Digital Intoxication - hi.fi.vc

Bye-Bye to Google Adsense For Domains

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:31:00 +0000

I am not a huge fan of Google Adsense for domains, I had parked couple of names for testing purpose and they were not doing it better than other parking companies. In fact, stats were worse that Sedo or Bodis. I thought they never wanted to compete with parking companies, may be the parking revenue for Google is small compared to their total revenue. Also, it was sort of conflict of interest with partner parking companies. Today, I received communication from Google that they are shutting down, business of Adsense for domains, directly. They will continue to do so, through partner companies. Couple of months back Google banned most my parked domains from their network. Not sure how to interpret this development, in that sense.

This is what I received

SUB : Retiring AdSense for Domains in your account

Hi,
We’re contacting you because you’re using AdSense for Domains to monetize your undeveloped domains. After evaluating the benefits of our partner network, we’ve decided to retire the Hosted domains product within AdSense. Going forward, undeveloped domains will only be served through our existing AdSense for Domains distribution network.
Our records show that 9 of your Hosted domains will be affected by this upcoming change, which will follow the schedule below:

March 21: You’ll no longer be able to create new Hosted domains
April 18: Hosted domains will become inactive and it’ll no longer be possible to earn from them
June 27: Hosted domains will no longer be available in AdSense accounts

To continue monetizing your undeveloped domains, you can migrate your domain portfolio to any domain parking provider. Find out how in our Migration Guide:
Please note that this upcoming change won’t affect any other AdSense products you’re currently using or the availability of other products to you. In addition, reporting on your Hosted domains will remain available throughout the schedule above and for a period following the retirement.
For more information see the Help Center. We appreciate your understanding and thank you for your patience as we continue to develop new features and offerings within AdSense.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team

© 2012 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.
You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your AdSense product or account.

Have you parked domains using Adsense for domains? What were your experience?

Review of Head First Web Design and Notes

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:26:00 +0000

I have created numerous web pages and websites as a hobby in last 12 years. But,I always wondered about the industry known as “Web Design” and profession “Web Designer”. I thought creating cool logo and graphics using Photoshop as skills of web designer.Also, I was aware of the fact that people who create Wordpress and Joomla templates are web designer. As you might have understood,I had no formal education of Web Designing. Reading any book on this subject was always there is “to do” list but had low priority. I bought the book “Head First Web Design” last week from Flipkart to read it, while I was supposed to travel.If you are in USA you may buy it from Amazon. Now, I am glad I bought the book.

The book explains the concept of Web Design in interactive manner. It has a lot of images, examples and tasks. I read the book in just 2 sittings!! It’s so interesting.The book assumes that you have some working knowledge of XHTML and CSS. All the technical examples in the book use XHTML and CSS. Book explains in detail about process involved in Web Design and have a chapter about “The business of Web Design” as well. Here is chapter wise summary of the book.

Building beautiful web pages - The chapter introduces about four core processes of Web Design.
- Pre-Production
- layout
- navigation
- writing (content)
The chapter also introduces a terminology, Information Architecture (IA).Information Architecture is a process to break the content in chunk and arrange in in hierarchical order of one another.It is achieved by organizing the site content and building an IA diagram. Website Navigation is a product of IA.
The chapter also introduces a term called StoryBoard in Web design.Storyboard facilitate visualization of the design and test basic layout before one can start coding the layout.
Pre-Production – Pre-production involved developing a theme and Visual Metaphor for the Website. This would include -
- Choosing a color palette for the website
- Using visual elements to reinforce the theme
- Design a layout based on content.
Hand drawn Storyboards should be used to finalize and visualize the design before its finalized.The book has given example of developing a storyboard from a real life scenario. Authors have suggested following process for development of storyboard.
- Make grid on a paper
- Sketch your design
- Add color and finalize your design
Oraganizing Your Site – The chapter teaches how to find categories and section for content. The process is named as Information Architecture. Using card sort the content is broken into hierarchy and IA diagram is created.
Layout and Design – One need to put the design on computer screen. Considering this, a screen resolution needs to be decided, based on end-user PC.Authors have shown how to develop the \layout using CSS based grid layout. The chapter also introduces concept of “Rule of thirds (2/3 and 1/3)” or “Golden Ratio”, while designing content area in any layout.
Designing with color – The chapter talks about
- Choosing the color wheel
- Concept of Color schemes
- Triadic and Tetradic Color scheme
- And a tool to choose color palette (Kuler.adobe.com)
Smart Navigation - Information Architecture of a given site should serve as base of site navigation. Authors talk about horizontal and vertical navigation scheme as well as primary and secondary navigation for a site. They have also gave example when one may use horizontal versus vertical navigation besides other things related to navigation.
Writing for the Web – There is some surprising data in this chapter. Did you know that people read slower on computer screen than a printed material. The difference is significant about 15% slower than printed material having same content. Also, reading habit for same person is different, while reading on printed material than reading in in browser. On internet people hardly read top to bottom and left to right, religiously. They tend to scan the matter and decide if they need to read first para or more.That means, writing on web needs to be different that writing a book. Authors have provided nice examples about “How to write for web”.
Accessibility – US Census Bureau categorizes 19.6% of the US population as having some sort of disability. Book explains why we should consider including accessibility options in our web design and how we can achieve this. This topic is also necessary for people who are providing or may provide services to USA government agencies.As section 508 of US Federal Rehabilitation Act requires that Federal agencies make their electronic and information technology, including websites accessible to people with disabilities.
Listen to your users – This chapter emphasises importance of user feedback about your website and listening to their demands. It describes techniques to enable “listing to users”, like survey, analytics etc in detail.
Evolutionary Design – the book says, “A website should evolve (change incrementally) instead of changing radically all the time”. It lists a few ways to do it using Jquery, Lighbox and blogging.
The Business of Web Design – The chapter deals with various aspect of running Web Design service as business. It starts with ways to deal with web design piracy, then moves to defining categories of professional services in world of web. Aspect of managing it as firm or company (this information is only valuable for USA based guys) and prevailing wages in Web Design industry. It also help you to write proposal letter for your business and estimating the job of web designing task.
Appendix - Appendix of “Head First Web Design” is useful as well . It talks a little bit about 10 more topics which book didn’t cover in detail.

