What is Javascript and some must watch tutorial videos

In this post, i will briefly try to explain what Javascript is all about and will point you to some interesting videos which you should watch if you are a newbie into the world of Javascript.

JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. This means it runs on your visitor’s computer and so does not require constant downloads from your web site. One most important thing to remember is that Javascript and Java are not the same.They are two completely different computer languages. Its just that Javascript has the mention of Java in it. Almost all the web browsers have built in support for Javascript. This means your javascript code will run on the browser of your website visitor everytime he/she visits your page provided they have Javascript enabled on their respective browser.

Because JavaScript code can run locally in a user’s browser (rather than on a remote server), it can respond to user actions quickly, making an application feel more responsive. Furthermore, JavaScript code can detect user actions which HTML alone cannot, such as individual keystrokes. Applications such as Gmail take advantage of this: much of the user-interface logic is written in JavaScript, and JavaScript dispatches requests for information (such as the content of an e-mail message) to the server.

Although, there are multiple books and free online resources available for learning JavaScript, i would suggest viewing these videos from the Senior JavaScript Architect at Yahoo and creator of JSON, Douglas Crockford.

Douglas in these four videos mentioned below, provides a comprehensive introduction to the JavaScript Programming Language. A must watch for anyone planning to learn Javascript.

• Douglas Crockford:The Javascript Programming Language Part 1
  
• Douglas Crockford:The Javascript Programming Language Part 2
  
• Douglas Crockford:The Javascript Programming Language Part 3
• Douglas Crockford:The Javascript Programming Language Part 4

Please see that sometimes Yahoo Videos says ” Sorry! This video is no longer available on Yahoo! Video. “ Try refreshing the link again in case of such an error.

If you know of any good videos on Javascript, do drop in your comments and share the same with other readers.

Reader Contribution :  Learning JavaScript Programming Language through Video Lectures (Thanks to Peteris for sharing this wonderful stuff)

Resources: Wikipedia
About.com

Flickr

Also read: Create Professional Business Logos for Free

What’s your IP Address?

Google Code University: Learn programming the Google way

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav

[How-To] Embed Google Docs Forms in your Blog

Sometime back Google Docs added Forms feature to spreadsheet. Starting yesterday, Google Docs has integrated the embedding feature with the Google Spreadsheet.

Now you can embed the same form into your website or blog. This answers the most important question ” How do i embed my form into my blog or website? ” The form inputs leads to the updation of the spreadsheet.

To create a Google Docs form to embed in your website or blog follow the steps mentioned below

1.) Create a spreadsheet with the form fields you wish to expose in the form.

2.) Save the Spreadsheet.

3.) Click on link called Share and select the form feature

4.) Copy the embed code and paste it in your blog or website where you wish this form to be displayed.

Another step which proves that fact that we just don’t need web versions of our desktop software. We, as end users need web software that takes advantage of being online.

[Update] : Inside Adsense blog has also come out with an interesting post on this topic. For further step by step  on this, follow this link from Google Docs Support

Also read: Google adds Forms Feature to Spreadsheets

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav

[How-To] Open Firefox Bookmarks Using Keywords

You already know how to get data from your Firefox Cache and why you should not save your passwords using Firefox, in this post i will bring to you an interesting hack which allows you to open Firefox Bookmarks using a keyword.

You can open any firefox bookmark using a simple keyword attached with it. The keyword needs to be stored as a property for the bookmark. This hack is pretty useful when trying to open long URL’s.

For example, lets assume you wish to save www.technofriends.in into your bookmarks folder as one of the favorite item and would like www.technofriends.in to open up anytime you enter TF and press enter in your firefox browser tab/window.

1.) Drag and drop the link to the page www.technofriends.in into your Link toolbar or click on the menu link Bookmarks –> Organize Bookmarks.

2.) Click on the menu link File –> New Bookmark or select the icon which says ” New Bookmark”

3.) Enter the details for the bookmark like ” Name” for the name of the bookmark, ” Location” stores the URL of the webpage you wish to bookmark, in our case, www.technofriends.in and ” Keyword” for the keyword you wish to use, in our case “tf”. Enter “Description” if you wish to.

4.) Click on OK and close the Organize Bookmarks window.

5.) Now open a new browser tab/ window and key in tf and hit enter in the browser. Keywords are case-insensitive. Entering TF or tf shall render the same results.

6.) www.technofriends.in opens up. You just finished setting up and testing the keyword hack for opening bookmarks in browsers. This hack is pretty useful when trying to open long URL’s like banking websites login page, your wordpress.com dashboard page etc.

For already existing bookmarks, click on the properties tab of the bookmark and enter the keyword, save the details by clicking OK and you are done.

Also read: Some quick Firefox Tips and Tricks

Be the BOT: Fool websites by changing your Header

Do you store your passwords using Firefox?

How-To: Set multiple homepages in Firefox.

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav

[How-To] Remove USB Devices Safely

Often we get stuck with the Windows Safely Remove Hardware Icon, trying to stop the device which just doesn’t stop. In such scenarios, the question most of us ask is ” Now, how do i remove this device safely, without losing any data? “

This post, describes two methods of removing USB Devices safely from your Computer, even if the Windows Safely Remove Hardware program gives off with a message ” The device cannot be stopped right now”

Kill the Process

This is the first way to go, try opening your Task Manager ( Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL or Right Clicking on the Task Bar and selecting Task Manager from the menu)

Try identifying the process being run by the USB Device. It could be anything from that drive - a file name, a process with similar name etc. Once the process is identified, kill that process and try again with the Safely Remove Hardware icon ( if still shown)

USB Safely Remove

Download and install USB Safely Remove, USB Safely Remove is a shareware program which puts its own icons in the system tray in place of Windows Safely Remove Hardware Icon.

If due to any reason, USB Safely Remove is not able to safely close a drive, it shows you what processes are causing the problem and allows you to stop them.

Other interesting features of USB Safely Remove include Removing USB Drive with one click, assigning Hotkeys for removing a drive, Correcting and clearing device names, setting up autorun options and name notifications about the connected and removed devices.

Give USB Safely Remove a try.

Also read: How-To: Disable and Re-enable USB Storage Devices

How to get Serial Numbers and CD Keys of Softwares using Google.

How-To: Know if your PC has USB 2.0 or USB1.1?

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Cheers

Vaibhav

[How-To] Know the version of Service Pack on your Windows System

In my last post, i wrote about Windows XP SP3, in this post, i shall be explaining the process to identify the version of Windows and Windows Service Pack installed on your computer.

In the good old days of DOS, we used to enter ver at the command prompt to get the version number of the Operating System being run on the PC. You can use the same command in Windows as well to identify the Operating System version.

• Click on Start –> Run
• Type CMD and hit Enter.
• At the command prompt, enter Ver and hit Enter ( as shown in the figure above)
• Windows returns the version number of the installed Operating System.
• Visit the Microsoft link on Identifying the Name and Version Number of the Operating System to get more details about your Version Number.

Alternatively, you can get these details using the My Computer Properties page as well. Follow the step by step instructions below for this.

1. Right click on My Computer and Select Properties.
2. Click on the General Tab.
3. General Tab has information about your Operating System, the Registered owner and details about your Computer.

If you are comfortable with Windows Scripting, the below mentioned script also gives you the Name and version of the Operating System.



strComputer = “.”
Set objWMIService = GetObject(”winmgmts:” _
 & “{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\” & strComputer & “\root\cimv2″)
Set colOperatingSystems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
 (”SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem”)
For Each objOperatingSystem in colOperatingSystems
 Wscript.Echo objOperatingSystem.Caption, objOperatingSystem.Version
Next

To find the Latest Installed Service Pack, use this script

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject(”winmgmts:” _
& “{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\” & strComputer & “\root\cimv2″)
Set colOperatingSystems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
(”SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem”)
For Each objOperatingSystem in colOperatingSystems
Wscript.Echo objOperatingSystem.ServicePackMajorVersion _
& “.” & objOperatingSystem.ServicePackMinorVersion
Next

Also read: Windows XP Service Pack

[How-To]Bypassing Passwords in Windows

Spoofing Explained : Another attempt to cover Hacking fundas

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Cheers

Vaibhav

Windows XP Service Pack

Windows XP SP3 is in the news since few days now.

The theme of this post is to bring to your notice the fact that Windows Service Packs are cumulative and includes all updates from the previous ones.

This means that if, for example, your XP CD has neither SP1 nor SP2 integrated, you can still go ahead and install Windows XP SP3.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) is now available for download and install via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Windows XP SP3 includes all previously released updates for the operating system, in addition to a small number of new updates. Windows XP SP3 will not significantly change the Windows XP experience.

If you are planning to upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), please do read a little more about it on the internet. SP3 is a very new release and might have lots of bugs, the best way to handle such releases is by going slow with the adoption. PC World also reports about the bug in Windows XP SP3 causing some AMD Systems to crash.

To control the installation of SP3 in your system, please read my earlier post on Controlling Automatic Updates.

Also read:[How-To]Bypassing Passwords in Windows

Spoofing Explained : Another attempt to cover Hacking fundas

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Cheers

Vaibhav

[How-To] Connect Securely to Gmail

You already know that Phishers employ various methods to phish your critical data and there are certain ways to protect your data, and one of the ways to protect yourself is by employing the secure connection techniques like HTTPs and checking for that small lock icon in your browser.

When you use HTTPs, the data transmitted by the browser is encrypted using SSL and is not transferred as plain text as it happens in case of an HTTP transfer.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. SSL is an industry standard and is used by millions of websites in the protection of their online transactions with their customers.

In the case of Gmail, when you open the login page, the URL is HTTPS or SSL enabled. However, once the login is completed, the URL changes back to normal HTTP mode. This means, that all the mail traffic that you exchange post login between your browser and Gmail, goes as plain text over the wire. This in turn means that anybody sniffing the wire can get hold of your critical data.

But, there is a way out. The hack is pretty simple. Once the login to Gmail is completed and you get the display of your Inbox,

change the URL from http://…… to https://…. and hit Enter.

For example, if the URL displayed on your address bar of the browser post login is http://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox

Change this to https://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox and hit enter.

If doing this everytime, sounds like a pain, try using this script instead.

While surfing the net, be safe and play safe. I would suggest that you Follow the safe steps to a healthy PC and Stay Safe on the net.

Also read: [How-To]Bypassing Passwords in Windows

[How-To] Use Gmail to Remote Control your PC

Some more Gmail Hacks

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav

[How-To] Find Top Twitterers in your city

While i do follow a lot of famous people on Twitter, its always fun to know the local twitterers. Twitterlocal, does this job for you. Twitterlocal allows you to figure out the Top Twitters in your City.

TwitterLocal lets you generate an RSS or XML Feed to filter out Tweets around a certain area. Just enter a city, state, postal code, choose the range of miles you want to include, and hit the button.

Figure below lists the top twitterers around Bangalore area.

Interestingly, i follow a lot of them.

Are you also a top twitterer from your location? Do share your twitter url for us to follow you.

Related reads:TweetStats: Check your Twitter Stats

Summize: Realtime Twitter Search

How To Use Twitter to Publicize your blog

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav

Interesting Twitter Cartoons

You all already know what twitter is all about and what all interesting applications are built on twitter. Its time for some interesting cartoon visuals on Twitter.

Clearly depicts the way Twitter has taken on our lives. Have fun and keep Twittering.

Via : Twitter Fan Wiki

Related reads:TweetStats: Check your Twitter Stats

Summize: Realtime Twitter Search

How To Use Twitter to Publicize your blog

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav

Orkut adds Status Update feature

Facebook started it, LinkedIn followed and now is the turn for Orkut to have the status update feature.

From now on, you can update your status by going to your Profile page. Type whatever you wish to be shown as part of your status and that’s it.

Source: Orkut Blog

Also read: Orkut on Mobile and OpenSocial Apps are LIVE

Uncovered: Serious Orkut Security BUG

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav