taking screenshots is a part and parcel of an IT developer.
One needs screenshots for documenting issues,resolutions and also for creating help docs.
The best tools I had come across for screenshot taking was Screenhunter(Free version) from Wisdomsoft.
Lately,one of my friends suggested a Firefox plugin called Fireshot.
I must say I am quite impressed after using it.
It not only allows one to take screenshots,but also to edit them quickly to add comments and pointers.
It has certainly made my life easy
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Pidgin
I have my friends scattered across on different IMs -Yahoo,MSN,ICQ,Google and AIM.
Previously I used to use Trillian from Cerillian studios to use one client to integrate the friends' lists on these services.
Lately,I came across a very neat application that does this integration much better.The software is called Pigin.
The best thing I liked about Pidgin is its clean interface and the Tabbed windows.
One can install additional plugins for extra features.
Pidgin could be downloaded from http://www.pidgin.im/
Previously I used to use Trillian from Cerillian studios to use one client to integrate the friends' lists on these services.
Lately,I came across a very neat application that does this integration much better.The software is called Pigin.
The best thing I liked about Pidgin is its clean interface and the Tabbed windows.
One can install additional plugins for extra features.
Pidgin could be downloaded from http://www.pidgin.im/
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Wikimapia dot org
I had shifted to my new rented place on Sinhagad.
My bike was still in Nasik and I had no means of my own to commute.In the night I was wondering how I would get back home.
The initial plan was to go to Swrgate and take another bus from there towards sinhagad…But it was going to be too late after the meeting
and that plan would not have worked out..So I was looking for another solution.
Just then one of my friends told me that my apartment was near Warje,, a place which my colleague used to pass through while going home.
So I looked up Wikimapia.org and got some references around Warje…In the night,I could guess the location and managed to get down very near to my apartment.
Many Thanks to Wikimapia..it was a really big help.
Sites based on user generated content have really transformed the net in the last 2 years and this was a real life example of that.
My bike was still in Nasik and I had no means of my own to commute.In the night I was wondering how I would get back home.
The initial plan was to go to Swrgate and take another bus from there towards sinhagad…But it was going to be too late after the meeting
and that plan would not have worked out..So I was looking for another solution.
Just then one of my friends told me that my apartment was near Warje,, a place which my colleague used to pass through while going home.
So I looked up Wikimapia.org and got some references around Warje…In the night,I could guess the location and managed to get down very near to my apartment.
Many Thanks to Wikimapia..it was a really big help.
Sites based on user generated content have really transformed the net in the last 2 years and this was a real life example of that.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Podcasts and education
Podcasting started around 2005 and soon became a rage.
Is tumbled upon the concept sometime in 2006 and was immediately bought over.
For me, the internet had suddenly become live and rocking. Prior to podcasts there existed information
and a lot of it. But a few bothered to really go and read that information.
Podcasts changed the way people could now have access to this information. Listening somehow is more interesting than reading.
Podcasts exploited this fact and so a lot of information which was earlier
in the form of text was now converted into speech by many amateurs passionate about their topics.
So a range of podcasts sprouted on the internet map.
Like everything, some were interesting. I specially liked the ones which were related to education.
Thus, now I could listen to podcasts which would teach
1. How English was spoken by the native speakers
2. How to make use of idioms and phrases
3. How to improve vocabulary
4. How to speak English professionally.
I could have never looked at English education that way before. Podcasts suddenly brought to me a new perspective.
What happened with English, happened with other subjects as well.
I got access to some of the very interesting podcasts on the web. There were some which talked about Military history and then there were some which talked about space,geography,new technologies etc.
A whole new world of knowledge opened before my eyes(err ears)
I converted and became a podcasts evangelist so to say.I got a chance to present the topic in a gathering of college professors in Hyderabad(Vivekwardhini college) and even the teachers there liked the topic.
I explained to them how one could easily create podcasts with a PC and the free software “Audacity”.
I also created a video on ‘how to podcast’ and posted it on Google Video.
I feel podcasting has a huge potential to change the way we learn about anything.We now have almost free access to rich material created by experts in their fields.How could we have done that in the conventional way of colleges and classrooms.
I can now listen to a podcast even when I am on vacation sitting on the top of an obscure hill.I just need some simple device like a MP3 player which is now affordable to the masses even in developing countries like India.NGOs can sponsor these devices for rural areas and help bring quality education to the masses.
There is a catch though.Most of the material is created in English and we need to translate that in the local languages.Volunteers interested in the educational field in India need to come forward and do this.
I have tried to do that in my own way and have succeeded to an extent.But a lot more needs to be done.
