Looking for a Job ? Get a Video Camera

Job seekers in India now have an opportunity to impress employers with their presentation and communication skills without meeting the prospective boss physically - just create a 2 minute video and upload it to Monster.

Monster India, one of of popular job portals here like Naukri.com and TimesJobs, have launched a new feature called "Video Resume" where job applicants can upload video files for free along with their regular text-only  resumes.

Once your video is approved by the system, employers will be able to search and scan the video files like other text resumes.

Video resumes could be a good way to gain the attention of the recruiter when he has to shortlist only some candidates from a list of few hundred resumes. It's the same as adding a picture to your profile on some social networking website - the profile views will be much higher.

The video resume files on Monster India are accepted in most common video formats and can be upto 50 MB in size (less than 2 minutes).

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Convert Web Pages into a PDF Scrapbook with HP Print Add-on

HP Smart Print 2.0 has released a free IE add-on for saving webpages as Adobe PDF files. It also gives you the option to print content from several websites into one PDF file.

Unlike other HTML to PDF convertors which install as a virtual print driver on your system, this HP PDF utility is built on the lines of a "scrapbook" application.

With the smart selection mode turned on, your cursor on the webpage converts into a crosshair - select portions of the webpage that you would like to save as PDF and they are automatically added to the clippings bin on the right.

Once you are done selecting the objects that have to saved as PDF, click the print button and you get an option to either send the printing job to your physical printer or save that as an Adobe PDF file locally.


The addon will automatically determine the best layout that wastes the least amount of paper. If you don't like the layout, change it manually. You can even resize objects. Available at HP.com

Reverse Trick: Convert PDF to HTML or Text

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Real Video Player 11 Can Rip YouTube Videos

The new RealPlayer 11 is like a powerful download manager for Internet Videos - it allows you to watch, download and burn streaming videos clips from YouTube and most other video sharing websites including Google Video and MySpace.

Real Player 11 will put a "Download this video" button on web pages that have embedded video content - you can click the button to start the video download process. Firefox and IE are supported.

Multiple videos can also be downloaded simultaneously and you can even burn the video content onto a CD or a DVD disc using RealPlayer itself.  [related hack: Burn YouTube Videos to DVD]

If you are happy with good-old Firefox extensions for downloading Youtube clips, RealPlayer 11 can even be used as a universal video player to watch videos in Flash, Windows Media, Real and Quicktime formats. [very similar to VLC Media Player]

Related: Save YouTube as QuickTime or MP3

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Save Web Pictures with Firefox in Different Folders Automatically

If you wish to save a picture from some web page onto your hard drive, you generally right-click that image, browse to the local folder where you want to store the picture and click save.

Firefox, by default, will always show the last selected folder in the "Save Image As" dialog.

This is fine as long as you dump all images downloaded from the internet to a single folder but the problem occurs when you are more organized and like to arrange pictures in logical folders (like pets, wallpapers, screenshots, etc)

That's when the "Save Image in Folder" extension comes in handy - This extension helps you to quickly save images into different folders without having to click through your folder structure again and again.

The standard Save Image dialog can be suppressed and the image downloads happen in the background. You may also add date-prefix to the file name or define any custom filenames that will auto-increment with each new download.

Save Image in Folder | Download Latest Version | Thanks Keith

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Download Apple Safari for Windows

Apple Safari is now available for Windows an the default search engine is set to Google.

Safari installation on Windows was a snap. The inbuilt RSS reader is excellent and the browser is pretty fast - Apple claims that Safari loads web pages up to 2 times faster than IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2.

However, there were some issue with the fonts - the Safari Toolbars and bookmarks are all appearing in overlapping numbers and symbols. Possibly I am missing some Apple font or the Helvetica Fractions font is corrupted. Anyone else noticed this ?

Another missing feature in Safari Windows is "email webpages" - Mac users can email full copies of websites (including images) while Windows users can only send the link of the current webpage.

You will love the "Private Browsing" feature of safari - when turned on, the sites that you visit are not added to the browser's history and searches are not saved in the Google box.

This is the second Apple software on my Windows PC after the iTunes-Quicktime combo and the fifth web-browser after IE, Firefox, Maxthon and Opera.

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Remove Unwanted Items from Firefox Right-Click Menu

When you do a fresh installation of Firefox, the contextual menu (which appears when you right click) is tiny and pretty containing only the most essential menu items such Save Image, Copy Email Address, View Page Source, Copy Link Location, Search Google for, etc.

But things change as you add new Firefox extensions.

For instance, I have six Firefox extensions (FireBug, DownloadThemAll, JSView, ScrapBook, Yoono, FlashGot) and they have all added several new items to the right-click menu.

