India Technology Blogs Network

Who is the Next Mahalo VLOGIdol? [Quick Online Tips]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 08:40 AM CDT

Mahalo VLOGIdol is a competition to find the new host for Mahalo Daily, an incredible show hosted by Veronica Belmont who moving to Revision3 as the new co-host of Tekzilla with Patrick Norton. Mahalo is busy finding the next Daily Mahalo hostess and the finalists for the Mahalo VLOGIdol are out.

The search for a smart, fun, young, charismatic, female host for Mahalo Daily has to led to 12 Finalists who will fight out to become the famous Mahalo Daily host. Here are the Mahalo VLOGIdol Finalists photos, some audition videos and some teasers below.

Mahalo bids farewell to Veronica Belmont

Jason Calacanis says Veronica has left the building and Mahalo Daily is lost and adrift, and starting Monday, they will air the search for the new host of Mahalo Daily. Keep tracking the search for the Next Mahalo VLOGIdol?

Copyright 2008. Quick Online Tips. All Rights Reserved.
Permalink | Add comment | Filed: Blogging, Celebrity, Events, Miscellaneous

Zune Dark Theme for Firefox [-| Life Rocks! 2.0 |-]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 08:26 AM CDT

Few days back I had written about black gloss theme for Firefox, here is another dark theme for Firefox. This theme is dark version of the popular glassy aqua theme with an orange look to fit with the Zune theme for Windows. The theme is developed by author of the Aquatint Black Gloss theme. The Zune theme has a combination of black and orange looks.

Download Zune Theme for Firefox

Software Testing - What and Why [Technospot.net]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 07:29 AM CDT

Humans have a nature of testing everything which comes across; let it be a small electronic good to big item such as car. The purpose of this testing is to make sure that thing which is being focused works according to the specifications. The ill functioning might lead to loss of money, time or business reputation or even could be a cause of injury or death.

For now we will restrict ourselves to Software Testing. Definition of which can be givens as - Software testing means to ensure that the software designed is working as per the specifications.

Human errors is not the only factor leading to software failures but also environment conditions such as radiation, electronic fields, pollution, magnetism can influence the software execution leading to its failure.

To get a clear picture, we have some of the major and real time examples of software failures –

A major U.S. retailer was reportedly hit with a large government fine in October of 2003 due to web site errors that enabled customers to view one another's’ online orders.
In October of 1999 the $125 million NASA Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft was believed to be lost in space due to a simple data conversion error. It was determined that spacecraft software used certain data in English units that should have been in metric units.
In April of 1998 a major U.S. data communications network failed for 24 hours, crippling a large part of some U.S. credit card transaction authorization systems as well as other large U.S. bank, retail, and government data systems. The cause was eventually traced to a software bug.
Software bugs caused the bank accounts of 823 customers of a major U.S. bank to be credited with $924,844,208.32 each in May of 1996, according to newspaper reports. The American Bankers Association claimed it was the largest such error in banking history. A bank spokesman said the programming errors were corrected and all funds were recovered.

So what do we learn from above examples ?

It is important to understand the necessity for Software Testing and importance of it. Though coders develop the most sophisticated and smartest products in the world but does it produce what was intended is the key.

Through testing, the risk of software failures can be reduced. Problems also called as defects or issues in technical term, found in the system during testing can be corrected before the system goes live to the end users. Thus, software testing can give more confidence in the quality of software.

Conclusion

The goal of software testing are

Find defects.
Gain confidence in the quality of software.
Providing information and preventing defects.

Over to you !

So what do you interpret when you hear the word “Software Testing” ? , Does it give you a scary picture where software are drilled down or it makes you think you will find more things which even you did not knew about it ? Share your views , questions and ideas in comments.

About The Author of this article:
Deepak and Diptee are one of the co-authors of this blog and writes majorly on software testing and more. You can read more of their articles here.

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New Design Lions at Cannes Advertising Festival 2008 [Quick Online Tips]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 06:51 AM CDT

The Cannes Lions 2008 International Advertising Festival is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals and advertisers as well as the most prestigious annual advertising awards. This year they introduced new Design Lions, that will honour the creative and innovative use of design for the brand, product communication and development.

