Download Your Favorite Blogs and Websites for Offline Reading

Offline Explorer, wget, WinHTTrack Copier, Teleport.. there are tons of software utilities (both free and commercial) that let you download web pages to your local hard drive - they'll mirror complete websites, image galleries and everything else when your computer is connected to the web. But there are some issues with most of these offline browsers. How do you browse or search web pages once they are saved locally? How do you update the local information when the source data has changed?...

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De-geek Yourself Before It Gets Too Late

Nick Bradbury, a software developer extraordinaire (he wrote FeedDemon, HomeSite and TopStyle), very recently celebrated his 40th birthday [picture via FaceBook]. Nick has probably experienced tech life more than us. Today, he makes a very honest confession asking young geeks, bloggers, programmers and everyone else in the tech sector to de-geekify before it gets too late. When I was working on HomeSite over a decade ago, I rarely left my desk.  If I wasn't coding,...

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Ashley Cecil - Blogging as a Hobby and Profession

Ask any A-List blogger in the world for some tips on blogging and the first thing they'll say is "Write on topics that you are passionate about, topics on which can continue writing for years without getting bored.." Meet Ashley Cecil - she is a talented painter at heart and as you would have guessed it, her blog - the Painting Activist - is all about her paintings. Unlike most creative artists who spend big dollars for showcasing their portfolio online, Ashley has taken a very different approach...

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Copy-Paste Text Minus The Excess Baggage, Strip the Formatting

It's a common problem. What you get from the clipboard is not what you want. When you copy some text from a web page or a Word document to the clipboard and then paste that text inside an email message or another rich text editor, the formatting (font sizes, colors, images) stays intact. For Microsoft Word and other Office programs, you can use the "Paste Special" command that will auto-convert the pasted content from rich text as plain text format. But if you copy-paste text between browsers,...

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Get Desktop Alerts For New GMail or Google Apps Email

GMail Notifier for Google Apps is clone of the official GMail Notifier with one small difference -  it works with GMail as well as Google Apps for your Domain. When you new email messages, the notifier shows you the email subjects, senders email address and a short snippets, all without your having to open a web browser. The GMail Notifier for Google Apps is not from Google but the developer is officially recognized as a Google Enterprise Partner. http://gmailnotifier.net/ Bonus Tip: Do...

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A Microsoft Service for Sharing Useful or Artistic Office Documents

Microsoft today unveiled a new social website for Microsoft Office users where they can upload Word Documents, PowerPoint Presentations or Excel Spreadsheets. Known as the Art of Office, this place is not another Scribd or eSnips - it's basically for people to share Office documents that may either be useful to others or have an element of art in them. Official description is slightly unclear - Art of Office is a place for people to submit artistic and/or useful content made using Office...

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Increase Google Adsense Income with Simple but Effective Tweaks

As an experienced Adsense publisher, you know tons of Adsense Optimization tricks that will yeild maximum advertising revenue. To quickly recap, you know by heart that wide rectangles perform better than banner formats, that Google Ad colors should blend with page background color, that section targeting serves more relevant ads, that border-less Ads convert best, that split testing helps you shortlist the best ad formats, that Google CSE is much better than Adsense for Search.. the list...

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Share Your Favorite Webpages on Social Bookmarking Sites

If you frequently submit web pages to Google Bookmarks, Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, and other social bookmarking websites, you'll love the Shareaholic add-on available only for Firefox browser. Shareaholic make it extremely easy for you to share web pages on the popular social websites - just right click over any webpage and select your favorite bookmarking service from the Firefox contextual menu where you want to share that page. Even if you are not a big fan of Web 2.0 or social...

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Walt Mossberg - Yahoo! Mail Better Than Google GMail or Hotmail

Not sure if everyone here will agree but Walt Mossberg of WSJ says that the new Yahoo! Mail is better than Google email and the new Windows Live Hotmail. Walt favors Yahoo! over other web email programs because Yahoo! offers unlimited storage space, it lets you send SMS messages to cell phones, has a tabbed interface and lets you drag-n-drop email messages into mail folders just like Microsoft Outlook. The new Yahoo! mail is no doubt a big improvement but the downside is that you have to pay an yearly fee of $20 to get your mail out of Yahoo! service - GMail POP3 access and Hotmail-Outlook...

