Enthiran countdown starts

Only Rajini's fans will know exactly how the feel is for watching Enthiran.

I Have never missed first day show for any of the rajini's movie till date. I was more worrying like my friends in India will see before me. But it's releasing in USA today evening:) booked the tickets. Counting every single nano seconds.

Today's Free IPhone APP

Hi,
I shall try to post more deals everyday as per my free time. To start with today's deal I have seen "Gemini Drop" game app for iPhone/iPad as free. This is usually $.99. Limited offer hurry.

This game is to beat him to rush for power ups and not to be trapped when the screen lowers down. We can play with accelerometer or with touch buttons.

Version History in Google Docs

Dear Readers,

I am not sure how many of you are using Google Docs, but i use it often to share some documents with my friends. It has many great features which i will try to cover in my blog if i get time. As i always say Google's long time goal is to use only internet as like your Personal PC. You no need to carry anything, everything will be in your account online.

Taking "U" turn to our topic, Google doc team has recently introduced this feature. We can now view the saved previous version of our documents and jump into it if we need to goto previous version. We can also compare the difference b/w various versions. Let's see how.

1. Login to Google Doc

2. Open any saved document and click on File-->See Version history (As shown below)

3. You will be taken to new screen where you can see the various version of your documents. You can see what changes you have made either by clicking on the hyper link or by comparing with different versions.

4. To compare the content b/w various versions, select any two or more versions and click on the Compare button below. It will give you the changes that are made with respect to the selected versions.

Halloween Effects in Picasa Webalbum

Dear Readers,

As i said in my earlier post Google had an agreement with Picnik online photo editing tool on which all our picasa web album images can be edited. Picnik is a great online tool for editing your photos. As Halloween is nearing picnik has added a new effects thru which we can make our pictures more scary and funny.

Let's see how to do it. 

1. Login to Picasa web album and select any of your favorite photo to add this effect. I recommend you to select  any image which has the close up image of you or your friends.

2. Once the picnic tool is loaded (It will take 10-15 seconds to load) click on Create Tab at the top.

3. Once you select create tab click on Featured option below that. It will give list of effects that we can add to our photos. I have chosen couple of effects. Try with your own to make the photo's more scary.

Expand or merge conversations in Gmail - New feature

Dear Readers,

When we offer something  to users we should always offer them with choice. We cannot say to user like this is the new feature that i have introduced/discovered. A part of people will accept and a part of people will not.

Gmail team earlier they have given this feature by default. Ie., Merging the conversation with same subject line. Users are not given any other option. Finally we are used to it. Now considering everyone they have redesigned this option by leaving the choice to user to either turn it on or off. 

If you are the one who doesnt like the feature that was existing for years then you can follow the below steps to disable that.

1. Goto Settings --> General --> Click on "Conversation View Off"

Top American graduates heading to India for employment

IE9 hiding previous visited website

IE9 is rocking in the browsing world when compared to it's previous version of IE8. Though it gives many more extended features there is a feature which will not be liked by all users. It's nothing but showing the previous visited webpage when opening a new tab.

If you are one of the user who doesn't like this feature then we can disable that by the simple steps. 

1. Goto Tools --> Internet Options and under general tab click as shown in the figure. At step3 in the picture choose "A blank Page" as an option from the drop down menu. 

This way you can avoid opening previous visited webpage in IE9.

# sign in Excel

This could be simple tip to an expert in excel but smart tip for a beginner. In excel often when manipulating some figures & Values we use to get # sign instead of the actual value. A beginner thinks like he did a mistake in copying.

Whenever i handle any currency validation/manipulation i use to see as below. By seeing the figure you might have recalled the one which you might have faced in past.

The reason for showing # sign is, there is no enough room to display the figure in column C. If you see Q4 under column C $987,765 has enough room but other's doesn't have such room. Now we should just double click on the Column C on which the arrow is marked (i.e., the edge of the column) or in technical terms just expand the column C. You will be seeing the values as mentioned below. 

14 Useful websites for Students

Dear Student Friends,

It's Microsoft who initiated the bond with you all and it's technology. Always this bond is very strong and Microsoft keeps giving more student programs to keep you updated with it's technology.

A student partnership program is the best example that i can say you now. Microsoft has given 14 best useful websites for students.

