Offline Gmail

No internet connectivity or low connectivity??
Tired of writing the same mail or viewing the inbox numerous times?
Now comes the "Offline Gmail"
Its cool gmail lab designed by the gmail team.
I got most of the information about this from the gmail blog.
It has been around for a long time but i did not use it for a long time.
Now i use it most of the times, the GUI is like viewing from a mobile device.
When you are online, the google server stores all the inbox to your computer.
So when you are offline, it will fetch the mail which is stored on your computer itself.
Now you will ask what if I want to send a mail?
Its very interesting how google does that,
it will store your mail in outbox.
Constantly the gmail is looking for internet connection.
When it gets one, all the outbox mails are sent and new inbox mail are sent in.
Its just awesome to have this facility because now you need not learn how to use applications like Outlook Express ;)
This is how you can install the offline gmail
1)Click the gear icon in the upper-right -->> select Mail settings.
2)Select the 'Offline' tab -->> select the 'Enable Offline Mail for this computer' radio button. Click save changes.
If you have some downloading problem then you can see this help.

If you are using google chrome then you have nice extension for it.

Here is a nice video about offline gmail that you can look into
Enjoy offline mailing :)

URL Shortener

Is you link too long to remember or write it down while you are on a call?
Many times we want to share some link with our friends and everyone,
but its too long so we just send it via mail or any other alternative.
You get sick and tired of sending to everyone or telling everyone.
What you can do is that change the long url to a short one.
I have came across two websites which does that.
First one is Google url shortener and other is tiny url.

Google url shortener

Its very easy to learn and use it.
Just type in your url and press button shorten.
You can convert a url by logging in to your account also.
It will store all urls in your account.
The only problem is that you cannot give a your customized url.
Google will provide you with a small url which is again difficult to remember.




Tiny URL

It will give you all the option as above.
And a new option to customize your url also.
This is the best thing i liked about it.
Now you can remember this new url also.
One more thing is that you can add this into your toolbar.

Enjoy shortening ;)

What Do You Love

Its an interesting website powered by Google.
It is all you want about anything you love.
Like if you are searching for a phone, let us say HTC wildfire.
Search that thing in the search bar.
You will get all the exciting results from there.
It will give you all the information about it.
You need not go to different websites to find the place where you can find the phone.
You will get the stores, the reviews, the results from YouTube.
You will also get the latest news from there.
It has a nice look, you have a small rectangular section in left hand side.
If you slide that rectangle then you will get another results related to the search.
You can see numerous graphs which will show you the comparison with other phones.
One of the features i like was that if you search some word,
you can actually translate it into numerous languages.
One more thing is that you can view 3D pictures also using SketchUp.
Here is the link for it -> www.wdyl.com

Happy Dussehra to all :)

Google background

Hey sorry friends, I was not able to post anything interesting.
But I am back.

How many times in a day you use google???
10 times atleast?
Person like me goes on google every half hour for some or the other reason.
If you are bored of seeing the same white background in google then there is a solution for this.
You can change your google background with just few simple steps.

Steps
1)Sign in you google account
2)Go to google.com
3)Bottom right corner there is an option saying "change background image"
4)Select any photo of your choice. It may be from public library, picasa or your own computer.
5)You will see the change

Try it out if you like.

Dropbox (Synchronize and backup your files)

My OS crashed!!!! :(

Many of us will have that problem. What is the solution??

Do you have online backup??  

If not then you might have external hdd which comes to rescue.

If you have some files which changes constantly then why to keep backup in hdd?

One of the solution you will find is Dropbox.

I have been using it for more then 6 months now. It is very useful.

The main purpose of Dropbox is for sync between all your devices.

It is based on cloud computing. The data is stored on cloud.

You can install in any OS.

Dropbox creates a folder on your local machine. Plus all the data is already present on the Dropbox website.

So its easy to manage any file under a folder. You can even share the folder with anyone.

The advantage of sharing is that if you are working on a project then you need not use usb/mail to transfer the data.

Just copy that file in Dropbox and it will sync with other people with whom you have shared the folder.

If other users make some changes in the file, then it will be seen in your file also.

If you are the owner of the folder then you can check all the activites that have been done by others.

This can be seen on Dropbox website.

Initially you get 2GB of free storage. You can even use paid storage.

Most of us will use free storage. So if you want to increase the storage then there are ways.

First is to complete the steps given in getting started option. You will get 250 MB from there.

