iShare

TED Talks RSS Video Feeds

2012-01-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

Most reputable video content sites these days publish their content using RSS video feeds. It is a fast and easy way to play online video content on a big screen TV connected to internet or by using any other DLNA device such as Boxee/Sony Media Player along with a DLNA server software such as Serviio installed on a PC or MAC.

As one of many sites even TED publishes its content as RSS video feeds, but these feeds doesn't contain all the videos ever published on the site. So based on this video list by TED, I made RSS video feeds for all the videos separated according to their published year on the site. Below are the links:

I plan to update the feed for the most recent year as often as possible. Being a fan of TED talks I enjoyed doing this. Hope it is helpful.

This Diet Planner isn't that Bad

2011-12-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

Health buff or not most of us at some point want to get our diet right. The thought of being on diet seems very inspiring but the real process of planning a diet itself seems pretty dreadful. Only if some body could plan our diet and that is exactly what this post is about.

Swole is an online diet planner on auto pilot. Just give the amount of calories willing to consume along with the number of meals and hit that button. Bam! there you are with the menu. It can't get any easier than this. Hope you will include diet in your New Year's resolutions after checking Swole.

Hack: Embed -> Embedding Disabled Youtube Videos

2011-09-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Youtube videos could be embedded in a blog or a webpage using the embed code provided by Youtube or by using a direct URL. That is easy but users might disable the option of embedding when they upload their videos. While playing with Youtube source, came across this method of embedding videos even after the disable option in on.

Youtube updated their swf player and this hack no longer works. Hope this post helped them to fix the error.

You should hear music playing, that is from the video below. If it is disturbing pause it before you read the rest of the post.

For the video below embedding has been disabled:

If you try to play the above video an embedding disabled message will be presented. So using the hack the same video could be embedded as follows:

The following is the code used for first video player:


<object data="http://www.youtube.com/v/XS088Opj9o0" style="height: 366px; width: 450px;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XS088Opj9o0" /></object>

The following is the code used for second video player:


<div id="watch-player" class="flash-player">
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash"     src="http://s.ytimg.com/yt/swfbin/watch_as3-vflq6Rm_x.swf" width="450" id="movie_player" height="366"   
flashvars="video_id=XS088Opj9o0&vq=auto&sffb=True&instream=True&autohide=0" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="false" bgcolor="#000000">
</div>

The only but huge downside of this method is by default auto play is on and I couldn't find a way to turn it off.

UPDATE: Use the below code to disable auto play in second video player->


<div id="watch-player" class="flash-player">
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash"     src="http://s.ytimg.com/yt/swfbin/watch_as3-
vflq6Rm_x.swf?video_id=XS088Opj9o0&allowfullscreen=%22false%22&autohide=0&autoplay=%22false%22" 
width="450" id="movie_player" height="366" >
</div>

The result is a non embeddable video with auto play disabled as shown below:

This method is only for educational purposes and Neither I endorse nor encourage any one to use this method for copyright infringement and other restrictive activities.

Let LEO tell you how to do that thing on computer

2011-08-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Imagine a situation where we don't know how to do that thing in Microsoft Word, Excel or for that matter Mozilla Firefox. In such a scenario we would either take help from some body who knows a thing or two about these software or go online and use our favorite search engine to find some help. What if I tell you there is one more way probably better than the above two options?

It is a software called as LEO that will not only guide us doing a certain task but also will actually do it for us. LEO currently offers assistance to the following software:

Microsoft Word 2007 & 2010
Microsoft Excel 2007 & 2010
Microsoft Power point 2007 & 2010
Facebook
iTunes
Mozilla Firefox

LEO could be downloaded from here

Automatically updated list of TED talks

2011-08-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

TED is an online video repository of inspirational, innovative and interesting ideas presented by academicians and researchers around the world at TED conferences. The videos published by TED could be explored based on categories on their website.

There is one more comprehensive way of exploring these videos, to simply go through the list of videos ever published by TED. This list is a public spreadsheet published and maintained by Google Docs and is automatically updated every five minutes. Head over to TED Talk List to find some interesting videos and ideas.

Auto correct computer display brightness according to time of the day!

2011-08-01T18:06:00.000-07:00

Computer displays are bright and welcoming. With HD screens and backlight monitors these days, they are brighter than ever. Bright screens are good but they are good only during day. With sun not around and under low or no light conditions they are pretty stressful on eyes.