Web Literacy and general Reference

Information Literacy 

Internet Public Library 

Reference Desk 

Fact Monster

Microsoft Download Center

Microsoft Students Experiment

English and History

Free Translation

Project Gutenberg

Internet History Source book project

NovelGuide

Shakespeare online

Match & Science

Math

Science Made Simple

How Stuff Works

I wish Google to come up with more programs like this. 

Touch pad blocker

Yes, I use to type fast as i have some short hand training when i was 18. Incase if i use external keyboard then i never faced any issues with my typing but now in notebook it's not the case. We will be typing very fast by seeing the keyboard, once we look at the monitor on mid either we might have typed in wrong place or in some other window. This is because we might have accidentally touched the touch pad in notebook.  98% of notebook users have the same issue.

What could be the best solution? Can we disable the touch pad and type it? If so, how do we use mouse in notebook? How about locking the touch pad for a small duration whenever a key is pressed? mmm sounds good.

Touchpad blocker is a new software which allows notebook users to lock the touch pad for a small interval of time when any key in the keyboard is pressed.

Click here to download let's get rid of this issue in your notebook.

Kids Question

Dear Readers,

Often i face this issue with kids. Couple of years ago i remember i was playing with my uncle's son. He was just 4 years old and suddenly he questioned me "Bhaiya, what is time?" I was finding all possible way to explain him what is time as he is 4 yrs and need to understand. Can you try to answer to this question immediately? mmmm i know it's bit complicated answer to explain to a kid. Some how i managed him and explained with my watch.  

I always spend most of my time with kids, the reason is we can learn more from them. Truly speaking i learnt many English words when i started to talk in English with kids. Yes, some of basic words which we can easily talk with our mother language is bit tough when we speak in English.

I just gave an example on the above but in practical life there are many kids questions which we cannot find answers easily. Till now many of us don't know why do we have 24 hours in a clock. How do they define it. In such scenario i found the below website is very useful. We can get many good answers for simple questions. Just give a try.

Click here to start reading answers to kids question.

Abbu's Ranking for this site is 4/5.

Better Video Chat in Gmail

All,

Recently this new video chat enhancement is been added into gmail labs. This enables us to do a bigger chat with our pals.

To avail this feature please goto settings--> Labs --> Enable the below pictured feature.

Screening Calls in Google Voice

Dear Readers,

Google Voice has given much more features to it's users like us. Everyday new feature is Google's formula. Having Google voice# has became mandatory as like having email address. The ultimate feature in Google voice is call screening.

Initially when a call is received to your Google voice# the caller should first say their name and we can accept the call either with their name/ display#. In case if we are busy and couldn't attend/wanna ignore the call we just need to press the Screen button which is displayed on your screen/ we can just press 4 in your phone to move the call to voice mail box. 

What's new in this? I know this could be the question from you. The new thing in this feature is, when you press screen/4 the call will goto voice mail and by pressing the button 4/Screening we can hear the person's message to the voice mail box without bothering him/her. :) mmmm... Now we should say WOW :)

See you soon.

Google Calender Desktop Notification

Dear Readers,

I am sorry for the delay in my post. As my mom was going to india and i was busy with her packing. She is travelling safe now. On behalf of my readers i wish her safe & happy journey.

If you are not aware or not used Google calender till date then you really missed something which you should have not :(.

Yes, Google calender is one of the good and daily use product in our day to day life. It's an awesome application from Google. You will get a summary of your daily event on your start of the day, you can synchronize your Google calender event with any of your smart phones +++++ we can keep adding many features like this. It also has some disadvantage like we cannot snooze the event and we cannot dismiss the event as like Microsoft outlook has. But we know about Google, it always gives you the outstanding feature compared with others. We hope for the best soon.

Today i am gonnna show the recent feature which gives desktop notification about your scheduled events in your Google calender.

Please follow the below steps for the same.

Note: You should have Google chrome to enable this function.

Step1: Open Chrome and enable the notification option by choosing Tools –> Options –> Under the Hood –> Content settings --> Notifications--> "Ask me when a site wants to show desktop notifications.

Step2: Don't think you will get notification now, you just need to enable it in your Google calender. Open Google Calender and click on Settings--> Calender Settings--> Labs--> Click on Enable for "Gentle Remainders" 

Step3: Once you click on Save you will be requested with a message box stating do you want to allow or not. click on Allow.

Step4: Once you allow the notifications you will get your alerts on your desktop as shown below.