In India, you can buy Head “First Web Design” online from FlipKart while in USA you have option of buying it from Amazon. Is the review helped you to decide, if you want to introduce yourself with world of web design?

XAMPP for Windows Installation and Configuration

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:14:00 +0000

I had used LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) since long. My main laptop is dual boot with with good old Windows XP and Ubuntu.I use a few critical tools that need Windows and these tools runs almost all the time. Hence, working with LAMPP was not an options. I needed something similar on Windows. I wanted Apache with PHP and MySQL support. An easy to use environment where I can experiment with Joomla in short term and PHP and MySQL. As it would be an development environment, security was an non-issue.

XAMPP a easy to use (Apache, PHP, MySQL, PHP and Perl) environment was the thing I needed. Best thing is it comes for Linux, Windows,Solaris and Mac. Windows version have a few option as well.XAMPP for Windows exists in three different flavors:

Installer: Probably the most comfortable way to install XAMPP.
ZIP:: For purists: XAMPP as ordinary ZIP archive.
7zip:: For purists with low bandwidth: XAMPP as 7zip archive.

I did choose 7zip format. Extracted in a folder E:\xampp and ran the program E:\xampp\xampp-control.exe. This program is known as XAMPP control panel. As the name suggests you can start or stop the server component that comes with XAMPP.

I started the Apache and MYSql server and worked with dowloaded Joomla code as well as Phpxref for Joomla code documentation (using Perl). It worked with charm. No configuration was needed. This is great development environment on Windows. Also did use MOD_REWRITE with apache and result was pleasant.

I would highly recommend this environment to people who are looking for LAMPP (Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP and Perl environment on windows.

Making a case for Blogger : Blogger vs Wordpress

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Sat, 14 May 2011 04:22:00 +0000

If you ask me which one is better choice self hosted Wordpress or Blogger with your own domain, I am inclined to say Blogger with your domain is much better choice. Don’t take me wrong, Wordpress is great blogging CMS and with ever-growing community support you can always get better features than Blogger. But why Blogger than?

Most serious Blogger starts Blogging as Hobby - When Blogging is not your full time business. Self hosted Wordpress blog facilitates a lot of cool features at the same time it brings administrative headache. One need to have some technical expertise and time to manage the self hosted Wordpress blogs. You should be prepare to take daily backup (or weekly back up) of database, keep abreast of security updates, and update your blog time to time. All these extra work is taken care by Blogger if you choose Blogger with your own domain.
Blogger is feature rich as well – It may be true Blogger is not as flexible as Self hosted Wordpress blog, at the same time Blogger is feature rich as well. You can add Widgets. There are so many ready to use Widgets and flexibility to add HTML/Javascript widgets. It make Blogger platform as feature rich as well.
Adsense Ready – Blogger blogs are Adsense ready and one can add Adsense code with one click on the blog.
Scalability - Once a blog popularity grows and your blog is in top 1000 blogs of the world,self hosted Wordpress blog may give you scalability headache. On the other side, all scalability issues is taken care by Blogger. Even if your blog is number 1 blog of your niche, you won’t face any scalability issues with your blog.
Visitor stats - Blogger has introduced a rich visitor stats feature. Its cool.
Cost – Self hosted Wordpress blog have hosting cost besides domain name cost while Blogger blogs with your own domain only have domain name cost.

