How to install Android Applications on your Windows/Mac Computer?

I know! How we wish we could use our favourite Android Apps on Windows or Mac, right? We, people who love Android, love world without borders and technology without operating system boundaries. For us, an ideal world will be a world where we can use any application on any operating system. Like I said in my last post, we love Android because of its openness. But Android is as open as only Android can get.

What if we could use some of the Android Applications on our PC or Mac? That World would be an ideal world. Hopefully that world is yet to come. Until then, we need to rely on emulators. They did it on Blackberry Playbook once. If you are an Android geek, i am sure you remember how someone created an Emulator for Android on playbook. There was also news of someone installing Gingerbread or Honeycomb on a Linux system.

But that is Linux System. Most of us use Windows. And we do not have the tech background to install Android OS on a Windows PC without killing it. The only hope we have is an Android Emulator for Windows or Mac. And the hope is finally here!

Bluestacks! Blustacks allows you to emulate Android Apps as they are seen on an Android phone. Is that not cool? Yes, it is! I tried the emulator and the first thing i tried to emulate was the app that is so popular - Pulse. Though I do not like Pulse much for eating all the battery on my Android phone, I love its design. And I was absolutely stunned to see that Pulse looks and feels the same way on your PC when you emulate it using Bluestacks as you use it on your Android phone.


Now remember, you can emulate your Android using Bulestacks only if you are using Windows 7. You Mac Application is on the way. And Bluestacks is in Alpha, so do not expect bug free performance.  Now if you have an Android Phone, you can use Bluestacks Cloud Connect to transfer some of you favorite Applications to your PC. Bluestack Cloud Connect can be downloaded from here.

If you are someone who is thinking of moving away from iOS or Blackberry and want to see how Android Apps work, Bluestack is certainly  something you might want to try.

Troubleshooting: Remember that Bluestacks is in Alpha. In other words, Bluestacks is out in its most rudimentary form. Some of you may find that Bulestacks does not install on your Windows 7 PC. Do not panic! There must be some issues with the file you have downloaded. Reboot your computer and try installing Bluestacks again. If that does not work, download the installation file once again later and try to install Bluestacks on your PC

Convert Pen Drive into RAM for Vista!

Can you convert your Pen Drive or Thumb Drive or USB Drive or whatever you call it into a Random Access Memory for your computer? The answer is NO, you can't! And YOU CAN, if you are using Vista.

You see there is one major Difference between RAM and a Flash Drive. They are built differently, for different purposes. They store information differently. RAM uses volatile memory, which requires power to maintain stored information.In other words, the information the computer stores on RAM is lost once you switch off the computer. Flash Drives on the other hand, like your Hard Drive, is non-volatile storage. What ever information you send to a Flash Drive is recorded so that you can access it later.

There is also another Memory for computer called Virtual Memory. Now you must have seen a temporary file stored on your computer, as you are working with a Word file or Excel sheet. Your computer stores the inactive part of the file you are working on and saves it temporarily on your Hard Drive so that your RAM can be freed up. This is exactly what Virtual Memory does. Virtual Memory uses your Hard Drive and gives an application the "impression that it has contiguous working memory (an address space), while in fact it may be physically fragmented and may even overflow on to disk storage."

Windows Vista takes it a step further. It enables you to use a new technology - ReadyBoost. ReadyBoost works using flash drives. Using ready boost, you can convert your Flash Drive into a cache. I am sure you have heard about cache, on your web browser. It is a place where the browser stores previous responses from a web server. In other words, things like cookies, pictures etc are stored on you Browser Cache so that the browser need not fetch it again as you move from one page to another when you are browsing.

Now ReadyBoost converts your USB Drive into a cache so that your computer can free the Virtual Memory and RAM. This makes your computer work faster than it actually does if you have not enabled ReadyBoost. Now how do you enable ReadyBoost?

• Make sure that your USB Drive is 1 GB or more. 
• Plug it into your computer.
• Scan it and fix it when your Vista prompts you to do so. 
• Go to My Computer.
• Right click on the USB Drive Icon and go to Properties.
• If your Flash Drive can be a ReadyBoost, the second last tab on your Properties Window will read so. [Some old Flash Drives may not be able to handle ReadyBoost]
• Click on the ReadyBoost Tab on Property Window
• Select "Use this device"
• Allocate Flash Drive space or in other words, tell your computer how much space it can use from your Flash Drive.
• Click OK
• Restart your computer and feel the difference

Please note that the space allocated for ReadyBoost on your Flash Drive cannot be used for other storage. In other words you can not save your files  if you have converted the whole Flash Drive space into ReadyBoost.  The trick is to use only half of your Flash drive as ReadyBoost and the other half for storing important files.

Portable Applications: Get essential applications on pendrive

All of us are used to running Applications and Programmes from your computer. What if you can run the same applications from a USB drive or pen drive or thumb drive or what ever you call that cute little thing that you use to store information? The thing is, you can.

Portable Applications are useful if you do not have a lap top and you are using public computers. They are useful if your computer is controlled by an Administrator and you cannot add or remove applications from your computer. You can store your log in data or anything else on the Portable Applications, take them any where and they will work the same way they worked when you had them on last time.

For example, if you use Google Chrome to browse and you have the habit of saving bookmarks and password on your browser, Portable Google Chrome will help you do that on any computer and still have all the data with you. This means, ton a great extend you don't have to worry about leaving your password on a Public PC.

