Techno Reel - Latest News About Technology

Get SMS Alerts for your New Mail with Gmail and Hotmail

2011-01-29T09:25:00.001+05:30

Now, There is a Technique to Get SMS Alerts to your Mobile

steganography - How to Hide a data with in an Image ?

2010-12-28T12:04:00.000+05:30

Remember those invisible ink kits from when you were a kid? You'd write a secret message that no one could see unless they had a black light or the decoder marker. The digital equivalent of invisible ink is steganography software, apps that embed files and data inside other files, hidden from everyone who doesn't know any better.

You don't have to be a trained spy plotting international espionage to put steganography to good use. With some free tools for both the Mac and PC, you can embed secret information in image, PDF, HTML and MP3 files for fun or profit.

Why stego?

Unlike encryption, which obscures data in such a way that it's obvious someone's keeping something from listeners-in (and therefore heightens interest in that info), stego techniques offer no hint to the outsider that there's any private data contained within the visible file. Like hiding your valuables from burglars in an empty cereal box in your kitchen cabinet, steganography keeps the existence of the secret item from everyone but those in the know.

In fact, right here in this Lifehacker logo image, there's a message hidden for you:

Here's how to go about decoding it.

Hide in Picture (Windows)

The free Hide in Picture (Windows only) embeds files into GIF or BMP images, and lets you set a password to retrieve the hidden file. The Hide in Picture interface is barebones, as you can see:

Use Hide in Picture to decode the message hidden in the image above. (Hint: the password is lhacker.)

Other free Windows tools offer more filetype support. wbStego can encode and decode files in PDF's, HTML files or bitmaps. mp3stegoembeds text inside MP3 files (command line and GUI interface available.) Here are more Windows stego software options [via Webby's World]. Be warned: while all of these tools work, none of them will win awards for being good-looking.

Pict Encrypt (Mac)

Similarly, the free Pict Encrypt (Mac only, thanks, Mirko!) adds text to GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PNG and MacPICT images, locks it with a password, and saves the file with hidden data as a PICT file. Its interface is a simple, barebones wizard that leads you through the encrypt and decrypt process. One difference between Pict Encrypt and Hide in Picture is that you don't embed another file; you actually enter your secret text into the Pict Encrypt wizard, as shown.

Pict Encrypt's text editor is pretty low level; some text navigation keys like Cmd-right arrow don't work, so be prepared.

Command line - cat your gif and zip

Finally, for those of you comfortable on the command line, reader Jason H. writes in with a nifty stego trick using built-in tools. The premise of this technique is to append a .zip file to the end of a .gif file, resulting in a file which is readable by both .gif programs and .zip programs.

Jason explains why this works (with the help, he says, from a long-lost thread atSomething Awful):

It works because .gif files keep all of their information in the headers, while .zip files keep them in the footer. Since that's the case, .gif viewers read from the front of the file, while .zip readers read from the end.

Here's how to combine your .gif and .zip. At the Windows prompt use this command:

copy /B source.gif+source.zip target.gif

Or in Linux/Mac:

cat somefile.zip >> somefile.gif

The problem with this method is that not all zip programs can extract the resulting file. When I tried, both 7-Zip and Windows built-in extraction failed, but WinRAR handled it just fine. Still, that's something the intended recipient should know.

For double super-duper security, password the zip file that you hide inside the image. WinRAR and 7-Zip both let you add passwords to a zip archive.

Uses for stego

So now that you know how to hide files in files, why would you do it? Here are a few uses for stego:

You suspect someone's illegally distributing your copyrighted PDF's or images, so you add hidden copyright information in them using stego tools to double-check.
You want to exchange information like passwords or sensitive images over an insecure transmission protocol, like email.
You want to embed secret files available only to a select few in a public forum.
You want to impress your friends and co-workers with your sneaky ways.

Got any tales of steganographical goodness? Let us know in the comments. Now, go forth and have fun with your new invisible ink, ya big sneak.

SOURCE & COURTESY : LIFE HACKER . Thank you Life Hacker for this Informative Post

How Twitter acquires people ?

2010-12-22T09:35:00.000+05:30

When is an acquisition not an acquisition? When Twitter’s involved, apparently.

The microblogging company announced today that it had “acquired the team at Fluther, Inc.” Fluther makes a question-and-answer site, a popular category of Web startup as of late. (See Hunch or Quora for examples of better-funded competitors.)

When I asked Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner what kind of deal it had actually struck, she characterized the event as a “talent acquisition.” I pointed out that there’s no such thing, really, as a talent acquisition: Either a company acquires or merges another company and takes on its employment obligations, or it hires employees as individuals. I also pointed out that under the U.S. Constitution, acquiring people was technically illegal.

The conversation pretty much devolved from there, and apologies were later issued by Twitter direct message. (Sorry, Carolyn, I can get pretty pedantic, I know.)

Apologies aside, Penner didn’t shed any further light on the deal, but an insider deeply familiar with the workings of the Twitterverse told me that Twitter hired five people who worked at Fluther, but didn’t actually acquire the company or any of its assets. That squares with Twitter’s blog post, which noted it wouldn’t be taking on the Fluther.com website, but wouldn’t be shutting it down, either.

So what does this mean? In the absence of clear statements from Twitter, one can only speculate. A strong possibility is that Twitter’s concerned about looking cheap — hiring people away from a startup usually costs less than buying it. Twitter may also want to avoid being seen as the force responsible for shutting down a site with a voluble community of users, as Facebook was with the recent “talent acquisitions” of Drop.io and Hot Potato.

It’s an irony that these services, devoted to creating cultures of openness, transparency, and sharing, can’t come out and state the obvious: a lot of startups are failing to gain traction, and they’re happy to snap up engineers, but they’re not going to dilute their shareholders or spend their cash actually acquiring smaller companies. Dressing up this event as an “acquisition” makes it sound fancy, and may salve the feelings of the new hires.

There’s a lot of awkward terms for these admittedly awkward exits from a startup: “manquisitions,” “acq-hires,” “talent acquisitions.” We at VentureBeat stand for brutal honesty, however, and prefer to call them what they are: “engineers who need jobs.”

SOURCE : Venture Beat Thankyou For the Post, Venture Beat.. !!

Wikileaks have Now Competition with Open Leaks on Net

2010-12-15T10:29:00.001+05:30

Wikileaks have Now Competition with Open Leaks on Net, It seems that the organization WikiLeaks will have a competitor going forward. According to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, several people who resigned from the project due to conflicts with the founder Julian Assange are planning to open a new site next Monday (13), the Openleaks.

One of the organizers of the project, who asked to remain anonymous, said in an interview to the newspaper that their goal is the long term, build a solid platform to support complainants and transparent and at the same time, encourage others to start similar actions. “The short term goal is to complete the technical infrastructure that ensures the organization continues to be governed democratically by all its members, rather than being limited to a group or individual,” he explained. The newspaper said the former partner of the WikiLeaks – Assange – was left because of “management style” of the founder and personal problems that were hindering the work of the team.

The Openleaks will not post information directly received, but will allow the media and other organizations to access the system to disclose internal documents made available through the site. The group will serve as a neutral intermediary, no political agenda, which could minimize the problems with governments.

The news of the opening of Openleaks came amid a troubled period for the WikiLeaks: Julian Assange was arrested in London on charges of sexual abuse, the infrastructure of the site was disconnected by the provider and the donations that fund the site were temporarily blocked by the PayPal site.

The former "number two" man of WikiLeaks, German citizen Mr Domscheit-Berg, is to launch on Monday OpenLeaks. The domain name services for OpenLeaks.org and OpenLeaks.net are thus far provided in Malaysia.

The idea of OpenLeaks is to provide a site where whistle-blowers can anonymously and securely leak information in the public interest, and choose which media organisations that they wish to publish their material.

