Personalized Signposts: Design your own Street Signs, Warning Labels

Want to put some custom text on a Road Sign like the one you see in the picture above ? No Photoshop skills required.

Here are some useful online tools to create your own personalized messages on Traffic Signs or Street Symbols.

Just type in the text, choose the warning label sign and click created. Excellent Stuff.

Street Sign Generator

Warning Sign Generator

Warning Label Generator

The sites won't require a registration but you will have to download the images locally before using them.

You can fine tune the generated pictures using these online image editors.

More about history of Road Signs on Wikipedia.

Microsoft Should Rename Office 2007 to Office 2008

Type "Delay" in the Google Search Box, click "I'm Feeling Lucky" button and you'll be redirected to the Microsoft Website.

Agree, it's won't happen today but with all the recent annoucements about Windows Vista and Office 2007 delay, Microsoft is clearly on the route to occupy that top slot for Delay just like President George Bush feels lucky when someone types Failure.

If you were planning to gift your dad an easy-to-use word precessor called Office Word 2007 during Christmas, you may think of another present - maybe a tutorial on how to use Writely ?

Feedback on quality and performance will ultimately determine the exact dates - citing this reason, Microsoft has further pushed the release of Office 2007 to next year.

Since Microsoft generally call their products one number more than the release year, it makes sense for them to rename the upcoming Office Suite to Office 2008 as it would now be released in year 2007 +1.

If you can't wait until 2007 to try out Office 2007, here's an online version hosted on Citrix that doesn't require you to dowload the 10 GB Office 2007 Iso Installer.

The previous code name of Office were Office 12, Office 2006 and Office Vista.

Launchy: Windows Start Menu for Geeks

Geeks, especially from the Unix background, are more comfortable using the keyboard than the mouse for doing regular computer tasks like opening documents and running software programs.

Not just power users, if you have installed too many software programs on your computer, it gets very difficult to locate the program in the Start Menu.

All you remember is the name of the software company or the name of the software itself but it's impossible to guess their location in the Start Menu until it's sorted by Name.

If you fall in any of the above category, you will immediately love Launchy - a free Windows software similar to Mac Quicksilver (see screenshot) that tries to guess which program or file you are looking for and will launch it when you hit the enter key.

Launchy behaves just like the Google Desktop Search Quick Find bar which is activated by pressing Ctrl twice. But GDS finds files across your entire hard drive whereas Launchy limits the search to Start Menu folders or any other folder that you specify.

If you would like Launchy to index more than the programs in your start menu,
such as folders, file formats like MP3, PDF or Video, you can add these file types in the configuration. If you would like to open folder windows directly from Launchy, check the “Index Directory Names?” box.

By defaultly, Launchy indexes .lnk files which actually link to the main program executable. You can add .exe and .bat files to directly run program bypassing the lnk route.

Launchy difference from desktop search programs because it indexes only the name of the file and not the actual content. Highly recommened for all Windows XP Users.

Download Launchy Program and Skins

Touch Typing Lessons: Learn to type with Typing Tutor Software

Typing Tutor Software are a fun way to learn touch typing for beginners since they are accompanied with typing games and real-world typing exercies. If you already know how to type, these typing exercises can help you improve the overall typing speed (WPM) as well as accuracy.

It's been a personal experience that if you stick to the typing lessons schedule, nothing can stop you from becoming a fast proficient typist. And unlike regular classroom typing lessons, a typing tutor software lets you learn touch typing at your own pace anywhere without hiring a typing teacher.

While the top selling typing tutor programs like Mario Typing, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing or Typing Master Pro are commercial, there are a lot of excellent online typing tutors and typing tests that need just a web browser and an average speed internet connection with no download. If you still like to learn typing offline but free, there are freeware open source typing tutors for you.

Here's a comprensive list of online typing courses and typing tutor software [both free and commercial]. You will also find links to free downloadable typing tutorials and practise sheets.

» Free Touch Typing Program - This is a popular touch type learning program that offer the entire typings lessons online.

» Letters 2 [mirror] - Letters 2 is a popular Macromedia Flash based online typing game with a very pleasing interface. The game can get really addictive. You have to destroy every letter by typing them before they reach the left edge of the screen. There are also power-ups scrolling from left to right. You can collect them by destroying letter near the item.

» BBC Dance Mat Typing - Typing Tutor for Kids - A fun colourful website with animation and games introducing touch typing to children aged 7 to 11.

» TyperA - Test your typing skill online. TyperA is Java program that runs inside your web browser and requires no installation. You get randomly chosen words or sentences and try to type them as fast as possible. A game lasts for one or two minutes. The program counts letters of the correctly typed words and divides it by the test time. This will be your score, expressed in KPM, keystrokes per minute. The typing game is available in English, Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese, Finnish, German and Swedish languages.

» Typing Test - This is a free only typing test to find your typing speed in words per minute. After the short text typing sample, you will see your typing speed, accuray and net speed. You can also send these results to your email address. Java Required. They also provide a typing certification.

» Online Typing Tutor - This program helps you improving your typing skills by playing a simple game: characters are falling down the screen; you have to stop them before they reach the ground by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard. This typing tutor was earlier known as Typing Arcade. Source code is available.

» PowerTyping - This is another typing website offering free online typing courses for Qwerty or Dvorak keyboard layouts. You can take an online typing test, play typing games or just practice typing to improve your speed and accuracy. Requires Macromedia Flash plug-in.

» Michael Shestov TypeRIGHTing - The Guinness Book of World Records winner has a unique approach to typing. Instead of counting errors, you learn to eliminate errors. When you pronounce it right and then type it right letter-by-letter you become extremely proficient at any language (including its spoken and written forms) virtually in no time.

» Typer Shark - This is a Java based typing game that can be played in the web browser or played offline using the game installer. In Typing Shark, you have to type the words on the sides of sharks to zap them and if reach the bottom of the sea, you move to a bonus treasure round.

