September 22, 2013

Google Tricks And Secrets: 10 More Fun Google Search Tips [Play Games using Google]

        Many of us agree that Google is the best and most powerful search engine there is. It’s so widely used that people “Google” something, but they don’t “Yahoo!” it. It has a clean and simple homepage (no annoying ads), and is fast and user friendly. But probably the best thing about Google is that it is simply fun. Here are ten of the best Google tricks, tips, Easter eggs, and secrets that make online searching cool.
Before you proceed, though, know that some of the following tricks require you to type “Google” plus the other word and click on “I’m feeling lucky.” If you can’t find the I’m Feeling Lucky button because Google auto-completes the search for you, just hover on the suggestions offered, and the button will appear in the form of a blue hyperlink. Or you can simply click on the links below:
For the Lord of the Rings fans or just about anyone familiar with the popular LOTR memes online, you can have Google tell you how to get to the infamous Mordor. Using Google Maps, get from The Shire or Rivendell to Mordor and click on the walking directions and you’ll get a very familiar warning.
Google's walking direction to Mordor

Google's walking direction to Mordor
Okay, so you’re not much of an LOTR fan because your inner geek is really oozing with Star Trek awesomeness. And wouldn’t you know it, Google has just the thing for you! Of course, if you’re really a Star Trek super fan, you should know how to speak fluent Klingon. Test your language skill on Google’s Klingon page.
Google Klingon
Google Klingon
3. Goglogo
Ever wanted to have your own Google? Now you can! With Goglogo, you can personalise the Google logo to whatever text you want.
Personalised Google
Personalised Google
Know anyone too lazy to search Google on their own? Well now you can help a friend get lazier or serve a master, whatever is applicable for you. Let Me Google That For You or LMGTFY is made for people who are kind enough to help lazy people with their Google search. Simply type what you want to look for in the text box and a link to the results page will appear, which you can mail to your lazy friend or master.
Let Me Google That For You
Let Me Google That For You
The earth isn’t flat, so why does Google have to be? Google Sphere takes care of that for you. Instead of boring and even image search page, Google Sphere turns it into an interactive spinning orb.
Google Sphere
Google Sphere
From earth to the space, Google has got you covered. From the same team that brought us Google Sphere, Google Space is another interactive search page that mimics anti-gravity force, much like the exact opposite of Google Gravity.
Google Space
Google Space
Google commemorated guitar genius Les Paul in 2009 (he would have turned 96 had he lived for two more years) with a homepage guitar logo that is not only playable, but also recordable.
Google Guitar
Google Guitar
Here’s one user’s rendition of “Billie Jean”
8. Google Pac-Man (click here to play game)
In 2010, Pac-Man celebrated its 30th anniversary, and Google was there to bring the popular 80s game back. The developers stayed true to the 8-bit masterpiece, even recreating its original bugs. Easter egg bonus: If you want to play this with a friend, just click Insert Coin twice and Ms Pac-Man will join Pac-Man in eating dots and chasing ghosts. Pac-Man is controlled using the arrow keys, while Ms Pac-Man uses WASD keys.
Google Pac-Man
Google Pac-Man
9. Atari Breakout (click here to play game)
The year 2013 is the 30th anniversary of Atari’s popular game Breakout. And just like Pacman, Breakout is pretty timeless, with kids and adults still enjoy playing it no matter how many modern games are released today. To play Breakout, simply do an image search for Atari Breakout, and everything will fall into place.
Atari Breakout on Google
Atari Breakout on Google
10. Zerg Rush
If you’re a StarCraft player, you can employ your perfected Zerg rush tactic on Google’s Zerg Rush interactive game. Just search Zerg Rush and watch as a gang of invading Os attack your search result from all sides of the screen. You will have to vanquish them by clicking them with your mouse or, if you’re using a touch screen, with your fingers.
It’s a losing battle for you, though, since the Os are just too many to beat and the game is just designed that way. As your last search result is defeated, the Os will then form two big Gs to represent Good Game.
Bonus #11: Google Doodles
Doodles are temporary redesigns of the Google logo that are created to give tribute to a historical event or a person who has made an impact on the world. Most of the logos are only up for a day, some for as long as a week, but all are only temporary. You can view the past logo designs on Google’s Doodles page.

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September 15, 2013

Top 10 Ways to track your stolen mobile phone

Now a days many mobiles are being stolen, It is increasing rapidly day by day. How to get your mobile back? Is there any chance to track the mobiles which are being stolen by some others? Yes of course For that there are several methods


 to Track the stolen mobile. In this Article I am going to include 10 different methods to track the stolen mobile.