See you soon :) Have  a good day.

Missed Call Notification of Google Voice to your Email

Dear Readers,

Imagine you are away now and you have unfortunately routed your Google voice calls to your home#. Your friend is calling your Google voice# and didn't leave voice mail :(. In this scenario you will not be able to see the missed calls unless until you login to Google voice or you reach your home. 

What could be the resolution or an alternate facility that Google can do it for you? Before you put this question Google has the answer for you :). Yes, you can get all missed calls notified to your subscribed email id. All you want to do is just enable this option.

Go to settings--> Calls --> Check the option as mentioned below.

Receive incoming calls in Gmail Chat

Dear Readers,

I hope after gmail introduced a new feature to place calls to anywhere in the world, everyone might have started creating your own Google Voice#. mmmm Sounds good.

I have read / heard a statement like "Only a lazy person can find the shortest route for a complex problem", Yes that's true in all the scenario. Let me stop with these philosophy. Jumping into the point directly, today's post is on how to receive incoming calls thru gmail chat.

Yesterday i was sitting in front of my laptop and my phone in bedroom was on the charger. When i received the call by the time i answered the call it went to voice mail :(. Yes i was walking slowly unfortunately. Then i started thinking how come Google didn't introduce any new feature for this??? Google'd and found the resolution.

Yes, We can now receive and place calls thru gmail chat itself. In case if your phone is away you will be able to answer your calls thru your laptop on gmail chat to your Google voice#.

You should enable this feature by going into Settings--> Voice settings and under Phones Check the box which states forwards to Google Chat.

Now if you receive any calls both your phone and Google chat will receive your calls simultaneously.

Knowing your password strength & Free ringtone for mobile phones

Dear Readers,

Today i have got a chance to view couple of useful websites. This post is about that.

• Knowing your password security:

If you have only 2 online web id's then you are the most lucky person in this world. Wow!!! Are you happy now? Hold on, If you have only 2 online id's then you may be happy but alternatively it means that you don't have much exposure to the present world. 

In the present world even a student will have 1 login id, Personal PC id, 1/2email id, online bank id, social network id. These became mandatory + necessary for a student at least. Now think about a professional person. He will be having 10+ id as minimum. As you all know that keeping a similar password is not recommended and can be easily hacked. Alternatively remembering  password also matters.

But how do we know we have chosen a strong password? Simple, every online sites offer this when you try to create password.  mmmm, now can we think how secure our password is with respect to the strength of the password.

Click here to know how secure is your password.They calculate the cracking time as ‘number of possible characters’ to the power of ‘length of the password’ divided by‘calculations per second‘.

If you are really interested to know more on the programmatic way of calculation click here.

• Free Ringtone for your mobile:

We are living in the world of technology. Usage of mobile is like equivalent to tissues @ our house. Without mobile not even a kid is okay to live. Sending SMS, making calls, having chat, browsing etc etc teens love it. 

Having a ringtone is very easier now a days. Assigning ringtones for various groups such as family members, Friends, Office etc is really an interesting + funny.

This site allows you to upload your favorite song and cut your lovely part finally assign it. Wow!!! You love it i know. What are you waiting for? Click here to start creating it.

Creating Collage in Picasa

My Dear Readers,

If i didn't post this topic today i am sure that my good friend Krishna is gonna kill me on Tuesday once he met me in office. Yes, he has requested me to post on how to create collage image for more than 10 times at least. Today the time has arrived finally.

Let's jump into the short and smart steps to know how it is.

1. Open Picasa and import photo's into it. If you don't know how to import photo's into picasa please watch the below video.

2. Once the photo's are imported, select the photo's (Ctrl+Click) whichever you want to have it in collage, I strongly recommend you to select around 10-15 photo's as it will not look good if you select more or less.

3. Once the photo's are selected click on the Create "Create photo Collage/Collage" button as circled in the below image.

4. Collage image is created randomly and a new tab will be opened call it as "Collage" in your picasa window. Click on any of the images will give you the wheel which will allow you to Adjust the scale and angle of the photo by clicking and dragging the wheel button. Hold the mouse button at the point as shown in the below image and move away for bigger image, towards to shrink the image.

5. Feel free to move your images anywhere you want. I recommend you to make your pictures in different angle. Don't make the photo's as like rows and columns instead make it with different angle. This it will look more attractive and creative.

