Seize Thy Os

Restoring computer to an original state that was before the fresh install of Windows is one of the worst and most tiring jobs I ever came across. I tried from making an image of my boot partition from another OS(HBCD or some more), to making backups, to making restores. But the saviour I at last found was so good and simplistic in approach that I am not able to believe it even now. Its a mere 6 MB download and it works magic. Every bit of this paid software feels paid back if you really are sick of your cyber-cafe or any computer crashing and getting viruses from other people's use. I don't want you to download it from here! ;-) This is faronics' official website. And the software is called deep freeze. It is one of the best software I've ever seen in the field of computer restoration a mere 6 MB download and it works as magic.
WIKI:

"Deep Freeze is a kernel-level driver that protects hard drive integrity by redirecting information being written to the hard drive or partition, leaving the original data intact. This redirected information is no longer referenced once the computer is restarted, thus restoring the system to its original state at the disk sector level. This allows users to make 'virtual' changes to the system, giving them the appearance that they can modify core files or even delete them, and even make the system unusable to themselves, but upon reboot the originally configured 'frozen' state of the operating system is restored."

Or in human language: it brings your computer to a steady state (you defined before), every time the computer is restarted.

*Just a warning, it shows up in the system tray and if you want to open the admin window double click the window while holding down shift.
Thanks "SakhiBaba"(the cybercafe which got me to know about it) and (sorry I don't know your name)

Chrome Sync

While you are on the way to deserting your PC by formatting, every byte of software to install bites the tech inside you. Drivers, Software, Games, Antivirus, Windows Updates, Tweaks and Settings, arrgggh... In this endeavour your internet browser chrome is bound not to be a burden. I think even a bite of help in such a matter helps the most for me... I will never love to make even a KB of tweak again!
By chance I just synced my chrome just before I decided for a fresh install of windows and it helped me with all of my extensions, bookmarks, apps and more on just click of a button. The only thing not synced being the settings of particular extensions which I think are most of the times are pretty easy to set up!
All you need to do to set up a sync is ->Wrench > >Options > >Personal Stuff Tab > >Sync, just put your G id, password and you are up with your first sync.

* Just BEaware of the consequences if you sync it on someone elses chrome or at a public computer!

Google Mail Storage and Limitations

How much free storage do you really get while being with Google!!
Gmail 7.5 GB and counting.
Picasa 1 GB
GDocs 1 GB
*Free storage from one product cannot be used by or transferred to another product.
*All photos posted to both Google Buzz and Blogger are included in the 1 GB of free storage allotted to Picasa Web Albums.
And further you can always purchase extra storage from them.

Other limitations. Gmail won't allow you to send mails bigger in size than 20 MB, don't think that other email providers such as Rediff provide unlimited Inbox. Mind it they just provide unlimited inbox, not that you can send mails as big as lets say 100MB. So, its just a marketing scheme, whats the use of an unlimited account when all you can do is fill it in the parts of 25 MB.
You can't send an email to more than 25 broken email id's!
You can't send an email to more than 500 people at a time from your browser!
You cant send zip/rar/exe files with Gmail!

Try to do any of the above listed acts and your email id is dead, the penalty may range from barring you from using your account for as long as 24 hours to permanently disabling your account!

Why So Mechanical

The reason why we are so different from children! It has been proved that when we are born we are much more curious than we are by the day. Why, where does it go! Most of the answer lies in the word MECHANICAL, no I am not talking about the branch of engineering. It's all about our behaviour, how many times do you see the google page...... just wait do you remember the order of colours in the logo. Or did you see blogger already has a share button and search box on the top of the page when you were searching for it in the Gadgets box! Or did you ever tried clicking the links "Blogger Buzz/Blogger in Draft" on your very dashboard of Blogger!
If your answer to all/some of the above questions is yes, It means you are curious enough to notice at least your surroundings.
 I've even known people, even in colleges studying technology who've never "Felt Lucky" on the Google Search page. :-o . Can't you have a curiosity level of like, the Google's most simplistic page has a button so it must mean something. Do you know I am Feeling Lucky is the most expensive part of that page!
Have you ever tried to watch how a little boy notices every thing and the simplest of things in his surroundings. 

Privacy Paranoid

Don't think that your friends who try to keep them selves anonymous are paranoid or something like that. What this means is just that they are more practical or sometime they have had a situation which made them learn this! Better learn this the simpler way, as they say "learning from other's mistakes is better than making your own!"
Check this torrent(it says: personal details for 100 million users of facebook) out and you will learn what i am talking about. At this time it has 200 seeds! Awful and awesome it is! I didn't had the courage to download and check out, if I am in the list, I said "Ignorance is Bliss" and moved on! Hi Hi Hi!