» Spongebob Square Pants Typing - Another nice typing tutor for kids available on Windows and the Mac platform. It's based on Mavis Beacon typing method but less expensive than Mavis Bacon Teaches Typing software. [download mavis beacon typing here]

» Mario Teaches Typing - Kids love this typing tutor as the famous Mario characters of Nintendo fame are shown as the typing instructor. Mario is developed on the lines of an educational video game with different typing levels of progressing difficulty (as either Mario, Luigi or the Princess Peach).

» Typing of the Dead - If you enjoy video games, this is a good option. This typing video game is actually based on House of the Dead 2 but the gun (or mouse) has been replaced with the keyboard. The game has Zombies that disappear by quickly typing out words that appear onscreen. Not recommened for kids.

» TypeFaster Typing Tutor - It's a freely downloadable typing tutor with a 3D game that is even accessible for blind typists. The software supports French, German, Portuguese, US-Dvorak, US-English, Hebrew, Numeric-keypad and Spanish. Typing Instructors can use TypeFaster for their class typing course.

» Speed Typing Test - There's a text area where you have to type the supplied code as fast as you can. This typing test website provides a short typing code snippet which you can embed in your website. Your site visitors may stay on your site longer while they are playing the typing test.

» HyperType is a free text typing tutor for the Linux platform. Source code is also available for download.

» Practice Typing Test - This is a quick and simple online typing test that's based on Javascript. The typing errors are highlighted while you're typing itself.

» HanWJ is the only Chinese typing tutor software that I know of. Pen-based is a more direct method to input Chinese. HanWJ Chinese Typing Tutor usis PinYin input method, plus other Mandarin input techniques. For Arabic users, PCfone sell an Arabic Typing Tutor software. There's another Arabic English Typing Tutor available on Amazon. The author says it's for Muslims who are familiar with the Arabic script , through the Koran, and are interested in learning the Arabic language

The same is issue is in India. Most of the Indian can read their native language but cannot imagine typing it. Therefore, the Indian Government is promoting local language computing in a big way. Typing Tutors for Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and other Indian Languages are provided by the ILDC Website. More information here. The are developed by CDAC.

Interesting Typing Fact 1: Das Blank Keybaord is a unique kind of a keyboard which has regular keys but nothing is written on the keys. In order to use the keyboard, you will have to memorize the various keystroke locations. "Like on a piano, since there are no keys to look at when typing, your brain will quickly adapt and memorize the key positions. Within a few short weeks users increase their typing accuracy and find themselves typing up to 100% faster."

Interesting Typing Fact 2: Barbara Blackburn is the World's Fastest Typist with the maximum typing speed of 212 WPM. She hates the QWERTY keyboard layout and prefers the Dvorak keyboard, which has vowels on one side and consonants on the other, with the most frequently used letters on the center row.

Word of Caution: You will notice lot of home typing recruiting services ads on the that promise you make money typing at home by doing data entry work. Do a thorough check before signing up for any of the "quick money" schemes.

Adsense brings Channels to Referrals

Adsense Publishers can now track the success rate of product referrals on specific pages or websites as the channel feature is now available for referrals like Picasa, Firefox, Adsense and Adwords.

You are allowed to create upto 200 active channel names for Referrals. To add a channel to existing Adsense Referral code, either overwrite the code with the new version or just append the following line:

google_ad_channel = "Channel_Number";

My success rate with Google Product Referrals has been satisfactory. Visitors to this site are curious to know about Picasa but they just read about it on Google Website and don't download or install the software. Probably the software size turns them away. On the other hand, Firefox continues to perform well.

Louis Vuitton Ruling Could Mean Serious Consequences for Google Adwords

First it was Microsoft who sued an Adwords Customer for selling fake software on Google Search Results. A week later, a dating website sued Yahoo for using their trademark keywords to advertise on Google.

And the most recent case involves Luxury goods maker - Louis Vuitton.

Adwords users were advertising for fake Louis Vuitton goods like handbags using Google Sponsored Links. Topping the list for Louis Vuitton are "handbag knock-offs" and "purse knock-offs." The French company didn't like this, sued Google directly over the issue and even won the ruling in a Paris Court.

Three lawsuits related to Adwords in a span of just one month ? It may be something to really worry about for Google because most the revenue generated by Google is via advertising.

Though they say that their trademark policy prevents bids on other people's registered trademarks, it may not be easy to implement as it sounds. How do you compile the data from various countries ?

A lot of Adwords customers use this program to advertise for their own product when someone is searching for a competitor's product. When the trademark issue arises, these advertisers will not be able to bid on these keywords thereby eliminating a huge chunk of revenue from Google.

I think the whole Adwords Advertising model is under huge pressure and Google may have to act real fast to come with an acceptable solution that prevents future copyright violation lawsuits.

Online Shopping with Google Checkout: How it works ? Screenshots & Video Tour

The search giant today launched a new payment service called Google Checkout that's nearly a clone of Paypal Express Checkout service. Anyone with a credit card can register for this Google Checkout.

When you do a product search on Google, some of the sponsored links on the results page will have a tiny shopping cart icon which mean that the advertiser supports payment via Google Checkout.



Alternatively, you can visit the merchant's website directly, do the shopping and choose Google checkout button at the time of making the payment. Google will handle the transaction and you won't have to you provide your credit card details to the merchant.

Other two main advantages of using Google Checkout are:

» You won't need separate accounts on multiple online stores - you single Google Account login will work on any only store that supports Google checkout.

» You will be able to track all your purchase histories in one place at Google Accounts console.

Normally customers are not comfortable sharing their credit card details with small merchants but when they realize that the payment gateway is controlled by Google, I am sure nobody will give a second thought. Also, Google won't share your full credit card number with sellers.

Google Checkout service is free for consumers while Google will charge a commission from merchants. This is a screenshot of Google Checkout Button on the Buy.com website.

If any item of the vendor website is not eligible for Google checkout payment, the icon will be greyed out as you see in the screenshot below:

However, it is not so easy to sell goods using Google Checkout. Thought there's no monthly or setup fee for merchants, there are some very strict requirements before you decide to incorporate Google checkout in your online store.

You'll need the following basic things before apply to Google for becoming a Google Checkout affilliate.

* The federal tax ID number (or a credit card and an authorized Social Security number) for your business.
* A text-only version of your return, cancellation, and shipping policies.
* A shopping cart on your business website to accept online orders (unless you're integrating via Buy Now buttons).

Google's commission is around 2.0% plus $.20 per transaction. For Adwords users, they can process up $10 of sales via Google Checkout for every $1 spend on advertising on Google Network.

As a Fed Tax ID or an SSN is mandatory for using Google Checkout to sell goods, this service is virtually ruled out for merchants located outside the US like in India.



Download Video Tour of Google Checkout

Stores that accept Google Checkout | Help on Google Checkout

How to Clean an Optical Mouse

Optical Mice and Laser Mice are quickly replacing the traditional Mechanical Ball mouse because they are more sensitive, mouse pointer works on uneven surfaces without the mouse pad and there's no internal cleaning required since there are no rollers or rotating wheels.

The only issue associated with LED based Optical Mice is that they tend to get sticky over time because surface dust collects on the soft pads located near the light emitter. This can result in erratic cursor movement like it suddenly jumps to a different location on the computer screen or move very slowly or even worse, the mouse may not work at all.

I know it can get very frustrating when the mouse movement is not smooth but there's nothing to worry about. If you notice any of the above symptoms, all you need to do is clean the bottom of the mouse without opening the mouse body.



The easiest way to remove dust sticking on the mouse soft pads is by using your finger nail. Invert the mouse and gently rub your finger nail on each of the soft pad. This is not a very hygienic approach but definitely the fastest way to get going. Never use a sharp instrument like Shaving Blade, Knife or a Toothpick to clean the mouse as that may do a permanent damage to the soft pads.

Alternatively, if you want to keep your hands clean, get a soft cloth dipped in water and gently rub it over the soft pads. Once the pads become slightly wet (not soaked), pick a clean white sheet of paper and run the mouse over it. The paper will absorb any of the remaining dust or stickly grease.

There are chances that some grease is also sticking to your mouse pad. Apply some mild-soap water to the surface and wipe it with the cloth.

Related: How to Clean your Laptop Screen

EUDI: Extract Tabular Data From Any File

PDF format is a de facto standard for exchanging documents or archiving information since PDF files are non editable and the document layout is preserved.

For this reason, most of statistical data like corporate annual reports, stock performance, sale figures, etc are available only in the form of PDF files.

But a common problem associated with PDF is that it becomes very difficult to extract data from them. Though there are some workarounds and tools to extract text out of PDF files, they fail to preserve the original document layout.

Say, the account department sends you the annual salary sheet in PDF which you want to export to Excel and do some analysis. Or the sales people send their weekly sales report in a plain text email that you like to represent as charts in Excel or even Microsoft Word.

Cogniview, an Israel based company, have released EUDI 1.0, a data extraction software that works with PDF or with any Windows Application that has the Print feature.

Like Acrobat, EUDI [End User Data Integrator] installs as a printer on your machine. When you want to extract data from PDF, Windows CHM Help files, Notepad files or even Web-based Email, just print the file or browser window using the EUDI printer.

The document then opens inside EUDI PDF to Excel conversion software where you visually mark the area using mouse that you want to extract. EUDI is smart enough to recognize the table layout and formatting and will automatically split the selected area into rows and columns.

It draws a marquee around the detected rows and columns. If there's a mistake in automatic detection, you can change manually like you do with Cell Selections in Microsoft Excel - Merge Cells, Split Rows/Columns or even Delete them.

The extracted text results are shown in real time in the bottom pane. Once you are satisfied with the adjusted layout, you can either export it to Microsoft Word, Excel or just copy to the clipboard. The file can also be saved in EUDI specific format for editing and exporting later.



EUDI's user interface is very intuitive and you can immediately get started without even reading the help manual. There's also a nice video screencast on their website if you like to see the software in action.

Download EUDI - This Windows-only software supports Office 97, 2000, XP and 2003. Product Activation is mandatory for using the software. It can be done online or via Fax/E-mail.

Don't confuse EUDI with an OCR software like OmniPage or Abby FineReader. EUDI will extract only the data that was embedded as text, it won't interpret a graphic image like a text logo.

Macromedia Flash Player 9 leaves Adobe Building

Adobe has released the final version of Flash Player 9. [Download Link]. A beta version has been available on Adobe Labs for some time.

The new features of Flash Player 9 include support for AS3, a new ActionScript Virtual Machine, security and performance enhancements.

Flash Player 9 is a 1.5 MB download. The auto-update notifications will be on by default to let users know if a new upgrade is available. More details about Flash player 9 are available on Adobe Website.

Blogger Templates: 4.5 Million Blogspot Users are Lazy

Millions of Bloggers on Blogspot.com are either too lazy or don't understand the basic HTML tags.

When you create a new blog on Blogger.com, Google provides a default blogspot template that has three links in the side bar - one link points to Google News while the other two links (Edit-Me) are just placeholders for the blogger to insert his own hyperlinks (see screenshot)

But bloggers are too busy creating content and don't bother changing these "under construction" areas. There are 4.5 million pages hosted on blogspot.com that still have the Google News and Edit Me links [site:blogspot.com "Google News" "Edit-Me"]

<h2 class="sidebar-title">Links</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://news.google.com/">Google News</a></li>
<li><a href="http://EDITME">Edit-Me</a></li>
<li><a href="http://EDITME">Edit-Me</a></li>
</ul>

If your blog also falls in this category, my suggestion would be that you first read the W3 Schools tutorial on HTML and CSS. Once you have a certain comfort level with your blogger template code, throw the default blogspot template in the recycle bin and switch to a more professional design.

Fortunately, there are lot of good folks who have developed some beautiful blogger templates and they are providing them for free. Just download the blogspot template, paste it over your default blogger template and click the republish button. [more details]

Here are some links and resource for free Blogspot Template Designs:

» Free Blogspot Templates - Isnaini, an Indonesia based blogger template designer, has a good collection of 3 column template designs.

» Blogger Templates by Aman - A Singapore based student has some creative blogspot template designs based on popular themese like Desperate Housewives, Tour De France, Harry Potter and Yoga.

» Blogger Templates - Excellent collection of two column blogspot templates. Recommended.

» Blogspot Templates - Contains both text only and graphical version of Blog templates. There are also instructions on how to use Blogger templates.

» Blogger Templates @ Gecko & Fly This site has collected popular blogspot template designs from other designers and put them in one central location.

» Blog Skins - A huge repository of user contributed template designs and blog skins for blogger, Movable Type, Xanga and Wordpress Blogs. Users can rate and comment on template designs.

Want to design your own blogspot template ? Jennifer Apple has some tips on creating your own blog template from scratch using Photoshop.

Related: Guide to Remove the Blogger Navbar

Google Adsense Mixes Images With Text Ads, CTR Will Increase

There is some good news for webmasters using Adsense to monetize their websites. Google is experimenting a new style of Adsense units - they are blending images inside text ads (see screenshot below)

Images near Google Ad units are an effective way to increase the click through rate without violating any of the Adsense policies.

What's so appealing about this new style is that the image is an ad itself. So publishers get best of both the world's without doing any labor.

About the screenshot: This is 120x600 Adsense Format with Image Ads turned On. The image file dimensions are 90px x 110px with a size of 2.34 kb. The file is hosted on the Google Ads Server - googlesyndication.com

Blogultery: Adultery in the Blogosphere

Wikipedia defines Adultery as consensual sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than his or her lawful spouse.

Now Neha Viswanathan has coined another interesting term - Blogultery

She defines Blogultery as when someone stops reading one blog for another, and tell the author of the first one that you still read the blog. You sometimes even comment, and leave a smiley, hoping it is enough for the author.

Meanwhile, on the sly you read another blog. Despite yourself you begin to leave comments. You leave them under an anonymous name, hoping that the other blogger doesn’t find out.

The Most Honest Search Engine

I know that our website has roughly 2000 webpages. But search engines seem to narrate a different story.

MSN search engine says 1200 webpages while Yahoo says 1900 webpages [very close]. On the other hand, Google claims to index 17000 webpages of this site. Where did Google find those extra 15000 pages which I know for sure that they do not exist on this site.

I think Yahoo is the most honest of the lot. It's also the best search engine for finding fresh content. But when it comes to sending traffic, Google rules.

How can I shut-down Google Desktop Search

Question: How can I sensibly shut-down Google Desktop Search so I can allow an upgrade installation of Zone Alarm free firewall to proceed ? [sent by Bill Parry]

Bill, there are two ways to stop the Google Desktop Search engine on your computer.

Approach 1 [Official] Right Click the Google Desktop Icon on your system tray and choose Exit item in the menu. Google Desktop will show a confirmation message asking if you like to run it the next time you start your computer. Say Yes.

Approach 2 [Hack] If for some unknown reason the GDS icon is missing in your tray bar, open the Windows Task Manager by right clicking on the task bar or pressing Alt+Ctrl+Del.

You will see three process running GoogleDesktop.exe, GoogleDesktopSetup.exe, GoogleDesktopIndex.exe, and GoogleDesktopCrawl.exe - right click on each of these process and choose the "End Process" menu.

Google Desktop can be restarted from the Windows Start menu. Read some more Google Desktop Tips.

Important Note: Google Desktop Search is essentially a local web server running on port 4664. When you install and run Zone Alarm [or another Firewall], it will throw a warning saying a process called GoogleDesktop.exe is trying to act as a server or trying to connect to the internet.

Just click Yes with the "Don't ask again" option since GDS runs inside a web browser. Or Open ZoneAlarm, and go to the "Program Control" tab. Tick on Allow network and internet access for Google Desktop and save your settings.

If you don't see the Google Desktop link on Google Web Search page or if Google Desktop results aren't included with your Google Web Search results, it may be because another program on your computer conflicts with Google Desktop.

Start command prompt and move to GDS installation directory by typing the following command:

cd \Program Files\Google\Google Desktop

Now type GoogleDesktopSetup.exe /lspinstall

If Google Desktop is using 100% of CPU, just uninstall Google Desktop, restart your computer, and then reinstalling the latest version of Google Desktop from http://desktop.google.com.

Scoble is no more a Microsoft Geek Blogger

Ever since his decision become public, Scoble virtually stopped covering Microsoft in his blog and focuses more on podcasting and video blogging.

And today, FeedDemon popped up a message saying that a Feed has been modified. No suprise, it was Scoble who renamed his blog feed title from "Microsoft Geek Blogger" to "Tech Geek Blogger"

Scoble, how about calling yourself PodTech Geek Blogger ? Tech Geek is like saying the same thing twice - A geek is a person who is fascinated, perhaps obsessively, by technology and imagination.

Looks like Scoble's last day at Microsoft campus is very near. His house is on sale already.

SlashDot Founder, Microsoft CEO, Linux Creator: What Do They Have In Common ?

Steve Ballmer runs the world's largest software company, Linus Torvalds heads the world's largest open source project Linux while Rob Malda runs the largest geek website. But wait, there's one more common thing.

All the three personalites have joined the ranks of 10 People Who Don't Matter - a list of people released by Business 2.0 magazine that you can safely snub at conferences.

Linus Torvalds [Creator, Linux] - While Torvalds still oversees any changes made to the innermost core of Linux, most of the innovation is now done by others, and commercial businesses like Red Hat and Novell increasingly steer its future.

Steve Ballmer [CEO, Microsoft] - The head of the world's biggest software company is a lame duck. It will be increasingly tempting for Ballmer to follow Bill's lead, and make boosting the shares someone else's problem.

Rob Malda [Founder, Slashdot.org] - Slashdot's editor-driven story selection model is being supplanted by user-generated systems such as Digg. Malda knows his subject, and he's a good editor, but in the end, he's just no match for the power of the multitudes.

Other influential people in the list includes inventor of DVD as well as top executives from Sony, Vonage, Vodafone and Netflix.

10 people who don't matter | Photo Gallery

This School Iteself Requires Internet Education

A North Carolina school webpage containing names, social security numbers and test scores of 619 students were available using Google Search for few days before they were removed by Google.

site:www.catawba.k12.nc.us filetype:xls
site:www.catawba.k12.nc.us filetype:doc
site:www.catawba.k12.nc.us filetype:pdf
site:www.catawba.k12.nc.us SSN

Obviously, parents are a worried lot and Catawba County Schools are blaming Google for trespassing their servers and indexing "password-protected" confidential data. Google however denies the charge - "If there is a password, we cannot access or cache the site"

The school has filed a lawsuit against Google but the chief technology officer of the school has issued a statement that clearly puts the ball in Google's court.

One of the students on the list had a presence on the Web. In Google’s effort to get information on her, one of its spiders latched onto her name in this document. We were not aware that password-protected sites are set up like that.

This is a shame for the school's IT Department that a CTO is saying "we were not aware" - I think he should be fired and the school should hire some more competent staff that understand how to secure a database.

How to protect Google or Yahoo from Indexing my webpages ?

Either add a meta robots noindex, nofollow tag to webpages that you do no want to be indexed by search engines. Or If they don't want any webpage to be available in the public domain, change the robots.txt. [More here]

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /

Google Seattle Engineering Center: A Silent Rising Star

Did you know that Google has an R&D Office in Seattle that's just a 10 minute drive from Microsoft Headquarters.

Google rarely talks about this Seattle Engineering Office located in Microsoft's backyard but most of the products shown by Larry Page at the CES 2006 had their start here.

It's a breeding ground for new ideas as at least six products were created here, including Google Talk, Google Maps, Google Video, Google Sitemaps, Google Pack and Google Gadgets.

To pamper the talented staff, this Office too has a massage room, Ikea furniture in bright primary colors, soft beanbag chairs and a cafeteria serving gourmet organic fare.

There are wine-and-cheese receptions every Friday afternoon with Larry Page and Sergey Brin on videoconference.

Infact, Findory chief thinks this move is intended to steal top talent from the Redmond giant.

Source: Big Google ideas generated here

Indian Silicon Valley is Cheapest City in the World

Moscow and Seoul are the world's most expensive cities while Tokyo, which ranked first in the past two years, has dropped to third place.

Tokyo has lost its title of the world most expensive city because of currency fluctuations between the Japanese Yen and the US dollar.

According to Mercer Consulting, the cost of living in a particular city was derived on the basis of cost of a two-bedroom unfurnished apartment, a cup of coffee served, a fast food meal and an international paper.

The cheapest cities in the world are Zimbabwe's Harare, Pakistan's Karachi and India's Bangalore. New York remains the most expensive city in North America while London beats other European cities.

The survey, conducted by New York-based Mercer in March, measures the costs of more than 200 items in 144 cities. Companies and governments use the information to gauge the purchasing power of employees transferred abroad.

Related: Cities with Good Manners

Caught in the Net: Merrill Lynch reads Employee Email

It's a known fact that most employers read staff email and Merrill Lynch is no exception.

Today the investment banker fired thirteen employees based in Dublin, Ireland for sending porn through emails. The sacked workers included both men and women.

A further 10 staff members were given written warnings for similar, but less serious, inappropriate use of e-mail.

Quick Tip: Is someone reading your email ? This guide mentions two simple techniques to determine if you are being watched by your employer or colleague ?

Using iPod as a Voice Recorder or Video Camcorder

Apple iPod has no voice recording or video capturing features but there are some excellent iPod accessories that can convert your player-only iPod into a complete audio-video recording studio. We look at the more popular iPod Audio Recorder and DV Recorder attachments here:

Griffin iTalk [Voice Recorder for iPod] - iTalk converts your regulary play/pause buttons on the iPod into voice recording buttongs. First, connect your iTalk to the top of your iPod and its recording functions will automatically appear on the screen.

Your iPod will automatically switch to Voice Memo mode,ready to record. Press the Play button on the iPod to begin recording. The iTalk's red LED will light up to indicate it's recording and a 'Recording' prompt will pulse on the screen of the iPod.

iPod iTalk Voice recorder comes with an in-built microphone but you can also attach an external mic or headphone mic with a 1/8" audio jack. iTalk can play back audio recordings through its integrated speaker. The recorded sessions are saved in WAV format. [download iTalk manual]

XtremeMac MicroMemo [Digital Audio Recorder for iPod] - This latest iPod recording device has a detachable, omnidirectional microphone and a built-in speaker for instant playback without headphones. When attached to the iPod, MicroMemo activates the iPod's menus and displays recording time on-screen.

MicroMemo attaches to the iPod via the Dock connector and records 16-bit audio in high-or low-quality formats. The microphone is detachable from its 3.5 mm port, which can toggle between microphone or line-in settings for use with stereo microphones or other audio devices.

Catapult captures video content from DV Camcorders or HD Video camera and stores them directly in the iPod's hard drive or any other USB Drive.

Think of Catapult as a device that converts your MiniDV or DVD Camcorder into a Hard Disk Video camera like the JVC Everio. You capture video footage with the regular camcorder but store it directly on the hard drive and not on the tape.

Catapult supports remote trigger recording and time lapse features to record frames of video at specific intervals. It works with DV and HDV format cameras that include a FireWire connection, such as those from Sony, Canon, JVC, and Panasonic.

iSee 360i video recorder - Unlike the iPod with video, which simply plays video content, the iSee 360i also allows users to record content from TV, VCR, TiVO or any other analog video source like the Hi8 format Sony Handycam. The iPod slides into place inside the back of the iSee video device. Now connect the iSee device to the video source and record. It records in MPEG-1, 2, 4, AVI, Windows Media or QuickTime.

Connect iPod to your TV - enjoy the iPod music, pictures and video clips in the living room with your entire family

Quick Tip: iPod mini firmware does not support voice recorder.

Warren Buffet Gives Away Wealth to Bill Gates Foundation

The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced. - Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie saw giving to charity as most constructive when done directly by the person who accumulated the money.

Warren Edward Buffett, the second richest man in the world, has committed to give away 85% of his $44 billion fortune, most of which would be going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffet will also join the board of Gates Foundation.

The longer answer is that over the years I had gotten to know Bill and Melinda Gates well, spent a lot of time with them having fun and, way beyond that, had grown to admire what they were doing with their foundation. I've seen them give presentations about its programs, and I'm always amazed at the enthusiasm and passion and energy they're pouring into their work. They've gone at it, you might say, with both head and heart.

This makes it the single largest monetary donation in history. Bill Gates recently announced plans to retire from Microsoft in 2008 to focus his attention on philanthropy.

This news was indeed stunning. Buffett, 75, has for decades said his wealth would go to philanthropy but has just as steadily indicated the handoff would be made at his death. Now he was revising the timetable.

Average CEO Salary = Average Worker Salary * 262

The annual salary and compensation of an average worker in America is roughly the same that the average large-company CEO made in one day.

The average CEO of a company with at least $1 billion in annual revenue made $10,982,000, or 262 times what the average worker made.

On the other hand, Chief Executives from Google, Yahoo and Apple received a token salary of $1 last year though there were stock options and cash bonuses.

Read more about Executive Compensation.

Thanks Internet: People Have Fewer Close Friends

New technology links people over greater distances, but cuts into face-to-face meeting time.

The number of people who say they have no one to talk to about important matters has more than doubled, according to a new study by sociologists at Duke University and the University of Arizona.

Increased use of the Internet, along with the number of hours people are spending at work, are factors contributing to a drastic decline in the number of close friends that Americans have.

The findings are published in the June 2006 issue of the journal American Sociological Review.

Network World | Slashdot.org | Live Science

The 1000 Word Homepage Experiment

Inspired by Alex Tew's Milliondollar Homepage experiment, two students in London have launched a one page website that contains exactly 1000 English words. Here you buy individual words instead of pixels.

The price varies from EUR 100 to EUR 1000 depending upon the font size you choose. At the time of writing, 11 words were sold on the The 1000 Word Page.

While the idea is nice and may become popular, there are three possible issues that can push advertisers behind:

» The price of individual words is just two high for a website that's so new.

» The words are not linking directly to the advertiser's website but to an intermediate page which does a meta redirect to the actual site. Therefore, it will not really help in improving the search engine ranking of the advertiser's website.

» All the words carry the same price tag. I thought words that are below the main fold should have a much lower value. Update: The location of the words will be random.

Face the Computer all day ? Take enough breaks, Move Around

Don't ignore any pain if you are spending most of your day infront of the computer screen. Else, it may be possible that you would lose the ability to tell hot from cold, find yourself dropping things or develop a syndrome known as "foot drop," in which pressure on the sciatic nerve can cause a foot to drag while you walk.

If you have had aching any place - lower back, upper back, between the shoulder blades, wrists or hands - for three days, you need to have it looked at.

ExtremeTech story - The Perils of PC Posture - has some good suggestions for "computer workers" to save themselves from a lifetime of aching backs and sore necks - "Get your butt out of the chair as much as possible. You can talk on phone while standing; you can stand to read a document."

"If you do shoulder rolls or simple stretches every 20-30 minutes and walk around for five minutes every hour, you keep your perspective fresh and your mind active. In the end, you'll be more productive."

Health Advice by Doctor Google | Health problems of Geeks

The 1 Second Film: Biggest Shortest Film ever made

The 1 Second Film is a 70mm animated film that's just a second long. Nirvan Mullick is directing this world's shortest movie but anyone can become a producer of the film. Infact, some prominent Hollywood celebrites have already turned up the support the film.

You read it correct, the actual film is only 1 second long - the rest 90 minutes will show the making of this documentary and scrolling credits at the end of the movie.

Technically, there are 24 frames in one-second of film. In this 1-second film, there will be 12 giant paintings created by hundreds of people. Each painting was then filmed twice (on 70mm) to create the 24 frames in one second of film.

The film is already listed in the IMDb Website. If you join as a producer by contributing as low as $1 via Paypal, your name and site link will be added to the IMDb movie database as a producer of this film.

After the film's premiere, the 12 giant frames will be on exhibit and auctioned off to raise money for the Global Fund for Women. The director hopes to raise a Million dollars for the project. The movie will also be released on DVDs.

Adobe Deal Hints at Google's Long-Term Strategy

Bill Gates started Microsoft with a dream of placing a personal computer in every home, and on every desk. But Larry and Sergey have even more ambitious dreams - they want Google software installed on every computer that's running Microsoft Windows.

First, Google agreed to pay Dell a billion dollars who in return will install Google software on all new machines that leave the Dell Building. Now Google has signed a similar multi year agreement with Adobe to distribute Google Toolbar with Macromedia Shockwave player and other Adobe product installations in the future.

What's In The Fine Print? Windows Vista, which is nearing launch, has MSN set as the default web search engine. Google realizes the emerging Vista threat and therefore is willing to pay billions of dollars to Dell and Adobe to distributes it's web search software in the form of Toolbar.

Google win is a huge setback for Yahoo - Adobe is not likely to continue software-distribution relationships with two rivals at the same time. Adobe has replaced Yahoo Toolbar with Google Toolbar in their Macromedia Shockwave Player and we could expect the same treatment very soon in Adobe Reader where Yahoo software is distributed by default.

While Macromedia Shockwave is installed on just 55% of the computers, Macromedia Flash player and Acrobat Reader are installed on almost every PC. So once Adobe starts to bundle Google Toolbar with these ubiquitous software, Larry/Sergey's dream will be very very close to reality. It's also possible that Google Toolbar will be bundled with Adobe Apollo, a Flash like runtime coming next year.

Do you want fries with that ? Long term, we can expect to Google to create more alliances with other software and hardware vendors. Google already distributes software from Symantec, Adobe and Real in Google Pack. We may see a situation soon when every software vendor (in return of Google Dollars) begin to push customers to download and install the Google Toolbar just like McDonalds promotes French Fries with all ther products.

Quick Note: Difference between Shockwave and Macromedia Flash
The Shockwave file format is .DCR, and it is created by Macromedia Director while the Flash file format is .SWF, and is created by Macromedia Flash. Use Flash for interfaces to sites, for quick impact. Use Shockwave for more complex multimedia work, or for web applications that are beyond the browsers' abilities.

Newsgator releases RSS Plugin for Yahoo Messenger 8.0

Newsgator, developers of FeedDemon and Newsgator Inbox, have launched a free RSS plug-in for Yahoo Messenger 8.0. When you click on a link, a little window slides open to show you the content [Download plugin]

In addition to text feeds, Newsgator plug-in also supports feed with enclosures so you can listen to audio podcasts or video podcast directly from the Yahoo IM client. For instance, you can subscribe to any YouTube video feed and play the videos directly inside the Yahoo interface without having to open the YouTube website.

While a Newsgator Online account is not essential for using this plugin, it helps to have one when you want to read only feeds that you have previously subscribed to. Each feed item can be sent as an instant message to your Yahoo contact via IM or email.

Taking laptop on airplane ? Also Carry a Fire Extinguisher

Earlier this month, an Apple iBook caught fire when it was left over a room carpet for some time. Today, a Dell Laptop suddenly exploded into flames at a conference in Japan.

Inquirer has posted pictures of the burning Dell Laptop. Notice the waiter trying to bring down the Laptop Fire with the water serving jug.

Imagine the scenario had the the laptop been on his lap.

Bill Gates admits watching pirated movies on Youtube

Microsoft supremo and the World's Richest Man, Bill Gates, has no plans to create a YouTube clone due to issues associated with copyright violations but he himself watches pirated video clips of movies hosted on YouTube.

In an interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher of Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates admitted to watching pirated movies on the Internet. Here are some excerpts from the interview posted on AOL News:

MR. MOSSBERG: Talk about YouTube. What do you think about that? Why aren't you doing something like that?

MR. GATES: If we did YouTube, we'd be in a lot of trouble. First of all, people would say, "How do you make money?" Second, they'd say, what about all that copyright violation taking place up there. It's a neat site. I saw a bunch of old Harlem Globetrotters movies up there the other night, it's great.

MS. SWISHER: You watch physics lectures and Harlem Globetrotters?

MR. GATES: This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places.

MS. SWISHER: But those were stolen, correct?

MR. GATES: Stolen's a strong word. It's copyrighted content that the owner wasn't paid for. So yes.

This Bill Gates' quote deserves a mention on the Microsoft Software Piracy website.

New Yorkers most courteous, Asians are rudest

Reader's Digest conducted a good manners survey in 35 cities across the globe.

Their "undercover" reporters walked into buildings to see if the people in front of them would hold the door open; bought small items in stores and recorded whether the salespeople said "thank you"; and dropped a folder full of papers in busy locations to see if anyone would help pick them up.

Residents of New York, Zurich and Toronto were found to be the most courteous while Mumbai finished last. I guess they missed Delhi in the survey which probably has more rude people than any other city in the world. Also, eight cities out of the bottom nine are in Asia.

New Yorkers, particularly in the Manhattan area have dramatically modified their habits since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, turning them into extremely polite and good mannered.

Digg.com for Power Users: 10 Interesting Digg Features

Digg.com, a hugely popular tech-news website, allows readers to submit content and decide what's interesting enough to be promoted to the main pages.

But Digg also offers lot of interesting features than just the front page stories. So here we walk you through some of our favorite features of Digg.com that you may not be using:

1) Digg Spy - Think of it as a real time version of Google Zeitgeist. It shows a live preview of activities by Digg members like who is writing comments or promoting a story or marking a story as spam. The digg spy for all stories can be too much to handle so you choose to spy just on front page stories. DiggAll provides a static view of recent submissions.



2) Digg for URL Citations This is just like Technorati Cosmos. Using Digg Citations search, Bloggers can do some ego surfing and discover which of their blogs posts have made to Digg.com. This feature is also useful when you like know the who broke the story on digg. Just type in the full URL in the search box. A small issue is that digg search treats digg.com and www.digg.com as separate URL. So you may want to repeat your URL search with and without the www part.



3) Add Digg to your Blog Digg provides a simple javascript to embed Digg stories on your blog or website. You can use this feature to display only those Digg stories that are either submitted by you or dugg by you or stories on which you have commented. It's a nice alternative to Del.icio.us links. The script generates HTML code with CSS [class="rss-item"] so you can modify the look n' feel of the embedded links.



4) Track any subject on Digg using RSS If you are know RSS, you can consume the entire Digg-o-sphere without ever visiting the digg website. All popular digg categories provide RSS feeds. In addition to existing feeds, you can perform a keyword or URL based search and Digg will also generate an RSS feed for you. Make sure that you limit your search to only the top stories otherwise your web feed will be flooded with spam digg submissions.

5) Bookmark a custom Digg page Say you just interested in digg stories related to Yahoo but hate visiting the search page and typing Yahoo every time. The easy way is to search for Yahoo on Digg.com and press Ctrl+D to bookmark the page. So the next time you want to read Yahoo related stories on Digg.com, just open the bookmarked page in the browser. You can also add multiple search keyword but Digg doesn't support boolean search operators yet.



6) Top Stories on Digg for this month/week/year While the Digg.com homepage features the current top stories, you can also view top stories from the entire week, last month, current month or even the whole year.



7) Let other Digg users discover new websites for you Digg allows users to add friends and you can exploit this feature to find new amazing content on Digg without doing anything. The trick is to find an active member of Digg community that has similar interests.

For instance, I know that if there is any interesting content about Google on Digg.com, Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped will digg it. So I added him and other favorites like Kevin Rose and Amber MacArthur to my friends list on Digg. Digg provides a dashboard of what your friends are doing there - where are they posting comments, what stories are they digging or submitting. This feature is also accessible from your profile page.

8) Digg Cloud View When someone submits a story on digg, it's added to the Digg All page. If the story receives more that 40 diggs, it's promoted to the digg front page. So the digg all page is a wonderful resource for finding content that's fresh but not popular enough yet. Digg All also provides a Cloud View which is similar to the del.icio.us tag clouds - the more diggs a story get, the larger the font of the story title.

9) Submit stories on Digg bypassing Step 1 Submitting a new story on Digg is a three step process. You submit a URL, Digg checks if any duplicate URL or content already exists and once you pass that, you have to reconfirm that you want to submit the story on Digg. While the last two steps are mandatory, you can bypass the first step when your are sure of the link that you are planning to submit. Just drag this bookmarklet. More on Bookmarklets here



10) Use Digg as a Blog Editor If you enjoy reading a story on Digg, you can automatically post it on your blog without leaving digg.

The title of the story on Digg becomes the title of your post while the short description becomes the body of your blog post. There will also be links to the actual story and it's location on digg. Just set your blog preferences on the digg account page. Digg support Blogger, MT, TypePad, LiveJournal and Wordpress Blogs.

Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed sharing it. If you have any Digg tips, let me know.

Web-design guru prefers email newsletters over RSS

"It's really dangerous to design for a technical elite. We have to design for a broad majority of users."

Wall Street Journal carries an interview with Jakob Nielsen where he explains his love for traditional newsletters over blog rss feeds.

Q. You say you like traditional newsletters emailed to customers instead of news feeds.

A. The best ones don't. With the best ones, it's like a service you are waiting for and expecting.

But they have to be very good, very targeted to a specific user's actual needs. And it's got to be very timely as well. For example, one newsletter is called 'Your Baby This Week,' and is targeted at new parents and, in particular, new mothers. It talks on a weekly basis of what you can expect for your new baby. That is something that is extremely relevant, so people really look forward to getting that particular newsletter. Unless a newsletter is very good, people will just say, 'Oh no, more information.'

Q. Can't blogs do the same thing?

A. Certainly you can have blogs that function as newsletters, updated on a regular basis. But they don't tend to do that. They don't tend to have that same sort of publishing discipline: having a publication schedule and surveying this week's or this day's events. They could, of course, but they don't tend to.

X1 Desktop Search is now free [as in Free Software]

X1 Technologies created a new buzz in the desktop search space today by releasing their enterprise version of X1 Desktop Search for free. The product was earlier priced at $75.



I have played around with almost every desktop search software available in the market and X1 has always been a favorite. Their file preview engine can render almost any file including Visio, Illustrator and AutoCAD documents. Also, no other desktop search program comes close to X1 when in comes to supporting various file formats and email clients.

How will X1 make money now ?
Just like Firefox makes money by giving their product for free. X1 Desktop Search client has a Yahoo search button so when someone searches the web from X1, Yahoo will share the advertising revenue with X1. In addition to new search users, Yahoo also gets to enter the corporate desktop via X1 since existing users are likely to upgrade their installations.

Should paid users of X1 upgrade to the free version ?
While X1 5.5.3 introduces some new features and fixes old bugs, it comes integrated with Yahoo Toolbar and Yahoo Web Search. If you are Google or MSN fan, you may continue with the previous release of X1.

What about Yahoo Desktop Search users ?
YDS is essentially a stripped down version of X1 with a Yahoo wrapper. Therefore, I would suggest that Yahoo desktop search users switch to X1 since it's more advanced and feature rich that YDS.

Which desktop search program should I choose ?
If you enjoy more working with a standalone program than inside a web browser, nothing beats X1. Google Desktop is more suitable if you are looking for a program that can index your web browser history.

It will be also be interesting to see the impact on desktop search software when Vista is released in the market.

Update: Joe Longtin who is Product Marketing Manager at X1 Technologies explains the difference between Yahoo Desktop Search and X1 Enterprise Client:

Yahoo! Desktop Search includes support for the Yahoo! Address book and their instant messenger. It’s excellent for personal use on one’s desktop and it will continue to appeal to the consumer of Yahoo! Services, at home or at work.

X1 Enterprise Client is intended for intensive business use in a dynamic environment, therefore it's highly configurable, extensible and - as one component of the X1 Enterprise Platform - scalable.

* Real-time indexing. Changes to files and deleted files are updated in the index automatically.

* Support for Outlook Calendar and Task items. Users can search against virtually anything in Outlook.

* Range searching means users just have to know a specific date/numeric range, not an exact date.

* Drag and drop search results into emails or onto your desktop.

* Support for Lotus Notes 7.0.

* The X1 Enterprise Client federates search results from both the desktop and the X1 Enterprise Server.

* Unicode support. Search multiple languages.

* Ability to search network folders and enterprise content repositories. Using the free Enterprise Deployment Kit, IT administrators retain central control and can "switch on" end user access to network locations. X1 maps to Windows ACLs.

* Group Policy support.

The Enterprise Client really appeals to IT professionals who are under pressure to make their "customers" more productive without compromising information security.

Download X1 Desktop Search | Download X1 Enterprise Kit - Good resource for IT Managers evaluation desktop search for their organization.