Installing a Portable Application is easy. If you have a USB Flash drive, the installer will prompt you and help you install it on the drive. And these portable applications are not version specific. You can run it on XP, Vista or Windows 7. [I have not tested it on Linux or Ubuntu]

I would like to share with you a few portable applications that I use.

1. Portable Google Chrome
2. Portable Google Chrome Beta
3. Portable Mozilla Firefox
4. Portable MSN Messenger 
5. Portable Skype
6. Portable Thunderbird 
7. Portable Open Office
8. Portable Yahoo Messenger 
9. GnuCash Portable
10. Sumatra PDF Portable 
11. VLC Media Player Portable 
12. Cool Player Portable 

I use a 4 GB Pendrive. These 12 applications do not even take half of that pendrive. I have converted the rest of the space into a folder that will allow me to save important documents that I want to take along when I go somewhere.

Net Leeches: How good or bad is phenomenon dependence?

There are hundreds of companies that build their business model around the most popular IT Phenomenons of the time. You must have come across Web Services that claim to enhance your Twitter Experience. You must have come across websites and blogs, including techedIN, that run only 'Ads by Google' There are developers who develop only for Facebook. I would like to call them Net Leeches and I would like to call what they do 'phenomenon dependence'

Over the years, all of us have come to understand that trends on Internet are like water bubbles. They can burst any time. And if they don't burst, like Google haven't, these trends can suddenly change their policies not to suit what you are doing.

Very recently, I hope you have heard about a URL Shortening company going down the drains because they have built their entire business model around Twitter. Of course, on Popular Demand, it is back again. But I'm sure they are running it with out any economic gain. They are just running it because they don't want the URL to get into the hands of 'bad' people. It is sad that such a popular web service had to think of closing down because of their phenomenon dependence. It is interesting to note that their decision to close made people who use their services panic.

I have come across many blogs talking about search engine optimization and the way Google blacklist websites and services that they don't like. I have read their ever growing rant about how 'evil is Google' because they don't show up in the first page of search result. Why do Google usually blacklist sites? Do they have the right to blacklist sites? I think they do because they make it clear when and how they blacklist a site. It is the fault of the leech sites that they decided to depend on the phenomenon.

You must also have heard about the Netscape Founder funding a project that builds a browser that is specifically made to access Facebook. IT Experts are already wondering how it can help him? This is phenomenon dependence and may have only a short term success, even if it does succeed. And I wonder why the man who made Netscape wants to be a Net Leech!

This is what I think of phenomenon dependence and Net Leeches:

1. There is something popular online and the Net Leeches come up with quick solutions to make the maximum out of that phenomenon. But what if all of a sudden the phenomenon dies?
2. What if the company that created the phenomenon changes their policies and cuts off the Net Leech? Like Apple did to Google Voice? Or Twitter did to Trim?
3. What if all of a sudden there is another phenomenon on-line and the leech cannot quickly change directions to make the most out of the new wave as they have a phenomenon dependent audience.
4. What if the Phenomenon Company comes up with a product similar to what is floated by the Net Leech Company? 

I wish Net Leeches would find a way to stand on their own and let the phenomenon company take care of enhancing their own user experiences. This way, web can see a lot more innovation! Like Trim decided to kill their URL Shortening Service and go to greener pastures. That was a late decision of course. Better late than never, isn't it? I wish all Net Leeches would follow suit!

The thin line between IT love and hate!

I have no idea who said it! But I have heard that there is only a thin line between love and hate and I think it is true when I look at Information Technology!

There are a lot of people who say they hate Microsoft. There are a lot of people who say they hate Google Search and their Advertisement Practices. There are a lot of people who say they hate, especially Americans who say they hate, AT & T. There are a lot of people who say they hate Facebook. On Internet, the trend is, even with me, quite a few people hate what is popular. This is where the idea that there is only a thin line between love and hate becomes absolutely true!

I use almost all products Microsoft! But if you read my Blog you will feel that I'm someone who uses nothing Microsoft. The fact is I'm someone who can't survive without using Vista and MS Office. Then why do I go saying bad things about Microsoft? Because they make me pay for using their services. You do not find a similar objection against Google because they give me things free of cost. I don't have to pay them. The idea is, there is no rationale behind love and hate! We just try and find as many excuses as possible to say we hate!

There are people who don't show up in Google Search Results. They blame Google for making the search results editorial. Why do they do that? They are pissed off by the fact that they don't show up when some one searches for something on Google. What do they do? They try to teach Google how to run a Search Engine. They tell them that editing search results is a crime. The idea is, we say we hate if the person whom we want to notice us does not notice us! We just try and find as many excuses as possible to say we hate!

There are a lot of Americans who don't like AT & T! AT & T trends on Twitter quite often. Why? Because they rejected a Google App. Because they charge for calls per minute. They try and teach AT & T how to run their business. The truth is people still use AT & T in USA. And the idea is, we say we hate someone who makes us pay! We blame them for not helping to let technology grow! We blame them for not allowing us to use it for free! We just try and find as many excuses as possible to say we hate!

I was just wondering what would we have done if all those IT companies we hate ceased to exist. What would have happened? Nothing! Yes, absolutely nothing! We would have found other companies to love and hate at the same time! Till then, we'll continue using the services these companies provide and blame them for not making it easy for us. I think the thin line between IT love and hate will continue to exist as long as IT is going to be there!