Customize Favicon on Blogger

Favicon is the short for favourites icon it is used in URL, bookmarks, shortcuts, tabs and many other places of your website. For the first time it was used by MS IE 5, and after that it has always been a privilege to use them as such! The following screenshot shows the zoomed tab of this blog and its favicon:

favicon

Though the normal interface of blogger doesn't allow you to change it as such but the tech/geeky counterpart that is draft version allows it. First of all head over to http://draft.blogger.com and Under the "Deign" tab and "Page Elements" sub tab. Click on "Edit" just besides the word Favicon which is at the top:

favicon blogger

In the new tab open this or technically talking you have to show where your icon is so if you have an icon ready, point to that or alternately Google for "make favicon online", i prefer you click the link i posted above(just because i found it comprehensive and good). Now on the website(wherever you head to) either make an icon from the scratch by drawing one from the pencil tool, or upload a pic for them to transform that into *.ico file. "Choose file" then press "Go" and either edit the picture or just hit the button "Download Icon". Save the .ico file and point the edit dialog box to the place you saved the icon file.

DON'T forget to save the blogger page. Now your blog must be showing your personal favicon.

If you are not able to see the favicon as was the case with me, you may like to clear the cache of your browser and give it a restart. Here it must be showing up by now!

OpenSource Income

I love open source, and there are so many of them the open source an freeware supporters and promoters! But the problem is when a man or exactly a programmer really gets open source he has got problems surviving the tough market, he has to do what other paid companies do, without even the financial part of the support. And surviving oneself is another thing. And we people who don't even mind using pirated material, when did we get so sensible so as to support those open source developers.
So in these tough conditions one has to decide, having two ways to handle it either take the open source project lightly and make it a side work doing it in your spare time, but this way the product life-cycle takes a back seat hampering the product, after all coding is no fun stuff, it expects dedication; or the other way to manage is leave your work, and make the open source project as your work, expecting your users to provide you with enough to survive! Similar is the condition with Michael Gundlach! I suggest we should never ever let them starve.
If by any chance you have used the AdBlock Extension for Google Chrome(it has a very strong user base of 1,000,000 users and has got 4.5 stars out of 5) , did you ever chanced to click on the link "Did You Know This Is My Full Time Job?"(See Pic Below), i tried finding the link but cant find it any more than just at one place at the options page of AdBlock. I know, AdBlock may be stealing my or any other blogger's revenue generating users by not letting them view ads, still I love to see open source/freeware success stories. Why should blogger's block AdBlock?

Support AdBlock

Download Virus

This was the my search query in the Google Search Engine "Download Virus", a lot of times, and almost all of the times Google disappointed me in my intent. Amazing thing, whenever I tried not to catch a virus flu to my Computer I got notoriously naughty websites which were least trusted by me!
At least I think you can never catch virus by just typing "download virus" in the Google Search query, try on your own RISK! Na na, just joking, go on, give it a try. I didn't knew that virus makers are so cold hearted that they almost every-time have to put their viruses in some archive or exe for hiding, can't they provide just a website where we can download the viruses easily. I am waiting for someone to share a torrent some, thing like:

"Virus.iso" Peers: 2011

Description: this DVD image is full of all kind of imaginable viruses, just put it in the tray and forget about your computer.

If it doesn't come out anytime soon, I think I'll have to make one. ;-) I am on my way!

sality.iso

Pronunciation of Technetium

Hey there guys, I am back with some clarification regarding the pronunciation of the name of my blog "technetium". I got to know what people were pronunciating it when I heard my dad say it "tek-nee-shee-əm". You may argue me with your justifications but I say, a name or noun is what the deciding person decides it to be, so as opposed to the element named "technetium" my blog is pronounced as "tek-nÆ-tee-um" download and listen.

Mobile Template and Geotagging comes to Blogger

Google launched the mobile template in beta stage after so much of complaining by the users (word press had it beforehand), with almost no hype! I even tried searching their official blog for signs of Mobile View, but none were there, they haven't even updated their official help for "mobile template" yet, if you try Googling that won't be of any help either. It's very easy to enable mobile view for your blogger blog, even easier if you are opening your blog for the first time after google enabled this feature, all you have to do is click on "Turn on Mobile Templates" as shown below:

Mobile Templates

If not, you can always go to the "Settings" -> "Email & Mobile" -> click on "yes...." -> save preferences. It's done, if you want to know how your blog looks on mobile, you can always click on "MOBILE PREVIEW". The 2D bar code just by the side of the button reads the address of your blog.

Enabling Mobile View

Like mine reads something like "http://techtium.blogspot.com/?m=1". You can save the "chart.png", that is your bar code and put that anywhere you'd like to publicize your blog (of course this will work if your country is advanced enough that every person has a bar code reader installed in his phone; like in China). 

Mobile View

But the problem with mobile view is that I wasn't able to go to mobile version of my blog automatically when I opened my blog on one NOKIA E phone and one XPRESS MUSIC, I had to put the mobile address ie "blogaddress/?m=1" so up to now its much of a filthy experience, you can't even edit the mobile template. Looks like Google has not activated the auto redirect*, but I am sure Google will work this out soon, yes it's in BETA! And since Wordpress users were having this feature at hand quiet lately, it's was an always expected feature and is Most Welcome by Blogger users. Even some basic gadgets are supported+
Another feature Blogger introduced lately is giving Location to your blog, it is placed at the place where the Labels used to be, and labels are shifted to the left.

technitium in 2D

Location

*THIS FEATURE WAS ALREADY AVAILABLE UNDER BLOGGER DRAFT, it is version in which new features are tested before being released to all users.
You can always head up to http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com for google draft's new up comings!!
*WebKit-based mobile browsers are supported for their initial launch.
+Supported gadgets/elements in this launch: Header, Blog, Profile, AdSense, Attribution

Chrom(e)IUM Concerns

Google has put its hands on the browser market and every one already knows it. But there are some concerns like, chrome, chromium and chrome's various releases they confuse many. I tell you what, for much of the time, I too thought Chrome and Chromium to be the same thing!