Secondly for every person completes the dropbox installation you get 250 MB free upto 8 GB!!!

If you want to change the default path of your Dropbox folder then also you can do it. Click here.

The steps are also given for other OS.

Make an account now!!!

Download Dropbox.

To understand more about Dropbox in simple way, just have a look at this video.

Personal Note : I have been watching this Sitcom named "The Big Bang Theory".

If you are interested then click here. Its a blog post written by one of my friend.

Top 10 Gmail Labs

Nowadays all of us are shifting to gmail from other mail services so I thought I might help some of you to have better experiences with the gmail labs.

You can go to mail settings and you will be able to see "labs" tab, you can search your desired lab in the search option.

List is made alphabetically :)

1)Authentication icon for verified senders

Displays a key icon next to authenticated messages from certain senders that spammers attempt to fake. Currently works for mail from PayPal and eBay only.

This is very useful because some of my friends keep getting emails which are spams so this will help them to a large extent.

2)Auto-advance

Automatically shows the next conversation instead of your inbox after you delete, archive, or mute a conversation. You can select whether to advance to the next or previous conversation in the "General" Settings page.

3)Background Send

Let Gmail send your mail while you move on to more important things. Just be sure to stay logged in until it's all sent!

Its very useful because nowadays we send so many large mails and it takes time to send. I get annoyed by waiting for it. You can do any other work like creating a new mail, reading inbox, etc.

4)Google Docs gadget

Adds a box in the left column which displays your Google Docs. Shows recent docs, starred docs, and has fast search.

If you use google docs often then it is must.

5)Green Robot!

Chat buddies show up as robot icons if they are currently using Android. Helpful to determine if you are chatting with someone on a computer or someone on an Android device.

Most of the time if someone is using their android device, you better wait for their reply to come.. :)

6)Inbox preview

Show a simple, static preview of the inbox while loading.

It is very useful whenver you have a slow internet connection. Plus you can sign out after just looking through the list of mails.

One of my favorite gmail lab ever. Try this one atleast.

7)Message Sneak Peek

Peek into a conversation without opening it by right-clicking on a message in your inbox.

If you have numerous mail to just see then its fast and effective. You can even use a button "mark as read"!!

8)Move Icon Column

Move the column containing the attachment and other icons over to the left hand side to make it more noticeable.

9)Pictures in chat

See your friends' profile pictures when you chat with them.

Somewhat useful lab but i like it. It reminds you of person to whom you are talking ;)

10)Send & Archive

Adds a button to the compose form that lets you send a reply message and archive the email conversation in a single action.

10+1)Undo Send

Oops, hit "Send" too soon? Stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button.

10+2)Unread message icon

See how many unread messages are in your inbox with a quick glance at the tab's icon. This lab only works with Chrome (version 6 and above), Firefox (version 2 and above), and Opera.

*)Desktop notifications

This is not a gmail lab, but its very useful because whenever you are another tab or doing some work on your pc while your gmail is on in some browser.

To enable this, go to gear button (top right corner )-> mail settings -> general tab -> desktop notification

Enjoy gmailing ;)

Change default path Documents,Pictures,Music,Videos in Libray in Windows7

Wondering you always have a risk that your windows might get crashed and you will loss data.

The way in which you can save your data is not to keep anything in your C: drive.

Keep each and every data that you want in other drives only.

If you re-install your windows then you will install it in C: drive thus you can retrieve your

data from other drives.

Now that you have done all the changes. You will feel that you need to go to other drive each and

every time you open the pictures folder.

You can change the default path of My documents, Pictures and videos.

1)Click Start, and then point to My Documents. Or click on the library button in the taskbar.

2)Right-click My Documents, and then click Properties.

3)Click the Target tab.

4)In the Target box, do one of the following:

a)Type the path to the folder location that you want, and then click OK. For example, D:\doc.

b)If the folder does not exist, the Create Message dialog box is displayed. Click Yes to create the folder, and then click OK.

-or-

Click Move, click the folder in which to store your documents, and then click OK twice.

c)If you need to create a new folder, click Make New Folder. Type a name for the folder, and then click OK twice.

5)In the Move Documents box, click Yes to move your documents to the new location, or click No to leave your documents in the original location.

I would like to thank microsoft support and techhunt.org for this post.