Twibbon: Is it just about wearing a badge?

Now doubt Twitter is becoming a phenomenon on-line. And the number of sites that survive because of Twitter are increasing. Earlier I wrote about Twitterfeed, a service that allow you to post your feeds automatically to your Twitter Page. Another one I recently came across is Twibbon. Twibbon is about wearing a badge to show off your affiliation. But is Twibbon only about wearing a badge?

The habit of wearing an E-badge is becoming very popular these days. There are sites that force you to wear a badge to show your affiliation. There a badge is nothing more than a reciprocal link. You link me because I linked you is bad on-line attitude.



Twibbon takes E-badges to a new level. People wear a badge to support a cause. IE6 Must Die was a cause that many Twitter users supported and made popular that it trended on Twitter for a long time. When the King of Pop passed away, people who mourned the sad demise wore a black badge on their profile and Jackson trended on Twitter like never before. Along with the Badge, Twibbon sends out a tweet on the person wearing the badge. It is actually a link to the location of the badge so that other people can come and claim a badge for their profile if they care. It is viral, viral and viral all the way.

I am always of the opinion that Internet is more about marketing than 'information' Of course it is a good way to gather and process information. But it is more about companies gathering information about what people are looking for when. No wonder why most of the services online, like search and social networking, come free of cost to the users.

Twibbon is another way of finding out what people are interested in, when. Twibbon lets you take a closer look at 'what people want', a degree higher than search engines, because people wear a badge usually because they are emotionally attached to something. And I am happy that they don't keep that information to themselves like most of the search engine companies do.

In short, Twibbon, like What the Trend is a great market research tool. I think it can go a long way by helping marketing wiz kids to formulate their strategies. Internet is mostly about Attention Economy now. And Twibbon is only about that.

Photo from Twibbon

The USAA Example: Online Banking takes another step forward!

It has been a while now since banking moved on-line and went almost mobile. Most of the banks in India give us options to do on-line transactions and use our mobile phones to keep track of what is happening with the accounts. With a bank in USA moving ahead and permitting customers to deposit their checks on-line, using their iPhones, I think it is another step forward. I feel, since banks are trying everything they can to make banking a more comfortable experience for account holders, this is soon going to come to India too. So if it comes to Indian Banks, it means you don't have to apply for a casual leave to go to the bank and sit in the queue to deposit a check.

How is this on-line check depositing done? Here, I have got this video from the bank in question, as posted on YouTube and it explains how it is done:


I am happy that core banking services are moving more on-line. And economics experts are right, in a way the global economic melt down is for good reasons. We are going to see a lot of customer centric innovations happening at every level.

But I am not happy with the fact that it is first launched on iPhone. Why? Because, lately Apple is acting very strange and stifling innovations. It took Google Voice away from its store and thus denied American users an opportunity to save a few pennies on phone calls. I know that businesses are not run for charity. But my point is, denying an opportunity to save something during this huge economic meltdown is an economic crime and Apple has done that. Now,I feel, nothing innovative should be first launched on Apple  here after. Apple should be the last one to get a taste of the innovations by other people because of their stone age policies about promoting innovations on-line.

How does Rainlendar help me?

I some times think that my brain is like a laptop that runs Windows Vista on a 512 MB RAM. Simply because, I keep forgetting things! Important things!

I tried many things to keep my 'brain' in the loop of what is happening. Initially I tired writing things to remember in a diary, different colours for different things. I stopped doing that when I started forgetting where I left the diary. Then I tried post it notes. They really proved to be expensive.

Google Calendar came to my rescue for some time. They have this option to send you an e-mail or sms alarm, which worked really fine. The only problem with Google Calendar was that my scheduling got messed up if there was no internet around. And Google gives an Offline Option that doesn't work when there is no Internet.

Microsoft Outlook became my companion for sometime. The problem with Outlook is that I have to manually open it every time I switched my computer on and there are days when I forget to do that.

I tried the gadgets Google Desktop offered. There was a Gadget called 'To do List' The only problem with this Gadget was that it could never tell me when to do what. And as the list kept growing every day, it added to my frustrations.

I was always hunting for a Calendar that offered me the following:

• I needed a calendar that will open on it's own as soon as I switched my computer on.
• I needed a preview of the calendar on my desktop
• It must have an alarm going off every time I am supposed to do something
• It must not scare me with a long list of tasks to do. Yet. I need to look at the immediate tasks any time I want to with a quick glance at my desktop
• It must allow me to prioritize and categorize so that sometimes one look at the icon assigned to a task and I must be able to know what I am supposed to do.
• It must be intelligent enough to differentiate between events and tasks.
• When I bring my mouse over a date, it must tell me everything about the date. I need every little information about the date.

And I spotted Rainlendar. Rainlendar is a desktop calendar. But I would say it is more than a desktop calnedar to me now. Because it somehow meets all my standards. And to my joy, it lets me link to my Google Calendar. I am talking about the Rainlendar Pro Version. Linking to Google Calendar helps me avoid duplication of entry. What ever I enter on my Google Calendar is good enough for Rainlendar, once I synchronize.

What more do I need. Yeh, I didn't like the way it looked. That is not a problem. Rainlendar got skins that I can use. If I am still not happy with the skins that I have by default, I can go to Custiomize.org and pick the skins I like. I tried a couple of them and found that the one that I have by default suited my taste better than any other skin.

