Description:
Helping Laymen become Technology Enthusiast
Contents:
[How-To] Embed Google Docs Forms in your Blog
Sometime back Google Docs added Forms feature to spreadsheet. Starting yesterday, Google Docs has integrated the embedding feature with the Google Spreadsheet.
Now you can embed the same form into your website or blog. This answers the most important question ” How do i embed my form into my blog or website? ” The form inputs leads to the updation of the spreadsheet.
To create a Google Docs form to embed in your website or blog follow the steps mentioned below
1.) Create a spreadsheet with the form fields you wish to expose in the form.
2.) Save the Spreadsheet.
3.) Click on link called Share and select the form feature
4.) Copy the embed code and paste it in your blog or website where you wish this form to be displayed.
Another step which proves that fact that we just don’t need web versions of our desktop software. We, as end users need web software that takes advantage of being online.
Also read: Google adds Forms Feature to Spreadsheets
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
[How-To] Open Firefox Bookmarks Using Keywords
You already know how to get data from your Firefox Cache and why you should not save your passwords using Firefox, in this post i will bring to you an interesting hack which allows you to open Firefox Bookmarks using a keyword.
You can open any firefox bookmark using a simple keyword attached with it. The keyword needs to be stored as a property for the bookmark. This hack is pretty useful when trying to open long URL’s.
For example, lets assume you wish to save www.technofriends.in into your bookmarks folder as one of the favorite item and would like www.technofriends.in to open up anytime you enter TF and press enter in your firefox browser tab/window.
1.) Drag and drop the link to the page www.technofriends.in into your Link toolbar or click on the menu link Bookmarks –> Organize Bookmarks.
2.) Click on the menu link File –> New Bookmark or select the icon which says ” New Bookmark”
3.) Enter the details for the bookmark like ” Name” for the name of the bookmark, ” Location” stores the URL of the webpage you wish to bookmark, in our case, www.technofriends.in and ” Keyword” for the keyword you wish to use, in our case “tf”. Enter “Description” if you wish to.
4.) Click on OK and close the Organize Bookmarks window.
5.) Now open a new browser tab/ window and key in tf and hit enter in the browser. Keywords are case-insensitive. Entering TF or tf shall render the same results.
6.) www.technofriends.in opens up. You just finished setting up and testing the keyword hack for opening bookmarks in browsers. This hack is pretty useful when trying to open long URL’s like banking websites login page, your wordpress.com dashboard page etc.
For already existing bookmarks, click on the properties tab of the bookmark and enter the keyword, save the details by clicking OK and you are done.
Also read: Some quick Firefox Tips and Tricks
Be the BOT: Fool websites by changing your Header
Do you store your passwords using Firefox?
How-To: Set multiple homepages in Firefox.
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
[How-To] Remove USB Devices Safely
Often we get stuck with the Windows Safely Remove Hardware Icon, trying to stop the device which just doesn’t stop. In such scenarios, the question most of us ask is ” Now, how do i remove this device safely, without losing any data? “
This post, describes two methods of removing USB Devices safely from your Computer, even if the Windows Safely Remove Hardware program gives off with a message ” The device cannot be stopped right now”
Kill the Process
This is the first way to go, try opening your Task Manager ( Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL or Right Clicking on the Task Bar and selecting Task Manager from the menu)
Try identifying the process being run by the USB Device. It could be anything from that drive - a file name, a process with similar name etc. Once the process is identified, kill that process and try again with the Safely Remove Hardware icon ( if still shown)
USB Safely Remove
Download and install USB Safely Remove, USB Safely Remove is a shareware program which puts its own icons in the system tray in place of Windows Safely Remove Hardware Icon.
If due to any reason, USB Safely Remove is not able to safely close a drive, it shows you what processes are causing the problem and allows you to stop them.
Other interesting features of USB Safely Remove include Removing USB Drive with one click, assigning Hotkeys for removing a drive, Correcting and clearing device names, setting up autorun options and name notifications about the connected and removed devices.
Give USB Safely Remove a try.