In my opinion, if you are serious with Blogging at the same time just starting with Blogging you should choose Blogger instead of self hosted Wordpress blog. I will be more than happy to hear your side of story.

The conspiracy

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:43:00 +0000

In last few posts I have dealt with the "Unclaimed Property" of Vigour SOlutions Inc and very genuine concern, that I have as far as my life and my father's life is concerned. Father and I have today evening IST moved from Savera Hotel Kadru to Ashok Nagar house.While construction is still going on, we decided its the place that may be free from manual intervention by so called friends and family.
Our address is (Papa and mine)
292/c, Road number 1
Ashok Nagar
Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
834002

.However there are many red signals here. Don't be surprised if Father and I gets killed by poison or in an accident.In mean time, My divorce order is pending in court of Hazaribagh in name of correction. Don't be suprised if property is handed over to ex-wife Deepshikha and distributed among conspirators and their "God father".

I have penned down the incidents till 2007 and later added a few points based on learning in 2008-2011. Please read conspiracy at
http://fbiplease.blogspot.com
Also, if you know someone in media please inform them.Alternatively you can help us by sharing it on your facebook profile.
Various documents related to Vigour solutions Inc and Unclaimed property can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/hifivc/documents
Please help.

Public WILL

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sun, 01 May 2011 11:57:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post at Unclaimed property of Vigour Solutions Inc. that I discovered unclaimed property of Vigour solutions Inc. I did contact Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by email and over phone. I didn’t get any email reply of the mail but someone did pickup the phone. The lady informed Bill and Melinda Gates foundation doesn’t accept donations from third parties.

Based on my experience and possible conspiracy, I can say its big – big money. I don’t know what will happen to me today or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Hence I am putting my WILL in public domain. In case, something happens to me before claiming “unclaimed property of Vigour solutions Inc.”. The money or proceedings should be distributed as follow.

My father Sri Arjun Prasad – 5%

My friend Nishant Kumar (who studied with me at IIT Roorkee and currently resides in Illinois) – 5%

My Upendra Prasad sinha and Dr Sugiti Sinha – Both resident of NJ and lives at harding ave, edison – 1% each

My Sister Vibha Sinha – 1%

57% will go to Government of Bihar,India – for infrastructure, Power,education, health and IT for masses programs.

30% will go to Government of Jharkhand, India - education, health and IT for masses programs.

My ex-wife Deepshikha should not get any penny of the proceedings.

Thanks

Donating Unclaimed Property of Vigour Solutions Inc to Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:50:00 +0000

When I was in USA, I started a company called Vigour Solutions Inc in state of NJ. Before coming to India I dissolved the company. Today while searching for unclaimed property search in NJ state I found this company still have assets. Although I did dissolve the company thinking it don't have any assets.

I here forth declare that, whatever is the unclaimed property of Vigour Solutions Inc, I am donating it to Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation.

Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation.
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx
I am trying to get in touch with them,If anyone knows their contact info,please do let me know.

Screenshot - Unclaimed property id is 11462183

Samsung GT-C3222 or Samsung ch@t 322 Review and Price

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:41:00 +0000

I was looking for a dual sim phone with qwerty keyboard. Of course , support for GPRS data connection was a requirement as well. I narrowed it down to 2 phones one from Motorola (motorola EX115) and other was Samsung chat GT-C3222. Initially I wanted to buy Motorola because they had better screen resolution and better camera. However, They lack in service centers in most of the cities. So settled for Samsung GT-C3222 or Samsung ch@t 322.

Product and Accessories I received with Samsung Ch@t 322 or Samsung GT-C3222 are

1 Main set – Dual Sim Phone

1 Battery

1 Travel Adapter – I don’t know why they say it travel adapter, its adapter you would need to charge it using AC current

1 Data Kit – Basically its USB data cable that would connect your phone to PC

1 Stereo Headset

1 Micro SD Card – 1 GB

1 CD containing Driver and PCStudio software from Samsung.

In most part of India reliability of mobile connection is an issue so most people like to have dual sim phone. I am no exception.Detailed product specification of Samsung C3222 can be found at Samsung website.

First thing I wanted to do after I bought was registering the product with Samsung. After using Nokia before, registering the product at Samsung was real frustrating.One can register the product after visiting the website. Pop up errors are very unfriendly either it doesn’t suggest the field or suggest wrong field like “"kindly check first name". After struggling for more than 15 minutes I aborted product registration at Samsung. If you are able to register your product with them, please share your tricks.