Design Lions at Cannes

The Design Lions will celebrate the creative use of design as a lever to influence consumers, and its use as an aid to the communication of brand and product messages. The first Design Lions will be handed out to the winners on 18 June, together with the Press and Cyber Lions winners at The 55th International Advertising Festival 2008 in Cannes, France.

Categories will broadly include Packaging Design, Brand Identity and also Environmental Design. Brand Identity, includes logos and trademarks (new or redesigned) and posters, fliers, tickets, invitations, greetings cards and calendars. Entries will be rewarded for Creativity, Originality, Execution and Consumer Engagement. It does NOT include entries for product design, web design or architectural design, except within the confines of the category descriptions. See categories.

Due to a higher than anticipated number of entries in the newly launched Design Lions competition, three more judges had to be appointed! Cannes Lions is still open for entries till 30 April 2008. Hurry.

Piwik - Open source web analytics software [Online Tech Tips]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 06:29 AM CDT

Looking for free web analytics software? Website owners realize how important their visitors are. If you don’t have anyone going to your site on a daily basis, then there’s no point in having one. Some websites are created to express the admiration of a music artist, while others are created to market goods or services to the world.

No matter what your reason is for making one, it needs to capture the attention of those that visit it. Tracking your visitors doesn’t have to be a complicated or expensive process. There are plenty of user friendly and inexpensive tools to help you do this.

Piwik is a nifty little tool that will help a blog or website owner gather information about their daily visitors. This Google Analytics competitor will offer you numerous widgets to work with. It also has four basic components which are visitors, actions, referrers, and dashboard.

Each section contains several analytical widgets that can be easily changed by an administrator. Data is presented in a number of ways such as a pie chart, bar graph, or just simple writing format. Users can view multiple reports on their website or blog and judge how well their traffic is flowing.

What makes Piwik so different from other web analytic software is that it smartly has its features contained inside plugins. Adding or removing unwanted features can be done in an instant without a long winding process. If you have a little more programming experience, then you can even build your own well functioning plugins. One of the best things about Piwik is that it’s open source format allows you to customize it according to your needs.

Any data that you gather from Piwik will be installed on your personal server. In order to get your statistics, use open API’s to do so. Users can quickly publish their date in several different formats such as CSV, PHP, and XML. You are the complete owner of your data and won’t have to worry about a service holding it hostage.

Working within the Piwik interface is extremely simple because it offers a drag and drop functionality. The ability to customize the interface according to your own personal preferences and needs is a definite bonus. Although it is still under Beta development, Piwik offers serious competition to the more established Google Analytics.

If you have been desiring a bit more control over your stat reports and would love to be able to customize your analytics program, then consider trying Piwik. It won’t cost you a dime to play with it for a while and see if it is worth your time.

You can also check out a previous article I wrote on another cool web analytics tool for your website called Clicky. Microsoft also has it’s own web analytics tool called Gatineau. Finally, check out ClickTale if you want to see actual video recordings of how your users interact with your website.

Ms Yokum
Tech Enthusiast & Blogger

Technorati Tags: google,website,analytics,open source,free,traffic,visitors

Copyright © 2007
Online Tech Tips.
Aseem Kishore (digitalfingerprint: a59a56dce36427d83e23b501579944fcakmk1980 (66.150.96.121) )

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Piwik - Open source web analytics software

how to prevent your playlist in winamp from getting lost out [Technix Update]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 06:17 AM CDT

I have been using winamp from a long time as a music player, it is I think the best player which is free also, but initially when I use winamp for the first time I found a issue in it.

Let me tell you how does it happen.

I used to enqueue some songs from different directory locations ,and issue arises when accidentally I double click on any .mp3 file due to which all the playlist which I collected in winamp got evaded in seconds and the only songs which remain there is that on which I have accidentally double clicked. It may have happened to you some time if you have used winamp.

Let’s see why this happens and how can we correct it.

According to the default settings in winamp, when ever you double click on any audio file (like .mp3) file it will play keep that file in playlist and erases the other files which exist there.

See the image below to you will see the settings with which you can avoid this problem from occurring.

As shown in the image above you will need to check the settings in winamp preferences under File Types which says Enqueue files on double click in windows explorer.

We hope this small tip would help you if you face the same issue, as after this settings checked you will never lose your precious playlist in winamp.