OpenLeaks thus hopes to avoid some of the controversy and dangers associated with being a direct publisher as WikiLeaks, leaving that role to news publishers.

OpenLeaks says it will work with other media organisations, something that WikiLeaks was reluctant to do until recently, and then alienated existing independent and alternative news networks on the Internet by working exclusively with only a handful of media organisations, some of which already had a poor reputation.

Criticism of WikiLeaks over the Afghanistan massive file leak has not borne out in reality regarding concern for lives and security of informants, and more recent criticism of the extensive censorship of files leaked concerning Iraq "the Iraq War logs" has partly been muted via the more piece-meal release of U.S. embassy cables, called "Cablegate".

Wikileaks has started releasing classified United States diplomatic cables sent to and from US embassies in countries throughout the world. These cables include orders sent out from the Department of State, embassy reporting about the local governments and details of US government activities in each country.

Wikileaks says it will publish 251,287 cables, originating from 274 embassies and dating from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010. Of this total, 15, 652 of the cables are marked Secret, 101,748 Confidential and 133,887 Unclassified, although even the 'unclassified' documents contain sensitive information.

So far over 1,000 have been published, with around 100 being released once each day. While this has now received more wide-spread popular support, governments around the world have become worried, as the cables largely expose their subservient relationships to the United States.

OpenLeaks does not see itself as a "competitor" to WikiLeaks, since what it will be doing is fundamentally different. "What we’re aiming at is fundamentally so different that we don’t see it as competition", Domscheit-Berg said.

When Andy Greenberg of Forbes asked WikiLeaks founder, spokesman and editor Julian Assange last month about his thoughts on Domscheit-Berg’s project last month, he also rejected the “competition” idea. “The supply of leaks is very large,” said Assange. “It’s helpful for us to have more people in this industry. It’s protective to us.”

Look for OpenLeaks at www.openleaks.org and www.openleaks.netstarting Monday 13th December, 2010.

COURTESY : http://mathaba.net and http://viewstonews.com . Thank you for the Post

Arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

2010-12-11T13:41:00.000+05:30

The founder of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been refused bail by a court in London but vowed to fight extradition to Sweden - but what are the issues involved?

Why has Julian Assange been arrested?

Mr Assange has been arrested under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) because he has been accused of committing serious crimes in Sweden.

These alleged crimes comprise one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation, and one count of rape. The offences are alleged to involve two women and to have taken place in August 2010. Mr Assange denies the allegations.
The European Arrest Warrant scheme was incorporated into the Extradition Act 2003. It was a response to the 11 September attacks and the raised terrorist threat in Europe.
It is designed to promote co-operation between prosecuting authorities across Europe and provides for a much simpler extradition process between member states.

Why has he been refused bail? How usual is this, particularly given that he has not been charged?

Mr Assange has been refused bail because District Judge Howard Riddle made a finding that he had the "means and ability" to abscond, and that he was satisfied that there were "substantial grounds to believe if I granted bail, he would fail to surrender".
He also said that he believed Mr Assange "may be at risk from unstable persons".
The judge would also have taken account of the seriousness of the alleged offences. It is a general rule that the more serious the alleged offences, the higher the risk of a person absconding.
It is not unusual for non-British nationals to be refused bail pending their extradition hearing. Indeed, the fact that they are non-British is sometimes seen by the courts as making them a 'flight risk'.

What happens next?

There is another hearing on 14 December 2010. This is unlikely to be the full extradition hearing. That should take place within 21 days of the arrest.
However, in a case as high profile as this, it is possible that a full extradition hearing will not take place for several months.
At that hearing Mr Assange will be able to challenge the warrant and raise any defences to the extradition request.
The key grounds on which a court can refuse an extradition request under the EAW scheme are technical.
For example, that you are not the person named in the EAW, that it has not been properly completed, or that the time limit for prosecuting the offence has expired.

What evidence will the UK take into account? Will it consider the defence claims that the accusations against Mr Assange are politically motivated?

Yes. Under Section 13 of the Extradition Act 2003 a person's extradition is barred if there is evidence to prove that the warrant, though purporting to be issued on account of the alleged sexual offences, is in fact issued for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing Mr Assange on account of his political opinions.
Alternatively, extradition is barred if it can be proved that Mr Assange might be prejudiced at his trial or punished, detained or restricted in his liberty, by reason of his political opinions.
Mr Assange's lawyer Mark Stephens has made it clear that extradition will be challenged on these grounds. He has said that "this appears to be a persecution and prosecution".
He has also claimed that an initial decision to drop the rape investigation was reversed after the intervention of a 'political' figure, Claes Borgstrom, who is now acting for the two women involved.
There will also clearly be enormous focus on the wider political issues thrown up by the Wikileaks revelations.
The English courts have stopped extradition on grounds of political motivation. For example, in a number of cases involving requests by Russia for the extradition of Russian nationals, they have found that the warrants were politically motivated.
However, Sweden is a very different country from Russia, and mounting a defence on these grounds may prove far more challenging for Mr Assange's legal team.

Can he challenge a decision to extradite him? How long might the process take?

Yes. There is a right to appeal the decision to extradite. This appeal would be heard by the Administrative Court.
A notice of appeal must be lodged within seven days of the decision to extradite. The Administrative Court should hear the appeal within 40 days of the notice being lodged. However, in practice this can often take three to four months.
It is possible to appeal from the Administrative Court to the Supreme Court, but only if the Administrative Court certifies that the appeal involves a point of law of general public importance and either it, or the Supreme Court grants leave to appeal.
It is then possible to appeal against the decision of the Supreme Court to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
During an extended appeals process, there is also a very limited scope to bring judicial reviews of certain aspects of the extradition procedure. If this was done however, it would add time to the overall appeals process, which in total could take up to a year.

What would happen if the United States made a request to extradite Mr Assange from the UK?

When there are two competing claims to extradite someone, the home secretary has to decide which takes precedence. In making that decision, he or she will take into account the relative seriousness of the offences for which the person's extradition is sought, where the offences were committed, and the timing of the two requests.
Extradition to the United States is governed by the Extradition Act 2003. This provisions governing extradition between the two countries has been criticised for creating a lop-sided relationship under which the United States no longer has to provide prima facie evidence - normally in the form of witness statements - that an offence has been committed.
That criticism was voiced in relation to the case of the so called 'Nat West Three'.
If Mr Assange is extradited to Sweden and the United States wanted to extradite him from there, they would need the consent of the United Kingdom.
Such an extradition would be conducted in accordance with Swedish law and the extradition arrangements agreed between Sweden and the United States.
It has been suggested that it would be easier for the United States to extradite Mr Assange from Sweden than from the United Kingdom.
This does not appear to be the case as the United States would have to show that there were reasonable grounds for the extradition from Sweden. This is arguably a higher test than the test which applies when an extradition is sought from the United Kingdom.

COURTESY : BBC News UK You Can Read the Full Post Here...

Locate Lost i phone from Find my i phone, But thieves can easily Disable

2010-12-06T17:26:00.001+05:30

Over the weekend, Livejournal blogger HappyWaffle (real name Kevin), posted a great story about how he purportedly used Apple's MobileMe service to track down his iPhone, which was stolen while he was at a bar. By using a laptop with a Sprint EVDO wireless data card, he and his friends figured out where it was and managed to get it back from the person who had taken it. They even usedGoogle Translate to alert the thief (in multiple languages) that they would call the police if the device was not returned.

As good as the story is, a lot of it relies on iPhone owners having certain settings flipped on, as well as the person who has the phone not knowing the right ones to turn off. For one, they can disable all of the MobileMe features by simply yanking the SIM card out or deleting the MobileMe account from the phone. They can also perform a software wipe right on the phone, which means your data gets erased, however that means you can no longer track where it is without carrier intervention.

