IT Masala

Firefox Add-ons: Recommended Add-ons

shashi — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:27:11 +0000

Sharing this Mozilla's recommended addons link. We normally don't install all from the list. Some of the favourites and very useful addons are :

PicLens,WOT,Downthemall,Clipmarks, Forecastfox,Download statusbar,PDF download,Shareaholic.

Enable new features in Gmail for tryout

shashi — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:59:32 +0000

Google Labs has added lot of features in Gmail. Google labs says it giving these features for try out and these are not permanent,they might disappear sometime ! It gives you to lot of stuff such as photo in gmail browser chat, mouse gestures,Super stars, hide count, random signature, date format change,signature tweaks,pictures in chat and lot more.. . For some serious chat gurus.. there's a nice little thing saying "Email Addict" which makes you go invisible for around 15min and invisible too.(Shaanya can use this :P)

These are only some of the latest features added by Google on Gmail. There are lot more in the list. Just goto Settings>Labs in Gmail and enable whichever feature you need to experiment with.

How to disable these new features if something goes wrong ?

If by chance you enable some feature and it breaks or you are having trouble logging on to your account, just use this just go to http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0 and Labs will be temporarily disabled.

[ Learn more about Gmail Labs ]

Help set a Guinness World Record by downloading Firefox 3!

shashi — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:41:20 +0000

This message came up yesterday when I opened the firefox browser.

Mozilla team wants to see Firefox in the Guinness World Record. Its kinda cool to see Firefox in the world record list. The date for that is not yet set.Right now pledge to download Firefox 3 on that day. All we have to do is download Firefox 3 on that specified date, so that we set a world record of highest downloads within a span of 24hrs. You can have a look at the people who have taken the pledge to download, a nice map showing the number of users is on the homepage.

Maybe they got this crazy idea by seeing some craziest records set. The official date for the launch of Firefox 3 will be posted on the site. So take a pledge to bring Firefox in the Guinness World Record.

Firefox 3 has a nice caption "The browser that has it all" .

[ Download day 2008 ] [ Get Involved ]

Microsoft Presents ‘Touch Windows’

shashi — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:13:05 +0000

It looks like Microsoft is on its way to give some special look and feel to their upcoming Windows version ! Apart from adding new features, they should concentrate on having patches for existing problems too. don't you think

Microsoft's next OS will come with a touch screen to replace the existing mouse ! This will be a nice feature, replacing the old classic mouse. This touch screen will bring in more interactivity for the user,making him feel good ..maybe..

Touch Screen Demo :

Scheduled to be released in 2010, the new touch screen lets users enlarge and shrink photos, trace routes on maps, paint pictures or play the piano ( as seen in the video )..

BBC reports "When challenged as to who would get to market first with a new touch screen device, Microsoft or Apple, Mr Ballmer said it was not much of an issue. "We'll sell 290 million PCs and Apple will sell 10 million PCs "

So lets wait and watch how far this multi-touch Windows 7 will be successful !

[ Microsoft Windows ]

Happy Birthday WordPress

shashi — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:20:47 +0000

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WORDPRESS !

On Tuesday, May 27th, WordPress turned 5 years old. Wordpress team is having a party in San Francisco. You can get the full details and RSVP on Upcoming.org or on Facebook.

And I was surprised to see a new Wordpress's screenshot on safari or firefox browser on MAC (probably.. the screenshot seemed so)

Thank you Wordpress team for such a nice opensource blogging platform ! Long Live Wordpress !

Samsung develops 256GB solid state drive

shashi — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:11:31 +0000

Samsung is claiming the fastest SSD data transfer rates to date.CNET site ZDNet Korea reports that Samsung announced the development of a 2.5-inch, 256GB solid state drive (SSD) at the fifth annual Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei, Taiwan.

Normal notebook PCs come with solid state drives with capacity of 64GB.This drive has a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second and sequential write speed of 160MBps.

Special feature of these SSD is they don't have any mechanical moving parts which separates them from other drives which have mechanical failures and delays.

But there was no mention of price anywhere mentioned !