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A Environment Friendly Font + Software That Saves Ink and Paper

If you regularly web pages (or Office Documents), you know how much paper (and toner ink) goes waste in printing those irrelevant portions that look good when viewed inside the browser but are completely useless when printed on paper. Greenprint has introduced a software and a font to tackle exactly this problem. Their font, known as EverGreen, is designed such that 20% more words can fit on each printed page while the text still remain readable. The EverGreen font can be used for printing...

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Creative Cake Design for Geek Parties

The icing on the Geek Cake says: foreach (Person p in room)( p.Eat(cake)) Wedding cake photograph from Flickr [v...

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New Version of Jing for Windows and Mac

TechSmith today introduced an improved version of Jing both for Mac and the Windows platform. Jing [review] is a free software for capturing image screenshots as well as movies of software, also known as screencasts. Think of Jing as a mix of SnagIt and Camtasia Studio  but TechSmith is not charging anything at the moment. Here's a summary of new features introduced in Jing v1.2.6. Links shared via MSN Messenger should no longer be blocked. Earlier MSN would block URL that had an .scr...

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Microsoft Attorneys Knock the Door of Windows AutoPatcher

Windows Autopatcher, that made life so simple for Windows XP users, is officially no more. A little Autopatcher background - Microsoft announced XP SP2 in August 2004 and have have released hundreds of security updates and hotfixes since then. If you install Windows XP on a new computer, you either have to download numerous updates from Windows Update website or you could install the latest version of AutoPatcher XP which includes each and every fix released by MSFT. The Autopatcher installer...

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Offer RSS Feeds for Blogger Search Labels Similar to WordPress Category Feeds

Anil Radhakrishna is looking for a method to burn separate blogger feeds using FeedBurner for each search label as described in the FeedBurner FAQ. For instance, the blog feed URL is feeds.feedburner.com/xxx and he wants a category feed for posts labeled AJAX that should look like feeds.feedburner.com/xxx/AJAX. Like the Category or Tag feeds in WordPress, you can also create RSS feeds in Blogger for any search label. Here's the default URL for any search label in Blogger: http://xxx.blogspot.com/search/label/labelname...

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The Most Time Saving Firefox Features That We Often Overlook

We share the two most useful and time saving features in Firefox that will help you access (and search) your favorite sites quickly using abbreviations. There's a short video at the end of the article that demonstrates some more Firefox shortcuts. Abbreviate your Favorite Websites You probably have over a dozen websites in your bookmarks that you visit several times in a day. It could be Google News, The New York Times, your bank, your web email, and so on. How do...

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Make Flowcharts, Home Office Layouts and Other Diagrams Online

Best4c is another web based Visio to help you create flowcharts, network diagrams, floor plans and other designs online. The application is complete web based but has the look-n-feel of a desktop application with collapsible palettes on one side and property pane for the selected shape on the right. You drag-n-drop objects / shapes on the drawing canvas and can easily rotate or resize them - since they are vector images, they do not suffer from pixelation when you expand the size....

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Blogging Software Screenshots with SnagIt Gets Simple

Popular screen capture program SnagIt (review) can now also be used as a one-click blog editor. TechSmith today introduced free blogging outputs for SnagIt that makes it extremely easy to add screen captures to your blog posts. You capture any part of the desktop screen with SnagIt and publish that image to WordPress directly from SnagIt without having to save the screen capture to a separate local file. The new blogging accessories aren't just for uploading images - they also let you include rich...

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Google Web Accelerator Software - Works as Advertised?

A little background - Google Web Accelerator is free utility that promises to speed up web surfing on your computer. Available at webaccelerator.google.com. Google Accelerator decreases the loading time of web pages in your browser (works with IE and Firefox) by prefetching links that you are likely to click on the current web page - thus the linked pages load more quickly. I have been using the software for over 40 hours now and the performance statistics say that the software helped me save...