As a solution to this issue, it would be great if a computer screen can auto correct its brightness according to time of the day. That is exactly the behavior, Flux a software for Windows, Mac and Linux systems simulates. It is a great piece of software that goes by the tag line of "Better lighting...For your computer". It just requires basic information about your environment to make the magic happen. Follow the link above to check Flux's utility by yourself.

If you still want to build that gaming desktop!

2011-07-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

If enjoyed, building a desktop is always a fun process, but for Amateurs who are planning to go on this route things might be little intimidating. That shouldn't bother or slow them down as there is an aid that will make life easier and help them in building that gaming desktop they always wanted.

PCitYourself is the aid that we are talking about here friends. It is a website with animated step by step instructions to guide and help one in building their dream machine. Right from choosing till installing the parts they got it all covered here. So head over and build that beast!

One application to open several file formats

2011-07-22T01:01:00.000-07:00

Why bother installing multiple applications when you can get away with only one? An application that can open different document formats including PDF, audio formats like MP3, WAV, WMA, video formats like AVI, FLV, MKV and most other formats that are common in day-to-day computer usage.

That's exactly what could be expected of FreeOpener, which can open 80 file formats in total. Head over here for a complete list of formats handled by FreeOpener

Checking weather isn't that boring after all!

2011-07-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

Checking weather could be interesting, colorful and above all more helpful if we end up using the right application. Same could be expected from an app called as Swackett. It is a Mac app, web app and probably an iPhone app in future.

Swackett hits the heart of weather checking ritual by bundling all the required information into a helpful, elegant and an interesting package. It is a free app with the ability to personalize the look and feel of the application by using their store to buy more editions.

Head over to Swackett to check all its niceties.

Unique Media Player from Norway

2011-07-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

There are several media players that are already available for our disposal. We have Roku, Boxee, Google TV and plethora others. Do we still need more to quench our media thirst or satisfy our geeky side? May be yes because you might have not read or seen anything like this before.

Called as SKAL which means a bowl in Norway, is a unique media player made of a wooden bowl where in physical objects are placed to play a particular category of media like video clips, audio clips or pictures. It cleverly uses technologies like wireless sensors, RFID tags and others to do this. To know more about this unique media player watch the video on Vimeo.

Use of Sound and Noise to get to sleep and relax

2011-07-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

One of those days most of us will struggle to get to sleep. Racy thoughts, memories and worries cloud our brain as we fight to get to sleep. Many remedies both natural and medical are available to fight sleeplessness.

One such natural remedy is playing sound and noise that is continuously oscillating at a certain frequency range, thereby helping in getting in to sleep.

Several online websites are available for this purpose:

If not for sleep the above listed web applications could be used just to relax or concentrate. Give them a try.

Cities around the world with same names

2011-04-29T12:59:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered whether there are cities with same names around the world ? I did, and a quick search took me here Duplicate Name Cities in the USA. The article was an interesting read and I wanted to answer this question comprehensively with supporting data.

So after spending few hours on the Internet, got my hand on the data that I was looking for:

WorldCities

U.S. Board on Geographic Names (US Cities)

Using the above two data sets compiled an Access Database and a user interface that will consume the data. Both of which could be downloaded as an archive (.rar) at the following link:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/88azowd3639zle8/OneMoreCity.rar

The file is around 18MB to download. After decompressing it will take around 203MB ( remember we are talking about a database with city names for US and around the world). Also the user interface may need downloading and installing .NET framework 4.0.

World's Smallest and Highest Websites

2011-02-02T22:53:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to list the world's smallest and highest websites:

Smallest

Highest

Sometimes I like to keep my posts really short.

Share large files without uploading them to a server

2011-01-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

The idea is simple, it is the ability to share large files between two trusted parties without uploading them to a server. Until recently we didn't had a straight forward solution to achieve this apart from using File sharing services like Rapidshare, Megaupload or using email attachment services like Pando.

This limitation could be overcome now by using several web applications that will just need a browser to share large files at good speeds in a peer to peer fashion. Check the list below for the best among the rest:

Find current time anywhere in the World!

2011-01-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

Frequent traveler or an enthusiast, if you want to know the time of a certain place in the world, here is a list of best websites available online to do just that.