This isn't the main thing to worry about though; it's that MobileMe's capability to locate your phone hinges on you having the 'Find My iPhone' setting enabled on the phone itself. This lets the device maintain a constant connection with Apple's servers to provide that neat-o, real-time tracking and instant receipt of messages you send it. With this and push messaging turned off, (both are changes that can be made without any sort of MobileMe, or iPhone password check) the service can no longer locate the phone.

Turning this and push messaging off can make your iPhone harder to track down if it's been stolen.

(Credit: CNET)

As a side effect of this, both the capability to perform a remote wipe of all your data, and send whoever has your device a message can be put off indefinitely if push has been turned off. When off, any messages you've sent (which would normally arrive a second or two after being sent from the MobileMe site) get delivered the next time your phone does a fetch for mail from MobileMe. This means that if you've got it set to check mail manually, whoever has your phone would not be alerted with those messages until they opened up the mail application. And if you've got a pass code lock on your phone, it means they'll never arrive.

As a solution, Apple could allow users to remotely change certain phone settings, such as when the device checks for mail, or lock it down to only be able to use certain applications. Also, instead of wiping the phone entirely, it would be fantastic to enable the passcode unlock remotely. This would keep users from accessing personal data without the code.

Another key thing that needs to be changed is the way users can interact with incoming messages that are sent to the device. In Kevin's experience, he tried several times to get the thief to call a specific number by sending it in the SMS-like messages that can be sent from the MobileMe site. The problem with these, however, is that as soon as you click on the big "okay" button to dismiss them, they're gone for good. Unlike SMS messages, which get stored on the device, the only record of these comes as a carbon-copied e-mail to your MobileMe account. They also do not allow you to copy and paste text, or click on a phone number to dial it.

So do these things kill some of the utility of the Find My iPhone feature? No way. There's plenty of room to expand on them, and despite the aforementioned shortcomings, I still think it's one of the most useful features of the service, if not one of the main reasons to invest in it. It just needs a few tweaks to go beyond the all-or-nothing remote wipe solution, and outsmart tech-savvy thieves who know their way around the settings menu.

Note: Updated language on the process of wiping user data from the phone.

Courtesy : http://news.cnet.com/ Thankyou CNET for the Informative Post

What is QR Code and what is its Use ? Know about QR Code

2010-12-02T09:42:00.003+05:30

A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.

Common in Japan, where it was created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994, the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. QR is the abbreviation for Quick Response, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context, including both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users (known as mobile tagging). QR Codes can be used to display text to the user, to add a vCard contact to the user's device, to open a URI or to compose a text message or email. Users can also generate and print their own QR Code for others to scan and use by visiting one of several free QR Code generating sites. Frank C. Hudetz, a US Marketing Services Professional, claims to have invented the idea of mapping bar codes to a URL.

QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or on just about any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR Code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone's browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a hardlink or physical world hyperlinks.

Google's mobile Android operating system supports the use of QR codes by natively including the barcode scanner (ZXing) on some models, and the browser supports URI redirection, which allows QR Codes to send metadata to existing applications on the device. Nokia's Symbian operating system is also provided with a barcode scanner, which is able to read QR Codes,^[ while mbarcode is a QR code reader for theMaemo operating system. In the Apple iOS a QR Code reader is not natively included, but some iTunes Apps, for free, are available with reader and metadata browser URI redirection.

[edit]Standards

A giant QR Code linking to a website, to be read with a mobile phone.

There are several standards documents covering the physical encoding of QR Code:

October 1997 — AIM (Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility) International
January 1999 — JIS X 0510
June 2000 — ISO/IEC 18004:2000 Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code symbology — QR Code (now withdrawn)
Defines QR Code Model 1 and QR Code Model 2 symbols.
1 September 2006 — ISO/IEC 18004:2006 Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — QR Code 2005 bar code symbology specification
Defines QR Code 2005 symbols, an extension of QR Code Model 2. Does not specify how to read QR Code Model 1 symbols, or require this for compliance.

At the application layer, there is some variation between implementations. NTT DoCoMo has established de facto standards for the encoding of URLs, contact information, and several other data types. The open-source "ZXing" project maintains a list of QR Code data types.

License

The use of the QR Code is free of any license. The QR Code is clearly defined and published as ISO standard. Denso Wave owns the patent rights on QR Code, but has chosen not to exercise them.

The term QR Code itself is a registered trademark of Denso Wave Incorporated.

Storage

QR Code data capacity
Numeric only	Max. 7,089 characters
Alphanumeric	Max. 4,296 characters
Binary (8 bits)	Max. 2,953 bytes
Kanji/Kana	Max. 1,817 characters

Error correction capacity
Level L	7% of codewords can be restored.
Level M	15% of codewords can be restored.
Level Q	25% of codewords can be restored.
Level H	30% of codewords can be restored.

QR codes use the Reed–Solomon error correction.

[edit]Variants

Example ofMicro QR

Micro QR Code is a smaller version of the QR Code standard for applications with less ability to handle large scans. There are different forms of Micro QR Code as well. The highest of these can hold 35 numeric characters.

Design QR is a QR Code that was optimized to include a picture or logo to enhance conversion rates.^[11]

[edit]Use as artwork

Edible, and scanable, QR code wafflecreated at NYC Resistor in 2010

Since 2006 the Italian artist Fabrice de Nola uses QR codes in oil paintings or embedded in photographs.^[12]

In 2007 the British pop group Pet Shop Boys used QR code for the artwork of their download-only single Integral. The videoclip for the song also features QR code. When the codes are scanned, users are directed to the Pet Shop Boys website, and web pages about the British national identity card plans, respectively.

In 2009 the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, in collaboration with creative agency SET and Louis Vuitton, created a design QR featuring the LV pattern and one of the artist’s characters.^[13]

In 2010 the musician and artist DJ Spooky used QR code in a fine art print exhibited at Experimenta Biennale, Melbourne. Scanning the code takes users to an experiential web based artwork called the Nauru Ellegies,^[14] about the complexities of the South Pacific island of Nauru.

A QR code which scans to produce the word "LOVE" was also featured prominently in Australian artist Kylie Minogue's music video for her 2010 single All The Lovers.

In June 2010, the Design Exchange, Canada's National Design Centre, unveiled a large QR installed created by Rollout Wallpaper. Rollout Wallpaper is a custom wallpaper company operating in Vancouver. The installation is part of the 'Bent Out of Shape' exhibit, curated by Design Exchange staff.

In July 2010 SYCO Music recording artist Labrinth started using QR Codes as part of a campaign to promote his debut single "Let The Sun Shine". As well as a cartoon video to educate users on how to use QR Codes,^[15] they were placed in different media ranging from street posters & stickers to music videos, websites and social networks. The QR Codes take users through to Labrinth's YouTube videos, website and social network profile.

The webcomic QR Comic is made entirely out of QR codes. The first 28 entries are Isaac Asimov's short story The Last Question converted into QR codes.

The 2010 comic, Carnivale De Robotique uses a QR Code to reveal a subplot in its third issue.^[16]

In October 2010, at the Toronto International Art Fair, artist Jeff Tallon displayed Canada's first QR Code painting in collaboration with the Engine Gallery. The work was a diptych that, when scanned, provided information about the adjoining panel.^[17]

[edit]Use in marketing

Recently, QR codes have become more prevalent in marketing circles and have been integrated into both traditional and interactive campaigns. Media where QR codes have been deployed include: billboard ads, in-store displays, event ticketing and tracking, trade-show management, business cards, print ads, contests, direct mail campaigns, websites, email marketing, and couponing just to name a few. QR codes are of particular interest to marketers, giving them the "ability to measure response rates with a high degree of precision"^[18] allowing for easier ROI (return on investment) calculation, thus helping justify spending on marketing budgets. QR codes have also been used at trade shows and in conferences.