Also read: How-To: Disable and Re-enable USB Storage Devices
How to get Serial Numbers and CD Keys of Softwares using Google.
How-To: Know if your PC has USB 2.0 or USB1.1?
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
[How-To] Know the version of Service Pack on your Windows System
In my last post, i wrote about Windows XP SP3, in this post, i shall be explaining the process to identify the version of Windows and Windows Service Pack installed on your computer.
In the good old days of DOS, we used to enter ver at the command prompt to get the version number of the Operating System being run on the PC. You can use the same command in Windows as well to identify the Operating System version.
- Click on Start –> Run
- Type CMD and hit Enter.
- At the command prompt, enter Ver and hit Enter ( as shown in the figure above)
- Windows returns the version number of the installed Operating System.
- Visit the Microsoft link on Identifying the Name and Version Number of the Operating System to get more details about your Version Number.
Alternatively, you can get these details using the My Computer Properties page as well. Follow the step by step instructions below for this.
- Right click on My Computer and Select Properties.
- Click on the General Tab.
- General Tab has information about your Operating System, the Registered owner and details about your Computer.
If you are comfortable with Windows Scripting, the below mentioned script also gives you the Name and version of the Operating System.
strComputer = “.”
Set objWMIService = GetObject(”winmgmts:” _
& “{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\” & strComputer & “\root\cimv2″)
Set colOperatingSystems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
(”SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem”)
For Each objOperatingSystem in colOperatingSystems
Wscript.Echo objOperatingSystem.Caption, objOperatingSystem.Version
Next
To find the Latest Installed Service Pack, use this script
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject(”winmgmts:” _
& “{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\” & strComputer & “\root\cimv2″)
Set colOperatingSystems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
(”SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem”)
For Each objOperatingSystem in colOperatingSystems
Wscript.Echo objOperatingSystem.ServicePackMajorVersion _
& “.” & objOperatingSystem.ServicePackMinorVersion
Next
Also read: Windows XP Service Pack
[How-To]Bypassing Passwords in Windows
Spoofing Explained : Another attempt to cover Hacking fundas
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
Windows XP Service Pack
Windows XP SP3 is in the news since few days now.
The theme of this post is to bring to your notice the fact that Windows Service Packs are cumulative and includes all updates from the previous ones.
This means that if, for example, your XP CD has neither SP1 nor SP2 integrated, you can still go ahead and install Windows XP SP3.
Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) is now available for download and install via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Windows XP SP3 includes all previously released updates for the operating system, in addition to a small number of new updates. Windows XP SP3 will not significantly change the Windows XP experience.
If you are planning to upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), please do read a little more about it on the internet. SP3 is a very new release and might have lots of bugs, the best way to handle such releases is by going slow with the adoption. PC World also reports about the bug in Windows XP SP3 causing some AMD Systems to crash.
To control the installation of SP3 in your system, please read my earlier post on Controlling Automatic Updates.
Also read:[How-To]Bypassing Passwords in Windows
Spoofing Explained : Another attempt to cover Hacking fundas
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
[How-To] Connect Securely to Gmail
You already know that Phishers employ various methods to phish your critical data and there are certain ways to protect your data, and one of the ways to protect yourself is by employing the secure connection techniques like HTTPs and checking for that small lock icon in your browser.
When you use HTTPs, the data transmitted by the browser is encrypted using SSL and is not transferred as plain text as it happens in case of an HTTP transfer.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. SSL is an industry standard and is used by millions of websites in the protection of their online transactions with their customers.
In the case of Gmail, when you open the login page, the URL is HTTPS or SSL enabled. However, once the login is completed, the URL changes back to normal HTTP mode. This means, that all the mail traffic that you exchange post login between your browser and Gmail, goes as plain text over the wire. This in turn means that anybody sniffing the wire can get hold of your critical data.
But, there is a way out. The hack is pretty simple. Once the login to Gmail is completed and you get the display of your Inbox,
change the URL from http://…… to https://…. and hit Enter.
For example, if the URL displayed on your address bar of the browser post login is http://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox
Change this to https://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox and hit enter.