[ photo credit - samsung ]

Google’s Largest Developer Gathering in San Francisco

shashi — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:59:00 +0000

While going through Orkut apps, we happened to look at this event notification. Google is going to host Google's largest developer event.As said on the site,Its a two day event which covers in depth on how to develop application with Google and Open technologies.Its at San Francisco on May 28-89.

Sessions consists of talks on OpenSocial, Google App Engine, Android, Google Maps API, Google Web Toolkit and more ..presented by Google's leading developers like David Glazer, Alex Martelli, Steve Souders, Dion Almaer, Mark Lucovsky, Guido van Rossum, Jeff Dean, Chris DiBona, Josh Bloch.

Registration is $50 fo students/teachers !

[ Sign up ] [ Google I/O ]

Desktop Sharing and Remote Control using TeamViewer

shashi — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:06:53 +0000

TeamViewer is one of the best tools for desktop sharing and remote control. They claim that this tool is being used by more than 7,000,000 Users.If you are looking out for a very easy tool to transfer files or control your home pc right from your office, then Team Viewer is the best app ever ! Installs in seconds, no need of complex configurations or setup. You will be really amazed by the size of the software.Its just 1.28 MB,mind blowing isn't it ! Free for non-commercial use

Download the software from their site. Install it, usual double click install.

Each installation gives an user unique id and pass.You can change the password if you want to. Lets know how to connect to your home pc remotely.

- Connect to your home pc using the unique id and pass. Enter it on the right side.

- Choose file tranfer or remote support. File tranfer gives a window which shows two columns with remote side and your pc , you can select the folders or files which you want to transfer and say receive or send.

- In settings, there is option of restricting the user, i.e whether to allow editing the files remotely.

- Stop using memory stick to transfer files from your friend's pc to your pc within your LAN.Check allow LAN connections in the settings so that you can transfer at amazing speed within your LAN.

The steps are so easy to follow. Any non-techie can use this tool very easily. Its very handy when you want some files from your home pc or troubleshoot somebody's pc. Below are some screenshots of the live desktop sharing and remote control to my friend's pc.

- Use TeamViewer Manager to handle multiple clients and extended logging.

( Login window ) ( Screenshot of me transferring images from my friend's pc to my laptop)

( Screenshot of LAN connection showing 1.25mbps)

( showing some delayed tranfer due to low speed)

PS: TeamViewer(full version) is FREE for non-commercial,personal use !

[ TeamViewer ] [ Download for Windows ] [ Download for Mac ] [ TeamViewer Manager ]

Turn Gmail into Storage space using Gspace Firefox Addon

shashi — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:39:00 +0000

Gspace is a lovely firefox addon and supported on 3 platforms(Windows,Mac,Linux). It makes life easier to store all your stuff on Gmail very easily. What do you do with a 6Gb online space, use it as a storage space..just dump all your stuff.

- Install the firefox addon : | Windows | Mac | Linux |

- Goto Tools -> Gspace . The panel will open up in a different tab (chrome://gspace/content/gspaceWindow.xul )

You are shown a 2-column panel , left side is your pc and right side is your gmail storage space. Nice thing about this addon is, it shows the total space and the free space and shows details of files with timestamp etc… Below is the capture of how the email message looks like in the inbox.

How to use: Login to your account using your gmail account and password. You can create folders and put your stuff into your account. When you upload your stuff, it shows up as shown in the screenshots. To avoid showing all the upload messages in your inbox, archive the mails sent by Gspace.

PS: Using this addon maybe(not sure) against Gmail's TOS. So be careful !

[Gspace] [Gmail] [Firefox addon]

YouTube launches Indian edition

shashi — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:40:51 +0000

The most widely used video site Youtube, launches its Indian edition.This Indian version of Youtube(Desi Youtube) is being used by companies like Rajshri to market their serials.

There have been already many Indian videos on Youtube.Some of them are ,IIT Madras has put up advanced engineering classes, companies like eros entertainment,Rajshri Media use it to release movie trailors and serials and many colleges release their college videos too..

[Youtube India]