Finding a user manual of Samsung GT-C3222 or Samsung ch@t 322 is real pain in the neck. You can find user manual for the phone by visiting. This manual is also supplied in hardcopy format with the product. What you need really is what Samsung says “Samsung Mobile Function Guide” for Samsung Chat 322. This gives you detailed information about various functionality of the various menu items. You can reference “Samsung Mobile Function Guide” below.

Samsung chat-322 - Samsung GT 3222 function guide

View more documents from hifivc

What comes in Samsung PCStudio CD:

Samsung New PC Studio
USB Driver
User’s guide

First you need to install Samsung New PC Studio (NPS). To do so please don’t connect device while installing it. After you are done install USB Driver. One great feature which I appreciate in Samsung GT-C3222 or Samsung ch@t 322 is that is that while you are connected with data cable your phones gets charged. One feature which I miss, there is no support for Hindi Language in the phone.

GPRS plans in India is very cheap nowadays. There are plenty of applications available you may be able to use it. However, application memory for phone is limited. That said you can still run 4-8 applications of your choice by deleting some of the applications. Overall, A good phone for the price you pay it for. BTW, Samsung GT-C3222 or Samsung ch@t 322 price in India is around 4400 Rupees. I paid rupees 4390 for the phone and I am happy with it. In next post I will write about various applications that I am using on this phone. Which Smartphone are you using? And have you used Samsung GT-C3222 or Samsung ch@t 322, if so please share your experience with us.

Beware if you get any message from me or in reference to your email

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:47:00 +0000

My computer was bugged, I am still trying to find how it got compromised.From early investigation shows someone with physical access to the computer might have done this.
Hopefully, I have cleaned all rootkits and changed all important passwords.
I did saw a few emails were deleted from my inbox and sent mail.
Just IN case, someone did contact you after you sent me an email or I sent you an email.Please do bring it to my notice.

Domain Parking : SedoPro parking program review

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:39:00 +0000

Sedo’s domain parking program is available for anyone who has a domain. However SEDOPRO do have stringent requirement. On the positive side of it, You get better analytics and based on performance you can get Bonus on the top of what you earn from Sedo.
Feature of SedoPro

SedoPro Comprehensive Statistical Analysis Tool– You get a domain dashboard having different section for “Portfolio at a glance”, “High Traffic”,”Latest Additions”,”Optimization needed”, “Worst performing” etc.You also have access to visitors demography and languages. You can set for specific keyword in specific language.
Dedicated Account Manager – You will be assigned a dedicated account manager.
Bonus – Based on performance you can get Bonus from SEDO,that is up and above share they give to non-Sedo Pro member.
IDN – While entering the domain as well as on reports IDN domains are reported in native script. It makes task simple particularly when you are viewing a report. Some parking company puts it in punnycode which make it look like all French to me.
Please view enclosed Presentation to get an idea how feature rich the program is.

SedoPro Domain Parking Progam Overview

View more presentations from hifivc.

Generally, requirement for SedoPro is stringent, like 1000 domains or 200$ per month revenue from parking. You are expected to not to indulge in any click fraud activity. However, if you feel you have good portfolio please shoot me an email and I will recommend you to the world of SedoPro parking.They generally have good support by email however, sometimes you have to wait to go through ownership verification.It would be nice if SEDO can expedite the process.I do recommend SEDO pro as being its user myself for fairly long time.Please share your experience with Sedo Pro.

Story of Acquisition of गाना.com song: Deal was done on Google Chat

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:53:00 +0000

I have some metrics about domain गाना.com. I am also considering serious development work after company formation formalities are over.Based on my metrics गाना.com have valuation in 7 figure without development and with development sky is the limit in next two years.

I did know Mark and he is in my chat list . Previously I did low ball an offer to him for a different name. I did even offer to exchange one of my premium ASCII .com with that name. But he was interested in development or high 7 figure. Deal didn’t materialize but I did know I can’t low ball him this time.I shoot him and email then we started chatting.At 10:32 PM chat started, I offered him 2k USD for गाना.com. To my utter surprise he only counter offered with 3k USD. Now I knew I have not low balled him on this name. He asked me purpose of acquisition and I did tell him, I want to develop it.Which exactly my goal is.I just took a chance and counter offered him 2.5 k. Which he did agree all he wanted a little bit of professional services for me besides the cash. I enquired about scope of professional services work I was expected to do. He explained and as per my understanding should not take more than 1 hour. I agreed.

At 11:05 Pm Agreement was reached.

