In case you haven't noticed the Alexa Rank/Traffic Widget is not working for the past few days ! First I thought must be temp glitch or some outage for my blog but it so happens that it isn't working for anyone !
The widget wizard at alexa is also showing NO DATA even for Alexa.com
I am yet to receive a reply to the mail I've sent today. The thing that is curious is why hasn't someone form alexa noticed this added this problem to their blog ?
Update:-
I had this quick chat with ryan from Alexa and there seems to be a problem with the widget and their engineers are on it !
Here is the chatshyam:
the Alexa Rank/Traffic Widget is not working for the past few days ? It is showing NO DATA for the rank/traffic widget ! what is the problem ?
Welcome shyam! Your request has been directed to the Customer Service department. Please wait for our operator to answer your call.
Call accepted by operator Ryan. Currently in room: Ryan, shyam.
Ryan:
hi shyam
shyam:
hey ryan
Ryan:
yes we are away of the widget issue, our engineers are looking into it
Ryan:
(its driving us nuts also)
shyam:
ok ! would be great if you can update the same in your blog or somewhere !
Ryan:
if it persist past this week, I will tell my boss to post a quick blog about it
Ryan:
good idea, thanks
shyam:
ok thnx ! appreciate it !
Ryan:
welcome
Ryan:
take care
October 15, 2007
NO DATA shown in Alexa Rank Widget
October 11, 2007
Search for Virus suggests Windows - Apple's Cheap shot
Apple takes a swing at the vulnerability of Windows, again but this time kinda bellow the belt.
To see it ... Go to www.Apple.com and in the search box type virus and the result suggests Windows.
Now Apple has been running a mostly sarcastic and sometimes funny ad campaign for Mac which mocks at windows indirectly.
Now to give apple taste of its own medicine here is the rip-off version :-
October 5, 2007
Fmail - Now access Gmail from your facebook
Power and seamlessness of Third party Facebook Apps is best illustrated in Fmail app. Apparently facebook is responsible for 1/5th of all internet traffic and bring in Apps which can access other popular services in the picture the result is scary !
The interface is pretty light and responsive it was built on Gmail Lite, all of your Gmail stuff show up in an iFrame within your Facebook account.
[Via Mashable]
Access Orkut through Facebook app !
Well this is not a joke, a dude has created an Orkut app for facebook with which you can access you Orkut account!
Weird part is you don't need to even login into your orkut account to access the scraps all you need to access an account orkut profile url a big security flaw !
I was able to access my scraps but couldn't reply since the capcha word verification isn't shown (may be the developer pulled the plug since its a security risk) its an awesome idea BUT the app crashes like a zillion times !
So when is the Myspace app coming ?
[Via Labnol]
YouTube launches Film Competition called Project Direct
Youtube finally announced its first film competition called Project Direct partnered by Hp. It will be judged by award-winning filmmaker, Jason Reitman.
If you win, you're going to a major international film festival where you'll attend surprise industry events, meet with executives from Fox Searchlight Pictures, and show your film at a private event. You'll also see your winning short broadcast on the home page of YouTube in countries all over the world, and you'll win a $5000 debit card.
THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS NOVEMBER 9TH and the CONTEST STARTS AT 7TH OCTOBER.
It is an "International Contest" yet you are eligible only if you are a resident of united States, UK, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy or Spain.
For more details check out the Contest Page also the FAQ page
Firefox Advertisement goes hip and wacky !
Firefox ads were geeky at the best, and now that they have the geek power behind them with over 400 Million download they are trying some thing new to diversify and to do that they are creating funnny eye catching flash animation. They concentrating on two key attributes Security and customization ! Here are few that came out the pipeline !
Click on the image to play it.
1) Security
2) Customization Ad # 1
3) Customization Ad #2
[Source : Giantspatula]
October 4, 2007
Microsoft Zune gets a upgrade - is it too little too late ?
After apple announced its line of ipods for the holiday season including the launch of ipod touch, it is the turn of Microsoft and zune, it announced that it will offer three new models of the Zune in November.
The price details so far is that 4GB and 8GB versions will sell for $149 and $199 respectively and the 80GB player equipped with a hard drive for $249.
The most interesting changes include wireless syncing and the new Zune Pad. It will allow for an automatic sync with your computer so that you always have the latest audio, great for podcasts !
Now that iPod offers wifi there is nothing to compare. The Media store of Apple is much more rich including Movies and Sitcoms. Microsoft says it will offer 1 million unprotected songs.
October 3, 2007
Nokia vs iPhone - Nokia takes advantage of the Anti-Apple mood
Nokia and its N-series phone N95 and N81 which pitted against the iphone took a swing at the latest round of locked iphone fiasco by an Nokia open to anything outdoor campaign in NY.
iPhone had left a bad taste with a saga no less than a bollywood film. First the locked iphone then the price cut, iphone unlocking hack finally the 1.1.1 which kills the third party apps and renders the unlocked iphone good for a door stop.
Third party apps such as Flickr upload, IM clients are so essential for using your mobile as device for vibrant social connectivity. That is why nokia seems to be on a logical bliss by encouraging third party apps. Facebook, Firefox as testament to the success that third party apps can bring yet some geniuses think they know better !
