Loging in Notepad: A Neat Trick

Do you keep a diary (or the more manly version…a journal or chronicles)? Or do you wish to keep notes where the notes keep the date automatically? Well here is an awesome trick for you. All you need is notepad.
1) Open a blank notepad file.
2) Type .LOG in all caps at the top and hit enter.
3) Now save the file.
4) After closing the file, reopen it and notice that the date & time is now listed on the second line.
5) Also notice that the cursor is ready for you to start typing on the very next line.
6) Now every time you open it, type something on the next line and then save it, when you reopen it, it will have automatically saved the date and time on the last line.



This is not all, if you want it automated everytime you edit a file than this is useful, but if you want specifically at some point of time. Just press F5 the time stamp is added to the current cursor position.

I hope this helps a lot of users.
Isn't this Cool...!!!

Tricks for Firefox That Will Double Your Internet Browsing Speed

There are many people out there complaining about the Firefox RAM Memory Bug. Lets get it straight. It’s not a bug. It’s part of the cache feature. This ‘feature’ is how the pages are cached in a tabbed environment.
To improve performance when navigating (studies show that 39% of all page navigations are renavigations to pages visited less than 10 pages ago, usually using the back button), Firefox implements a Back-Forward cache that retains the rendered document for the last five session history entries for each tab.
This is a lot of data. If you have a lot of tabs, Firefox’s RAM memory usage can climb dramatically. It’s a trade-off. What you get out of it is faster performance as you navigate the web.
Now a lot of us have found the ’secrets’ on how to manipulate settings in “about:config” to drop the memory usage as long as possible and to increase the speed at which Firefox loads sites. Read on to find out how to do this.
Remember: Firefox (download it here) is the best internet browser available (in my opinion), and these tweaks below will make it even greater and faster. So enjoy!


Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for it’s cache feature

Here’s how to do it:
1. Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the adress bar in the browser.
2. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer”
3. Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)

Increase the Speed in Which Firefox loads pages

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter.
(Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)
2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.
This means it will make 10 requests at once.
3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)
This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.
Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String
network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false”
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5“; (Five)
“plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0; (zero)

Reduce RAM usage to 10mb when Firefox is minimized:

This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:
1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.
These simple tweaks will make your web browsing with Mozilla Firefox 2-3 times faster and easier. And I think they are fairly easy to apply. Enjoy!

OPINION: z/OS vs UNIX: Which Comes Out the Winner?

In a straight fight, which platform is better? Is it z/OS running on IBM's flagship Series z platform, or the ever popular UNIX operating system in all its flavours? We take a fresh look at the contenders.

If you want some good entertainment, get a few z/OS and UNIX® experts into a room and ask them which is better. I guarantee within seconds you'll have two warring factions passionately defending their platform to the death. It's great viewing - just don't give them weapons.

z/OS running on IBM's System z platform has been quietly running critical systems for decades, providing excellent performance, reliability and security. However many organisations are being wooed by UNIX(or Linux), with its promise of lower costs, ease of use, and wider acceptance. So how do these two platforms really compare?

I'm throwing my hat into the ring. I'm going to take a broad look at the two platforms and the arguments for each. To do this, I'm going to leave out the technical arguments - no discussions over which is faster, or how they compare in various benchmark tests. Instead, I'm going to look at the basic arguments for each from the point of view of the user.

But before I start, let's clarify what we're talking about. When I refer to UNIX, I'm referring to UNIX operating systems used on larger servers (Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX etc). However I'm not talking about z/OS UNIX Systems Services (USS).

So now that's done, take your seats. The show is about to start...


In the Blue Corner: The argument for z/OS.
Round 1: z/OS is more reliable.
For many years Mainframes have set the standard for reliability. IBM proudly states that Mainframes can achieve “five nines” (99.999%) availability, or around 5 minutes unscheduled and scheduled downtime per year.

However the reliability of UNIX is improving. A Yankee Group survey in 2008 found an average UNIX downtime of around one hour per year.

Of course a system's reliability is only as strong as its weakest link, which is rarely the processor hardware or operating system. So let's consider things like applications, systems software, and technical staff procedures. In these categories, Mainframes start to edge ahead. I've found Mainframe software in general to be more reliable than it's UNIX counterparts. Add to this the fact that Mainframe managers usually have stronger operational standards, and change management procedures.

I'll give this round to z/OS.

Round 2: z/OS is more secure.
Few people would dispute that z/OS is the most secure platform on the planet. It is the only platform that has obtained the Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 5 security rating. What's more, there has never been a reported incident of a mainframe being hacked or infected by a virus. Ever. (Except what happened in Matrix..!!)