Web gadgets for your web page [Online Tech Tips]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 06:12 AM CDT

I have recently become a huge fan of web gadgets and all that they can do for you! With all the latest web gadgets available on the internet, how do you know which programs will provide the most benefit?

For every website you see, there are a select number of different icons leading to creative and fun online tools and useful programs; they can be anything from weather update monitors, to mini search engine boxes conveniently placed in the corner of a web browser. What are the most popular web gadgets currently online? It seems the top choices are web organizers, which are designed to provide added organization and clarity to your desktop.

The most interesting types of web gadgets available now are in the form useful organizers, much like mini web calendars, scheduling programs, and some are even built with alarm clocks. For those people looking for added help with more involved tasks; there are expense management web gadgets that actually keep track of your monthly finances, as well as mini calculators and even calorie counters for those watching their weight.

A great feature to have is the virtual post it note; it allows users to actually post on a "virtual sticky note", on their computer desktop, which keeps notes, reminders, and can be updated and checked off, just a like a real post it note. Looking for news updates and the latest info? There are web gadgets that keep track of your favorite sports team scores, the local weather report, and will even check your stock portfolio.

One of my personal favorites is a web organizer called De.lic.ious (located at http://del.icio.us/), an online book marking tool, which amazingly keeps a log of your favorite websites in an online virtual folder. Its very similar to the favorites option included on every computer internet browser tool bar-the difference here is that this program allows access to all your favorite book marks from any computer; since the bookmarked sites are stored online through this program.

It's an innovative program that is now easily recognizable by the little blue icon usually located at the end of each the web page.

De.Lic.ious

After looking at the unique selection of web gadgets online, it was hard to resist the urge to download a dozen of these tempting little programs; each one seemed to genuinely provide the promise of organization and convenience to an otherwise boring desktop.

However, the best place to start looking online for these incredible web gadget programs are at Google Gadgets, which offers a free selection of web gadgets from all categories (useful, technical, fun, etc) and for those Windows Vista users; its best to visit Windows Live Gallery (http://gallery.live.com/Home.aspx), with a free and rather impressive selection of downloadable desktop web gadgets.

What are your favorite web gadgets?

WindowsLiveGallery

This is a guest post by Karen Worthy, a tech enthusiast.

Technorati Tags: Google, web gadget, gadget, web, Windows Live, Windows Live Gallery, De.Lic.ious, fun internet gadgets

Copyright © 2007
Online Tech Tips.
Aseem Kishore (digitalfingerprint: a59a56dce36427d83e23b501579944fcakmk1980 (66.150.96.121) )

Post from:

Web gadgets for your web page

Windows Vista Theme for Symbian OS S60 [-| Life Rocks! 2.0 |-]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 04:43 AM CDT

Ever since Windows Vista has been released there has been lot of Vista themes be it for Windows XP or for mobile phones. One of the reasons is the pretty neat looks of Vista. Here is one good looking Vista theme for Symbian Phones. This theme is supported on Symbian OS version S60.

1. Download the Windows Vista Theme to your PC.

2. Unzip the file and upload the theme to your mobile phone through Bluetooth or cable using the required software.

3. Install the theme in your mobile phone.

4. Activate the theme.

Here is the list of all Compatible phones: LG KS10, LG-KT610, Nokia 3250, Nokia 5500, Nokia 5700 XpressMusic, Nokia 6110 Navigator, Nokia 6120, Nokia 6121 Classic, Nokia 6124 Classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6290, Nokia E50, Nokia E51, Nokia E60, Nokia E61, Nokia E62, Nokia E65, Nokia E70, Nokia E90, Nokia N71, Nokia N73, Nokia N75, Nokia N76, Nokia N77, Nokia N78, Nokia N80, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8GB, Nokia N82, Nokia N91, Nokia N92, Nokia N93, Nokia N93i, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N96, Samsung SGH-G810, Samsung SGH-i400, Samsung SGH-i450, Samsung SGH-i520, Samsung SGH-i550, Samsung SGH-i560

Credits to Creator of theme Avimam.

Download Vista Theme for S60

Your Google Passwords canbe popped if you “Remember me” [Technospot.net]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 04:15 AM CDT

A pretty inresting post on how Google accounts like Orkut or even gmail can be popped in case you even by mistake check on Remember Me check box when you login.