The best thing I liked about Rainlendar is the Mouse Over Feature. If I bring my mouse pointer over a scheduled date it tells me everything I keyed in as I was blocking the date. Every bit of details. If I roll my mouse pointer over a date on Outlook or Google Calendar date, they'll just tell me the title of the event. I need to click to go see details about the event. I think some one as lazy as me about clicking the mouse created Rainlendar. Which ever way, I like my new Desktop Calendar.

Google buying On2: What difference does it make?

Yesterday, in a Press Release Google and On2 announced that Google is finally acquiring On2 Technologies Inc., a leading developer of video compression technology. On2 is about 'creating and delivering high quality video over IP networks." Google is also about Youtube, we know. And it is a $ 106. 5 million deal they say. 'Each outstanding share of On2 common stock will be converted into $0.60 worth of Google class A common stock in a stock-for-stock transaction,' according to the Press Release. What difference is it going to make, if Google acquires On2?

Now, experts say the game is all about video codecs. Video codes enable video compression and On2 makes them. VP6, VP 7 etc are high defenition, high quality video codecs, developed by On2, used in Adobe Flash Player, Web2.0, VoIP, mobile video and other embedded devices.. But at present, VP6 and VP7 are losing out in the game to H.264, which comes under GNU General Public License. That means H.264 comes under free licence and people have the freedom to modify and distribute it. VP6 is a licensed codec and expects companies to pay a licence fee every year. VP6 of course is about quality videos. And people hope and pray that Google makes it open source.

What happens if Google makes VP6 open source?

1. Companies like Adobe,AOL, Skype, Nokia, XM Satellite Radio, Sony, Yamaha, TI, LSI Logic, Analog Devices, VideoEgg, Brightcove, Cox, Naver.com (Korea), Daum (Korea), Tencent(China) etc, who are already using VP6 will continue using it and building on it for free, without having to pay licence fee to On2. This means they come back to use the more superior VP6 and we can forget H.264. Quality of videos across platforms will improve.
2. HTML5 is on the way and it will enable browsers to handle videos without the help of plugins like Flash Player or Silverlight. This will help developers stop bothering about a lot of software compatiability issues. It will also help users save a lot of hard drive space, as plugins need not be downloaded.  
3. Mobile phone users will be able to send their MMS Videos to other mobile phones, without the fear of losing quality.   
4. People who do Video Conferencing using Webcams can then start thinking about videos that are viewable and not distorted as they are these days. 

Google can go ahead and not open source On2 video codecs at all. What happens then? Apple has its QuickTime. Microsoft has its Silverlight. Adobe has its Flash. And Google has what it takes to give them the foundation - VP6 and VP7. This means, at one point or the other, these biggies will end up paying licence fees to Google. This sale was a smart move, wasn't it?

What did I learn selling my friend's cell phone!

Cell phones are good things. But sometimes they can turn out to be a pain in the neck. My friend's Sony Ericson Z555i turned out to be one such disaster. It had a fascinating look, as though it was made out of crystals. But my friend realized looks can deceive. The phone was never loud or clear, the way Sony Ericson Phones are usually expected to be. It behaved in different ways at different times. Sometimes it was loud and sometimes it never made a noise even if some one called you. It had an option where you could just wave your hand on the phone and make it silent when it rang. But that rarely worked. I used to see my friend waving his hand on the phone in desperation when it rang and it just wouldn't listen. And my friend decided to sell the thing off and get a new one.

Sell the cell phone! And I joined in. That was when we learned a few things about the 'second-hand' phone market out there. Let me share a few of the things we have learned with you:

1. After you start using a phone, don't throw the box it came in away. Phones with the packages they come in, with all the bits and pieces of paper that came along with it, can fetch you a lot more than a phone with no box.
2. Keep the bill. Phones with bills are easy to sell.
3. Don't buy phones that you can flap shut or slide open. They look good and stylish, I agree. But 'second-hand' phone dealers look at them like a piece of good for nothing crap. If your phone is one piece, people will buy.
4. When you buy a phone in India and you want to sell it later, buy a Nokia Phone. No, I am not campaigning for Nokia here. I know many of the Nokia phones suck equally when it comes to performance. But in the Indian 'second-hand' market, Noika Cell Phones are revered than any one. So are some of the Sony Ericson models, only if they are in single piece.
5. Go to at least five or six 'second-hand' dealers, before you get rid of 'that-bloody-thing'. You will gain a sense of how much you can ask for your piece of trash.
6. Make sure that your phone is working, at least for the time the 'dealer guy' is going to check it and certify it. If the phone malfunctions, as the guy is checking, you are doomed. The price can come down drastically. 
7. Make sure that you know the model number of your phone and when it was thrown into the market. Sometimes, these people can tell you that it is an old and useless model and will not fetch you much. The more you know about your phone, the better.

After all the hardships we had to go through to sell off the Z555i, my friend decided one thing. He is not going after the look and style any more. Before buying a new phone for him, we went and saw many models. Talked to people who knows about mobile phones. We identified a few good models, came back to look at reviews on them in different 'product review sites'. Once we went back and decided which phone to buy, we checked when and where the phone was made. [Made in China is strictly a 'no no' and Manufactured four or five months ago is again a 'no no' ] Made sure that we have a warranty or guarantee for all the bits and pieces of the phone, including the battery, the charger and the ear phone, at least for a year. [Now remember, the dealer would say there is Guarantee for all the stuff in the cell phone box. But sometimes he may not put his seal on all the papers related to Guarantee. Make sure that you have the dealer's seal and signature on the guarantee cards.] We insisted that the sales guy gave us a live demo of the phone. Made sure that it had all the features we wanted. And then bought the new one. 