Another round to z/OS.

Round 3: z/OS has better Performace.
Mainframes have traditionally been the enterprise workhorse, processing large numbers of transactions that in the past would leave UNIX systems gasping. For example, IBM has recently tested a single IMS subsystem processing 22,000 transactions per second.

UNIX servers certainly can't match this – yet. However this doesn't mean that UNIX applications can't process large numbers of transactions. In 2007 HP reported processing over 1,600 transactions per second using Oracle database. This capability can be further increased using clustering technologies.

z/OS gets extra points for being more scalable. Want to double your transaction throughput? Ask your IBM engineer to switch on more processors and you're away. Nothing else to do. A similar exercise with a UNIX environment will usually involve adding a few more UNIX servers to your cluster.

z/OS gets this round on points.

In the Red Corner: The argument for UNIX.
Round 4: UNIX is Cheaper
At first look this would seem to be a no-brainer. Mainframe hardware and software has always been far more expensive. However for large workloads, some analysts are challenging this assumption.

In 2006 Illuminata had IBM rubbing their hands in glee when they said that the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for System z mainframes was actually less than for equivalent UNIX servers. There was a catch: this was only for sites with 20-50 different applications. Illuminata argued that running multiple applications on one server saves on energy, software, network and people costs.

Distributed vendors disagree. HP has its own site that claims to calculate how much cheaper HP servers are to IBM Mainframes. With all these competing statistics flying around, it's easy for Mark Twain's statement about “lies, damn lies and statistics” to start floating around your head.

But whatever the statistics, it all has to come down to the individual site. For example, the software licensing bill for a z/OS system running 10,000 CICS/VSAM transactions a minute will be a fraction of an equivalent system running a mix of IMS/DB2 and CICS/Adabas. This is simply because the second system uses more software. Mind you, the possibility of z/OS being cheaper than UNIX is an interesting point if you're a large Mainframe site thinking about downsizing to save money.

These TCO figures usually concentrate on the cost to run a computer system, and leave out costs of software development, modification and maintenance. Many would agree that developing and maintaining a legacy Mainframe application takes more time and resources. This is because Mainframe applications:

Have been around for longer, so are more complex.
Use platforms such as IMS and CICS which are harder than equivalent UNIX platforms.
Are written in legacy languages like COBOL, PL/1 and Assembler, which are more difficult.
Are often critical to a business, so there's less tolerance for any failure. This means that any change must be carefully written, exhaustively tested, and double checked.
However this may be changing. C and Java are now stable languages for the Mainframe, and J2EE platforms like Websphere Application Server are also available for z/OS.
So after all of this, it seems reasonable to say that UNIX is far cheaper for small to medium sized application environments, and may also be for the top end.

UNIX pips z/OS in this round.

Round 5: UNIX is Easier
Few people would argue that UNIX is harder to administer and use. Computing graduates all come with a couple of years UNIX experience, and can quickly become productive. UNIX comes in many easy-to-install packages, so even small businesses with little UNIX technical knowledge can setup and maintain their own UNIX server.

Mainframe systems are hard. They are completely different to UNIX, and few computing graduates have ever seen a Mainframe. Every Mainframe technical person usually needs more education than their UNIX counterparts. And this education can be expensive and hard to find. IBM has made moves to fix these problems over the past few years, by:

Porting languages such as C and Java to z/OS. Other languages such as PHP are on the way.
Introducing tools to make z/OS administration easier – such as the CICS TS 4.1 Explorer, and z/OS Health Checkers.
Introducing the zNextGen program to increase the number of graduates with Mainframe technical skills.
But despite all this, UNIX clearly wins this round.

Round 6: It's Easier to Find UNIX People
I don't think anyone would argue that its easier to find Mainframe technical staff.

A clear round for UNIX.

Round 7: UNIX has better connectivity and compatibility.
UNIX is an open platform, and talks well with the vast majority of other platforms that tend to follow the same rules (like Windows). However connecting to legacy applications on the Mainframe has in the past proven to be expensive and difficult, if not impossible.

Recent (and not so recent) Mainframe enhancements have made some progress here:

Legacy applications can be accessed using Websphere MQ and SOAP.
CICS transactions can be accessed using the CICS Transaction Gateway.
IMS transactions can be accessed using IMS Connect.
Mainframe files can be accessed remotely using FTP, NFS, and other standard UNIX file sharing features.
Mainframe files can be accessed using software such as Samba.
However despite these advances, opening up your existing Mainframe applications to the world can still be a large task.