Take a peek in to the past using Nikon's Web Application

2011-01-05T09:21:00.000-08:00

Nikon calls it as "This Day" which will let you know an important event that happened in the past at the current date. According to me it is a dose of past in an elegant way. Check it out at: http://www.nikon.com/about/feelnikon/thisday/

First ever interactive 360 degree video on Youtube

2010-12-29T06:03:00.000-08:00

In one of my previous post, I referred to Yellowbird a state of the art technology for producing 360 degree videos with interactivity. Doritos have produced a video using this technology which is posted on YouTube.

Follow the link to check the video that has also been featured on FWA site: http://www.youtube.com/doritosuk

On the same lines ImmersiveMedia does the same in Flash videos using their own technology.

Print Directory feature by Microsoft Fixit

2010-12-14T10:49:00.000-08:00

Once a while there might be a requirement to print a list of files in a directory or send them to a clipboard or save them as a text file. Microsoft offers a solution for such a scenario through Fixit , a place to find automated solutions to common software issues.

Print Directory is a Fixit solution, once installed will let you print any directory listing. It is basic and doesn't offer any other feature like copying to clipboard and so on. So here is a list freeware which are more advanced in that sense:

Karen's Directory Printer ( Save as Text file )
YourDir ( Save as CSV, Save as Image )
Directory List & Print ( Recommended -- Ability to Format the Output) (Clipboard, Excel , Word )
JR Directory Printer ( Opens the list in a Notepad before printing and hence could be formatted )

Facebook Stats and Figures

2010-12-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

If among other things one is also interested in knowing interesting Statistics about Facebook and its users, this brief post would be of some interest. Facts and figures are always interesting to those who care but the boring part is the analysis. If somebody is doing the analysis it becomes more fun.

So without any further delay drive yourself to SocialBakers and improve your knowledge about Facebook

Location Based Reminders

2010-11-28T06:12:00.000-08:00

Location based reminders are a breed of phone applications that will remind a user things to do based on his or her location. This technology is there around for a while now but with the availability of GPS enabled phones it is more accurate than ever.

As always here is the list:

iPhone:

Android:

Symbian (Nokia):

GPS-Action

Web-os:

GeoStrings

From online blog to offline PDF/ebook

2010-11-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

There are several interesting blogs online these days. With so much interesting information available online it would be nice if a blog could be converted as an ebook or a PDF for offline use.

The list of online services/software below fall in the ballpark of our context:

WordPress:

Anthologize

Blogger:

Blogcollector (Commercial)
Blog2Print (Commercial)
Zinepal (Available free service with limitations)
Blogbooker (Needs an XML backup of the blog) (Free)
BookSmith (Free and probably the best)

General:

Tabbloid (Get blogs delivered as PDF straight to inbox)

Read just that article not the clutter around it!

2010-11-17T16:07:00.000-08:00

The process of reading an online article should be as interesting as the article itself, don't you agree? These days any online article is surrounded by tons of distracting, unwanted and uninviting ads around, which suffices the interest in reading that article. This simple tool is designed to end such an experience.

Called as Readability, this tool could be installed as a Firefox Add-On or just as a Bookmark in the Browser's toolbar. After a simple initial configuration, the tool would be ready to use. When on the page of the article just click the Readability toolbar button or the R icon in the browser's status bar (Add-On) to get rid of those unwanted clutter. Give it a try and read your way to glory!!!

Share Microsoft office documents on Facebook

2010-11-17T12:47:00.000-08:00

Photos, Videos, Music and Links, well these are the most common things that are shared on Facebook. How about sharing and working on a Word document or an Excel Spreadsheet on Facebook ? Now, it could be done too.

Docs a service form Microsoft Fuse labs will let Facebook users to share Microsoft Office documents with one another. It is an interesting service from Microsoft, which is still in its beta stages but worth checking out.

Different YouTube Pages

2010-11-10T07:10:00.000-08:00

Most of us know that there are tons of channels on YouTube that one could subscribe to. Similarly a lesser known aspect of YouTube is that they also have dedicated pages to certain categories of videos.

Below is the compiled list of those links:

These could be used for accessing YouTube in a more organized fashion. Hope they are made use of!!!