Recipe for ABCDE keyboard

Ingredients :

• One crazy person like me ;)
• One hour free time
• Old laptop(or new if you are crazzzzzy)
• Keyboard in which you can lift and remove your keys
• Weapon -> Sharp long thing like knife(or finger nails)
• Semi-wet cloth(if you like cleanliness)

Steps :

0)Switch off your PC.(Optional)

1)Using your weapon lift nd remove all your keys.

2)Using the cloth clean your keyboard.

3)Replace "QWERTY" keys with "ABCDEF" keys.

4)Repeat the same step until you reach "Z"

5)Start your PC.(If went through the 0th step)

6)Try to use your PC like this for one day.

Tadaaaa--->> Here your keyboard should look like

Please see that some of the keys might have different sizes.

So its difficult to put it back.

The most interesting thing is while you are typing your mail password.

Your friends will have no idea when you type it ;)

First thing I did was to give my laptop and asked him to write his own name

in notepad. It was really interesting.

Warning :- Only for those who knows typing without seeing the keyboard.

Sata Extension Bridge

Planning to buy a new internal hard-disk for your laptop?

And confused what to do with the old one?

There is a way in which you can use the old hdd also.

You can buy a "sata extension bridge". It works like an external hdd.

You just need to connect your old hdd to the connector, and bamm you get

your new hdd.

Its very useful in the way that you can keep your old Operating System on that.

If at all your new hdd crashes and your operating system is screwed up, you can

insert your old hdd and start working again.

It looks like this :

This is my old hdd which has ubuntu in that. My new hdd has windows in it.

So if any time windows stops working then i can use ubuntu.

This can be used only for 2.5 inch hdd. I have tried with the other size hdd

but it does not work at all. The cost of this extension is not costly at all.

In Bengaluru I was able to get it for Rs 250 at SP Road.

If you see then its much cheaper if you are planning to get a new external hdd.

The thing you can do is to buy a new high capacity internal hdd and use this

connector, use this as external :)

Hope this might give solution for some of the friends I know.

VMware Workstation

Tired of installing ubuntu/fedora on your laptop and then re-installing if something gets messed up????

Here is the solution. If you are a windows user you can install the software named "VMware Workstation". It is a virtual machine which can load any operating system. It behaves as a computer and you can install any operating system as easily as you install a normal software. It's that simple!!

One of the features i personally liked was that you can suspend it whenever you want. You can also change the path where you want to store the Operating System. So what you can do is store it in any other drive in which you have not installed windows. In future if at all you need to re-install
windows again you can just give the path so that your data is not
lost. You can resume from the last session.

One of the other things that i liked was that you can copy the OS folder to any other computer which has VM Ware installed, even this resumes from where you left(that's like a dream come true). You can work on the virtual OS

as well as Windows, so if you want to try something out on ubuntu while on
windows, you can do it. Some of the versions also allow you to drag and
drop a file from windows to virtual OS.

You can simultaneously run two

or more OS on VM Ware.The only problem is that you cannot
use much graphics or RAM. Its limitation is that you cannot use the desktop

effects like rotating the desktop cube in ubuntu. But that's ok if you
just want to use it for understanding ubuntu.

Personally I used to have windows at first then i shifted to only
ubuntu on my laptop. It was fun actually but sometimes you are stuck
at a point from where you can never get the solution of a problem.
Recently i got so busy with kubuntu that i was not able to give time

to other important stuff. Now finally i shifted to windows and am using
this software.

Hope you find it useful. :)

Google+ Vs Facebook

Every one is asking for an invitation to use g+.
I have been addicted to this since the past so many days!!. I was never so addicted to facebook…:P

Lets start with Google+

1)Photo viewing is much better :

a) Comments : The comments are on the right side of the photo so you

can view about 10 to 12 comments at one go where as in facebook its below

the photo so you need to scroll down.
b) Photo details : You can actually view all the details of the photo
being uploaded. So you can see the ISO, aperture, etc.
c) You can upload your photos from mobile devices at much faster rate
then ever given by facebook.

2)Easy to add people to circles. Whenever you want to stream some
status you can choose which circle to add and which circle to remove.

3)Hangouts : We have an option to use the facility of video calling with a group of 10

friends. That is not present in facebook, they only have video
calling with single user.

4) Compatibility: If you are using google chrome then you can install
an extension named Google+Facebook(i will give the link for web store)
from the web store. It shows you the home page of facebook in google+.

