Enhance your Internet Explorer 7 browsing experience with IE7Pro add-on

DemoGeek.com has another great article on how to enhance your Internet Explorer browsing experience with IE7Pro add-on. IE7Pro is an add-on that you can download and install and it brings an experience that Firefox users enjoy with their extendable browser. Even if not as expandable and as feature rich as Firefox’s extensions are, IE7Pro does bring in some enhancements to the browsing experience with IE7.

Another well-explained article from DemoGeek.com that you should read.

Recharge your gadgets without wires

A Pennsylvania based company, Powercast, came up with an impressive product to cut the wires on small to medium gadgets and let the recharge happen wireless. That is a pretty cool concept and the good thing about this is that they just didn’t come up with the concept but they’ve made that concept into a product and have successfully signed agreements with more than 100 companies including the electronics giant Philips.

Here is how it works…A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device’s battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

Read more about this cool stuff here.

Technorati Tags: Recharge over the air, Wireless Recharge, Gadgets, Recharge, Wireless Electricity, Cool Gadget, Powercast, Cool Product, Innovative Product

ZYB: Online Mobile Phone Contact Backup Service

I just tried ZYB, the online mobile phone contact backup service and I’ve to tell ya, it is simply a great tool to make sure your cell phone numbers are safely backed up somewhere online. I always was concerned of losing my cell phone or having it not startup on a fine day. One day I happen to drop my cell phone in the rain and it wouldn’t start up after that and I still remember the moment when I was literally trying my best to make sure I get my contacts written somewhere safe. Fortunate for me that I got my cell phone back up and running without that many hassles but that taught me a good lesson and importance of keeping a backup of my cell phone contacts.

When I heard of ZYB providing the same service of what I was looking for, I thought of giving it a try. Truly it was a seamless effort to back up my cell phone contacts. Even though the web site was a bit slow in terms of performance it was simple enough to have my RAZR contacts backed up with few simple steps that ZYB will guide you thru.

One great service that I would recommend you to try.

tags: Backup, Backup Cellphone, Backup Cellphone Contacts, Backup Service

Vista’s successor now known as "Windows 7″ due out within three years

Microsoft announced the big news at Microsoft Sales Training Conference in Orlando, FL. The big news was what was previously been called as “Vienna”, the next major version of Windows, will now be called “Windows 7″ and would be due in the next 3 years time frame.

Source: Engadget

Tags: Windows, Windows Vista, Windows Vienna, Windows 7, Microsoft, News

Get your @Live addresses while they lost

To me @Live addresses are cool even though I like Gmail interface and email handling a lot better than Hotmail. It is short and sweet and stands out. When Microsoft announced that it will open up the @Live addresses I was excited. But then the news faded and there was no word for a while. In the mean time our unofficial hackers came up with a hack that will let us get @Live addresses (unofficially) by changing few parameters in the browser URL.

Here is how you do it,

1. Visit the Windows Live Hotmail subscription page
2. Click the “Get it free” button 
3. When the new page comes up, in the address bar, replace “hmnewuser.aspx” with “newuser.aspx”
4. Locate and delete “&hm=1″ from the same address bar
5. Hit enter, and when the page reloads it will let you create @live addresses

Enjoy!!! And make sure to get your @live addresses as soon as you can as this hack might not work forever.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live, Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft, @Live.com, @Live

Millionaire Terminology

How would you term a person worth $5 Million, $10 Million and $100 Million? Here is how,

• A pentamillionaire is someone with a net worth of $5 million.
• A decamillionaire is someone with a net worth $10 million.
• A hectamillionaire is someone with a net worth of $100 million, although most refer to them as Ultra-High-Net-Worth (UHNW).

tags: Millionaires, Million, Terminology, How do you?

Mapplets: Google Map Gadgets

Google just released a new feature to its Google Maps called Mapplets. Mapplets are simple/small gadgets that can be embedded into the Google Maps. Mapplets can be found under “My Maps” if you are signed-in to Google network. There are bunch of Mapplets that Google has put out to begin with including, Real Estate Search, Photos, Gas Prices, Distance Measurement Tool, Earth as Art, and Crop Circles. But when you click the “Add Content” button you get a much bigger list of all the available Mapplets and I’m sure if you don’t find the one you are looking for it would be available soon.

To check out Google Mapplets you would, obviously, have to visit Google Maps.

Tags: Google, Google Maps, Mapplets, Google Mapplets, Breaking News, New Features

Folders4Gmail: Create nested labels in Gmail

As you know Labels are so convenient in Gmail to deal with the huge volume of emails. Depends on who you are it could get cluttered with so many different labels defined to handle different contexts. Folders4Gmail is a cool solution to this issue. This Greasemonkey script lets you structure the labels like folders with nested labels that could make it easy to handle the plethora of labels that you might end up with.

You can create the nested look by inserting “\” into the label name. So to create the “Middle” folder as shown in the screenshot, you need to create two labels, one with the name “Top Level” and a second with the name “Top Level\Middle.” Once you do that the script will sense the “\” and will nest the “Middle” label under “Top Level”.

Folders4Gmail is a free download for Firefox with the Greasemonkey extension. You can download the script from here.

Tags: Gmail, Labels, Nested Labels, Scripts, Greasemonkey, Greasemonkey Scripts, Tips and Tricks, How To

Microsoft to break open a trend in Vancouver, Canada

I’m not sure if the mainstream media and the public is fully aware of the US Immigration fairlessness and the hardship legal immigrants face before getting past the immigration gate. One good example is the latest fiasco by the USCIS/DOS on it’s Visa Bulletin game. You can read a little bit about this fiasco from here. It looks like not just the poor legal immigrants but the employers as well go thru this hardship it seems and one good example is this move by Microsoft to open up a development center in Vancouver, Canada.

Read the full story from here.

Tags: Microsoft, Immigration, News, Development Center, Canada, Vancouver

Bust A Name – Your domain name finder

Most of us run into this minor ache of coming up with the domain name that’s available. Often we try multiple times to see if the domain name is available or not to mostly end up with an irritating “domain unavailable” message. “Bust a Name” gives you a hand on this issue to help you come up with a combination of domain names based on some keywords and to check and see if those domains are available. By default it checks for .com, .net and .org which is pretty handy.

Take a look at this cool service from here.

Tags: Domain, Register a Domain, Bust a name, Domain Service

Video: Google CEO interview at the World Economic Forum

Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO talks about the latest hot topic about Google – Personalization and Privacy – in this video from the World Economic Forum meeting.

Watch it from here if you can’t see the below embedded video player.

