Technacular

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

How To Find IP Address On Your Windows Machine
2007-03-07 20:18:01
What is an IP address? Every machine which is connected to an Internet has a unique address associated with it, which is used to identify and communicate over the network (Internet). This address is called the IP address (Internet Protocol address). How do I know the IP address of my Wind ows machine? Start->Run-> type “cmd” and hit “OK” command prompt comes up. Type “ipconfig” at the command prompt and hit return to see the IP address of your Windows PC. Technorati tags: IP Address, Windows, PC, ipconfig, cmd
More About: Mac , How To , Machine

Work Faster Using Shortcuts With Windows Key
2007-03-07 20:18:01
There is a Wind ows key on most of the modern keyboards. (image courtesy: cisp) This key can be used to perform lot of shortcut operations. Some popular ones are: Windows: Opens the Start menu Windows + E: Open the Windows Explorer. Windows + D: Minimizes/Restore all the Windows Windows + F: Display Search for files Windows + Ctrl + F: Display Search for computer Windows + F1: Display Help and Support Center Windows + R: Display Run dialog box Windows + break: Display System Properties dialog box Windows + shift + M: Undo minimize all windows Windows + L: Lock the workstation Windows + U: Open Utility Manager Windows +TAB: Cycle through taskbar buttons These shortcuts for regular operations will help you save lot of time. Source: (Microsoft) Technorati tags: Shortcut keys, Windows Key, Microsoft, Keyboard shortcuts
More About: Work , With , Shortcuts

Notepad++ : A Powerful Replacement To Notepad
2007-03-07 20:18:01
I use Windows Note pad to open most text files including source code files to have a quick look at them. It is good software but sometimes you need a tool which has more functionality. If you have felt the same then try Notepad++, a tool which I have been using for sometime as notepad replacement. Right out of the box (without any plugin installs) Notepad++ supports and array of features lacking in basic Windows notepad. It is very light and opens up almost as fast as Notepad. Some of the features are: Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding : with support for many programming languages WYSIWYG User Defined Syntax Highlighting Auto-completion Multi-Document Multi-View Regular Expression Search/Replace supported Full Drag ?N’ Drop supported Dynamic position of Views File Status Auto-detection Zoom in and zoom out Multi-Language environment supported Bookmark Brace and Indent guideline Highlighting Macro recording and playback I...
More About: Power , Men , Place , Cement

Let The Computer Read PDF Docs for You
2007-03-07 20:18:01
Acrobat 6.0 onwards Acrobat Read er has a built in feature where it can read out loud (in a machine voice) any PDF document. All you need to do is to open a PDF document in the freely available Acrobat Reader (preferable 7.0) and go to View -> Read out loud -> Read to end of document. The machine voice will start reading it out to you and you can sit back and listen as if it were an audio book. You can choose to ask it to read the whole document or just the current page. With whole document option, the pages automatically flip to new page as the voice reads on. I have tried this on number of occasions and it works very well. Of course for images and certain words you might have to peak at the document. Do you know of any other tool which does this? Happy listening! Technorati tags: Acrobat Reader, Read Out Loud, Audio Books, PDF
More About: Computer , Comp

The Thinking Blog
2007-03-06 20:17:01
I am relatively new to blogging but it is something which I always wanted to do and just wasn’t ready for the commitment. I am glad that I started. The best part about blogging is not only the fact that you get to share your knowledge, opinion and viewpoint but also that you begin to acknowledge fellow bloggers more. I am not heavy into leaving comments but more of a read and appreciate kind of person (even though I feel I should express more through comments). Ilker who writes The Think ing Blog  is one of the few bloggers whom I have developed respect for in a very short amount of time. That name caught my attention first on MyBlogLog not because of the pretty icon but because one of my friends whose name was Ilke. Although I must say the icon is nice! You get a vibe when a person is trying to write genuine articles and likes doing what he/she is doing and I get the same feeling when I read The Thinking Blog. The posts are informative, original and have ...
More About: King