Mapping tool for Wikipedia

2010-11-02T07:33:00.001-07:00

Most of the articles on Wikipedia are data oriented like list of Countries winning soccer world cup, list of countries winning different beauty pageants and so on. The data in these articles is often presented on a world map, which is both visually appealing and one of easiest ways to get around the information.

In the context of the above mentioned scenario, came across an interesting online tool that would let anyone create maps such as that of on Wikipedia. The mapping tool could be found at GunnMap. As an example check out the map that is done using this tool for the frequency of countries winning Miss World title.

Not so known but interesting facts and terms

2010-10-28T13:30:00.001-07:00

For people interested in trivia, knowing unknown will always be exciting. There are several terms and facts related to a broad variety of topics that are totally hidden until we come across them. This post is all about such facts and terms (will try to update as much as possible):

Megadiverse
Ice Rainbow
Golden Tabby Tiger, Snow White Tiger, All four varieties of Bengal Tigers
Araucana (Blue Eggs)
Dead Sea
Thousand Bloom Chrysanthemum
Grandidier's Baobab
Fingerboard
900 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vInHTvNX6Q)
Spirit of Ecstasy
Anticrepuscular Rays
Covini C6W (First Six-Wheeled Supercar)
Antikythera Mechanism (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk)
Dry Ice
Green Lake, Austria (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI3RlgNJRtA)
Mud-Horse Fishing
Goliath beetles (Largest Insect on Earth)
Bumblebee Bat (Smallest Mammal on Earth)
Phantom Sun
Tilt-Shift Photography (Some Beautiful Examples)
GoogleWhack
White Lion
Chrysocyon
Infinity Edge Pool
The Game (Mind Game)

Feel free to choose your Browser!

2010-10-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

Because of this European Union Microsoft competition case, Microsoft wants you to feel free to decide which web browser you want to have on your windows machine. Hence they came up with this BrowserChoice.

Though this will only pertain to countries in European Union, it could be used as a tool to install and try other interesting browsers.

Improved dose of Youtube Instant

2010-10-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

YTInstant became an instant success because it showcased a simple idea in an elegant way. I liked it and many others did and so it became a runaway hit. All agreed, we will always have improved versions of the same idea and there is already one that got spotted in the wild.

This new kid on the block is called as ListAndPlay. It lets you search YouTube instantly (Sounds similar to YTInstant) but also will allow you to create and share a play list. Take a look, if you may, another elegant website that showcased this simple idea of Instant.

YouTube has some music too!!!

2010-09-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

There are many online music services to cater our music needs but most of them are not known for playing the song we want instantly or for that matter the whole song. This scenario would be history soon as a new breed of online music services are popping up all over the Internet. These services don't host any music that we request, instead they will get all the music requested from YouTube (where else).

Below is a list of music services based on YouTube:

Muziic
Quisple (Desktop App)
Fizy
TubeRadio
MixTube
Meuzer
Mufin
uWall

Additionally, there are other online music services that will use multiple free resources not just YouTube to fetch the music requested, which are:

Spool.fm
JustHearIt

Instant is the new trend

2010-09-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

It all started with Google's Instant search and now Instant is a new phenomenon on internet. It became more popular with the recent instant success of YouTube Instant at YTInstant. Many extended this idea of instant to other popular websites like Google Maps, Google Images, Twitter and so on.

Below are a few websites that have attempted to extend well known websites with INSTANT:

a) Websites showcasing INSTANT functionality for individual websites:
Google Maps
Google Images
Youtube, Youtube, Youtube, Youtube
IMDB
Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter
Flickr
Wikipedia,Wikipedia
Hulu
iTunes
Apple App Store Instant
Bing Search
Domain Search,Domain Search,Domain Search

b) Websites showcasing INSTANT functionality for many websites under one roof (Comprehensive):
Ozone: Works with Google, Amazon, Netflix, Wikipedia, YouTube. Additionally with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Delicious, Apple, Quora, Fanvibe, Gmail, as well as Chrome bookmarks and history if installed as a Chrome Add-on.

Instantise: Works with Google -> Maps, Images, Videos, News, Shopping, Gmail. Also with YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Wikipedia, Amazon, eBay, iTunes.

Hope you will get a dose of instant from the above list!!!

Tools to improve english, both written and spoken

2010-09-27T13:27:00.001-07:00

English is one of the vastly used languages to communicate all across the globe. However, not everybody would be affluent while conversing in English. So, I wanted to do a brief post, listing few applications that would help to improve one's English, both written and spoken.

