Tech FREAKY - beta

Today I want to ponder the question: what if Microsoft, not Google,
had created Gmail? What would be the differences in that web mail
client for users today? What if we apply some of the same design rules
that brought us Hotmail, for instance?

To start, here’s the current Gmail homepage after you log-in:

First of all, we need to rebrand the
application name to something longer. Let’s call this Windows
Live Gmail, and add some of the visual elements connected with Windows.
Also, as in Hotmail, there needs to be less space for the email
subjects to make place for a reading pane, which is full of verbose
explanatory help text*:

*Not shown in the screenshot, we’ll also
throw in a security measurement that will prevent you from clicking on
links in emails, unless you discovered the switch to mark a mail as
safe. Another security measurement we’ll add is that you
won’t be able to log-in with just username anymore but are required to enter the full username@gmail.com. Furthermore, we will change the browser URL from http://gmail.microsoft.com to the more professional looking http://by114w.bay114.gmail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx?rru=home.

For another design iteration in our inbox,
we will need to camouflage the checkboxes next to the messages by
putting a mail icon on top of them. Also, we need to break up messages
from conversation threads into their individual parts. Furthermore,
this version of Gmail needs to change from context-aware text ads to
context-unaware graphic banners, which we’ll require to carry at
least one clip art. Gmail currently has a chat box which I don’t
use and thus find annoying, so I think we can build on that and expand
it to a more full-featured chat widget, replacing the labels box.
We’ll also adjust the spam filter slightly to show a couple of
more bulk mails in the inbox:

There’s still not enough banner
space available though, so let’s add a top row for ads and move
the rest a bit more down. Also, to go back to the real Microsoft
spirit, the inbox will now carry a maximum of 2 MB of messages –
that was the amount Hotmail offered when Gmail was released with 1 GB
in April 2004. Also, Microsoft-style, the actual start page of this
service will not be the inbox, but a “welcome” splash
screen. Please imagine the ads blinking at this point:

Somehow, this still misses part of the
Microsoft feeling – the current design is just too bright &
light, and it doesn’t have enough glamor. I’ll darken the
colors a bit and add some smooth shades. Also, admittedly, Hotmail is a
bit slower than Google’s competing service, so we’ll add
some “loading” messages. Usually there’s less focus
on unclutteredness with the Redmond guys, so we’ll add some MSN
news bits and “special offers” where space is left. Plus,
to increase user lock-in, let’s get rid of the “sign
out” link. I’m also putting less emphasis on search, moving
the box to the bottom right and replacing it with a dog:

Voila, we’re done… that was easy!
Your potential, their passion. Coming up tomorrow: “What if
Microsoft had designed Windows Vista.” Stay tuned!
By…..

Reasons



There are several reasons for a pc or a laptop becoming slow. I am not
considering virus activity here, I am concerning only to general
maintenance.



1)The most frequent reason is having many programs running on the
computer at the same time. If you look at the right corner of windows
task bar, you will find icons of programs currently running on your
computer. Close down unnecessary programs whenever not necessary. Also
if you disable some programs from startup it will save some memory for
other programs. Usually necessary programs include the anti virus, anti
spyware, firewall , modem etc. whereas you can safely remove programs
such as computer games, adobe reader speed launch, picasa media
detector, ms office, and any other such programs from startup. You can
start open those programs from programs menu whenever you need to run
them.



2) To a certain extent screen savers and desktop wall papers consume
RAM. You can turn off screen saver, and set the wallpaper to blank





3) If you have important work to do on your computer and it is not
running as you’d expec then you should consider removing any Computer
Games that are installed on your computer. (Not the ones that come
preinstalled with windows and listed under accessories >
Entertainment.)

In this situation you simply can not affort the luxury to have computer
Games. Either you should uninstall all Games or consider yourself
buying a more Powerful computer.



4) Another reason of computer running slow is having less space on hard
disk, particularly on the C partition where windows is usually
installed. If there is very little space and you are getting messages
that there is no space left on C drive or messages that Virtual Memory
is too low, then that can be a cause of computer slowing down.



5) Fragmented or scattered files can cause a slight delay in computer operation.



6) Another reason of slow down is leftover, obsolete entries in the
windows registry, unused dlls, etc from previously uninstalled
programs. They go on accumulating in your windows registry and on the
hard disk if you do not use a separate registry cleaning software time
to time.



