Garlic is very common ingredient used in cooking in many parts of the world. In India it’s an undeniable ingredient in almost all the food items that are made using masala. So every cook of Indian kitchen knows the pain of peeling garlic. It’s a messy and time consuming process to peel of all the dead skin layers to get the tasty cloves.

Cooking web site Saveur shows us as easy way to peel an entire garlic in less than 10 seconds using just two bowls.  No knifes, no scissor or any other instruments. Check the embedded video

I’ve not yet tried this trick at home, but looks like very easy one. What do you say?

via Lifehacker (thanks vijay). cc image credit: flickr/lightlady

One of the most annoying features of Facebook  is it’s Social Reader Apps that share automatically whatever your read, watch or listen online.  I don’t like to share what ever I do online to Facebook as I want my privacy.

Few of  my friends knowingly or unknowingly are using Social Reader apps and their online activity is automatically posted to the wall. To read these articles or watch videos shared by Social Reader application I need to add the application and allow it to automatically post.

I don’t like Social Reader Apps and if you are one like me, here is a Google Chrome browser plugin that allows us to bypass Social Reader Apps. The extension Facebook Unsocial Reader smartly rewrites Facebook links in such a way that you will be able to access content of links without adding Social Reader Apps to your account.

To rewrite the links, the extension cleverly uses Google I’m Feeling Lucky service and searches for the article’s title. The first search result of Google is almost perfect in identifying the original article link. If you are a heavy Facebook user and concerned about using Social Reader Apps, this plugin is must to have. Photo (cc) Josh Hallett.

Facebook Unsocial Reader Extension for Google Chrome

What makes Google Drive attractive is it ability to play nice with other Google offerings like Google Docs, GMail, Android mobiles & tablets. Google Drive is well integrated with Google Docs and every document you create is automatically saved on Google Drive.

Google Drive’s integration with other services like GMail may be in progress at Google, but enthusiastic community developers has released a plugin to integrate with GMail. The Google Chrome plugin “Gmail Attachments To Drive” lets you automatically save GMail attachments to Google Drive with a single click.

Once the plugin is installed it adds a link “Save To Drive” next to each attachment displayed on GMail and on clicking, it automatically saves the files to Google Drive. I tested the plugin by saving attachments like PDFs, MS Word documents and Images to Google Drive and it worked very well. 

I don’t have any complaints on the plugin except couple of feature requests. If the plugin can provide option “Save All Files To Drive” it will be very much helpful to save all attachment of an email at one shot. Also it would be great if the developer can extend it to Firefox too. Anyways it’s a great plugin for Google Drive users and worth checking it out.

Install Gmail Attachments To Drive for Google Chrome

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan is known for his dedication and hard work in inspiring millions of viewers though movies by discussing social problems and motivating people to solve them. His movie Rang De Basanthi seeded Indian anti-corruption movement, Tare Zameen Par touched the problems faced by few challenged kids and the latest movie 3 idiots exposed how education institutions in India are producing lakhs of Donkeys out of colleges every year.

He extended his dedication of serving the society to small screen with the launch of reality TV show Satyamev Jayate. Before you start misjudging it as one of those non sense drama / entertaining reality shows, let me tell you that it is not a typical music, games, fight or dance reality show. Satyamev Jayate is all about the real people of India, their problems and how to tackle them.  This is not just a reality show, its movement to educate people about the social evils.

Its been many years since I spent couple of hours  in front of TV as most of the programs are too cynical or does not add much value.  In my childhood I use to anxiously wait for Mahabarath or He-Man TV shows to start but after a two decades I waited anxiously for the start of Satyamev Jayate. The wait was worth and the 1 hours 30 minutes spent watching it meaningful. When was the last time you were so satisfied after watching a TV show and inspired to do something? I don’t remember.

Today, the show focused on female foeticide and its impact. It showed women who were tortured and forced to abort female foetuses. On the show few brave women shared their experiences of giving birth to girl babies and rough times they are going through with their in-laws & husbands.

The show not only focused on the problem but also on the root cause of the evil,  inspiring people working to tackle it and what every individual can do his part to solve it. 

The best part of the show is,  its not a blame game. When there is a problem most of the people quickly get into identifying who is wrong and start blaming them instead of solve the actual problem.  Aamir did not blame anyone for female foeticide – neither the government who don’t impose strict rules, nor the doctors who abort girl babies to make money or the mother-in-laws & husbands who torcher girl baby mothers are blamed.