UNIX gets an additional advantage as its applications are easier to port to different environments – including z/OS itself (using UNIX Systems Services). Legacy Mainframe applications on the other hand aren't going anywhere.

Another clear round to UNIX.

Round 8: There's More Off-the-Shelf Software for UNIX
Most Mainframe applications are written in-house, sometimes using features of other application systems such as SAP, Hogan and Siebel. However end-user applications are everywhere for UNIX platforms, including a lot of freeware.

UNIX easily grabs this round.

The Final Decision
So after the final round, who wins? Well, that has to depend on who you are and what you need.

If you need a smaller server platform with a ready-made software package, you'd be silly to go past UNIX.
If you're writing a brand new application from scratch, it's hard not to be lured to UNIX. However if this application will be working with existing Mainframe applications or will process very large numbers of critical transactions, then the z/OS advantages become very appealing.
If you have existing critical Mainframe applications, there are lots of reasons to keep them going. As far as security, reliability and the ability to handle lots of transactions, nothing beats z/OS.
If you have a smaller, less critical Mainframe application, it may be a candidate for a move to UNIX.
But of course it doesn't have to be one or the other. Today applications can (and do) span the UNIX / z/OS divide using technology like SOAP, Websphere MQ, and various connector options. This lets you design applications that can enjoy the best of both worlds.

Web Sites That Do Exactly What They Say They Do

Kids these days have the most convoluted web site names. Facebook? Twitter? eBay? I'm sorry, but I like my coffee black and my web sites self-explanatory. Here's a handful of actually useful web sites that do exactly what they sound like.
Speedtest.net: If you're curious how fast your internet is for any reason, this is the site to check. It'll give you both and upload and download speed, so you can find out if you're getting what you pay for (or if you're just getting faster speeds than your friends). Just load it up and click "Begin Test" to get started.
Down For Everyone or Just Me : If you're getting an error when visiting a certain site, it could be down—or something could be wrong on your end. To see which it is, head to Downforeveryoneorjustme.com and type in the web site's domain. It'll let you know if it's actually down or whether you need to do a little more troubleshooting. You can head there quicker by typing in isup.me.
How Secure Is My Password?: Does what it says on the tin. Type in a password and it'll tell you how long it would take to crack.
What's My IP: Whether you're setting up a home media server with Subsonic or you just need to SSH into a computer at home, sometimes you need to know a computer's IP address from outside of your network, and this site will tell you what it is. Just visit it from the computer in question and it'll give you your IP address. Whatsmyip.org is the simplest iteration of this tool, though Whatismyip.com contains some handy information about IP addresses if you're new to networking, and IPChicken.com gives you a bit more than just your IP, like your remote port and browser info. Not to mention a funny picture of a chicken.
Can You See Me: If you're having connection issues with a certain program, like email, IM, or BitTorrent, it could be because your firewall or ISP is blocking a certain port that program needs. Canyouseeme.org will let you type in a port and check if it's open— if it isn't, then that could be the source of your trouble. If it's open, then you know it's something else.
Who.Is: This site uses the Whois command to find the IP address, location, server type, and other statas of a specific domain. It's useful for finding out more about your favorite sites, testing your own home webserver, or trying to ping an outside IP address when you're having DNS troubles.
Where's My Cellphone?: We've all lost our cellphones in the couch cushions at one time or another, and when you just can't seem to find it, Where's My Cellphone can help you out. Type in your number and it'll ring your phone for you so you can search it out. It's really useful if you don't have another phone in the house to call your phone with.
Is It Old?: Have you ever discovered a site, page, or hilarious YouTube video that all your friends just needed to see? Have you ever had them all respond with "dude, this is from 10 months ago". Is It Old tells you how long a page is and how many times it's already been tweeted, so you know whether you're sharing old news or not. Just paste in the URL and hit the button—it'll let you know whether it's worth sharing.
Free My PDF: Free My PDF will get rid of PDFs that have restrictions on printing, copying text, or password-protected editing. It won't crack a PDF's password—that is, if it requires a password to be viewed, this won't work—but if you have any other types of protected PDFs, just upload them to Free My PDF and it'll spit out a liberated version for you to do with as you please.

Google Tips

With classes, homework, and projects–not to mention your social life–time is truly at a premium for you, so why not latch onto the wide world that Google has to offer? From super-effective search tricks to Google hacks specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time.

Search Tricks

These search tricks can save you time when researching online for your next project or just to find out what time it is across the world, so start using these right away.