Technorati Tags: Google, Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, World Economic Forum, Video, YouTube Video, Interview, Google CEO Interview

Vegetables for health

Vegetable	Amount	Minerals Contained (in descending order)	Vitamins Contained (in descending order)
Artichoke	One medium cooked with no added salt has 4.2 grams protein and 6.5 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 425 mg Phosphorus – 103 mg Magnesium – 72 mg Calcium – 54 mg Also contains small amounts of selenium, iron , manganese , copper and zinc.	Vitamin C – 12 mg Niacin - 1.2 mg Pantothenic Acid – .5 mg Folate – 61.2 mcg Vitamin A – 212 IU Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Asparagus	Half cup (about 4 spears) cooked with no added salt contains over 2 grams of protein and almost 1.5 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 144 mg Phosphorus – 48.5 mg Calcium – 18 mg Sodium – 10 mg Magnesium – 9 mg Also contains small amounts of selenium , iron , manganese, copper and zinc.	Vitamin A – 485 IU Vitamin C – 9.7 mg Niacin - .974 mg Folate – 131 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Broccoli	Half cup cooked with no added salt contains 2.3 grams protein and 2.3 grams fiber.	Potassium – 228 mg Phosphorus – 46 mg Calcium – 36 mg Sodium – 28 mg Magnesium – 18.7 mg Iron – .65 mg Vitamin K – 110 mcg Also contains small amounts of selenium, manganese , copper and zinc .	Vitamin A – 1083 IU Vitamin C – 58 mg Niacin – .45 mg Pantothenic Acid – .4 mg Folate – 39 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Carrots	Half cup cooked with no added salt contains .85 grams protein and 2.6 grams fiber.	Potassium – 177 mg Sodium – 51.5 mg Calcium – 24 mg Magnesium – 10 mg Iron – .48 mg Also contains small amounts of selenium, manganese, zinc.	Vitamin A – 19,152 IU Vitamin C – 1.8 mg Niacin – .4 mg Pantothenic Acid – .2 mg Vitamin B6 – .2 mg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Cauliflower	Half cup cooked with no added salt contains 1.1 grams protein and 1.7 grams fiber.	Potassium – 88 mg Phosphorus – 19.8 mg Calcium – 9.9 mg Sodium – 9.3 mg Magnesium – 5.6 mg Also contains small amounts of selenium,iron , manganese ,copper and zinc.	Vitamin C – 27.5 mg Vitamin A – 1.5 IU Pantothenic Acid – .3 mg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Corn	One ear, cooked with no salt contains 2.6 grams protein and 2.1 grams fiber.	Potassium – 191.7 mg Phosphorus – 79.3 mg Magnesium – 24.6 mg Sodium – 13 mg Calcium – 1.5 mg selenium – .6 mg Iron – .5 mg Zinc – .4 mg Also contains small amounts of manganese and copper .	Vitamin C – 4.8 mg Vitamin A – 167 IU Niacin – 1.2 mg Folate – 27.3 mcg Pantothenic Acid – .68 mg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Cucumber	Half a cup of sliced cucumber with skins contains .36 grams protein and .42 grams fiber.	Potassium – 74.9 mg Phosphorus – 1.4 mg Magnesium – 5.7 mg Sodium – 1 mg Calcium – 7.3 mg Also contains small amounts of selenium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc.	Vitamin C – 2.6 mg Vitamin A – 111.8 IU Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Green Pepper	One small raw pepper contains .66 grams protein and 1.3 grams fiber.	Potassium – 131 mg Phosphorus – 14 mg Magnesium – 7.4mg Calcium – 6.7 mg Sodium – 1.48 mg Also contains small amounts of selenium , iron , manganese, copper and zinc.	Vitamin A – 467.7i u Vitamin C – 66 mg Niacin – .4 mg Folate – 6.8 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Kale	One cup of cooked kale with no added salt contains 2.5 grams protein and 2.6 grams fiber.	Potassium – 296.4 mg Phosphorus – 36.4 mg Magnesium – 23.4 mg Calcium – 32 mg Sodium – 29.9 mg Iron – 1.2 mg Manganese – .5 mg Selenium – 1.2 mg Vitamin K – 1062 mcg Also contains small amounts of copper and zinc .	Vitamin A – 9,620 IU Vitamin C – 53.3 mg Niacin – .6 mg Folate – 17 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Lima Beans	One cup of cooked large lima beans with no added salt contains 14.7 grams protein and 13.2 grams fiber.	Potassium – 955 mg Phosphorus – 208.7 mg Magnesium – 8.8 mg Calcium – 32 mg Selenium – 8.5 mg Iron – 4.5 mg Sodium – 3.8 mg Zinc – 1.8 mg Manganese – .8 mg copper – .44 mg	Pantothenic Acid – .8 mg Niacin – .8 mg Folate – 156 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Mushroom	Half a cup of raw mushrooms contains 1.0 grams of protein and .42 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 129.5 mg Phosphorus – 36.4 mg Magnesium – 3.5 mg Selenium – 3 mg Calcium – 1.8 mg Sodium – 1.4 mg Iron – .36 mg Also contains small amounts of manganese, copper and zinc .	Vitamin D – 26.6 IU Niacin – 1.4 mg Vitamin C – .8 mg Pantothenic Acid – .5 mg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Onions	One small onion cooked without salt contains .8 grams protein and 1.3 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 110 mg Phosphorus – 23.1 mg Calcium – 14 mg Magnesium – 7 mg Sodium – 2.1 mg Selenium – .42 mg Also contains small amounts of iron, manganese, copper and zinc.	Vitamin C – 4.5 mg Folate – 9 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Peas	One cup of boiled peas with no salt added contains 8.58 grams of protein and 8.8 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 433.6 mg Phosphorus – 187.2 mg Magnesium – 62.4 mg Calcium – 43.2 mg Sodium – 4.8 mg Selenium – 3.0 mg Iron – 2.5 mg Zinc – 1.9 mg Manganese – .8 mg Also contains small amount of copper .	Vitamin A – 955.2iu Vitamin C – 22.72 mg Niacin – 3.23 mg Folate – 100.8 mcg Vitamin B1 (thiamine) – .41 mg Vitamin B6 - .35 mg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Potatoes	One medium baked potato without salt contains 3.0 grams of protein and 2.3 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 610 mg Phosphorus – 78 mg Magnesium – 39 mg Calcium – 7.8 mg Sodium – 7.8 mg Iron – .55 mg Selenium – .46 mg Zinc – .45 mg Also contains small amounts of manganese and copper .	Vitamin C – 20 mg Niacin – 2.18 mg Pantothenic Acid – .9 mg Vitamin B6 – .5 mg Folate – 14 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Spinach	One cup of raw spinach contains .86 grams of protein and .81 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 167.4 mg Phosphorus – 14.7 mg Magnesium – 23.7 mg Calcium – 29.7 mg Sodium – 23.7 mg Iron – .81 mg Selenium – .3 mg - Vitamin K - 145 mcg Also contains small amounts of manganese, copper and zinc .	Vitamin A – 2014.5 mg Vitamin C – 8.43 mg Folate – 58.2 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Squash, Summer	One cup of sliced summer squash, baked with no added salt contains 1.65 grams of protein and 2.5 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 345.6 mg Phosphorus – 7.2 mg Magnesium – 43.2 mg Calcium – 48.6 mg Sodium – 1.8 mg Iron – .65 mg Manganese – .38 mg Selenium – .36 mg Zinc – .7 mg Also contains small amount of copper.	Vitamin A – 516.6 mg Vitamin C – 9.9 mg Niacin – .92 mg Folate – 36 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Squash, Winter	One cup of cubed winter squash, baked with no added salt contains 1.02 grams of protein and 2.07 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 181.3 mg Phosphorus – 21.7 mg Magnesium – 17.0 mg Calcium – 32.5 mg Sodium – 27.9 mg Iron – .52 mg Selenium – .46 mg Also contains small amounts of manganese, copper and zinc .	Vitamin A – 17.5 mg Vitamin C – 5.4 mg Niacin – 1.25 mg Folate – 57.4 mcg Pantothenic Acid – .55 mg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts.
Sweet Potatoes	One medium sweet potato baked in its skin contains 1.96 grams of protein and 3.42 grams of fiber.	Potassium – 273 mg Phosphorus – 29.5 mg Magnesium – 13.5 mg Calcium – 6.2 mg Sodium – 11.0 mg Iron – .55 mg Selenium – .5 mg Manganese – .6 mg Zinc – .3 mg Also contains small amount of copper .	Vitamin A – 24,877 mg Vitamin C – 28.0 mg Pantothenic Acid – .74 mg Niacin – .69 mg Folate – 26.2 mcg Contains some other vitamins in small amounts