He careful highlighted the problem, showed horrifying statistics and their impact on the future society and few inspiring people working to tackle the problem.  He touched heart and stirred a movement against the issue. First time ever I voted for a reality show through SMS and it’s for Satyamev Jayate. I’m proud to do so.

Here are the few reactions of popular people, activists & media about the program

@aamir_khan absolutely the best program I have seen on TV in recent past. Thanku for converting an idiot box into an inspirationsl medium

— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) May 6, 2012

Satyamev Jayate proves tht TV 2 can b a tool of social change.

— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) May 6, 2012

i absolutely loved #satyamevjayate. at least aamir is doing what all of us only talk about.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 6, 2012

Now Television will no longer be called an idiot box,the VISION of Television broadens up with#SatyamevJayate !!!

— Madhur Bhandarkar (@mbhandarkar268) May 6, 2012

The Sunday 11am slot seems to have come back with a bang… #SatyamevJayate

— atul kasbekar (@atulkasbekar) May 6, 2012

I was spellbound, says Prasoon Joshi – It’s a unique show. I was completely bowled over by it. It’s a never-done before concept

Aamir Khan strikes the right chord with Satyamev Jayate – The format is quite crisp. Talking about the emotional connect, there are moments when your eyes well up with tears, but the various segments ensure there’s more content than emotional drama

‘Satyamev Jayate’ gutsy, sensible show: Viewers – From filmmakers to clinical psychologists to professors – everyone has given the thumbs up to Aamir Khan’s television show ‘Satyamev Jayate’, saying it is a gutsy, hard-hitting and sensible programme that strikes an emotional chord with the audiences.

Aamir Khan’s TV debut ‘Satyamev Jayate’ takes Twitter by storm – The roads of the capital sported a deserted look around 11 am on Sunday morning, as everyone was hooked on to their TV sets.

Did you watch the program? What is your opinion? I’m waiting for next 11 AM of next Sunday. Are you?

Google’s latest cloud offering Google Drive provides 5GB of free storage to let you store documents, spread sheets, photos and other stuff and access them using a variety of devices – PCs, Macs, smartphones and tablets.

You can also set up offline access to Google Drive so that you can access files on the move even if you don’t have access to internet connection. To access Google Drive offline you need Chrome browser and here are the simple steps to be followed for setting up.

Step 1:  Login to Google Drive and click the gear icon in the upper right of your window.

Step 2: Select Set up Docs offline from the drop-down menu. The “Set up offline viewing of Google Docs” dialog will appear

Step 3:  Authorize Google Chrome to store your Google Drive content by clicking on “Allow offline docs” and then install “Docs Chrome web app” by clicking on “Install from Chrome web store”. You’ll be taken to the Chrome web store, where you’ll need to click Install on the right-hand side of the browser window.

Step 4: Once the app is installed, you’ll be taken to a Chrome page with the Google Docs app icon. Click the icon to go back to your Documents List.

Google Chrome take few minutes to prepare Google Drive for offline access by downloading all the files to your local computer. Once it’s completed, you can access Google Drive files offline.

To access files of Google Drive offline point your Chrome browser to drive.google.com. When offline your Google Docs stored on Google Drive are available in view only mode. You can open Google Documents, Spread sheets & Presentations and see the content but you can’t edit them.

Space lovers here is a rare event you don’t want to miss. On June 5th or 6th of 2012,depending on which part of the globe you live, the planet Venus will pass across Sun and it will not happen again until 2117.

During the six hour long spectacular transit you can see the shadow of Venus cross Sun. The transit of Venus occurs in pairs eight years apart, with the previous one taking place in 2004. The next pair of transits occurs after 105.5 & 121.5 years later.

The best place to watch the event would be a planetarium nearby with telescope facility. If not you watch it directly but must protect your eyes at all times with proper solar filters.

Where can we see the transit?

The transit of Venus is going to be clearly visible in Europe, Asia, United States and some part of Australia. Americans will be able to see transit in the evening of Tuesday, June 5, 2012. Eurasians and Africans can see the transit in the morning of June 6, 2012.

At what time the event occurs?

The principal events occurring during a transit are conveniently characterized by contacts, analogous to the contacts of an annular solar eclipse. The transit begins with contact I, the instant the planet’s disk is externally tangent to the Sun. Shortly after contact I, the planet can be seen as a small notch along the solar limb. The entire disk of the planet is first seen at contact II when the planet is internally tangent to the Sun. Over the course of several hours, the silhouetted planet slowly traverses the solar disk. At contact III, the planet reaches the opposite limb and once again is internally tangent to the Sun. Finally, the transit ends at contact IV when the planet’s limb is externally tangent to the Sun.

Event         Universal
                Time
Contact I      22:09:38
Contact II     22:27:34
Greatest       01:29:36
Contact III    04:31:39
Contact IV     04:49:35       

Transit of Venus animation

Here is a nice video animation on the transit of Venus

Map courtesy of Steven van Roode, source NASA

Norton, one of the most popular antivirus software Antivirus is now available as a free download with 6 months of subscription. Thanks to Facebook for teaming up with Symantec and providing Norton Antivirus 2012 for free to all its users.

To grab your copy of Free antivirus, point your browser to http://us.norton.com/ps/loem/EN/Facebook/index.html and click on the download link. Without asking for any personal details or registration the download starts and you can follow the on screen instructions to install the antivirus.

The antivirus is compatible with Windows PC and MAC OS. I tried installing on Windows 7 and the installation process started without any issues. But on Windows 8, the installer stopped after verifying the system requirements.

The special offer also extends to Norton 360  which is available 50% discounted price. The original price for 1 year subscription of Norton 360 is around $90 and for Facebook users it’s available at $44.99.

Update: Facebook is in partnership with many other antivirus vendors and providing antivirus software for free of cost. The other products are available for 6 months or more free subscription are: McAfee, Sophos Antivirus, Trend Micro. Please visit Facebook Security AV Market place for more details.

Related: 5 Free Antivirus Applications For Windows

It’s a great day for Microsoft and Nokia who are working hard to resurrect Windows Phone. Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple and gadget lover, has all praise for Windows Phone after using Nokia Lumia 900 for a while. He shared his experience of using Lumia powered by Windows Phone 7.5 in a interview and he is very impressed.

Here are the few good quotes from the interview

Just for looks and beauty, I definitely favor the Windows 7 Phone over Android.

I’m kinda shocked how every screen is much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone.

I’m just shocked, I haven’t seen anything yet that isn’t more beautiful than the other platforms.

It’s more intuitive and beautiful.

This is going to change the perception of Windows Phone  which is seen  as “not-so good” operating system for mobiles.  Along with these high profile endorsements, if Microsoft can manage to attract developers in building good apps then Windows Phone is going to be a fitting competitor to iOS and Android.

via aNewDomain

XOLO X900, XOLO’s offering the world’s first smart phone with the power of Intel inside® shaking hands with LAVA International Ltd., India’s fastest growing handset brands. The R&D Centre is in Shenzhan (China) and Bangalore (India).

The smart phone has a fast web browsing with the 1.6 GHz Intel processor and smooth multi-tasking process using Intel patented Hyper Threading technology.It has an optimum battery usage, 4.03” hi-resolution of 1024X600 pixels LCD screen to ensure crisp text and vibrant images, HDMI Output port for TV, full HD 1080p playback and dual speakers. It has a camera of 8MP HD camera with certain DSLR like features allowing to click upto 10 photos in less than a second. 3D and HD gaming is immensely realistic with 400 MHz Graphics Processing Unit. The Operating System used here is Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and upgradable to Android 4.0. It has the GPS facility and rear and front cameras with 8MP and 1.3MP respectively.  They have enabled Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Ambient light sensor and Proximity sensor in this smart phone.

Intel’s smartphone venture is beginning in India first. It is said to be available for sale in Indian from April 23, 2011 onwards. The price is at a best-buy price of INR 22,000 approximately. The smartphone will be available at the Indian retail chain Croma. The phone will available in other retail stores and online stores from early May. The company is launching the smartphone in India first and a more powerful handset in China later this year. According to their success in India and China, Intel is planning to come into Europe and US market. Till then, Intel smartphones are only for Indian buyers.
You can more technical information from the XOLO’s site.

Yesterday I wrote about OpenStack project, an open source cloud computing stack that lets you build Cloud Computing environments. While reading more on this topic I stumbled about a new type of projects called DevOps projects.  OpenStack is all set to become the first DevOps project, reports Forbes

…the way OpenStack is applying the open source model to creating cloud infrastructure, the open source model is on the verge of being extended so that the collaboration and design process will include software, hardware, and networking in the data center as well as operational processes.

In modern development, the idea of designing software, data center, and operations using one integrated team is called DevOps.