A tool to test your website/blog on different browsers and screen resolution

The greatest concern of any good webmaster, while changing the themse/css of the site, is if the new UI will work properly on different browsers and on different screen resolutions. Browsershots proves really helpful in such a situation. Choose the different browsers and screen resolutions for which you want to test your site and submit the page url. You will get the screen shot after 3-4 minutes. You can opt for a paid mode to get faster service.

You can see the output for one of the pages of binaryday here

Topics: Tools

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Sony Ericsson T280i Review

T280i has all the features that you might have come to expect from a mobile handset. It is an entry level phone having 1.3 megapixel camera, FM radio, GSM / GPRS. The camera is not going to provide you any professional pics but it is good enough for the average user.It has got java support and ability to browse the internet on the handset itself.

Topics: mobile-review

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Handset Review

XPERIA is the latest smartphone range from Sony Ericsson. X1 is the flagship brand of this range. This XPERIA X1 is designed to provide the user convergence of Web communication and multimedia entertainment.

It is a Windows Mobile based handset with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard and 800 x 480 display.This is the first time in the history that a Sony Ericsson handset sports the Windows Mobile OS.

XPERIA X1 has a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera. The keyboard curves forward as it slides down. The handset measures 110 x 53 x 16.7mm and weighs in at 145g. It comes with 400MB of internal memory with Micro SD card support.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Panels UI display photo-style icons of key applications to guide users straight to the tasks they want to perform.

The Handset is expected to be available in the second half of the year.

Topics: mobile-review

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Is the arrest of Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid an attack on free speech?

An IT professional has been arrested for writing obscene comments about Sonia Gandhi on an orkut community “I hate Sonia Gandhi”. Many in the blogosphere seem to think that this is an attack on free speech and Google was in the wrong for supplying the data to the government. (See the comments)

The accused has been arrested under section 292 of Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the Information Technology Act. I am no lawyer. However even a cursory glance at the sections makes it clear that the case is of spreading obscenity and not about writing something against Sonia Gandhi. Here is the text of the 2 sections

The Indian Penal Code vide section 292 defines the term obscene and provides for punishment for distributing any such object.
Section 67 of the I.T. Act is the most serious legislative measure against pornography. This section reads as follows “Whosoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to be published in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or it its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be punished on first conviction with an imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees.”

Hence it seems the law does not have a problem with what he said but rather the language that he used to express himself. That clearly is not an attack on free speech.

Topics: Uncategorized

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What you post on orkut can get you Arrested

Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid, an IT professional from Gurgaon has been arrested by the pune police for posting derogatory remarks about Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on an orkut community named I hate Sonia Gandhi.

Most of the users are a lot less cautious online as it gives a false sense of anonymity. This case should serve as a strong reminder that you are not that anonymous on the internet. It is possible and actually a lot more easier to locate a person online. So be careful about what you write online.

I am surprised at the speed of action by the police. They will do well to move that fast while moving against political leaders.

Topics: News

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Firefox 3 is available in Gujarati but not in hindi !!!!!!!!!!!

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is available in 45 languages. Gujarati is the only indian language that is part of this list of 45 languages. Even hindi is not included in that list.

Topics: News

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Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is available

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is available for download. It includes several new featiures that make the browser more secure and easier to use. Firefox 3 claims to provide much better performance as well.

Topics: News

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ipl teams ranking

Teams MP W L P
Rajasthan 10 8 2 16
Punjab 10 7 3 14
Chennai 10 6 4 12
Mumbai 9 5 4 10
Delhi 11 5 6 10
Kolkata 10 5 5 10
Hyderabad 10 2 8 4
Bangalore 10 2 8 4

The Rajasthan Royals continue on the winning spree. They have got 16 points after today’s match. That means they are sure to go the semifinals.

Topics: ipl

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ipl timetable for the remaining matches

May, Sun 18 Knight Riders v Chennai Super Kings
May, Sun 18 Deccan Chargers v Mumbai Indians
May, Mon 19 Royal Challengers v Delhi Daredevils
May, Tue 20 Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals
May, Wed 21 Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab
May, Wed 21 Super Kings v Royal Challengers
May, Thu 22 Delhi Daredevils v Knight Riders
May, Fri 23 Kings XI Punjab v Deccan Chargers
May, Sat 24 Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals
May, Sat 24 Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians
May, Sun 25 Deccan Chargers v Royal Challengers
May, Sun 25 Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab
May, Mon 26 Rajasthan Royals v Mumbai Indians
May, Tue 27 Deccan Chargers v Super Kings
May, Wed 28 Royal Challengers v Mumbai Indians
May, Wed 28 Kings XI Punjab v Rajasthan Royals
May, Fri 30 1st Semi-Final
May, Sat 31 2nd Semi-Final
June, Sun 1 Final

Topics: ipl

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Adsense is killing the internet

I have made all my money online through Adsense. I intend to continue to monetize my websites through adsense. Hence I should be the last person to complain about adsense. As a webmaster I am quite impressed with adsense.