The contextual Firefox menu wore a cluttered and extremely confusing look until I installed Menu Editor - a must have Firefox extension.

As the name suggests, Menu Editor lets you rearrange (move) existing menu-items, group similar commands or remove items that you rarely use (e.g., View Page Source is useless for non-techies and they can safely hide it).

You can also use the Menu Editor extension to re-arrange and trim your Firefox Menu bar on the top (that has the File, Edit, Help commands)

The extension definitely makes you feel more productive because, with the junk removed, you'll find the frequently used menu items much much faster. [See the Firefox contextual menu after the Menu Editor treatment - much better]

Menu Editor [Access it from the Firefox Add-ons Dialog]

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Adobe Acrobat 8.1 for Office 2007 and Windows Vista

Adobe today released an Acrobat 8 patch that makes this popular PDF writer compatible with Microsoft Office 2007 programs and Windows Vista.

Other than the new PDFmaker add-on for Office 2007, the second most exciting feature is the PDF Preview Handler - you can now view PDF files in Office Outlook 2007 as well as in Windows Explorer on Windows Vista without starting Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

See related guide: The Best Adobe PDF Tools

Acrobat 8.1 too sports the new Office 2007 style Ribbon UI - we are likely to see more and more vendors adapting to the new Office Ribbon especially when their application is tied to Office applications.

Organizations who have shifted to Office 2007 may be desperately waiting for Acrobat 8.1 since the Save as PDF plugin, available for free from Microsoft, doesn't work with Outlook emails which is like a lifeline for most Office users.

User who do not have Acrobat 8.0 Professional or Standard version may download the new version of Adobe Reader 8.1 to view PDF documents.

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Create Photo Greeting Cards with Flickr Pictures and Your Text

PictureSandbox Cards is a new online tool from FlickrCash (read review) to help you create and send personalized photo greeting cards with your own text and Images from Flickr.

The interface is intuitive - search the images from Flickr database (you can also limit search results based on Creative Commons license), add some text and the photo card turns into a webpage.

Here's a sample greeting card created from the the profile pictures of MyBlogLog visitors.

PictureSandbox Cards - Flickr Photo Greeting Cards.

Very neat implementation and the card is free of any advertising banners (for now) Wish the future releases have an option to change color schemes and photo frame borders.

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Measure Your Touch Typing Speed and Accuracy

Fingerjig is an interesting typing game (done in Flash) to help you calculate your touch typing speed as well as word accuracy.

The typing speed test will run at different levels for six minutes though you can take breaks and your score (word per minute, letter typed, etc) will be displayed after each level.

The word length gets larger as you cross levels.

Fingerjig by Jon Miles [picture: ed]

Typing tip - try to improve your net words per minute by making fewer typing mistakes - experiment with typing a bit slower.

Typing Tutor Software, Online Touch Typing Games

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yPen - An Online Text Notebook, Simple but Useful

Do not confuse yPen with sophisticated notebook applications like Google Notebook or the more feature-rich Zoho Notebook.

yPen, like other online clipboards, is just a quick tool for creating text notes online inside a neat and minimalistic interface.

No registration or browser add-ons required - just type (or copy-paste) the text in the available space and it stays there forever.

You can access your text notes via a unique URL.  And there's no save button, everything you type is automatically saved.

yPen is different from other note-taking applications in the sense that it sports a tabbed interface and therefore several text clippings can be entered on the same webpage organized as tabs (equivalent to sections or pages in Microsoft OneNote 2007)

For developers, yPen also has an API to create or read yPen notes inside your application or widget.

Goto yPen [Make and Share Notes] Developer Blog | yPen API

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Add Dynamic Charts or Graphs to Web Pages In Picture Format

We have discussed several Flash based solutions in the past to help you embed animated graphs and charts to your site without any programming.

Flash charts are preferred over static image chance since they the former are visually more appealing and data-driven - if the underlying data changes, you don't have to redraw the chart.

The disadvantage of Flash charts is that they require Flash plugin and therefore the charts may be visible inside email messages or news readers since they do not render Flash.

 

Zoho Sheet offers an elegant solution to this problem - their graphic engine lets you create dynamic charts and graphs in image format which you can also resize and embed in your blog pages just like any other web graphic.

Here's how you do it:

1. Create a Zoho sheet and fill it with tabular data.

2. Click the Chart icon and select the chart type [Column, Bar, Stack, Pie, Bubble, Line Charts and so on]

3. Once you have the chart, resize it to fit your site layout and click the "publish" link on the chart. This will create a public URL of that chart that points to a PNG image.

Use that anywhere in message boards, emails, blogs, etc. While this image may look static, it's actually drawn with the latest data in your spreadsheet - if that changes, you will see a new image.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets have also added impressive charting capabilities but they do not allow embedding yet though you can download the rendered chart from Google Docs as an image.