If doing this everytime, sounds like a pain, try using this script instead.
While surfing the net, be safe and play safe. I would suggest that you Follow the safe steps to a healthy PC and Stay Safe on the net.
Also read: [How-To]Bypassing Passwords in Windows
[How-To] Use Gmail to Remote Control your PC
Some more Gmail Hacks
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
[How-To] Find Top Twitterers in your city
Interesting Twitter Cartoons
Orkut adds Status Update feature
[How-to] Get more blogging ideas using Google Alerts
If you are a blogger, who keeps looking for fodder for the next post(s), Google Alerts can bring quite a relief.
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Google Alerts can help you keep updated with information of interest. All you need to do is create an alert for that information.
Some common uses of Google Alert are
- monitoring a developing news story
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- tracking medical advances
- getting the latest on a celebrity or sports team
- watching for new videos that match a specific topic
- Link updates.
Google Alerts currently offers 6 variations of alerts - ‘News’, ‘Web’, ‘Blogs’, ‘Comprehensive’, ‘Video’ and ‘Groups’.
- A ‘News’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.
- A ‘Web’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.
- A ‘Blogs’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.
- A ‘Comprehensive’ alert is an aggregate of the latest results from multiple sources (News, Web and Blogs) into a single email to provide maximum coverage on the topic of your choice.
- A ‘Video’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest videos that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Video search.
- A ‘Groups’ alert is an email aggregate of new posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.
Lets assume you are a blogger who writes about various events happening in a particular city, for e.g. Bangalore. You would be interested in monitoring latest information floating in the web, you can do so by creating an alert for the same in Google Alerts. Follow the steps below to create an alert for Bangalore Events.
1.) Login to Google Alerts using your Google User Id.
2.) Enter the Search terms for which you wish to create an alert. In our case, enter Bangalore Events.
3.) Select the type of Alert. In our case, we select Comprehensive.
4.) Select How-Often you wish to get the alerts. For out case, we would like to get an alert as soon as the information is available. Select as-it-happens from the drop-down.
5.) Enter the email address where you would like to get the alerts. For our case, enter your mail id.
6.) Press Create Alert.
For further help on Google Alerts, visit the Google Alerts help page.
Personally, I have found Google Alerts very useful. My usage of Google Alerts primarily revolves around Tech news, Links Updates etc. Do share your views on Google Alerts in the comments section.
Also read: How Google Search Really Works
Share Items with a note in Google Reader
[How-to] Download any video from your favorite video website.
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
[How-To] Learn languages using iTunes
[How-To] Recover lost Outlook PST Password
If you happen to be one of those who is scratching his/her head trying to remember the password of your PST folder in Outlook, this post should bring instant relief to you.
PstPassword is a small utility that recover lost password of Outlook .PST (Personal Folders) file. The process of running this utility is simple and you dont even need to install it onto your computer. This utility can recover the PST passwords of Outlook 97, Outlook 2000, Outlook XP, Outlook 2003, and Outlook 2007. You don’t have to install MS-Outlook in order to use this utility. You only need the original PST file that you locked with a password.
Earlier, in one of my posts i had also mentioned the process of recovering deleted mails in Microsoft Outlook. This post is another case wherein the user has lost the password of the PST folder and is therefore, not able to open up the personal folder under Outlook.
To open up the password protected pst folder, follow the steps below
1.) Download PstPassword
2.) Run the application and select the PST file for which you wish to recover the password.
3.) After you run PstPassword, the main window displays the list of all PST files of the current logged on user (Under Documents and Settings\User Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook). For each password-protected PST file, PstPassword provide 3 alternative passwords that will open the PST file. If the PST is not protected by a password, the 3 password columns remain empty, and the CRC value column is 0×00000000.
4.) If you want to recover a password of PST file that doesn’t appear in the default list, you can press F7 and select the desired PST file, or simply drag the PST file from Explorer window into the main window of PstPassword.
5.) If from some reason PstPassword fails to read a PST file, an error message is displayed under the error column, and the item is painted with pink color.