1. IMEI Number:


IMEI number is very important to track the mobile. It is a 15 digit number, to know the IMEI of your mobile just dial *#06# . We have to save this number for future purpose, It plays a major role to track the mobile. In order to file a complaint in police station, IMEI number is necessary

2. Avast Mobile Security :

It is a security Application for smart phones. This Application helps us in two ways, One is it acts a Anti-Virus and the other it has the Mobile Tracking technology. This App is inbuilt with Anti-Theft component which sends us messages when the mobile is being stolen.
Download Link : Avast Mobile Security

3. Mobile Chase-Location Tracker :


It is a good application to track the mobile. Whenever the thief changes the sim in that mobile. It stores the data and sends back that data to us.
Download Link: Mobile Chase- GPS Tracker

4. Thief Tracker :


This Application has the best feature. When someone tries to unlock the phone, it captures the image of that person by using front camera of the mobile and mails that pics to us.

5. Smart Look :


This application has the ability to capture the images of the thief  and mails that pics to us. It is inbuilt with continuous GPS Tracking system that helps us to track the correct location of the thief.

6. Anti-Theft Alarm "

It is a simple application and easy to use. If we enable the alarm option in that application, if someone tries to unlock the phone it automatically starts sounding until you enter the correct pin.
Download Link: Anti Theft Alarm

7. Kaspersky Mobile Security :
It is a good application for smart phones. This application has the features Anti-Theft, Anti-Virus and provides good security which helps in tracking the mobile.
Download Link: Kaspersky Mobile Security

8. Look out Security and Anti Virus :
This application plays an important role to track the location of the mobile, by using google map it tracks the address up to date and sends that data to us.
Download Link: Look Out Security and Antivirus

9. Trend Micro Mobile security and Anti virus:
This is the most widely used application and stands at top place. It is premium application, it comes with 30-day free trial. It has the best features of Anti-Virus and Anti-Theft technologies.
Download Link: Trend Micro Mobile Security and Anti-Virus

10. Plan B, Lookout Mobile :
This application has two plans to track the mobile. Plan A and Plan B. If Plan A fails then it executes Plan B by using Cell Towers and GPS it tracks the data of that location and mail backs that data to us.
Download Link: Plan B Lookout Mobile

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September 14, 2013

How to remove the BIOS splash screen (Tamilnadu government laptop scheme).


Are you tired of seeing the Tamil Nadu logo every time you switch on your laptop? Then this easy tutorial is for you!
EDIT: 08.02.2013 - If you're good at experimenting with technology and setting your own (any image of your choice) BIOS image, read on. For those of you who are bad at technical stuff, just download this zip file, extract, and run the .exe file as Administrator (Right click -> Run as Administrator)
Before we go any further, I'd like to add that none of the steps mentioned here voids your agreement with the Government as we are still using it for personal use which is all that the agreement we signed states. The boot splash was meant to prevent you from selling the laptop which we are not going to do but actually use it more for ourselves now that the boot splash is not irritating us anymore.
A couple of days back, I got an email from one of the visitors to my website. I'm always happy to actually hear from you guys so never hesitate even if it is just a comment or an email. So, his name was (also) Deepak. He was an Electronics Engineer and he had followed my tutorial on "How to make your TN Govt. Laptop AWESOME!" and was satisfied with it but he asked me if there is a way to remove the ugly bios splash screen you see above. So I took it upon myself and did a little digging around. Here's what I found:
There was this Youtube Video which shows that the splash screen has indeed been changed and this guy named Arun Lance has done it. So far so good. But things don't look so good after this cuz he's expecting people to contact him so that he can SELL his software to change the splash screen.  It makes me sad that such things are actually being monetized rather than being shared with the world. So, I did some work and managed to change it using another method and decided to SHARE it with the world. The last time I attempted a BIOS flash was back in the days when it was done using FLOPPY drives but not to worry. It has evolved so much that you can easily do it from within Windows itself. So here you go. Let's get to Step 1 - click next to continue.

  Before we make any changes to your current BIOS, we will first make a backup in case you ever want the TN logo again (I don't know why anyone will want that though) or if something goes wrong.
So in order to do that, we need to download a tool by Davidxxw which can be found here.
  • Once downloaded, extract the contents using WinRAR (we will be using WinRAR in future also so make sure you have it installed.) and then right click the .exe file and select "Run as Administrator". You should be at a window like shown below.



  • Now click the "Read" button.
  • Once the read operation is complete, click the "Backup" button and you will be asked to save your file somewhere. Save it in a safe place and also keep a backup of the file as this is the original bios file. Your backup is now complete.

Now we will edit your bios file to change the splash image. Click next to find out how.

