Technorati Searchlet not working

There seems to an issue with Technorati searchlet today. Even if you limit your search to one particular domain, it fetches results from the entire web.

I did a Technorati: Search for India related posts in my blog got some arbid results:

150,094 posts from http://labnol.blogspot.com matching India sorted by most recent. Query took 0.6670 seconds

Updated (March 2, 2005) - The technorati searchlet bug is fixed and the search works perfect as before. Thanks Edgardo and Dave for providing such a quick fix - According to Dave, founder and CEO of Technorati - It is a known regression bug, we’re working on a fix as we speak.

Google Calendar is GCalendar.com calendar.google.com

Google Calendar (GCAL) - GCalendar.com calendar.google.com

Google Calendar (GCalendar) is coming tomorrow. The calendar google subdomain is live now though it shows the main Google search page for the moment. I noticed this while seeing one of my website referral.

Even before the launch of Google Talk and Google Base, their subdomains went live few days before the actual launch. The same can be anticipated with GCalendar since the Google calendar subdomain is now live.

Now that GMail AntiVirus Scanner is already available, we can expect GMail to move quickly out of the beta once the GCal (Google Calendar) application is available.

The GCalendar.com domain is registered by Data Docket Inc on April 2, 2004. Data Docket Inc. are already affiliated with Google. Before Google Earth was officially released, the domain name was registered to Data Docket. On May 31st, the domain was transferred to Google Inc. (and Google domain servers) just a few weeks before Google Earth launched.

Google is contemplating the release of web-based calendar, which would perform much like a personal date book or organizer. The source for these rumors seems to be increased Googlebot activity to a site featuring a web calendar.

Jeremy adds that there’s been a lot of speculation about Google Calendar recently.

The wishlist for the coming Google calendar includes integration with email clients, search capabilities, invites, and other scheduling aids, syncs with hand-held devices and mobile phones, does resource scheduling, sends reminders and alerts, provides web feeds, supports vCal and uses Ajax or the modern, slick DHTML.

There’s been so little innovation in the world of on-line calendars these last few years. Perhaps Google getting into the act would finally change that.

Related Tags: Google, GDesktop, GMail, GCalendar

Copernic upgrades its free Desktop Search Tool

Copernic, the leader in desktop search tool companies, today announced version 1.5 of it’s Free Copernic Desktop Search. Much has changed in the desktop search market since Copernic released version 1.1 last year. Microsoft, Google, AOL, Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, X1, Blinkx - all entered the lucrative market with great products. Mamma, another search engine company, also made an entry by buying Copernic.

Copernic 1.5 now fully supports Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora emails, indexing of network drives, filmstrip viewing of images, an embedded audio/video player, and the ability to search JPEG picture comments, iTunes songs by artist and album, and metadata indexing of QuickTime movies and OGG audio files. There is support for developers too - third-party developers now have a well-documented COM API that allows them to write CDS plug-ins for indexing additional file types. This reminds me of the iFilter in MSN Desktop Search. They claim to have made number of user interface tweaks as well. For full list of features planned in 1.5, click here.

I continue to miss support for .chm / .hlp files in Copernic but yes, the new improved version is still free and my favorite among all Desktop Search programs.

PCMag rates CDS 4 out of 5. X1 is the only one to provide support for Lotus Notes but $75 for just one additional feature ? Is it enough for someone to buy X1 when so may free desktop search programs are available.

Ebay selling Agarwal people (an Indian Community)

This is one of the most weird thing I ever saw on the Internet. An online auction site in UK - eBay.co.uk is offering “Agarwal for Sale” and one can choose from a big selection of “Agarwal”. I am sure it would upset millions of Agarwal worldwide to see that “Agarwal” is for sale on eBay ? Agarwals are descendents of Vaish King Maharaja Agarsen and the Agarwal Community has a very prominent place in all the communities in India at present.

While searching for Agarwal on Google.co.uk, I saw this weird ad in the Google Adbox (though the ad says ebay.co.uk, it links to some advertising site qksrv.net)


Looks like eBay has little control on what it’s affiliates can sell on the internet. Take a look at some of these previous eBay ads.

1. A woman rents her cleavage on Ebay to advertise their logo, web site or slogan. Says Angel in her eBay listing for ample 42GG breasts: “No longer restricted to USA based advertising, you can now rent my CLEAVAGE for a period of 15 days, during which I will display your company logo, slogan or web-site address in the form of a temporary tattoo you will supply to me”.

2. A pregnant woman sells ad space on belly. See her picture here. The Golden Palace Casino won the auction. But the woman was later sued after refusing to sell to the highest bidder SunPoker.com.

3. African Slaves available on eBay. See the ad selling slaves here. This outrage was discovered by a Google Group member who typed “African Slave” into Google, and was shocked to find this offer. Robert Gale says that Whilst Google has fixed the African Slaves eBay ad, there are still some weird eBay ads to be found, including great deals farts and victims.

4. Homeless People. A big selection is available and it’s low priced. See this screenshot at Robert’s site.

While these are ads of affiliates (see the aff!) and not available directly on eBay, still eBay must ensure that nothing so outrageous happens. Ebay has presence in India though Baazee.com which was also in the news for selling porn material on their website Baazee.com. Not sure, who’s next to sue ebay.co.uk ?

MSN Search Engine's own Zeitgeist

Watch out what people are searching at MSN, the top 200 searches at MSN updated weekly and don’t miss the action of MSN Search Duels.

The results are presented in a timeline, the interface is impressive and done entirely in Flash.

Start playing now with MSN Search Insider.

Google has a similar page here. They just added India in their country list. Tsunami tops the Popular Queries of January 2005 in India.

You can try GoogleFight - Enter two keywords and Googlefight will tell you who is the winner based on the number of results retrieved from Google.

Google is giving a 403 Forbidden error

I entered a URL in the Google search and got 403 Forbidden


Google


We’re sorry…


… but we can’t process your request right now. A computer virus or spyware application is sending us automated requests, and it appears that your computer or network has been infected.

We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your computer is free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we’ll see you again on Google.


Any clues why I am getting this error ? Is my PC infected ?

Microsoft offers guide to computer slang for Parents

In an effort to help protect children online and guide parents in how to protect them, Microsoft recently threw up a A parent’s primer to computer slang

The entertaining guide goes through the different phrases commonly referred to as leetspeek, or leet for short. Microsoft lays down some key points for getting to grips with leetspeek - The new language of the 21st century.

Some of the more entertaining phrases can be found defined, below:

”pwn”: A typo-deliberate version of own, a slang term that means to dominate. This could also be spelled “0//n3d” or “pwn3d,” among other variations. Online video game bullies or “griefers” often use this term.

”n00b,” “noob,” “newbie,” or “newb”: Combinations synonymous with new user. Some leetspeekers view “n00b” as an insult and “newbie” as an affectionate term for new users.

”ph”: often replaces “f,” as in “phear” for “fear” (as in “ph34r my l33t skillz”) and vice versa, such as spelling “phonetic” as “f0||371(.”

There is also a Netiquette 101 for new netizens which offers Guidelines for good netiquette, Learning online acronyms and using emoticons :-)Happy or joking, ;-) Winking

Web Hosting in India - Rediff and Indiatimes join

Following the success of Rediffmail PRO service, Rediff.com is now offering complete web hosting solutions both on Windows and Linux Platforms. They also offer domain transfers if you are registered with another service provider.

Rediff.com promises a 99.9% server uptime. See this FAQ for details. They are silent on bandwidth limit. Rediff’s email support is slow to respond and not very useful. Rediff.com charges are like: Domain Name Registration: Rs 495.00 per year, Email with 1 GB space and POP3 access: Rs 1,695.00 per year, Web Hosting with FTP access: Rs 2,400.00 per year.

Indiatimes, a popular Indian portal, also joined the web hosting arena built on Microsoft technology. Their introductory package, FTP 250, is available for Rs 2,500.00 with 5 GB of Data transfer, 50 Email Accounts, support for database and lot of other features. Indiatimes offers support over phone (040-55845555 M-F) and email.

Indiatimes offers MeraDomain for Domain registration, Merasite for Website hosting, WeBuild for Web design n’ development and Meramail for email.

Rediff has not specified the data transfer limit for web hosting and their is no simple one-click way for existing Rediffmail PRO customers to get web hosting. Indiatimes has a simple Add to Cart feature to subscribe to web hosting. Indiatimes has a 250 MB server space limit while Rediff’s offer says “Unlimited Web Space”

Comparing the Rediff and Indiatimes packages, Indiatimes offers more services at lower costs. Since both the players are new in the arena, it is difficult to judge them on basis of server uptime, customer support or weblog statistics. Indiatimes and Rediff are definitely the most popular portal in India. Given their popularity, it is not diffult to say that they would soon become the leading web hosting players in India especially when their is no big company yet which offers Web hosting solutions.

Meanwhile, Yahoo is in talks to acquire a minority stake in Indiatimes. Indiatimes may benifit from this deal as Yahoo! already has several solutions for small and medium business. Senior Yahoo executives are in India this week to review the company’s domestic operations but declined to comment on a potential investment in Indiatimes.

According to Alexa.com, a website that ranks websites based on the number of site clicks, the top two local portals in India are Rediff.com, ranked 139, and Indiatimes at 316 in a league of 500 most visited sites. Both lag behind Yahoo India.

Bill Gates speaks on competition from Firefox

Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates sat down with Peter Jennings to discuss the future of the technology industry. Gates talked at length about Microsoft’s effort to upgrade security in the computer industry, his foundation’s charitable work, and his goals for the company.

This interview follows Bill Gates announcement that Microsoft will be releasing their newest version of Internet Explorer this summer. The new version, called IE 7, will add new levels of security to Windows XP SP2 while maintaining the level of extensibility and compatibility customers have come to expect from IE.

JENNINGS: I read an article coming up here on Firefox (Web browser) and its perceived ability to do this better than you. Is that fair?
GATES: Well, there’s competition in every place that we’re in. The browser space that we are in we have about 90 percent. Sure Firefox has come along and the press love the idea of that. Our commitment is to keep our browser that competes with Firefox to be the best browser best in security, best in features. In fact, we just announced that we’ll have a new version of the browser so we’re innovating very rapidly there and its our commitment to have the best.

JENNINGS: Are you going to have to push your browser faster because of competition?
GATES: Well, competition is always a fantastic thing, and the computer industry?

JENNINGS: I knew you were going to say that (laughs).
GATES: (smiles) … is intensely competitive. Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.

Websites for Women

My wife, Garima, just wanted to share some of here favourites sites about Women.

About.com offers a comphrensive guide for Women’s Health Issues. You can sign up for their free women’s health newletter or subscribe to RSS XML feeds.

4woman.gov is a great resource from the US Health Department. It also has a Health Newsletter, FAQs about Women’s Health, Non English readers can also benefit as the entire site is available in different languages. You can call their toll-free number 1800 - 994 - WOMAN. (9662) for free women’s health information. The special section on Pregnancy is a wonderful resource for expecting mothers.

iVillage is the probably the best resource for women on the net. It is organized in the form similar to Yahoo! directory. iVillage is more like an online community to find and share advice, information and support on subjects such as parenting, careers, computers, diet, fitness, food, relationships, politics and working from home. Their newletters and message boards are extremely popular. To know more about iVillage, click here. Try the Baby Name Finder or take the Personality test.

Reliance announces new plan for R Connect

Reliance just released another plan for RConnect called “Freedom Plus” which allows 1.5 GB for monthly data transfer for Rs 900 per month. This scheme is available only to post-paid subscriber. R-Connect is a Reliance service to provide Internet connectivity, supporting high-speed data transfer.

Reliance has released a new Time based Plan (for RIM/FWP/R Connect cards). The new R Connect Data Plans are Freedom@Night and Swift series.

The Peak (6.00 a.m to 10.00 p.m) charges are Re 0.5/ min while the Off Peak (10.00 p.m to 6.00 a.m) rates are Unlimited or hourly based.

Earlier, Reliance announced new plans for RConnect - With a monthly charge of Rs. 650, the new ‘Freedom Plan’ offer the subscribers an unlimited Internet surfing option with maximum data downloads of up to 1GB. Per month. For unlimited data downloads the subscriber can opt for the ‘latinum Plan’at a monthly rental of Rs. 1500. As part of the default plan subscribers can access the net at Rs. 0.50/min between 6.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. and Rs. 0.25/min between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

For Reliance, 1 GB is equivalent to 1000 MB and not 1024 MB as per standards.
See RConnect Tariff Plans in detail here. You may refer to this comparison chart for Broadband Tariffs comparison of all ISP providers.

Reliance wireless products can be used as wireless modems to connect to the Internet from personal computers, laptops or hand-held devices. At a maximum possible download speed of 144 kbps, Reliance Wireless products offer higher access speeds than any other personal Internet connectivity device, whether mobile phones or dial-up connections using fixed lines phones.

For User name and password, please use your phone number with STD but without the zero attached. (eg: if your phone number is 0223xxxyyyy your user name and password is 2233xxxyyyy).

Run the dialer software to connect to the Internet. To disconnect, terminate the session.

Check out some great services from Reliance Infocom, the telecom wing of Reliance (Reliance Infocomm) - Reliance India Call, Reliance Phone Card (Phone Cards with Cheap Rates and Prices), Reliance Calling Card, Reliance india phone card, Reliance Call india.com and Reliance Ringtone through Reliance Info com

Platinum Plan Withdrawn?
Copyright Infringement Letter Received from reliance
Tweaking R-connect How to get the blazing speed
Reliance Showing Wrong Usage!
Unable To Install R Connect (usb Cable Xp Sp2) cannot select com3 when installing modem
Effective Rconnect Speeds
5130 And Rconnect Laptop Issue
R-connect And Winxp 64-bit Edition
R-connect In Lan r-connect sharing
Very Strange R Connect Problem In Fwp Can’t Upload or Download.
Problem With R Connect Software On My Laptop problem with LSP-340E phone
Lg Rd2130 Rconnect While Charging LG 2130 has same port for charing & net
Rconnect Hangs In Winxp But Works Fine For Win98se

WGA = Windows Genuine Advantage

Microsoft will make the verification mandatory in all countries for both add-on features to Windows as well as for all OS updates, including security patches. Microsoft will continue to allow all people to get Windows updates by turning on the Automatic Update feature within Windows. By doing so, Microsoft hopes it has struck a balance between promoting security and ensuring that people buy genuine versions of Windows.

The company’s new authentication system - Windows Genuine Advantage requires users to prove they have an authentic copy before they can obtain updates. Pirated copies will still be able to download security fixes, but only if the systems are set to do so automatically.

Microsoft has advised consumers to take a copy of the CD that contains genuine software from retailers. It has advised consumers to check whether the authentication key slip is stuck to the PCs as the window genuine advantage validation tool will require the Original Windows XP CD Key.

Some Comments from the blogosphere on WGA checks.

How do I uninstall the Windows Validation Assistant component from my computer?

Open the C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files folder. On a Windows Server 2003 machine, right click on ProductIDGatherer.WindowsGatherer and select Remove. On a Windows XP machine, right click on Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool and select Remove. Please note: The path for the Downloaded Program Files folder could be different depending on your Windows installation folder.

Written by Anonymous at 5/5/06 2:52 AM
Removing this is easy. Too easy infact. Click on the start menu and select run and type this:
%windir%\system32\wgatray.exe /u
Click on the start menu again and select run and type: regedit
Navigate to the following key and delete the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\WgaLogon
Reboot and enjoy

Written by Anonymous at 5/5/06 3:08 AM
You may then safely delete the following files
Just click on the start menu and select run and type the following

cmd /c “del %windir%\system32\wgatray.exe”
then this one
cmd /c “del %windir%\system32\WGAlogon.dll”
and finally this one
cmd /c “rmdir /s /q %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Download\6c4788c9549d437e76e1773a7639582a”


I basically deleted Wgatray.exe in the system32 folder and deleted the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinlogonNotify.

Written by Zavior at 17/9/06 2:19 PM
Hmmm… I have Zone Alarm on my system (Freeware Version) and I know I have downloaded the WGA on my system but all the files that you guys are talking about I can’t find. Fortunately I did a little bit of homework and founded that you can disable that setting in IE under add-ons. I’m thinking I disabled it too fast for the webpage or whatever to install the files fully. I’m missing most of the DLL files that are listed and there is only a small trace of WGA being on my system. Unfortunately I cannot download updates. I have been reading the post on what all has been going on with this software that microsoft uses to infect it’s own OS. Kind of funny actually. I think i’ll bookmark this site and check in every once in a while.

Written by Raulvibes at 20/1/07 1:07 AM
Hello guys! i’m from South-Asia and was happily playing with my computers for years… but these days i’m fed up with so called “Genuine Windows”.. i cannot install any new softwares from microsoft b’coz my windows is not genuine… As in my country we get.. a computer for US$150 whereas the genuine Win Xp or validate product key is US$149. THis is bullshit for us who are living in third world countries…. we cant enjoy computer technology b’coz we r poor!!!!! and i’v also tried hundreds methods to solve this problem but the links are either broken or website is dangerous… even now PC-cillin 2007 wants me to update windows for proper scanning.. i dunt know wat will my computer will be without such software… so„ guys plz help to get rid of this headache as soon as poosible… other wise i ‘ll get chinese TV card and make my computer television….

A Flash based RSS aggregator

Try Newsmonkey - a Flash based RSS aggregator.


It’s a cool RSS Viewer from Nuwance.

Remove hidden information from MS Office documents

When it comes to Microsoft Office documents, there is often a lot more in them than meets the eye. Most people don’t realize that when two or more people collaborate on a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document, hidden information—such as deleted text, names of authors, and revision marks—are sometimes unintentionally left in final drafts.

A company called Workshare Technology now offers a free safety net from the potential embarrassment of a public display of these hidden and forgotten comments and changes. The company’s Trace application sends out an alert if hidden information, also known as metadata, is embedded in a Microsoft Office file. When hidden data is identified, a dialogue box pops up from your system tray alerting you. Clicking on the alert message generates a report of all the hidden data inside the file. Workshare Trace, announced early this month, is available for download now.

Microsoft offers its own Office plug-in called Remove Hidden Data to accomplish this. It works with most Office applications.

The free Workshare Trace isn’t unique in what it does. However, Trace’s clean interface and easy-to-understand risk reports make it a great option for identifying hidden data.

Via Yahoo! News - Free Tool Identifies Hidden Data in Microsoft Office Docs

Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Validation - Get your legal copy of Windows XP

Windows Genuine Advantage (wga) Workaround tool for bypassing XP key validation in IE and Firefox recently released on the internet.

If you are running a pirated version of Windows XP, you will not be able to download updates / security patches from Microsoft website. Aiming to crack down on counterfeit software, Microsoft plans later this year to require customers to verify that their copy of Windows is genuine before downloading security patches and other add-ons to the operating system.

Customers who visit the Windows Update site will be asked to prove that their copies of Windows are legitimate by allowing Microsoft’s system to automatically run a check, or by providing a product identification number. Users who have lost that number will be asked three basic questions, and if they are deemed to be acting in good faith they will be given a free replacement key.

By the middle of this year, Microsoft will make the verification mandatory in all countries for both add-on features to Windows as well as for all OS updates, including security patches. Microsoft will continue to allow all people to get Windows updates by turning on the Automatic Update feature within Windows. By doing so, Microsoft hopes it has struck a balance between promoting security and ensuring that people buy genuine versions of Windows.

The microsoft window genuine advantage validation effort is just part of Microsoft’s threefold program, which focuses on educating users, engineering products in ways that minimize piracy, and enforcement through the legal system.

The company’s new authentication system - Windows Genuine Advantage requires users to prove they have an authentic copy before they can obtain updates. Pirated copies will still be able to download security fixes, but only if the systems are set to do so automatically.

Microsoft has advised consumers to take a copy of the CD that contains genuine software from retailers. It has advised consumers to check whether the authentication key slip is stuck to the PCs as the window genuine advantage validation tool will require the Original Windows XP CD Key.

There are already workarounds to pass windows validation using a javascript wga patch on trixie.

Update: Microsoft has updated the Windows Genuine Validation tool to circumvent the hack exposed last week that allowed the system to be bypassed with a snippet of JavaScript code. The Validation is now a two-step process that first generates a code and then has you copy and paste that code to complete the process.

Technosexuality - What's that ?

Wordspy definition of technosexual (tek.noh.SEK.shoo.ul) n. A male with a strong aesthetic sense and a love of technology.

—technosexuality n.


How is it different from geek? Look again at that “strong aesthetic sense”. Real geeks never care what their technology looks like; it’s almost a badge of honour to have an ugly box running some elegant code. What fascinated me more than the term itself was the linguistic process of transmission.


Earlier this year, people who spend less money on mousse and more on mouse pads decided that if the style-savvy guys could get their hands on a marketable brand name, then the uber-geeks could certainly come up with something better than nerd: Thus, the term “technosexual” was born.


For years, technological experts have been called many derogatory names, including geek, nerd, dweeb, technophile, gadgeteer, techie or Mr Computer Guy.


"With metrosexuality, it’s about style, fashion, culture, and grooming for the straight male. A metrosexual man may be seen at an NBA game one night and an art gallery opening the next," says Ricky Montalvo, the man who wants to take technosexuals mainstream. "We take it one step further by adding technology. A technosexual man may not need to go to the NBA game because he can get highlights and scores via SMS or by browsing the web on his PDA while at the art gallery."


Via Guardian Unlimited


See related word: metrosexual, pomosexual, retrosexual

Google Holiday Logos - Doodle Secrets

Attractive Google logos commemorating holidays and events. Watch this Flash movie on Google Timeline featuring interesting Google logos Or Scott Adams logos.

There’s a thing about the special Google logos - There’s no set list of events to illustrate, and users never know when one is going to pop up. Google logo designers set up meetings quarterly to map out a calendar, discuss which countries would be offended if they left out their biggest holiday, throw out suggestions for people and events worth commemorating and make sure there were not becoming predictable.

Dennis Hwang is the brain behind these creative logos. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company’s founders, had been experimenting with revisions to the Google logo for special events (in 1999, the first time they tried it, they added a “burning man” to the logo to let pals know they’d be at the Burning Man festival in Nevada for a few days). But Page and Brin were unhappy with the quality of the drawings they were getting from a freelancer. On one occasion, they asked Hwang, knowing that he was an art major, to redraw one of the submissions. He did it and it was exactly what they were looking for.

At 26, Dennis Hwang is already in his fifth year at Google Inc. As an international webmaster, he spends most of his time programming and managing site content. But Hwang has another, more creative role.

He’s the artist behind the illustrated Google logos that seem to pop up magically on holidays and important anniversaries. If you’re a regular user of the popular Internet search engine, you’ve probably seen Hwang’s beautifully rendered designs, including one for the Chinese New Year last Wednesday. By incorporating images into the letters that make up Google’s corporate logo, he has celebrated everything from Earth Day to the 100th anniversary of flight.


For an archive of logos, visit http://www.google.ca/intl/en/holidaylogos.html.
For official logos, visit http://www.google.com/stickers.html.

View Google logos created in previous years: 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999.

Be sure to read the Google Permission’s page before using any of the Google stickers. Please don’t use them elsewhere as each has a special history at Google and we’d like them to enjoy their well-deserved retirement.

Updated: Rolling Tank have their own set of Google Logos and a new logo is displayed each time you reload the page. You can see their entire archive of Google Logos here.

Google Logo Creations, Google Logo Art by Google and Third Parties. Google logo collection, fake and original Google logos - logoogle.com/

Fark’s page - Photoshop a Google logo for a ficticious holiday.

51Windows has a complete collection of Google Logs with the date when the Google log was published.

Google maintains an archive of all Google Holiday Logos. I particularly like the logos for 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Then, there are logos created by Google Fans

Learn how Google holiday logos are created

Benefits of using Google Search Technology

Your search covers more than 8 billion URLs. - Google’s index, comprised of more than 8 billion URLs, is the first of its kind and represents the most comprehensive collection of the most useful web pages on the Internet. While index size alone is not the key determinant of quality results, it has an obvious effect on the likelihood of a relevant result being returned.


You see what you’re getting before you click. - Instead of web page summaries that never change, Google shows an excerpt (or “snippet”) of the text that matches your query — with your search terms in boldface — right in the search results. This sneak preview gives you a good idea if a page is going to be relevant before you visit it.


There’s an online tool to check your Google PageRank. The PageRank is indicated by a horizontal gauge; moving your mouse over that gauge will reveal the specific value of your PageRank.


You can get it, even when it’s gone. - As Google crawls the web, it takes a snapshot of each page and analyzes it to determine the page’s relevance. You can access these cached pages if the original page is temporarily unavailable due to Internet congestion or server problems. Though the information on cached pages is frequently not the most recent version of a site, it usually contains useful information. Plus, your search terms will be highlighted in color on the cached page, making it easy to find the section of the page relevant to your query.


See complete list of benifits here.

New features added to Blogger Comment Pages

Blogger has totally revamped the “Post a Comment” page. It allows you to login and publish at the same page without requiring you to login and then enter the comments page.

On the right hand side of the page is the space for you to enter your comment. Beneath that are the identity options. (Some of these may not be available, depending on the blog’s settings.)

The options are these:
* Blogger username: Your display name will appear, along with a link to your profile and your photo (if you have one).
* Other: You can enter your name and a link to your website, without having to have a Blogger account.
* Anonymous: No identifying information is displayed. The comment is credited to “Anonymous” without a link.

I would now have to change my custom changes that I made to the comments section of my blogger template.

The owner of a blog also has the option to have comments open in popup windows. In this case, all the primary features will still be present, just arranged a little differently:

This article only covers Blogger’s commenting system. Some Blogger users have installed third-party comment systems (e.g. Haloscan, Enetation, etc.) which will work differently. Developers may find the Comment Tags interesting.

Please see this article for an overview of the features you’ll see when leaving comments on a blog. I still miss the commenting features as available in MovableType and Trackback.

GWiki or GoWiki or GHost- Google hosting for Wiki

Google has offered to assist online encyclopedia Wikipedia, by providing some much needed storage and hosting services to the giant non-profit site. Although terms of the upcoming arrangement have yet to be finalized, Wikimedia commented that any deal will still see Wikipedia remaining ad-free; meaning that the arrangement will not impose Google “AdSense” technology on the popular site. An administrator for the Wikipedia project spoke briefly about the pending agreement:

"Google has at least tentatively agreed to give us access to a certain number of dual Xeon servers at one or more of their data centers and with unlimited bandwidth. I’ve been told that there are no strings attached, meaning they don’t expect us to do anything for then, such as having Google Ads. In short, this is wonderful news… In addition to taking a lot of work, there is barely ever enough money to run what will shortly become one of the top 100 websites on the internet, and the only thing limiting Wikipedia’s growth is hardware."

One would think that we will see a closer relationship develop between Google Search and the access of Wikipedia entries. Recently Microsoft finalized its new and improved MSN Search tool, allowing direct access to its Encarta encyclopedia. Another major search engine, Yahoo, offers visitors directed access to the Columbia Encyclopedia. Details of the final arrangement, including changes to either site, should be made available sometime in March.

See an interesting discussion on GWiki here - The simple solution is to require that google make the entire archive available to anyone for a nominal fee (covering their costs and overhead) for as long as Google uses the encyclopedia. If google agrees then their motives are most definitely altruistic. If not, they are almost certainly looking to co-opt the wikipedia archive and interface into google (similar to what they have done with usenet news, being the sole owner of a historical record).

Via Neowin | Wikimedia

See related stories from Google News…

Googlepedia: The End is Near PC Magazine

There is a debate within the online community regarding the fate of the amazing Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that has grown into one of the largest free …

Google may host encyclopedia project ZDNet UK

Wiki Media Foundation, the group behind the Wikipedia online encyclopedia project, said Friday that search giant Google has volunteered to host some of its …

Google may host encyclopedia project color=#6f6f6f>ZDNet.com.au, Australia

Wikipedia.org could soon be hosted on Google’s servers, as the search giant looks for ways of supporting the Wikimedia Foundation. …

Everyone’s a reporter or editor on Wikinews Marin Independent-Journal, CA

By Aaron Weiss, New York Times. You might, in the course of reading this article, spot a factual error that made it to press. A certain …

Frame-Grab Tutorial for Television

When you analyze a novel or poem, you need to quote words from the original to support your argument. When analyzing television, it’s equally useful to be able to “quote” images—as you can see in the pages of Television.


The convergence of computers, television, and the cinema in the 1990s has changed. Moreover, teachers, scholars, and students are not limiting themselves to still image captures. With relatively modest computer resources, anyone can capture sample clips to use for analysis and illustration


Television: Frame-Grab Tutorial encapsulates the process of preparing images/clips for Television and provides step-by-step instruction on how to grab still and motion images from video.

Blinkx users - You may be at risk

There is a critical bug in Blinkx that may actually delete files on your computer.

PCMag warns that Blinkx 2.0 Beta Users Must Upgrade - This is applicable to any Blinkx 2.0 release before version 2.0.10.

Specific versions of the blinkx implicit search engine have a dangerous flaw in the Smart Folders feature. Blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake confirms the flaw in version 2.0.8; we at PC Magazine Labs have tracked it in version 2.0.7 as well. Current blinkx users should see an update reminder when launching the program, and the blinkx.com web site includes a warning as well. The flaw did not seem to manifest in versions before 2.0.7, but we still recommend that anyone running a beta version earlier than 2.0.10 upgrade immediately.

The problem does not occur on all systems, which made it difficult to track. On an affected system, files can be deleted unexpectedly and permanently under specific circumstances. Blinkx’s Smart Folders feature automatically fills a folder with shortcuts to local files and web-based information that matches a particular query. A set of Smart Folders action is added to the right-click menu for such a folder. Selecting Clear from this menu deletes all the shortcuts – on an affected system it deletes some or all of the corresponding local files as well. Again, upgrading to the latest version of the beta will fix this bug.

Blinxk website reports that a significant bug reported. When using an old version Blinkx 2.0 (2.0.8), an issue has been identified when using the Clear command in Smart Folders which contain local content. All users of Blinkx version 2.0.8 are ADVISED TO UPGRADE to a later version, click here for details.

Download the latest release of Blinkx here.

What exactly are Microsoft's plans for Linux on Windows?

A Linux developer — he prefers to remain anonymous — has told NewsForge he was recently contacted by Microsoft and invited to a job interview. He accepted, and during the interview he asked the obvious question: Why was Microsoft interested in hiring someone with strong Linux skills? The reply was that Microsoft is working on an emulator that will allow Windows users to run Unix.


Considering that Microsoft already has an emulator that will do just that, it’s not crystal clear exactly what the monopoly has in mind for Linux on its desktop and/or server products. Microsoft purchased its Virtual PC product from Connectix early last year.


Why is Microsoft interviewing Linux developers? Are they needed to work on the Virtual PC product, or on Longhorn? I called Microsoft public relations — actually, it was Waggoner Edstrom’s Rapid Response Team, which handles MS public relations — and put the developer’s question to them.


The first response I received said “After speaking with my colleagues, I can confirm that Microsoft has no plans to port to Linux at this time.” Since that was an answer to a question I hadn’t asked, I asked again. The second response was unequivocal: “Unfortunately, we do not have further comment on your question.”


Read full story here - NewsForge | What exactly are Microsoft’s plans for Linux on Windows?

An easy ping bookmark for Bloggers

Ping-o-Matic is a free online ping service. See my previous post to know more about pinging. Just enter your blog details here, tick the services you would like to ping and click the Submit Pings button. Through this simple interface you just pinged (or told these services that you have updated your blog) Weblogs.com, Blo.gs, Technorati, Feed Burner, Syndic8, NewsGator, Feedster, My Yahoo!, PubSub.com, Blogdigger, BlogRolling, BlogStreet, Moreover, Audio.Weblogs, RubHub, A2B GeoLocation and BlogShares.

It is so easy but what if you have to do this everyday. It is so boring to enter the same details again and again, ticking all the relevant boxes and press the submit button. So I created a simple bookmark which I click once or twice in a day depending on my frequency of posting.

If you are a blog author, you can also use this approach, just modify the URL below and add it to your favourites. Happy Pinging !

http://pingomatic.com/ping/?title=The+Indian+Blogger&blogurl=http%3A%2F%2Flabnol.blogspot.com&chk_a2b=on&chk_au..

The text in blue is generally the title of your blog - Replace the spaces with a + (plus) symbol.
The text in red is your blog URL. It should point to your blog and not to the XML file.

Looks like Ping-o-matic also has a similar stuff - their ping results page says - Hey! Bookmark this page and come back to it later to automatically re-ping - but it doesn’t work for me. I get the error “Invalid URI given.”

To read more about pinging, click here.

Online Source Code beautifier for PHP, Java, C , C++, Perl, JavaScript, CSS

PrettyPrinter.de is a source code beautifier (source code formatter), similiar to indent.


You can use it to beautify your PHP, Java, C , C++, Perl, JavaScript, CSS code. (Please make a backup before you replace your code!)


The author of this code formatting tool, J. Meise, has another online utility for comparing files here. This tool highlights the differences between two versions of a file.

Google Maps - Great service but only for US residents

Getting from point A to point B just got a lot easier. Google Maps shows you where you want to go — and tells you what you’ll find when you get there. Google Maps is an online service that allows users in the U.S. to find location information, navigate through maps, and get directions quickly and easily.

Type in a starting and a destination address - Google Maps plots the route for you, displaying it visually on the map itself, together with step-by-step directions for getting there (or back from there).

You also have the option to type search terms into a single search box under the Maps tab to get local search results and driving directions.

If you are looking at an area on the map and want to locate a business, say a pizza place, in that area - just enter “pizza” in the search box and we will search around the center of the map - you don’t need to enter a location.

According to Infoworld, Google Maps is a web of linked XML documents. You can append “output=xml” to any Google Maps URL and receive raw XML.

Let the world know that you just posted on your blog

Wayne, author of Blog Business World, has some simple but very useful advice for bloggers - When you update your blog, don’t forget to ping it!

He explains the complex world of Pinging in very easy terms. Pinging is one of those many wonderful internet words. It refers to letting the various blog aggregators know that you have updated. Pinging merely means letting everyone know you’ve added new content to your blog.

For example, the blog news site Technorati keeps track of blog entries as news sources. The site also measures the number of inbound and outbound links from each blog. To stay up to date with the changes, Technorati relies on regular pinging. Another site that depends on reporting blog updates is Daypop. Along with news items from conventional sites, Daypop depends on bloggers reporting their updates.

Where do you ping your blog?

Many blog hosts (but not all) offer automatic pinging as a feature of their service. If it’s not provided as part of the package, however, you’ll have to report your updates manually. One site that accepts manual blog pings is Weblogs.com. Simply enter your blog’s title and URL into the spaces provided. The site will remember your information for your return visits. Bookmark the site, and return every time you add a new entry to your blog.

Another pinging site is Blo.gs. Simply add in your site’s name, URL, and RSS feed if you have one, and press ping. As an added feature, Blo.gs lets you add some prewritten code to your site, to ping it automatically, if you choose. For an all inclusive pinging site, go to the newly revamped Ping-O-matic. Along with pinging to Blo.gs and Weblogs.com, the Ping-O-matic automatically pings Technorati, and a number of others. To use the Ping-O-matic, simply fill in the blanks with your blog’s title and URL, click on the sites you want to ping, and there you are. One stop pinging!

Wayne uses the Ping-O-matic, service on a daily basis, to ping all of his blogs. Pinging your blog, every time you update, is the way to do it!

A 75 year old blogger

Partha Krishnaswamy, a 75 year old, maintains his own blog - earlydays.



Partha is from Metro DC, United States. You can see his complete profile here.

Why Yahoo Desktop Search is superior To Google or MSN

Rich Ord explains why Yahoo’s Desktop Search seems to be much further advanced than Google and MSN’s desktop search.


X1 is the brainchild of entrepreneur Bill Gross, who conceived and developed a similar product, called Lotus Magellan in 1989. Bill Gross is the founder of Idealab, a company that incubates Internet startups such as X1. Idealab founded Overture, which of course was acquired by Yahoo in 2003.


Yahoo is now a “strategic partner" with X1. I think we can safely assume that Yahoo is using X1 technology

as the basis for its free desktop search application. This is different than Google and MSN, which primarily used technology developed by their in-house programmers.


# Speed. YDS is really fast.


# Instant Feedback. YDS provides incremental search, much like you find in Firefox. As you type each character of your search, the results are updated instantly. Not only does this mean less typing, but you’ll catch spelling mistakes a lot faster too.


# Comprehensiveness. YDS indexes a lot of file types. Over 200.


# Built in Preview: YDS renders a preview view for most of the 200+ file types and enables you to page through the preview, so you don’t need to launch the full-blown application just to see if you’ve found the right document. You can page through a PowerPoint, Word or PDF doc, examine individual cells in Excel, or even play an mp3 file—right there in YDS.


# Actions. If you right click on a result, YDS provides a context-specific menu that allows you to do things with the email or document: reply, forward, print, open, etc.


# Cost. YDS is free.

Desktop Search Software

Yahoo! Directory has a complete list of all desktop search programs available today to find documents, email, photos, music, and other files on the PC. Only Filehand was missing in the list.

• Ask Jeeves Desktop Search - program that allows users to search for files and emails on their computer.


• blinkx - offers downloadable software that automatically links information from files on your hard disk, and can suggest content from news sites, the Internet, video, and blogs.


• Copernic Desktop Search - allows users to search their hard drive for files, email, music, or pictures.


• dtSearch - searches text across a desktop, network, Internet, or intranet site.


• Enfish - developers of Onespace, a personal desktop portal that integrates personalized information such as email, documents, and other local files with relevant information from the Internet.


• Filehand Search - allows you to search files and Microsoft Outlook items. The results contain a clickable link to your document, an estimate of the relevance of the found document to your search terms, and an extract of the the document.


• Google Desktop Search - allows users to search email, files, their web history, and chats.


• HotBot Desktop - offering a browser toolbar that blocks pop-up windows, searches the web and your local PC, offers RSS news feeds, and more.


• ISYS Search Software - developers of a program that searches everything from PCs and networks to web sites and intranets.


• Lookout - plug-in that provides the ability to quickly search for email in Microsoft Outlook.


• MSN Toolbar Suite Beta - includes a desktop search function to find files, photos, and music on the user’s computer. From Microsoft.


• X1 - searches files and email by specific key words. For Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and Netscape Mail. Supports network drives indexing. Has an active support forum.


• Yahoo! Desktop Search - includes a preview feature, ability to sort and refine results, and allows for control of the indexing process.

Even though Desktop Search is so much in the limelight, dmoz.org still doesn’t have a “Desktop Search” category.

Indian teen kidnaps self to buy Nokia mobile

The Register wrote:


A 15-year-old from Lucknow, India, who faked his own kidnapping because he wanted cash to buy a mobile phone is safely under lock and key after police traced his menacing calls home using Caller ID.


The unnamed criminal mastermind reportedly wanted a Nokia mobe costing 30,000 rupees (roughly £370). Presumably, his dad was unwilling to cough up the required amount, because on 31 January the lad left home as usual for school but later failed to return. Shortly afterwards, he made his first demand via phone using the time-honoured “hanky over the mouthpiece” ruse. He later admitted: “I would place a handkerchief over the phone set to talk to my father. He was too naive to suspect anything.”


The ne’er-do-well demanded 500,000 rupees (£6,100) for his own safe return, warning that failure to comply would result in death and disposal of the non-existent kidnapee’s body on a railway line. His relatives, however, went straight to the police, who began to suspect that the boy himself was behind the outrage. Accordingly, they placed Caller ID on his parents’ line. Sure enough, after three days, the proto John Dillinger made his final demand from a public phone in Kanpur and the net quickly closed.


He later lamented while in custody: “My friends in school have the latest motorcycles and mobiles. Even the girls flashed mobiles. I used to feel so embarrassed going on my cycle to school. In fact, earlier I had even stolen money from my house and given the same on interest to other boys, but that was not enough to buy that latest mobile.”

Get Gmail accounts without an invite

Isnoop.net’s Gmail invite spooler is back in the news. It offers a place for Gmail invites and those who want them to come together with minimal effort and fuss.


People with available invites send them to the spooler’s address (gmail@isnoop.net), and it automatically adds them to an available pool. People who need addresses can then get invites from this pool, as necessary. At the time of writing, they had 47,600 invites available to share and they had distributed 220,491 invites since this page went up on Sep 13, 2004.


The gmailomatic has over one-half dozen different checks in place to ensure that no person can acquire more than their fair share of invites. Instead, invites disappear very quickly because there are more than 1 million hits per day on this single page. The demand for invites is very high and the number of people frequenting the page to get invites is quite enough to ensure that available ones are snapped up very quickly.


See Gmail invite spooler stats here.


Get your own free GMail account here.

Email spam is evil [Even deleting spam is not free]

You will be shocked to know that American businesses spend more than $22bn a year to delete spam.

The National Technology Readiness Survey produced by Rockbridge Associates worked out this figure by adding up the number of people who receive spam, multiplying that figure by the number of spam emails they receive and calculating the average time spent deleting them.

Since the average number of spams is about 18.5 a day, it takes 2.5 minutes of your life to delete them. If you multiply this by the average cost of an employee and divide by your shoe size you get the figure of $22bn.

According to Associated Press, 14 per cent of spam recipients actually read messages to see what they say, and four per cent of the recipients have bought something advertised through spam within the past year.

Interestingly enough, this figure must be about the same figure for the cost of allowing your employees to go to the toilet. It would be double that if they took a newspaper. With billions wasted like this, it is a wonder anyone in America makes any money at all.

Just on a different note, I subscribe to tons of RSS feeds and this leads to lot of duplicate content. Deleting these items also costs time which inturn translates to money.

Via [ Inquirer | Yahoo! ]

Using an Illegal Pirated Software will erase all your data

Aunty Spam’s Net Patrol reports of a company which warns - Use an Illegal Copy of This and it Erases All of Your Data


The next time you are tempted to borrow someone’s copy of their favourite software, take note: software developers, sick of having their software pirated, are starting to boobytrap it.


That’s right. In an interesting twist, it is being reported that Anton Tomov, author of, among other things, Pocket Mechanic for the Windows Mobile platform, has rigged the latest update to Windows Pocket Mechanic to wipe the entire device on which it resides if upon execution it detects that the version is not legally registered (“Yawn..good morning…am I legal? Great Beard of Zeus! No! I’m not legally registered…delete delete delete!!”)

Mozilla Firefox 2.0 plans for the future

Lead engineer for the project Ben Goodger noted that the new roadmap for Firefox 2 will include an alpha release developer preview in March and a beta release preview in April.


Firefox 1.1 is scheduled for a June 2005 release. It originally had been slated for March, but Goodger said that more time was needed for testing, according to news reports.


No specific details have been given about what Firefox 2 might include. But Goodger posits that some likely goals include improvements to bookmarks, accessibility compliance, and improvements to the extensions system, toolbar and software-update functionalities.


Since his first posting on the delays, Goodger felt the need to point out that the slippage in the release dates was not because he had started work at Google. He said it was simply because he needed to ensure the 1.1 release is of identical quality and scope as the 1.0 release.


Mozilla Firefox 2.0 Roadmap

Student Installs Keylogger On Teachers PC To Steal Tests

Yahoo is reporting that a high school student is facing criminal charges for allegedly hooking a device up to a teacher’s computer to steal test information to sell to other students.


…the 16-year-old boy hooked up a keystroke decoder to a teacher’s computer and downloaded exams in November.


"Sometime in mid-December, we got a tip that this student was selling test exams that had apparently come from a teacher’s computer, so that’s when the investigation began," said Mary Ann Simpson, with the Fort Bend School District.


The student confessed when he was confronted, officials said.


Via A Welsh View