I am listing a few softwares here. ATF cleaner, RegScrubXP , ccleaner
and Advanced Windows Care Personal Free Edition. They are good for
cleaning your daily online cache at the end of the online session,
before closing your computer. Remember that most virus programs enter
your computer as temporary internet files, so if you make it a habit to
delete as much as of it as frequently as possible.



More on using ccleaner



You may need to save some of the browsing history, the urls that you
had visited, and the cookies of your online banking, and other trusted
sites, then you can use ccleaner to keep the cookies. In ccleaner there
is an option under the menu options > Cookies. Cookies to delete and
cookies to keep. You can view a list of all cookies accumulated and
send them in the right panel to mark them to be kept. But in order to
save your cookies you should avoid using other softwares ot tools that
delete cookies. For example in Tools > Internet options >
Internet History > Delete All

If you use the browser’s delete option then it will delete all cookies
. So use only ccleaner for that purpose. But remember that ccleaner has
only some of the options enabled by default. It has so may options,
take your time to understand what it deletes if you have some specific
needs. If you are a casual user then use ccleaner only in its default
options. Let other boxes be unchecked while running cleaner option. But
I have tried to run it with all options checked, and nothing was harmed
on my pc. If you are the adventurous type then yo should explore all
options of ccleaner. If you ever face a virus activity on your computer
at that time remember to run ccleaner with all boxes checked, with one
special setting. Click on Options > Advanced and Uncheck the
checkbox in front of ” Only delete files in windows temp folder older
than 48 hours”

This will remove all temp files.







Solution



Here are some steps you can use to lessen the burden on your computer
making it run faster. (Copy and paste these instructions on your
desktop in a new text file. It will be easier for you to read them
after rebooting your computer, when you are not online)





1) To begin with click on start > run type msconfig. Press ok. Click
on Startup tab. Uncheck names of those programs there that you do not
need at startup. (These settings are reversible, if you uncheck
something and later decide that it is necessary at startup; you can
always come back and change the settings again.) Press Apply. Press
close. Click on restart to reboot the computer. After reboot system
configuration message window appears . Check the box that says do not
display this again, and press ok to close the box.



2) If possible uninstall some programs from your computer which are not
essential.(start > control panel > add/remove programs)



3) Right Click on Desktop > Select properties

Click on Screen Saver. Choose None from the list . Press Apply

Click On Desktop Tab . In the list of Backgrounds select None. Press Apply.

Press Ok to Exit



4) Run cCleaner or AWC Personal to clean your registry and temp files.



5) Run Defrag. start > all programs > Accessories > system tools > disk defragmentor.



6) See to it that there is enough free space left on the hard disk
partition where windows is installed. Copy files elsewhere and delete
them to make space from your hard disk partition where windows is
installed.

You can copy all files from the My Documents Folder and any other
folder you have used to save your text files, music, video, downloaded
files etc. You can copy them to another partition on your hard disk D,
E etc, if there are extra partitions and they have free space.
Otherwise you can copy all on cd/dvds. After making backup delete as
much of them as you do not need frequently from their original
location. This will free up some space on the partition

B KB MB GB
Converter

Convert from a
single Byte
to GigaByte
…

Are you tired of your blog’s default post editor? So am I, and being the kind person that I am, I have put together a list of 15+ blog editor alternatives so you don’t have to put up with that jerk of a editor (excuse the pun). I especially love desktop-based blog editors because they let me write and edit posts offline and off-browser, which minimizes distractions and maximizes productivity. Online editors are also more feature-rich than boring ol’ default post editor in WordPress.

Desktop-based blog editors

1. Qumana Blog Editor - Qumana is an easy-to-use desktop blog editor, enabling you to write, edit and post to one or more blogs.

2. Windows Live Writer - Windows Live Writer Beta is a desktop application that makes it easy to publish rich content to your blog.

3. w.bloggar - The w.bloggar is an application that acts as an interface between the user and one or more blog(s); in other words, it is a Post and Template editor, with several features and resources that the browser based blog editors do not offer.

4. BlogMate - BlogMate is a free, graphical plug-in (+ a bundle too) for the popular TextMate editor that enables creating and editing blog posts for MetaWeblog-enabled blogs, Twitter, and Jaiku accounts from a floating palette within TextMate.

5. BlogDesk - BlogDesk is totaly free of charge and optimized for the blog systems WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, Serendipity and ExpressionEngine as well as the bloghosters Blogg.de and Twoday.net.