QR Codes can be seen on a art festival map for Canton Ohio's "First Friday". The QR Code was designed by Think Roth, a mulit-media marketing company from Ohio. The QR Code on the festival's map takes you to a "phone friendly" map with coupons for free coffee and art discounts around town.

In July 2009, QR-code was created for character design and promotional materials in the Shane Acker film 9. The use of QR-code was part of the characters in the movie and culminated into a promotional campaign with unique QR-code cards, posters and street advertisements on billboards or public transportation for major popular art events. These advertisements were largely focused upon the attendees of the 2009 San Diego Comic Con and 2009 Oscars. QR-codes were integrated into the artwork and symbolized individual characters in the movie. Instructional pamphlets and videos were released to explain how the codes could be retrieved and deciphered. QR-coded artworks could be read with QR-capable cellphones for prizes and access to exclusive online content. This was one of the first major integrations of QR-code withHollywood studios and urban environments.^[19]

[edit]Use in Interpretation

QR Codes have been used to interpret natural and historical points of interest on nature trails, adding to or replacing expensive signs.^[20]^[21]

[edit]Standalone applications

While the adoption of QR codes in some markets has been slow to take off (particularly in markets like the United States where competing standards like Data Matrix exist), the technology is gaining some traction in the smartphone market. Many Android phones come with QR code readers already installed, as do most Nokia phones running S60 3rd Edition or newer. Blackberry phones running Blackberry Messenger 5.0 (or more recent versions) can also scan QR codes using the "Scan A Group Barcode" option in the BBM menu. Both the Android Market and the iTunes App Store offer several free applications that can decode QR matrices. Similar software can be downloaded and installed onto S60 phones.

Generating QR codes is slowly moving into the mainstream in America as well. Companies such as www.gottygear.com, www.scanlife.com or www.thinkroth.com are working with advertising agencies to help consumers learn how to scan these codes as well as track the analytics.

COURTESY : WIKI PEDIA . Thank you Wiki For the Information

A practical cell phone that is specially designed for senior citizens

2010-11-29T16:23:00.000+05:30

Just what the doctor ordered! A practical cell phone that is specially designed for senior citizens! Lots of what you need, and nothing you don't! . Tired of those small phones with dial buttons so small that unless you have pencil fingers you can't make a call? Not exactly user friendly for people with arthritis, rheumatism, or poor eyesight right? In contrast, the old age pensioners phone has jumbo sized keys which make calling a breeze!

This safe phone also has text to speech time information and key confirmation for those of us who are hard of hearing. I said, "for those of us hard of hearing!" Instead of hearing tones when you press keys, a pleasant female voice reads out the numbers you're dialing. But that's not all. This phone also has an easy to use flashlight you can activate and deactivate with just one button on the front of the phone

Now for the beautiful part: The mobile cell phone comes with an SOS button on the back of the phone that you preset with an emergency number of your choice. When you need it, a quick press, and you'll be connected with your spouse, your children, your doctor, or whatever emergency contact person you designate. What's more, if you aren't able to speak, an SMS text message is automatically sent to that same person notifying them you need help right away.

As for regular phone functions, Old age cell phone delivers in style. You get an attractive unlocked mobile phone with a brightly lit screen. Icons are nice and big. It can store 500 contacts and is unlocked so you can use it with whatever cell phone provider you choose. Basically, this cell phone is great for first time cell phone users or people generally intimidated by technology thus making it the perfect gift for parents, grandparents, or yourself if you find that modern phones just don't give much consideration to an aging population that has no use for silly things like interwebs or iPhone naps!

This exclusive product is now available at fashion appliance currently advertising on tv with a diffrent brand for twice the price.

At a Glance...

Extra large dial pad buttons and icons
Easy to operate flashlight
Time info (spoken aloud)
Dial buttons (spoken aloud)
SOS button

Courtesy : http://fashionappliance.com . Thankyou Fashion Appliance for the Post

Mobile telecom profits may dip due to stringent norms: COAI

2010-11-27T14:28:00.000+05:30

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Wednesday indicated that profits of mobile telecom industry may shrink further on account of strict subscriber verification norms and levy of charges on erection of cell towers by the state governments. Lack of infrastructure facilities in rural areas coupled with stringent norms of customer verification before providing services is a deterrent for mobile penetration in most parts of the country, COIA Director-General Rajan S. Mathews said.

Operators spend crores of rupees on customer verification process. Right now, activating one customer includes a minimum expense of Rs 600-700. Also, the state governments have started levying taxes on cell tower.

In Delhi, till recently they (state government) were charging 50,000 per tower. It has now further been enhanced to Rs 5 lakh. These are going to kill our profitability, Mathews said.

Some telecom operators are already incurring losses and the situation may further deteriorate with the new development, he said. "Net margins are currently at 8-10 per cent. This may drop by two-three per cent. Some operators are already in negative," Matthews said.

With the exception of a few companies, most of the operators reported dip in the net in Q2 this fiscal when compared to last year. Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's largest mobile-phone operator, reported a 27 per cent dip in net profit to Rs 1,660-crore in the second quarter earnings.

Similarly, Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd's net profit of Rs 97 crore for the second quarter showed a decline of nine percent, compared to the Rs 107.9 crore net profit it earned in the corresponding period last year.

Last month, the dot draft norms, circulated in consultation with the Home Ministry, had asked all mobile operators to re-verify the documents of over 70 crore mobile connections in the country.

Recently, Mumbai police revealed that 60 pc of prepaid SIM cards were procured using fake documents in the city. The COAI has suggested to the government that the Unique Identification card should be set as bench mark for the customer verification.

"Government is trying to see what they can do. DOT and UID authority may coordinate in this regard for optimising the verification," Mathews said.

According to the data supplied by COAI, Rs 1,50,000 crore investments have been made into the industry so far, with a subscriber base of 700-million. India is one of the lowest-tariff countries. According to analysts, customer acquisition costs, due to Mobile Number Portability that is set to roll out in Haryana from November 25, are likely to rise as the acquiring operator (recipient) is unlikely to collect fees from the customer.

Edelweiss, a leading brokerage house, said (the recipient) will have to scrutinise the application and conduct the verification process at its own cost.

SOURCE MANORAMA ONLINE Thankyou Manorama for the News

How to Make a Virus to Test your Antivirus ?

2010-11-26T09:38:00.000+05:30

If you are active in the anti-virus research field, then you will regularly receive requests for virus samples. Some requests are easy to deal with: they come from fellow-researchers whom you know well, and whom you trust. Using strong encryption, you can send them what they have asked for by almost any medium (including across the Internet) without any real risk.

Other requests come from people you have never heard from before. There are relatively few laws (though some countries do have them) preventing the secure exchange of viruses between consenting individuals, though it is clearly irresponsible for you simply to make viruses available to anyone who asks. Your best response to a request from an unknown person is simply to decline politely.

A third set of requests come from exactly the people you might think would be least likely to want viruses "users of anti-virus software".

They want some way of checking that they have deployed their software correctly, or of deliberately generating a "virus incident in order to test their corporate procedures, or of showing others in the organisation what they would see if they were hit by a virus".

Obviously, there is considerable intellectual justification for testing anti-virus software against real viruses. If you are an anti-virus vendor, then you do this (or should do it!) before every release of your product, in order to ensure that it really works. However, you do not (or should not!) perform your tests in a "real" environment. You use (or should use!) a secure, controlled and independent laboratory environment within which your virus collection is maintained.