Worth the trouble. A few minutes ago, my friend called me and said that 'the phone is good'. By the way, it is another Sony Ericson. I wish it would remain so for as long as he wants.

When Yahoo gives in to Microsoft!

This was the talk of the town for the last six months - the Yahoo! Microsoft Deal! And finally it is done. Yahoo sells its user share in search to Microsoft for 88% of commission on advertisements sold on search results through Yahoo! Together they make 28% of market share in search, way lower than Google 65%.

In a few days from now, after the US Government approves the deal, you will see Bing on Yahoo! Both Steve Ballmer and Carol Bartz seem to be very happy about the deal and the notion of taking on the Search Giant, Google. I read the Bio of Carol and found that she was the lady who turned Autodesk around and made it into a profit making company. And I also understand that Steve lived Microsoft his entire career. Both are capable people. But I am wondering, what good can come out of Microsoft Yahoo Alliance!

28% in user share is not good enough to beat Google right now. But Yahoo and Microsoft can now focus more on their core competencies. Microsoft can focus on Improving Search. Yahoo can focus on their Social Networking Ideas. I think we are going to see a new era of Internet Search and Social Networking, as this alliance grows for the next ten years.

And I also think we are going to hear more from Google. In an attempt to strengthen their hold on the market, I hope they are going to come up with more search features.

Page Hunt: Microsoft tries to get Human Computation Service for Free!

Microsoft is trying all that it can to make Bing popular. The latest from its arsenal is Page Hunt. Some say it is a 'clever' twist on 'human computation', meaning to say it is a twist on Google and their Quality Raters. It seems that Google employs people to rate the Search Results it generates and now Microsoft and their Raman Chandrashekhar have come up with Page Hunt [Is the name another twist on Google's Page Rank?] to help Bing rate Search Results.

For starters, Page Hunt is a game! I don't know if you can call it a game or getting your work done by someone else free of cost!

Microsoft says:

This Game is like search in reverse: you are shown a web page which you have to hunt down using queries sent to Live Search.

 Now, the idea is very simple. When you go to the Page Hunt page, you are shown a web page. All that you got to do is type the keyword you will use to reach the page shown to you and hit Bing! If you use one of the most popular keywords used by Bing Users to reach the page in question, you get points. If you don't, you don't get points. Which ever way Microsoft gets what it wants! It will know what key word you will use to reach the page in question.

I tried the Game and let me tell you it was quiet boring. To me it looked more like work than play. Now, helping Microsoft fine tune their Search Engine is serious work. I think they should consider paying people for doing that. After all none of their products are given for free to users and even if they give it free of cost, they do so because they have a competitor. I am sure if Google were ran by Microsoft, we would be paying to use it. Now that Google is there, Microsoft offers Bing for free. And everyone knows that is done with a hope of capturing the on-line advertisement market. The better the search results on Bing, Microsoft hopes that more people will start using it and that means more income from 'sponsored links.' Since Bing is about Revenue Generation, it is not fair that Microsoft seeks to fine tune their search results for free. They should be paying the Page Hunt Users like Google pays its Quality Raters.

Off the Topic 1: As I was reading Microsoft's write-up on Page Hunt on Raman's page, I found Page Hunt connected to Live Search and not Bing. [On Page Hunt Page I see Bing and not Live Search] Is Microsoft still confused if it is Live Search or Bing they go for?

Off the Topic 2: I am just wondering, is not 'Human Computation' equal to fooling people? All the while I was thinking Google Search is completely automated and I was always amazed at this. And now that I know it is human beings who are weeding out bad results, Google's Search Technology does not sound great any more? On the contrary, please read what signor john wrote in reply to a stub that doubted Google's Search Technology:

GoogleGuy (when he used to hang out here) once explained that quality evaluators are used for benchmarking purposes. In other words, the 10,000 evaluators aren't there to weed out sites per se; their job is to help train Google's "black box" by identifying examples of sites that need weeding.

As for why Google would have to keep creating new filters at this stage of the game, I'd say it's because:

1) Search technology doesn't stand still.

2) SEO doesn't stand still, either. 

George Orwell, 1984, Amazon.com and Kindle: A Historical Irony!

George Orwell and his famous novel 1984. Amazon.com and their latest publication hype, Kindle. Who would have thought that July 17, 2009 was going to connect them in the most bizarre and paradoxical way ever? On July 17, 2009, Amazon.com remotely removed copies of 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell from Kindle because of some copyright dispute they had with someone.

Little would have George Orwell thought that one day he and his book are going to be the victims of a Big Brother when he wrote about the "memory hole" Of course Orwell was talking about censorship. I think what Amazon did was worse than censoring and it serves them best to have taken George Orwell away from the Kindle Users. They allowed a historical irony by doing so!