1. Convert units. Whether you want to convert currency, American and metric units, or any other unit, try typing in the known unit and the unknown unit to find your answer (like “how many teaspoons in a tablespoon” or “10 US dollars in Euros”).
2. Do a timeline search. Use “view:timeline” followed by whatever you are researching to get a timeline for that topic.
3. Get around blocked sites. If you are having problems getting around a blocked site, just type “cache:website address” with website address being the address of the blocked site to use Google’s cached copy to get where you are going.
4. Use a tilde. Using a tilde (~) with a search term will bring you results with related search terms.
5. Use the image search. Type in your search word, then select Images to use the image search when trying to put a picture to your term.
6. Get a definition. If you want a definition without having to track down an online (or a physical) dictionary, just type “definition:word” to find the definition of the word in your results (i.e.: “definition: serendipity” will track down the definition of the word “serendipity”).
7. Search within a specific website. If you know you want to look up Babe Ruth in Wikipedia, type in “site:wikipedia.org Babe Ruth” to go directly to the Wikipedia page about Babe Ruth. It works for any site, not just Wikipedia.
8. Search within a specific kind of site. If you know you only want results from an educational site, try “site:edu” or for a government site, try “site:gov” and your search term to get results only from sites with those web addresses.
9. Search for a specific file type. If you know you want a PDF (or maybe an MP3), just type in “filetype:pdf” and your search term to find results that are only in that file type.
10. Calculate with Google. Type in any normal mathematical expressions to get the answer immediately. For example, “2*4″ will get you the answer “8.”
11. Time. Enter “what time is it” and any location to find out the local time.
12. Find a term in a URL. This handy trick is especially useful when searching blogs, where dates are frequently used in the URL. If you want to know about a topic for that year only and not any other year, type “inurl:2009″ and your keyword to find results with your keyword in URLs with 2009 in them.
13. Use Show Options to refine your search. Click “Show Options” on your search result page to have access to tools that will help you filter and refine your results.
14. Search for a face. If you are looking for a person and not just their name, type “&imgtype=face” after the search results to narrow your results to those with images of faces.

Google Specifically for Education

From Google Scholar that returns only results from scholarly literature to learning more about computer science, these Google items will help you at school.

1. Google Scholar. Use this specialized Google search to get results from scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, and academic publishers.
2. Use Google Earth’s Sky feature. Take a look at the night sky straight from your computer when you use this feature.
3. Open your browser with iGoogle. Set up an iGoogle page and make it your homepage to have ready access to news stories, your Google calendar, blogs you follow in Google Reader, and much more.
4. Stay current with Google News. Like an electronic clearinghouse for news, Google News brings headlines from news sources around the world to help you stay current without much effort.
5. Create a Google Custom Search Engine. On your own or in collaboration with other students, put together an awesome project like one of the examples provided that can be used by many.
6. Collect research notes with Google Notebook. Use this simple note-taking tool to collect your research for a paper or project.
7. Make a study group with Google Groups. Google Groups allows you to communicate and collaborate in groups, so take this option to set up a study group that doesn’t have to meet face-to-face.
8. Google Code University. Visit this Google site to have access to Creative Commons-licensed content to help you learn more about computer science.
9. Study the oceans with Google Earth 5. Google Earth 5 provides information on the ocean floor and surface with data from marine experts, including shipwrecks in 3D.
10. Learn what experts have to say. Explore Knol to find out what experts have to say on a wide range of topics. If you are an expert, write your own Knol, too.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a great replacement for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, so learn how to use this product even more efficiently.

1. Use premade templates. Use these 50 pre-made templates to track spending, keep up with your health, and much more.
2. Collaborate on group projects. Google Docs allows for real-time collaboration, so make easy work for everyone next time you have a group project due.
3. Use keyboard shortcuts. Use this handy list of keyboard shortcuts to save lots of time while using Google Docs.
4. Create online surveys for research projects. Quickly and easily create online surveys for any research project that requires feedback from others. The answers are saved to your Google Docs account.
5. Add video to your presentation. Learn how to seamlessly add video to your Google Docs page to really give your presentation or project a boost.
6. Use the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
7. Create graphs from spreadsheets. Once you have populated a spreadsheet with data, you can easily create a graph. Google Docs allows for pie, bar, line, and scatter graphs.
8. Create a new document with shortcuts. Learn two ways to open a new Google Docs page with these tricks.
9. Right click to use save-as. Use the right click save-as option to save a Google Docs document on your computer.
10. Send invitations. School shouldn’t be all about work. Find out how to send party invitations using Google Docs.

Gmail

The super-popular Gmail is full of fun and fast ways to make your life and communications easier.