5)Ads : There are no ads in G+.I think it is because of the fact that Google plus has just started. Recently i saw an add on Facebook saying that "You have one gift left... Click here"

6)Edit : You can edit the stream you posted on your account. Means if you make any mistake while writing the post first time, you can go and edit it :)

7)Gif images : These are animated images which are very cute and funny. So its not like a video but animated

images. Try them out, you would love it.

In the following points you will find me more inclined to facebook…J

1)NO WALL : the most irritating thing in g+. Hope it is added
in a short while … J

2)Games : There are no games to play online as is found in facebook.

3)+1 button : some of my friends are not used to this button. It’s like

"like" button in facebook. But difficult to understand why they are
using +1.

4)Friends : All your friends are still on Facebook and there is no way
you can import the contacts from it. There was an extension which used
to do it but facebook said that it is against the policy.

Interesting fact : Mark Zuckerberg has maximum number of followers in Google plus.

I would like to conclude by saying that both are very good social websites. You can

choose any one you like. I am just sharing my views :)
You can also go through a post written by one of my friends. Click me.

Neo Cube

I got my NeoCube from my jiju(brother-in-law). He brought it from canada.

It has 216 magnetic balls, which have very high power.
You can make many shapes out of it. Each individual ball playsimportant role in it.

This is my first creation. Its very easy to make it.
With different people you will get so many different shapes and creations.

To make this 6*6*6 cube i took around 45 mins.
Each time we make 6*6 square it repeals with other magnetic balls and
difficult to make them stick together.

This globe is made by small triangular shapes of 9 balls. Its really fun making this globe.

See this micky mouse creation.

Top 10 Google Chrome Extensions

Hey friends i am back.
Have been away from blogging for long time.
I got inspired from my friend to write more posts on my blog.

Are you a googler????
Yes of course!!! Every one uses google to find something or the other.
If you are using google chrome then this post is for you.

There are many extensions in chrome which you can use.

You can download extensions from the following links.

Its really useful to have them on your browser. Some of the extensions which i use are.

1)Speed dial

-It is similar to that which you use in firefox. One of the prominent problem is that you use Ctrl+(number) to shift to the corresponding tab
instead of the corresponding speed dial tab. It will change your home
page to 12 tabs and you can directly use it.

2)Smooth gestures

- Tired of going to each and every tab and moving to right or left tab while surfing on the

net?? you can use this to change the tabs using just a click of a mouse.

3)Google dictionary

- Surfing on net and vocabulary not so good?? Use this extension to get the meaning of any word. Just select the word and then click on the extension. It will directly show you the meaning of the word.

4)Sexy undo close

- By mistake you closed a tab that you did not want to close?? This extension allows you to open recently closed tabs.

5)App jump

- If you are using speed dial then you will not get the extensions which you have added. So use this one to go directly to jump to any app you want.

6)Ad block plus
-used to block ads while using un-trusted websites.

7)Save as pdf

- Directly click on this extension to save the web page you are viewing to your own computer as a pdf document.

8)Fb Photo zoom

- AWESOME extension. Just walk through any photo of facebook it will zoom it in and you can see it zoomed. Must INSTALL.

9)+Photo zoom

- Similar to the above extension. Its for google+ ;)

10)Google+facebook
- Get you facebook wall in google+. So you can be updated every second about facebook when you are on google+

Something extra :P

11)Mario & Angry birds

-Two of my favorite games of all time are back on chrome to play.


Extra + Extra info ;)

You can sync you data and settings using your own google account. This will specially help you if you are using chrome at your work place as well as your home. Go to Options->Personal Stuff->Start Sync.

Rocket Dock

A powerful & easy to use application.
In the world of quick access this may be a useful tool for windows users.

A dock is a that typically provides the user with a way of launching, switching between, and monitoring running programs or applications.

Some of the companies like Dell & Vaio provide their own dock. They are sometimes slow with restricted functions. Dock is integrated software in MAC OS X Snow Leopard.
Rocket dock needs only 10 MB of free RAM. That is much less than the RAM used for Windows Sidebar. :P

If some of you like to keep your desktop clean and fast you can easily drag and drop the icons in the rocket dock. You can also add separator to separate your applications from other folders like I have shown in my image.

One little advice to the users. Keep the position of the dock at the bottom of the screen. You will realize why.... ;)

Share your experience after using it.

Go to the link below to download the application.
http://www.punksoftware.com/download?project=RocketDock&ver=1.3.5