Safeguard the Web for Children
2007-03-06 20:17:01
I discovered a post on a very just cause today at BloggerPower and could immediately associate with the sentiments (having a kid of my own and my worries around similar issues). Jon Harmon, founder of Force for Good, and Mihaela Lica of Pamil Visions have taken a stand against accidental exposure of kids to adult sites and I strongly support them. The campaign is about requesting webmasters of adult site to do the following: Please require a password-protected login before allowing even free access to explicit adult content. We understand that selling porn is your business and we respect your right to make a legal living. But understand our legitimate concerns and work with us. You already have the ?warning adult content? on your websites. Yet kids, who are not legal customers of your product, ignore the warning. So to prevent them from having direct access to explicit images, texts and sounds, the simplest way is to have a password-protected login. No more ?free tours? b...
More About: Children , The Web , Child , Guard , Safe

How Much Is Your Blog Worth?
2007-03-06 20:17:01
I recently ran across two tools which give a monetary value for any blog. They give a dollar figure on how much the blog is worth. I am sure this value does not capture the actual worthiness of your blog but these are fun tools to try out. dnScoop gives lot of valuable information about any url, one of them being the value of the site in monetary terms. According to them: this value is calculated based on several factors shown above, including: Links, Traffic (Alexa), age of the domain, site category, domain keyword popularity, and overall occurrences of the domain name on the web. They provide an embeddable widget. There is a utility tool on pingoat which gives the monetary value of a blog based on Technorati rank. It also provides a widget to embed the value on your blog. I decided to use these tools to figure out the monetary value of some famous blogs which I frequently visit. Here are the results (in no particular order): Techcrunch: $16,428,000 (d...
More About: Blog , Your , Worth , Much , Wort

DuckSoup - Technorati API library In PHP
2007-03-06 20:17:01
Kailash Nadh has published an API library in PHP for Tech no rati named DuckSoup. The library supports all the Technorati APIs namely: CosmosQuery SearchQueryGetInfoQuery OutboundQuery BlogInfoQuery TagQuery TopTags AttentionQuery KeyInfo It produces data in organized trees e.g.: TopTagsQuery Parameters passed limit => 5 Resultant array Array ( [result] => Array ( [limit] => 5 ) [item] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [tag] => Music [posts] => 198098 ) [1] => Array ( [tag] => ??? [posts] => 186513 ) [2] => Array ( [tag] => News [posts] => 157867 ) [3] => Array ( [tag] => ?? ...
More About: Library , Php

Tune Up Your PC With PC Pitstop
2007-03-06 20:17:01
Is your PC running slow, do you feel it is sluggish? There can be a host of reasons why PCs become slow with time, ranging from registry filling up with redundant entries and broken links, malicious spyware/adware, trojans, file fragmentation etc. What should I do to figure out the problems? PC Pitstop’s free computer checkup and diagnostics can help you detect and fix many common computer problems. What does the tool do? The free check up performs the following tasks: measures disk fragmentation checks available system resources analyzes device drivers benchmarks the CPU memory video disk Internet connection looks for viruses and spyware in running software checks for common security problems and many more things The analysis doesn’t change any settings on your PC. Once the tests are complete, you’ll get a detailed report about your system, an inventory of the PC’s hardware and software setup and issues with your PC as well as recommendations ...
More About: With , Your , Stop , Tune

Annoyed With Programs Starting At Boot/Login Time? Try Msconfig
2007-03-06 20:17:01
There are lot of programs which startup when you boot a PC and login. Most of them you do not need and they just sit there consuming CPU and memory. I am talking about Windows based PCs. There are ways to get over this problem and MSCONFIG (Microsoft System CONFIGuration) utility is one of them. It allows you to disable programs from the startup list so that they don’t come up at boot/login time. In order to launch this tool: Star t -> Run -> type “msconfig” and hit “OK” button Go to the startup tab: and uncheck any item which you do not want to come up at start time. Hit “Ok” and you are done. The system might ask you to “Restart”. You can chose to restart then or restart later “Exit With out Restart”. Technorati tags: msconfig, boot, login, startups, windows
More About: Programs , Time