Technorati Tags: Food, Vegetables, Health, Healthy Living, Food Information

2008 Honda Accord – Sneak Previewed

AutoBlog has sneaked some pictures which it claims are of 2008 Honda Accord’s.

Isn’t that looking great (I mean without those bumper cover stickers)?

tags: Honda, Honda Accord, Car, Sneak Preview, Sneak, New

ExplorerXP – Windows Explorer Alternative

Hate Windows Explorer? Count me on that list too. There were off a lot of features missing in the standard Windows Explorer. I’ve tried quite a few alternatives like Explorer2, Frigate File Manager etc. But nothing made me comfortable until I found this…ExplorerXP. This is a nice little tool that has pretty much of what you miss in the standard Windows Explorer. On top of that it is FREE.

Try it from here.

tags: Tools, Free, Free Software, Free Stuff, Windows Explorer, Explorer XP, Windows Explorer Alternative

Multilingual Google Calendar Error

To a surprise I got this error this morning when I was on my Google Calendar. I’ve never seen this error before and thought it could be something different. May be it’s just me. The error was described in 18 different languages though I don’t know what all those languages are.

Here is a snapshot,

tags: Google, Google Error, Multilingual, Google Calendar, Different, New Stuff

Discover Card – 5% Cash Back at Circuit City, CompUSA and more stores

Discover Card is giving 5% Cash Back during the months of April and June 2007 when you shop at participating stores including Circuit City, CompUSA, Apple Store, and more.

Log in to your Discover Card account and click on “CashBack” in the left column to see all offers.

Eligible cards:
Discover More Card (previously named as Discover Platinum Card)
Discover Student Card

tags: Deals, Discover Card, Cash Back Bonus, Save at Circuit City, Best Deal

Google Voice Local Search

If you are on the road or at a place where you don’t have internet access but you carried your phone with you and want to find a business to the locality, you’ve got a solution now. GOOG-411 from Google helps you find businesses based on city, state or category. Even it connects you to the phone number listed for that business.

Try it out.

PS: Keep in mind that it’s still in experimental state.

tags: Google, Google Labs, GOOG, GOOG-411, 411, Google Voice Local Search, Tools, Tips and Tricks, Useful Tip

Recharge your gadgets without wires

A Pennsylvania based company, Powercast, came up with an impressive product to cut the wires on small to medium gadgets and let the recharge happen wireless. That is a pretty cool concept and the good thing about this is that they just didn’t come up with the concept but they’ve made that concept into a product and have successfully signed agreements with more than 100 companies including the electronics giant Philips.

Here is how it works…A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device’s battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

Read more about this cool stuff here.

tags: Recharge over the air, Wireless Recharge, Gadgets, Recharge, Wireless Electricity, Cool Gadget, Powercast, Cool Product, Innovative Product

Why Google is again the #1 place to work for?

Fortune magazine again nominated Google as the best place to work for. It is just so unique of a company that offers that much perks and challenge mixed together. That would be fun and motivating.

This video quantifies that Google could be on the top of the list for quite sometime to come.

Note: If you can’t view the video above then here is the link to the video.

tags: Google, Fortune Magazine, Best Companies to work for, Best Company, Video, Google Campus

Amazing HD View from Microsoft Research

I was looking at the latest research stuff from Microsoft, HD View. It’s really an awesome application that let’s you zoom in so deep that I was able to see the people standing on top of the Seattle Space Needle.. While taking a virtual tour around Seattle Downtown I noticed this, which looks to me as a bug. Notice the pole that has the US Flag. Is that looking unrealistic to you?

May be I’m testing this free for Microsoft. I love Microsoft products and I don’t mind doing this on my free time.

Well done Microsoft Research Team. I hope you guys put in more pictures to view.

Microsoft Research HD View

tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Research, HD View, Bug

WordPress 2.1.1 has been hacked, advised to upgrade to 2.1.2

It’s been a breaking news on the blogosphere. That’s no surprise given the popularity of WordPress blogging platform. They just (few days back) released the latest version of WordPress 2.1.1 and that had some good stuffs that must have got attention of some of the bloggers to upgrade.

To their surprise, it’s been revealed that the copies they’ve downloaded might not be the genuine copy. Someone (?) had hacked into their servers to modify the release bits to include backdoors. So whomever have downloaded WordPress 2.1.1 for the past few days are advised to upgrade to WordPress 2.1.2.

Given the severity of this stuff, they’ve even established an email address, 21securityfaq@wordpress.org, that you can use if you have any questions regarding this. 

Source: Matt at WordPress

Google Maps now has traffic information as well

Even though I like MapQuest better than Google Maps (alternating routing is MapQuest’s major advantage), I do acknowledge the fact that Google Maps revolutionized the online mapping segment. Google just silently released a new feature, Traffic, to their Google Maps. You should be able to see a “Traffic” button on Google Maps if it’s available in your area.

Google Traffic is color coded. If you see RED, it means that there is less than 25 MPH traffic flow.  YELLOW means that there is 25–50 MPH traffic flow. GREEN means the traffic is flowing at more than 50 MPH. 

Initially, Google released this feature to San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Dallas, covering each region. Now they have released this feature for more than 30 major US cities.

Check it out, if it’s available in your area.

Technorati tags: Google, Google Maps, Google Traffic, Breaking News

Yahoo integrates Yahoo Messenger with Yahoo Mail Beta

Yahoo is in the process of releasing a killer feature on their Yahoo Mail (beta) platform, to integrate it’s ultra-famous Yahoo Messenger with Yahoo Mail. The way they are doing it makes it even neat. What that brings to user experience is that a single platform for both mail and messaging. Google tried that a while back but it wasn’t a huge hit with the users as Yahoo Messenger seems to still rule the instant messaging world.