A.I.Type: It is a Desktop application that requires downloading. The application will improve typing with smart word and sentence suggestions. Also comes with built in translation to other languages. The application's demo could be checked at its website.

FreeRice: An online vocabulary quiz with a twist of charity. The website would donate 10 grains of rice for every correct answer on the website.

Frovo: An online pronunciation guide to help improve one's pronunciation in about 258 languages.

PaperRater: Mostly useful to Academicians but nevertheless will work with any paragraph of text in English. An online application with no downloads that will proof read, correct grammar and also check for possible plagiarism in the provided text or paper.

EnglishCentral: Fun way to learn English by watching videos.

PolishMyWriting: A free online application that improves a block of text by offering spelling, grammar and style suggestions.

Found them interesting enough to be shared here.

Install the common Applications on windows with One click!

2010-08-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

The title of the post says it all. Ever went through the time taking process of installing all the applications you commonly use either after a fresh windows install or after getting a new computer. If so you know what I am talking about. Gone are the days of downloading and installing an application and continuing the process till all the required applications are installed. This is the time to automate the whole process.

The list given below would exactly do the same:

Ninite (Web App)
FreeNew (Web App)
InstallPad (Desktop App)
AllMyApps (Web App)
ZeuAPP (Dektop App)

Give them a spin and save some time the next time you format that computer.

Play with your Photos!

2010-08-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

We all love memories and would like to revisit them once a while. There might be several ways to do it but easiest of all is going through a bunch of photos, mostly digital these days. As our memories are precious to us and so are our photos. So, I would list few software/web services that would allow us to improve, add effects or change the way digital photos are presented.

Collages:
Shape Collage
AutoCollage (Not a freeware)
Photovisi (Web App)

Editors:
Image Composite Editor (To stitch Panorama)
Phixr

Image Re-size:
mypictr

Captions:
Bubblesnaps (Add captions to photos)

Photo Sharing with a twist:
Picupine (Your photos online for a week)

Vectorize
Textorizer (Regenerate photos with text)
Text-Image (Regenerate photos with text)

Miscellaneous
Zoom.it (Zoom any online picture)
Frintr (Facebook Profile Picture)

Enjoy these services/software for now. I plan to update this post in future with new and useful photo web services/software.

What is better than a Panorama?

2010-07-16T06:50:00.001-07:00

We always want more, isn't? That is fundamental aspect for the advancement of existing technology. Panoramas are good, their wide-angle view makes it an indisputable object of desire in the field of photography. Prolific digital cameras made way to panoramas which encapsulate gigapixels worth of digital data in them.

Some of world's largest Panoramas can be found at:
Harlem
Gigapan
Paris
London

These days digital cameras come with an inherent option to take Panoramas right from the camera itself. If it is not in the camera then there are several software that could be found on internet which can stitch a Panorama putting together several pictures. Better one could use a software called as Photosynth from Microsoft that will allow one to create 360 degree pictures. It can be found at: Photosynth

So, is there anything better than the above mentioned options? The answer is a resounding yes. How about a 360 degree video, a video that one could move around in a circle when it is actually playing. Isn't sound fantastic, awesome and whatever words you choose to use? Yes it is. I hope you will have the same reaction after you see it at: Yellowbird

Export last.fm library

2010-04-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

last.fm is a well known streaming music service that's been around for a while now. They do have a nice desktop client for those who don't want to use a browser to play the songs. One thing with this streaming services is that you never know how quickly songs get accumulated in the library.

So using last.fm xml web service I wrote a small application that would extract all the tracks and their information from last.fm user's library. The application takes the user name and gives out a list of tracks along with an option to download it as a CSV file.

Update: Added the ability to list the neighbors of an user. This feature is iterative meaning any user in the displayed neighbors list could be selected again to get his/her library along with a list of neighbors. Any overlapping neighbors would be eliminated.

Download @ http://www.mediafire.com/?hmjmzd5cmt2

Since the XML service gives out only 50 tracks at a time, it might take few minutes to extract a large library of songs, but your patience doesn't go in vain.

Augmented Reality Browsers

2010-04-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Though the term Augmented Reality is there around for a while, it was more in theory rather than in practice. It is no more the case now, one can use applications based on augmented reality right in their phones.