Also read: Recovering ‘permanently’ deleted email in Microsoft Outlook 2003
Recovering Hard Deleted Items in Outlook 2003.
Top 10 Password Crackers.
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
Youtube India Lauched
How Google Search Really Works
Share Items with a note in Google Reader
Google Reader, one of the most widely used feed reading software application has added a new feature. Now, you can add notes to your share items in Google Reader. This gives an interesting view to your friends who see your shared items. Now they also can see a small note from you along with the shared item.
Now your friends won’t have to wonder if the B-movie about an evil floor lamp you shared was intended to be funny, sarcastic, ironic or the real motivation behind your next movie night.
To enable this, drag the link  (Click here) to your browser toolbar.
This also allows you to share any content from any web page, even if the site doesn’t have a feed. For even more control over what gets shared, select some text from the page before clicking the “Note in Reader” bookmarklet and your selection will appear as the item’s body. There’s also a space for you to add an editorial note when you need to let your friends know why you are sharing something. You can always uncheck “Add to shared items” if you want to add something to Reader without also adding it to your shared items.
The above displayed items are shared from Technofriends feed.
Via : Google Reader Blog
Also read:[How-to] Download any video from your favorite video website.
Tutorial: Find the IP Address of sender in Gmail.
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
[How-to] Download any video from your favorite video website.
Yesterday someone asked me the process of downloading Videos from Youtube and i was kind of surprised to hear that question. Its surprising to know that many people still are unaware that they can download their favorite videos from video sharing websites like Youtube, Google Videos, MetaCafe, Blip.tv, Dailymotion, Spike etc.
   
This post describes the process of downloading the videos from your Favorite video sharing websites. It also describes the process of converting the downloaded .flv files to your favorite format.
Lets start with the download process first. In order to download a particular video from your favorite video sharing website, you should have the URL of the video. For eg, if you wish to download the video from the URL http://www.metacafe.com/watch/663030/insane_747_400_landing/
Follow the steps below:
1.) Point your browser to the URL http://www.keepvid.com
2.) On the homepage of Keepvid website, enter the URL of the video ( in our case, http://www.metacafe.com/watch/663030/insane_747_400_landing/ ) in the input box provided. If you are not sure of the videoservice, select Any Site from the combo.
3.) Press the button names “Download”.
4.) A download link is presented. The file downloaded is in the .flv format. However, if you happen to be downloading video from Youtube, you could even get .mp4 version of your video file.
5.) Rename the downloaded file to something-meaningful.flv
6.) Download a FLV player to view the recently downloaded file. You can get one from here.
However, the video file you just downloaded is in .flv format , in order to convert it to some other format, like .avi, .wmv, .3gp, .mp4 etc, download AVS Video Converter, a free tool which allows you to convert all types of video files from one format to another, rip and burn video DVDs and make basic edits to video.
Once you have downloaded AVS Video Converter, follow the steps below
1.) Select your input file path.
2.) Select the conversion parameters for the desired format of video.
3.) Set a video output file path.
4.) Press Convert Now.
Go on and download your favorite videos.
Also read:
How To: Burn YouTube videos to a DVD.
Youtube video dowloads: Can it get better?
vConvert.net: Download online videos in multiple formats
3 Websites that outsmart Youtube.
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
Twitter can help you Quit Smoking
You must be wondering as to how Twitter can help you quit smoking and live longer. Well, the answer is Qwitter, a free social tool that helps you quit Smoking.
Qwitter uses Twitter to keep a record of your smoking pattern and tracks the number of cigarettes you smoke during a day. It also provides a journal feature to help you get support from others in the same situations, as you strive to smoke less. It also allows you to view your progress over time and share it with others who can support you.
To get started follow the steps mentioned below
- Create an account on Twitter (opens new window). Qwitter uses a popular web service called Twitter to do its magic. Twitter allows you to send updates to your friends via the web, instant messaging or your cell phone.
- Tell Qwitter when you smoke. Each time you light up, send Qwitter the number of cigarettes you just smoked by posting an update to Twitter in the following format.