I use Yahoo Messenger a lot and I love it. And then I use Yahoo Mail as well. So we are talking about 2 applications and so 2 windows on your precious Windows Taskbar real estate. With this integration you’ll be able to see the online status of your contacts from the Yahoo Mail and if they are online you can ping them to get them involved in a chat session. That will open up a new web tab within the Yahoo Mail window (this tab is not a browser tab, don’t get confused with that) and you can have a hierarchical view of the conversation. The neat thing about this whole thing is that you can convert the whole chat session into an email and have a record of what you said or embarrass your buddies, however you wanna’ do it.

This new service from Yahoo is not yet available to the whole public. The requirement is that you have to use their new Yahoo Mail Beta (not the traditional one) and keep your fingers crossed. If you see an online status icon next to your contacts name on the email then you are all set to chat within the context of Yahoo Mail.

Good luck.

tags: Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail Beta, Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger Integration, Yahoo, New stuff from Yahoo

Interactive Map at Weather.com

I’m not sure how many of you use Weather.com but I do use it almost daily. I stress the word “daily”. Even though it’s not that accurate in getting the accurate weather information I still feel that it’s worth a service to check for every day.

Even though I like the service pretty much, I wasn’t been a big fan of their map (I like their “Map in Motion” a bit). Lately, without any headlines, they came up with a neat map, based on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, that has some good sense of interactivity. You can drag the map as you do in Virtual Earth/Google Maps. They also have provided us with quite a bit of controls to control the map. Looks pretty good. If they could make sure that the projections they make are also accurate then this would be one “heck of a” service.

Check it out from here.

tags: News, Weather, Weather.com, New Feature, Interactive Map

8 things you must do if your identity is stolen

Credit Score Tips and Advice blog has 8 important things you should do if your identity is stolen. We all hope that it should never happen that identity gets stolen but if you are plan for the worst you should read this and keep these points in mind. It even has the contact details for the 3 major credit reporting services. 

Here are the points at a glance,

• Call one of the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion)
• New accounts
• Inform the creditors
• Contact your local police
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• Change all of the passwords that you use online
• Driver’s license
• Keep records

For the full article, click here.

Technorati tags: Personal, Credit, Identity Theft, Stolen Identity, Credit History

Why do we have bad breath in the morning?

Science guru Bill Nye explains that the flow of saliva slows down during sleep. As a result, mouths don’t get the same level of oxygen as they do while we’re active. This allows anaerobic bacteria, which don’t need oxygen, to thrive. “The waste products from these bacteria often contain sulfur — and those compounds of sulfur are what we smell.”

Onions are also nasty culprits of this type of bad breath because they contain sulfur. So limit your raw onion snacking habits, and you’re ahead of the game.

According to BreezeCare, there are additional causes for morning breath. Mucus in your nose can thicken while you sleep, and your tongue falls to the back of your throat — both of which provide welcome environments for anaerobic bacteria.

Treatments for bad breath abound, however the two common solutions are to brush your tongue to remove excess plaque, and the use of an antimicrobial mouthwash. Good luck, and may your breath be as fresh as a Tic Tac.

Source

Technorati tags: Tips and Tricks, Bad Breath, Hygiene, Why is

Virgin America flies high tech

You have to watch this video to see what Virgin America has to offer for the tech enthusiasts. I’m a bit confused about the mood changing lights. Whose mood it depends on? May be they should make it clear.

Here is the video,

If you are not able to see the YouTube player above you can click on this link to view the video.

Technorati tags: Virgin, Virgin Atlantic, Airline, Tech

20/20 Vision Explained

Visual acuity is expressed as a fraction. The top number refers to the distance you stand from the chart. This is usually 20 feet. The bottom number indicates the distance at which a person with normal eyesight could correctly read the line with the smallest letters. Normal vision is considered 20/20. If your vision is 20/40, the line you correctly read at 20 feet could be read by a person with normal vision at 40 feet.

If your optometrist says you have 20/60 vision, that means you are able to discriminate characters at 20 feet away from an eye chart that a person with normal acuity can see at a distance of 60 feet.

Of course, just because 20/20 vision is normal doesn’t mean it’s perfect. A small percentage of the population is blessed with vision better than 20/20, and just recently researchers unveiled corrective lens that offered vision.

Source

Technorati tags: Explanation, 20/20, Vision, Personal

iPhone Prices May Go Down

Apple Inc. will have plenty of room to eventually reduce the retail price of its upcoming iPhone, according to preliminary gross margin estimates by a market research company.The iPhone, the combination cell phone-iPod media player that Apple unveiled last week, will yield gross margins of more than 50 percent at the current set of retail prices, iSuppli Corp. said in an analysis of presumed component and manufacturing costs.

The 4-gigabyte version of the iPhone, with a retail price of $499, will cost Apple $245.83 to make, iSuppli estimated. The 8-gigabyte version, priced at $599, will cost Apple $280.83.

”With a 50 percent gross margin, Apple is setting itself up for aggressive price declines going forward,” said Jagdish Rebello, a director and principal analyst with iSuppli.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

“Since Apple will face stiff competition in the cell phone market, the company may need to cut into its margins to reduce pricing in the future”, he said.

The Apple iPhone, which was announced by CEO Steve Jobs last week, will be available starting in June exclusively through AT&T’s Cingular Wireless. Apple has said it hopes to sell 10 million units in 2008, or about 1 percent of the market.

That goal ‘’seems attainable,” Rebello said.

Source: WindowsX

Technorati tags: iPhone, iPhone Price Reduction, Apple, Apple iPhone

What was the first thing ever sold on eBay?

Once upon a time, many wondered if a company like eBay would even work. Since then, the online auction house has silenced the doubters. — everything from fake vomit to Lamborghinis is just a click away. Ah, but of all those millions of sales, which was the very first?

EBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995. Though he’s now a billionaire (of course), Pierre started AuctionWeb (as it was then known) as a simple “side hobby.” In late ‘95, Pierre made history when he sold eBay’s first item — a broken laser pointer he had originally bought as a cat toy.

Amazingly, the buyer paid $14.00 for the kaput pointer. We imagine it was about this time Pierre realized he was on the cusp of creating something great.

Source

Technorati tags: eBay, Omidyar, First item on eBay, Interesting

Milk is a Skin Miracle

Here is a natural resource that makes your skin look soft and beautiful. And it doesn’t cost you a fortune. Yahoo Food reports this and so many people have commented saying that they’ve tried this and it works great.

If Cleopatra indulged in all the beauty treatments attributed to her, she wouldn’t have had time to rule her empire, seduce Mark Antony, or learn Egyptian. But a girl’s gotta bathe, so the one skin-smoother she probably did rely on-milk baths-no doubt helped her bring Caesar and Mark to heel. Did Cleo know something we’ve forgotten? Actually, yes.