As always, usually all the Google products as opposed to what you think are not actually Google made, many of them are either bought or borrowed like the "YouTube", and the famous "Android", actually chrome is not exactly like them. Some developers took the chromium(the one Google intended to make final product with) source code and decided to let it be Chromium and be released for the general public! Chromium is a fully Open Source browser, aside Google adds some closed source or exactly non-open source things, a Google branding and some fixes and calls it Chrome. Chromium  has development features which are expected to be tested in the Chrome product. Chromium is all about developmental releases while Chrome is the official Google release under the BSD licence. So now, all is clear about the Chrome-Chromium confusion!

• Google Chrome (Stable): This is what the product from which a mature and robust behavior is expected. It has the features included only once they are tested thoroughly, though it lacks a bit on the features side.
• Google Chrome Beta: It is not the final product but is expected to be used by general public for testing before the final product comes out with no glitches on the functionality, it has features which are expected to be included in the next major stable release.
• Google Chrome Dev: It is exactly the developer release which is highly experimental and sometimes unstable too. These are the versions on which the new features are included which may or may not be present in the stable Chrome. So its mostly for Chrome applets writers and developers but overall can be used by anyone wanting to try new on the features side.

Similar is the Firefox release nomenclature in the order of unstable to stable

• Nightly: Updated daily,has got daily changes everyday, you know what this means.
• Aurora: Provides latest stabler Firefox experience.
• Beta: Future version functionality for a wider range of public to test, can have bugs still!
• Stable Release: I am sure you know what this means, its the major 6, 7, 8 release, ie the final versions.

The Google Sense of Humor.

Google has always been good humored with the public and I find it one of the reasons in its tons of reasons of popularity/success. Keeping people in a light mood when you and the person in front of you is under burdain helps both. Let these mood en-lighteners be in form of Gmail Motion(did you check this year's april fool hoax), Google Hoaxes, Ester Eggs 1 2 3 or maybe a simple small note on one of their website, they always make us smile even in the stress-fullest of times! These things binds me to Google even more.

Google Feedburner

I know this isn't intentional, still

Youtube Spacemonkeys

This one's not google but for sure is interesting.

I am feeling geeky

Crashing Concerns

Though this year was the very same as the last one for the UPTU-SEE organizing committee, all went cool and calm but concern that stirred me the most was their websites. There were just around two lac students giving the SEE, and I guess not more than a lac would've been opening their website at the same time. But as usual the amateur looking websites, woke up a bit late or I guess much too late, students weren't able to check their results up-to the very night of result declaration. Some even complained of pressing F5 every five seconds from the very morning, stuck all day to their screens, after-all their career depends on it. The problem is out there but no one cares, its like it happens every year, lets have it this year too. Later I came to know that they even helped each candidate stay on their website ten more seconds by putting a captcha, what the hell problem do they have with automated result extractors, that they traded precious bandwidth when it was needed the most!!

These websites of the state's Mahamaya Technical University(i feel so bad to link these sites that aren't even working when I am attaching them here. It is bearing a tag "Under construction", yes it is the most important thing to do when the students need your website the most) who until last year claimed themselves to be the "Asia's biggest technical university" can't even bear the load of 50K students checking their results, their pages so ill designed, who could have been so light, take a hectic much of time to open even on a considerably fast Internet connections. Don't these people bother to have a "Google Analytics" or "Google Webmaster" account(yes, these services are free, of course I don't expect them to pay for anything) or can't they host the results at more than one servers so that they can bear the load. Can't they check what happens to their websites every year when the results are declared. They call themselves a technical university. Huh!
And the amazing thing is that I found the much smaller state, Chattisgarh's website was more sophisticated and professional, but they had other kinds of problem. Like they dont even work on SEO(Search Engine Optimization), I think.... however particular you may try to be in your keywords on Google, you can't find their results page in there, you have to pick up the brochure for their website!

Please Wait

Huh I am sick of it, people are so interested in watching those fashion blunders in those actors whom we don't even know from a mile away. And they cant even see these technological blunders that lead to so much of problem to people. Some of their websites are still down on 29-05-11, only good thing they did was put the result to the root webpage of their website, making their other pages inaccessible with the main page itself. Its not just UPTU its all over there, I see sites with black text on black backgrounds, really I want a leave, please dear reader let me take leave of you!
And yes one more thing, check out what their webpage(unedited, click to read) reads out:

MTU, under conttruction

"Under Consttruction." Cant help it!!
*Amazing, their links which take the candidates to information regarding councelling are still showing up 404 error at the time of publish of this post!
Written at 21:14PM, 26-05-11,