How Many Google AdSense Ads Did You Click Today ?

If you ever wanted to know about the Google AdSense ads that you have recently clicked from Firefox or IE, here’s a tip:

Open the history panel (Ctrl+H) in the browser and type googleadservices - you will see all the Google Ad URLs that you have clicked since the last time you cleared your browser history.

You can also know the exact web address of the Adwords advertiser from these URLs. Firefox 3 users can type googleadservices in the address bar and get the same information from the auto-complete entries in the drop down.

Nothing very useful but will give you an idea about how frequently you click on Google AdSense Ads on other websites.

Send Pictures from Google Picasa Directly to Photoshop for Editing

This is something for Adobe Photoshop fans who also use Google Picasa for managing their collection of photographs offline.

You can quickly add a Photoshop button in Google Picasa that will automatically open the current picture inside Photoshop for advanced editing. That should save some of your time.

Install Photoshop CS3 Button - When you click this link, Picasa launches (if it is not already running) and installs the Photoshop icon.

And not just Photoshop, you can send your Picasa photos to any image editing program like Fireworks, Corel Painter, etc though that would require to learn this Picasa API. The Photoshop button was created by Michael Herf.

SnagIt has a similar feature that’s called Capture Profiles. You take a screenshot and Snagit will directly send that to Photoshop, Outlook, Mindmanager or any other external program.

You can either create your own capture profiles in SnagIt (without learning any complex API) or download ready-to-use outputs from TechSmith.com.

Facebook members, money 'Beckon'

Facebook Inc's popular online hangout so far has proven to be a better place for promoting fun and games than peddling products. But a new application aims to inject more commerce into the social playground by paying Facebook members who help merchants sell to their friends.

The program, called Market Lodge, revolves around the notion that consumers are more likely to buy merchandise or services recommended by someone they know and trust.

Market Lodge, made by a startup called bSocial Networks Inc, will pay Facebook members a 10 per cent commission on all sales made on their recommendations.

Facebook tried to capitalize on the bonds of friendship last year by introducing a marketing system that includes broadcasting product endorsements among people who know each other.

The strategy hasn't paid off yet, largely because many of Facebook's users rebelled against a feature called "Beacon" that tracked and shared information about their purchases and other actions made on other Web sites. Spurred by the backlash, Palo Alto based Facebook now allows its users to turn off Beacon.
Colorado based bSocial is betting that Facebook's roughly 67 million users will be more receptive to an approach that dangles a financial incentive for participating.
Facebook members who decide to use Market Lodge can customize their own stores, selecting from more than 1,200 products sold by about 50 different merchants.

Once the personal store is set up, Facebook users can then invite others in their network to check out the stuff they're recommending. Market Lodge users can make purchases from their own stores and still qualify for the 10 per cent sales commission.

The entire inventory, order processing and delivery arrangements are handled by the merchants, just as they would be for any other sale.

"We think this could be very lucrative for Facebook's members," said bSocial co-founder Sue Spielman. More than 100 people have signed up for Market Lodge since it quietly rolled out last week.

For now, Facebook won't receive a cut of the sales made through Market Lodge, but bSocial Networks eventually may consider sharing revenue with the social network or other Web sites that might be interested in the application, Spielman said.

Facebook Flaw Exposes Member Pics - Take a look

A security lapse made it possible for unwelcome strangers to peruse personal photos posted on Facebook Inc's popular online hangout, circumventing a recent upgrade to the website's privacy controls.

The Associated Press verified the loophole after receiving a tip from a Byron Ng, a Vancouver, Canada computer technician. Ng began looking for security weaknesses last week after Facebook unveiled more ways for 67 million members to restrict access to their personal profiles.

But the added protections weren't enough to prevent Ng from pulling up the most recent pictures posted by Facebook members and their friends, even if the privacy settings were set to restrict the audience to a select few.

After being alerted, Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker said the Palo Alto-based company fixed the bug within an hour.

"We take privacy very seriously and continue to make enhancements to the site," she said.

The latest lapse serves as another reminder of the perils of sharing sensitive photos and personal information online, even when websites pledge to shield the information from prying eyes.

Before the fix, Ng's computer-coding trick enabled him to find private pictures of Paris Hilton at the Emmy awards and of her brother Barron Nicholas drinking a beer with friends and photos of many other people who hadn't granted access to Ng.

Using Ng's template, an AP reporter was able to look up random people on Facebook and see the most recent pictures posted on their personal profiles even if the photos were supposed to be invisible to strangers.

The revealed snapshots showed Italian vacations, office gatherings, holiday parties and college students on spring break. The AP also was able to click through a personal photo album that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg posted in November 2005.

Some members of social networks like Facebook post photos of themselves or others in potentially embarrassing or compromising situations that include illegal drug use or underage drinking that can cause trouble at school or work.