“Milk is a super soother for chapping, windburn, sunburn, eczema, and other skin irritations,” says New York dermatologist Amy Wechsler, MD. “It contains proteins (whey and casein), fat, amino acids, lactic acid, and vitamins A and D, all of which calm dry, upset skin.”

Dr. Wechsler suggests applying compresses dipped in cool milk for irritations like sunburn and eczema. But be sure to use whole milk; skim won’t do because it doesn’t contain fat, one of milk’s most soothing components. If compresses aren’t practical-say, you’ve managed to broil the backs of your legs on a beach getaway-a milk bath will give you some relief: Add 2 to 4 cups to a warm (not hot) tub and soak for 20 minutes. You can use powdered whole milk too. Sprinkle the amount of powder needed to make a quart of milk under the faucet as the water flows out.

Milky baths also soften skin, according to Wechsler. Milk’s lactic acid weakens the “glue” that lets dead, ready-to-be-shed cells stick to the skin’s surface, making it look dull and dry. Soak for 15 minutes, then give your body a gentle neck-to-toe scrubdown with a bath brush, loofah, or washcloth. This will slough off those dead cells, leaving skin smoother and softer.

Not quite sure about pouring a quart of milk into the tub? The beauty people have visited the dairy too. For instance, Fresh Milk Formula Bath Foam ($35 for 15.8 oz at www.sephora.com) contains milk as well as shea butter and glycerine. But if your skin is very irritated or totally winter-whipped, says Wechsler, try the real thing. It should leave your whole body feeling creamy.

Technorati tags: Health, Beauty, Skin, Tips, HowTo, Milk, Beauty Tip

Top 10 Foods for a Good Night’s Sleep

Everyone loves to have a good night sleep. But these days, with the kind of stress everyone is into, we all know that’s kind of a hard thing to get a good night’s sleep. Yahoo Food suggests these 10 foods for a good night’s sleep. Take a look.

Bananas. They’re practically a sleeping pill in a peel. In addition to a bit of soothing melatonin and serotonin, bananas contain magnesium, a muscle relaxant.

Chamomile tea. The reason chamomile is such a staple of bedtime tea blends is its mild sedating effect – it’s the perfect natural antidote for restless minds/bodies.

Warm milk. It’s not a myth. Milk has some tryptophan – an amino acid that has a sedative – like effect – and calcium, which helps the brain use tryptophan. Plus there’s the psychological throw-back to infancy, when a warm bottle meant “relax, everything’s fine.”

Honey. Drizzle a little in your warm milk or herb tea. Lots of sugar is stimulating, but a little glucose tells your brain to turn off orexin, a recently discovered neurotransmitter that’s linked to alertness.

Potatoes. A small baked spud won’t overwhelm your GI tract, and it clears away acids that can interfere with yawn-inducing tryptophan. To up the soothing effects, mash it with warm milk.

Oatmeal. Oats are a rich source of sleep – inviting melatonin, and a small bowl of warm cereal with a splash of maple syrup is cozy – plus if you’ve got the munchies, it’s filling too.

Almonds. A handful of these heart-healthy nuts can be snooze-inducing, as they contain both tryptophan and a nice dose of muscle-relaxing magnesium.

Flaxseeds. When life goes awry and feeling down is keeping you up, try sprinkling 2 tablespoons of these healthy little seeds on your bedtime oatmeal. They’re rich in omega-3 fatty acids, a natural mood lifter.

Whole-wheat bread. A slice of toast with your tea and honey will release insulin, which helps tryptophan get to your brain, where it’s converted to serotonin and quietly murmurs “time to sleep.”

Turkey. It’s the most famous source of tryptophan, credited with all those Thanksgiving naps. But that’s actually modern folklore. Tryptophan works when your stomach’s basically empty, not overstuffed, and when there are some carbs around, not tons of protein. But put a lean slice or two on some whole-wheat bread mid-evening, and you’ve got one of the best sleep inducers in your kitchen.

Try some of these and see if you can get those 8 hours sleepfully.

Technorati tags: Health, 10 foods for sleep, sleep, foods

Video of Bill Gates on The Daily Show with John Stewart (Comedy Central)

It’s hot news everywhere on the internet, Bill Gates appearance on The Daily Show with John Stewart. Even though I didn’t get a chance to watch it live on TV yesterday I can still watch the video archive, thanks to ComedyCentral.com. They’ve put out the video for the public.

Here is the Part-1 of the video archive for those of us who missed the live show,

And here is the Part-2 of the video,

In case if you are not able to see the embedded videos here are the URL’s for both the parts,

Part-1

Part-2

(If you use Firefox and if you are not able to see the video on the page that comes up after you click on the above link please make sure to click a similar image on that page to get the video loaded. It seems like an issue with their plugins that forces you to click these extra steps. Sorry for any inconvenience.)

I really liked the moment when John asked about Bill’s pet name and there was a little lag time when the world’s richest man realized that it was a plot to get his password. Even though I’m sure he won’t have his pet name as the password but that was a nice play in context from John.

Technorati tags: ComedyCentral, John Stewart, Bill Gates, Bill Gates appearance on The Daily Show, Video of Bill Gates on The Daily Show, The Daily Show

Bill Gates to appear on "The Daily Show" for Vista launch

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is scheduled to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday, January 29, the eve of Microsoft’s Windows Vista launch.

The Daily Show, while taped earlier in the evening, airs at 11 p.m. EST, which is an hour before Vista’s official midnight launch.

Source: CNET News

Technorati tags: The Daily Show, Bill Gates, Vista Launch

10 avoidable IT interview flubs

eWeek runs a report on the top 10 flubs to avoid at an IT interview. Here is a gist of it,

1. Late to the interview means late on projects and deadlines
2. Lack of enthusiasm means you don’t care about your work
3. Little to no company knowledge means you lack research skills
4. Inappropriate dress translates to inappropriate work
5. Too negative is too much: Spells P-R-O-B-L-E-M
6. Arrogance or dominating the interview signals conflict on teams
7. Too quiet means you lack confidence in your work
8. Misstating qualifications means, well, you’re a liar
9. Speaking only tech-ese means you won’t work well with others
10. Not saying thank you is not welcome

Read the full article from here.

Technorati tags: Tips and Tricks, Tips, Interview Tips

WordPress 2.1 "Ella" released

WordPress just released it’s latest stable version 2.1, code named “Ella”, named after Ella Fitzgerald. Here is a list of features that’s been bundled with the new release,

• Autosave makes sure you never lose a post again.
• Our new tabbed editor allows you to switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
• The lossless XML import and export makes it easy for you to move your content between WordPress blogs.
• Our completely redone visual editor also now includes spell checking.
• New search engine privacy option allows you take you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.
• You can set any “page” to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.
• Much more efficient database code, faster than previous versions. Domas Mituzas from MySQL went over all our queries with a fine-toothed comb.
• Links in your blogroll now support sub-categories and you can add categories on the fly.
• Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project.
• More AJAX to make custom fields, moderation, deletions, and more all faster. My favorite is the comments page, which new lets you approve or unapprove things instantly.
• Pages can now be drafts, or private.
• Our admin has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
• The dashboard now instantly and brings RSS feeds asynchronously in the background.
• Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
• Better internationalization and support for right-to-left languages.
• The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
• A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled.

