FREE Laptop Tracking using Adeona

I just stumbled open a very useful, FREE, open-source utility called Adeona. Using this utility a System Administrator or any user can track the nearest location of a Laptop if the Laptop connects to the Internet on a regular interval. The concept behind this utility is Basic Networking - the TRACEROUTE utility.

I have already installed this utility on my Windows XP based Laptop. Once installed ,this utility runs as a Service in your Windows System (AdeonaClientService). If you receive an Error 193, 0xc1 while starting this service, just search for a file named program on your System Drive, delete the same & try restarting the Service.

Once running as a Service, this utility updates the current Traceroute information at regular intervals to its Server in an encrypted format. To retrieve this information, you have to use Adeona Recovery. The recovery option will only run if you have the adeona-retrievecredentials.ost file specific to your laptop (which stores your credentials). Each installation of Adeona on a separate Laptop or PC will generate a unique adeona-retrievecredentials.ost file, which is encrypted using the Adeona Password which the user sets while installing this utility. So keep this file & password safe.

Once the Adeona Recovery runs successfully it generates a log file containing the outputs of Traceroute utility gathered at different random intervals. Using this log file the System Administrator can trace the nearest location of the Laptop using the Public IP's found in the log file. The Mac OSX version of this utility also has the option to auto-click snaps of the user. from the Laptops inbuilt camera (if present). An exhaustive documentation on the features of Adeona is available on the Adeona Portal. Do go through the documentation & then download & install Adeona to track your Laptop.

FREE GPS Tracking & Mapping applications

After a pretty long period I thought of exploring for interesting GPS applications on the net. Finally after visiting few Blogs & Forums on the net I got some free GPS apps which I though of sharing with you people in this GPS-enabled era.

Buddyway
Its FREE, easy to use GPS Tracking Mobile app. It has a client component which to be installed on the cell. The cell phone app is quite easy to configure. One of the main requirements of any GPS Tracking app is Internet connectivity. So before you install this app on the phone, do ensure that you have Advanced GPRS, EDGE or 3G services activated for complete Internet to work.

To use the app you first need to register for a FREE Buddyway account. Once that is done, you have to install the Cell phone app & configure it to send regular GPS updates to your Buddyway account via GPRS/EDGE/3G. You can then create your own Trips on the Buddyway app on your Cell & continue travelling. Any user with whom you plan to share your trips, or any trusted person who has access to your Buddyway credentials can logon from the Buddyway Portal & track your current position.

Each trip you create gets saved on your web account & has a direct link to a web-based map. Inside your account you also get lots of other useful information about your trip. Yesterday after installing this app I just strolled a few 100 meters outside my Building. The Trip screen shot is shown below.

Sea Clear

It is a FREE GPS mapping application which would be of great help for people working in GIS domain. Here you can create Routes with the help of an External GPS Receiver.

Since I have mentioned about External GPS Receivers, I thought I should also talk about another interesting Mobile App called Symarctic ExtGPS. This application literally converts your GPS-enabled Cell Phone into an External Bluetooth-enabled GPS Receiver.

It provides GPS output in NMEA-0183 standard. Your Cell can thus be used as an External GPS Receiver by pairing it with any device which supports an External Bluetooth GPS with NMEA-0183 standards. For eg, Nokia N81 has support for an External GPS Receiver via Bluetooth. You can thus turn on this app on your Cell after switching on Bluetooth & then pair it with N81.

Similarly, you can start the Symartic ExtGPS app on your Cell & access all the GPS data on SeaClear through a Bluetooth Dongle on your PC, as shown below.

So don't waste your time. Make full utilization of the GPS capabilities of your Cell Phone.

(Note: All the Cell Phone screenshots in this post are taken using the DEMO version of Remote S60 Professional. It is an excellent app to access your Cell Phones UI from the PC via USB or Blueooth.)