Technacular Joins India Technology Bloggers
2007-03-03 02:13:10
Technacular is now part of India Techno logy Blogger s.  Indian Technology Bloggers is not an independent blog or site but a FeedBurner Network. FeedBurner Networks is a service (currently in beta), that encourages discoverability and self-promotion of your feed content. It benefits publishers, subscribers and even advertisers by increasing discoverability of feed-driven content. Publishers benefit by banding together to increase exposure and take advantage of cross-promotional opportunities. Subscribers benefit by finding more content that interests them and advertisers benefit with increased targeting capability and exposure to content that may have been difficult to otherwise find. There are a total of 12 members right now: Quick Online Tips * :::RISHI RAJ::: Alpesh Nakars’ Blogosphere Blogging to Fame! Brajeshwar Freakitude Technology Blog iface thoughts JohnTP.com TechBuzz TechSpot2.0 Techtites Technacular If you are interested in joining this ...
More About: Tech

Beginner Developer Learning Center From Microsoft
2007-03-03 02:13:10
If you are interested in learning Microsoft .NET technologies from scratch then you are in luck. Microsoft has launched a new centralized learning environment on the web called Beginner Developer Learning Cent er. I really like the way things are organized on the site. It will definitely help even a non-programmer to pick up things and not overwhelmed by the content. The site has huge library of learning content starting from the very basics and guiding you through step-by-step into becoming a fully-fledged developer. The content is organized into two development tracks: Windows Development and Web Development. You can choose the track of your liking. They have nice lesson with options to follow in VB .NET or C#. The web track has extensive coverage of ASP .NET.  Within a particular track the lessons are organized in 3 tiers, allowing you to choose lessons based on your skills: Tier 1: Great place to start for someone new to programming Tier 2: Cov...
More About: Earn

Contest to Design Alternate Adobe Creative Suite 3 Icons
2007-03-03 02:13:10
Quark Vs In Design .com have announced an open competition to redesign the icons for Adobe Creative Suite 3, CSS-version, and other Adobe software products. Overview The competition is to design new icons for Adobe products, with the Creative Suite 3 application icons at their core. Entrants should design at least three (3) icon-sized representations of at least Photoshop, Illustrator, and one other CS3 application. The more icons redesigned, the better. Who can participate?  Competition is open to virtually anyone, anywhere in the world?even to Adobe employees!  (Detail Eligibility Requirements) How do I enter the contest? Download this PDF form, design your icons, and submit them alongside the form and at the same time as the form. How will the entries be judged? 30% Originality 30% Appropriateness to Subject 30% Coolness Factor 10% Number of Application Icon s What are the prizes? A cornucopia of software, books, and videos are offered to three winners in a p...
More About: Contest , Icons

Collection of Sites Which Allow You To Make Money
2007-03-03 02:13:10
Here is a compiled list of sites which allow you to make money in one form or another (for some of them you need to have a blog and may also need to go through a qualification process): ReviewMe: Get paid for sponsored reviews on your blog JustAnswers: People post questions and name their price for answers. An expert answers the question and gets the money. you can be the expert and make money. myLot: It is a forum where you get paid for posting. AGLOCO: It is also a global community of Internet users whose active members can get paid for all their online activity. There is a referral scheme too! SlashMySearch: You get paid for searching the web. They have a referral scheme also which might yield high results if you connect well. Money 4Blogs: It gives you money for a small link on your site for one of their financial companies. It uses Google PageRank as its criteria to decide how much to pay you DClick Ads: The site offers three types of services (Rev...
More About: Make Money , Site , Sites , Make

