[How-To] Forward Emails Automatically Using Microsoft Outlook

If you are someone whose office doesn’t provide Blackberry or any other kind of external web interface, but would certainly love to keep himself or herself in sync with the activities happening at work while you are away, this tip will give you a step by step process for forwarding either all or specific emails to your personal email id , which can be later checked either using a mobile or through general web access.

This tip will setup a rule on your Outlook Exchange server which will be used to forward email’s to another id. For simplicity, this tip will create a rule for emails from a specific id to be forwarded to another specific id. The same process can then be later used to add more rules.

Follow the steps below to add the rule to your Microsoft Exchange Server:

1.) Open your Microsoft Outlook. Ensure its connected to the Exchange Server.

2.) Right click on the email from the person whose mails you would like to Auto-Forward.

Image: Click on Create Rule for setting up rules in Outlook

3.) Click on Create Rule.

4.) Set up the various parameters. For simplicity, this tip will forward all email sent from a particular user to me. Click on Advanced Options to setup forward rules.

Image: Setting up Advanced Options to Forward Emails

5.) At the dialog shown, Select the conditions and click on Next.

Image: Setup Email Rules Conditions

6.) Select the option which says ” Forward it to people or distribution list”. In the lower pane, click on people or distribution list and set the email id to which this email must be forwarded.

Image: Setting up Email Rules on Outlook.

7.) If you wish to add any exceptions to this list, click Next, else click Finish. The Exchange server will now be updated.

From now on, all emails sent from a particular id to your email id, will be forwarded to the specified email id.

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Google Image Search adds Style

Yes, you got it right, Google Image Search has added another interesting element to the search, Image Style. Now on, you can search specific images on Google by specifying a search filter criteria based on the Image Style. Image style is different as compared to the Google Image Face Search which was about searching for images with faces.

Now on you can filter Google Image Search results based on faces, clip art, line drawings, photo content, news content.

To see the effect of these new options, let’s take a look at the first few results for “Christmas,” one of our most popular queries on Image Search right now.

Image: Google Image Search results for different Content Type Filters

All of these options can be selected from the “Any content” drop down or  in the blue title bar on any search results page, or by selecting one of the “Content types” on the Advanced Image Search page.

Image: Search Results

The good news: no extra typing! In all these examples our query remained exactly the same, we just restricted our results to different visual styles by changing the content filter.

Now go ahead and check out the various image results by just modifying content filter for the image search. I am sure this will greatly help you get better images for your blogs.

Via

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[Subtitles] 5 Best Websites to look for Movie Subtitles

Got hold of a interesting foriegn language movie but how do you understand the real meat inside it? In such situations the real power of Subtitles comes to life. This post, lists 5 Best Websites for getting hold of subtitles to play with your favorite DIVX movies.

For true laymen, A subtitle is the text at the bottom of the screen in a movie. The purpose of a subtitle is usually to translate the movie dialogue from a language the viewer doesn’t understand to one they do. Subtitles can also be helpful for people who for some reason have trouble following the dialogue in a movie.

Image: 5 Best Websites to Get Subtitles for your Movies

So here you go with the 5 Best Websites to look out for Movie Subtitles. All these websites provide subtitles in the SUB and SRT formats.

1.) SubScene : SubScene is an interesting website with lots of Subtitles in various languages including English, French,German, Dutch,Arabic. Also, interestingly, Arabic is the language with most number of subtitles available on this site. 

2.) DivXSubtitles : With DivXSubtitles, you can download DVD, HDTV and DivX subtitles for free without signing up. However, if you wish to Upload subtitles, you will have to sign up with the Website.

3.) OpenSubtitles : OpenSubtitles also offers lots of Subtitles for various languages. Apart from regular features like Subtitle Search, Download and Upload of Subtitles, it also provides RSS for new subtitles which are uploaded. You can even search for Subtitles in Multiple languages simultaneously. You need to be logged into the site to carry out such functions.

4.) DivX SubTitles World : Offers you free downloading (and uploading) of subtitles in all the world’s languages. If you are looking for a site with more subtitles in your own language, you’ve found it! You can download everything for free for your home cinema. You can find over 16800 subtitles from all around the world on our server. To be able to totally use the site you must be a registered member (for server’s security). Once a member you get all advantages, such as requesting subtitles, making your own movie lists, sharing information with other users etc

5.) GetSubTitles : GetSubtitle’s database contains subtitles for movies and television series in various formats such as SRT or SUB which are supported by various media players.

Once you have got the subtitles with you, you would need to either write them to the DVD or CD for playback using specific tools like DirectVobSub. 

 

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PulpTunes Lets you take your iTunes with you

If you are someone who has a got a huge music collection in your iTunes at home and you need to go out suddenly. What do you do? Sync up your iPod already starving on Space with more songs? Well, with PulpTunes installed on your machine, you need not bother.

PulpTunes is the Webserver for iTunes. It allows you to let you or other people listen to the songs in your iTunes. So from now on, if you are away and still want to access that music on your home computers hard drive, all you need to do is install and configure PulpTunes.

 

Image: Screenshot from PulpTunes

Check out PulpTunes Demo. Also, you can download and install PulpTunes by clicking here.

Well coming to the Wishlist, i certainly would like to see some kind of a sharing and rating engine, using which i can see other’s iTunes playlist, rate them, share my playlist etc and yeah, did i tell you, a search feature would be great.

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[How-To] Viewing Websites Without Entering any Password

This article takes you back into time to re-visit the previous posts written on Technofriends which help you view websites without registering on them. So if you are someone who is annoyed with the process of creating user-id’s with websites, these posts below should help. Click on the relevant hyperlinks to read more of these posts.

1.) BugMeNot lets you View Webcontent without Passwords: BugMeNot is an interesting website which provides you with disposable login details for a large number of popular websites on the Internet. Interestingly, BugMeNot also has a Firefox-Add On which lets you bypass compulsory web registration with the context menu via http://www.bugmenot.com. Read More about BugMeNot and how to use it to get disposable login details.

Image: BugMeNot gives you login details for many websites.

2.) Be the BOT lets you Fool websites by changing your Request Header: BeTheBot is another interesting website which lets you check out websites which tend to give out their authenticated content to bots for caching purposes. BeTheBot modifies the User Agent Request Header to the Google Bot or Yahoo Bot, this makes the web server believe that the request is indeed coming from Google Bot or Yahoo Bot. This post also introduces you to an interesting Firefox Add-On called UserAgentSwitcher. Read more about BeTheBot and Fooling Websites.

Image: IT Knowledge Exchange helps you get answers to your complex technical questions

3.) IT Knowledge Exchange: A free edition of Experts Exchange: If you are someone who doesnt have access to ExpertsExchange, nothing to worry about, IT Knowledge Exchange is an interesting website which was created to allow IT professionals to ask questions and get answers in a collaborative manner.

Enough of me… What are the other ways you would recommend for checking out Password Protected Content. Feel free to comment about other services which you might like to get listed on Technofriends.

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[How-To] Flush DNS Cache

If you are a developer who often has to test same application deployed on different servers, the various options you have are

1.) Modify your HOSTS file to point to a new IP. You can learn more about modifying HOSTS file by reading previous posts on HOSTS file ( Microsoft Windows: More fun with the HOSTS file and Block Websites of your choice without any Software)

2.) Modify the DNS Entry of your Website. This is useful if you have testers who are not technically savvy doing the testing. In such a scenario all you need to do is modify the DNS entry and the new IP is reflected as soon as the change happens.

However, if you are having issues with the DNS IP Resolution and if even after a change on your DNS Server, the new IP is not getting reflected, its time to Flush the DNS Cache. 

DNS Resolution of My Website is Cached? How can i Clear this Cache?

Follow the Steps below

1.) In your windows machine, open the command window by going through Start –>Run and type Cmd.

Image: Initiate the command window

2.) At the Command Prompt, type ipconfig /flushdns as shown below in the figure.

Image: Flush out DNS Cache

3.) Your DNS Cache is now flushed. What this means is, that your computer will now make a new request to your DNS Server for getting the IP Address. 

The above listed trick lets you flush the DNS Cache from the local resolver of your computer. However, the DNS Entry might still be cached at the DNS Server. 

How Can i Stop the Local DNS Resolver from Caching at All?

Yes. If you make frequent changes to your IP Address and would like to keep the DNS Cache Resolver away from Caching the entries, you can stop the service by typing net stop dnscache at the command prompt.

In order to start the service again, type net start dnscache.

Image: Starting and Stopping the DNS Local Resolver Caching.

You can even tweak Windows Registry to modify the DNS Caching behaviour

You can modify the behavior of the Microsoft Windows DNS caching algorithm by setting two registry entries in the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters registry key.

The MaxCacheTtl represents the maximum time that the results of a DNS lookup will be cached. The default value is 86,400 seconds. If you set this value to 1, DNS entries will only be cashed for a single second. MaxCacheTtl needs to be a new DWORD.

MaxNegativeCacheTtl represents the maximim time that the results of a failed DNS lookup will be cached. The default value is 900 seconds. If you set this value to 0, failed DNS lookups will not be cached. MaxNegativeCacheTtl needs to be a new DWORD.

How Do I Flush DNS Cache in Linux?

In Linux, DNS Cache is managed by a service called nscd. To restart the nscd daemon, use the command `/etc/init.d/nscd restart`.

 

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[Java] How To Check if a String is a Valid Number?

If you are someone new to Java and would like to check if a String is a valid number or not, this post will help you get answer to your question.

Below is the coded snippet with explanation for checking out if a string is a valid number. The below mentioned code is written in Java.

In the below mentioned code snippet, i declared an integer called isThisANumber , this integer will be used to save the parsed Integer. Static method parseInt( ) of the Integer class has been used to attempt to convert the string parameter into an Integer. In case if the string is not a valid integer and throws up parsing issues while converting, NumberFormatException is thrown.

int isThisANumber = 0;
try
{
isThisANumber = Integer.parseInt(someStringToTest); 
}
catch (NumberFormatException nfe)
{
System.out.println("This string is not a valid number."); //Oops..not a valid int
}

 

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SweetHome 3D lets you design the interior of your House

Earlier i wrote about an interesting web based service called DesignMyRoom, which lets you design and do interiors for your room, today, in this post i will introduce you to a stand alone software called SweetHome 3D which is a free interior design application that helps you place your furniture on a house 2D plan, with a 3D preview.

SweetHome 3D is aimed at people who want to design their interior quickly, whether they are moving or they just want to redesign their existing home. Numerous visual guides help you draw the plan of your home and layout furniture. You may draw the walls of your rooms upon the image of an existing plan, and then, drag and drop furniture onto the plan from a catalog organized by categories. Each change in the 2D plan is simultaneously updated in the 3D view, to show you a realistic rendering of your layout.

Sweet Home 3D may be run on Windows, Mac OS X 10.4 / 10.5, Linux and Solaris, and is translated in 11 different languages.

Image: Sweet Home 3D

Depending on your system, use the following instructions to download Sweet Home 3D and install it:

Windows: Download http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sweethome3d/SweetHome3D-1.5-windows.exe (25 MB), run the downloaded installation program, and follow the instructions from the setup wizard.

Mac OS X: Download

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sweethome3d/SweetHome3D-1.5-macosx.dmg (11 MB), double-click on the downloaded file and run Sweet Home 3D application found in the opened folder. To install Sweet Home 3D, drag and drop the application in the folder of your choice.

Linux: Download http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sweethome3d/SweetHome3D-1.5-linux-x86.tgz (40 MB), uncompress the downloaded file and run SweetHome3D application found in the uncompressed directory. To install Sweet Home 3D, move the uncompressed directory to one of your choice.

Some interesting features of SweetHome 3D worth mentioning

1.) You can import your home plan blueprint to get started faster with SweetHome 3D. 

2.) Based on the imported plan, create walls with a click of a button.

3.) Adjust the 3D view of the plan at any time.

4.) Enlarge Walls and also add, adjust and modify Windows and Doors to them. Wide variety of Doors and Windows are available in the catalog, all you need to do is select them from the catalog.

5.) Add Furniture, visit Home layout. 

In short, SweetHome 3D lets you become an architect of your house and lets you become an interior designer of your home.

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Google Analytics Channel on Youtube

If you are someone who is looking out for video tutorials or coverage on various Google Analytics topics like, Google Analytics for Flash, Custom Reporting, Advanced Segments etc, there is good news for you coming from Google. Now, you can check out all these videos on Google Analytics Channel on Youtube.

Google Analytics Blog says

Today, we’re pleased to announce the Google Analytics Channel on YouTube, a one-stop source for the latest Google Analytics-related videos. If you’re looking for a beginner’s guide to interpreting and acting on your data, an introduction to motion charts, or you want to learn how perform placement targeting in 60 seconds, you can now find it at youtube.com/googleanalytics. And, just to prove that we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we’ll add the occasional music video 🙂

Below Embedded video from the channel Shows How To Use Google Analytics data to expand your business with location targeted campaigns in AdWords. Here’s how to do it easily, with Google Analytics’ Map Overlay report.

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[Adsense] Prevent your Competitors Ads from Showing up in your Website

We often hear about scenarios wherein Ads of Competing businesses get shown up as part of the Adsense Ads showed on your website. This certainly is not the best way of growing your business, However, this can be prevented by adding specific setup rules in your Adsense account. This post describes a step by step process for setting up Competitive Ad Filter in Google Adsense.

If you are an Adsense Publisher and would like to prevent your competitor’s ads from being shown on your website as part of the Google Adsense Ads which are dynamically showed to your end users based on the keywords and other related terms, follow the steps below. (Click on the images for a detailed view).

1.) Login to your Adsense Account.

Adsense Setup Link enables you to setup Google Adsense for your site.

2.) Click on the tab which says Adsense Setup.

3.) Once inside Adsense Setup, click on the link which says Competitive Ad Filter. 

Setting up Adsense to prevent Competitor

The Competitive Ad Filter enables you to block specific ads, such as competitors’ ads, from appearing on your pages. Entering a more general URL will block a wider range of ads; entering a more specific URL will block a smaller range of ads. For example, by entering a top level domain such as “example.com”, you’ll also block all ads that link to any sub-directories of that domain, like “forums.example.com”. Review the examples below to learn how you can create filters that will block only the range of ads you want.

Enter the URLs of your comptetitor

4.) Specify URL’s of your competitors website ( Ads pointing to these URL’s shall then be filtered before being shown to your site’s end visitors) for various Adsense services like Adsense for Content, Adsense for Search and Adsense for Feeds. Click on Save Changes once done. 

You have now setup your Adsense account to filter your competitors ads before being shown to your site visitors. 

Also, as a general tip, never click on the ads on your Own Website. Google definitely can figure out if you are clicking on your own Adsense Ads.

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