Well gotto say this ad campaign should go to the case study in Marketing. Nokia clearly saw an opportune moment to get their message of promoting creativity (third party apps) and offering their devices with no limits (lock/contracts) !
Its a tough time to be a Apple PR guy !
Nokia's iPhone ? Well it isn't real yet !
Well blogosphere was abuzz with talk of Nokia's iphone but as the dust settles and the video of the Nokia's GoPlay event in which the photo was taken shows it is just glimpse into the future of Nokia interface design.
When asked if the design were a copy of Apple's iPhone, Anssi Vanjoki (Executive Vice President and General Manager of Multimedia) said, "If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride."
As more and more application and information is added Touch screen is the way to go and Apple isn't the proprietor of touch screen phone LG prada for example !
Wireless USB 1.1 aims for 1 GB per sec
The wireless USB initiative announced that they are aiming Certified Wireless USB 1.1 to achieve transfer speed upto 1 GBps for the distance upto 3 meters which is stratosphere away from the first generation Wireless USB which offer just 40 MBps !
Certified wireless USB developed by the Wireless USB Promoter Group (Agere Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, NEC Corporation, Philips and Samsung) was seen as the annihilator of Blue Tooth but guess what Blue tooth is alive and kicking.
It also will adopt the techniques of near field communications (NFC) which enables the communication between devices over a short distance for letting two devices identify themselves to each other with a simple contact.
October 2, 2007
Free File compression software - Alternative to Winzip
If you are fed up with the Buy Now splash screen every single time you open winzip, then there are plenty of FREE option available and many are just as good !
Now Winzip itself isn't god sent, it is clunky, don't support .RAR format. Download takes 9 MB and above all really annoying when you have stare at its splash screen until it counts the number of archive opened till date !
Good news is there are tons of Free file Compression software which are as good if not better than Winzip.
Supported formats: Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR; Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS
For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
What more do you want from free software !
More Here
It can open CD image files (ISO, BIN), open virtual CD files (LCD), create 8 archive and compression file formats, create self-extracting files (EXE), split files for easy transfers, recover lost passwords from ZIP files. If you use compression all the time then this is really useful. And you get used to the quirky egg like logo !
You need to choose depending your usage and your preference. Well I am using 7 zip because I hardly use compression apart from that occasional mail attachment or to back-up hard disk.
bush hid the facts - Notepad Trick - Works in Xp
Ok here is a weird Notepad Trick involving bush. If you are on Win Xp then launch a blank notepad then type :-
bush hid the facts
Save the notepad as any name you like.
Close the notepad and open it again.
WTF this is what you get
Send this to your Friends
Blogger Hacks from TechnoJuice
This post is a round up of all the Blogger Hacks from TechnoJuice. The idea is create a Table of Content for all the Blogger hacks we do and will keep this post updated as new Widgets, hacks and mods are created.
1) How To get Flash Header - This is first hack we did to add a Flash blogger header.
2) Create quote/pullquote in your blog - Now here is quick way to create blockquote or Pullquote in blog. A blockquote is used when you are quoting someone else or when you want to display a code or when you are showing an example !
3) Comment Box - Widget for blogger - A neat widget for blogger which show the comments and leave your comment form in the same page as blog when you click the Comments link.
Instead of being taken to default blogger comment page this widget displays the comments in a neat box with a loading gif.
4) Remove the Blogger nav bar - How to remove the bar on top of your blogspot with a few lines of code.
5) Custom Blogger Meta Tag for Blog SEO - There is no feature in blogger to customize the Meta Tags.Here are some easy mods to optimize the Meta tags for Keywords, Description, Title and even customize for the Index page, post page and archive !
6) Different Post Title and permalink - Now Search engines like Google love keywords in Title and the URL, but in blogger the file name or the permalink of the post is based on the post Title you give. Simple hack for different Post tile and permalink.
[Last Updated 02 Oct 2007]
Yahoo beats Google in search result referral
According to Compete Yahoo performs better in referral than any other major search engine. According to their data, upto 75% of the search query resulted in a referral or a click. On the other hand searches on Google resulted in a click about 65% of the time and on MSN/Live 59% of the time.
But statistics tell you only half of the story as argued by Matt Cutts that many times you don't need to click to get the result for example typing Cricket gives you the cricket score on the top.
Quality of the search result is as subjective as the person or the number of search engines, and you are better off using all of them !
Account details of 1200 users leaked in Ebay Forum
A hacker apparently posted details of 1200 users including Credit card details, it was immediately take off as expected. eBay verified that the names and contact information was accurate but they also claimed that the credit card numbers given in that post wdid not match eBay or PayPal had on file for those users.
An eBay spokeswoman said the posts were most likely due to account hijacks and dismissed a security breach.
eBay said that it is contacting those users whose details were posted so that they can “take the steps they need to protect themselves,”.
[Source]
Open multiple links with Snap links Firefox Add-on
How many times have been frustrated by "right-click and ope link in a new Tab" especially when you have many links to open for example in a search.
Here is a really nifty Firefox add-on that lets you open block of links just with one click ! It lets you select multiple link by allowing you to draw a box around them.
This add-on should definitely be added as a regular feature in Firefox 3 make you think why hasn't someone else thought of this before ?
Get this Add-on
You can draw the select box by right click once selected the links opens in a new tab.. Sweet !
