Moving over to WordPress!

It took quite some time (two and a half years, that is), but finally we’ve made it to WordPress! You can find the brand new PC Tonic blog over at www.pctonic.net OR www.pctonic.org (yours to choose from). Yeah the .com would’ve been lots better, but it’s already taken and I can’t do anything about it.

Well the <brand new> WordPress blog is actually a bit too new – you won’t find any posts there. I’ve decided not to transfer my Blogger posts and comments for now, but I’ll be doing a permanent 301 redirect in a couple of months. The existing FeedBurner URL – feeds2.feedburner.com/pctonic – will fetch you articles from the WordPress blog, which will now be regularly updated. This Blogger blog will only be updated with excerpts of those posts.

I’m learning it fast, but WordPress is still new grounds for me and I’ll be really thankful if you could point out some useful resources and hacks for it.

Oh, this move is actually the first new year resolution I’ve ever kept. :)

Windows 7 Starter will allow you to run more than 3 programs together

The starter version of every OS rolled out by Microsoft has been absolutely horrible. You can’t run more than three programs together, and you can’t change the desktop background, among other crippling stuff. Yes, you CANNOT have a wallpaper of your choice on YOUR desktop!

Things may be slightly better off with Windows 7 though. Slated to be released in the final quarter of this year, Windows 7 Starter will most likely ship without the “max-of-3-programs-together” handicap. And if the Starter-ers are lucky, why, they may even change their desktop backgrounds!

Microsoft, thou art improving! Slowly, but surely.

Source : SuperSite via AskVG.com

7 days with Windows 7 [RC] – 7 things that need improvement

Today is my 7th day on Windows 7 RC, after making a complete switch from Vista. I said this Monday that I would stick with the RC until the final version rolls out. Five days later I’m still saying the same thing – 7 is much smoother and snappier than Vista, and there’s no reason for me to go back. Moreover the striking resemblance to Vista means I haven’t missed practically ANY feature of the older Windows. I won’t write anything more about the goodies, about which you must’ve heard enough to last a lifetime. 

With all the hype, the fact remains that this is pretty much still a pre-version release and can’t be expected to be flawless. This post is about the issues that I’ve faced with the RC these seven days. These baddies could certainly do with some tuning before Windows 7 is out.

• The Task Scheduler is one heck of a headache.

Yes, hardly anyone uses it including me, but that’s no reason for something to be horribly buggy. Error messages pop up the moment I open it, and haunt me throughout. Tasks can still be created, but it’s a nightmare to find and modify them. The Task Scheduler has been acting up the very moment I tried it, so there’s no question of me doing anything. Of course, those horrendously useless “Test updates…” could have broken something…

• Start menu search needs to be faster.

  The search bar introduced in Vista’s Start menu was one of the best things that has happened to Windows. It’s still there in 7 and displays results from more places (like the Control Panel). It’s significantly slower than Vista’s search as well.  Sometimes it simply hangs up and won’t read whatever I’m throwing at it. And it never learns that I want Paint.NET ahead of Paint when I’m typing “p-a-i…”, if you get what I mean.

• Sleep mode can be suicidal.

I hate to shutdown my laptop, as it takes long to start all over again. But waiting for a couple of seconds more is far better than getting the BSOD, which is what I’ve got on three different occasions after putting the laptop to sleep.

• User inside the desktop; desktop inside the user.

Open Windows Explorer in 7 and you’ll find a “Desktop” option under Favorites in the sidebar. Click on it and you’ll find your user folder inside it. Enter the folder and, voila, there’s another Desktop folder right there! Both the “Desktop” s are completely different, and this can confuse the hell out of people. Explorer’s overall UI is great, but these anomalies should be stamped out.

• Redundancy is far from gone.

Microsoft stripped Windows 7 off some components like Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, etc., and now provides them for free as the Windows Live suite. This measure did cut down on some of the bloat, not all. In Windows 7, you can open an image file with Windows Photo Viewer OR Windows Media Player (yes, version 12 can handle images) OR Windows Media Center OR Paint. And neither of these is good at organising your photos, so you’ll have to get Live Photo Gallery for that, which can also play videos like Media Player or Media Center. Confusing, right? One app for each job would be so much better.

• Windows Live Writer drops one useful feature in Windows 7.