These applications known as Augmented Reality Browsers will allow one to get information about a place they are visiting. Since they rely on content that has been gathered ahead of time, there is a high chance of not finding information all the time. Rest assured, these applications will evolve over a period of time.

Augmented Reality Browsers:

Layar (iPhone, Android)

Wikitude (iPhone, Android, Symbian)

World Lens (iPhone) (Translates Text in real time)

Trace the route of a web request

2010-03-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Did you ever wanted to see what happens when you type that URL in the address bar of a browser? Well, I always wanted to see the path taken by a web request before the page appeared in the browser.

This application stopped working for a while now. So, I have updated the code and fixed the issues. It seems to be working fine again.

So to make this happen I developed a small application. The application will take a web address such as "www.google.com" in its URL text box and on clicking the submit button will give you details of the route taken by the web request along with a map.The displayed google map plots the physical locations of the servers the web request traversed through.

It is not a critical application to have but nevertheless it is so much fun. It can be downloaded from the following location: http://www.mediafire.com/?wk0qhaa1oct110l

What is the name of that song?

2010-03-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

It is not unusual to stumble across user videos on various video hosting websites that play amazing music in the background. What if you want to know which band or artist's song is that?

Well, apart from asking the people you know and posting it on a website like: WatZatSong, there is one other way.

Let us say we want to know the name of the artist whose song is being played in this video: http://vimeo.com/9225227:

Go to http://www.tubeminator.com
Paste the above URL and click the Tubeminate button
The video will be processed and various conversion options are presented
Choose the format as MP3 and click the Download button
The video will be converted and a Download link will be made available
Copy Link Location and paste it in the "URL to audio file" box at Audiotag and click Proceed

After processing the song and checking whether the request is from a human user, the song information is made available. In this case it is:

Title: Undercurrent
Artist: Jami Sieber
Album: Lush Mechanique
Year: 1994

With this method, the song information can be known even without downloading it on to the computer and it is fast. The limitation being, depending up how vast the database of the service is one might not be successful every time.

Automate computer tasks

2010-03-04T06:51:00.000-08:00

Well, why would some body want to automate things one does on a computer? This might be the question one may think if this is news to them. Of all the reasons, one very practical use to me is assistance. These tools will allow a knowledgeable computer user to assist either an elderly or somebody to whom using a computer is still a puzzle.

The following are some of the tools available which would automate the tasks on a computer(In the order of ease of use):

WinAutomation: This software is not a freeware. But it is loaded with several user friendly features that would allow to automate many of the common tasks on a computer with ease. At this time it is available only for windows.

Automation scripting languages:

Sikuli: This is a visual scripting language developed by MIT computer science and artificial intelligence lab. Though the MIT tag might be intimidating to many, with minimal learning curve one might find their life easier with this scripting language. With the help of easy to remember function names, well defined program structure and screen shots one would be able to automate any event that is visible on their monitor.

The best part of this language: it is available for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. If programming is not too scary, no harm in giving it a try.

AutoIt: This is BASIC ( One of the old programming languages) like scripting language to automate windows tasks. This is more advanced and gives you more flexibility in terms of programming. In short if one likes programming what software like WinAutomation can do, this should be the scripting language.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

2010-02-18T07:51:00.000-08:00

BMI is a measure to determine whether one is underweight, Normal or overweight. The following is a piece of information to calculate one's own BMI, thought of having it here, if not anything for my own reference.

BMI is a tool that indicates your obesity status. To get your BMI:

Multiply your weight by 703
Divide the result by your height in inches
Divide this number by your height in inches again

Recommended BMI varies by gender and age, but generally falls into the following categories

Below 18.5 - Underweight
18.5-24.9 - Normal
25.0-29.9 - Overweight
30.0 and above - Obese

Global Facts and Stats

2010-01-29T10:47:00.000-08:00

Internet is the source for all sorts of information. For people who are interested in knowing the figures and stats for all kinds of measures, things have become much easier now.

There are many websites that are available now that will allow one to quench their thirst for stats, facts and figures without spending whole lot of time in compiling and analyzing such data. The following is a list of websites that just do the same

www.nationmaster.com --- Graphically compare nations
www.statemaster.com --- Compare US states
www.worldometers.info --- Real Time world statistics
www.indexmundi.com --- Country Facts
www.geohive.com --- Global Statistics
www.aneki.com --- Source for World Rankings
www.altiusdirectory.com --- Facts, Articles and Datasets
http://historyorb.com/ --- Historical Events and Facts

Shortest Domain Names

2010-01-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

Of nowhere I got this thought to investigate what might be the shortest functioning domain name in the world. The only possibility is domain names with a letter or a digit.

