The digital Magazine

Being online while travelling

noreply@blogger.com (T V Srihari Namboothiri) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:51:00 +0000

NetBook/ Tablet PC’s
Netbooks, such as Sony Vaio pocket PC is the best way to bring your laptop with you. Being smaller in size, they are easier to carry and handle while travelling. Though some of the Netbooks appear costly, the savings that it provides in carriage and handling makes it worth it.
These are best suitable for travellers who need to check their emails and use the internet. However they are not suitable to run big number crunching programs. If you want to buy a Netbook Check out Netbooks comparion article on Wikipedia and over at Laptopmatrix..

Mobile phones
Using your mobile phone to go online is very simple and has become popular over the past several years owing to the growth in 3G networks. This method of connection either directly through the mobile device or tethering it to your PC is recommended if you just need to check your e-mail, or continuous access to the web. However usage of the mobile device must be based on your Data plan. If your carrier charges huge amounts for data usage then it’s better to go for the alternatives given below.
International travellers must look out for the additional roaming charges. If you are staying for a long period of time, say an extended vacation, the better option would be to take a local mobile number and data plan from a local carrier (where you are having your vacation) to ensure you don’t give all your money in charity to your home mobile network provider.
Another point to consider is that 3G networks have not been rolled out in all countries. In most of the developing countries you may find mobile internet connections running on legacy technologies and internet speed over the network may be poor.

Internet cafés
With the requirement to be online and available constantly becoming common a lot of Internet Cafe’s have popped up. You can take your laptop to the local internet cafe and connect to the internet from there. If you can’t take your laptop or are travelling without one then you can use the computer provided at the cafe. You need to take care that you may not be able to access your documents unless you have uploaded them to Google docs or Zoho or other such online document service provider. In fact, the internet café is a very nice substitute for bringing your laptop.
The search engine at Cyber Captive has an excellent collection of verified cyber cafe in 160 countries.
Wi-Fi HotSpots
Modern Netbooks and laptops come with inbuilt Wi-Fi antenna, which allows you to search for and connect to Wi-Fi networks. Wi-Fi networks have become very common in places such as airports, resorts and other locations where travellers are known to frequent. Most Wi-Fi providers charge a rate for their services. However, you may also be able to locate free Wi-Fi hotspots using online directories such as JiWire. If you can’t find one or access the directory just ask fellow travellers or if you are in location with a help desk such as airport, ask the folks at the help desk counter, they should be able to help you. Also WiFi Free Spot and Free hot spots should be able to locate free Wi-Fi hotspots.
Broad Band Connection
If you are planning to stay for a long time, like for more than a month, then the best way is to take a local broad band connection. For extended usage they are cheap, come with a service back up and are safer.
Most of the larger hotel chains now offer Wi-Fi/Broadband internet access in their lobbies, sometimes for free (Always check if the hotel provides free complimentary internet access) and sometimes for a fee. Some hotels also have Internet hook-ups in the actual hotel room where you can plug your laptop in and access the Internet in the privacy of your own room. In case you are staying at a hostel then you may find internet access available near the lobby.
Broad Band Cards
Most of the internet service providers offer three types of broad band cards. USB cards, Express cards and PC Broad band cards. These cards are easy to carry and use. The USB cards are of the plug and play variety. These cards can be useful if you keep shifting places while travelling. Check out for the availability of these cards and their fee for usage in places where you plan to travel. This article gives an excellent comparison of broad band cards in the US.

Safe internet search for kids

noreply@blogger.com (T V Srihari Namboothiri) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:22:00 +0000

Ask for kids is a specifically designed search engines for kids which blocks content considered inappropriate for children. Unlike safe search option on other major search providers, AskKids blocks any result whose search string contains words considered inappropriate for children.

When children request a search for words (e.g. nude) that can potentially retrieve inappropriate content for kids, the search engine throws a beep message and asks the child to check the spelling and use general keywords. The important feature is that it does not suggest to the child that the term “nude” is inappropriate, which could have potentially raised the kids interest in the term, considering the inquisitive nature of children.

Further, the search engine generates and displays content in a child friendly result page for queries having appropriate keywords. For example, if they are working on a project and needs information on India, they can simply query India and results are displayed neatly summarised.

The good thing is that even for a general search, in the results returned, the explicit/inappropriate content is filtered.

Audit your PC using auditmypc

noreply@blogger.com (T V Srihari Namboothiri) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:24:00 +0000

Have you wondered as to how that Damn! virus that caused your PC to crash came in. Probably you visited some website that shipped virus to your PC through the open ports. Well you would say that your firewall is turned on. Well are you sure that all the open ports known to be used by Viruses and Trojans are closed. AuditMyPC is a free web based tool that will scan your PC for open ports and let you know if you have inadvertently left any ports open. Its a very good tool for a novice and the steps may seem too filled with IT jargon but just ignore the jargons read the English part and you should be able to do a quick test. Here is the result of a test which showed some gaping loop holes in our systems

Another good free tool is the Anonymous Surfing test which will be useful if you want to check how anonymous your surfing is, They have a lot of tools such as proxo, that will let you surf anonymously, but if you really need to hide everything, then use a proxy server.