Making your own USB Data Cable

If you have USB cables lying in your drawer, they could be of lots of use in case of emergency. Take my case itself, a few days back the Data Cable of my USB Hard Disk went faulty when I desperately required it for some crucial data. So I scanned by drawer for those spare USB ables that my supplier had given me along with the Printer. The problem was that I only required the Male-end of the cable which would connect to my PC & not the smaller end which connected to the Printer. Similarly I found another similar USB cable.

Now I cut both the cables cautiously knowing that the USB Data Cable length should not exceed 1 meter, else my USB Hard Disk woul stop working. Then I found the USB cable colouring standards from Wikipedia. But to my surprise only of the these cables followed the standard, while the other one wasn't doing so.

With little bit of tweaking, I could trace the similar ends of both the cables & also found my Hard Disk started working with the wiring. To ensure proper connectivity it is recommended to solder the cables rather than just twisting it.

A little bit of final packaging & your hand made USB Data Cable is ready.

Isn't it easy to make? Make your own BEST out of WASTE now.

Using Linux Box for Transparent Proxying, Caching & Content Filtering - Squid with OpenDNS

Are you suffering from the following constraints in office ?

• Less Internet Bandwidth
• Unrestricted Internet access
• Very less budget for IT

You should then probably go for a Linux box where squid along with OpenDNS & iptables can bring the unrestricted Internet access under total control. You could then also use iptables for perimeter security purposes.

With regards to OpenDNS I have already discussed in my earlier post. Here I would briefly describe as to how squid can work in conjunction with OpenDNS. In the scenario depicted in this post, squid would primarily act as a Transparent Proxy & Caching Engine, with major portion of Content Filtering being managed by OpenDNS.

The configuration procedure is as follows -

1) Install Linux

2) Configure auto-starting of network service during boot-up -

chkconfig --level 35 network on

3) Configuring for permanent IP forwarding -

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

To keep ip forwarding permanent edit /etc/sysctl.conf & set net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

4) Squid configuration

a) Install squid.

b) Check normal Internet access.

c) Now check squid from web browser setting the Proxy IP & Port to 3128.

If you receive an access denied error, add an acl in /etc/squid/squid.conf

acl aclname src 10.x.x.0/24 # Your Network
http_access allow aclname
http_access deny all

c) Configuring squid as a Transparent Proxy

i) Edit /etc/squid.conf & set

http_port 3128 transparent

ii) Check the access.log file located at /var/log/squid . If it gives a WARNING saying that squid cannot work in transparent mode, you then need to check whether your existing netfilter package is compatible with your existing Kernel. If not, you then need to upgrade/downgrade your netfilter package or your Linux Kernel or the entire Linux distribution, if required. For finding more information on the same please Google around.

iii) Port forwarding

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth2 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3128

This command would forward all Port 80 (Internet) requests received on the Linux Server to the squid's 3128 Proxy Port.

5) Configure auto-starting of iptables service during boot-up

chkconfig --level 35 iptables on

6) Configure auto-starting of squid service during boot-up

chkconfig --level 35 squid on

8) Now in /etc/resolve.conf set the DNS Servers to the OpenDNS Servers

nameserver1=202.67.222.222
nameserver2=202.67.220.220

Your Linux Box is now completely ready to do Caching (thus reducing the Bandwidth utilization) that to in transparent mode. The advantage of this setup is that you can now extend the list of Blocked Sites from squid, since OpenDNS has a custom Block List limited to only 25 sites.

New improvised Missed Call Intimation service from Vodafone India

If you are a Vodafone India subscriber you might already be aware of the MCI (Missed Call Intimation) service. Its a very cheap service priced at Rs.10 monthly, which gives you the number of any caller who tried reaching you when your Cell was switched off or outside the coverage area.

Initially when they started the service some 3-4 years back it came in a different form. For eg, if any caller tried reaching you when your Cell was unreachable, you would receive an SMS from the number 303 with some message like this..."You have 2 missed calls at 7:30 PM & 5 missed calls at 7:39 PM. To get more information send an SMS GET to 303.". After sending this SMS you could get the phone number of the caller trying to reach you. But this service costed Rs.30 monthly with addition cost of Rs.2 for sending the GET SMS.

About a year back they made a few changes to the MCI service -

• The free MCI service would provide you an intimation about a caller who tried reaching you, without any number details. And also that you could not receive this information by sending any further SMS. It is supposed to be preactivated for all subscribers.
  
• The paid MCI service would just cost you just Rs.10 monthly & would provide you initimation SMS'es like this... "You have 2 missed calls from +919812345678 at 7:30 PM.".

Until recently for both the free & paid MCI service would send you intimations from the number 303. I have recently found a very useful improvisement in the pai MCI service. For eg, if a caller tried reaching me from the number +919812345678 & could not reach me, I would receive an SMS from the number +919812345678 itself saying... "You missed a call from me at 9:40 PM.". The obvious advantage is, since the sender's number shown is the actual number & not originating from number 303, you save your time not searching for the number from your Contacts, which earlier had to be done.

Thanks to Vodafone India for bringing in such minor improvisements. Hope to see more of such interesting things in near future.

Sticking Stickers without spoiling your Windshield

If you are a vehicle owner, you are bound to have many stickers like Office Car Pass, PUC Certificate or Car Passes of various other institutions. For those who have specially installed a Heat Protection Film on the Windshield, they would mostly object to sticking anything on the Windshield.

I have devised a workaround which would reduce the surface area that gets stuck to the Windshield, thus protecting your film. Its quite simple.

1. Get hold of a clean transparent waste plastic sheet & stick your sticker to the same.
   
2. Now start cutting from the rim of the sticker until the entire sticker gets detached from the plastic sheet.
3. You would now have a Sticker a difference. A Sticker with no sticky surface.
4. Now cut at least 2 small pieces of transparent cello tape & affix your sticker carefully at a suitable place on the Windshield.

The Protective Film on the Windshield is now safe, as the Sticker is now easily removable due to 2 small pieces of transparent cello tape rather than the entire highly adhesive sticky surface of the Sticker.

I guess this tip would be helpful to protect your Windshield & the Protective Film in your vehicle.

Sweat out for a healthier life

Except a few job profiles, most of our jobs are office based. Also many companies have started with Work From Home. This post is primarily directed towards people associated with the IT industry.

Constantly sitting & gazing at the PC can have a lot of adverse effects on your health, if not now, but in your old age. I presume hardly a handful of us have the time to do a workout at home or Gym on a regular basis. The end result - Obesity, Pain in joints, Lethargy, Neck stiffness, Back pain, the list is endless..... Rather than heading towards an unhealthy future it would be wiser to take preventive actions at the right time. I would suggest some easy to do household work to keep you fit always -

1. If you have a Garden do Gardening yourself rather than telling the Gardener to take care of things.
2. If you have a Car don't keep someone to clean it. Clean it yourself if not regularly but every 2-3 days.
3. Rather than using your favourite bike use your Bi-cycle to visit nearby places.
4. Don't spend your weekends sleeping for long hours. Wake up at least by 8 am & spend a considerable amount of time cleaning your house or any other household work.
5. If you are not staying very high up in the apartment (say within 4th-5th floor), use your Staircase rather than the Elevator to reach your flat.
6. Use Public transport rather than Cabs, for places where you do not prefer to use your Car.

These are just a few handful of activities which would result in little bit of sweating. A comfortable seat within the office premises is just good for mind & not for the body. Believe me, absence of sweating is dangerous. I have started realizing things once I have joined a nearby Gym a month back. Sweating removes quite a lot of impurities from your body & opens up the pores on your skin.

So sweat out before its too late.

Reflexology Chart - Acupressure Points on our Palms & Foot

I had a scanned image of acupressure points present on our Palms & Feet. Thought of sharing the same with the readers.

Acupressure points on Palms -


Acupressure points on Foot -

Restoring FeedBurner Stats Code on Blogger

I have lately found an inherent bug in Blogger. If you "Revert widget templates to default" in Edit HTML section of Blogger, the FeedBurner Stats code gets deleted & tracking of all useful information about your site stops.

Now arises the question of why you want to revert widget templates to default. Sometimes it so happens that after customizing your Blogger template some of your widgets start misbehaving. Take the example of the Blog Posts widget.



While customizing this widget even if we select some options like "Posted by", it fails to appear on the Blog. At this point of time we are left with no other option other than reverting widget templates to default. But this deletes the FeedBurner Stats code.

To restore the code login to FeedBurner & click on your Blogs name. Now check on the lower left hand corner of your browser for the link FeedBurner Stats [PRO].



Now on the section of Get the HTML code to collect stats on your site select Blogger from the drop down list. A window would soon pop-up describing you the entire procedure to install the code on Blogger. Just copy & paste the code as per the procedure described & your site statistics collection would start once again.

Implementing OpenDNS Content Filtering & Unblocking Yahoo Messenger on your Network

Few days back my Company Management asked me to implement some kind of Content Filtering mechanism which would restrict the uncontrolled Internet usage within the Office. There were also a whole set of requirements that should be met before Content Filtering could be implemented -

1. It should be transparent & no Proxy setting changes should be required on the Browser end.
2. It should be free, since the Company could not afford for a commercial application like Websense or e-Trust Secure Content Manager.
3. It should be easily manageable & should be able to provide minimal set of reports.

What else could meet the above requirements other than OpenDNS. I would personally recommend all Internet Security Administrators in a SOHO & SMB setup to go for this product. It not only provides DNS services but also doubles up as a DNS-based Content Filtering application. It actually works on a principle commonly known as DNS Poisoning. Their DNSServers would resolve the true DNS IP's for Domains that are allowed by the Administrator & would provide the DNS IP of a blocked page in case of a restricted domain.

All you need to do is register for a FREE account on their site. Once registered, you need to manually add all the Global NATed IP's in your Network through which Internet is accessed. Then configure your Perimeter device to block DNS requests from your internal Network to all other Internet DNS Servers excluding the OpenDNS DNS Servers 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220. Now configure the scope on your DHCP Server to assign the OpenDNS DNS Servers instead of any other DNS Server. Thats it, it so simple. Once your NATed IP gets verified on your OpenDNS account, you can configure all sorts of Category & Domain based Content Filtering.

Please have a look at some screenshots from OpenDNS site -

1. Administration Page:

2. Statistics Page:


3. Content Filtering Page:




Troubleshooting for Yahoo Messenger -

As per the requirements of one of the teams, it was requested to block requests to maximum number of sites excluding Chat & Instant Messaging. I thus checked all the categories listed under Content Filtering option excluding Chat & Instant messaging. To my surprise I found that Yahoo Messenger client application stopped working totally in spite of Chat & Instant messaging being unchecked. Temporarily I gave the team a workaround by using Meebo for web-based for web-based chat & IM.

Now by using netstat I tried tracing all the Servers Yahoo Messenger uses to establish complete commmunication for all its features like Voice, Video, Chat, File Transfer, etc. I found that the IP's changed for every new connection establishment & soon realised that it was impossible unblocking Yahoo Messenger using IP's. The answer lied in the DNS names of these Servers. I thus waited for few hours for some logging to happen & finally my Blocked Domains report gave the answer. Here are the bare minimum list of Servers Yahoo Messenger client software uses to establish complete connection for most of its feaures -

1. address.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo Address Book
2. beta.sip.yahoo.com - Yahoo SIP Server. Probably used for Yahoo Voice Services
3. filetransfer.msg.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo File Transfer
4. insider.msg.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo Insider
5. msg.mud.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo Text Chat
6. ns.yahoo.com
7. re2.yahoo.com
8. relay.voice.mud.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo Voice Chat
9. scsa.msg.yahoo.com, scsb.msg.yahoo.com, scsc.msg.yahoo.com, scsd.msg.yahoo.com
10. stun.ycp.corp.yahoo.com - Yahoo STUN Server. Probably used for Yahoo Voice Services
11. shttp.msg.yahoo.com
12. http.chat.yahoo.com
13. natkeepalive.voice.yahoo.com
    

I feel that this list of Servers should be exhaustive enough (or might be not :-) to unblock Yahoo Messenger through OpenDNS or any other transparent Proxy mechanism. This list might change again when Yahoo does so. As & when I find any new Servers, I would keep adding them & updating this list.

I guess this post should be helpful for people looking out to implement easy, safe, robust & FREE Content Filtering mechanism & also to unblock Yahoo Messenger through that.

Ganpati Bappa Morya

The immersion of Ganesh idol's today culminates a wonderful & grand festival celebrated all over Maharashtra. This year could be said to be the beginning of Political Ganesh Pandals. Almost all big idols had big sponsorships & advertisements from Political parties.

I always make it a point to visit 2 specific Ganesh idols in the city of Mumbai. You guessed it right - the Ganesh idols of Ganesh Gulli & the Lalbaugcharaja, both located at nearby places in Lalbaug area, Parel. While Ganesh Gulli's idol is famous for its standing postures & theme based pandals, Lalbaugcharaja is famous for its immense faith among its believers. Its said that Lalbaugcharaja fulfills every visitors' wish.

It was the 75th year of Lalbaugcharaja. By looking onto the enormous crowd on TV, all my hopes of visiting Lalbaugcharaja doomed down. It all happened day before yesterday. when there came in a reference of an ex-employee of my company named Rizwan. Rizwan helped me & few of my friends to join the queue in between at Lalbaugcharaja, through his top class references, to make a successfull darshan of Lalbaugraja & Ganesh Gulli Ganesh idols. I heard that the queues were extending almost 1-2 kms & people waited on an average of 6-9 hrs to have a darshan. Thanks to Rizwan that the entire episode was wrapped up only in a matter of 1-2 hrs. People staying abroad can have a look at the snaps of Ganesh Gulli & Lalbaugcharaja Ganesh idols clicked from my Camera. The snap of the Ganesh idol at Ganesh Gulli is posted on the top. The snap of Lalbaugcharaja was clicked with great difficult & hence appears a bit blurred is posted below.

My 10 Commandments for new Car drivers in India

A new car...wow...a dream come true for many aspirants desperately wanting to drive their own vehicle. If this is not your first Car then no need of reading further. Before you hit the roads on a frequent basis its always wise to carry some handy tips desperately required while driving on Indian roads.

Driving Tips -

1. Practice regularly on empty roads before being a part of the maddening traffic.
2. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH YOUR POWER STEERING. We mostly learn driving on vehicles without Power Steerings & this is where all the problem starts. Since your new Car comes with a Power Steering you will notice that a small turn on the Steering causes your Car to turn more than expected. But believe me, once you get accustomed to your Power Steering you would find yourself handicapped without that. Warning you again: BE VERY VERY CAREFUL WITH YOUR POWER STEERING.
3. Install a Front Bumper metal guard along with a Pointer to give you safety as well as good judgement. The metal guard would ensure that your Front Bumper as well as the Engine is protected in case of minor bumpings here & there. The Pointer on the Left Hand Side would give you proper judgement about how much space your Car occupies on the road.
4. Practice U-turn & Parking with Reverse gear ample number of times. Do remember that you can park your Car much more precisely while Parking using the Reverse gear. While practicing U-turn do not accelerate much else you might end up ramming your Car onto the divider (just like I had done :-). While negotiating a U-turn drive very slowly & use the Steering based upon how much the Car is turning. Practicing U-turn would also give you a better control over your Power Steering.
5. Have a practice of looking onto all your mirrors (Left, Right & Rear View) during driving. Negligence can lead to accidents.
6. DO NOT TAKE SHORT LEFT TURNS. Remember, judging your Car's left portion of the body is much difficult as compared to the right, since you drive while sitting on the right. Whenever you try to overtake someone or try to take a left turn, turn slightly right before you turn left. This would give your Car the bare minimum space required to take the turn. A short left turn can also turn out to be very costly if you are Parking your Car in a congested area. You might end up having dents on your left doors or the rear bumper.
7. APPLY BRAKES GRADUALLY rather than applying suddent brakes. Suddent braking causes inconvenience to people in the traffic, & can also cause damage to the rear portion of you Car if someone ramms onto your Car due to sudden braking.
8. How much ever gentleman you are, you need to be very bold, aggresive & need to use abusive language while you are on the roads. Else its a tough day out for you on the field. People can easily take you for a ride if you accept your mistakes while on the roads. Its clear... you are a perfect driver (even though you are not) when you are on the road ;-)
9. Be very confident while you are driving. But never be overconfident. Overconfidence would cause a lot of damage to your Car which would turn out to be very heavy for your pockets.
10. Always keep a Nail Polish of the same colour as your Car's body. In the initial days you are bound to have minor scratches on your Car which can get easily covered using Nail Polish.
    

If you drive regularly for 3-4 months, there are fair chances that you would be a very good driver after going through my Driving Tips. All the best to you & happy journey...

Advantages of using Microsoft Windows Live Mail - WLM

Its almost 2 months since 30-June-2008 when Microsoft disabled the DAV Protocol. The main implication was that you could no more configure your favourite Hotmail / MSN / Windows Live Mail account from Microsoft's FREE Mail Client, Outlook Express. As an alternative Microsoft provided a new Mail Client named Windows Live Mail (referred to as WLM in future references). Initially I hesitated & got annoyed using the same due to its Vista look & feel, but now I have discovered some small but useful features which will tempt you to shift from Microsoft Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail, even for your POP3 & IMAP accounts.

Firstly its the look & feel which is lot more intuitive that Outlook Express. It colour codes your different Mail Accounts for easy differentiation. Screenshot shown below.



Next comes the speed of operation. WLM is surprisingly a light application. Though Microsoft is famous for making resource hungry applications, WLM negates their standard approach. It loads faster & even operates fast. You can also use it in Offline mode when you are not connected to net. Thanks to Microsoft that though it has retained the Vista look & feel it has not retained the resource hungriness of Vista in WLM :-)

And finally the most important feature for the techhies. Just like Microsoft Outlook & Outlook Express, WLM also has associated mail files. The Store Folder which was referred to as Local Folders in Microsoft Outlook Express, is now referred to as Storage Folders in WLM. Screenshot shown below.



But something which has totally changed is the cryptic storage of mails in .dbx & .pst files. WLM stores all individual messages as .eml files; which makes the e-mail messages more searchable in Offline mode. Though the is not according to the Subject of the e-mail, but still each individual e-mail in any of the folders resides as a .eml file. The Store Folder can be located & changed according to one's needs from Tools (+T) -> Options ->Advanced -> Maintenance -> Store Folder . Do remember that the Menu Bar in WLM is hidden by default & can be activated by depressing the ALT key. Since all the mails reside as .eml files in the Store Folder, they can be attached & sent easily to someone without requiring to export such messages. Also the Store Folder retains the exact tree structure of the Mail Accounts that you would see in the WLM interface.

Aren't all these features wonderful? Why are you still stuck up with your old Mail Client, Download WLM switch to Windows Live Mail today!!!

Orkut & Facebook Mobile Clients

Nowadays every application has switched over from PC to Notebook to Mobile. But when you come to your favourite Social Networking sites like Orkut or Facebook you still might not be aware of any kind of application. People traditionally use http://m.orkut.com & http://m.facebook.com to view Orkut / Facebook from their GPRS enabled handsets.

If you have an advanced GPRS connection enabled then probably life becomes a bit more easier. Rather than using a Mobile Browser to view these Social Networking sites you can use Fring (interesting features of Fring have already been described in one of my earlier posts "The Future of Telephony - Mobile SIP Telephony") to do your scrapping & poking for your Social Networking sites.