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Parents Want Unusual, Unique Baby Names That Are Not Popular

Last weekend I met an Indian couple who will soon be celebrating the first birthday of their baby. The only problem is that they don't know what to print on the birthday invitation card as they haven't decided a name for their baby yet. That's because they want a unique name for their baby - a name that is rare but also has some good meaning and origin. The couple has already spent hours on Google hoping to find that most unusual baby name but largely unsuccessful so far. Well,...

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A Computer Mouse for the Filthy Rich

Pat Says, a computer mice manufacturer based in Switzerland, are selling a USB plug-n-play mouse that costs a whooping $25k because it's all made of white gold and diamonds. Other than balance in your bank account, this world's most expensive computer mouse won't change your computing lifestyle. And as far as ergonomics and comfort is concerned, the (relatively) dirt-cheap Logitech MX revolution maybe far better than this diamond-studded gold mouse. PC World has an overview of more such absurdly...

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The Ten Facebook Groups That Are Funny But Quite Popular

Following are some of the most interesting groups on Facebook that are very popular and their descriptions can make you smile: When I was your age, Pluto was a planet - This is a group dedicated to the kids who were taught that Pluto was the 9th planet from the sun. It will soon hit the 1 million member mark on Facebook. People Who Always Have To Spell Their Names For Other People - This group is for anyone with an unusual spelling or an unusual name. Slammed by Valleywag - This...

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Microsoft Hackers Now Have an Official Blog

"Hackers @ Microsoft" - that's the name of a new Microsoft blog officially launched on blogs.msdn.com which also hosts thousands of other blogs written by Microsoft Employees. The pitch says - Microsoft employs some of the best hackers in the world and actively recruits them and develops them.  At his or her core, a true hacker is someone who is curious and wants to learn how systems work.  This can and of course at Microsoft is done in an ethical, legal manner.  Microsoft...

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Coffee Chart: What's Inside Your Favorite Coffee Drink

The next time you order some coffee at your favorite coffee shop, this coffee chart should come in very handy - it illustrates the small differences between the common espresso flavors. This excellent coffee selection diagram is a work of Lokesh (thanks IndiaUncut) - the chart helps you with the complex pronunciation of coffee names as well as the ingredients inside. Want more coffee? Enjoy some Coffee Art and visit the rural Starbucks Coffee sh...

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Audio Podcast: Recap of The Week - August 25, 2007

GTalk Conference Chat for Connecting with Multiple GMail FriendsYou just have to invite your other Google Talk friends to this private Google conference room. And there's no limit on the maximum number of participants that can join your Gtalk conference session.Send Documents, Web Pages To Mobile Phones via SMS: Cloud PrintYou send the document(s) to your friends, colleagues or mobile workforce from your desktop as an SMS message and they can download or print the file as PDF on any computer worldwide.How to Stop GIF Image Animations from Playing in IE or FirefoxUnlike Macromedia Flash movies,...

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Carry PowerPoint Presentation Slides in your Video iPod

Looking for a workaround to transfer those PowerPoint presentations to the iPod so you may watch them while you are away from the office desk. Like the PPT to Video tool, the "PPT to iPod" software converts your MS PowerPoint Presentations to MP4 video files that you can either transfer to your iPod via iTunes or upload them to any video sharing website. If you have sounds embedded in your PowerPoint file, the PPT to iPod converter will put them in the output video as well. The software...

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Asking Members to Click Google Adsense Ads on Facebook

This Facebook Developer has created a neat application for adding music to your Facebook profile. While few thousand Facebook members are using his application, the developer is probably unaware of the Google policies. Read what this Facebook application page has to say - "Like this app? Click an ad (once a day at most) and let's get a better server (less crashes)." And this line is just above the Google Ads block. From the rule-book - Adsense publishers may not request that users click the ads...

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Send Documents, Web Pages To Mobile Phones via SMS: Cloud Print

HP CloudPrint is a unique desktop + web based service for sending documents via cellphones as SMS codes instead of the standard email route. You don't have to manually convert documents to PDF, upload them anywhere or send email attachments - CloudPrint takes care of everything. You send the document(s) to your friends, colleagues or mobile workforce from your desktop as an SMS message and they can download or print the file as PDF on any computer worldwide. Sounds confusing? Let's look at real-world...