Get WordPress 2.1 from here.

Technorati tags: WordPress, WordPress Latest Release, WordPress 2.1, Blog Platform

240 U-Turns from PA to NJ

This is pretty scary. Try to get gDirections from Google Maps from this location “19020″ (its in PA) to this location “1579 US-1 (S), North Brunswick, NJ 08902″.

Believe it or not…Google Maps says that there are 240 U-turns you have to make before you reach the destination.

Believe it from here.

Technorati tags: Google Maps, 240 U-turns, Amazing Directions

Something going wrong at ScobleShow

Here is what I get when I hit ScobleShow.com or http://www.podtech.net/scobleshow/

Looks like something wrong.

Update: Looks like it’s working fine now. Thank you Scoble.

Technorati tags: ScobleShow, PodTech, Robert Scoble

Corporate world meets Web 2.0

When the corporate world meets Web 2.0 standards their logos might look like this. Some of ‘em are really creative and some of ‘em are really shiny.

Take a look at here.

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, Web 2.0 Corporate Logos, Corporate Logos

Verizon FiOS goes 50 Mbps

GigaOm reports that, under competitive pressure from local cable competitors like Cablevision, Verizon is fighting speed with speed. The company just announced that it is now offering connection speeds of up to 50 Mbps (megabits per second) downstream and 5 Mbps upstream over its FiOS network.

Though there isn’t any explicit detail of what the pricing might be, it is for sure to be super expensive. I have a 5/2 Down/Up speed and I pay 45 bucks a month. I’m sure it won’t be 10 times of what I pay now but certainly it would be expensive.

That tells me that I’ll just stick with what I get from my FiOS. It is indeed sufficient for my regular usage.

What is your opinion? What kind of service/speed do you have/prefer?

Technorati tags: Verizon, FiOS, Verizon FiOS

Indian man sends 182,689 SMS messages in one month

This is a pretty silly Guinness Record; you’ve gotta read this.

Engadget reports that an Indian man, Deepak Sharma, went on record with the Guinness Book for having sent the most SMS messages in a single month: 182,689. We’re not sure if that’s total, or unique messages, but if you’d like us to break that down for you, that’s about 6,100 messages a day, 253 an hour, 4.2 a minute, or a new one every 14 seconds or so.

So basically this guy gave up a month of his life sending texts—way to go, dude. His other reward? A 1,411 page bill (don’t worry, he has an unlimited texting plan)—compare that to, say, Joyce’s Ulysses (speaking of Guinness books… aw come on!), which is a mere 780 some-odd pages, though every bit as difficult to read through.

Update: Deepak Sharma aims to increase the number to 300,000 in the coming month.

Crazy…isn’t it?

Technorati tags: Mobile, Text Messages, Guinness Record

For optimal viewing…

…come home and see the site in my computer.

I came across this somewhere on a site where it says “This site is optimized for IE/Firefox” and I thought it’s a bit humorous and different.

Do you like it? 

Technorati tags: Humor

A day in the life of a "Googler"

CNN has a nice video clip of a day in the life of a “Googler”. As you might know, Google is the #1 in the list of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies To Work For in 2007″. And this video quantifies why they are at the #1 position.

View it here.

Technorati tags: Google, Googler, CNN, CNN.com, CNN.com Video, Video, Fortune Best Companies to work for in 2007

~

Best Buy made $43 million profit in unused gift cards in 2006

Yahoo News reports that the leading retailers are making huge profits on unused gift cards. How much?…for example, Best Buy made $43 million in profit in fiscal year 2006 on unused gift cards. That’s amazing.

Read the full story here.

PS: I have 2 of my Best Buy gift cards sitting on my wallet for a while now. My 2 cents!!!

Technorati tags: Best Buy, Gift Cards, Yahoo News

Print your sales receipt for Buy.com "Google Checkout" orders

If you are using “Google Checkout” to save some money on your online orders at Buy.com this holiday season you might want to use this link to print your Buy.com sales receipts for you to send in those mail-in rebates. Buy.com offers quite a deal on some of their products if you use their Google Checkout service. With the Google Checkout normally the bottom line price becomes so attractive.

Once you navigate to the Buy.com link page you can search your Google order by one of these ways to print your receipt.

Hope it’s useful.

What is Google Checkout?

Technorati tags: Buy.com, Google, Google Checkout, Print Receipts

Noticeable slow streaming at YouTube lately

Did you notice lately that, after Google has grabbed YouTube, it has become a bit slow? I’ve noticed lately that when it comes to streaming it’s taking more time than before to stream-ahead (buffer) the bytes. It has become annoying to a level that it interferes with the user experience.

Mighty Google…can you hear me?

Technorati tags: Google, YouTube

FICO Scores – Explained

You’ve been there and I’ve been there. We all watch our credit history as much as we watch our bank accounts. True? One of the main components of the credit history is the FICO score, you know that.

FICO stands for Fair Isaac Corporation. The credit scores are calculated based on the FICO algorithm/formula. The exact formulae is a top secret and is not available to the public. But the Fair Isaac company has disclosed how much percent they give weightage to the influential factors. Here are they,

• 35% – Punctuality of payment in the past (only includes payments later than 30 days past due)
• 30% - The amount of debt, expressed as the ratio of current revolving debt (credit card balances, etc.) to total available revolving credit (credit limits)
• 15% – Length of credit history
• 10% – Types of credit used (installment, revolving, consumer finance)
• 10% – Recent search for credit and/or amount of credit obtained recently

Well, that gives us an idea of what to watch for if you are to maintain a good credit score.

Technorati tags: Credit Score, FICO Score, FICO calculation formula, Finance, Personal Finance, Money Management

Week 2 of Amazon Customers Vote Program

We saw how quick the 1,000 XBox 360’s went off on Week 1 of Amazon’s Customers Vote program. I think it wasn’t even 4 minutes before it said that it’s sold out. I tried my best but couldn’t get one.

Now is Week 2. Not so great of things when compared to Week 1. Here is what they have for week 2.

• Diamond Stud Earrings (1 cttw)
  $1099.00 $350.00 (190 units at this price)
• Axion Portable DVD Player
  $109.99 $25.00 (1,000 units at this price)
• Black & Decker 12-Volt Drill
  $49.99 $10.00 (2,500 units at this price)
• Prime Membership + $100 Toys Promotional Certificate
  $179.00 $40.00 (2,000 units at this price)

To me, the Amazon Prime Membership looks cool. I might vote for that. What would you vote for?

On how to vote to get these items at these low prices, check out my previous post.

Go…vote for it…and let’s get the best of every week’s items at these low prices.