6. If you want any of the image to set as background just right click and choose the option "Set as Background". Remember it's not for desktop background, it's for your collage image's background.

7. Incase if you want Mix up the photo's Click on "Scramble Collage"/if you want to shuffle the images click on "Shuffle Pictures". These options will appear in the bottom of your Collage image. (See the image under 8th point)

8. If you wish to apply different styles to your collage images, Just Click on the drop down menu under settings tab then choose your style.

9. Click on "Create Collage" to create the image, Once the image is created the effects that we can apply will appear. Incase if you want to apply any effects select and apply it else click on Library and view the collage that we have created now.

10. Don't forget to leave comment about this tutorial.

Krishna, Please owe a lunch for me now.

Typing in Indian languages - Gmail

All,

My college friends Vijay, Mani, prakash and my school friend dharma, sethu etc use to give laughing comments on emails which sometimes makes hard to understand as they type in English directly on Tamil words.

Eg: ena da pandra (What are you doing). 

May be they might have not noticed the gmail feature which allows us to type in English then it converts automatically into many Indian language just by enabling it. Let's see how to do the same.

• Click on Settings once you sign in
• Under General tab click click on "Show all Language options" under language.

• Now you can Enable which language you wanna by default (I choose as Tamil) and click on "Save Changes" at the bottom.

Setup is done, Click on Compose email you will see the language tab as shown below. Just click on that and start typing your body of the email in English Eg: Enna. Giving space after Enna will change to appropriate language that you have chosen.

Gmail Priority Inbox

All,

As i said you in one of my earlier post, i use to have atleast 10 email accounts for various purpose, such as leaving comment on any online page, newsletters, personal, job search etc. I know you might have raised a question to yourself on me like "How do i manage all these?" Simple!!! I check the emails everyday :) and clear my inbox. If i miss one day then it will make me to sit in the hell.

Among 95% of email users will not do as i did, i know. Maintaining one account and remembering the password itself is like waslking on a rope to cross two tall building. The point is you have only one email account but receiving 1000+ emails everyday(including deals, newsletters etc). And how do you ensure that you have read some important emails. Missing some important email chances are high if you handle your mail box like this.

Now what's the solution???? I left this question to Google! Finally they came up with a smart solution : Priority Inbox!!! Wow!

Priority Inbox is a similar kind of inbox but it will hold only some important emails as per your settings. Yes, we have filter option i agree but this is different with filters or we can call it as advanced filter technique :).

Mailes will be held for your special attention in your priority inbox and all you need to do is just check this priority inbox regularly. This way you will be having less time to spend on reading 1000+ un important emails.

Gmail by itself analyze your inbox and give some sugession to add the emails as priority inbox emails with respect to the existing and frequent emails flow from your inbox. All you need to do is click on +/- to move the emails to priority inbox.

Let's see how to configure the same.

• Once you login to your gmail at top right corner you will see New Feature Pirority Inbox.
• Click on that, Google will analyze your existing emails in your inbox and give it's suggesion to add some emails to importance. Incase if you don't want click on "-" sign on the window.
• Goto Settings-->Priority inbox  as shown below to change your settings. Incase if you don't like this feature and decided to hide the priority inbox just click on "Do not show priority inbox" radio button as shown below.

If you have some filters already you can either override that or else you can leave that existing.

• To add some emails quickly to priority inbox, just open the email and click on +/- button as shown below to add or remove from priority inbox.

Nice Ad

I love this ad :) Thanks to my Friend Jackie for sharing this.

Stop tracking your Voice & Video Chat by Google

Dear All,

Hope by now everyone might have started calling your friends of US & Canada by unlimited free calls feature offered by Google. Wow!!! Hope for this feature extension and more like this from google.

Gmail offers us to do video chat and voice chat to all it's existing & new users. To sever better google always have a tracking system by default to know about any discrepancy in it's services. In this way all your voice and video chat is tracked by google and In case if the system finds any poor quality or video transfer rate then it automatically set an alert to its system.

Google then investigates in the background to ensure there is no issues with this feature instead there could be other reasons like poor bandwidth, hardware issues etc., in your PC.

This feature comes as a default. If you don't like Google to trace your voice and video chat we can always disable this feature by 3 simple steps.

1. Goto Settings in your right top corner of gmail main window

2. Select Chat tab

3. Un-check "Report quality statistics to help improve Gmail voice and video chat"