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Search Engine Optimization Tips from Google Search Evangelist

Adam Lasnik share some basic but useful SEO tips with WSJ on how businesses can improve their website rankings in search engines. [You many know Adam from the Google Webmaster Central blog]

The video is around 3 minutes but if you don't have the headphone, here's a quick text recap:

1. Use Descriptive Title Tags - they are more likely to appear higher in the search results plus they have a high probability of getting clicked. [The Title that Adam suggested had close to 10 words]

2. Meta tags, which contain the description and keywords, are also very important for good rankings. This kind of contradicts our previous understanding.

3. Meta Descriptions are also essential since they show up right beneath the page title in Google Search pages. Be patient once you apply Title Tags and Meta Description tags.

4. Link Building - If you are a new website facing the Google Sandbox effect, get a link from some trusted site in your niche or product area and that automatically boosts the confidence of Google in your new site.

5. Use Google Webmaster Console - another very useful tool for site owners. via

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Practice and Learn Keyboard Shortcuts with Keyboard Jedi

We all agree that keyboard shortcuts (like the Ctrl+C for Copy) speed up our computing experience but how do we memorize or master the various key combinations when software program (like Firefox, IE, iTunes, Word, Windows) has their own set of keys.

If you also need help learning keyboard shortcuts for any Windows application, a free utility called Keyboard Jedi can come in very handy.

No, this software is not any visual overlay or a diagram of keyboard shortcuts but something entirely different - it puts you in a situation where you have no option but to learn the shortcuts in order to complete your task - just like the strict teacher in the school.

Start any application and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12. Keyjedi will disable your mouse only for that application. Whatever shortcuts you type will appear in a small transparent window.

The purpose is to this mouseless mode to force yourself to learn keyboard shortcuts instead of using the mouse. Press ctrl-alt-shift-f12 again to regain mouse control.

Roy Osherove [Developer of Keyboard Jedi]

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Windows Installer Issue: When Programs Refuse to Uninstall

Sometimes when you try to uninstall some software using the Add/Remove programs module in the control panel to free up disk space, the Windows Installer will ask you to specify the folder that contains the original installation files.

You will also face a similar problem when you are trying to install a new version of the software when a previous version already exists on the machine for which the installer files are no longer available. [the issue is specific to InstallShield Express]

In that case, you are likely to see the following error - "Another Version of this Product Is Already Installed. Installation of This Version Cannot Continue."

I faced this Windows Installer related problem very recently while trying to install Adobe Captivate 3 over an older version. I could not install Captivate 3 as I had deleted the previous installation files from my desktop.
Tried deleting the entries from registry editor and also the program files folder but nothing worked.

Then tried pointing the old installer to the new setup but that threw another error - "the installed product does not match the installation source(s). Until a matching source is provided or until the installed product and source are synchronized, this action can not be performed."

Finally, the following trick worked - extracted the files to a new folder and ran command at the DOS command prompt for force installation:

MsiExec.exe /I installer.msi REINSTALLMODE=voums REINSTALL=ALL

You will have to replace the installer.msi filename] Works like a charm. To be on the safe side, run the setup.exe again to repair/reinstall the installation.

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Online Javascript Beautifier - Unreadable Source Code Demystified

Bookmarklets (like GMailThis, Tumblr, BlogThis!) are beautiful yet mysterious and very confusing.

Their source code is always scrambled (or obfuscated) - therefore people who even have some background in HTML and Javascript programming find it hard to analyze and understand the underlying logic or workflow.

For instance, the cryptic code that follows is a Tumblr Bookmarklet that will post a text snippet, image or video from your current webpage to Tumblr.

javascript:var d=document,w=window,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection, x=d.selection, s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)), f='http://www.tumblr.com/share',l=d.location, e=encodeURIComponent,p='?v=3&u='+e(l.href) +'&t='+e(d.title) +'&s='+e(s), u=f+p; try{if(!/^(.*\.)?tumblr[^.]*$/.test(l.host))throw(0); tstbklt();}catch(z) {a =function(){if(!w.open(u,'t','toolbar=0, resizable=0,status=1, width=450,height=430'))l.href=u;}; if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent)) setTimeout(a,0);else a();}void(0)

Now if we format or beautify the same code with proper indents, linebreaks and whitespaces, it would be more readable and make sense to most developers. See the same Tumble Bookmarklet code but reformatted:

javascript: var d = document,
w = window,
e = w.getSelection,
k = d.getSelection,
x = d.selection,
s = (e ? e(): (k) ? k(): (x ? x.createRange().text: 0)),
f = 'http://www.tumblr.com/share',
l = d.location,
e = encodeURIComponent,
p = '?v=3&u=' + e(l.href) + '&t=' + e(d.title) + '&s=' + e(s),
u = f + p;
try {
    if ( ! /^(.*\.)?tumblr[^.]*$/.test(l.host))
        throw(0);
    tstbklt();
}
..[snip]..
void(0)

This was done using the free online beautifier tool for javascript available at http://elfz.laacz.lv/beautify/? - it's an open source PHP script that you are free to use on your own server.