Using real viruses for testing in the real world is rather like setting fire to the dustbin in your office to see whether the smoke detector is working. Such a test will give meaningful results, but with unappealing, unacceptable risks.

Since it is unacceptable for you to send out real viruses for test or demonstration purposes, you need a file that can safely be passed around and which is obviously non-viral, but which your anti-virus software will react to as if it were a virus.

If your test file is a program, then it should also produce sensible results if it is executed. Also, because you probably want to avoid shipping a pseudo-viral file along with your anti-virus product, your test file should be short and simple, so that your customers can easily create copies of it for themselves.

The good news is that such a test file already exists. A number of anti-virus researchers have already worked together to produce a file that their (and many other) products "detect" as if it were a virus.

Agreeing on one file for such purposes simplifies matters for users: in the past, most vendors had their own pseudo-viral test files which their product would react to, but which other products would ignore.

This test file has been provided to EICAR for distribution as the "EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File", and it satisfies all the criteria listed above. It is safe to pass around, because it is not a virus, and does not include any fragments of viral code. Most products react to it as if it were a virus (though they typically report it with an obvious name, such as "EICAR-AV-Test").

The file is a legitimate DOS program, and produces sensible results when run (it prints the message "EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!").

It is also short and simple - in fact, it consists entirely of printable ASCII characters, so that it can easily be created with a regular text editor. Any anti-virus product that supports the EICAR test file should detect it in any file providing that the file starts with the following 68 characters, and is exactly 68 bytes long:

Copy the below text and paste in Notepad, Then Save it to Desktop as TRTest.com . If your Anti Virus Working Properly, The File will be Deleted. Otherwise Scan the file.. Then You Can Find..
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

The first 68 characters is the known string. It may be optionally appended by any combination of whitespace characters with the total file length not exceeding 128 characters. The only whitespace characters allowed are the space character, tab, LF, CR, CTRL-Z. To keep things simple the file uses only upper case letters, digits and punctuation marks, and does not include spaces. The only thing to watch out for when typing in the test file is that the third character is the capital letter "O", not the digit zero.

You are encouraged to make use of the EICAR test file. If you are aware of people who are looking for real viruses "for test purposes", bring the test file to their attention. If you are aware of people who are discussing the possibility of an industry-standard test file, tell them about www.eicar.org, and point them at this article.

In order to facilitate various scenarios, we provide 4 files for download. The first, eicar.com, contains the ASCII string as described above. The second file, eicar.com.txt, is a copy of this file with a different filename. Some readers reported problems when downloading the first file, which can be circumvented when using the second version. Just download and rename the file to "eicar.com". That will do the trick. The third version contains the test file inside a zip ARCHIVEe. A good anti-virus scanner will spot a 'virus' inside an ARCHIVEe. The last version is a zip ARCHIVEes containing the third file. This file can be used to see whether the virus scanner checks ARCHIVEes more than only one level deep.

Once downloaded run your AV scanner. It should detect at least the file "eicar.com". Good scanners will detect the 'virus' in the single zip ARCHIVEe and may be even in the double zip ARCHIVEe. Once detected the scanner might not allow you any access to the file(s) anymore. You might not even be allowed by the scanner to delete these files. This is caused by the scanner which puts the file into quarantaine. The test file will be treated just like any other real virus infected file. Read the user's manual of your AV scanner what to do or contact the vendor/manufacturer of your AV scanner.

Important note: EICAR cannot be held responsible when these files or your AV scanner in combination with these files cause any damage to your computer. YOU DOWNLOAD THESE FILES AT YOUR OWN RISK. Download these files only if you are sufficiently secure in the usage of your AV scanner. EICAR cannot and will not provide any help to remove these files from your computer. Please contact the manufacturer/vendor of your AV scanner to seek such help.

How to delete the test file from your PC

We understand (from the many emails we receive) that it might be difficult for you to delete the test file from your PC. After all, your scanner believes it is a virus infected file and does not allow you to access it anymore. At this point we must refer to our standard answer concerning support for the test file. We are sorry to tell you that EICAR cannot and will not provide AV scanner specific support. The best source to get such information from is the vendor of the tool which you purchased.

Please contact the support people of your vendor. They have the required expertise to help you in the usage of the tool. Needless to say that you should have read the user's manual first before contacting them.

Facebook Apps Downloaded Over 100 Million Times From GetJar’s App Store

2010-11-22T15:46:00.000+05:30

Seven months after reaching the 50 million download mark, Facebook’s mobile applications have been downloaded by more than 100 million people on GetJar, the vendor and carrier neutral, platform-agnostic app store, the latter company says.

This makes Facebook the most downloaded mobile application ever through a single app store.

Facebook uses GetJar’s App It! link, which enables users to jump to the download page of a

particular app in one tap, regardless of their phone make or model. Other brands using this service include Yahoo, Fandango, Photobucket and OpenTable.

GetJar hopes its App It! service will become as ubiquitous as placing Facebook “like” and retweet buttons on publishers’ sites, giving them a way to lead people interested in their mobile applications to a single download page with a straightforward URL (http://getjar.com/appname), after which GetJar detects which app is most fit for the device accessing the page and provides an easy way to instantly download it.

Every app that is uploaded to GetJar will automatically get its own App It! URL. The company recently said it is currently seeing over 3 million downloads per day, on par with Nokia’s Ovi Store. GetJar also says it has seen over 1 billion downloads to date, thus 1/10 was for Facebook apps alone (of some 75,000 apps currently in its library).

GetJar also provided some interesting stats on the most popular platforms for the Facebook mobile apps, at least as far as their open store goes. The company says that, while Android is the fastest growing platform, over 50 percent of the 100 million Facebook downloads were downloaded to Nokia handsets.

GetJar, fresh from raising a $11 million Series B financing round led by (Facebook investor) Accel Partners, has recently scored deals with the likes of Yahoo and AT&T to expand the potential audience for its catalog of instantly downloadable mobile apps.

Introducing HP’s DreamScreen Tablet but is it a dream?

2010-11-22T09:31:00.000+05:30

What the DreamScreen can do is wirelessly display content from another computer in your home or from the internet.

Yes you can listen to music, watch videos and view pics but I can already do all that.

It has to stay plugged into a socket at all times as there are no batteries so I can’t exactly pick it up and carry it from room to room with me.

What the DreamScreen can do is wirelessly display content from another computer in your home or from the internet.

Yes you can listen to music, watch videos and view pics but I can already do all that.

It has to stay plugged into a socket at all times as there are no batteries so I can’t exactly pick it up and carry it from room to room with me.

I’ve got to admit though, it would look pretty cool hanging on my wall and conveniently, it comes with wall mounts on the back. So what else is it really good for?

“What we’re really trying to do is bring a simple, user-intuitive device that’s always on, always connected to the internet, to bring web applications that don’t require PCs,” said Ameer Karim, director of worldwide marketing with HP’s futures and innovations group.

Wait a minute, there is no touch screen capability, there isn’t a full internet browser, there are a limited number of applications for it, I couldn’t check my email on it for a start and I wouldn’t be able to view videos from YouTube.

Yes I can use it to “view” the likes of Facebook, Snapfish, Weather forecasts and a Calendar, and I can listen to the radio with it too if I want.

Personally I love geeky gadgets but this brings me back to my original question of why anyone would actually want one of these as for me this is no dream screen. If any of you do then I’d love to know why.

Yes it might function as a fancy photo display but it doesn’t even have the capability of a low spec Netbook.

“Internally, we’ve been calling it ‘bite-sized computing’,” said Karim. “It’s snippets of the stuff you’d normally get on a computer, but we don’t really want to bring productivity here.”

Apparently though HP will be adding more applications in future and do intend to expand its capabilities and really at the moment it is not supposed to replace the computer anyway.