1. Use the Tasks as a to-do list. Use the Tasks available in Gmail as a way to stay on top of assignments, exams, and project due dates.
2. Use the Archive feature. One of the great features of Gmail is that it allows you to archive emails to get them out of your inbox, then you can use the search feature to find them if you need them again.
3. Highlight mail with labels. Use labels to mark your messages. You can find them easily while in your inbox and do a search for all the messages with that label after you archive them.
4. Never forget to attach a file. By signing up for the Labs, you can select to have the Forgotten Attachment Detector. This feature notices if you have typed something about an attachment in the body, but are sending without actually attaching anything–a great tool to save time and embarrassment.
5. Use keyboard shortcuts. Go to Settings and enable keyboard shortcuts so you can perform common tasks at the touch of just one or two keys.
6. Add multiple attachments. Use the Control (or Cmd on Macs) and Shift keys to select more than one file to attach to your email at one time.
7. Use the https option. Google recommends using this option if you use your Gmail in public places like a dorm or coffee shop to add an extra bit of protection to your Internet activities.
8. Incorporate Google Calendar and Docs on your Gmail page. Have access to recent documents used in Google Docs and get an agenda of upcoming activities you have on Google Calendar with small boxes added to your Gmail page. Go to Labs to select this option.
9. Add a “Waiting for Response” label. If you have emails in your inbox that you are holding until someone gets back to you, creating this label keeps you from forgetting to follow up on it later.
10. Use Canned Responses. If you find yourself writing the same type of email over and over, use the Canned Responses feature in the Labs to create a template that you you can use without having to type out the entire email every time.
11. Consolidate email accounts. If you have a Gmail account, an account through school, and any other account you are juggling separately, combine them all into Gmail to cut down on time spent checking all those accounts.
12. Use AIM in Gmail. If you use AIM to IM friends or partners on projects, add it to the chat feature already in Gmail to have access to both.

Google Calendar

Save yourself some time by keeping track of appointments, assignments, and more with Google Calendar.

1. Sync up with others using iCal or Sunbird. Google lets you sync your calendar with others using Apple iCal or Mozilla Sunbird.
2. Customize reminders. Set reminders in your Google Calendar so that you never forget an appointment again. Choose from email, pop-up, or SMS reminders and even set when the reminder comes.
3. Learn some basic keyboard shortcuts. Change from daily to weekly to monthly view, compose a new event, and more with these simple shortcuts.
4. Use Quick Add. Click on Quick Add and type the day and time and what you are doing to have the calendar create the event with the correct time and date.
5. Use multiple calendars. Create separate calendars for school work, personal information, important due dates, and more to stay ultra-organized.
6. Get a text message with your daily agenda. Keep up with all that you need to do for the day without ever having to log on to your Google Calendar.
7. Set weekly repeats for any day. The drop-down menu only offers M/W/F or T/Th options for repeating events. Go to “Every Week” and customize which days you want the event to repeat.
8. Get upcoming events while away from the computer. Check out #8 in this list to learn how to access your upcoming events via your phone.
9. Add events from Gmail. If you receive an email with event time and date information, you can easily add this event to your calendar by clicking “Add to calendar.”
10. Invite others. If you have events on your calendar that you want to invite others to join, just add their email address under Add Guests within the event.

Google Mobile

Whether riding the bus or walking to class, use Google Mobile to stay productive while away from your computer.

1. Sync your calendar. Never be far from your Google Calendar when you sync it to your phone.
2. Check your email. Keep your email right at your fingertips with Gmail for mobile.
3. Access your blog subscriptions. Keep up with your blogs and news feeds that you subscribe to through Reader right on your phone.
4. Use Google Voice to consolidate phone numbers. If you have a phone in your dorm or apartment, a cell phone, and any other phone numbers, consolidate them into one number with Google Voice.
5. Easily find friends. Find out where your friends are and even get a map with directions for how to get there with Google Latitudes.
6. Find out information easily while on the go. Whether you are looking for a great place to eat dinner, wondering what the weather is like, or want to know what the Spanish word for “bathroom” is, just text your information to Google (466453–spells Google on your phone) to get the answer texted back right away.
7. Access iGoogle. Get your iGoogle page formatted just for the smaller screen size of your phone.
8. Read your Google Docs. Have access to all your Google Docs items right on your phone.
9. Keep a to-do list on your phone. Use Google Tasks for mobile so you can access your to-do list any time–and check off what you’ve finished, too.
10. Never get lost again. Google Maps is an interactive program for most smart phones that offers tons of features so you will never have to be lost again.
11. Do a quick search anywhere. Find information with a Google search from your phone to impress your professors and your friends.
12. Access Google Books. Android and iPhone users can access Google Books on their phones.
13. Post to your blog. Use your mobile to post to your Blogger blog.