So lets make a deal I am getting गाना.com xn--31b8axdb.com in 2.5k + some professional services you need.That is final right?

Next was payment, I wanted him to Pay after 18th of April. He insisted that payment should be immediate or I should pay him non refundable security deposit of 500$. After some negotiation I agreed to Pay immediately. At 11:51 PM payment was made.At 12:07 AM domain was pushed,by 12:16 AM I received the domain and updated contact.

Deal is done, but I am looking forward for long term relationship with. He is a gentleman having business sense and professionalism.

Did you buy any name so fast? Share your experience. And please do subscribe to RSS or email subscription if you like this blog.

Hostgator Shared hosting review and Hostgator Coupon codes

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:44:00 +0000

I do have hobby to play with different Content Management system. When I buy a domain that have some traffic, I do create a website for it. So far, All I needed is shared hosting with unlimited domain names support. One can always move to VPS or Dedicated hosting once traffic level increases. For all these experimentation I was okay with 1and1 till there robotic support terminated my account for stupid reason and asked me to open a new account. I am glad instead of listening to them I went with Hostgator.Here I am getting more features and personalized and knowledgeable support at a lower price.

I have Baby Corn Shared account with them,

Control panel they have is most popular CPanel that most of the webmaster are aware of.
I can add unlimited domains
Unlimited Mysql accounts
Unlimited email accounts
Unlimited FTP accounts
Maximum Number of concurrent processes running 25
Unlimited disk space
Unlimited Bandwidth

You can read detailed comparison of there plans Hostgator Plan comparison.

A few thing that they don’t publish are limitation with respect to Number of inodes, CPU and memory utilization. These should be fine for websites you want to begin with.

CPU utilization – maximum 25% of server CPU for 90 seconds at a time
Memory utilization – Maximum 25% of server memory
Number of inodes allowed – 2,50,000 – In a sense they do have limit on storage determined by number of inodes, but that is sufficiently large for most the work on shared hosting

They do provide Jailed Shell access, you will have to contact support after you buy the plan. Their email support is fantastic and do reply in timely manner. Not only that when I offered to pay 2 year in advance before my renewal they gave me nice discount. I am considering my first VPS with them soon.Highly recommended, have you used them? What is your experience with them?

Hostgator Coupon Codes :

hostgatorjindabad - 9.95$ off your order
hostgator4domainers - 25% off your order

Baby Corn Shared account price per month is 7.96$ per month and if you signup for 3 years you may get price as low as 6.36$ per month.

The Registrar I recommend for IDN domain name registrations: name.com Review

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:07:00 +0000

Except for one of the IDN name I bought in secondary market all my IDN names are with name.com, I am so impressed with their service.Why I like them

Native character support to search an IDN. You can directly enter names in IDN like पेपर.com instead equivalent Punny code.
They do recognize language of the domain with 95% accuracy,sometime you may have to choose a different language than suggested.
They have good bulk search form, however its a little bit hiding from their main interface.You can find it here.
They have option to pay from credit card/paypal or account balance.
What I like most is their bulk operation, its very granular. Take look at screenshot.You can choose from “All” or “Selected” domains from your portfolio.

6. The only thing that is wrong with there bulk operation is the queue, sometime you have to wait for up to 72 hours to get your action completed.I have never waited so long but had to wait 48 hour in one case. But the feature is worth the wait. It saves time and we all know time is money.
7. There support is excellent I always get reply in timely manner and the support person is knowledgeable enough to answer your questions. Although, I have used email support on couple of occasion, generally you won’t need their support at all.
8. If you are a domain investor, they have domain investor club as well. They send domain investor club coupon each month to their members. You need 25 domains in your account to be eligible for that. Although,, 9.99 price is advertised on their website for .com domain registration or renewal, I get it at 8.25.
9. If you are using GoDaddy, You will never feel lost in clutter of controls, banner and urls. A welcome relief for domain professionals that care for their time.
10. Last but not the least, they are very professional and you can trust them for your valuable domain asset.
11. One more thing, you get WHOIS privacy services for free if you know their coupon code, almost all the time.
Most recent TLD they have added is .so.and registration cost $23.99 per .SO registrations. This is a new TLD! There are still quite a few key word .domains left. Are you already using Name.com? If so, please share your experience.Check them out.
Also, if you like the blog please subscribe by email or RSS.