@iquit 3
That will tell Qwitter you just smoked 3 cigarettes. Every day, Qwitter will add together all the posts you sent that day and add them to your progress graph.
Alternatively, post once a day with the total number of cigarettes you plan to smoke.
- Save a journal. You can keep track of your thoughts and feelings as you stop smoking. Send Qwitter a message that doesn’t start with a number, and Qwitter will add it to your journal.
@iquit I really want a smoke. I hope this gets easier.
- Track your progress, get help from others and stop smoking. Visit your Qwitter page at http://qwitter.tobaccofreeflorida.com/qwitters/username to see your trend over time. Share this link with others so they can offer support and hold you accountable.
*Any information you send to Qwitter is publicly visible. Do not share private information with Qwitter.
Quitting tobacco isn’t easy, but it can be done. Go ahead and say No to Smoking. For some interesting tips on quitting tobacco, follow the links below
Qwitter Tips Page
About.com Smoking Cessation tips page, enlists some very good tips for you.
Also read:Some Websites To Help You Stay Healthy and Fit
You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
Multiple Ways to Access Twitter from your Mobile Phone.
[Java] Reading a Webpage through URL
Most of the applications written these days require some or the other network feature. Stand-alone Java applications are rare occurence these days. In order to write a Java program which reads a Webpage, follow the steps mentioned below.
1.) Instantiate a URL object by passing the URL string to its constructor. [Line 16 in the code below]
2.) Retrieve a URLConnection object . [ Line 17 in the code below]
3.) Get an input stream from the connection. [Line 18-20 in the code below]
4.) Create a BufferedReader on the input stream and read from it. [Line 23-25 in the code below]
In the code mentioned below, i have tried reading http://technofriends.in
/*
* To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
* and open the template in the editor.
*/
package testapplicationsfortechnofriends;
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
/**
*
* @author Vaibhav
*/
public class ReadURL {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
URL url = new URL("http://technofriends.in");
URLConnection tf = url.openConnection();
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(
tf.getInputStream()));
String inputLine;
while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null)
System.out.println(inputLine);
in.close();
}
}
Also read:[How-To] Print Date/Time in a Given Format in Java
Understanding Polymorphism in Java : Part 1
Understanding Polymorphism in Java : Part 2
What is the difference between JDK and JRE?
An introduction to JDBC Drivers
You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981
Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.
Cheers
Vaibhav
       
Some Websites To Help You Stay Healthy and Fit
Technological advancements in the field of Medicine and Surgery have certainly helped the human race fight against a lot diseases thereby leading to longer lifespan. However, the key to health and fitness is lot dependent on the individual lifestyle. To help you enhance your fitness and enjoy the benefits the healthy living, i am sharing with you 4 websites which shall help you stay healthy and fit.
The websites mentioned below have useful tips on staying healthy. Healthy and light cooking, Benefits of Aroma Therapy, Water Exercises and cycling stand out as the focus of these websites.
1.) www.cookinglight.com : This website has excellent collection of recipes for healthy cooking plus great write-ups on everything you need to know about the basic red and white wine varieties, plus their best food partners.
2.) www.aromatherapypoint.com : Aromatherapy is a healing art which roots lying in antiquity. It traces back more than 6000 years, since ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans and probably Chinese used to burn scented flowers and herbs and enjoy aromatic bath, massage and skin care for curative and cosmetic purposes. Read how you can promote your body, skin and hair health, how to lift up your mood, how to relax, how to relieve pain and much more with Aromatherapy.
3.) www.itdp.org : The portal lists numerous health benefits of cycling which happens to be one of the best cardio activities. Check out this website to join the Delhi cycling club.
4.) www.waterwellnessworkout.com : This system put hundreds of proven water exercises and swimming exercises at your fingertips to let you customize your own water aerobics program and take advantage of the benefits of water exercise workouts with unsurpassed positive physical results. These exercises can help you with overall toning and weight-loss.
Go on and follow a healthy lifestyle and before i sign off for this post, have a laughter filled life. Today is World Laughter Day.
Also read:Webaroo 2: Software for the bandwidth st |