Live Writer is my primary blogging tool and I love everything about it. However it has got at least one feature missing in 7 – you can no longer insert pictures from the web through their URLs. I used this feature a lot, and naturally I’m missing it now. This is quite related to Windows 7, because the same version of Live Writer has the feature in Vista and XP.

• OK, there’s no point 7. :)

Save the above quirks, 7 has been really working like a charm for me. The serious ones (points 1,2,3) will almost certainly be ironed out in due time, while I can be hopeful for the others.

What’s your view on the latest and to-be-the-best Windows OS? Let’s hear in the comments. :)

Prevent your laptop from overheating with a simple arrangement

Overheating is a serious problem that can greatly reduce the average life span of any laptop. The most common cause of overheating is the improper position of air vents, which doesn’t allow the hot air inside the machine to escape completely. I’m no stranger to this, as my HP Pavilion dv5 has got it’s air vents practically on the bottom side resulting in, um, you know.

However, this problem can be greatly alleviated with a simple arrangements that requires two somewhat-thick, and equal sized books! Here are two snapshots of my laptop on top of my Harry Potter books :

  

As you can see, the hot air can easily flow out through the air vents and the overheating problem will be reduced to great extents.

How do you keep your laptop cool? Say in the comments.

:)

We’re on DISQUS!

Blogger’s commenting features suck and everyone knows it. So we’ve ditched those pathetic comment forms and replaced them with the rich commenting platform provided by DISQUS. Now you can sign in through your accounts at Facebook, Twitter or DISQUS to easily post a comment. And you can also comment as a “guest”, by providing just your name and email address. We promise (and so does DISQUS) that we’ll never publicise your email for any purpose or use it to spam you.

 

What’s your say on the move? Let the DISQUSsion begin! :)

Update : Due to some coding problems, DISQUS comment forms will appear only from the next post onwards. Sorry to keep you waiting!

Update 2 : DISQUS has been implemented on all posts by hiding the older comments. We’re looking for a possible workout.

Get Wolfram Alpha stats next to your Google search results [Firefox Add-on]

Wolfram Alpha Google is a Firefox add-on that displays Wolfram results for your Google queries alongside the Google results. This is a very convenient way for everyone who wants both search (Google) and computational (Wolfram) results for some query.

Wolfram Alpha Google is still experimental, which means you’ll have to select the “Let me download this add-on” option to download it.

Get Wolfram Alpha Google for Firefox

Make most of your night downloads

A majority of the ISPs in India offer “unlimited” night-time download packages at very cheap prices, which means downloading anything in these free night-hours won’t count in your monthly download cap. With these packages, downloading large files is obviously possible only during the free hours. The problem (craftily created by the ISPs) is that the free hours mostly start after 12 midnight and last till 6-8 a.m. in the morning. Staying awake till late night to download stuff isn’t very healthy, and again you’ve to wake up early to stop the downloads after the free hours are up.

The above scenario may not seem very bright, but you can make it much better with a few tweaks and some dead useful software! With further ado, let’s take a look at how to make full use of your free night hours.

1.Go grab these software.

Before explaining anything, I’ll ask you to download and install these free and small software. All’s well if you use similar other tools and would rather stay with them. :)

μTorrent – for scheduled and fast torrent downloads

Free Download Manager (lite version) – for scheduled download of files through HTTP / FTP

AMP WinOFF – for automatic shut-down of your computer

2.Assumptions.

In this post, we’ll assume that

• the free download hours range from 12 – 7 a.m.
• your PC won’t get too hot and set your house on fire.

 

3.Torrent downloads.

A torrent is the best way to download large files (> 500 MB) from the Internet. Now you need a BitTorrent client to get files through torrents, and μTorrent is definitely the best in this category for Windows. This meagre 250 kilo-byte tool comes optimised for best download rates and has a wealth of useful features, including a scheduler. With μTorrent’s extensive scheduler, you can easily choose portions of a day when you want full-speed downloads, limited downloads, or no download at all. We obviously want our downloads to be full-speed during the free hours and limited (or zero) during any other time; so this is how we configured it :

• Open μTorrent, and go to the Scheduler section through Options > Preferences > Scheduler. A table with all 7 week-days, and 24 boxes for each day, will appear. These boxes imply the 24 hours of the day. Select the “Enable Scheduler” option, and all the boxes will be coloured deep-green by default. You can change the colour simply by left clicking on the box multiple times. You can see the meaning of each colour code in the screenshot.