Domain for sell : cloud.af starting 100$ and no reserve

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:08:00 +0000

Cloud is buzz word in industry
Cloud based hosting is usage based on demand hosting. Amazon,Google etc all offer cloud
http://cloud.com , http://cloud.meare developed. There may be others I have not done research.
Cloud.me was sold for $22,500 on Sedo between July 27, 2009 - Sun. Aug. 2, 2009.
This is .af afghanistan newly released tld. Registration cost at hexonet is 90$. I believe so would be renewal cost.
Starting bid 100$ - No reserve
If you are a company great investment for you and great brand for you, if you are a domainer you may buy to flip it quickly
Registration process is online and all update gets updated in real time.
https://flippa.com/129907

7 Open Source And Free URL Shortener Scripts To Create Your Own

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 07:33:00 +0000

7 Open Source And Free URL Shortener Scripts To Create Your Own: "URL shortening services, with the popularity of Twitter, has a very wide usage, probably more than anyone had expected few years ago.

These services not only makes URLs shorter but more readable & trackable. Also, some offer features like password-protecting, custom URLs & more.

Although there are very succesful services like TinyURL or bit.ly, you may still want to have your own as these services can be shut down one day like tr.im (a huge service that is closed yesterday – update: tr.im re-opened which was a good example for the stability risk of these services). Or, you may be asking for more/custom features."

Name Change : HI.FI.VC

noreply@blogger.com (hi.fi.vc) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 01:24:00 +0000

If you are regular visitor of this blog you might have noticed name change.Based on users coming from,this blog is equally popular in USA and India. I did realize mobile browsers on Smartphones would be main platform to access internet in India till the time entry label Tablets with 3G capability falls in same range that of Smartphones Previous name was too long for users on such devices. So was looking for short name, fi.vc was available, but I found hack hi.fi.vc makes it even more interesting.It rhymes like HI FI VERY COOL and HI FI VC.I haven’t blogged for a while due to be occupied with other stuff I haven’t blogged for a while. I will do more often going forward.

What you think of this new brand HI.FI.VC, your feedback will be appreciated.

IRCTC – Indian Railways reservation website has a new look

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:42:00 +0000

If you live in India there is very good chance that you might have used IRCTC – Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation website. Website navigation used to be poor.IRCTC portal’s look and feel are revamped.Some of the functionalities are enhanced too. I liked new “Plan your trip” menu. Previously you were suppose to choose “class of travel” on the first screen. So, in case, you wanted to query “availability status” in 3 AC and Sleep class, you were supposed to do 2 query from scratch. Also, it didn’t help when a particular train doesn’t have that class. Now, “class of travel” is not a criteria on first screen,based on arrival and destination station,it shows all trains with available “class of travel”.

It’s much better than earlier interface.what you say?

how to disable autorun feature to stop being infected from USB virus and malware

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:37:00 +0000

As per a study by Pandalabs 25% of worms are specially targeted to spread through USB storage devices.I think in India, scenario is worse,most of the cybercafés and home computers are inadequately secured.USB connected devices spread virus and worm from one computer to another.

How it works

autorun.inf is text file in Windows that is used by autorun and autoplay feature of the Windows. The file should be kept in root of the volume.This file specifies which file to run automatically when volume is available on Windows machine.Crooks modify this file to automatically run malware on USB drive and corrupt the computer.

What to do?

disable auto-run feature on system to stop being infected from USB virus.This is useful just in case your computer is not up-to-date with antivirus and antimalware software
create a blank directory named autorun.inf on your USB drive, this will help in case you use your USB drive on multiple computers like cybercafe,home and office.

How to disable auto-run feature on Windows XP professional

Microsoft have a group policy editor in Windows XP professional.Group policy editor can be used to disable auto run feature.Login as a user who has administrative privileges.

At “start” –> “Run” –> gpedit.msc .It will open group policy editor.

Under Computer Configuration, expand “Administrative Templates”-> Double click on “System” – > In the right pane look for setting “Turnoff auto play”.Double click it.

Now choose “Enabled” and from drop down “Turn of autoplay on:”, choose “All drives”.Click okay.All done.

How to disable auto-run feature on Windows 7 or Windows XP home

You will need to edit registry settings of these operating system.Follow Microsoft directions.

Disabling auto run feature will prevent your computer from being corrupted by USB malwares, which rely on auto run feature.However, Its good idea to secure your USB drive as well so that autorun.inf based malware may not use your USB drive to spread these viruses and malwares.

On a good Windows system,which is virus free, insert your USB drive.Explore your USB drive and look for any autorun.inf file.If found,delete it.Now create a blank folder and name it to autorun.inf in root of USB drive file system. Now, whenever you will take your USB drive to cyber cafe , the infected computers may still copy malware on USB drive but they can’t write to autorun.inf. Hence, your USB drive will be not used to spread autorun.inf based virus and malware.

