addbuttons a span.sharebuttons{color:#000;background:none;font-family:arial, sans-serif;display:block;font-size:9px;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;line-height:11px;} .addbuttons a:hover span{color:#000;background:none;text-decoration:underline;}</style><br /> <div id='floatingbuttons' title="Share this post!"><script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script><script type="text/javascript"> (function() { var s = document.createElement('SCRIPT'), s1 = document.getElementsByTagName('SCRIPT')[0]; s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = true; s.src = 'http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js'; s1.parentNode.insertBefore(s, s1); })(); </script><script src='http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js' type="text/javascript"></script><div class='floatbutton' id='facebook'><fb:like layout="box_count" show_faces="false" font=""></fb:like></div><div class='floatbutton' id='google+1'><g:plusone size="tall"></g:plusone></div><div class='floatbutton' id='twitter'><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="vertical" >Tweet</a></div><div class='floatbutton' id='linkedin'><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.linkedin.com/in.js"></script><script type="in/share" data-counter="top"></script></div><div class="addbuttons"><a href="http://eriehuang.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-add-social-media-sharing-button.html" title="Add floating social media share buttons to your blog!"><span class="getfloat">Get floating</span><div style="clear:both"></div><span class="sharebuttons">share buttons</span></a> </div></div>

Source : http://www.howbler.com/2011/06/blogger-widget-add-floating-social.html#white

How i met your mother season 7 episode 9 - Disaster Averted.. check it out.!!

2011-11-08T17:02:00.005+08:00

The gang recounts their actions when Hurricane Irene bore down on New York City. Meanwhile, Barney seeks a way to stop wearing the ducky tie.
You will see Robin and Barney have a moment tonight on HIMYM. Do you want them to get back together?

here's a new sneak peek from tonight's HIMYM episode!

Download in here..

Animated Flying Twitter Bird Followers Widget For Blogger

2011-11-08T15:05:00.022+08:00

Twitter", is one of the most popularSocial networking sitein the world among Bloggers to promote their blogs.There are a number of twitter widgets, scripts and plugins available to integrate Twitter with your blog.
One of the best ways to find new followers for your Twitter account is to leverage any other online profile that you might already have. If you have a website, blog or other social media account linking to your Twitter account is a great way to do this.

We provide here animated twitter bird follower widget code. This Plugin is java script based and it will display an animated Twitter bird that settles on different places of your blogs visible area. If a you scroll the page, the bird will fly towards the visible part and settle in a new place and it takes random paths for each flight.When you place the cursor over the Twitter Bird "tweet this" and "follow me" links appear,through this the visitor can tweet the article or follow you.
Here we provide code for Flying Twitter Bird.
So copy the code for your site or simply Click on Add toBlogger to automatically add Flying Twitter Bird on your blog-spot blogs.

Note:- Replace "Your Twitter account name" with your twitter user name.You add just the username not the entire URL of your Twitter profile. For example twitter.com/eriehuang, eriehuang is the username.

Source : http://123bestfriend.blogspot.com/2011/05/animated-flying-twitter-bird-flowers.html

Big Bang Wins the Best Worldwide Act on MTV's Europe Music Awards (EMA)

2011-11-08T10:19:00.006+08:00

The 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards live from Belfast’s Odyssey Arena. Aside from mega-superstars Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, LMFAO, and Coldplay, five member band, Big Bang, attended as they were nominated in the Worldwide Act category, can be seen from the figure above, Big Bang is the first Twitter trend, beating out internationally Popular singers like Justin Bieber (small Justin Timberlake), Lady Gaga (Lady Gaga), Selena Gomez (Xilin Na), Bruno Mars (Bruno Masi) and others.

Big Bang stunned audiences by winning the award just moments ago. The Worldwide Act category celebrates diversity and the breadth of all the music that MTV has to offer by nominating incredible artists from all corners of the world.

There were two rounds of voting. First, each region had an opportunity to vote among MTVs choices for the seven artists that best represent the region. In the Asia Pacific category, in addition to Big Bang,Exile (Japan), Jay Chou (Republic of China/Taiwan), Gotye (Australia), Sia (Australia), Jane Zhang(China), and Agnes Monica (Indonesia) were nominated.

After weeks of voting Big Bang won for the Asia Pacific region and advanced to the finals along with Abdelfattah Grini (Africa/India/Middle East), Lena (Europe), Restart (Latin America), and Britney Spears (North America).

Due an impressive amount of voting by VIPs and fans all over the world, Big Bang won the coveted award. They will have the honor of being the first ‘Worldwide Act’ award recipients.Big Bang in the EMA red carpet interview, the sun first said: "I grew up watching MTV, they are always a lot of music videos and music broadcast information." Asked who the most artist that they want to see, G-Dragon said he want to see Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga.

The following, let us look at Big Bang on the red carpet interview clips: