Are You Also Playing Secret Santa This Christmas?

Christmas is nearing and its time for the holiday season to begin. If you are too much engrossed in your work and looking out for some easy stress busters, Secret Santa should come handy.

Secret Santa is a game which you can play with your work colleagues or back at home. This article describes how to play Secret Santa

1.)  Write down names of all those who are playing Secret Santa in pieces of paper. Keep all these chits of paper in a box. Lets call it a “Santa Box”. Everyone now has to Pick a chit from the Santa Box.

2.)  The name that turns up in the chit would be your “Secert Child”.

Image: Secret Santa

3.)  Make you “Secret Child” do some fun tasks. Keep the tasks simple and funny.

4.)  Gift your “Secret Child” with some thing that he/she would like.  

The whole reason of playing Secret Santa is to have some fun. So try not to offend anyone by giving unacceptable/unrealistic tasks or force someone to do a task unwillingly. 

Once you have got to know your Secret Child, follow the steps below

1.) You might want to pin up some task for your Secret Child on a pre-decided notice area. 

2.) Ensure that you don’t reveal or share information of your secret child to anyone ( including your secret child). The fun is to make him or her do those funny tasks.

3.) Once all the tasks are over, gift your Secret Child.

If you are someone who like to involve Technology with everything, try visiting the Secret Santa Website.

 

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Understanding Content Management Systems

Content Management System is in simple terms a software which can enable someone to add, modify and remove content from a website. Frequently updated websites require the application of systems that enable the unassisted content management: CMS (Content Management System). The easy update of content is achieved by means of content editors which move the newly introduced data to the database and place it in the proper spaces on the websites at the same time.This post describes how a Content Management System works. 

What are the main components of a Content Management System?

Basic components and features of a content management system are

1.) Website content addition / edting platform: This platform allows for addition and editing of content in a website. Most of the CMS systems, offer a WYSIWYG interface for better editing and content modification or addition. This also allows various pages to be saved in various states like Draft, Published, Deleted etc. 

2.) Content Syndication: This feature allows you to give the output of your website in a rss feed.

3.) Plugins and Templates: Most good CMS’s will allow adding new templates for better look and feel and also support for plugins to extend the basic functionality.

4.) Support for Roles: Good CMS softwares also allows for various roles for different users to co-exist. Therefore, someone can be a Contributor, other can be an Editor. Like this there can be other roles as well like Admin etc.

Can you give an Example Scenario where Content Management System proves to be useful?

Content Management System are particularly useful in scenario’s where the content of the website needs to be updated on a very regular basis. A very good example of scenario where CMS proves good are News Websites and Blogs. CMS because of its components and features, allows users to do various tasks based on their roles. These tasks can include tasks as diverse as website content editing, content publishing for viewing by end users to content database backup.

Content Management System

In the figure above which describes how a CMS sytem gets input, assembles it and pushes the output, there are essentially three units

1.) Input Unit: This consists of the various means by which input to a webpage is decided.

2.) CMS System or the Processing Unit: Here all the inputs are assembled together, processed and given to the output unit

3.) Output Unit: This Unit is responsible for pushing the content for display to the end user i.e. it pushes the post to published mode in database. Updates the RSS Feed, prepares the page for display on web browser and mobile browser.

What are the main benefits of using a Content Management System?

Well there are plenty of benefits of using a CMS, i will jot down a few here.

1.) Content Management System allows you to seperate your Data from the Presentation part. 

2.) If you use CMS, you can actually save a lot of time because of the WYSIWYG editor available in almost all the CMS systems.

3.) Content Management Systems or CMS allows for good workflow management with the Roles feature. This allows for different roles like Author,Contributor,Editor etc to co-exist.

4.) Most of the content management systems also offer Automated Publishing feature either through the in-built system or the plugin infrastructure. This ways, the CMS allows non-technical people to schedule, trigger, and otherwise manage the process of moving the content to the production environment.

5.) Almost all CMS allows you to extend the functionality of the core feature of the CMS sytem using Plugins. Also the look and feel of the website can be changed by changing the theme using the CMS.

Wow, CMS looks like a great thing to go for. Can you name a few Content Management Systems?

There are many CMS available however, some of the best Content Management System’s worth mentioning are Joomla , Drupal, WordPress, Mambo, Alfresco, Sensenet.

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7 Best Websites for Playing Games Online.

Playing Games Online for FREE is always something that one wants to do during freetime. This post lists 7 Best Websites which offer lots of online games. Playing games online also help you get rid of high-end system configuration requirement. 

1.) MiniClip: Miniclip is one of the best Online games website around, it gives you wide variety of games to choose from. Miniclip offers games ranging from Action Games, Multiplayer Games, Strategy Games to Puzzle games and many others. With Multiplayer Games, you can challenge other online players as well but for this you will have to register with the website and create a profile.

Play Online Games

2.) Zapak: Zapak is another in the list of Best Online Games Website, it also offers games in various categories from Action,Sports,Racing, Cricket to Strategy and Multiplayer games. Zapak is a ADAG group website. Zapak also has an international Website called ZapakWorld.

3.) Yahoo Games: Yahoo Games is one of the “veteran, yet young” in the field of online gaming. It allows you to play games in a lot of categories and offers some of the best multiplayer games. Yahoo Games offers different games based on geographic location of the end user. You can download selected games for playing offline. However, not all games are free and have trial period attached for offline playing.

4.) Qbris: Qbris is another in the list of online games playing website. Like other website Qbris also offers games from various categories and also offers Multiplayer Online Games. It aso offers games which you can embed in your website and allow your visitors to play. Beware that this website might look boring from the first looks, however, it does have a huge inventory of online games which can be played for free.

5.) FreeOnlineGames: FreeOnlineGames offers lots of free online games and also offers premium games. You can play standard games, premium games and multiplayer games. You can even get games for your website embed from here. You don’t need to register on this website to play any game.

6.) AllTheGames: AllTheGames is another interesting website which gives you access to numerous games. The website has interesting games like Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog. AllTheGames also doesnt ask you for registering with the website. AllTheGames also allows you to embed games to your website. 

7.) PopCap: PopCap allows you to play several games online and also download deluxe games. PopCap also has collection of interesting games like Bejewelled, Alchemy etc.

 
Also, if you are someone who is looking to download some of the best computer games for free, do checkout Games GiveAway.

If you know of any more interesting website for playing games online, do share them in the comments with your blog link and i shall update the post with a linkback.

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[How-To] Convert your Audio Tapes to MP3

If you are someone who has a huge collection of Audio Tapes or cassetes and wish to convert them to MP3 format so that you can play them over your music system or for that matter your computer, this is the post to read.

This post describes a step by step process of converting your Audio Tapes to MP3 Format Audio which can later be burned using a CD Burner.

Follow the steps below to convert your Audio Tapes or Cassettes to MP3

1.) First things first, you need to have your Cassette and the Tape Recorder. 

2.) You would also need a cable with double jacks for audio out from your recorder to audio in of your computer.

3.) Insert the cable to the Audio Out port of your Cassette player and insert the other end of the jack into the Mic input slot for Audio In.

4.) Download SuperMP3Recorder software to help you with the recording.

 

Set the bitrate to 192KBps.

5.) Select atleast 192KBps bitrate from the MP3 Options under the Settings menu.

 

SuperRecorder

6.) Once you have configured the settings, press Record button on SuperMP3Recorder and then play the cassette tape on the player. 

7.) Your audio is now getting converted to MP3 format.

Do comment if you had any issues while converting your Audio Tapes to MP3. I will be happy to help.

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Cheers

Vaibhav

Manage your Disk Partitions with Ease. Use EASEUS Partition Manager 3.0

 

EASEUS Partition Manager Professional Edition is a comprehensive hard disk partition management tool to let you enjoy all the powerful functions: Resize and Move partitions, Copy Partition, Copy Disk to protect data, Create, Delete and Format partitions, Hide and Unhide partitions and much more.

 

EASEUS Partition Manager 3.0 is available as the GiveAway of the day

EASEUS Partition Manager is available for FREE for the next 23 hours. Download here.

What’s more, it works perfectly with hardware RAID and Windows 2000/XP/Vista Operating Systems. It contains both Windows Version and Linux Version to run bootable CD/DVD if computer crash occurred.

New features in Partition Manager 3.0 Professional:

• Disk Copy Wizard, Partition Copy Wizard to protect data.
• 1.5 TB hard disk supported.

EASEUS Partition Manager 3.0 is available as a Giveaway of the day! . As i write this, You have 23 hours 39 minutes to download and install it.

Gladinet Delivers Web Applications and Online Files To Your Desktop

Gladinet is an interesting yet free Windows application that runs on your desktop and offers easy access to files stored online or across remote PCs.

If you have a some content stored in online services like  Google Docs, Amazon S3 and Windows Live Skydrive , Gladinet allows you to manage your content by making all of your files accessible from a virtual drive mapped into your Windows Operating Environment, thereby letting you update and modify files stored on the above mentioned services.

Once you have updated those files, Gladinet uploads the new version back to its original space in the cloud. This therefore elimiates the need for downloading the files onto your computer, editing them and again pushing them back onto the internet cloud for storage.

Other than letting you manage your online files locally, Gladinet also lets you do the following interesting stuff

• Remote Access To Multiple PCs : Gladinet connects all your PCs together. You can access folders on multiple PCs from any one of them. You can also use remote access solutions such as RDP or VNC among them. Your PCs are always connected even when you are on the road.

• On Demand Sharing: Sharing Files and Folders is as easy as sending an e-mail or an instant message. Your friends can view your shared files instantly and securely without any Gladinet software pre-installed. You can share both local and online files.

• Use Web Applications Locally: Use online office to open local spread sheets. Use Paint Brush to open online images. Use online storages as if they were local folders. Gladinet software delivers web applications and online storages to your desktop.

So How Does It All Work?

Its easier to understand it like this, Browser’s are designed for delivering web contents to your desktop and 

on similar lines, Gladinet was designed for delivering web services to your desktop. It then goes a step further than the web browser by integrating web services into the Operating System. The below given figure explains the entire process.

Gladinet — How it Works?

Feature List & Demo for the currently released version

• Supported Online Storages

  • Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) 
  • Microsoft Windows Live™ SkyDrive 
  • Google Picasa™ Program 
  • Google Docs™ Program
  • Folders from Remote PCs – Standard Version only.

• Supported Online Applications

  • Word & SpreadSheet

    • Google Docs™ Program
    • Zoho®
    • ThinkFree

  • Image & Editing

    • Google Picasa™ Program
    • Picnik Image Editing
    • SnipShot Image Editing
    • Image Author Image Editor

  • Support Single Sign-On

    • Google Mail™ webmail service
    • Google Talk™ instant messaging service
    • Google Calendar™ calendaring service

  • Support File Type Association

    • Google Docs™ Program
    • Zoho®
    • ThinkFree
    • Picnik
    • SnipShot

• Connect All My Computers

  • Resource Drive For All Virtual Directories
  • Support Remote Desktop – Standard version only
  • Support VNC through Device Redirection – Standard version only
  • Merge All My Favorites – Standard version only

• On Demand File/Folder Sharing – Standard version only 

As i write this, Gladinet, is still in its Beta release.

Also Read: AnyTV brings free TV to your PC

Canon Powershot A470: No frills, entry level digital camera

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Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

PC Decrapifier Lets You Cut the Crap from your PC

If you have got a new laptop or a desktop or even for that matter a new version of Windows, and you are experiencing a latency when it comes to the boot time of your laptop or desktop, this post will help you get rid of the crap which comes installed by default. Crap, as these are those softwares which you will most probably never use; but they do block up your memory. You already know how to free up some memory on your PC by disabling Windows Messenger, if you dont use it.

PC Decrapifier is designed to detect and delete all such annoying software. Don’t worry, you will always get to see what has been detected; if there is anything you want to keep, you can always retain it.

PC Decrapifier works with all versions of Windows XP and Vista. You can also get the complete list of softwares which a PC Decrapifier can remove.

 

PC-Decrapifier lets you cut the crap from your PC.

In short, PC Decrapifier does let you get rid of the bloatware which simply clogs up space and memory of your PC during boot time.

Though, you can always remove such programs from your Control Panel’s Add/Remove Programs feature, but this tool lets you get a list of most of the crap which might be sitting on your PC without even you knowing about it.

