Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Writer, part of the Windows Live pack is a Blog writer.

Well of course you can use the one provided on your blog site. Then whats the advantage of using this one.

Numero Uno…. Have you ever been stranded in a place with no internet connection.? But you just had something to say to the world. Something you found. Something you thought. Sometimes thoughts are better expressed when it bloomss out of your head. So Pick up your windows live writer and save it to drafts.

Well Mr. Editor, I can do that with MS word, why do i need this for that.?

Well can you write a blog in MS word and insert pictures and links into it and copy paste it onto your Blog Editor provided with the website and still hope to find all the alignments just like you wanted it to look like. I don think so….

Numero Due….. forget logins, forget typing in and going into your account and opening up your editor… aaaaall of that…

Open Writer, Write in (do your thing) and Click post.

This is similar to how you handle emails with your Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird.

I’ve included a snapshot of me writing this blog in Windows Live Writer below…

Sharing Tools for Your Browser..

1) Shareaholic

2) Add This

3) Share This

If you dont have any one of this in your browser then you are missing something really big.

I would recommend Shareaholic though..

Leaner, Faster, Simpler and much more capabilities...

Samsung Metro 3200

First point i can tell u is... ITS WORTH IT .....

Comes in two shades... Black-Yellow and White-Grey.

Priced around 3700. Its totally worth the price. Good solid phone.
Has better battery life than the usual samsung phone.

Better than the nokia phones that are priced between 3 to 4K.
Especially for the clarity of the screen and the interface you are provided with.
Clarity of the voice for calls is really good too compared to other nokia phones i have used that are priced in this range.
The volume of the speakers are good and solid with less distortion. Although there is distortion at higher volumes. The ringtone is loud enough to be heard over indian traffic.

Has apps for orkut, FB, twitter and google search.
Its a JAVA phone so you can go to getjar.com to get what ever you want.
Can hold an 8gb memory card and you are provided with a 2gb memory card.


For more info such as technical specs and photos.... go to...

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_c3200_monte_bar-3149.php


or samsung's own website...

http://www.samsung.com/in/consumer/mobile-phone/mobile-phone/multimedia-phone/GT-C3200KOAABS/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail

Panasonic RP-HT161

Good headphones….

Easy on the ear….

Comfortable and a Crisp sound. Good for long hours of music or for watching movies.

But wouldve been happier if it had a better amplifier…

Low volumes when used with applications such as Power DVD and Windows Media Player while watchin movies in AVI format. The ripped ones. I guess i have to use a third party amplifier software to make it sound louder to hear every detail in the movie.

Although mp3’s sounded really good compared to other headphones i have used.

Wouldnt actually say its worth the rate. I expected it to give me a better performance than the ones i have already used. It couldve been priced at around 400 to 450….

Price: 575 NRI

for more info…

http://www.panasonic.com.au/Products/Headphones/Over+ear/RP-HT161/Overview

Microsoft Outlook Tip

Well recently Ive been wondering how to have more control over my outlook because i know there are a lot of options so it needed some exploring. While exploring such options i stumbled on one really cool tip that i wanted to share with everyone…

Situation: Almost all the time i have to wait for all the mails to download from the server to my Pc. While some were just Newsletters and Written Mail, Others were these really huge mails with 15 – 20 MB attachments with them (mostly photos and audio files i have requested from my friends.. ). So thought it would be better if i keep these mails in the server itself instead of downloading it here and wasting space for the mail as well as the attachments which i am going to save anyway cause i need them. Hence i started searching outlook to look for a solution and i did find one. I wanted to limit all the mails which exceeded a particular size limit which in my case happened to be 2MB..

What do you do:

Step 1: Head over to “Options” in the Tools menu. The window as shown below will appear

Step 2: Click on the “Mail Setup” tab.

Step 3: Click on Send/Receive which will open the Send/Receive settings.

Step 4: If u have any particular account that you want to edit. Click on that. If u want to edit all the accounts click on “All Accounts” and click “edit”. In my case i have only one account configured on my outlook.

Step 5:  The window as shown below appears where you can do your adjustments. Click on “Download only headers for items larger than” and specify the size. This will leave out the attachments and download only the header of the mail.

 

 

If needed you can right click on that mail mark it to be downloaded to your PC anyways. Overriding your settings now set.

Browser Wars: Part 2

OPERA

First time i ever used opera was way back in 2000 or something. It was a great replacement for the Internet Explorer. I loved it, It had a download manager, i could browse in tabs, i could view my history easily, i could see my history of downloads easily, the rendering was really great, the bookmarking was great …so on and so forth. But as soon as Firefox entered the arena, Opera took a beating. Although opera is really fast, Looks REALLY REALLY great compared to the other browsers you get the feeling as if you are missing out on something.

If you ask me an analogy in the mobile world, i’d say, Firefox is the Nokia and LG is the Opera. Although the LG phones look really nice, with a smooth interface, the shiny finish, the perfect shape you can flaunt your new phone but most people dont do that with a nokia but interestingly its the nokia people who have the last laugh. With all the apps that you can install in a nokia phone and all the tweaking you can do and the ruggedness of the phone the end result is .. MANY HAPPY NOKIA USERS.

The same goes for Opera, although i agree that it is fast and everything it still doesnt beat the firefox…

Pros

1. Fast
2. Really good looking
3. Smooth interface
4. Pleasant Browsing experience

Cons

1. No good addons as of now
2. Rendering is not perfect in some websites although mozilla is 100% successful in this
3. Not lightweight as the Chrome….

SAFARI

Finally apple, the BIG BIG BOSS of hardware design wanted to enter the browser wars itself with a big aim of capturing its own place in all the windows as well as MACs. Although it captured a place in every MAC, like it was supposed to be, it wasnt a big success in the Windows arena. Say why … ? I’ll tell you why

Safari is a really fast Browser, Comparatively maybe even faster than the Firefox, but where it failed was the size (as in every apple product). But sometimes you feel its worth it to have such a heavy browser in your pc just because it works so well. Safari is the smoothest browser ive ever seen. The interface looks OH SO GOOD. Have you ever handled an iPhone? and Have you ever handled an Samsung Corby?… Now thats the kind of difference you will notice when you start using the SAFARI…

Pros

1. Really smooth and very fast…
2. Nice simple interface like the chrome.
3. Eh … ive got nothin else…

Cons

1. Really heavy, like the iTunes which looks as though it took over your computer the moment you install it …
2. is it really worth that much space.. ? thats for you to decide..

 

To be continued…

Browser Wars Part 1

So there is a review about this everywhere... doesnt mean i shouldnt be writing one isnt it.....
The most frequently asked question in the internet world today is ... WHICH IS THE BEST BROWSER!!!!...
and ill certainly provide you with an answer, if not an answer, a comparison so you can choose what you want...

Note: All thoughts expressed here are personal. You might like it or not like it. These are just recommendations.

There was a time i know when the word browser pointed to Internet Explorer and Internet Explorer only... well maybe Netscape Navigator(yeah .. dont search for it online ... they stopped making it.. its OUT.... ). Then later i remember using Opera which looked way better than the internet explorer 6 and had a lot of options as well...
But ever since the time when mozilla released its MOZILLA FIREFOX... there has been browsers coming out competing for their share of space in our hard drives...
Here are some of the major browsers listed in my order of liking..

1) Mozilla Firefox
2) Google Chrome
3) Opera
4) Safari
5) Avant
6) Internet Explorer
7) Maxthon
8) Sea Monkey

I wish Microsoft would stop making internet explorer. Somehow it always ends up the least favorite no matter how many chances i give it. I end up going back to my good old powerful firefox.

Google Chrome:
Although many prefer Google Chrome i personally dont feel like using it. Dont know why. But i feel like a much more powerful user of the web when i use Firefox. But what i like about google chrome as in any google product is SIMPLICITY. Everything is as simple as THAT. The interface is clean and only the things that you need are there before you (all the basic tasks), the rest are there somewhere. Most people dont even need these options. Now this is where it hits me. I dont like things that are too simple. I like complicated as well. So using Mozilla makes me feel more of a tech savvy person.

Pros
1) Very simple interface
2) Fast and Secure
3) Great Looks
4) Ease of Use

Cons
1) Too simple
2) Not enough addons as of now

Mozilla Firefox
Guess ive already spoke a lot about the firefox even on other headings, apologies, but thats how much i like it.
What i like in the Firefox...
1) Millions of addons to do what ever you want...
2) Personas to make look like how you want it to look.
3) Secure and Fast
4) Options options and options
5) Open Source

Addons:
Addons are something that is really great about the firefox. They keep coming and coming. Some of my personal favourites are..
1) Delicious - Online Bookmarking service from Yahoo!
2) Download Helper - To download videos from any where and save it in flv or mp4. The best out there as of now.
3) Fast Dial - the first time i saw it, it was in opera, and mozilla's got it now. Check mozilla's website for more info.
4) Download them all - Download Accelerator for Mozilla, Really Good.
5) Stumble Upon - Personally love this one, If u like Browsing the web learning new stuff, Please install this add on... You will love it...
6) Scribe Fire - For those prolific bloggers.

What i don like about the firefox...
Probably the only thing that i dont like about the firefox is that it slows down when u start adding addons continously and also as the installation ages. I dont know why it happens but it does. I thought it was my processor or somethin with my pc. But its not. This is my personal opinion. You might want to clear this up with some one else.

To be continued

Disabling Your USB Ports...

[Read it from How do you do it if u wanna save time and get right into the topic]

Ah... this could come in handy in a lot of situations . I actually learnt this from a project guide of mine. Cutting off the other details about how i got the info, we'll get into how we do it.

I learnt this especially to keep my usb locked. So that people who are not so tech savvy don insert any pendrive into my pc of laptop or anything and load all those nasty viruses which eventually I have to clean up.


First of all ... for most people ... the word REGISTRY seems like a big word.. well it is for me too. I don meddle with it much but i am sure that its an easy thing once u start reading about it. To disable your usb ports need to enter the registry editor window.

How do you do it...
All you have to do it enter into the Registry editor.
You can do this by typing regedit in the run window in winxp or in the Search panel in windows 7...
After entering the Regedit window. follow the path given below...

Hkey Local Machine >>>> System >>>> Current Control Set >>>> Services >>>> Usbstor

Double clock on Start in the right window pane. And change the value from 3 to 4..
If you want to use your usb ports again, change it again from 4 to 3 by following the same process given above.

Hope you find it useful.....