Google Chrome Tips and Extensions

If you are using the Google Chrome browser, then you will love these time-saving tips and extensions.

1. Use a “Pin Tab”. If you have multiple tabs open, use a “Pin Tab” to make the tabs the size of the little icon on the left side.
2. Don’t overlook Paste and Search and Paste and Go. These two features are available when you right-click to add a word or URL to Chrome and will save you an extra step.
3. Reopen a closed tab. Oops! If you didn’t mean to close that tab, just press Ctrl+Shift+T to reopen it.
4. Use the Chrome shortcuts. Open a new tab, see your history, maximize your window, and much more with these shortcuts.
5. Take advantage of the address bar. With Google Chrome, you can use the address bar to perform a Google search, quickly access pages you’ve already visited, and get recommendations for places to go.
6. Go incognito. If you don’t want to leave traces of where you were browsing, use incognito mode instead of having to go back and delete your history and cookies.
7. Use the bookmarks manager. Stay organized, rearrange bookmarks, search for bookmarks, add folders, and much more with the bookmark manager.
8. ChromePass. This tool will give you a list of all the password information stored in Google Chrome.
9. Save as PDF. Save any page as a PDF with this bookmarklet.
10. ChromeMailer. If you’ve lost valuable time when having to manually enter email information from a website because Google Chrome doesn’t support the mailto: function, then you will love this extension.
11. Google Chrome Backup. Back up your personal data, bookmarks, and more with this simple tool.

Google Books

Learn how Google Books can save you time and trips to the library with these tricks.

1. Search full text. Google Books offers full text for over 10,000 books, so look here the next time you are researching something at the last minute.
2. Use “About this book”. At the top left of the page of a book, clicking this link will give you helpful information such as the table of contents, related books, and a map of places mentioned in the book.
3. Create a personalized library. Click on “Add to my shared library” to start your own personalized library where you can label books to keep them organized for each class or project.
4. Find books in your college library. Each book in Google Books has a link to find the book in a library. It can tell you exactly where to look at your own school.
5. Use the Advanced Book Search. If you can’t find the book you are looking for, try the advanced search, which provides you with many more detailed options.
6. Access text books. Many text books are available on Google Books, so see if you can save a trip to the bookstore next semester.
7. Search for magazine content. Select Magazines in the Advanced Book Search to locate information from magazines.
8. Read the blog. Google Books is constantly evolving, so stay on top of all the latest news with the Inside Google Books blog.
9. Find books to supplement your assigned texts. Search by subject to see what books you may be able to read to get the extra leg up in your classes.

Handy Google Services and Apps

These other Google products will help you save time by offering you everything from alerts to online collaboration to help working with data sets.

1. Google Alerts. Sign up to get email notifications any time a topic you designate shows up in Google search results. This is a great way to stay current with a project or news story.
2. Google Desktop. Keep a clock, weather, news stories, Google search box, and more all within easy reach when you use Google Desktop.
3. Google SketchUp. If you need to draw 3D figures for class, use Google SketchUp to do so easily and free of charge.
4. Google Talk. This versatile app is more than just for IMs. You can switch to voice, do a video chat, and send texts, too.
5. Google Images. Google has an incredible image search feature that will provide you with tons of high-quality images you can use in presentations.
6. Google Translate. Don’t spend time looking up stuff in books, use Google Translate to get foreign words translated right away.
7. Google Wave. This brand new Google product shows great promise for anyone collaborating, but especially for those in school. Communicate, create documents, and more–all in real-time.
8. Google Finance. Business students can keep track of markets, news, portfolios, and more in one place.
9. Google Toolbar. Have easy access to Gmail, Google search, bookmarks, and more with this toolbar available for Internet Explorer and Firefox.
10. Picasa. Manage your photos and even incorporate them into your blogs and emails with Google’s streamlines photo manager.
11. Google Squared. Find facts and organize them with this search feature from Google Labs.
12. Google Fusion Tables. If you are working with data sets, then you will love this program that will allow you to upload data, create visual representations, and take part in discussions about the data.
13. Blogger. Create a blog as a part of a project or just to stay in touch with friends and family in an easy way.

courtesy: eternalcode

Linux Commands Heard Out Of Context

Quora "The Next Big Thing"

It has been called “the next big thing” and “the breakout site of 2011, but signing up to Quora is more complicated that you might think.