But how do you do that? I will straightaway go to the Social Networking features in Fring. Once you start Fring on your Cell you need to logon to Fring using a registered Fring ID. Once Fring gets loaded just go to Options -> Settings -> Manage Add-ons . Here you need to check the Orkut & Facebook options & enter their respective login credentials. Once this is done you will find shortcuts to these add-ons on Fring's main screen & when these shortcuts are executed to will find all options that you generally find on the web to use these Social Networking sites. This feature of Fring is really interesting & enjoy your experience with MobScrapping :-)

Receive FREE Traffic & Train Updates in Mumbai via SMS

In todays world staying updated with status of Road & Rail links can be a lot beneficial if you are a frequent traveler. If you are in Mumbai you can get FREE Traffic & Train updates via SMS.

Traffic Updates:

The City is divided into various zones - East (Sion to Vashi), West (Mahim to Dahisar), South (Colaba to Mahim), etc. To get updates on the West zone just send an SMS

JOIN TRAFFICWEST to 567678.

Similarly you can send SMSes for receiving updates of other zones also. For the entire city you need to send an SMS

JOIN TRAFFICCITY to 567678.

With Traffic Updates you get information not only about road blocks but also about High Tides.

Western Railway:

To receive updates on Western Railway just SMS

START WRUPDATES to 9845298452

Eg, START WRUPDATES BORIVALI for updates happing in & around Borivali.

With Western Railway Updates you not only get information about any new trains or train status but also about Jumbo Blocks & various other important information related to Western Railway.

So send these 2 important SMSes & stay updated!!!

Resizing Multi-line Text Boxes with Google Chrome

After discussing about the unique Pop-up Blocker feature of Google Chrome (currently available in BETA version), I thought of sharing another interesting feature.

This feature is related to Multi-line Text Boxes. We generally use such Text Boxes for Address& Description fields of web forms. With regards to Description field we rarely face a problem, but when it comes to Address field we find that the text starts wrapping on to the next line automatically when the length of address in any line exceeds the width of the Text Box.

I guess Google has observed this carefully & allowed the user to change the size of such Multiline Text Boxes according to users' requirements. It is very easy to use this feature. Whenever you find a Multi-line Text Box in a web form while browsing through Google Chrome, you would find a small grey dotted right-angled triangle on the lower right hand corner of the Text Box. The screen shot is shown below -

Just click on this triangle & drag your mouse according to your needs to resize the Text Box. (Note: The Mouse Pointer does not change when the Mouse is kept over this triangle)

The screen shot after resizing is shown below -

Isn't this feature interesting? If you have observed some more interesting features, do share on this Blog.

Unique Pop-up Blocker with Google Chrome BETA

After exploring a lot of Browsers I finally decided to download the BETA version of Google Chrome which they made avaialble for download few days back. As always expected, if its a Google product the first thing you can expect is user-friendlyness. I feel google totally works on the concept of human engineering... design things the way a layman would always expect it like. Most of its wonderful features is already listed here.

So I thought of skipping the part of describing the features. Its better you download Google Chrome BETA. What I thought mentioning was about its new, innovative & unique Pop-up Blocker. In most Browsers once a pop-up is blocked it displays a small bar at the top providing details about the blocked pop-up. In case of Chrome BETA its shows a bar at the bottom right hand corner of your window as shown in the screen-shot below.

If you still want to go ahead & view the pop-up window, just drag the bar towards the top & soon you would be able to see the blocked pop-up window as shown in the screen-shot below.

So what are you waiting for, Download Google Chrome BETA & explore the magic.

Quick File Browsing

Very often we encounter File Open or File Upload dialog boxes on Web Portals while attaching or uploading our documents. Most of these dialog boxes do not allow to sort files of specific file type & hence it becomes difficult to search for files of similar file extensions. For example, I wanted to upload a JPG file from my desktop in Blogger, but the File Upload dialog box was showing me all files from my desktop. To attach only JPG files, just key in *.jpg in the section of File Name & you will soon find that only JPG files & other folders are displayed. Check out the screenshot below.



Use this simple trick & make File Browsing an easy task.