Here is how thing works:

If user had used Remember Password feature in any computer at cybercafe or shared computer at home.
I can double click on text box which asks for username and select any of them. As it remembers you password it will appear there.
Now definitely I can not see your password this way but this is what I will do to see

Type this in address bar and hit enter

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLoginBox?service=orkut&nui=
2&uilel=1&skipvpage=true&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.orkut.com
%2FRedirLogin.aspx%3Fmsg%3D0%26page%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252
Fwww.orkut.com%252FHome.aspx&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.orkut.com
%2FGLogin.aspx&hl=en-US’

Next Select username and again password shows up in the box in dots or *. Now type this in your address bar

javascript:alert(document.forms[0].Passwd.value)

and hit enter and you will see the password getting displayed.

orkut-issue

Probably its the fault on users part to use the “Remember me ” feature but I was guessing the password gets encrypted as soon as we type but no. They must be getting encrypted only when it is sent to Google servers.

This is definetly a bug and should be resolved by them. Encrypting at this level wont be difficult. You can read Atul’s post for images and much more details at Hacking social networking users account.

He has started a post in the forum too, if you are interested you can go deep discussing there

About The Author of this article:
Ashish is one of the co-author of this blog and writes on various interesting softwares, PC tips and more. You can read more of his articles here.

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IPL Live Scorecard Widget for Bloggers and Site Owners [Technacular]

Posted: 27 Apr 2008 01:57 AM CDT

If you are looking for a way to show live scores on your blog and/or website then try this Cricket Live Score Widget at widgetbox.

The widget shows all IPL Live Scores and is very easy to use.

(more…)

DupeDeDupe: Scan & Remove Duplicate Contacts, Calendar & Tasks Directly from Windows Mobile Device [Tech[dot]Blog]

Posted: 26 Apr 2008 10:21 PM CDT

It is known that if there is some corruption with the sync relationship, Activesync is known to duplicate items in Outlook and the mobile device. DupeDeDupe is a freeware application released at Modaco that allows you to scan and remove such duplicate contacts directly from your Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone device. Contacts are compared based on the following fields:

+ File As
+ Email
+ Home, Work & Mobile phone

If all the fields match, it is considered a duplicate and is listed for deletion. The only downside of the software is that it does not show names of the contacts which it deems duplicate.

The application is quite fast and can scan for duplicates within seconds. Currently it scans only contacts but support will be added for Calendar and Task items as well. So keep an eye on the next release through AppToDate.

Click here to download DupeDeDupe for Windows Mobile directly from your mobile phone browse.

Mp3 players to have 500,000 Gb of Capacity in the future [Madhur Kapoor's Blog]

Posted: 26 Apr 2008 02:33 PM CDT

In the future mp3 players might have around 500,000 GB of capacity. Scientist have developed a molecule sized switch which can increase the capacity by 150,000 times. Because of the switch, 500,000 GB can be stored in to one square inch. Current standards fit only 3.3 GB.

This project is being developed by Professor Lee Cronin and Dr Malcolm Kadodwala at the University of Glasgow. By placing the switch on a surface of gold or carbon, upto billion transistors can be fitted on a single chip. This way the capacity of mp3 players can be increased. Lets see what we get to see in the future but it definitely sounds a great innovation.

How to Use Outlook 2007 as RSS Feed Reader [-| Life Rocks! 2.0 |-]

Posted: 26 Apr 2008 02:10 PM CDT

If you are using Outlook 2007 as your email client, then you can also use it as a feed reader. By this way you can integrate email, calendar and RSS feeds all at one place. Configuring Outlook for RSS is also very simple. To configure Outlook for RSS feeds, select Tools-> Account Settings.

In the account settings, select RSS tab and click new button.

Next enter the feed url in the New RSS feed box.

Once you select add button, you can see the RSS feed options, you can select where the Feeds are being delivered.

Now can can read all the feeds in you Outlook.

You can also share and forward feeds in your inbox.

Yahoo! SearchMonkey Limited Developer Preview [Quick Online Tips]

Posted: 26 Apr 2008 01:00 PM CDT

Yahoo! Search has launched a new developer platform called SearchMonkey that uses data web standards and structured data to enhance the functionality, appearance and usefulness of search results. They are inviting a limited number of developers in for a preview.

Using SearchMonkey site owners can use semantic web standards and structured data to enhance Yahoo! Search results and make them more useful, relevant, and visually appealing. Developers can build SearchMonkey apps that enhance search results, access Yahoo! Search’s user base and help shape the next generation of search. Users can customize their search experience with apps built by or for their favorite sites. Get the Preview.

Yahoo! Search – SearchMonkey Developer Launch Party is being held on May 15, 2008, 5:30 – 8:30 pm at Yahoo! Headquarters, Sunnyvale, CA. Web developers can get the insider scoop, see live demos, developer tool documentation, and meet product managers.

Add WordPress SECRET_KEY for Secure Cookies [Quick Online Tips]

Posted: 26 Apr 2008 12:40 PM CDT

WordPress 2.5 has incorporated a cool feature for better cookie security. You can add a SECRET_KEY to the wordpress wp-config.php file and make cookies secure against attacks where someone has hacked into your database via an SQL injection exploit etc.

Check the latest sample wp-config-sample.php file and you will see this new line

// Change SECRET_KEY to a unique phrase. You won’t have to remember it later,
// so make it long and complicated. You can visit http://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.0/
// to get a secret key generated for you, or just make something up.
define(’SECRET_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); // Change this to a unique phrase.

Visit api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.0/ which will auto-generate a unique secret key everytime. Simply cut and paste and add it to your wp-config.php file. Get a different secret for each of your blogs. Here is how the key looks like.

define(’SECRET_KEY’, ‘:qk94Q]1EB!{`&]%fWhU\”@n`\’]4S4,+ogX%) NCcri:,,%h5(,H-g%}1*>-HXX,8B’);

Ryan elaborates that don’t memorize this long code as you just need to paste and forget it. They will not ask for it again. If you ever need to force all users to log out, simply change the SECRET_KEY. Note that changing SECRET_KEY will affect only login cookies.

I have been upgrading Wordpress since WP 1.5 days, and in my wp-config.php, it was missing. I simply generated a SECRET_KEY and added it to my wp-config.php file. Hooray for better blog security. Hooray for Wordpress 2.5.1

Nokia ROMPatcher: Flash & Edit your Nokia S60 3rd Edition ROM Temporarily [Tech[dot]Blog]

Posted: 26 Apr 2008 11:47 AM CDT

A SF Forum member has released a new utility for Nokia S60 3rd Edition mobile device called ROMPatcher. This tool alows you to update the non-editable Flash ROM of your S60 smartphone with patches. ROMPatcher utilizes a technique that maps the ROM into the RAM and then modifies it due to which any changes made to it are stored only temporarily until the mobile device is rebooted. Also, as a result of this, no permanent damage is possible to the phone.

Currently two patches are available that utilize this functionality:

Nokia ROMPatcher: Flash & Edit your Nokia S60 3rd Edition ROM Temporarily

+ One, to enable hidden menus - link
+ Two, change the Swipolicy Path to allow installing unsigned applications - link

ROMPatcher opens up endless possibilities for modifications to your mobile phone, which were, up until now, not available.

Instructions:
———————
Nokia ROMPatcher

1. Download and Install AppTRK to your mobile phone’s main memory. Make sure Nokia PC Suite is not running on the desktop. Now connect your device to your PC using the USB cable in PC Suite mode. By default AppTRK starts in Bluetooth mode, cancel it. Then go to Options->Settings, change the connection mode to USB and hit Connect.

2. Once connected, find the COM port number of your USB connection from Windows device manager

3. Change the CheckAddr value in RPInstaller.ini to your Symbian platform version [For Symbian 9.1 the address is 60000148 while for Symbian 9.2, it is C0000148]

4. Now, on the computer, run RPInstaller.exe and enter the COM port number that you found in step 2. Do not select the “Patch Caps only” option. Click on Install.

5. If no errors occured, you will find a new application ROMPatcher in your phone’s Applications folder.

6. Cclose the RPinstaller.exe on the desktop. Exit from the AppTRK software on your phone and then disconnect the cable. Create a folder called Patches on your phone (E:\Patches). Now you can place any patch in this folder which will then be visible in the ROMPatcher software on your mobile phone from where it can be enabled/disabled.

Click here to download ROMPatcher for Nokia S60 3rd Edition mobile devices.