For those who don’t know, Quora it is a question-and-answer site; imagine the love child of Yahoo! Answers (but without the inane questions) and Wikipedia via Twitter and you will get the idea. The site allows users to ask open questions with other users can answer. The questions and answers can then be tagged and filtered for future reference.

Over the past two months there has been an explosion of interest in the site but while thousands of Twitter and Facebook users have been signing up, many are reporting that they are having difficulty getting access.

Some users are reporting that they can sign up to the site using their personal email, Facebook or Twitter while some are only seeing the email sign up process. A number of other users are being told the site is in private beta and requires an email invite form an existing user. Messages asking for, and offering, Quora invites have been doing the rounds recently on Twitter (as well as Yahoo! Answers).

As a side note it is reported that people were able to sign up without an invite, using the Facebook and Twitter methods but when I tried it completly failed. I tried some more methods, which I found after googling, but could not succeed.

At the beginning, Quora was invitations only, then opened to the public in June. But it recently returned to the invitations only mode. Probably because the adoption rate was huge, and the Quora admins didn’t want too much traffic on their servers too soon.

Seemingly the only sure way to sign up to Quora is to ask someone who is a member to invite you. Quora members can invite other users by going to http://www.quora.com/contacts.

Please let if somebody wants to join it, Will send the invite once i get the signup done. Even I am taking help of bloggers who can send an invitation to me.

Why SMS is just 160 Chars long??

How many times have you tried using the SMS shortcuts, to try and limit it to 160 characters. Did that ever made you wonder, that why SMS are only limited to 160 characters? I had the urge to find out many times, but was too lazy to search it on Google, but I always knew it has something to do with Bits and Bytes Math :-D . This really become a must know information as of now , as we have already celebrated SMS’s 15th Birthday couple of years back. SMS

Now, after Giz revealed the real reason why the sms are of 160 character , I found it real hard to digest as according to them

Apparently, it’s because some German dude thought 160 was "perfectly sufficient."

Friedham Hillebrand was a communications researcher who was working with a group on developing a standard for cellphones to send and receive text messages. So he sat down on his typewriter and banged out a bunch of random sentences and questions, counted up the number of characters it took, and decided 160 was the magic number.

I am not sure , whether this is the real reason , but it made me Google a bit, and I found the answer at a blog. He explained it quite clearly

The issue is that it is a limitation of the GSM system. GSM is the name for the way in which almost all mobile phones communicate. The actual length of a text message is 256 characters or letters (the term characters are more exact because numbers are not letters and neither is % or #).
Now an SMS needs to have contained within itself who sent the message, when it was sent and who it is going too, these are called overheads and take up exactly 96 characters, which is why you end up with 160 characters left. (256-96=160).

On a side note, each character is sent as an 8bit binary number — you know those 1s and 0s everyone is talking about — meaning you have a maximum of 256 types of characters. This gives you just enough room for all upper and lower case letters (2 * 26), numbers (0-9), a range of symbols ({}[]-+£$%) and some control characters (space, return, null). This is an internationally recognized standard specified as the ASCII standard.

Siri : Putting iPhone to life

Siri is a Personal Assistant created by SRI International, which was later bought by Apple Inc. Before Apple bought Siri, SIRI International has already announced that they are going to launch Siri for Blackberry and Android also, but later on all the development efforts other than iOS platform were cancelled.

It employs Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing Techniques. It is claimed that Siri adapts to individual's preferences and personalizes results over time.

I was when checking the experiences of the users of Siri on Web. I was quite amazed with the ability of Siri. It understands the voice, gives almost relevant answers and it is funny. Where as using one of the Android's digital Assistant,  I found that it has only a set of commands that it understands. It does not work as efficient as Siri.

Siri has quite a good interface. The tone timing is great. It helps one to understand when to start speaking and when siri has stopped listening to you. The timing seems to be perfect, though it sometimes takes longer time to respond in case of less availability of network.

Others have pointed out Siri’s adult-oriented humor, like when you ask it to “open the pod bay doors.” Siri understands the reference to Hal 9000, the rogue computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and says, “I’m sorry Joshua, I’m afraid I can’t do that (the line from the movie). Are you happy now?” If you ask for drugs, Siri recommends addiction treatment centers near you. If you want a “happy ending,” it shows you the nearest massage places.

I can only imagine how the Apple engineers planned for these answers. Did Steve Jobs ask them to put these words in Siri’s mouth? Anyway, here’s some dialogue between some kids and Siri.

Question: You’re a poop.
Siri: I guess you’re not happy

Q: Not at all
Siri: Sorry. I don’t understand. not at all.

Q: Find Kona’s pet food.
Siri: I found 15 pet stores. Thirteen of them are fairly close to you.