 We will now see how to edit your BIOS file and change the splash image.
  • Make a copy of your bios file that we made in the previous step and name it "44CN43WW.fd"
  • Windows will ask if you're sure that you want to change the extension of the file. Click Yes.
  • If Windows did not ask you that, make sure you did not name it as "44CN43WW.fd.rom". You need to change the extension of the file as well.
  • Now our bios uses the Insydeh20 framework so we need an Insydeh20 editor. You can download it from here.
  • Download the Ezh20.zip file and extract it.
  • Right click the EZH20.exe file and select "Run as Administrator".
  • In the EZH20 window, select File -> Load file and select the renamed "44CN43WW.fd" file.
  • It will show you the file's properties. Click Ok.
  • Now go to Components -> Logo and you should be presented with the windows as shown below.

  • You should click the "Image Information" drop-down and select the JPG(1024*768) option.
  • Now in the "Logo Image To Load" section, click "Browse" and select the image file you need to use. (Scroll down for a few splash screen images I made in the correct format or go to the next section to know how to make your own image as using incorrect format will damage your BIOS.)
  • Now click on "Patch" and wait (do not click or move anything at all) till it completes. It should say "FD file modify finished" on the bottom left.
  • Now select the option File -> Save and wait till it says "FD file save data finished" on the bottom left.
  • Now you can close the window. You have finished replacing the splash screen.

Here are a few splash screens I made to replace the TN logo. They will look a bit skewed but will look perfect on boot.
Bios Splash screen collection:
 
You can download this collection from here.
If you want to know how to make your own splash images, click next.
Or if you like, you can skip to Flashing a modified BIOS.

 If you would like to make your own BIOS Splash Images, follow the steps below.
NOTE: The usual standard resolution for BIOS Splash Images is using a 640 x 480 px, 16-bit Bitmap. But for the B460e BIOS we will use a 1024x768 px resolution.
The BIOS splash screen uses a 1024x768 px image with a white 97x99 px overlay on the bottom right. For this reason, your Splash Image will look best with a white(#ffffff) background.
The other notable thing is that the screen resolution of the B460e is 1366x768 px and during boot, the 1024x768 px image is stretched across this resolution. Also, the image will only work if it is a 16 bit (important) Bitmap. So in order for the image to work and also for it to NOT appear stretched, follow the steps below. If you use improper settings, your splash screen will not appear or the laptop might not boot. I used Photoshop for these operations. If you can't afford Photoshop, use GIMP - a free open-source software.
  • Open Photoshop and select the File -> New option with the below settings exactly.

  • Create whatever artwork you like, taking note that the right bottom corner will get cut off a little so don't put anything much in the right bottom.
  • Do not make your artwork too complex and avoid gradients or using too many colors. The flatter the colors the better. This is because the image file size must not be too high. If it becomes too high, there won't be enough space on the EEPROM chip where the BIOS is saved and it might corrupt your BIOS making it unable to boot. So just keep your artwork as minimal as possible.
  • Now you must resize your image to 1024x768 px (to avoid stretched look, we work on 1366x768 px and resize to 1024x768 so that even though the output after this step will look stretched, when booting it will look normal.)
  • To resize, go to Image -> Image size and in the dialog box, untick "Constrain proportions" checkbox (Important) and in width box enter 1024 and leave the height box at 768.

  • Choose the option File -> Save As and select any name for your image file and select the format as "BMP" from the drop-down menu.
  • On the next dialog box, choose 16 Bit as color depth and Windows mode as shown below.

Now that you have your splash image ready, follow the instructions in the previous page to replace the TN logo with the new image you just created. Even though the BIOS editor shows JPEG, only a BITMAP file with above settings will work.
Or go to the next page to see how to flash the modified BIOS file to your motherboard's EEPROM chip.

 Now that we have the modified BIOS file, "44CN43WW.fd" (if you followed all the previous steps correctly), we need to find a utility that will be able to flash the modified BIOS file to the EEPROM chip on the motherboard. It is advisable to not flash your BIOS too many times. 3-4 times is a safe number.
Now since the Lenovo B460e is a locked laptop, we will not be able to find a flash utility for our model so we will use the flash utility of the B450 model and replace the BIOS file with our modified BIOS before flashing.
  • Go to the Lenovo Download Center to download the BIOS flash utility. or Here
  • Ignore the fact that it says "for Vista 32 bit". It works on all OS above Vista and both on 32 bit and 64 bit systems. I'm using a Windows 8 x64 system.
  • Right click the file "1DCN26WW.exe" If you have WinRAR installed, you shoud see "Extract to 1DCN26WW\" option, select it. (This is the step people usually go wrong at. You must use WinRAR to extract the exe. ) If you don't get the option when you right click, open WinRAR and browse to the exe and then extract it.