  

• As you can see, I’ve created a thought out schedule which allows full download from 12 – 7 a.m., cuts off the transfer an hour after and before this period, and allows only limited transfer rest of the time. You can assign the value of max. download and upload rates during the limited schedule.

Create a schedule that suits you and μTorrent will take care of the rest.

4.HTTP / FTP downloads.

Using a download manager is a good idea for downloading anything other than torrents. And Free Download Manager is easily one of the best options for Windows users. FDM actually supports BitTorrent downloads as well, though it’s nowhere as good as μTorrent. You can therefore get the 2 MB lite version, which excludes BitTorrent support and a few other extra features. FDM also has a scheduler option, which can be accessed from Options > Settings > Downloads > Time limit. Here you can set the time period (00:00 – 07:00, in our case) within which FDM can start a download. Now, even if you add a new download at 9 p.m., FDM will start it only at 12 midnight.

You can also choose the time for a download to stop (7 a.m. / 07:00 in our case). Right click on the file to be downloaded, select Schedule > Stop, and set the stopping time to 07:00.

5.Save power!

Your PC is now completely ready to make full use of the 7/8 free hours that you get from your ISP. This also implies significantly larger electricity bills, unless you do your part to conserve max. possible energy. Here are some tips you could do with -

• You don’t want your PC to keep running after the free download period. This is where AMP WinOFF comes in handy. Just specify a time (07:00) and activate this tiny app, and it’ll promptly shutdown your computer at that time. There are a bunch of other options in WinOFF, do what’s best for you. :)

• Sometime, your downloads might finish well within the free download period, say at 5 a.m. Again you won’t want your PC to be running an extra 2 hours before it’s shut down by WinOFF. Thankfully, both μTorrent and FDM have options to shut down your computer once the downloads are over, as shown below.

 

• Laptops are far more power efficient than desktops, but they can overheat if left running the entire night. If you’re using a laptop, make sufficient cooling arrangements.
• Turn off the display of your monitor to save power. Most desktop monitors have a power button, while the “Power options” in Windows will help you for laptops. In Windows Vista / 7, click on the battery icon in the system tray and select “More power options”. Under your preferred plan, select “Change plan settings”. The window shown below will appear and you can adjust the settings to your liking. The values shown in the screenshot should be ideal for night time downloads. Do make sure that the option, “Put your computer to sleep”, is set to Never so that your laptop doesn’t sleep half way through the downloads!

 

 

The Internet is HUGE, go start your downloads today tonight! And if you've got your own downloading secrets, do share with us in your comments. :)

AST suggests suitable add-ons for Firefox [Firefox Add-on]

Adding and managing new extensions became easier than ever before with Firefox 3. You could simply type in your query in a search box, or simply pick an add-on from the “recommended” list.

Experimental add-on AST (Add-ons Suggestions Tool) goes a step further by suggesting add-ons that other Firefoxians (err??) use in conjunction with your add-ons. Installing the suggested add-ons is very convenient as well, just press the “Install addon” button on AST’s window. Else you can use the “Get add-ons” feature to install all those add-ons automatically <this can be a bit overwhelming for Firefox though!>.

As said, AST is still experimental and you’ve to check the “Let me install this add-on” box in order to download it.

Get AST for Firefox

Technorati Tags: ast,add-ons suggestion tool,firefox add-on

AdBlock Plus blocks too much of AdSense

AdBlock Plus might be the ultimate ad blocking tool for Firefox users, but it’s seemingly too kin to block anything related with Google’s AdSense. Today I was surprised to find that ABP blocks the Account Settings page of my AdSense account. Here’s the screenshot of the page :

Disabling ABP makes the page load normally again, as shown below.

This is definitely a big problem for AdSense publishers, who’ll terrified to find their Account settings altogether missing! You can of course disable ABP for the particular page, but a new ABP version with better filters will obviously be more welcome.

PC Security Test analyzes your computer’s security

PC Security Test is a surprisingly detailed and effective program that checks your computer’s security against the ever increasing viruses, spyware, and hackers. This 1MB tool has a number of useful features, listed below, that reveal the security vulnerabilities on your computer.

Standard tests : The most important part of PST, the standard tests simulate a dummy malware and hacking attack to check the effectiveness of your antivirus, antispyware, and firewall software. After the test, PST will compute your PC’s security index based on the performance of your security tools. Any of the simulated infection, which went unnoticed, will also be cleaned.

As you can see, I came up pretty flat in the spyware section. I’m using AVG antivirus pro 8.5 along with Windows firewall.

Email tests : Enter your email address, and PST will mail you a dummy virus to check if it’s being blocked by your email provider. If you use any of the popular email services like Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, or AOL, this test is pretty useless as all of these have strong virus scanners.

Browser tests : PST simulates an unauthorized ActiveX attack on Internet Explorer to check if it’s being blocked.

Proof Mode : This is the scary part! Well somewhat. Proof Mode consists of two tests – Information Gathering and Various Actions. The first test will try to pull in your username, Windows product key etc., the same way a spyware acts (this test fails on Windows Vista and 7). The second test shows you how easily malware can display fake messages, and even take control of something like your mouse, screen, or optical drives!

PST also carries some other useful features like ways to clean personal data from Internet Explorer, a quiz to test your security outlook, and general FAQs on viruses and spyware. The only irritating part is closing the program, which automatically takes you to the Download.com page for VirusKeeper (which possibly supports the free software).

PST hasn’t been updated since 2007, but runs smoothly on Windows Vista and 7. And of course it supports Windows XP as well. It may not run properly if you’ve got some HIPS tool like ThreatFire, Comodo Defense+, or Spyware Terminator.

So what now?

PST is a small reminder that how vulnerable we are to malware today. No need to worry though! Check out our “fortify your computer” tests to stay as much clear of malware as possible. And you could do with a modern day free antivirus too.

:)

Windows 7 trick : Maximize any window by dragging it to the top of your screen

Here’s one small Windows 7 trick that I found out today. I’m not sure if it was present in previous Windows versions (can anyone check please?), so please don’t blast me if you’ve known it since ages!

You can maximize any normal window by holding down it’s title bar and dragging it to the top of the desktop. It’s a fairly easy concept, and Aero Peek does give some idea on how to do it.

Update : It basically seems to be a part of the Aero Snap feature. For the unaware masses - in Windows 7 you can snap a window size to half your desktop by dragging it to either side of the desktop.

 

As I said in my previous post, Windows 7 is full of surprising little features and this is one of them.

Windows 7 is awesome!

There are some things that simply win you over at first glance.

And Windows 7 has become one of “those” things for me. I’ve been using the release candidate on my laptop for the last couple of days, and I’m just amazed how smooth and elegant it is. It boots up faster, it takes significantly less space than Vista Ultimate, it uses my battery more efficiently, it provides much more flexibility over those horrendous UAC prompts, it’s got the awesome ‘Libraries’ concept, it has all those ridiculously good wallpapers and themes, it supports all my drivers (display, network, blah blah…) out of the box, it runs all of my software without a glitch, AND it has all those beautiful little usability tweaks everywhere! This release candidate feels so refined and well-made that I can’t imagine the final product getting better (which won’t be too bad either). I’ve switched to Windows 7 RC full-time from Vista Ultimate and will be making the jump to the main release as soon as it’s available through our institute. My faithful old Vista DVD was good, but 7 just blows it off its rockers.

If you haven’t tried out the RC yet, it’s time you did it. And if you’ve, what’s your verdict? Flood the comments section!

:)

IZArc is back in development

Free file archiving utility IZArc, one of our favorites, is back under development after staying dormant for almost two years. The developer Ivan Zahariev has released a beta of IZArc 4.0, which improves support for 7-zip format, adds a few useful features, uses ClearType rendering in Vista, and squashes some age old bugs of IZArc 3.81. IZArc has always been one of the most solid file archivers out there, with support for over 60 formats, and an array of useful features.

The beta is quite usable on my system, and one small bug (regarding file association) that appeared after installation was automatically fixed after a reboot.

If you’re keen to try IZArc out, grab the beta here.

Mac vs PC ads : Where are they going?

Every other day, we see a Mac vs PC ad popping up from either company that leaves no stones unturned in ridiculing the rival's products. Apple's ads are all about a cool Mac guy humiliating a PC nerd in every possible manner. And then Microsoft brings up a bunch of people, all of whom reject pricey Macs, grab an HP, and run away shouting "I am a PC!". Both companies are among the largest in the world, and both are obviously spending millions in creating and promoting these ads. But the result? Nothing (except for the rare humor in pro-Mac ads, and a good look at HP models in pro-PC ads). These ads definitely don't convert a PC (as in human) to a Mac, or vice-versa.

In my opinion, both companies had had enough of these ads (especially Apple) and should rather invest the money to develop their products (and don't even say Macs are flawless). And Apple must consider bringing down the price of MacBooks and iMacs if it wants it's OS to gain popularity.

What's your say on the ever increasing Mac vs PC ads?

Image credit - EYLC

10+1 free antivirus tools for Windows

It’s been a while since we listed down all the available free antivirus tools for Windows. The list is bigger today, the “top-picks” have changed, and antispy technology has basically been integrated into most virus removing tools. Without further ado, let’s have a look!

Note - All these tools support Windows Vista/XP. Support for either Windows 7 or older versions can’t be guaranteed; please see the system requirements for the required product.

Avira AntiVir Personal

Avira’s AntiVir has been constantly making the top of the charts in many antivirus comparison tests carried out by neutral organisations. This sleek software has a small memory footprint, sports a simple interface, catches nearly every virus or rootkit thrown at it, updates multiple times a day, and, starting with version 9, includes the much awaited antispyware component. Probably the only thing to moan about are the nag screens which appear after every update, but they can be easily disabled with an easy hack.

Pros : Strong active protection; fast scans; simple interface; high detection rates and excellent heuristics; low memory use; good config. options

Cons : Nag screen after every update; default settings require babysitting during manual scans; additional components like email scanning and link scanning absent

Rating : 4/5

AVG Free Edition

When it comes to popularity, AVG Free edition has no rivals. A simple installation and out-of-the-box protection make it the best choice for the lesser tech-savvy masses. In addition to the regular virus and spyware protection, AVG includes an email scanner and LinkScanner, which prevents you from entering infected web pages. Even though comparison charts don’t rate it very high, AVG is still a solid choice if you want your PC protected with little or no effort.

Pros : Intuitive and simple interface; adequate default settings; email scanning; active protection from malicious websites; one centralized window; excellent configuration options

Cons : Comparatively poor detection rates; USB drive protection is off by default; no rootkit protection; huge installation file (> 60MB);

Rating : 4/5

Avast! Home Edition

Avast! Home edition rounds out the “Big Three” of the free antivirus market, the other two being AVG and AntiVir. Avast! provides an almost impenetrable 6-shield layer of active protection and can also effectively catch malware during manual scans. However, it does have a weak self defence, and some malware even prevent it from being installed on infected machines. The default interface of Avast! is confusing as well, and you may have to look at our guide to get started. All in all, Avast! is a good choice for brand new PCs and not very ideal for already infected ones.

Pros : Extremely strong real-time protection with web shield, email scanning, and IM shield among others; small size updates; skinnable

Cons : Confusing default skin; poor self-defense; slow scans

Rating : 4/5

PC Tools Antivirus

PC Tools Antivirus provides effective protection against viruses, trojans, and worms. Features include a well-refined user interface, IntelliGuard for active protection, automatic smart updates, and a lot of configuration and scanning options. However, it’s also remarkably heavier on system resources, taking ages to start up or shut down. You’ll also have to pay to get spyware protection through PC Tools Spyware Doctor, although you could do with the free starter edition being provided with Google Pack.

Pros : Strong active protection; quick updates; nice UI

Cons : Unresponsive and slow during startup; almost impossible to disable temporarily; no spyware protection

Rating : 3/5

Rising Free Antivirus

We’ve a new entrant here! Rising antivirus builds upon the goodies of other popular rivals to put together a rock solid security app for your PC. It provides strong on-demand and real-time malware protection, real-time shield against malicious websites (like AVG and Avast!), email scanning, automatic USB scans, advanced heurisitics, daily updates, and zero-day protection, among other features. Moreover, Rising sports an intuitive interface that should be easy enough for most users.

Pros : Includes everything needed for strong protection; recommended by Microsoft; intuitive UI

This is one product I haven’t tested out yet, so I’ve no idea about it’s minus points. From all the reviews I’ve come across, Rising seemingly deserves a 4.

Comodo Internet Security

Comodo have owned the world’s best software firewall for some time, and now they’ve integrated an equally good antivirus right into it. Of course, you can choose to have only the antivirus, or the firewall, or both, during installation. I never had a good experience with Comodo’s antivirus, but that was years back when it was still boiling in the beta cauldron. Today the product is getting positive reviews from the entire tech community and users alike.

Pros : Nice UI; regular updates; pro-active Defense+ protection

Cons : Defense+ can be irritating (but curable); low scores in comparison charts; installation file is big (> 45MB) due to integrated firewall

Rating : 3/5 (Detection definitely needs to be improved.)

ThreatFire Antivirus

In this world of update-and-detect security tools, ThreatFire takes a different approach of tackling the ever increasing malware. It relies on behavioural characteristics, or “heuristics”, to detect malware, and is quite effective at it’s job. There’s more reason to use it though – it uses very little system resource, it doesn’t need to be frequently updated, and it CAN work smoothly with any other antivirus to double up your PC protection! Oh, and it’s another PC Tools product, so there’s little need to question it’s efficiency.

Pros : New approach to security – especially effective against the latest malware; very small memory footprint; compatible with other antivirus tools; no definition updates required

Cons : Solely depends on behavioural analysis – can be outsmarted by changing malware behaviour

Rating : 3/5 (It’s still difficult to accept ThreatFire as a primary antivirus.) 

Panda Cloud Antivirus

Panda has always taken an innovative approach towards desktop security, and their Cloud antivirus is the next step in this direction. As the name suggests, Cloud antivirus keeps as much of it’s core files and malware definitions as possible on Panda’s dedicated servers. You just have to install the on-demand scanner and real-time scanning components, which keep you protected by pulling in malware definitions from those servers. This means Panda’s Cloud antivirus requires significantly less disk space and memory compared to other security apps (although it’s not looking quite apparent in it’s current stage). Cloud Antivirus constantly accesses the Internet to keep up with the latest updates, to submit malware, etc., but it also maintains a local cache to keep you protected in offline mode. Oh yeah, it’s still in beta so the less tech-savvy PC users probably should stay away for now.

Pros : Introduces concept of cloud security; constantly synchronises with dedicated servers to keep tag on latest threats; small memory footprint; completely free (no paid upgrades available); nice intuitive interface with no confusing menus

Cons : In public beta – not ready for mainstream use; questionable protection in offline mode

Rating : 2.5/5 (deserves more, but has to come out of beta first)  

Clamwin Antivirus 

Clamwin is the only open source antivirus in our list. While it detects a pretty decent number of viruses, a lack of real time protection makes it a big no-no in today’s unsafe times. However, Clamwin does come with a very useful portable version which can be carried in a USB stick to quickly disinfect any PC.

Pros : Portable version is ideal to be carried in a thumb drive; fully open source; simple interface

Cons : No real-time protection; poor score in comparison charts; no spyware detection

Rating : 1.5/5 (not ideal for desktop use)

You may also check out Spyware Terminator, a free antispyware which can embed the ClamAV engine to provide virus protection during scans and even in real-time. ClamAV is also the core engine that powers Clamwin (and many of the Linux antiviruses).

Norton Security Scan

Norton Security Scan is a free tool made available via Google Pack. This stripped down version can remove viruses, but only notifies you of any present spyware. Again, nowhere sufficient enough to safeguard your PC.

Pros : Small size; automatic updates; good detection rates

Cons : doesn’t remove spyware; too few features; no real-time protection

Rating : 1.5/5 (good for some quick manual scans once in a while)

BitDefender Free Edition

We wind up our list of free antiviruses with BitDefender’s free antivirus, which like Clamwin, only provides on-demand and scheduled scanning of your PC. However, it’s remarkably heavier, doesn’t have a portable version, and keeps running in the background (even if it doesn’t provide active protection!), thereby making it practically useless.

Pros : Good detection

Cons : Bloatware; no real time protection

Rating : 1/5 (Excellent detection simply can’t make up for the bloat and lack of active protection of this product.)