Q: Happy birthday Siri.
Siri: It’s my birthday?

Q: What is the tallest mountain in the U.S.?
Siri: Mount Mckinley.

Q: Who is the tallest person in the world.
Siri: Checking on that for you. Do you want me to search the web for you?

Q: What are you?
Siri: I’m just a humble virtual assistant.

Q: You’re weird.
Siri: If you insist.

Q: What are you doing?
Siri: Waiting for something to do.

Q: You’re cool.
Siri: That is correct. I use advanced heat dissipation techniques.

link:These questions are taken from here.

The Service of Siri is fully available in US now. It will work partially in Europe. This feature will not be available in India now. Apple has not stated any plans yet to roll this service in India, but seems that it is going to be soon.

Apple's iOS: Prospects after Steve

Now that Steve Jobs is resting in Peace, Can Apple really do cool things that made them the world's No.1 company and most desired products round the globe. The touch that Steve gave to the stuff that was designed by Apple is really great. But now when he is not there can Apple do it?

The USP of Apple's iPhone was its simple and efficient user interface, ie the iOS. The design of the interface was mostly driven from what Steve wanted it to be. Now when he is not there is there anyone who can take his place and do it. It has been already proven that Steve's place cannot be filled by anyone in the company. History says so.

So, what is the solution to it? I believe that iOS should be made open source. Like what Google has done with its Android OS. Making it Open source solves that major problem which is creativity. People can work on the issues they are facing and making the OS more user-friendly. This way not only make more and more organizations to come and use the software on different firmware but also add to more APPs to the AppStore.

What Google has done is made their Android OS free and let even the new companies and large firmware manufacturers to deploy this OS to their firmware. This has made Android more widely known and much more is that a lot of other companies other than Google are working on the OS to make it better and beautiful. This has led to much more independent developers to come and create APPS for that platform.

Though I know that everything started from iOS, but Apple should consider that if they don’t keep on innovating the others will keep on and they will soon be surpassed.

Unix/Linux File System: Overview

A conceptual understanding of file system can help a system administrator in adverse situations whereas can help a developer to debug certain implementations which are not working properly. Any how it can be applied in whatever one wants it to.

What is a File?
File is a collection of data items stored on a storage device, the storage device can be a hard-disk, a Compact Disk etc. Infact whatever that is going to be stored in a computer is in the form of a file. So, it is the last object in a file system tree.

Unix/Linux Supports various types of file systems.
1. EXT2: This is a UNIX file system. It has the concepts of blocks, inodes and directories.
2. EXT3: This is also a UNIX file system. The successor of EXT2 type. It provides Journing capabilites in addition to what EXT2 provides. Journaling helps in fast file system recovery.
3. ISOFS: The file system type used in compact disk.
4. TMPFS: The file system type used by temporary files.
5. SysFS: It is a RAM based file system. Mostly used in kenel related activites.
6. PROCFS: The proc file system acts as an interface to internal data structures in the kernel.
7. NFS: Network File System allows many users to share files at a common place by using cleint sever methodology.

What is a file system?
A file system is nothing but collection of two things:
1. User data
2. Meta data-stores file system structural information such as inodes, directories, permissions etc. I am going to talk about this in the next part of this article.

Above information is the basis of what i am going to talk about, INODES.

inodes-An inode is a data structure in UNIX operating systems that contains important information pertaining to files within a file system. Almost 1% of the total disk space is allocated to inode tables.

The inode structure is relatively straight forward. This is the information an inode contains:
1. Inode number
2. Mode information which determines the file type and how the file's owner, its group, and others can access the file.
3. Number of links to the file
4. UID of the owner
5. Group ID (GID) of the owner
6. Size of the file
7. Actual number of blocks that the file uses
8. Time last modified
9. Time last accessed
10. Time last changed

so we can say that a inode contains all the infomation of a file except the file name and the actual data.
This was about file. What about the directory. A directory also have an inode number and that pointing to all the inodes that are present in that directory.It is typically not possible to map from an open file to the filename that was used to open it. The operating system immediately converts the filename to an inode number then discards the filename.

The data part is associated with something called an 'inode'. The inode carries the map of where the data is, the file permissions, etc. for the data.



                               .---------------> ! data ! ! data ! etc
                              /                  +---------! !------+
        ! permbits, etc ! data addresses !
       +-------------inode-------------+


The filename part carries a name and an associated inode number.

                         .--------------> ! permbits, etc ! addresses !
                        /                   +-------------inode-------------+
        ! filename ! inode # !
       +----------------------+