What does it mean when Amazon removes a book from Kindles without the permission of the owners? It means 'you must be afraid' This means Amazon has the power to remotely control your Kindle. Now, that is not good news. If Amazon has the power to control your Kindle, what about Microsoft? Do they have the power to control your laptops and PCs? If Amazon can remove a book from your Kindle, what about service providers like Google or Yahoo? Do they have the power to meddle with your emails and documents, you have on-line? It worries me when I think that soon we are all moving into a more modern version of 'cloud computing.'

I remember an English Film I had seen long ago. I don't remember the name of the film. But I remember that it was about robots. There were robots in every house. And the Government introduced a more advanced version of robots and gave one to each family. Little did they know that the new robots were spying on the families. And one fine morning, the Government took control of all the robots centrally. The film was something like that. But I remember the protagonist, who was always against the idea of having a robot in his house. No one saw his point untill it was too late. The Amazon Kindle Episode reminded me of the film.

My tryst with 4 Shared!

Of course, whenever I want to find something I go to Google, like most of you do! I type in what I want Google to find out for me, hit search and wait. 75% of the time the Google Guys come up with what I am looking for. I did the same thing when I wanted to find out if some of the songs I liked were available for download.

Let me tell you, for most of my favourite songs, Google was a disaster. Of course Google gave me what it thought are the most relevant of all the results. But that was not the point! I wanted to download these songs. But Google took me to many sites that do not have a download link. [I am not sure if that is a part of Google Policy!] Most of them had a link to another site where, I was told, I could download the song I was looking for. The site that the link took me to had a link to another site that allowed me to download the song. It was a never ending line of cross links! Exasperated!

That was when I stumbled upon 4Shared. It is an online storage system, where you can store and share your files. It lets you store any kind of file and has got a 100 GB file storage option, if you are a paying member. You are right, you can be only a paid member on 4Shared. The free membership lasts only for 30 days.

What I liked about 4Shared is not the fact that I can store my files online. I live in India, and in spite of being one of the prominent IT hubs, we are not always sure if we can access Internet all the time. So I prefer to store my files on my computer and not anywhere else. If I have to share files and collaborate, I already have a Google Docs Account. I don't usually upload anything other than Office Documents and Goolge Docs is the only people I trust with my Office Documents.

What I liked about 4Shared is not the fact that it permitted me to log in using my Google Id. Now, I don't use my Google Id to log in on any site for the fear of spam and hackers. I'll not use my Google Id unless I know Google approves 4Shared. Even if I use my Google Id to log in, I know that my honeymoon with 4Shared is going to last only for the 30 Days Trial Period. Because, the way things are, I don't have a credit card or pay pal account to pay 4 Shared.

Following are a few things I liked about 4Shared:

1. I liked 4Shared because it permitted me to download shared files even without a membership and logging in.
2. It tells me that the file is virus free, so at least for time being I don't have a virus-phobia when downloading from 4Shared.
3. It keeps the downloading simple. I didn't have to worry about where a link on 4Shared would take me to! It was almost like I know where I was going. They have kept the user interface neat, straightforward and simple.
4. It has a cool search engine. I don'y know if Google powers it. But I know that using the search on 4Shared I could find many of the songs and videos I wanted.
5. It gives you a preview option. You can see your videos or hear your songs before you download them.

I don't know if 4Shared has enough Premium Members to cover their expenses. But I know that I got most of the songs I wanted!

The seven flaws of Twitter?

MarketWatch's  columnist John C Dvorak seems to be too irritated with the news of people looking at Twitter as a new source of news, in real time. He calls the idea of Twitter as a News Source 'Horsecrap". He says: 'The microblog is simply not a news source." He writes off Twitter as 'unpredictable noise in the crowded darkness." in his column "Second Opinion" in Market Watch.

Well, here I have a second third opinion about what John wrote about the idea of Twitter as a potential news source:

1. Elephant Syndrome: I hope John will be kind enough to show us one news paper, one TV Channel or at least one Online News Service that does not have elephant syndrome. I don't know why John does not understand any 'breaking-news' for that matter is an 'elephant'. 
2. Unvested Reporters: We hear this ever since bloggers started writing about issues that matter to the community at large. We hear that bloggers are no good at giving the news. But we have sometimes seen the Big Guys in Journalism depending on the Small Guys in Blogging for News. I don't know if John has purposefully not seen instances where Bloggers have reported better than Journalists. I think John's statement about J-school professors applies to John himself. Let me add a few words and take off a few words from John's own sentence to show how! "The silly notion of citizen journalism propagated undersetimated by J-school professors columnists seeking some excuse for their continued existence is part of the problem."
   
3. Vlunerability to manipulation: I hope John has his history of Journalism right. I don't know if John has heard about the American Government manipulating the news sources before any war. I don't know why John thinks some 'Workers' Party' [??] can manipulate only 'Twitter." The fact is anything can be manipulated, if it can be. 
4. Hoaxes and Goof Balls: John sounds like Hoaxes and Goof Balls started happening only after people started blogging. I don't know why John doesn't know the public will fall over and over again for hoaxes even if Twitter doesn't exist. 
5. Lack of Access: I don't understand why one should have access to spokespeople and officials to report news. There are many instances in history when the Officials have lied and gave false information to the public. News is not just about swallowing the official version as it is. The photograph of a cop beating an old lady might be a useless piece of information to John, but not to people like me.
6. Lack of Analysis: I don't know which J-school professor taught John that news is all about analysis. News is news. Analysis comes after the news. I have a suggestion. Let Bloggers and Twitter users report news. Then people like John who make a living analysing things can go ahead and do their bit of analysis instead of simply writing off Twitter Users.
7. Skewed Priorities. Twitter is about the users himself or herself now. Like blogging was once. Why can't it be about other things too, like blogging is now? 