 

 

So that’s our list! Which antivirus do you use on your PC? Fire away in the comments!

VLC Media Player 1.0 RC1 (Goldeneye) is here!

 

Popular software cataloguing site FileHippo has made available the first release candidate of the much awaited VLC media player 1.0. Codenamed Goldeneye, the latest version brings together a bunch of new features, improved decoders, and better playback support, among other things.

The interface is basically the same as in the 0.9.x (Grishenko) series.

You can download the latest version from FileHippo, as VLC’s home page seems to have no information about this release candidate as yet. 

Four online services to tone down bulky websites

Surfing the web can become a pain in the a** if you’re on dial-up. And it gets all the more unbearable when you just have to file through the text content of some page, but you’re kept waiting for ages as all the images, flashy advertisements, and clunky widgets keep loading! Well, there are quite a few online websites out there which can greatly strip down big web pages by disabling all the bulky elements in those pages. This really speeds up loading of the page by greatly reducing it’s size, which can also help save precious bandwidth on limited broadband plans.

Finch

If the text on a web page is what matters for you, go straight for Finch. As it’s makers say,

Finch makes slow Internet bearable, by stripping away the fat of web pages, leaving just the content. It takes out CSS, images, flash, metadata, iframes, purple mongooses (mongeese?) and more, meaning less for your computer to load.

Finch can reduce a page’s size by over 95%, thereby saving a ridiculously big portion of your bandwidth! It comes with it’s cons though – you won’t see images, and AJAX like Facebook or Google Docs certainly won’t work. Logging in to online services isn’t possible yet, either.

Mowser

Mowser does a good job of “mobilizing” a web page by converting the standard HTML to a mobile-phone friendly version. This naturally implies cutting down on a lot of heavy elements, as they would appear out of place on a mobile phone’s small screen. While Finch does a rather aggressive tone-down of a web page, Mowser strikes a good balance between webpage viewing and bandwidth saving.

Skweezer

Skweezer acts pretty much like Finch to tone down any webpage, but keeps the external images intact. In addition, the skweezed pages are automatically optimized for mobile phone screens. Skweezer also has a handy feature that shows the kilo-Bytes saved after skweezing a webpage.

BareSite

BareSite utilizes the RSS feeds of any website to pull out a list of recent articles published on that site. You can then choose from any of the articles and BareSite will come up with a stripped-down version of the article. Neat.

 

 

Do you know any other similar website? Share in the comments!

Discover your Orkut friends on Facebook with Facebook Friend Finder

Facebook has come up with a useful bookmarklet which allows you to find all your Orkut friends who have already moved to Facebook.

  

Simply drag the bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmark bar, and click it once you’ve logged in to your Orkut account. You’ll be redirected to Orkut ’s mobile version (m.orkut.com), as the service doesn’t work with the main Orkut site yet. Click the button once again, and Facebook Friend Finder will notify you of all your friends who’re in Facebook, based on their primary email addresses. You can quickly all / any of them to your Facebook friends list.

Tonic Poll : Should “anonymous” comments be allowed?

Over the last few months, the number of anonymous comments at this blog has been increasing fast. I’m not a big fan of anonymous commenting and I really don’t understand why Blogger still has this ridiculous feature. I even can’t turn it off without disabling the “Name / URL” field either!

I’m trying everything I can to urge people to write in their names, but with little success so far. So I just wanted to know your say on anonymous commenting through this poll. Do cast your vote!

 

@ Everyone reading this post in their feed readers – Please visit the blog, as you might not be seeing the poll widget embedded in this post.

@ Commentators – Please, please don’t post anonymously. I know Blogger’s commenting system still sucks, but then it hardly takes a few seconds to jot down your name! You know, it’s weird to see a dozen comments, all by “Anonymous”, in a single post.

@ Blogger – Please do away with that anonymous commenting feature! And also make the Name entering field more prominent in the embedded comment form.

 

Thank you. :)

Image credit : martaxade (flickr)

UnPlug finds and downloads videos and music from web pages [Firefox add-on]

UnPlug is a handy Firefox add-on that finds embedded videos and music on a web page and downloads them to your PC. UnPlug works with most popular video sites like YouTube, Metacafe, Vimeo, Veoh, DailyMotion etc. Downloading a video with UnPlug is dead simple – load the video page, fire up the UnPlug window, and use the “Download” option for the video you want. Moreover, UnPlug can also integrate with download managing add-ons, DownThemAll! or FlashGot, to give you better grip over your video downloads.