Technorati tags: Amazon, Customers Vote, Vote to get your low priced item, Amazon Deal, Amazon Holiday Shopping Promotion

Zune vs iPod

Gizmodo has a nice comparison on Zune vs iPod. Here is a gist of it,

You want a bigger screen: Zune.

You need an all-you-can-eat subscription service: Zune.

You want a store with a larger music library: iPod.

You want a movie and TV store: iPod.

You want contacts, calendar, notes, stopwatch, and iPod Games: iPod.

You want to be different/want something new: Zune.

Xbox 360 owners who purchase music and want streaming: Zune.

Xbox 360 owners who purchase music and don’t want streaming: iPod.

You want a scratch resistant player: Zune.

You want a built-in FM tuner: Zune.

You want a touch-sensitive scroll wheel: iPod.

Read the full article here.

Technorati tags: Zune, iPod, Zune vs iPod

Robert Scoble – An Inspiration

I’m a big fan of Robert Scoble. For those of you who have no idea of who Robert Scoble is,

• he is the guy behind my beloved Channel9
• he is number one at ”Top WordPress.com blogs”
• he runs ScobleShow at PodTech
• he has written an excellent book “Naked Conversations“ 
• and the list goes on…

He got me addicted to Channel9 and I keep hitting that site at least once a day so far that I can remember. I like his “who are you?” introduction. And lately he got me addicted to his ScobleShow which is another site that I keep hitting it quite often lately. He truly is an inspiration to me.

Anyways, he used to be a kind of guy who posts to his blog consistently but with fewer posts. I just noticed lately that he has started posting it quite often with growing number of posts. That makes it exciting.

Keep posting Robert. And keep posting more videos on ScobleShow. Hope you find the time.

Technorati tags: Robert Scoble, Scobleizer, Channel9, ScobleShow

DIY – Energy Drink, EnerT

We all work out, we all need re-hydration, we all buy Gatorade…and you know that it’s expensive over a period of time. Yaniverse has a nice, simple, cost effective and do-it-yourself alternative to Gatorade.

Here is the gist of how.

EnerT Ingredients (32 oz or about 1 liter):

• 2 Tea Bags
• 6 level teaspoon sugar (24 grams)
• A pinch of salt (0.5 grams)
• 2 oz lemon juice (about 55 grams)
• 30 oz boiling water

Contains:

• 100 calories
• 500 mg Sodium
• 60mg of Potassium (from the lemon juice)
• Caffeine varies, est 100mg-200mg caffeine (depending on the tea used and infusion duration)

Estimated Cost:

• Lemon juice: $0.10
• 2 Tea Bags: $0.06
• Sugar, Salt, water, etc: negligible

Compare to 32 oz Gatorade:

• 200 calories
• 440mg Sodium
• 120mg Potassium
• No caffeine
• Cost: $1.29

PS: Adding a bit of lime on top of lemon will make it taste better to me.

I’ve posted the ingredients up here as I normally feel uncomfortable with the trust factor of external links. But if you want to read the source of the article, visit here.

Technorati tags: DIY, Energy Drink, Cost Saving, Gatorade Alternative

Sidebar Widgets – Where are they?

Hello WordPress, where are my sidebar widgets? It used to be under the Presentation menu. I don’t see it anymore. What happened to that?

Phone Spell – Remember The Phone Numbers Easily

I just came across a service called Phone Spell, which allows you to remember the phone numbers in a more friendly manner.

How they do it? They map the corresponding characters in the key pad to the numbers to come up with combinations of words that you can pick and choose to remember the number. Isn’t that pretty cool and simple? To me that looks pretty neat given that it gives you all possible combinations.

Check it out here.

Tags: Phone Spell, Remember The Phone Number, Phone

DOL Unleashes an Online Case Tracking System for Pending Labor Certifications

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) has finally implemented an online case tracking system to track the cases that are pending at the Backlog Processing Centers (BPC). It was for a while now that the Labor Certification applicants were left in dark regarding what’s happening at the BPC’s. Now, many thanks to DOL, you can at least find the status of your case. That’s a big step forward.

You need to key-in your case number that you must have received after the 45 days letter. It should either start with P or D. Once you key-in your case number the system will let you know the status of the case. The status can be one of the below.

1. Data Review – Your case has been entered into the Backlog System and is under review.

2. In Process - The case is currently being worked on or in the queue ready to be worked on.

3. Certified - Case has been Certified.

4. Denied - Case has been Denied.

5. Appeal - Case is currently being Appealed.

6. Withdrawn - Case has been Withdrawn.

7. Closed  - Case has been Closed.

Visit the DOL BPC Case Tracking Website.

Tags: Backlog Processing Center, BPC, Department of Labor, DOL, Green Card, Labor Certification

I’m All Set For My FiOS Internet Connection

Here is a very decent site that tells you your internet connection speed, both upstream and downstream. It requires you enable JavaScript on your browser (if you use NoScript extension). Give it a try here.

I’m a long time Comcast high-speed internet customer. They claim that they have the fastest connection speed. To a certain level I agree…yes. But not always. It depends on how many of your neighbors use the same cable service for their connectivity. My local connection speed on my machine says 100.0 Mbps. But I know it’s not 100 Mbps for sure as I, at times, have to wait for few seconds to minutes to download a page. Particularly this was true at the time when my neighbors are up and using the service (mostly daytime).

For a proof I used the above service to find out about my true internet connection speed and here is the report.

(Click on the above image to view an enlarged/readable image)

Just by looking at the above report you can easily notice that I’m not getting any way closer to the claimed 100.0 Mbps download speed. No way closer. And my upload speed is even worst.

Now, Verizon offers FiOS (Fiber Optic Service) in my local area (thank you Verizon). And there were 2 options with FiOS. You can get 5.0 Mbps and 15.0 Mbps downstream speed. And for the downstream speeds you’ll get 2.0 Mbps upstream speed. The cool thing about FiOS is that you get the full speed that Verizon claims. Since there is no sharing of your network line with your neighbors you get the speed you’ve subscribed, like a DSL connection. Isn’t that neat?

Given the horrible customer service (I’ll soon write to you in detail about my story) and billing service that Comcast has got I’ve decided to make the move. I can report you back with some more facts after a month of usage.

You can get Verizon FiOS from here or by calling 1-800-616-4231.

Disclaimer: I don’t work for Verizon or any of it’s affiliates and the view expressed above is purely my own.

Tags: Verizon, FiOS, Fiber Optic, Comcast, Connection Speed, Internet Connection Speed Test

iTunes 7 and QuickTime Conflict

With all the buzz towards the latest iTunes 7 I thought I would give it a try. And so I downloaded and installed iTunes 7 on my home desktop.

The installation went thru fine without any problems. I thought…of course…it’s Apple’s. But when I tried to launch the new iTunes 7 it resisted by saying that iTunes7 requires the latest version of QuickTime (another Apple product).

I’ve noticed that when I was installing iTunes 7 there was an explicit installation step to install QuickTime as well. So I thought my QuickTime as well got upgraded. But iTunes 7 wasn’t been able to recognize that.