It is sad that writers like John messes up their priorities [skewed priorities?] and blurs their vision about the possibilities of social networking! People like him should be encouraging it!

How to Quick Launch folders from Windows Vista Taskbar?

Computers make life easy and hard to live at the same time! The easier it makes your life, you find yourself wondering why it doesn't make your life easier than what it is actually making it now. That makes life a bit hard to live and we always end up wanting more.

We want things done as quick and easy as possible. And I know how hard life can be if you have too many files and folders to live with and you always grapple with the idea of finding your files when you need them quickly and easily. Sometimes you wish you had some files at your fingertips. Now, I found a way to put my favourite folders on the Quick Launch of my Taskbar on my Vista and it made my life a little easier than it ever was. And I keep all those files I think I may need often in the folders on my Taskbar and now they are available to me at a double-click.

How did I do it? Let me demonstrate. For example, let us say, I want to put a folder named "Start Menu Test Folder" on my Taskbar Quick Launch. What do I do? Look at the picture below:

Step 1: I go to the place where the folder I want to put on the taskbar is located. I right click on the folder. In this case it is the "Start Menu Test Folder" I right-click on. I right-click on that and send a shortcut to my desktop.

Step 2: Once I am sure I have the shortcut to the folder on my Desktop, I go right-click on the Taskbar. Your Taskbar is locked usually. You are right-clicking to unlock it. Yes, right-click on the taskbar and unlock it.

Step 3: Once you have your Taskbar unlocked, it is easy. Click on the folder you want to be on the Taskbar and drag it to the Taskbar Quick Launch. Drag and drop the folder on your Taskbar Quick Launch. The folder will appear on your Taskbar. If you want to change the name of the shortcut, you can right-click on it and rename. Once you are done, right-click on your Taskbar and lock it again.

To avoid clutter and confusion, make sure that you don't keep more than one or two folders on your Taskbar. I am not sure if you know, you can put your favourite programmes on the Taskbar this way.  Right clcik on the Programme you want on your taskbar and click on "Add to Quick Launch" You can also pin to on your start menu, if you want.

I am not sure if the same thing can be done on Windows XP. I request the readers to try this on their XP, if they have one, and tell me if you can do it.

Ning: Create your own social network!

Orkut, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin Twitter and many more of them out there. In fact, it is raining 'social community networks' these days. I have counted on Wikipedia and there are at least 154 online social community networks listed, the last time I counted. Every other day I receive a mail or two from friends, inviting me to join a new community. The sociological implications of having too many social community networks online is one thing to discuss. But I don't think I will go into that as i am here to tell you about another phenomenon I recently noticed online. It is nothing but Ning.

Ning? I am sure it has got nothing to do with Bing and the Bing is not Google thing! And of course for Bing to be Google, Microsoft has to reincarnate as something more divine. Oh! God. I am here to tell you about Ning and not Bing.

Ning? They call it a platform to create online social communities. Let us hear what they say about themselves:

Ning lets you create and join new social networks for your interests and passions.

Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Ning offers an innovative and easy-to-use technology platform for people to join and create new social networks for their interests and passions and meet new people around the things they care about most in their life.

With over 1 million social networks created and more than 27 million registered members, millions of people everyday are coming together across Ning Networks to explore and express their interests, discover new passions, and meet new people around shared pursuits.

Ning also enables artists, brands and organizations to simplify and control their online presence with their own unique social network that beautifully integrates with other social media services while providing the most direct, unique and lucrative relationship with fans, consumers, and members.

Founded in October 2004 by Gina Bianchini and Marc Andreessen, Ning launched the Ning Platform in October 2005 and Ning social networks in February 2007. The company is privately held.

 That is a good thing, isn't it? To have a social community of your own! I am sure you know how to create groups on Orkut and Myspace. I know it is exciting to promote a group and to see it grow. However, I am sure you will feel more excited to create a social community of your own and see it grow. That's the option Ning gives you. Just like you can have a blog of your own, Ning lets you have a social community of your own. Like you do on Blogger, you can even have a .com address of your own for your Ning Social Community.

I am a member of Ning and I have created a few communities to see how it works. One thing I liked is the flexibility that Ning offers. The user interface of Ning looks like it is a site you can't trust. But within that look lies possibilities of moving the UI around the way you like. You can even code the look, if you are good at coding.

People say that Ning is vulnerable to spammers. I don't understand how as I am not attacked from any of the communities I own or any of the community in which I am a member. The people who run the Ning Sites I joined are always alert about spammers and only once or twice I received spam messages on my comment wall. The moment the site admin noticed that there is spam going around, he deleted the profile from which it was sent. And for me and to the sites I created, i give access to only those I know and they are a few.

I know a lot of people who use the Ning Service quiet fruitfully. I hope more people would. This 'community of community' is a giant leap for IT after Blogging.

Google Crome Crashes: How did I solve it?

It was not so long ago I wrote about Google Chrome launching an OS. I was so excited about the news of COS coming up to conquer the OS Market and going to take it all to the web and give cloud computing a new dimension. I was happy to know, soon I would be using my browser to run any application that I want to run. The next day something happened to my Chrome Browser, that almost made me rethink what I wrote. [No, I haven't changed my mind about trusting Google when they say their OS is going to be the best!] My Chrome Browser started crashing!