While there are about a zillion other options to get videos from YouTube, UnPlug certainly is one of the most hassle-free ways to do it.

Get UnPlug for Firefox here.

How to backup and synchronise bookmarks in different browsers

If you bookmark a lot of websites, it’s always a good idea to have them backed them up somewhere. The best backup place, of course, is the Internet where all your bookmarks stay safe from any possible hardware failures that may cripple your PC (let’s hope not!). In this post, we shall see how to effectively backup and synchronize your bookmarks in all the five major browsers – IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari.

Delicious for all!

Delicious is no stranger to us, being the largest online bookmark organising and sharing service. Meanwhile, Delicious also offers official add-ons for Firefox and Internet Explorer that keep the bookmarks in your browser and your Delicious account completely synchronized. If you’re using another browser, simply grab the Bookmark on Delicious bookmarklet and use it to save bookmarks in your Delicious account (rather than your browser). 

Of course, Delicious isn’t the end of the world, and you can choose from various other options if you want to. Read on!

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer continues to be the most popular browser, and version 8 has really made this browser worth a second look.

Manual : Internet Explorer allows you to export all your bookmarks favorites, cookies, and feed items as an HTML file. To do so, click on the Favorites button and select the Import and Export… option.

IE7Pro : We’ve shown you all but half the goodies that IE7Pro brings to IE. This tiny tool has an “online service” that can upload your favorites to it’s servers and sync it automatically across all your other computers (running IE with IE7Pro). To enable this online service, fire up IE7Pro’s Preferences window (Ctrl + F7), move to Online Service, and check the Sync bookmarks automatically option. You’ll of course need an IE7Pro account, and creating one is child’s play from the interface.

Windows Live toolbar : Another way to sync favorites is by using the Windows Live Toolbar. Just sign in to your Windows Live account through the toolbar, and it will keep syncing your favorites with your online Windows Live account. The favorite links can be accessed online at http://favorites.live.com.

 

 

Mozilla Firefox

We all love Firefox. With over 6000 add-ons and counting, there are always more than one ways to get something done with this browser. And backing up bookmarks is no exception.

Manual : Like IE, manually backing up bookmarks in Firefox is dead simple.

Xmarks : Xmarks (previously Foxmarks) is a solid add-on that can sync your bookmarks and even passwords across multiple PCs. In addition, Xmarks can suggest tags for new bookmarks, and show information about your visited sites based on this bookmark database. Xmarks is also available as Foxmarks for IE 6 / 7 and Safari 3(Mac OS X only), though with significantly less features.

 

Opera

Opera is well-known for overcoming it’s lack of extensive add-ons by including a vast array of inbuilt features. So it should be no surprise that this sleek browser comes with the handy Opera Link, which can synchronise your bookmarks, notes, Speed Dial, history, and even searches across all your devices running any version of Opera. To enable Opera Link, select Synchronize Opera from the File menu, sign in / create your My Opera account, and select the items that you want to be synced. All these items can be accessed anywhere from your My Opera page.

Manual : Opera allows manual importing and exporting of bookmarks, feeds, and contacts. To export bookmarks as an Opera-supported list only, choose Export Opera Bookmarks…; else select the Export Bookmarks as HTML….

Google Chrome

Chrome is a relatively new browser, with less robust bookmark managing features than other browsers. Nevertheless, it does allow you to manually export bookmarks as an HTML file. Open Chrome, and press Ctrl + Shift + B to open the Bookmark Manager. Now select Export Bookmarks… under Tools option. If you’re looking to backup the complete profile including your history, bookmarks, searches etc., try the free Google Chrome Backup tool.

As of now, there isn’t any way to setup automatic online syncing of bookmarks in Chrome.

 

Safari

Safari hasn’t gained much popularity among Windows users, and there aren’t many useful add-ons available for it. If you do use Safari, you can manually backup your bookmarks through File > Export Bookmarks…

 

 

How do you organise, backup and sync your bookmarks? Say in the comments! :)