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Google Image Search Now Has Contextual Adsense Ads

Google now has contextual advertising embedded in Google Image Search results - each page has two horizontal sponsored link sections. See screen capture below. The other popular Google properties that are yet to be monetized include Google News and Google Blog Search. Related: Batch Download Pictures from Google Ima...

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Check Your Text for Common Misspellings Online

Spelljax, as the name suggests, is an online tool that lets you check for spelling errors in English and some other popular languages. The tool check only the spelling mistakes, not the grammar of your text. You can either directly type the text in the web browser or copy-paste from another application that doesn't inbuilt spell checking capabilities like notepad or internet clipboards. The spell checker is available at SpellJax.com. SpellJax spelling checker functionality is pretty similar...

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Avoid Office Embarrassments; Stop Web pages from Autoplaying Music or Videos

Lot of websites (especially myspace) embed background music (and sometimes video clips) in web pages that automatically begins to play as soon as you open the site in your web browser - there's no confirmation. Music and Videos that autoplay in the browser is not that big an issue if you keep your speakers muted or use the headphones, but it can be very embarrassing in all other cases - you don't want your cubicle neighbours to know that you just visited an amateur website. Here's...

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Switch Your Laptop Between Home and Office Network Easily

We recently shared a network connections profile manager called NetSetMan for people who frequently travel with their laptops. Each time they get to a new location, they have to manually change settings of their network card and browser proxy server before connecting to the internet. Though NetSetMan has a free full version, some comments have pointed out that the license prohibits use of the software at work or any commercial purpose. If you need to shuttle your notebook computer between home...

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Which Version of Adobe Flash Player Is Running On My Machine

If you are not sure whether Adobe Flash Player is installed in your web browser and if installed, what version of the Flash Player are your running - here's a simple trick. Visit this page on Adobe.com. If you have the Adobe Flash Player plugin, the page will display the exact version of the Flash Player. If Flash is missing on your machine, you won't see the line the says "Adobe Flash Player is Installed." Make sure you perform this check separately for IE and Firefox / Opera. What's new in...

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Unresolved Questions on Message Board - Can You Please Help?

These are some questions on the message board that are awaiting solutions. Can you please assist here? You can either add your replies to the message board or just leave a comment here. Thanks. Cannot Run Windows Software on MacBookLouise Normandin bought a MacBook with BootCamp and VMware-Fusion but he's not able to run any Windows software except Firefox. Show Sales Data for Cities on a Google MapPavanaji is looking for a simple solution to put his sales data on a Google Map. Managers can...

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May the iPod Rest in Peace

Amber spots an iPod in a cemetery. The epitaph says "Fatal Error Occurred". Notice that the iPod is still connected to it's lifeline - the Belkin charging do...

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Why is Google Against Paid Text Links (Hint: Adsense)

It was a very interesting day at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose. Google Government represented by Matt Cutts on one side and the search community at the other end. Matt, in his usual style, blamed paid text links for polluting the internet and shared that Google uses a combination of algorithms and manual methods to detect [and penalize] websites that sell links. But this time, Matt had some very tough audience including Michael Gray who put forward a very interesting case as to why text links are in Google's crosshair. Rand has a round-up of Michael's anti-Google...

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Watch iPod Videos Privately on a Large Virtual TV Screen

    Is the 2.5" LCD screen of your iPod too small for enjoying videos? How about a big TV screen for the iPod that you can carry inside your pocket and connect to the iPod anytime. We are talking an affordable iPod accessory called Video Goggles - you wear them like any other Shades but they are not meant for protecting your from sunlight - they connect directly to your iPod and let you watch movies and video podcasts on a big virtual screen. When plugged into your iPod video,...

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What To Do When Google Mistakenly Identifies Your Website as Harmful

A webmaster recently wrote an email saying that Google has incorrectly flagged his client's "harmless" website as dangerous for distributing or hosting malware. Though the site still appears in Google organic search results, a prominent warning message saying "This Site May Harm Your Computer" is displayed near the title of the web page. The website in question has been marked as spam independently by Google though the StopBadWare team has not reviewed the website yet. The webmaster...

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