One simple action from me helped resolve the problem. It was just an inner thought in mine to launch the QuickTime player and see the version number made me to launch the QuickTime player. When I tried to launch then I realized that it was doing something to upgrade itself at that time. Now I know that was the problem. And so I closed the QuickTime player and then tried to launch iTunes 7 again…bingo!!!…it worked fine.

This kind of problem wasn’t there with the previous iTunes versions.

Tags: iTunes, iTunes 7, Apple, QuickTime

SpamBox – A Disposable Email Address Service

Most of the time we need an email address to get something done online. You know that stuff. Once you reveal your email address you can pretty much see your spam/bulk folder gets bombarded, for a change at times your Inbox folder also.

Here is a service, SpamBox, for your rescue.

What it does is that it allows you to create a temporary email address that is valid for a certain period of time. You can specify for how long the email address should be valid to receive, for example, the verification code, confirmation code, password etc.

For the period of validity SpamBox will forward you any emails that it receives on the temporary email address and after the set period the email address will expire and you are freed from spamming.

Isn’t that a neat service?

Try it here.

Tags: Spam, Temporary Email Address, SpamBox

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Silver Audi A8

So, what do you think? Just an Audi painted in silver color, right? Guess what? You were absolutely wrong.

This is an Audi A8, made for the Sheikh of Dubai. And this time you must have got it!!! It’s made out of pure silver. That’s right…SILVER.

PS: On a little lighter note…if the oil prices keep raising at this rate, we’ll soon see a Gold Audi!!!

Tags: Audi, Silver, Dubai, Oil

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HP’s Photosmart Printer Drivers

Lately my laptop was just crawling and for a long time I wanted to clean up. I realized that I was running short of space on my 2 partitions and the Defragmentation utility couldn’t defragment my partition proper as it needs at least 15% of free disk space (and I didn’t have one).

So I sat down in the morning to free some space. I was trying my best to get rid of all the tools and stuffs that I don’t use day-to-day.  But couldn’t get enough space for the utility to run. Then by accident I came across a folder named “HP”. All these days I never thought of getting rid of that folder thinking that it’s something from HP that wouldn’t make my laptop work otherwise (my bad, I should have checked that out in detail before).

Interestingly, it was all HP Photosmart printer drivers. What’s more interesting was that the drivers were in all sorts of languages that I don’t even know (even in my dreams!!!).

Ironically, I use a DELL printer (sorry HP, couldn’t beat DELL on this one). I don’t know what makes HP bundle their own printer drivers in their laptop without any customer awareness. I was about to sacrifice some of my day-to-day usage softwares to get the free space. But luckily I came across this monster and with a click of a button I got rid of this and I was able to reclaim beyond 15% of my hard disk space.

So, by the way, you would think how much space was that monster occupying? Right?…A whopping 180MB!!!

I then got my defragmentor to work and got the performance back. Instead of enforcing those drivers by default and in that effect occupying more space on the hard drives. may be HP should distribute those drivers seperate as it’s possible that people might not be using the Photosmart printers (never at all, at times).

Tags: HP, Photosmart, Printer, Driver

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Port Numbers for Various Programs and Protocols

Need a list of port numbers for various programs and protocols? Look no further.

Here is the complete list.

Tags: Port Number, Port, Programs, Protocols

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The Story Behind These Company Names

A very nice article about how the Fortune companies coined their names.

Some of the interesting ones are,

Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in ‘mail’ and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters “html” – the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.

Microsoft – Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the ‘-‘ was removed later on.

You can read the full list here.

Tags: Company Names, Company, Tech Company

Don Box – What is he cooking lately?

If you are a Microsoft techie then I’m sure you must have heard about him, Don Box. An incredible techie from Microsoft who used to keep the smile while he delves into the details on his interviews. He is an inspiration for me.

A while back it used to be that the Windows Foundations (Presentation, Communication etc.) were on the headlines and Don Box used to be the guy to spread the word and so he was everywhere on Channel9, MSDN TV, The .NET Show etc. But lately I couldn’t hear from him anymore. Even thought I could see that he is posting in his blog every now and then but he wasn’t in the news lately. What happened to him? Is he working on something that’s mind-boggling that he wanted to keep it with him until it matures? No ideas? Anyone?

Tags: Don Box, .NET, Channel9, Microsoft

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – A Humble Suggestion

Salute the cause this foundation has been founded upon. By doing this Bill is high in the heart of many people and history will be the witness. Such a huge impression to people trying to make miniature donations.

One thing I was thinking over some time was that in order to eradicate some of these diseases from the developing world is to first educate and improve the quality of life of people living there. There is an incredible difference in knowledge and awareness of health between people living in the developed world and those in the developing world.

If the foundation can spend the effort to educate the people of what the diseases are and how to prevent them and how severe it can be and things like that…it would greatly help reduce these diseases. In those developing world many people are illiterates and they don’t have any idea of how the body functions and what has to be done when something goes wrong. They still practice their local medical practice which were taught to them generation after generation. In some case it works. I have to admit. But in most cases it just doesn’t work and people pay the price at last.

Also they don’t have the means to seek out the right medication. Of course, wealth is a major hinder block. Many of them find it hard to spend the day-to-day life in their budget and they don’t have the wealth to go see a doctor and do routine medical check-ups. If we improve the quality of their life by promoting entrepreneurship and creating jobs and providing them with adequate basic education they themselves will become aware of the health issues and would be fighting it hard to take care of it.

And, of course, the foundation can help fund the doctors to go visit the remote areas and help educate the public as well as treat them for their illness or camping in those remote locations to offer free full physical exams and things like that would greatly help educate and take care of many of these diseases before it becomes life threatning. Funding the doctors to go do these kind of jobs, I’m sure, would bring-in many aspiring and willing doctors to come forward to help this cause.

I’m sure the foundation and Bill knows about these a lot detail. But I just wanted to say it loud so that people can benefit from this foundation’s noble work.

Thank you Bill and Melinda and whomever works on this great cause.

Tags: Philanthropy, Bill Gates, Foundation

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Making 6 figure by training…

Over the weekend I was just listening to the radio and heard this news about a teenager, I think his name is Taylor but I’m not sure where he is from in the US, making well into the 6 figure salary. I heard that he charges around $45 per hour and planning to raise it to $65 an hour. And the latest news is that he is making…guess what…$3,000.00 or more in one week. That will put him well into the 6 figure range and if he raise his rate as he said to $65 I don’t know what to tell ya.

All this by doing what? Training kids and adults on how to play the Microsoft xBox game HALO (I think Halo 2 as well). Isn’t his idea just wonderful as he sensed the market and acted on it soon. I think it started off for him as he was asked by a neighbor to train his kid in xBox Halo and for that the neighbor gave him $25 and he sensed an opportunity there. He acted quick to come up with something that’s feeding him well and beyond.

And that’s America!!! Any idea will shine as long as it’s authentic and there is a need for it.

Well done, Taylor.

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Tags: microsoft, xbox, halo

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