  • Open the newly created "1DCN26WW" folder.
  • Delete the file "1DCN26WW.fd".
  • Copy the modified BIOS file "44CN43WW.fd" into this folder.
  • Now make sure your laptop is charged more than 30% AND ALSO connected to a charging port via the AC adapter. Otherwise the Flashing utility will NOT start. Also make sure not even one window is open as it will cause problems when the laptop tries to automatically restart.
  • Right click "InsydeFlash.exe" and select "Run as Administrator".

  • Click OK to flash your BIOS. Do not touch your track-pad, mouse or keyboard until the laptop completes the automatic restart.
You should now see your new BIOS Splash Image during boot. Enjoy! Feel free to contact me for any queries using the contact link on the top.

 Note:If any of them do this wrongly or they put a lower version of bios means they got a problem,like keyboard mismatch, charger indication failure, audio not working due to wrong version of bios Then Enter key works as space bar,End key works as a enter key like that,then again you update a proper bios means problem solved.

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Tweaks for TN Government Laptops

Windows 7 Pro and Linux BOSS come bundled with the laptops provided by TN Government. Let’s admit it, Linux BOSS occupying an entire partition of 100 GB is just annoying.
To remove Linux BOSS, follow these steps:
  1. Boot the system and press F8
  2. Choose “Repair your computer”
  3. Windows Installer will load the necessary files and display the System Recovery option.
  4. After entering the username and password, a new Window with a list of recovery tools is displayed.
  5. Choose Command Prompt and enter: bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr
  6. Restart the sytem.
  7. Go to Computer Management->Disk management. Format the drive containing Linux.
Tada! No more Linux BOSS :D
NOTE: Don’t format the drive before updating the bootsect.

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September 2, 2013

Free Hosted Email, Communication and Collaboration Services




Microsoft Outlook Live
Microsoft Outlook Live
Free hosted email with 10 GB inbox and a rich set of features 
  • Use email through graduation and beyond
  • Get 10 GB inbox, 18 MB attachments
  • Protect email from spam & viruses
  • Use instant messaging services with Outlook Live including audio and video with your chats, application sharing, file transfers, and more
  • Use mailbox aggregation to aggregate other personal e-mail accounts within Outlook Live
  • Get access to your email, contacts, and calendar from anywhere including a broad range of ActiveSynch enabled phones (examples: Windows Phone, iPhone, Android)
Explore moreBack to Toparrow up
Office Web Apps
Microsoft Office Web Apps
Online companions to Word, Excel, PowerPoint & OneNote 
  • Access, view and edit your online documents from home, the classroom, the library, or virtually any PC or Mac that is connected to the Internet
  • Easily store files and documents online in a password protected environment
  • View and perform basic editing functions on your online documents even if your computer doesn’t have Microsoft Office installed
  • Control who has permission to view or edit any one of your documents
  • Simultaneously edit documents (Excel spreadsheets and OneNote notebooks) with others in real-time and see exactly who is editing and viewing your documents
  • Get the benefits of working with online documents using the familiar Microsoft Office experience
  • When you need to access the additional rich features, it takes just one click from any Office Web App to open the file in the corresponding Microsoft Office program on your desktop
  • Access and view your files from your mobile device
  • Available for free through Microsoft SkyDrive
Explore more
Visit http://explore.live.com/skydrive and http://office.microsoft.com/web-appsto learn about the latest feature updates on Microsoft SkyDrive and Microsoft Office Web Apps.

Read this blog to learn about new Office Web App features

Read this blog or watch this video to learn about new SkyDrive updates that make sharing Office docs even easier.

Back to Toparrow up
Microsoft SkyDrive
Microsoft SkyDrive
Free online storage 
  • Get free online storage
  • Store, access, and share thousands of documents, photos, and Microsoft Office files
  • Access files from anywhere online and view photos from most web-enabled mobile phones anywhere you have Internet access
  • Control who sees what with password protection
  • Drag and Drop: Uploading content is as easy as dragging and dropping the files from your computer onto the Web (requires Microsoft Silverlight installed)
  • Working on a project with classmates? With shared folders, the whole team can upload, download, and collaborate on documents and other files
Explore more
Visit http://explore.live.com/skydrive and http://office.microsoft.com/web-appsto learn about the latest feature updates on Microsoft SkyDrive and Microsoft Office Web Apps.

Read this blog to learn about new Office Web App features

Read this blog or watch this video to learn about new SkyDrive updates that make sharing Office docs even easier.

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