Tech Pedia

TrashMail for Temporary Email Addresses

Abhinav Kaiser — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:09:25 +0000

Many forums in particular ask us to register if we want to access any data imbibed in them. The whole process of registering is one part of the headache while dealing with mails sent from these forums is another. To counter these dirty forums, introducing to you, a free service – TrashMail.

The concept is simple and ideal for people like me who look to register on umpteen forums. It provides you with a temporary email address (@trashmail.net). You will have to specify your actual email address where you need the mails to get forwarded to. Once done, you can specify limits, in terms of number of emails to be forwarded and the time period. Once either of them expires, your trashmail account gets deleted. Plain and simple!

I have just started using this service and find it extremely useful. My only concern at this point of time is not get spammed by TrashMail instead. I don’t want to hire a monster to slay a giant.

iPhone 8x Telescope with Tripod!

om — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:03:53 +0000

This is a great piece of news for the telescope and iPhone lovers, as Iphone accessory offers a feature that includes a telescope, which has the capacity to zoom up to 6x.

Iphone 8x Telescope with Tripod

The latest product features advanced 8x optical zoom and it comes along with a tripod.

The main advantages in the Iphone 8x telescopic with tripod include manual focus adjustment, which avoids contortion of images, and it is detachable from the crystal case.

Apart from the 8x optical zooming feature, the device comes with a stand for taking movies and pictures.

This unique iPhone accessory is compatible with both iPhone 3GS and 3G models. It can be yours for just $28.99!

Definitely sounds like a superb deal at this price, doesn’t it?

So, what are you waiting for? Go grab one for your iPhone right away!

Eco-Otome Toilet Sound Blocker – Save Water!

om — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:58:32 +0000

Here comes an awesome device for tech geeks, the Eco-Otome toilet sound blocker, which you can use to block the weird sounds you make in toilet and even to save the earth by saving the most precious natural resource – of course we’re talking about WATER!

Eco-Otome Toilet Sound Blocker

The device actually makes the sound of toilet flushing when pressed twice, hiding the noises made by you. The sound lasts for about 25 seconds and can be stopped by double pressing it again. So, don’t use the toilet flush unnessarily and waste water just for the heck of blocking those ugly noises that you make inside your friend’s/relative toilet.

A small and mobile device, Eco-Otome Toilet Sound Blocker comes in three cute designs which can be used as a simple keychain. The design in Pink has a love mark on it, while the other, Blue has a ribbon and White has the slogan saying ‘Save the earth’.

One of the funniest offerings for tech geeks, ain’t it?

How To Use Windows Special Keys In Linux

Weston Campbell — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:14:25 +0000

Why are all the new keyboards sold with special Windows keys on them? How about making them do real keyboard functions while in X Window? Here is how.

First you need to find out which key mapping you are using. Usually it will be US, it might also be en_US, ca or else. Locate the file, usually in /usr/X11/lib/X11/xkb and edit it with your favorite editor. For me the file is called /usr/X11/lib/X11/xkb/symbols/ca.

The file lists all the key codes and what they do. The key codes for the Win95 special keys are LWIN, RWIN and MENU. All you need to do is add them to the list, with the functions for them. I decided to map the left WIN key to “@” and the right WIN key and MENU keys to “{” and “}”. Here are the lines I added:

key { [ braceleft ] };
key { [ at ] };
key
{ [ braceright ] };

By browsing the file you can find all the other symbols and what they do. You can also add multiple functions to a key, by using ALT and SHIFT.

The changes will take effect when you restart X Window. With the XKB extension (you do need to have it enabled in /etc/XF86Config btw) it’s easy to change the mapping of any key.

Next Gen Alarm Clock for Sport Enthusiasts & Geeks!

om — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:18:33 +0000

Are you one of those racing buffs, who enjoy the sound of engines 24×7? Well, then this alarm clock is especially designed and developed for the racing enthusiasts like you, who get more excited when they come across different sounds from the car engine. If you are really a car lover, you are likely to wake up with the sound of V8 engine – check it out!

The new alarm clock will wake you up with the exhilarating sound of a high powered V8 engine.

If you are still don’t respond to the alarm bell, the device will increase its RPM as it continues through four gears to maximum speed.

The sound from the alarm clock will grow along with the intensity, until you press the stop or snooze button!

The new device has been designed and produced considering minute details of a car, where there will be tachometer next to the digital clock.

The other noteworthy feature of this alarm clock is its headlight, which gets illuminated when pressed. It also features with an AM/FM radio.

So, go get one for yourself, and start everyday with the sound of your favourite V8 engine!!

