Shayon's Labyrinth !!

EntreCards – Latest Wave On Blogosphere

shayonpal — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 04:58:00 +0000

It’s been 3 days now that I’ve gotten myself registered on EntreCard (to know more about EntreCard, you can refer to this interview with Graham Langdon by Darren Rowse of the Problogger fame). I absolutely loved the service. What intrigued me the most is the idea of a “visiting card” for your blog. While I was browsing through the endless list of blogs listed out there, I was kind of impressed with the beautiful 125×125 cards that people had designed for themselves. In contrast, i had the one above which hardly looks snazzy. Yet, Transparent Hypnotist, another member, messaged me pointing out that there is a certain romance in my card too. It is the very simplicity of the same that pulls viewers’ attention towards it. However, I still decided to go on with a revamped design that I could use as a logo too, for Labyrinth. This is where EntreCard helped me a lot. It is via Entrecard that I got connected to Chemist2dio who is a graphic designer and has promised me to design me a lovely card. I just had the privilege to check out the initial design and i must say, I am impressed! I’ll unveil the logo as soon as it gets built up, which shouldn’t be more than 4-5 days, I assume.

Oh, by the way, I have currently been vacationing for the past 2 days and it is because of this that I haven’t been able to post as frequently as I’d have liked. I promise to get more regular the day I reach back home. After that, i do plan to write a few pretty little pieces on EntreCard, my experiences as a member and my analysis of the usefulness of the system.

If you are new around here and would not wish to miss those posts, you can subscribe to my RSS feed and keep reading!

8 Reasons Why Today’s Companies & Firms Need A Blog Or Freelance Writers

shayonpal — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:52:00 +0000

Everyone has been talking about blogging, these days. Almost everyone you ask, has been blogging or at least thinking about it for a while. But what puzzles you the most is the million dollar question, why should any organization require a blog? Well, I tried to answer the same with a few points that struck my mind. You are welcome to come up with more queries.

These days, internet presence has become a must for every company, be it a start up or the most established one. Internet penetration has become the top most priority for the governments of India & various other countries.
Today, every man who wishes to know about a certain product, turns to the internet for help. And the best place to scourge for information is the search engines. It’d help your company a thousand times if the very result points to your blog and every potential customer gets first hand information from the company’s spokespersons than any other.
A company blog is the first place where a loyal user shall look for news about the company, market standing, product launches & new services on the offing.
This also, in turn, goes a long way in establishing the brand of the company.
A blog is a great place to get first hand public feedback on already launched products as well as on the services that are being developed within the company stable.
Startups are the best type of companies that should look to start a blog at the earliest. A startup hardly ever finds time for public relations for the first few months of establishment. A blog is the best way to announce its arrival and create an ongoing relationship with prospective customers.
A blog can be considered as word of mouth publicity since both existing & prospective customers can interact between themselves, all under the surveillance of the public relations officer of the company.
All of the above & much more at just the cost of buying an URL and paying a freelance writer like me.

Blogging Tip – Blog Less, Blog Frequently

shayonpal — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:05:00 +0000

I was just keeping myself updated with all my subscriptions on Google Reader, last night, when a certain thought suddenly struck me. I realized a pattern in which I read my subscriptions. It just so happens that I don’t get the time to reduce the unread items’ count to zero everyday. Hence, there always comes a time when I fall behind by about 300 posts at the end of every week. I’m hoping that I am not alone here. What do you do, in such a case? Do you just click on the “Mark all as read” button or do you prioritize your readings?

As far as I am concerned, I don’t really like the idea of keeping my subscribed feeds unread & hence I end up prioritizing the feeds. I find myself drawn towards the feeds that have lesser number of unread posts. Somehow, it gives me satisfaction to see the number of unread feeds reducing even though I know, at the back of my mind, that the effective number of unread posts are the same as it would have been if I had read them chronologically.

This certain behavior of my sub-conscious forced me to put on my thinking cap. I wondered, blogs like Problogger, Killer Startups & Quick Online Tips generate awesome content & that too at an astounding rate. Yet, they fail to get read regularly by bloggers like me (hoping there are other bloggers out there, following the similar pattern of behavior) just because their posting frequencies are very high.

Such an incident taught me a lesson that one should not post too many articles a day; two, probably maximum three. Although it is highly commendable if you are able to come up with more than 3 quality posts a day, it just might hurt your blog in the long run. How, you might ask. Well, a user not being able to read your posts in time shall mean lesser comments for your individual posts and lesser interaction with your readers. Moreover, you can, rather, schedule your posts to be published later on. Who knows? After a while, you just might be able to keep your blog on auto-pilot and earn yourself a blogging holiday!

So, what do you say? Do you agree with my theory? Or do you have some more interpretation of my observation?

Freeware Series – Office Utilities

shayonpal — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 03:53:00 +0000

This is the 6th installment of the Freeware Series that I’d started earlier this week. The previous four were collections of Internet Utilities, Multimedia Softwares, Windows Drivers, Games & Security Softwares.

Office Utilities

Abiword – A real alternative to MS Word.
ASAP Utilities - A very useful MS Excel Plug-in.
BullZip PDF Printer 3.0.0.211 - The BullZip PDF Printer works as a Microsoft Windows printer and allows you to write PDF documents from virtually any Microsoft Windows application.
FloatingNotes – FloatingNotes allows you to place notes on the screen. The notes are fully customizable.
Stickies 6.0c – Stickies is a PC utility to cut down on the number of Post-It notes. It stores all information in a single text-based ini file. They are yellow rectangular windows onto which you can put some text notes. Once created, they will stay on screen until you take them away. Just like a real sticky piece of paper.
Commercial Invoice – Commercial Invoice is an easy to use program that allows you to enter items to be sold or services to be rendered and generate custom invoices. These invoices are printable, and the program stores all invoices to be easily recalled or edited.
Keynote – A text editor that can create nested documents.
Invocator – Instant Invoice creator for small businesses. Customise with your own logo, name address etc. Fully automatic numbering. Add Items or services. No limit to number of lines on an invoice. Editable sales tax.
Rainlender Lite – Rainlendar is a customizable calendar that displays the current month, events, and reminders. It is a very lightweight application that doesn´t use much system resources or take much space on your desktop.
Rename Master – Rename multiple files at the same time.

Next Category – System Tools

Pravah ’08 – A Techno-Management Fest By NIT Jamshedpur

shayonpal — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:59:00 +0000

“Problem is the reflection of society and technology depicts the progress.”

National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, presents Pravah ’08, its 2nd ever techno-management festival, from March 28th to 30th, 2008. This festival had been an event of the students’ intense labor, passion and participation in huge numbers from colleges all over the country. TATA Steel itself had been the mentor for the college and had always been a great support for every event that had been organized.

Pravah is a portal for all the budding engineers and “geeks” to pitt their skills against the best in the country in events like Business & IT quizzes, programming competitions, software presentations, case study and model creation. Watch robots race themselves on the road or fight themselves out in a game of Polo. Put on your creative caps and design the best car on AutoCad that’ll force Dilip Chhabria himself to get you into his bandwagon. If you are the kind who likes to shut himself up in a laboratory, you can even present your papers to be judged by the best in the business. If you are already intimidated by all the jazz, don’t you worry. Pravah organizes guest lectures and seminars by eminent professors and personalities who shall get you updated about the latest technologies used in today’s industries.

If you happen to be a firm or company who’d like to get exposed to the brightest of the countries, you can even contact the administration bloc of Pravah ’08 for event or title sponsorships.

The official website of Pravah ’08 is http://www.pravah.co.in/ However, the site’s currently under construction. But, it’s expected to be up & running, shortly. In the meantime, if you wish to be a part of Pravah ’08 or if you wish to sponsor events or if you just want more information about the festival, kindly leave back a comment. We shall get back to you in no time.

Update:

Map of NIT Jamshedpur

This is a map of the complete college. Click on the various colored shapes to know what they are all about. You can move the map to get directions from anywhere in the world. However, if you feel this map is too small for you to handle directions. here is a larger version.

Freeware Series – Internet Utilities

shayonpal — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:25:00 +0000

This is the 5th installment of the Freeware Series that I’d started earlier this week. The previous four were collections of Multimedia Softwares, Windows Drivers, Games & Security Softwares.

Internet Utilities

Ares Galaxy Turbo Accelerator – Ares Galaxy Turbo Accelerator (AGTA) is a powerful acceleration plug-in for Ares file-sharing program. State-of-the- art software technology used by AGTA generates dramatic decrease in downloading time. The add-on consumes very low resources from your computer and the nice and easy-to-use interface offers a great experience. AGTA is an essential accessory for any Ares user and is free
BitMeter – It allows you to visually monitor your internet connection by displaying a scrolling graph that shows your upload and download speed over time. BitMeter is freeware and there is no trial period, no time-limited features, no spyware, and no adware. Using the Alerts feature, BitMeter can notify you when you have uploaded/downloaded a certain amount, or if your speed goes above or below any limit that you specify.
BitTorrent 6.0 Beta - BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) client designed to efficiently manage the downloading of large, high-quality, digital files such as video, music, and games. The client is used to search the Internet for legal torrent files, which can then be quickly downloaded to a user´s machine. As files become more popular, the speed in which they can be downloaded increases through the use of a central tracker and peers. This technology saves time over traditional methods, while maintaining the integrity of the file.
Bluto XT – Bluto is a free and fast browser that comes with unique features. The Bookmark Panels at the top of each browser are equivalent to the Favorites list in common browsers. The sidebar has tons of information. The idea behind Bluto is to maximize speed, visibility, and efficiency, while minimizing tools that take up valuable space and memory.
Yahoo Mail Notifier – This Firefox extension notifies you when new messages arrive in your Yahoo mailbox. Notification options include: customizable sound, notification alert, status bar and toolbar icon. Also allows the user to map different mouse buttons to open Yahoo Mail in different tabs, windows, etc.
FireTune – FireTune for Mozilla Firefox was developed for an easy and fast optimization of your browsing experience with Firefox. Usually you have to optimize Firefox manually, which can be time consuming and difficult for the novice user. FireTune helps you here – it includes all the performance optimizations. The only thing you must do is: make your selection. It does the work for you.
GoogleGrab – GoogleGrab is a tool to download images from the Google image search service. It makes image research very easy because they are downloaded directly to your hard drive. So there is no need to click and wait for the entire picture to load before you can save it. This version of GoogleGrab has an image source log file so you can back track any image that you may have missed out on.
MSN/Yahoo Message Archive Decoder/Viewer – MSN/Yahoo Message Archive Decoder enables you to view MSN/Yahoo chat logs. No, this is not a run-of-the-mill archive tool that archives your online activities; it empowers you to keep a check on other’s online activities.Isn’t it something!!! How amazing will it be to be able to keep a check on your spouse, kids, your nagging boss, or that over ambitious colleague? Yeah! With MSN/Yahoo Message Archive Decoder/Viewer you sure can do that. You can have the access to anybody and everybody’s chat logs. It doesn’t require a password to view the chat logs. You can secretly turn on archiving option and spy on his/her conversations. You can even view the chat logs from a different computer or print copies of the chat logs.
TeamTalk – TeamTalk allows you to chat with your friends or colleagues using the internet or a local area network. All you need is a microphone and a sound card. Unlike many other internet voice applications, TeamTalk allows any number of people to participate in a conversation. This, of course, requires more bandwidth but TeamTalk features a variety of configuration options, which allows you to select the quality settings that best fit your connection speed.
The primary goal of TeamTalk is to provide a conversation with minimum lag (delay) so that it becomes as close to real-time conversation as possible.
CrunzhMail - Sometimes you just need to send a quick e-mail, and it would be nice if you could send it without having to open up the big, bloated, and slow-to-load e-mail clients that you normally use. That is where CrunzhMail comes in.
CrunzhMail is a very small and simple e-mail client application. It doesn’t have any of the numerous special features like a calendar or a spell-check found in some of the larger e-mail clients. Instead it’s just a small program specifically designed for the purpose of sending out quick e-mails. It’s a simple program that does one job, and it does it very well.

Next Category – Office Utilities

Blogging Tip – Write Notes On Sundays

shayonpal — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:21:00 +0000

Did you ever have a concept called “Reading Day” when you were a kid? Did your parents or even your teachers ever ask you to keep aside one day out of the busy week to do reading practices? It is unarguably true that any self-respecting & successful blogger needs to follow a lot of other blogs, social media websites & other sources of information. I’m sure you take rest from the pressures of blogging for at least one day of the week. Why don’t you reserve that one day for reading only? I’m not asking you to visit and comment on the blogs too. Your job should be just to keep a pen & paper at hand to take some notes as and when necessary.

I don’t own a personal computer. I blog from my college. However, on Sundays, I just carry a pen & a piece of paper around and make it a point to read all the new posts that I’ve subscribed to, using the GPRS connection in my phone. All the while, I keep a lookout for a few essential ideas that keep me occupied for almost the whole of next week. This practice helps me learn various tips & tricks suggested by well known bloggers like Problogger, Madhur Kapoor & Blogging Tune. In the process, it also helps me to get new ideas for posts and advertising. For the taste, here’s what I learnt last Sunday -

I really need to structure the way I post, according to the days of the week. For example, video tutorials on Mondays, how-tos on Tuesdays, Advice columns on Saturdays etc.
Got a lot of new ideas to write on, an example is this very post.
It’s high time I hire a pro graphics designer to personalize this blog.
I need to make visiting cards for myself.
Need to create a section in my blog for guest blogging.
Shall need to organize the meta description of this blog.

Now, almost all the tips are indispensable in running a successful blog. Every Sunday, arrange for a whiteboard & get yourself a personal blog optimization tutor, free of charge.

So, I told you about my method of getting new ideas? What are yours?

Freeware Series – Multimedia

shayonpal — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 14:06:00 +0000

Here’s the 4th installment of the Freeware Series that I’d started earlier this week. The previous three were collections of Windows Drivers, Games & Security Softwares.

Multimedia Softwares

Any Video Converter – Any Video Converter is an All-in-One video converting tool with easy-to-use graphical interface, fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It allows you to effortlessly convert video files between every format, for FREE!

It can convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for iPod/PSP or other portable video device, MP4 player or smart phone.

It also supports any user defined video file formats as the output. Any Video Converter makes it easy for anyone to enjoy the any format video with your iPod, PSP, mobile phone or MP4 player.
AVI Screen Classic – AviScreen is an application for capturing screen activity (ScreenCast) in the form of AVI video or images. Beside the usual options defining the capture area, AviScreen has a unique feature called “follow the cursor”. Using this mode you can produce a video or image of relatively small dimensions while covering all mouse activity over the whole screen area.
Burn4Free CD & DVD – Burn4Free is a freeware utility to burn CDs or DVDs. It is compatible with most of the popular CD/DVD burners available. The drives supported include dual-layer DVD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM (SCSI, IDE, EIDE, and USB 1.0 and 2.0). Burn/Backup data and audio with just a few clicks. Audio formats supported are WAV, WMA, MP3, OGG, FLAC, WavPack, and CDA. You can also open, burn, and save ISO’s as well.
Cole2k Media Advanced Codec Pack – Cole2k Media Codec Pack is an application that features a large number of codecs and also some additional programs. This Advanced Codec Pack is mainly for use by encoders, it features a large number of codecs/filters and also some additional tools. The package will enable you to playback and encode almost all major formats currently available.
FLV Extract – Extracts video and audio from FLV files without decompressing or recompressing. The video is saved to AVI (H.263/FLV1 and VP6/FLV4 are supported) and the audio is saved to MP3.
GX Transcoder – The GX::Transcoder is freeware audio converter software, which is able to convert a lots of audio formats in a batch mode. Additionally, the Transcoder uses plug-ins to add more functions for transforming and playing audio files. The GX::Transcoder in its standard version is able to encode and decode MP1, MP3, MP2, MPC, OGG Vorbis, PCM up to 7.1 Channel and RAW files as well. It can encode and decode QuickTime files like MOV and QT. There are also Add-ins available, which extends/shortens the Transcoder to handle the formats AAC, M4A, M4P4, LA, LPAC, WMA, TTA, OptimFrog, WavPack, FLAC, rkAudio, Real Audio, Speex, Bonk Audio, ALAC, etc. There are plans to support even more audio formats. The transcoder also contains a video converter. This converter can transcode between all installed avi codecs, mpeg with dvd, vcd, and svcd extensions and wma video files.
K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool – K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool will scan for broken filters and remove them. If the tool detects something that is broken, it will then prompt you with the details and you will be given the option to remove the broken item. This is a stand-alone version of the tool that is included in the K-Lite Codec Pack.
StreamRipper For WinAmp – Streamripper is an open source application that lets you record streaming mp3 to your hard drive.
Wavosaur – Wavosaur is a powerful free audio editor for Windows XP, ideal for editing audio clips, sound designing, mastering, audio mangling and recording of your digital audio sounds.
Wavosaur lets you edit all your samples and audio recording. You can cut, copy, paste parts of your digital recording. Wavosaur provides many tools and shortcuts to make the editing very fast and efficient. The program was designed to give a powerful audio editor but very easy and fast to use.

Wavosaur is also a VST host, it means you can use VST effects on your audio recording, listen in real time to the audio processed by effects, and apply the effects of course. You can make a chain of effects, this means endless possibilities with all the VST plugins effects available nowadays.

Wavosaur can record from your soundcard inputs, and lets you monitor your audio ports. Inserting loop points and markers to your audio files is very easy. Wavosaur is also MIDI controlable, you can use a MIDI control surface to command the main functions of Wavosaur.
TV v2.0 – Now you can watch hundreds (300+) of LIVE worldwide channels on your PC, free of charge. TV is an extremely easy to use application and anyone can find their own favorite stations on TV. Music, news, educational, sports & shopping channels are sorted in a very easy to find way, together with TV in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese & Arabic sections.
You may also browse world TV by regions or by country name. No configurations or settings are needed. The intuitive & user friendly interface will give you a pure Plug n´ Play! Experience. All you have to do is easily find your desired station, click on the station´s name, then sit back & relax…

TV emulates the regular Television set on your PC, by using the high-speed Internet connection (xDSL, Cable or LAN, WiFi) for online global Television reception.

Next Category – Internet Utilities

Video Tutorial – How To Start Blogging On Blogspot?

shayonpal — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 10:19:00 +0000

I was video hopping on YouTube this morning when I suddenly stumbled upon this pretty little video by chrisabraham on “How To Start Blogging On Blogger“. Although he’d been working on a version of Blogger that’s at least 1 year, it’s still pretty good for the current one too. It was hilarious when he tried to show how to upload an image on Blogger but was unsuccessful because of low bandwidth. Also, he’d been accidentally canceling the blockquote while trying to go to a new line. Do watch the video if you want a showdown on how to start blogging and if you’re a veteran, still watch it for the kick of it. It’s good fun, really.

Freeware Series – Drivers For Windows

shayonpal — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 08:58:00 +0000

This is the 3rd installment of the Freeware Series. The previous two were lists of Games & Security Softwares. Today, I’m listing out all the links to various driver installation pages. I didn’t think that it’d be necessary to write descriptive paragraphs for the drivers since there an be a lot mane versions of drivers for a single company itself. Kindly refer the websites referred here for the ones that’ll suit your hardware.

Audio & Multimedia Drivers

Printer Drivers

BIOS Drivers

Next Category ; Multimedia