Also Read: Top 3 FREE Antivirus Applications

Top 3 Anti Spyware Applications

 

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Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

[How-To] Add Flickr Photos to your Word Documents with Ease

What do you do when you have to embed an image from Flickr into your Word Documents? Download the image from Flickr onto your own computer and embed it using Insert Image feature of Word. If you are also the one who does the same thing and wastes a lot of time and bandwidth doing all this download and insert, their is good news for you.

 

Flickr4Word is a Plugin for Microsoft Word 2007 software that allows you to insert Flickr photos into your posts. All you need to do is install this software and get started.

 

Flickr4Word lets you embed Flickr Images into Word with Ease.

The plug-in enables you to search all your content, photosets, or search by tags.  It is available for free and can be downloaded from Codeplex.  For developers, the code is also made available if you want to contribute fixes and features (that comply with Flickr API terms of use).

Also Read: [How To] Convert PDF to Word files for free

Kingsoft Office 2007: Microsoft Office comes free

How-To: Copy Excel cells into a Word document

 

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Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

AnyTV brings free TV to your PC

Earlier i wrote about How to Watch Online Television Channels for Free using TVChannelsFree. Today, i will write about another Handy tool called AnyTV which can help you watch live television channels on your PC for free. 

Using anyTV means you can watch numerous of international TVs without a television, TV Tuner Card or a satellite receiver. Watch anywhere you have your internet Online. No additional equipments required.

In order to watch Free Television Channels using AnyTV, follow the steps below

1.) Download and install AnyTV. (Download AnyTV). 

2.) AnyTV would warn you to get your Channel list updated, this will however require you to pay for a nominal fees and upgrade to AnyTV Pro from AnyTV Free. Still, if you feel like, you can keep watching the channels from freely available list. Believe me, that too has quite a lot of channels.

AnyTV free offers lots of channels to view for free.

 

List of free Channels on AnyTV Free

3.) Select the icon which says TV and then select your Country. Check the figure above, both the controls are circled in red.

4.) Select your Channel from the list either by double clicking on the channel name or select the channel and press the Play button to view the live tv channel for free. 

The interesting part about AnyTV is that you can even listen to a lot of radio channels from your city for free. All you need to do is select the Radio icon/button instead of TV from the main application interface.

Also read: Watch Online TV Channels: Live &

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Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

Backup4All helps you take your Backups with ease

Backup4All is an interesting software utility which helps you take your data backups with ease. It offers a intuitive , feature rich interface which helps you save time while taking backups.

Earlier, you had learnt about Automating Data Backup in Windows, this tool takes this a step ahead with the various easy to use, intutitive and universal features. Backup4All offers following 5 exciting features apart from many others.

Make it a habit to backup your data. The best strategy for backing up your data is to do a full image backup, create an incremental backup every day and create a new full-image backup once a week.

What are some interesting Backup4All features?

1.) Backup Wizard: Backup4All offers an exciting wizard which helps you give step-by-step instructions to create a new backup job by selecting Where, What, How and When to backup.

Backup4All Main Window for backing up your data.

2.) Various Backup types to choose from: Backup4All offers different backup types to choose from: full backup, differential backup, incremental backup and mirror backup.

3.) In built Scheduler: In built scheduler helps you schedule your backups thereby automating the backup process.

4.) Test your backup: Backup4All also lets you test the backup using CRC32.This ensures that the files have been backed up properly and the backup is safe.

5.) Send your backup to specific locations and also get email alerts: Backup4All allows you to send your backup to any specific location, be it a specific drive, CD, DVD or an FTP Location. Once the backup is done, you can also configure.

Backup and Restore your data using Backup4All

On top of all the above 5 features, Backup4All also lets you restore your backup. So in short, Backup4All gives you total control for all your backup needs, an ultimate solution for all your backup problems.

Backup4All is available in various flavors from Professional to Lite. You can download Backup4All from here by paying a nominal fees. Backup4All trial is also available for free with a 30 day timeline usage.

Also read: [How-To] Automating data backup in Windows « Technofriends

4 steps to a Healthy PC « Technofriends

Backup your Gmail Account. « Technofriends

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