How To Detect Two Ethernet Cards in Linux

Weston Campbell — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:13:08 +0000

To configure an ethernet card in Linux, you need to enable it in the kernel. Then the kernel will detect your ethernet card if it is at a common IO port. But it will stop there, and will never check if you have 2 ethernet cards.

The trick is to tell the ethernet driver that there are 2 cards in the system. The following line will tell the kernel that there is an ethernet card at IRQ 10 and IO 0×300, and another one at IRQ 9 and IO 0×340:

ether=10,0×300,eth0 ether=9,0×340,eth1

You can add that line on bootup at the “boot:” prompt, or in the /etc/lilo.conf file. Don’t forget to run:

lilo

That will reload the lilo.conf file and enable changes.

HP Snapfish and Yahoo Flickr are Partners Now!

Abhinav Kaiser — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:26:04 +0000

HP’s Snapfish and Yahoo’s Flickr have entered into a partnership which will enable Flickr users to order prints directly from the website, through Snapfish. Users don’t have to leave the Flickr website to order prints by the way.

There are some partnerships that makes us scratch our heads in disbelief, trying to understand the motive behind it. But, alliances like the HP Yahoo one, are highly strategic and are always on the cards.

Yahoo printing used to serve users in the US earlier. Now, I believe that Yahoo printing will go down the drain as Snapfish is responsible for all printing orders across the globe including US. Additionally, users in US can order online and pick them up from retail chains that includes Wallgreens, Walmart, Staples amongst others.

Rim Blackberry Bluetooth Watch!

om — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:04:49 +0000

For the BlackBerry users here’s a great wrist watch that receives alerts whenever new messages have been received on their smartphones, via Bluetooth connectivity. These alerts can be received even if you are at some distance from the phone.

The concept of BlackBerry Bluetooth Wrist Watch was first rumoured in August this year.

But, now it’s official that the Rim Blackberry Bluetooth Watch is for real, and it is expected to come out pretty soon as an amazing accessory for BlackBerry fans.

Some of the salient features of the watch include a nice OLED display that makes it enough for you to be alerted of your new messages.

The name of this fascinating watch will be BlackBerry inPulse.

There are no other details available regarding its release and pricing yet, but one thing is for sure that this amazing bluetooth watch is going to be a revolutionary product from the house of Blackberry.

So, keep an eye on its release and grab one of these for your Blackberry phone.

TomTom unable to find signal: Troubleshooting Your TomTom GPS Device

om — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:13:34 +0000

TomTom may be unable to find signal even in the middle of the city, and suddenly you may find yourself in the middle of nowhere (if you’re in an unknown city totally dependant on your GPS). Here’s an insight to the problems and few quick ways of troubleshooting your TomTom GPS device.

Of course, the GPS fix is the officially recommended solution given by TomTom, but there’s no assurance that it will work for everybody.

TomTom also recommends you to download TomTom Home Software, though before you proceed you should be wary that it could be quite painful, especially if your internet connectivity isn’t too fast. Many a time, the download won’t start automatically, so you must be patient enough to download it.

Leaving apart the st have standard steps suggested by TomTom, here are some quick troubleshooting steps, which have been known to be quite effective in fixing this issue.

- Reset the device when problem occurs.

- Charge the TomTom unit completely.

- Don’t turn it on immediately: Place the unit somewhere in open, perhaps on top of your car for sometime.

- Turn it on, and wait for it to lock on to a satellite and receive maximum signal.
- Now use it: There are good chances that you won’t encounter this problem for quite sometime.

Note: Stale GPS data and inability to update GPS at a particular instance usually triggers the problem, and TomTom unable to find signal on account of the same!

Microsoft Word not responding: Here’s Some Help!

om — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:26:00 +0000

Are you sick of looking at the “Microsoft word not responding” error? Well, there may be several reasons behind the same. so here’s an insight to the problem and its possible remedies.

The frequent MS Word users must have come across the disgusting error message “Microsoft Word not responding”, and seen the hour glass several times, as MS Word gets hanged and when you try to click close button, it crashes off.

Sure thing, MS Word (All versions after 2000) is extremely stable, but many a times, the third party applications may be the culprit behind unexpected crashing of MS word.

Therefore, the very first thing that you should do is to identify any add-on third party app that you might be using in sync with MS Word. To do so, you can start Word in safe mode and then turn off these third party add-ons, and reboot your system to check the outcome.

Here’s how you can start MS Office suite in user-initiated safe mode –

Click Start >> point to All Programs >> Microsoft Office >> Press and hold the CTRL key >> click on MS Word (or any Microsoft Office program that you want to run).

Once you’re done with disabling the third party add-ons, you can exit the program to stop User-Initiated Safe mode, and you’re good to proceed normally.