Here is a link to my podcasts.
Is tumbled upon the concept sometime in 2006 and was immediately bought over.
For me, the internet had suddenly become live and rocking. Prior to podcasts there existed information
and a lot of it. But a few bothered to really go and read that information.
Podcasts changed the way people could now have access to this information. Listening somehow is more interesting than reading.
Podcasts exploited this fact and so a lot of information which was earlier
in the form of text was now converted into speech by many amateurs passionate about their topics.
So a range of podcasts sprouted on the internet map.
Like everything, some were interesting. I specially liked the ones which were related to education.
Thus, now I could listen to podcasts which would teach
1. How English was spoken by the native speakers
2. How to make use of idioms and phrases
3. How to improve vocabulary
4. How to speak English professionally.
I could have never looked at English education that way before. Podcasts suddenly brought to me a new perspective.
What happened with English, happened with other subjects as well.
I got access to some of the very interesting podcasts on the web. There were some which talked about Military history and then there were some which talked about space,geography,new technologies etc.
A whole new world of knowledge opened before my eyes(err ears)
I converted and became a podcasts evangelist so to say.I got a chance to present the topic in a gathering of college professors in Hyderabad(Vivekwardhini college) and even the teachers there liked the topic.
I explained to them how one could easily create podcasts with a PC and the free software “Audacity”.
I also created a video on ‘how to podcast’ and posted it on Google Video.
I feel podcasting has a huge potential to change the way we learn about anything.We now have almost free access to rich material created by experts in their fields.How could we have done that in the conventional way of colleges and classrooms.
I can now listen to a podcast even when I am on vacation sitting on the top of an obscure hill.I just need some simple device like a MP3 player which is now affordable to the masses even in developing countries like India.NGOs can sponsor these devices for rural areas and help bring quality education to the masses.
There is a catch though.Most of the material is created in English and we need to translate that in the local languages.Volunteers interested in the educational field in India need to come forward and do this.
I have tried to do that in my own way and have succeeded to an extent.But a lot more needs to be done.
Here is a link to my podcasts.
Thanks Gparted and thanks Puppy
Using Gparted - Puppy Linux
Partitioning is one of those activities which one needs to perform very carefully.
Especially if you have limited disk space,managing space between different OSes is art.
When I had bought my PC.,I had just installed Windows XP on it.XP was fine.
But I am fond of trying new things.I had learnt about Ubuntu and wanted to give it a try.
Hence i got a Ubuntu CD ordered from their site and installed it after creating a 3 GB partition for Linux,carving it out from one of the FAT32 partitions.
Later my XP ran into problems.It was affected by virus and I had to reinstall XP.While doing so I had to reformat the NTFS partition.
When I booted the PC after installing XP,the GRUB screen which would prompt to choose between Ubuntu and XP disappeared and I did not know how to get it back.
I am no expert and so I Googled for the answer.But could not get a solution which was simple enough to implement.
Thus the PC now booted directly into XP and the Linux partition was practically unusable as I could not log into it.
As the files on my PC started to increase in size,I started feeling he crunch.I wanted the 3 GB space allocated to UBUNTU back.
At the same time I also wanted to have a Linux OS which would allow me to safely exchange data(I have posted an article on how to safely exchange data with Puppy Linux).
Puppy Linux was the answer.I did not have the need to install it on the hard disk.It booted from the RAM.
For reclaiming the space allocated to UBUNTU(UBUNTU does not play multimedia out of the box..it plays OGG files,but most of the media is mp3,mp4,avi not playable out of the box in Ubuntu),I decided to delete the ext3 partition and convert it into a FAT32(Windows) partition.
Puppy linux came to the rescue again.
I used the Gparted tool in Puupy linux and deleted the 3 GB ext3 partition.using the same tool I could convert it into a Windows partition.
Thus,I now had an extra 3 GB partition and one which Windows XP could read.I dedicated this entire space to my photos.
Every GB is important at this point as I have just a total of 80 GB of space.Even if I had more,space management is always important.
For doing so,good tools are always handy.And Gparted proved to be one good tool.
Thanks Puppy for providing another important tool.
I just can't stop loving Puppy.It is such a wonderful thing :) Bow wow !!
Partitioning is one of those activities which one needs to perform very carefully.
Especially if you have limited disk space,managing space between different OSes is art.
When I had bought my PC.,I had just installed Windows XP on it.XP was fine.
But I am fond of trying new things.I had learnt about Ubuntu and wanted to give it a try.
Hence i got a Ubuntu CD ordered from their site and installed it after creating a 3 GB partition for Linux,carving it out from one of the FAT32 partitions.