6. Bleezer - Bleezer is a powerful blogging client. And it’s free.

7. Post2Blog - Post2Blog 3 is a FREEWARE handy blog editor with live spell-checking support for pro-bloggers.

8. The Zoundry Blog Writer - The Zoundry Blog Writer™ is a full featured editor that makes posting to your blog easier and faster.

9. Thingamablog - Thingamablog is a cross-platform, standalone blogging application that makes authoring and publishing your weblogs almost effortless. Unlike most blogging solutions, Thingamablog does NOT require a third-party blogging host, a cgi/php enabled web host, or a MySQL database. In fact, all you need to setup, and manage, a blog with Thingamablog is FTP, SFTP, or network access to a web server.

10. AIRPress - AIRPress is a rich blog editor based on AIR technology. With AIRPress, you could easily upload media (images, videos, mp3…) without the need of another software or hosting.

Online and browser-based blog editors

11. webpad - webpad is a web-based text editor which gives you access to files from any of the following locations;

• Your own computer (via file upload)
• The server that webpad is installed on (via direct file manipulation)
• Any FTP server (via FTP file operations)
• Any website (via remote file requests)
• Popular blogging tools (Blogger.com, MovableType, TypePad, LiveJournal, blosxom, WordPress)
• Other data sources via a flexible plugin system

12. ScribeFire - ScribeFire (previously Performancing for Firefox) is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog. You can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, and post to your blog.

13. Xinha Here! Firefox Extension - Xinha Here! is a Firefox extension wrapper for the Xinha HTML editor. It enables WYSIWYG editing in any textarea and text box on any website. Xinha Here! opens a Xinha HTML editor in your browser allowing you to edit the data in a WYSIWYG on any website without copying and pasting to secondary HTML editor.

14. Flock - Flock is a social web browser based on Firefox. It lets you easily post anything on your blog with its Blog Editor.

15. WriteToMyBlog - WriteToMyBlog is a free web based word processor for your Blog. Create Post Entries for your Blog from right here, completely free, no membership required, can Post to multiple Blogs simultaneously, manage your Posts, works with all major Blog programs, and is easy-peasy!

16. Google Docs - Free web-based word processor and spreadsheet, which allow you share and collaborate online.

18. WYSIWYG Plugin For Wordpress - This plugin replaces the default Wordpress wysiwyg(what you see is what you get) editor with a more advanced version.

17. FCKEditor for WordPress plugin - This plugin Replaces the default Wordpress editor with FCKeditor.

via bloggingbits.com

Very Interesting Read from CNN SL I-Reports

If you are crazy about Clocks and Numbers, this is the land for you.
This is Clock Island, this small piece of land is located at 88, 75, 45
Urasima. There are crazy numbers walking around and making all
different noises, very fun to take a walk around.
If you are crazy about Clocks and Numbers, this is the land for you.
This is Clock Island, this small piece of land is located at 88, 75, 45
Urasima. There are crazy numbers walking around and making all
different noises, very fun to take a walk around.

According to the CTIA wireless association, an amazing 250-million Americans are now subscribers to some sort of cell phone plan. That’s a massive 82.4 percent of the U.S. population. In some areas of the country, this figure may seem low; it’s rare to be wandering the streets of any major city in the United States and see someone without one. But can you picture cell-addicted-talkers in the plains of Nebraska or the wilds of Northern Alaska? Factor in all the people who live in rural areas, and you still top four out of five people.

This is impressive growth from a merely 20-something-year-old industry. Back in 1987, a little over a million Americans had cell phones. In 1997, the figure was 55 million. Now, it’s 250 million and climbing. Also climbing is data use on cell phones — in 2006, 22-million people subscribed to some sort of high-speed mobile data plan — the kind that lets you use your mobile to surf the Web, download music and video, and send pictures. This is an increase of 600-percent over the previous year alone.

With 2007’s release of the iPhone and a whole slew of other “smart” mobile devices, it looks like that growth will only continue.

From Gearlog

Features:

Network: UMTS / GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

Display: 2.2-inches 16M colors TFT (240 x 320 pixels)

Primary Camera: 3.2 megapixels (Carl Zeiss optics, auto-focus, video, flash)

Secondary Camera: QCIF (176 x 144) video-call camera

Dimensions: 96.5 x 46.5 x 16.4 mm

Weight: 125 g

External memory: microSD (TransFlash)

Internal memory: 20MB

Battery: Li-Ion (Stand-by time: 310hr, Talk time: 6hr)

Others: 3G, Bluetooth 2.0, microUSB, FM radio with RDS, TV-out

Price: ~US$370

Availability: 3rd Quarter 2007