It started crashing every one minute. Start, crash and restart! This looked to me like running a fluorescent tube light when there is low voltage! Those of us who live in India would know what I am talking about. When there is low voltage [a common phenomenon in India] the tube lights start blinking like mad that you always give up and go to sleep no matter what you want to do. This Chrome Crash was like that.

I'd open the browser and type in a web address. When the page loads, Chrome would crash. Initially I thought, it might be a security procedure by Chrome and I was browsing a web page that might have sent some malicious code to my system. But when the crash recurred when I was browsing Google owned pages, when sometimes I was doing nothing on the browser, I realized there was something wrong. My Chrome browser was just not willing to listen to me and every other minute it crashed telling me: 'Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed.'

One good thing, during this whole drama of Chrome Crash, was that the browser was willing to get me back the pages I was browsing when it restarted. I managed to search the solution out, after an exasperating half an hour of start-crash-restart. Of course, Google had a solution. This is what Google asked me to do:

Solutions

Try restarting the browser.

Whenever possible, Google Chrome will restore webpages from your previous browsing session.

Check whether you need a new browser user profile.

If you see this error message repeatedly, your browser user profile may be corrupted. First try moving the Default subfolder from your User Data folder to see if that fixes the problem:

1. Go to Start menu > Run.
2. Enter one of the following directories in the text field, depending on your operating system: Windows XP: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\ Windows Vista: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\
3. Click OK.
4. In the window that opens, rename the 'Default' folder as 'Backup.'
5. Move the 'Backup' folder from the 'User Data' folder up one level to the 'Chrome' folder.

If you continue to see the error, try creating a new user profile to replace your current one.

Check for problems with protected system files.

1. Go to Start menu > Run.
2. Enter the following: SFC.EXE /SCANNOW (make sure there is a space between SFC.EXE and /SCANNOW). This initiates the Microsoft utility that will scan and repair problems with protected system files on your computer.

Try opening Google Chrome and see whether the error message still appears.

My "Followers" ARE showing up on Twitter!

Again, I am writing for a second time in a day. Simply because of the urgency of the situation. I thought I should let everyone know. Let me quickly tell you:

A few days back I wrote about how I can't see my followers on Twitter. Today, I noticed that my followers are showing up on Twitter. Well, I can't see those of them I have missed out on the list last time there was this issue of followers disappearing even after they have started following. I can at least see the new ones who are following. Thanks Twitter!!

Three Reasons why your Website should Social Network!

I see an increase in the number of sites [that belong to firms and popular personalities] tweeting away to glory or having a Facebook account, lately. I also see many of them having a verified twitter account. From White House, [Yeh, your own American White House I am talking about] to Oprah, they all have verified twitter accounts. This again shows me how it mutually helps people to market themselves, both the social networks in question and the people who create an account on them.

Both Twitter and Facebook give you an opportunity to create personalized URLs. How does it help you? It helps you become visible. Most of the searches on Google about people and companies can lead one to both Twitter URLs and Facebook URLs. This visibility of course depends on how often you update your status and how often people click on your profile. Both Twitter and Facebook give you an opportunity to link your site to your profile. You can link your Facebook or Twitter Profiles to your site and show people that you regularly update your status and I guess this makes a lot of them feel that you love to be in touch with them. Even otherwise, Twitter and Facebook are growing crazy in terms of popularity and it is good to be on them. And it helps the business be noticed.

I am sure we are living at a time when direct and plain advertising, especially on web, pisses off people. I see no reason why Google permits image and video ads these days. I see no reason why Facebook makes the advertisements look like it comes from them and is a part of the entire package, trying to pretend that it is giving you what you want. Facebook does the new-age contextual marketing, a step ahead of what Google invented. People are trying to develop subtle ways of marketing. And I think Facebook and Twitter are good tools, looking at the way people are talking about them and using them. And I certainly think Search Engines and Personalized URLs can go a long way in helping businesses stay visible, without letting people notice that they are desperately trying to do so.

I think the cross linking opportunity these sites provide help businesses sound genuine. Internet is a good and bad place at the same time. And with the number of security threats and suspicious links ever increasing, it is essential for online businesses to be in the good books of internet users. Linking the business to Social Networks and regularly updating them give people a chance to see how genuine you are. Because, every crime has a loophole and it is very easy to see through frauds when we are talking about regularly updating status and relevant information. No fraud can survive on Social Community Networks for a long time and people are good at whistleblowing on-line. I think businesses should be using this opportunity to subtly market their genuineness.

I also think Social Community Networks can work as an effective tool for businesses to collect feedback from their customers. Be it a Google or Yahoo Group! Be it a Facebook or Twitter Account! Be it a Blog on Blogger or Wordpress! Staying in touch with the customer is the key. Weighing in on what people say about the product or service you offer, clarifying their queries! I think Google is a good example for this. Of course, they don't twitter or go Facebook. But they have these Blogs and Online Groups where they allow users to incessantly rant and rave about their products. I see that as one of the reasons why Google grow and surprise us forever!

Another thing is, these sites offer their services free of cost. [That shouldn't be a reason of course!] And may be you have to pay Twitter a little to get your account verified. I think it is worth the deal, isn't it?