For formatting code written in PHP, CSS, etc, you may try the prettyprinter.de/ - similar to Javascript beautifier but gives more options for formatting the output.

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Make GMail the Default EMail Client in Firefox

Vamsi Kiran is using Firefox as his default web browser but when he clicks some email hyperlink (mailto:) on the web, IE opens up with the Yahoo! Mail homepage.

Vamsi would like to see the GMail compose window open up inside Firefox (not Internet Explorer) when he clicks any email hyperlink on web pages.

Download the free Google Talk chat application and open the options dialog. You'll see a general setting that says "Open GMail When I click on Email Links" - select that and exit.

This will set Gmail as your default mailto: handler. This means that when you click on any hyperlinked email address, a Gmail compose window will open in your default web browser. The To: address field will be prepopulated with email address.

This trick works if you are in IE - the GMail compose window would open inside Firefox. To make this work inside Firfox, implement this small change:


1. Type about:config in the address bar.
2. Type mailto: and hit enter.
3. You'll see a setting called network.protocol-handler.external.mailto that is set to false. Double click it to toggle the value to true.

Related reading: Replace Outlook with GMail, GMail This! Bookmarklet

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How to Send Spam Using Google Alerts

Spammers have found a very simple way to trick GMail spam filters - they use Google News Alerts.

It is quite easy send spam mail using the Google Alerts service:

Goto google.com/alerts and type your (spam) message text inside the alert box. The message can be upto 256 characters long and you may also include URLs.

Enter the email address of the person you wish to spam and hit "create alert" -  GMail will never mark this message as spam even if contains words like viagra pills because it originated from a valid and known email address - googlealerts-noreply@google.com

And there's little use marking this message as Spam since the "from" address in the Google Alerts Confirmation email is owned by Google itself and therefore your "Report Spam" action is unlikely to have any effect.

If someone is new to Google Alerts, he may easily fall in the trap and click the URL which could lead him to malicious websites.

Either Google should disallow URLs in the alert text (like they do in YouTube comments) or format it in such a manner that it stays as plain text (non clickable).

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Feeling Lucky ? Download Google Wallpapers for your Desktop

Some beautiful wallpaper backgrounds for Google fans:  [Resolution: 1024x768]

Addition Wallpaper Resources:

   Desktop Wallpapers for Widescreen Monitors

   Vista Wallpaper Background Set

   Adobe Creative Suite Wallpapers [all sizes]

   Turn Microsoft Outlook into a Desktop Wallpaper

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Search Flickr Photos & Download them in a Batch

Flickr provides an excellent picture search engine but the question is - what do you with images that appear in Flickr picture search results ?

Enter FlickrStorm Photo search, an online Flickr search tool packed with some extremely useful features that also has the answer to the previous question.

When you perform a search on FlickrStorm, pictures appearing in the search results can be added (via drag-n-drop) to a virtual picture tray (similar to Picasa desktop software).

Every picture tray has a unique public URL that you can share on blogs or over email. If you want to save all the selected Flickr photos offline, open the URL and use the File->Save As command of the browser - all pictures will download to your hard disk in one go.

FlickrStorm also maintains a history of pictures that you have clicked on while navigating the search results - no more clicking the back and forward button on the web browser - everything is there in the history bar.

Flickr Storm - Search on Flickr with some Magic

More Flickr Goodies » FlickrCash Search, Download Flickr Images in a Batch, Flickr Leech

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Orkut now a Feed Reader; RSS Acceptance Will Grow

Google had added basic feed reading capabilities inside Orkut. You can type in the RSS feed address and read the posts without leaving Orkut.

Your favorite RSS feeds will show up in your profile and hence other Orkut friends can easily subscribe to your reading list.

Orkut has a huge base and this could be another big step in introducing RSS to the masses - people who have never heard of "feeds" will be curious to learn about the technology when they see a "feeds" link on their profile pages. Anand has a similar opinion.

Orkut feed reader may also serve as a cache when the original post is deleted by the blogger. Here's what the Orkut Feeds Help says:

If you Once a feed has been crawled, the content cannot be deleted from orkut. For example, last week you wrote a blog post that was crawled by orkut's feed reader and appeared in your profile. If you delete the post today, it will still show up as part of your orkut feed.

Facebook also has a similar RSSBook application.

Join me on Orkut | DI Community on Orkut

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