Lenovo Recalls Over 200,000 Laptop Batteries Made By Sanyo
2007-03-02 14:12:01
On March 1, 2007, Leno vo recalled approximately 208,000 9-cell lithium-ion batteries. These batteries were manufactured for use with ThinkPad notebook computers that shipped worldwide between November 2005 and February 2007. The recall was made because of a risk that they could catch fire if dropped. The following Thinkpad models were affected: R60 and R60e Series T60 and T60p Series Z60m, Z61e, Z61m, and Z61p Series Only the 9-cell batteries with the part number FRU P/N 92P1131 are being recalled. Consumers should stop using the batteries immediately. The batteries can overheat and pose a fire hazard if the laptop is dropped, Lenovo said. Earlier in September of 2006 Lenovo had recalled 526,000 rechargeable lithium-ion Sony batteries. This time around Sanyo batteries are the culprit. If you are a owner of Thinkpad laptop, here are some useful links for you: Determine if your battery is affected March 1, 2007 battery recall FAQs Source (physorg) Technorati tags: Leno...
More About: Laptop , Batteries , Recall , Calls

Colorzilla: Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer Add-on For Firefo
2007-03-02 14:12:01
Colorzilla is a very useful add-on for Fire fox and a must for web designers. Earlier I was using Instant Eyedropper for figuring out the color code on any page but this tool goes above and beyond that. What does Colorzilla do? Besides giving me the color code for any point in the browser window, it lets me zoom the page I am viewing and measure distances between any two points on the page. The built-in palette browser allows choosing colors from pre-defined color sets and saving the most used colors in custom palettes. DOM spying features allow getting various information about DOM elements quickly and easily. How does it work? To activate it, click on the dropper icon in the statusbar and then move around the cursor on the page. As you move along you get the color code of that point, its x and y coordinate and tons of useful information (DOM path etc.). It also highlights the container as you move along on the web What features does it provide? Her...
More About: Color , Page , Zoom , Pick

Develop Your Photoshop Skills Using YouTube
2007-03-02 14:12:01
YouTube  has become a store house of knowledge. Besides having fun, one can spend his/her time acquiring multiple skills through numerous  instructional videos. Photo shop is one tool which is always in demand and the prevalence of web 2.0 graphics has made it all the more useful skill to have. You can use YouTube to develop/strengthen your Photos hop skills. A post titled  Use YouTube to learn Photoshop  has a rich collection of Photoshop tutorials categorized in Photo Effects, Photoshop Basics and Web Design categories. Digital Inspiration post Keeping Fit with Workout Videos on YouTube has handpicked exercise videos for you from YouTube. Happy learning.   Technorati tags: Youtube , PhotoShop, Learning, Exercise, Video Tutorials

Virtual Genetics Clinic: Genetic Testing Through The Web
2007-03-02 14:12:01
DNA Direct is a company providing access to genetic test ordering through the web and phone. They have developed a notion of virtual genetics clinic to facilitate this process. Genetic tests can tell you if you carry a genetic risk, screen you for disease, or screen you for carrier status. This information will empower an individual enabling him to make better health decisions. Mosts of the tests can be ordered online  and the test kit arrives in mail. Tests are easy to carry out and you need to send the sample back for analysis. Detailed reports on your tests come up on the web site. Some of the tests they offer: Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency Blood Clotting Disorders Breast & Ovarian Cancer Cystic Fibrosis Drug Metabolism (CYP2D6 Gene) Hemochromatosis Infertility PreGen-Plus Colon Cancer Screening Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Tamoxifen (PBS affiliate aired a segment on Genetics Testing Through The Web ) The process has indeed been made very friendly and shou...
More About: Virtual , Sting

BestBuy The Best Among Tech Stores?
2007-03-02 14:12:01
I was interested in which tech store out of the famous three (Best Buy, CompUSA and CircuitCity) attracted more online customers and used Alexa to figure that out: (Click on the image to enlarge) From the graph it is quite certain that BestBuy.com leads the race, followed by CompUSA.com and then CircuitCity.com. Microcenter.com and Radioshack.com were thrown in to the mix but they were no competition to the big three. The big spike you see around November, 2006 is the Thanksgiving traffic! Tech norati tags: Bestbuy, CircuitCity, CompUSA, Microcenter, Radioshack, Alexaholic, Alexa
More About: Store , Stor , Stores