But I happen to be a user of internet on technology blogs, classified sites and social news sites trying to find information to get my job done. And I am frustrated with adsense as a user. I am frustrated because of senseless comments just for the sake of getting a link and some traffic, Offtopic posts on classified sites, spam messages on social networks. Even when I get to a really good website with useful information, more often than not the user interface is decided to optimize the website for adsense. All this is making me get frustrated with the internet. I am sure many others feel the same way. That is why I think that adsense is killing the internet.

On its own website, Google keeps the advertisements separate from the content.Then why is Google is advocating the adsense driven design for your website? Through its adsense optimization guidelines Google encourages the webmasters to blend the advertisements with the content even though technically it still requires the advertisement to be distinct from the content. Google does not have a stake in the long term growth of your website. It does not care if your website stays long enough -or not. It just wants to maximize its earnings from your traffic. That can happen only when you place your advertisement prominently on the page. However by encouraging webmasters to design the websites to maximize adsense CTR, google may be driving the users away from internet.

Duplicate copies of the same content is another vice encouraged by easy adsense earnings. A large number of smart people are simply copying content from elsewhere. Instead of focusing on content creation, they concentrate on monetization of the duplicate content through SEO, Social media marketing and even spamming. Duplicate content creates 2 long term problems for the internet. It makes the internet a less attractive medium for original content creators and it makes it difficult for users to get to more original content.

If the internet economy is a river then the water level (earnings) is high now. That is why no one is noticing the rocks. However once the water level falls down, we shall collide with these rocks more often.

Topics: Uncategorized

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Google Maps Wordpress Plugin

Your blog can look really cool with some interactive google maps. Embedding google maps into wordpress blog has become really easy with Google Maps Wordpress Plugin. However you need wordpress version 2.5.1 and php5 for this plugin to work properly.

Topics: Plugin, Tools

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Control who sees your adsense advertisement

Every blog has two types of visitors : returning readers and first time visitors. Returning readers already know what to expect on your blog and come to your site for its content and for what you write. First time visitors, (mostly search engine visitors), come because they are looking for something particular, look at the page, and leave.

The returning visitors should be treated as premium members because they spread word about your blog and link to you. Anyways they are least likely to click on your advertisements. So no point in showing a lot of adsense advertisements to them and put them off. I shall rather show them CPA advertisements to them as they trust my blog.

Whereas one time visitors are most likely to click on the adsense advertisement as they are looking for something. If I have to monetize my blog with adsense then I shall show the adsense advertisements to these one time visitors. However the compexity of the code required to determine if the visitor is a regular user or onetime user deterred me from using this strategy.

However now you can control the display of the advertisements using who sees ad plugin for wordpress

While inserting the adsense code you just mention what type of user can see the ad. The plugin takes care of everything else.

Topics: Plugin, Tools, Uncategorized

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$10,000 College Scholarship for student bloggers

If you are a student and you have a blog, then you may consider applying for a $10,000 scholarship at College Scholarships.

You need to submit a 300 word essay answering the following questions
* If you nominated a friend, what makes them and their blog so special?
* What is the most interesting or inspiring blog post you have ever read? Why did you find it inspiring?
* How have you used blogging to help yourself or others?
* What is the most powerful social change you have seen come out of blogging?
* Why did you start blogging? What does blogging mean to you? Why is blogging important to you?

This looks like a really good opportunity for student bloggers.

Topics: Uncategorized

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Speed up wordpress blog by using WP Super Cache

A really successful wordpress blog can consume a lot of server power as each page needs to be dynamically created for each user. Now you can remove the need for doing so by using WP Super Cache plugin.

This plugin generates static html files from the dynamic WordPress blog. Once the file is generated your webserver will serve the static html file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.

Advantages of WP Super Cache

1. It saves server power. If your blog has become popular and you are yet to move to a dedicated server, then you should use this plugin.
2. It will speed up your wordpress blog. That in turn makes the user experience of the blog readers much better. Also a faster blog/website is liked by most search engines, including Google.
3. Static html pages are better than dynamic ones from SEO point of view

Topics: Internet, Plugin, SEO

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wordpress version 2.5.1 is released

Version 2.5.1 of wordpress has been released. I shall check with Tarun to see if he has upgraded to 2.5.1. This version contains one serious security fix.

Topics: News

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