Setting And Achieving Goals The SMARTER Way

noreply@blogger.com (T V Srihari Namboothiri) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:01:00 +0000

You want to achieve a lot in life. You have planned a grand scheme of things. Well have you planned it to be achievable? Setting objectives is the easy part meeting it is a little tougher. The tougher part can be made a lot easy if you plan SMARTER goals and objectives.

SMARTER is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound, Ethical, Resourced.

· Specific
This criteria prods you to question yourself how much you want to work to get to the goal and when will you know if you have achieved your goals. If you simply set the goal as loosing weight you are jeopardizing your chances of success. The goal should be more concrete, so the correct way to set this goal would be “I want to reduce my average weight by 5 Kg in 60 days”. This lets you know how fast you are progressing towards your goal and more importantly what your exact goal is. It lets you know after 60 days if you reduced weight by 10 Kg that you have achieved your goal.
· Measurable
You need a way to be able to tell that you have achieved what you set out to achieve. Making a goal measurable is directly related to making it specific. The more specific your objective is the easier it becomes to measure it and gauge your progress. If you can’t find a way to measure your progress towards your goal, then you most likely need to make it more specific.
One of the best things about having a measurable objective is having the ability to set yourself milestones. It is much easier to achieve a tough objective when you can break the journey up into smaller increments. It’s a psychological thing, by giving yourself a series of successes along the way, through meeting a set of milestones, you give yourself positive reinforcement and working towards your goal becomes a much more pleasurable experience.
· Achievable
The goals you set should be simply put : REALISTIC. Its not wrong to put your goal to be the President of United States but to be that tomorrow is making yourself look like a jerk. There are two important things while setting the goal one the goal itself and second the time to achieve the goal, both should be considered. Do remember that its not a bad idea to build castles in the air. Well that was the tough part. Just put the foundation below it.
· Relevant
If you are an engineer and dream of operating and saving a patients life you need to go to your psychologist. The goals that you set must be interesting to you, it must be something you can be passionate about like your favourite movie. The goals should be something that gives you satisfaction at every milestone and when the final objective is achieved.
· Time-Bound
Every goal must be bound in a time capsule. Within this capsule, every milestone should be in its own time capsule. Say you want to reduce weight by 10 kg in 60 days. Then you will need to reduce by 5kg in 35 days.
- Ethical
The goals should be ethical, exciting and enjoyable. You wont enjoy your goal to be millionaire in 30 days if you go and rob a bank. Apart from being unethical the joy would be shortlived and the excitement will die down once the cops get on you!
- Resourced
Goals should be planned keeping in mind the resources required to achieve those goals. Resources include but are not limited to time, money, support, information. Also include the sacrifices you need to make. If you plan to become an astronaut without knowing how to become one then you are heading south. Instead do a good background check of the information required, the time needed to put in, the risks involved.

These SMARTER ways to live have helped me become more productive and happier. Just sit for some time and spend time on these activities it will make life more enjoyable and exciting.

Create Sub-domains for Custom Domains on blogger

noreply@blogger.com (T V Srihari Namboothiri) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Most people love publishing on Wordpress and go for custom hosting but folks like me prefer to host their blogs on Google's servers just because you need not worry about maintenance and instead spend time where you are supposed to - Blogging! Now with blogger giving the option of custom domains, its pretty much easy for bloggers to switch over from their Blogspot domains to the custom domains. However one of the much underutilized option with this approach is the option to create sub-domains. Creating Subdomains in blogger is very easy and useful.
Steps:
1) Create a new blog using the conventional approach in blogger. Click create a blog as shown in picture

2) Create the new blog using normal blogger domain id say drudam2.blogspot.com

Click continue

3) Choose a template for your new blog. You can change this template later.
4) Once you have created the new blog, go to Settings –> Publishing

Click “Custom Domain” as shown above

5) In the new page

Click on “Switch to Advanced Settings” as shown above

6) Once you are in the advanced settings tab enter your sub-domain name.

7) Complete the rest of the form. For “Use a missing file host?” Select yes if you placed the files (pictures, documents etc) at a different location so that it can be accessed is the existing files are not available, Select no if you have not or are not sure.
Complete the Captcha Verification and save.

8) Now you will need to create CNAME entry for each Sub-domain you want to use in your DNS entries. This excellent Google apps help article should be able to help you.