As for the future, “It is very likely you will see these devices do all sorts of things, like access content on a DVR or a set-top box” says Karim.

Now that’s more like it.

In the meantime if you want to fork out $250 and you happen to live in the USA then the DreamScreen is available online now and in stores from the 11th October.

Source : http://www.geekwithlaptop.com . Thankyou for the Post

Google's next big idea … an online fashion revolution

2010-11-22T09:25:00.001+05:30

Carey Mulligan and Kelly Osbourne are among celebrities ecruited to Google's new shopping website boutiques.com. It is the behemoth virtual shopping centre to end all shopping centres – and it's open 24 hours a day. This month, just in time for the Christmas rush, internet commerce is sashaying forward with two new ventures infashion that could change the way women – and the occasional man – buy their clothes online.

Google's boutiques.com lets shoppers choose from dozens of fashion labels. Photograph: AP

It is the behemoth virtual shopping centre to end all shopping centres – and it's open 24 hours a day. This month, just in time for the Christmas rush, internet commerce is sashaying forward with two new ventures infashion that could change the way women – and the occasional man – buy their clothes online.

Last week in New York, Google launched boutiques.com, its latest e-tail venture that ties in two western cultural passions – celebrity and fashion.

Essentially a huge web mall full of individual stores, but with the benefits of search engine technology attached, it allows people to look for clothes by genre, silhouette, pattern, shape and size. Consumers will, say the creators, be able to run their own personalised boutiques by drawing up lists of their preferences, following celebrities and designers, and by teaming up with "taste-makers".

Throwing their slight weight behind the new site, which will, Google promises, eventually be brought to the UK, are style-savvy celebrities including Kelly Osbourne, Iman, Ashlee Simpson and Alexa Chung, who attended the launch party on Wednesday.

So far the star whose style is being most closely scrutinised by Americans is British actress Carey Mulligan who "curates" a boutique on the site alongside other names including Anna Paquin, Ashley Olsen, Nicole Richie and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

All are women with faithful followers among the readers of the glossy gossip and fashion magazines that have long abandoned expensive model fashion shoots for pages of pictures of what the well-dressed celebrity is wearing, whether at a party or on a coffee run. Google is keeping the site, aimed at 13- to 34-year-olds, predominantly about high-end designers as it propels itself on to a booming online fashion catwalk alongside eBay and Amazon.

The team behind the venture says that boutiques.com is a commercial attempt to create a kind of order for women who feel overwhelmed by the huge amount of choice they are given both on the high street and by the average fashion e-tailer. These consumers, goes the logic, want to buy clothes that they know to be fashionable, and celebrities have long proved themselves more influential in leading the trends than designers and models.

For those who are unsure about creating their own style, boutiques.com will throw out recommendations and match up outfits. It will also remember if you hate polka dots or balk at pleats and test you out with various images and outfits to get a measure of your taste.

"In fashion, there are lots of choices. If there are, say, 500,000 items in a store, that means there are literally billions of different combinations of outfits you can make with those items," said Munjal Shah, a Google product management director. "How do you sort through all of this? This site had to be a collaboration.

"First we partnered with taste-makers of all types. We asked them not just to curate 10-50 great items they loved, but also to teach our site their style and taste. They did this by telling us what colours, patterns, brands and silhouettes they loved and they hated. They took a visual quiz that taught the site to understand their style genre: classic, boho, edgy. Our algorithms use this information to enable you to shop all of the inventory in the style of that taste-maker, on top of the 50 items they have hand-curated."

"These days bloggers, stylists and everyday fashionistas are expressing their sense of style online. We invited them to create boutiques so people could shop their diverse styles," she added.

"But you have a unique and independent style too, so boutiques.com also lets you build your own personalised boutique and get recommendations of products that match your taste."

Features on the site include filters as well as visual searches, which analyse the photograph of a clothing item and then return similar items. Consumers can also pull up outfit ideas to the right of the search results, and you can complete looks using style rules, which suggest items that match.

For all its innovation, however, Google does not have the monopoly on internet fashion retail. Later this month the hugely successful, London-based fashion site Asos is expected to launch another new and different site aiming to shake up the way in which shoppers buy and sell clothes. Asos began its multimillion-pound business by featuring photographs of celebrities and then offering for sale similar but cheaper, or sometimes even the same, outfits with which young women could copy the "look".

Now Asos Marketplace, described by some as a blend of popular fashion blogs and the online auctioneer site eBay, will allow people to sell their own designs or their secondhand clothes alongside the big retail names. It could provide a boost for Britain's young designers by showcasing talent, although with 34,000 items already for sale on Asos's main site it remains to be seen how the keen-eyed Asos Marketplace shopper will be guided through the huge selection bound to be found on the e-rails.

With up to 80% of internet users in Britain expected to do at least part of their Christmas shopping online this year, and with many keeping a particularly tight hold of their budgets, the competition among the fashion e-tailers will never have been so fierce.

CAREY'S STYLE FILE

Carey Mulligan's success may have started at home, but – as her popularity among boutiques.com's fashionistas shows – her combination of talent and sartorial flair is winning her a fan club across the Atlantic. The London-born 25-year-old, whose "English rose" appeal is lauded by the website, has attracted more than 1,000 online "followers" to her personalised boutique.

Her A-list credentials were recently cemented when it was confirmed that she had landed the coveted role of Daisy Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming version of The Great Gatsby. The part has delighted fashion commentators who have long declared that her style owes more than a passing nod to another era - often identified as the 1920s jazz age of F Scott Fitzgerald, all bobs and straight, sleek shapes .

At other times, she has been described as the embodiment of a current '50s-inspired ladylike trend, preferring classy, knee-length hemlines and soft silhouettes while avoiding anything skimpy or skin-tight.

Her first break came as Kitty Bennet alongside Keira Knightley in 2005's Pride and Prejudice. TV and film parts followed, but it was the lead in 2009's An Education, based on Lynn Barber's memoirs of being seduced as a schoolgirl, which won her real acclaim.

For fans trying to emulate Mulligan's style, they need look no further – says the website – than a black Prada pencil skirt and open-toe camel wedges by Chloe – a buy that would cost the Hollywood sum of $1,251.

Richard Rogers

Versace's Rs. 4.25 lakh mobile phone makes India debut

2010-11-20T10:25:00.000+05:30

As global luxury brands continue to rush to tap the Indian market, Italian fashion house Versace's high-end mobile phones today entered into the country with a price tag of up to Rs. 4.25 lakh.

Versace's exclusive Indian franchisee, Delhi-based Blues Clothing Company (BCC), said the phones will be sold at eight points of sales in metros at 'Versace Boutique' and 'Versace Collection' stores.

"We are very bullish about the new range of Versace mobile phones in India. There is a market for such premium products here," BCC Executive Director Abhay Gupta said.

The company has launched two variants of 'Versace Unique' mobile phones in different colours priced at Rs. 3,95,000 and 4,25,000, he added.

The device boasts of features such as 3G compatibility, ceramic frame with an 18K gold and a five megapixel camera among others.

The Versace Unique, made by South Korean handset vendor LG, was announced officially earlier this year.

BCC is exclusive franchisee for a host of other luxury brands, including Italy's leading names - Versace Collection, Corneliani, Cadini, VJC and Gianni Versace.

India has been attracting lot of high-end luxury brands and products. Recently, Volkswagen Group company Bugatti Automobiles launched its 'Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport' sports car priced at Rs. 16 crore.

Even Swiss watchmaker Audermars Piguet launched its new collection here with a single timepiece priced up to Rs. 2.1 crore.

According to a recent CII-A.T Kearney report the luxury market in India is likely to touch US $14.7 billion by 2015.