Notepad replacement Notepad++ Review

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:19:00 +0000

Notepad is probably most basic application included with all versions of Windows.Notepad is a simple text editor.On Windows if you are looking for something better than Notepad, you may choose WordPad for text editing.There are certain features that are not available in Wordpad, like tabbed document support.Also, Wordpad purpose is more likely basic word processor where you can make text bold italic etc.But if you are just looking for a text editor which do much more than Notepad.Its Notepad++,it is free and open source as well.

For casual programmers who modify code this is must to have,it support syntax highlighting of almost all available language.A good tool to modify your html or php files.It support tabbed documents.Some of the other features of Notepad++ are

Auto completion
Line numbering
Regular expression support
Find and replace in multiple files support – To search for string or literal in files in certain directory,its useful tool
Show all characters support – It help you see control characters like – new line character etc as well.
UTF-8 support to edit even files in Hindi
Column Editor – If you want to add certain text before each column of certain number before each column, this feature is useful
Indent support
Block select mode- where you can select columns instead of row and use column editor if you need.

Overall a must have text editor for everyone.A right replacement for your notepad.You may download Notepad+= from their website.

Facebook overtakes Orkut in India

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:54:00 +0000

Recently, Facebook crossed 500 million user threshold globally.Although, Orkut was never popular than Facebook in USA,however, Brazil and India were two stronghold of Orkut. Recently, Facebook overtook Orkut in India.

Alexa was showing this for sometime.Alexa is popular among webmasters to find rank of their website in the world or in specific country.Its free to use.Alexa top websites in India shows Facebook at number 3 position and Orkut at number 7 position.

On 25th of August Comscore reported that Facebook is now number one social networking site in India.Comscore’s data is considered more reliable among investor communities.Comscore data excludes visit from public computers such as internet cafes and access from mobile phones. When ever I visit a internet cafe I found Orkut opened on many computers. Orkut seems still favorite among internet cafe users.Comscore has reported total unique visitors, aged 15+, accessing internet from home or work for Facebook as 208,73,000 while for Orkut 198,71,000.Percentage growth of Facebook is 179% while that of Orkut is 16% only, from last year.In my opinion if you include access from mobile phones Facebook may have a wide lead.As a few mobile operators have provided free Facebook access or access plan for Facebook in recent month.

Personally, in last one year I have seen almost all my friends are now available on Facebook. So, Brazil in only prominent country where Orkut still have dominance.This is another reason for Google to come with new social networking site, and their are rumors as well that Google is building “Google Me” to counter Facebook in social networking business.For time being “All is well” for Facebook.

How to know when someone unfriend you on Facebook.

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:39:00 +0000

Facebook has a feature, when you add someone as a friend, it is being shown to everyone in your list.However, it doesn’t tell you when someone removes you from his/her friend list. Earlier there was an application named “Unfriender”, which use to do the job of notifying you when someone removes you from his/her friend list. Facebook seems to have banned “Unfriender” application.

There is another new application which let you know when someone removes you from his/her friend list.Application name is “Unfriend Detector”. You may install it from this url.Additionally, you may choose to get notified by an email when someone “unfriend” you. However, it won’t tell you about the friends who have removed you their list before you installed this application.It only works if someone removes you from his/her list after application is installed.

What to expect in new social network from Google.

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:45:00 +0000

There are a lot of buzz that Google is building a a new social network “Google Me” to counter Facebook.Since 500 million people are on Facebook,there are little incentive for users to make a switch.What Google can possibly do to make the switch? PC World, has a story on it. Highlights from the article.

Before Google Me – Orkut,Buzz and Wave – These services haven’t managed to reach critical mass but some of their features may be part of Google Me.
Privacy – Facebook users have a lot of privacy concern, Google can address it.
Games,Gifts and Third-Party Apps
Finding your niche – Article suggests to start with Google Me will have to cater a niche and initially even Facebook catered for American college.
More user control – More user control to personalize it.

Read complete article on PCWorld.

Convert webpage,doc,docx,xls or anything to PDF using PDFcreator virtual printer

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:59:00 +0000

There are numerous tool available online and offline to convert a particular type of document to PDF.People love PDF because it give sense of inactive document.Also, it is easy to carry PDF for reading purpose.I convert a lot of web pages to PDF just to carry it in my USB drive for printing purpose.

PDFcreator is an open source virtual printer which converts anything like webpage,doc,docx, xls,text file to PDF.It installs as a virtual printer.So if you want to convert a something to PDF all you need to print it using PDFcreator virtual printer

How to procure and install PDFcreator

You can get the software from source forge, http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ .Download the software,you will need to have administrative privilege to install it.Also, if you choose all default settings at install time, besides installing PDFcreator virtual printer installer, it also installs PDFForge toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox.PDFforgetoolbar also redirects all 404 error pages and DNS error to mybrowserbar.com. I don’t like it,so you may choose to deselect these add-on install at the install time.