Later my XP ran into problems.It was affected by virus and I had to reinstall XP.While doing so I had to reformat the NTFS partition.
When I booted the PC after installing XP,the GRUB screen which would prompt to choose between Ubuntu and XP disappeared and I did not know how to get it back.
I am no expert and so I Googled for the answer.But could not get a solution which was simple enough to implement.
Thus the PC now booted directly into XP and the Linux partition was practically unusable as I could not log into it.
As the files on my PC started to increase in size,I started feeling he crunch.I wanted the 3 GB space allocated to UBUNTU back.
At the same time I also wanted to have a Linux OS which would allow me to safely exchange data(I have posted an article on how to safely exchange data with Puppy Linux).
Puppy Linux was the answer.I did not have the need to install it on the hard disk.It booted from the RAM.
For reclaiming the space allocated to UBUNTU(UBUNTU does not play multimedia out of the box..it plays OGG files,but most of the media is mp3,mp4,avi not playable out of the box in Ubuntu),I decided to delete the ext3 partition and convert it into a FAT32(Windows) partition.
Puppy linux came to the rescue again.
I used the Gparted tool in Puupy linux and deleted the 3 GB ext3 partition.using the same tool I could convert it into a Windows partition.
Thus,I now had an extra 3 GB partition and one which Windows XP could read.I dedicated this entire space to my photos.
Every GB is important at this point as I have just a total of 80 GB of space.Even if I had more,space management is always important.
For doing so,good tools are always handy.And Gparted proved to be one good tool.
Thanks Puppy for providing another important tool.
I just can't stop loving Puppy.It is such a wonderful thing :) Bow wow !!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Microsoft Office Picture manager
Lately I have been using MS Office Picture manager to work on my photos and I found it as a decent tool for all basic purposes.
Earlier I used Faststone for editing my photos.But I found MS Office Picture manager to be a good option.
I have since then not installed Fast Stone on my new PC.The advantages I found in using
MS Office Picture manager are as below
1.One doesnt have to install any new software and that keeps the PC clean.
2.It provides easy access to all the editing features like 'Auto Correct',Compress,Resize and Crop images.
3.Most of features provided by Fast stone are included.
It would be great if the 'Adding Text to pictures' feature is also included in the Picture manager.If that is done,I don't think users will have to look elsewhere
Earlier I used Faststone for editing my photos.But I found MS Office Picture manager to be a good option.
I have since then not installed Fast Stone on my new PC.The advantages I found in using
MS Office Picture manager are as below
1.One doesnt have to install any new software and that keeps the PC clean.
2.It provides easy access to all the editing features like 'Auto Correct',Compress,Resize and Crop images.
3.Most of features provided by Fast stone are included.
It would be great if the 'Adding Text to pictures' feature is also included in the Picture manager.If that is done,I don't think users will have to look elsewhere
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Puppy Linux
I have a 1 GB USB drive which I use to exchange data(music,videos) with my friends.lately I have had to format my hard disk because of virus problems.The virus had obviously got through the data exchange.
Now i had an issue..Data exchange ..that had to happen..but how do I prevent viruses from getting into my PC?
The solution and a very good one is to use Linux for the data exchange.The viruses which are mostly written for windows are not able to impact the PC when you exchange the data through Linux.
Now what if you want to use Linux just for the data exchange and dont want to install it on your PC.
That would call for an OS which runs either from a CD or from a USB.
I tried some which ran from the CD.Such CDs are called live CDs.But they are very slow.
I wanted something fast and puppy linux provided the answer.
http://www.puppylinux.org/
Puppy linux loads into the RAM and then the CD can be removed.All the subsequent calls are from the RAM and so the speed is great.
Thus puppy linux provides for fast and virus free data exchange.
Thanks puppy !!!!
Puppy linux
Now i had an issue..Data exchange ..that had to happen..but how do I prevent viruses from getting into my PC?
The solution and a very good one is to use Linux for the data exchange.The viruses which are mostly written for windows are not able to impact the PC when you exchange the data through Linux.
Now what if you want to use Linux just for the data exchange and dont want to install it on your PC.
That would call for an OS which runs either from a CD or from a USB.
I tried some which ran from the CD.Such CDs are called live CDs.But they are very slow.
I wanted something fast and puppy linux provided the answer.
http://www.puppylinux.org/
Puppy linux loads into the RAM and then the CD can be removed.All the subsequent calls are from the RAM and so the speed is great.
Thus puppy linux provides for fast and virus free data exchange.
Thanks puppy !!!!
Puppy linux
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)