Source : NDTV Thankyou NDTV for the Post

Now, vending machine that suggests drinks based on your age, gender!

2010-11-19T14:07:00.000+05:30

Want to get a drink that goes well with your age and gender? Well, you can do it now as Japanese scientists have developed a new vending machine that uses facial recognition to recommend drinks based on a customer's age and gender.

The firm behind the high-tech canned drinks dispenser has seen sales TRIPLE thanks to the new technology.

Developed by JR East Water Business Co, a subsidiary of railway firm JR East Co, the machines use sensors to determine the characteristics of an approaching customer.

'Recommended' labels will then appear on specific drink products and suggested products also change depending on the temperature and time of day.

"If the customer is a man, the machine is likely to recommend a canned coffee drink, since men tend to prefer these," the Sun quoted a spokeswoman as saying.

"If the customer is in there 50s though, that recommendation is likely to be green tea.

"A woman in her 20s will be recommended a tea drink or slightly sweeter product, since market research has shown that they prefer these.

"We thought it would make it a lot more fun for the customers to have this kind of interaction with our machines, that it would improve the whole buying experience," she said.

The Japanese company has so far tested one machine at a Tokyo train station, but plans to add five more soon. (ANI)

Source : The Japan News. Thank you Japan News for the Post

Is it Raining Now in your City?

2010-11-18T17:05:00.000+05:30

Want to know if it’s raining in any particular city of the world?

Just go to your browser’s address bar and type IsItRaining.in/<city>. For instance, a URL like isitraining.in/New-York will show you the current conditions of New York in just one word – Yes or No.

If there are two or more cities with the same name, you can add the name of the State or Country after the name of the city to point to the right one.

For instance, the tool will interpret Las Vegas for the more popular Nevada city but you can use isitraining.in/Las-Vegas-New-Mexico to get the rain conditions for Las Vegas of New Mexico.

The tool is internally powered by Yahoo! Weather and caches results for 30 minutes so it may not give the real-time conditions always.

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post

Locate all the Big Emails in your Gmail Account

2010-11-18T17:01:00.002+05:30

What would you do if your Gmail Inbox is reaching its storage limit and you urgently need to free up some space else all your incoming email messages will be returned to the sender?

You’ll either have to buy some extra storage space from Google or another solution is that you find all the emails in your Inbox that have really big attachments and put them into the trash.

Sorting your Gmail Messages by Size

Gmail doesn’t offer a way to search and sort email messages by size but you can use a tool like Microsoft Outlook or IMAP Size to sort your mails by the size criteria on the desktop. They connect to your Gmail account via IMAP and therefore when you delete an emails with big attachments locally, the same happens in your online inbox as well.

If you however find the above workarounds a little complicated, there’s an even simpler method now that won’t even require you download or install anything – it’s calledfindbigmail.com.

It will quickly find all the big email messages in your Gmail account that are taking up the maximum space. These messages are categorized with special labels like “Big Mail” or “Really Big Mail” to help you decide which of them should be removed to recover more space.

To get started, you simply connect your Gmail account with Find Big Mail using Google’s OAuth. It then scans all your messages for their sizes and send you an email notification once the scan is over (I got mine in about 8 minutes).

You can then log into your Gmail account and act on messages marked as “Big Mails” to instantly reclaim space.

This chart details how your Gmail drive is being used.

Since the mails are categorized in labels, you can use the usual search filters to find all the less-important email. For instance a query like label:big-mail has:attachment PDF will find the emails that have big PDF attachments and so on.

Internally, Big Mail connects to your Gmail account via IMAP and retrieves only the sizes and not the full content of the email messages. And since it uses a temporary token, it won’t have access to your Gmail account forever. That said, I think a lot of us will feel more comfortable using it if we know the team who is running the show.

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post

Choosing Different Passwords for Different Websites

2010-11-18T16:59:00.002+05:30

You don’t want to use the same password with all your online accounts but it is also impossible for you to remember so many different passwords. What do you do then?

The security team at Mozilla has released an interesting animated video that offers some worthy suggestions on how you may choose strong, easy-to-remember and yet different passwords for your various online accounts.

The idea is that you abbreviate a familiar phrase (for example, “May the force be with you” becomes “mtfbwy”), add some special characters on either sides of the word to make it extra strong (like #mtfbwy!) and then add few characters from the website name into the original password as either a suffix or prefix.

For instance, the above password could become #mtfbwy!AmZ for Amazon.com, #mtfbwy!FbK for Facebook, #mtfbwy!YtB for YouTube and so on.

Thus, the base password remains the same and the prefix, or the suffix, changes based upon the domain or the name of of the website where you are applying that password.

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post

Watch Videos on your PC without any Interruption

2010-11-18T16:54:00.000+05:30

When watching web videos or DVD movies on your computer, your video playback may be interrupted in many different ways. For instance, the screen saver can activate itself or the computer screen may enter sleep mode if you don’t touch the mouse or the keyboard for a long period (because you are busy watching the video).

Sometimes, pop-up notifications from IMs and other programs, that are running in the background, can also interrupt playback.

You can easily turn-off these distractions through Windows Settings but the problem with this approach is that the changes will stay even when you are done watching the video. To give you an example, if you disable the screensaver before hitting play, it will stay in the disabled state forever unless you re-enable it manually.

Therefore, instead of fiddling with your existing configuration, you may consider using utilities that will also disable all these distracting elements, but only temporarily.

Some media players are start enough and will automatically turn off the screen saver during video playback. If you are using VLC, go to Video settings and check the option that says “Disable screensaver.” In Windows Media Player, go to Player options and uncheck the box that says “Allow screen saver during playback.”

If your media player doesn’t have such a feature, you can use this excellent utility calledMouse Jiggler to prevent the screensaver from becoming active. It moves the mouse pointer back and forth periodically so Windows will never go into an idle state and therefore the screensaver won’t show up.

The next task is keep your monitor awake during the video playback. Mouse Jiggler should care of this part as well or you may try Caffeine – it’s like Jiggler but simulates keystrokes instead of mouse movements.

There’s nothing to install or configure – just download and run Caffeine and your system will stay awake as long as you like. Double-click the Caffeine icon in the task bar and it will disable itself – all this without making any changes to your system register or power plan.

Related tip: How to Skip Trailers on DVDs

If you have too many apps running on your system, they are consuming system resources and some of them, especially the chat clients, may surprise you during playback with notifications. You can either right click-click in the task bar to selectively close these apps or get a utility like CloseAll that will automatically close all running applications with a click.

CloseAll closes all running apps by default (including itself) but you can also configure it to ignore certain applications by adding a simple exclusion list to the CloseAll.exe command line. Here’s an example:

CloseAll.exe -x="explorer.exe|firefox.exe|outlook.exe|dropbox.exe"

An excellent alternative to CloseAll is SmartClose – it will not only close all the running programs with a click but can also restore all these the programs once you are done watching the video.

It does this by capturing a snapshot of all the running process and services. If there’s a particular program or Windows Service that you would not like the utility to close, just add it to the protected list. The default settings are good enough though you can always choose the location where these system snapshots should be stored.

Finally, if you like watching videos while simultaneously working on other windows /tasks, check out Always on Top – this is again a free utility that will help you stick your media player window on top of other program windows. Launch the program, select the media player window and press Alt+Space bar to put it on top.

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post

21% Users Eat while Watching Videos on YouTube

2010-11-18T16:51:00.001+05:30

The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has released a new study that provides some very interesting insights on how are people using Facebook and YouTube and why?

For instance, you’ll surprised to known that most people upload videos on these sites not for fun or pleasure but with a desire to impress their friends. Or that 1 in 5 users can be found eating a meal while they are watching videos on YouTube.

YouTube is seen as more of a destination for fun/cheering yourself up, where users are much more likely to visit Facebook to feel connected to people.