Installation

start installer, first screen is “choose language” – default is English
Next screen - “welcome to PDFcreator setup wizard”,click next
Next screen - “License Agreement”
Next screen - “Type of Installation” – leave default, Standard Installation
Next screen - “Printer name” – leave default
Next screen “Select Destination Location”, by default it is c:\program files\PDFCreator, modify it if you want.
Next Screen - “PDFcreator Browser Add on” - “Set Yahoo! as my default search engine and notify me of changes” is checked.Uncheck it.Please refer image

Next screen - “Select Components” - “PDFCreator browser add on for Internet explorer and Firefox” checked, Uncheck it.Please refer image

You may choose default setting on subsequent screens.
PDFCreator will be installed as a printer named “PDFCReator” and you can access it from any program using “print” menu.

Did you find this utility useful? please share.

Installing/Creating Ubuntu Linux in Windows using VMware Image

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:38:00 +0000

Use cases :

You are a Windows user who want to experiment with Linux desktop version.
You have used Linux in past and love some of tools/utilities on Linux.You can have a virtual Linux environment.
You are domainer and do a lot of whois query possibly automated using shell scripting,but prefer Windows as primary OS.
You love perl scripting and want to enhance your skill on perl or shell scripting.
You want safe virus free environment for browsing.
There can be number of user case where although you need Primary desktop on Windows but want to have access to Linux as well.

Solutions

You can have more than one machine one for Windows one for Linux.
You can have have dual boot machine. Problem with dual boot is you have to decide at boot time which operating system you want to use.
Third option is running Windows as primary OS and using a virtual machine to run Linux.Virtual machine solutions come from a few companies,however most popular solution is from VMware.

Proposed Solution

Install Vmware player from VMWare and use existing Virtual appliance based on Ubuntu.

Steps

Go to Vmware and download VMWare player for Windows.You will have to register with Vmware for that. https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/?p=player&lp=default . Installation is pretty standard as any Windows install.You will have to login as an account which has administrative privilege on your Windows machine.
Next download VMware virtual appliance/image from a location.I used http://chrysaor.info/?page=images&filter=Ubuntu . Chrysaor.info maintains up to date VMWare images of Ubuntu. Choose latest one, while writing this blog version Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop VMware image is latest. Download size is 1.1 Gb and download is via torrent. So you will need a torrent client.
Downloaded file is in tgz format.You will need an unzip utility to unzip this file,7-zip does the work.You should have at least 8 Gb of space free to download the zip and unzip it.Once you unzip downloaded file it will create a tar file (file with .tar extension).You will again have to use 7-zip to untar it in some folder.Once files are untared you may delete .tar file to save space.
Now start VMware player and choose “open a virtual machine” and browse to the location where you have extracted the file.Choose ubuntu1004desktop.vmx file and open it.
You may customize memory etc.by default it the image allocates 500 Mb of RAM.
Once you added the Ubuntu image to VMware player you may change memory allocation etc using edit virtual machine settings.
You are all done, now you need to start Ubuntu 10.x desktop as guest OS on Windows.Click on Virtual machine just added and then click “play virtual machine”.
When you start virtual machine it may prompt you to download “vmware tools for linux”, you may choose “remind me later”.
Now Ubuntu 10.x is booting,after a few seconds it will stop at login page, a user is displayed with user name “user”.Password for user “user” is “chrysaor.info”.You may change the password after you login.root user password is not set,once you login you terminal to set root password using command “sudo passwd root”.Alternatively, you may use sudo command to perform actions as root.

In case,you you face any difficulty post in comments.

Extracting unzip gzip tar bzip tgz etc on Windows using 7 zip

noreply@blogger.com (anjan) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:33:00 +0000

If you use Windows you must be aware of Winzip utility.Winzip is not free and after evaluation version it forces you to wait for sometime before you may use it. Also, Winzip doesn’t support all type of encrypted files zipped on Unix platform. There are cases where one have to Unzip files on Windows compressed on Unix system.Unix system typically uses tar,bzip2,gzip,tgz format to zip files.
7-zip is free open source alternative which supports files even compressed on Unix system.7-zip provides command line interface as well as GUI based File manager.7-zip supports packing/unpacking of 7z,zip,gzip,bzip2 and tar files.7-zip also support unpacking only of arj,cam,chm,cpio,deb,dmg,hfs,iso,lzh,lzma,msi,nsis,rar,rpm,udf,wim,xar and z files.
I am using 7-zip and I am very happy with this.Please share your experience.You may download 7-zip from http://www.7-zip.org/ website.