Track Flight Status, Flight Alert, Flight Rating and Airport Delays: Right
2007-03-02 14:12:01
Any one who is a frequent flyer would appreciate the importance of real-time flight information. FlightStats platform owned by Conducive Technology Corp. delivers real-time and historical flight information that lowers travel related costs and improves the travel experience. They have come up with an “All In One Widget” which you can embed directly on your Google homepage or Live.com. You can request a custom version for your own web site. The best part is this is free. The widget allows you to track Flight Status, get Flight Rating, obtain Flight Notification, and see Current US Airport Delays. If you are interested in more detailed integration in your web site or application, they have XML Web Services library which provide the following features: Current and Historical Flight Status Flight Notification and Event Messaging Flight Performance Rating Itinerary Monitoring Weather Conditions and Forecasts Current and Historical Airport Delays Airl...
More About: Port , Tatu , Light , Alert

Collection Of Articles On Ways To Monetize Your Blog
2007-03-02 14:12:01
Some of us blog as a hobby but others are professionals bloggers. Either way, if you have a blog or are in the process of starting a blog then making money out of it is not a bad idea (as long as it does not affect the user experience). Without getting into the details on why or why not monetize your blog, I will present to you a list of posts on topics related to monetizing your blogs. These topics will not only provide great insight into why you should think about monetizing but will also lead you through the process and help you implement best practices and use best tools out there. How to Make Money From Your Blog : In his post Steve talks not only about ways to monetize your blogs but also why you should do it and how to plan it. 10 Ways to Monetize Your Blog: Pat talks about 10 great techniques of Monetizing your blog. How Bloggers Make Money from Blogs: Of course who can forget Darren Rowse at Problogger.net, he is an expert in this art and has lot ...
More About: Articles , Article

18Seconds movement
2007-03-02 14:12:01
Yahoo Inc. together with Bender, the producer of the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” launched a website - http://www.18seconds.org - devoted to rallying US consumers to fight global warming by switching light bulbs from standard bulbs to CFL bulbs. The movement itself has been named 18Second s movement as that is the typical amount of time is takes for a person to change a light bulb. “This movement is about empowering the individual — to say to every person in America that with one easy step, they can become part of a movement that will literally change the world,” said Bender, producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ The amount of electricity saved by using a 13-watt CFL instead of a conventional 60-watt bulb translates into a reduction of 450 pounds of greenhouse gases spewed by a coal-burning power plant, according to Yahoo. What is a CFL bulb? (definition by 18seconds.org) A compact fluorescen...
More About: Men , Move , Econ , Seconds

Display Technorati Rank On Your Blog
2007-03-02 14:12:01
Douglas A Karr has written a widget to display Tech no rati rank on your blog. It is very simple to use and you can embed the JavaScript anywhere on your blog, preferably sidebar to show your Technorati rank. Here is mine: Douglas is working on the limitation of fixed number of hits per day set by Technorati. So this might not be visible after some time of the day. You can use his code directly on your site with your own Technorati key to display your rank. Technorati tags: Technorati Rank , PHP, Widget
More About: Play , Blog

StumbleUpon Toolbar 3.0
2007-03-02 14:12:01
StumbleUpon is a powerful tool which allows you to surf the Internet for great websites. It serves you random websites in categories of your choice. It personalizes recommendations according to your interests and allows you to rate, review and share any page. Recently they have integrated pictures and video to their repository too. It is usable in the form of a toolbar available for both Firefox and IE. Recently a new version (3.0)  of the toolbar came out with some nice features. I use this tool to discover great sites. Here is a snapshot of the toolbar from my machine: (click on the image to enlarge) The list of changes they made in going to 3.0: Avatars on the ‘Send to’ menu and on shared notes. Drag-and-drop toolbar placement. Configurable channel buttons. Channel indicator on the stumble button. New icon set. Toggle button configuration via the options dialog. Several search / tag configurations to cater to power users. Compatibility with the IE Tab extensi...
More About: Stumble , Tool , Toolbar , Stumbleupon