You may view the full IAB report online (link for news readers) or download it as a PDF file(~5 MB) from the Google Barometer blog.

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post

Is that Windows Process Legitimate or a Virus?

2010-11-18T16:49:00.000+05:30

Start the Windows Task Manager at any point of time and you’ll find that dozens of processes are running in your system. Some of these process names are obvious – if there’s iexplore.exe in the list, you have Internet Explorer open on your desktop – but other processes like csrss.exe or dwm.exe will often make no sense to most of us.

Is that Windows Process a Virus?

The first thing that will help you determine if any particular process is a legitimate Windows process or a virus, is the location of the executable itself. For instance, a process like explorer.exe should be running from your Windows folder and not anywhere else.

To confirm, open task manager, go to View –> Select Columns and select “Image Path Name” to add a location column to your task manager. If you spot any suspicious-looking directory here, it may be a good idea to investigate that process further.

NoVirusThanks, an online virus scanning service, offers a portable desktop uploader that will make it easy for you to check if any of the Windows processes are legitimate or a virus /worm in disguise.

When you run this tool, it will automatically generate a list of all your running processes just like Windows Task Manager. You can right-click on any process name and upload* the corresponding file online for virus analysis.

Once the file is uploaded , NoVirusThanks will instantly scan it against a dozen or so popular anti-virus programs including AVG, Comodo and Kaspersky so chance are low that a bad file with go undetected. Here’s a sample report generated by the tool.

Other than Windows Processes, you may also send your loaded DLLs, driver files and start-up programs for analysis online with a simple right-click.

Another tool that can sometimes help you detect bad processes is Microsoft’s Process Explorer. Launch the program (it requires no installation) and check “Verify Image Signatures” under Options. Now go to View –> Select Columns add add “Verified Signer” as one one the columns.

If the “Verified Signer” status of a process is listed as “Unable to Verify,” you may well give that process a second look. Not all the good Window processes will carry a Verified signature tag but none of the bad ones either. Thanks MSIGeek for this tip.

[*] If you have trouble sending your Windows process file for scanning, switch to the settings tab of the uploader and change the server from scanner.novirusthanks.org to scanner2.novirusthanks.org (or vice-versa).

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post

Using Creative Commons Images from Flickr

2010-11-18T16:48:00.001+05:30

Flickr is an excellent place to find images that are available under a Creative Commons License. You may embed these images on your own website as long as your intended use meets the conditions specified in the license* and that you give proper attribution to the original author.

[*] Some Creative Commons images are licensed as “Attribution Non-Commercial” and thus they may not be used on websites that, say, carry advertising. For more, see this PDF report on defining non-commercial use.

Searching Creative Commons Images on Flickr

Flickr has a dedicated page to help you easily find images that are available under Creative Commons. Or you may use alternative tools like Flickr CC, Flickr Storm and Comp Fight that are in some ways better than Flickr’s own search interface.

Using Creative Commons Images from Flickr

If you are using an image from Flickr, all they require is that the image on the external site should link back to Flickr’s page where that image is originally hosted.

The problem is that Flickr’s current style of attribution doesn’t meet the Creative Commons guidelines for attribution which require that you:

Cite the author’s screen name (link to the author’s profile page).
Cite the work’s title or name (link the name directly to the original work).
Cite the specific CC license the work is under (link to the license on the CC website).

The HTML code that Flickr provides for embedding Creative Commons images on to other sites satisfies only one of the three guidelines for attribution.

You can however use an online tool called ImageCodr to generate embed code that meets all the attribution guidelines of Creative Commons as well as Flickr. Just put the URL of any Flickr image into this tool and you get a code that satisfies all the requirements.

Here’s an example of a properly attributed image:

by Paulo Brandão

There’s little scope for errors as the tool will throw up an error message if you try using an image that doesn’t have the CC license.

A small issue though. The author of the tool inserts an invisible link to his website in the generated HTML code which you may want to remove prior to using the code.

Generate Attribution Code via Bookmarklet

Flickr CC Bookmarklet (Drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar)

If you frequently use Flickr images on your site, use the above bookmarklet to quickly generate attribution code directly from any Flickr photo page.

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post

This Movie Was Shot Using a Mobile Phone

2010-11-18T16:47:00.000+05:30

This is impressive. The Commuter, a short HD film starring Dev Patel (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) and Pamela Anderson, was shot entirely on the Nokia N8 mobile phone.

The groundbreaking film, directed by the McHenry Brothers, was shot in just four days with the Nokia N8 using no back up cameras, with the streets of London and St Albans providing the backdrop to Nokia’s story about one commuter’s eventful journey to work.

The Nokia N8 sports a 12 MP camera that can also capture 720p HD video. For comparison, here’s another short film that was captured using an iPhone 4.

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post

Create a Slideshow of Websites with BridgeURL

2010-11-18T16:46:00.000+05:30

BridgeURL is an interesting new service that makes it easy for you to package multiple web pages as a slideshow. To give you an example, here’s a slideshow of my favorite search related websites.

There are at least two scenarios where such a service may come handy.

One, if you want to share a bunch of web URLs with someone, instead of putting them all in an email message, what you may do is create a single slideshow with all these URLs and pass them along as just one page.

The other usage is around browsers that still don’t support tabs (like Safari for the iPad).

We all have own list of favorite sites that we like checking multiple times in a day. Desktop browsers have tabs so you can open all your favorite pages in one shot but it’s not so easy in the case of non-tabbed mobile browsers (like the iPad).

BridgeURL offers some sort of a solution here – you can package all your favorite sites as one page and then browse them one-by-one in the same Safari browser window.

The service uses IFRAMES and therefore with not work with sites that block frames (example). Also, the navigation is currently not very touch-friendly but I hope it’ll improve in subsequent releases.

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post

Prevent Search Engines from Indexing your Sitemaps

2010-11-18T16:43:00.000+05:30

XML Sitemaps are plain text files that help you inform Google about every single web page, image and video file that is available on your site. For instance, if there’s a page on your site that may be hard to discover because none of the other pages /sites are linking to it, Google can possibly reach it through the Sitemaps file.

The Problem:

XML Sitemaps are created primarily for search engine bots but since they also have text, they may even show-up in regular search results thus competing with your other pages. To see this for yourself, try a phrase like filetype:xml inurl:sitemap on Google.

You can easily prevent HTML based web pages from getting indexed through the use of META tags but such a feature is not available for XML based Sitemaps.

The Solution:

John Mueller of Google Zürich has suggested an alternate solution – serve sitemap files with a “noindex x-robots-tag” to prevent them from getting indexed.

It should take no more than a minute to implement John’s suggestion. Switch to the directory on your Apache web server where the sitemap files are (they are generally located in the top-level folder of the blog) and open the .htaccess file for editing.

If you have only one XML Sitemap file, add this code to your .htaccess file.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  <Files sitemap.xml>
   Header set X-Robots-Tag "noindex"
  </Files>
 </IfModule>

Do replace the word “sitemap.xml” in the code with the actual name of your Sitemap file.

If you have more than one sitemap (like for images and videos), use the following code instead. Remember to replace sitemap1, sitemap2, etc. with the actual file names.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  <Files ~ "^(sitemap1|sitemap2|sitemap3)\.xml$">
   Header set X-Robots-Tag "noindex"
  </Files>
 </IfModule>

Test the .htaccess changes

Once you have saved the changes in your .htaccess file, go to URI Valet and copy-paste the full URL of any of your XML Sitemaps.

If you have the X-Robots Tag with noindex listed in the Server Response, the implementation was successful and your sitemaps should no longer make an appearance in Google and other search engines.

SOURCE : www.labnol.org . Thank you Labnol for the Post