As most of the single digit and single letter domain names are reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, I was not sure about the existence of single character domain names. But I was pleasantly surprised to know that there are actually few:

G (Google China)
Q (Qwest)
X (Pay Pal)

All the common applications for windows in one customized installer

2009-11-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

This is a common scenario all the computer users will face one day or the other, installing all the applications you need after a windows operating system upgrade or a fresh install after formatting the computer. If that is the case continue reading.

Go to this nifty website by following the link Ninite

Once you get to the website just choose what yo need from the listed freeware and hit the "Get Installer" button and you are good to go with a customized installer with all the applications you want in a convenient installer. This is indeed an idea which deserves a clap or two.

Make some music

2009-11-19T13:32:00.000-08:00

Well if you are like me who enjoys music and always wanted to make some , then continue reading this post. If you been an avid computer user, then it is not hard to recollect those little programs which used to run on DOS or Windows 3.1 and played a sound for each key pressed on the keyboard.

You know what I am referring to, we have come very far in the field of digital music production since those days. Now, people like you and me can produce some music, if not serious, at least to make them as your own customized ring tones. Take a look at the following web links that will let you do exactly the same:

Musicshake
LoopLabs
HobNox Audio Tool
Myna Audio Editor
SoundJunction
Jam Studio
Indaba Music
YourSpins
Notessimo
Isle Of Tune

Most of the above listed websites will let you create music right from the browser without the need of downloading any application on to your computer. So enjoy your music.

My Best from Techcrunch50 -2009

2009-10-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Techcrunch50 conference is a blessing for any start-up web company. Well I don't want to get in to the details of what they are and how exactly they help the start-ups. The full details along with the list of this year's 46 finalists can be checked at:

Techcrunch50

Some very impressive presentations happened at this year's conference, of which my best are the following:

RedBeacon (Winner)

Some times start-ups start with a bang but may stay only for a while. It is interesting to keep a watch on how well these start-ups do in near future. Meanwhile if there is time to spare you can go through Techcrunch50 and my best list. Have fun!!!

Data privacy, Self-Destructing Email and so on...

2009-10-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

During one of my random browsing sessions I came across a question in Yahoo Answers that was asked way back in early 2008 about self-destructing, non-forwardable email and the best answer chosen was a straight no. Well, this is not the case in today's date.

The reason is, an active research is being done and a prototype system is already developed by researchers at University Of Washington which is called as Vanish. Vanish's main goal is to provide users with such a level of privacy that they will not leave any traces of their online activity. This includes self-destructing and non-forwarding email. You can know more about it at:

http://vanish.cs.washington.edu/

On the commercial front there is a free email service that is already available with the above mentioned features and many more. It is called as Bigstring and can be checked at the following link:

http://www.bigstring.com/

This is encouraging and a welcome change to the way we use our email today. Take my word folks worth checking it out.

Share, Access your digital content...with out third party servers

2009-09-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

As it is rightly said, we all care about our privacy at some point. For those of you who are little more worried about hosting your digital media like pictures, songs, calendar etc. on third party servers like snapfish, flickr and so on. There is some good news in the form of one workspace web platforms like:

Tonido
Microsoft Mesh
Opera Unite in (Opera 10.10 Browser)

These applications will let you share your digital media on your local computer with rest of the world you know, without compromising your privacy. They do it in a simple and intuitive fashion making your local computer as a web server. You will create your own Peer-to-Peer private networks to share your digital content. This is indeed a technological advancement which cares about the privacy of an individual.

Interesting UI

2009-07-29T07:59:00.000-07:00

If it is not too geeky or techie, you are welcome to check these links. They showcase the recent developments in User Interface design both offline and online. I thoroughly enjoyed browsing these sites, hence they found a place on this blog. Have fun!!!

http://www.cooliris.com/
http://search.spacetime.com/
http://www.dontclick.it/
http://bumptop.com/
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/components/spectra/spectra.html
http://dev.getoutsmart.com/os3d/demos/videoroom/