Firefox 2.0: Start Browsing From Where You Left Off
2007-03-02 14:12:01
You can use this tweak in Firefox 2.0 so that everytime you open the browser, you will get all the sites which you were visiting when you last closed the browser. It is available in the Tools -> Options -> Main Switch to “Show My Window and tabs from last time” option in the drop down list. Source: Firefox 2 .0: Session Restore Tweak Technorati tags: Firefox, Tweak, Session
More About: Start , Star , Browsing

10 Must Have iPod Accessories
2007-03-02 14:12:01
iPod has become an integral part of our life. Companies have been rolling out iPod accessories with very high frequency. I will list ten accessories which enhance our iPod experience: iPod Hi-Fi: A beautiful, compact sound system with an integrated Universal Dock for iPod that fills the room with rich, audiophile-quality sound. Harman Kardon Drive + Play: Drive + Play from Harman Kardon offers all the music browsing capability of the iPod itself and can be used with any car audio system. DLO VoiceNote: Voice recorder and microphone for iPod iPod Camera Connector: provides a fast, easy way to transfer images from your digital camera to your iPod Sennheiser PMX 70 Sport Earphones: an ergonomic neckband and vertical transducer system, the PMX 70 earphones are the ideal companion for all sportsmen and women Bose SoundDock Digital Music System: acclaimed Bose audio with the SoundDock digital music system Apple iPod Socks: Dress your iPod up in any one of six vibran...
More About: Ipod , Accessories , Access , Have

Adblock Plus: Say No To Ads And Banners On Websites
2007-03-02 14:12:01
There are lot of boring and annoying ads and banners on websites which you wished were not there but could not do anything about them. Besides being annoying they often take longer to download than the rest of the the page. Adblock Plus gives you the power to get rid of these ads. What is Adblock Plus? Adblock Plus is an add-on (software module that supplements or enhances the original unit it is adding on to) for href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefo x/">Firefox browser which allows you to get rid of text, banner, flash and image advertisements from any website. But where can I get Firefox? How well has this add-on been received? It has been a year now since Adblock Plus was released. Since then there have been almost three million downloads on addons.mozilla.org (which is very good!). Before and After The pictures below show the same site before Adblock was activated (left) and after Adblock was activated (right). How does it work? Install it on...
More About: Website , Site , Websites , Webs , Sites

Suggest A Better Translation with Google Translate
2007-03-02 14:12:01
 Easiest way to translate any webpage and/or text from one language to another is to use http://translate.google.com. Try this link to translate Technacular home page to German. It is a very powerful tool and most of the times does a very decent job. For some of the times when you get wrong translations, Google now provides a way for you to report it and suggest a better translation. This will enable their system to learn to translate better. If you see a sentence that is not correct, hover over it to display the original text tooltip and click the “Suggest a better translation” link. The feature is only available for you to use with one of the following translation pairs: English to/from Arabic English to/from Chinese (Simplified/Traditional) English to/from Russian Chinese (Simplified) to/from Chinese (Traditional) Your contribution can help enhance the experience of your fellow language beings. Source: Google Blog Technorati tags: Google, Google Trans lat...
More About: With , Better , Translate

Zune Photo Contest
2007-03-02 14:12:01
ZuneInsider is running a photo contest titled:  Zune Outdoor Photo Contes t . How does the contest work? Get a picture of your Zune outside. It can be somewhere in nature, at a concert, near a landmark. Go somewhere cool, do something funny, whatever you think will make your picture stand out. Once you have your photo, post it on the web, and drop a comment in this post. What is the deadline? Wednesday, 28th of February, 2007 What is the prize? Zune party attendee booklets. They come with a collection of Zune posters, two CDs, two records (vinyl, for your turntable) and a few posters of Zune art. Overall, a very cool package. The contest should be open to public voting. See the site for details. Source: Zune Outdoor Photo Contest Technorati tags: Zune, Contest, Prize, Photo
More About: Zune , Test