None of the photos reviewed by the AP appeared to fall into this category. Despite the risks, more people than ever -- especially teenagers and young adults -- are publishing personal photos and other intimate details about their lives on the Internet.

News Corp's MySpace.com, the only online social network larger than Facebook, suffered a security breach that exposed its members' private photos earlier this year.

New Firefox is here! - Take a Glance

A new version of Mozilla's popular Firefox Web browser is ready for download with improved security and memory use as the tiny company takes a stab at Microsoft Corp's dominant Internet Explorer.

The programme's creators told Reuters that the privately-held company's trial version of Firefox 3 browser is ready for the masses to use after months of development.

Until now, the company has discouraged average Internet users from moving on from Firefox 2, which was launched in October 2006.

"In many ways it (Firefox 3) is much more stable than anything else out there," Mozilla Corp Vice President of Engineering Mike Schroepfer said in an interview.

Key rivals to Firefox are market leader Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple Inc's Safari browser.

Engineers at Mozilla are still putting the finishing touches on the software and hope to release the final version of Firefox 3 by the end of June, Schroepfer said.

Mozilla is in a battle with Microsoft, which unveiled an experimental version of its Internet Explorer 8 in Las Vegas earlier this month and is looking to expand its presence on the Web through its bid to acquire Yahoo Inc.

Additions boost security and allow users to run Web sites when they are not connected to the Internet. Mozilla also says Firefox 3 uses less computer memory than Firefox 2.

Until now Mozilla has discouraged the typical computer user from exploring these new features. But its developers said that the situation has changed and that they will be revising their Web site.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Web site still stated: "We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download the Firefox 3 beta 4 milestone release. It is intended for testing purposes only."

But they said that as they concluded their fourth round of tweaking their software, they determined it was ready for prime time.

A fifth round of changes, due to begin within the next few weeks, will involve "tuning the visual look and feel of the program" and further improving its stability," Schroepfer said.

Know the Exact Time of when did You last turn On the Computer

Most office employees do not shut down computers at night - they just lock the workstations and switch off the monitor but that doesn’t stop the computers from consuming power.

According to estimates, 30% of all office PCs in the US are left on all night while 18% of office workers in UK admit that they have never switched off computers over night or at weekends.
So do you remember the exact date or time when you last switched on the computer ? Here’s a simple DOS command to help you out:

systeminfo | find /i “boot time”

This will show the time when you last rebooted the computer.

systeminfoSubtract that from the current date-time to know for how long you have been running the computer.

windows-task-manager Alternative, you could start Windows Task Manager (Alt+Ctrl+Del), switch to the Performance tab and you should see a field that says “Up Time” - that’s even more convenient but some computers have Task managers disabled.

Rush into the Kitchen when U dropped Ur Cell Phone or I-Pod in Liquids

What is the next step that you would take if your expensive mobile phone or iPod gets wet in the rain or your drop it in a wash basin?

Such accidents are not very uncommon. Adam Curry once dropped his iPhone in the toilet. Venadium went for a swim while the iPod was still in his pocket. Leo Laporte did something similar to his cell phone. Virgo soaked his iPod when a bottle of Diet Coke fell over his trousers.

Since the warranty for most electronics does not cover water damage, what can you do to revive that wet gadget ? The answer is in your kitchen.

Power off the device (if it’s not off already) and try to completely cover the iPod or iPhone in a bowl of rice. Rice being a natural desiccant will help absorb the excess moisture. Let it try for at least 24 hours and DO NOT try to charge the device.

wet blackberry If your gadget has a removable battery, dry it separately to speed up the whole drying process.


This home-remedy is cheap and worth giving a try before you rush to the Apple store for a replacement.

Ernesto Londoño successfully managed to fix his wet BlackBerry phone after he left the device soaked overnight in a bowl of uncooked rice.

Indian Beast Welcomes JaguaR - Its India's new Beast

So what if the Kohinoor diamond - once the ultimate symbol of Indian wealth and power - now resides with the Queen of England?

On Wednesday evening, icons of British luxury, Jaguar and Land Rover, passed into Indian hands for £1.15 billion ($2.3 billion).

(Watch: Tata acquires Jaguar, Land Rover)

The event was marked by a clinical note issued by Tata Motors from its headquarters in Mumbai. The irony of it all wasn't lost in either India or the UK.

With $104 billion, India is now the second largest source of foreign investment into Britain. And it took a company from a former colony to come to the rescue of a beleaguered British brand.

In contrast to the high drama that preceded Tata Steel's acquisition of Corus last year, this transaction was a relatively tame affair.

Soon after Ford Motor Company - American owners of the brands for the last 18 years - put the brands on the block, the Tatas, Mahindra & Mahindra and Jacques Nasser, former CEO of Ford, expressed interest.

Mahindra and Nasser backed out after Ford and worker unions at the company indicated they were comfortable with the Tatas. What followed after that was only the wrangling over detail.

For instance, Ford Motor Finance will continue to finance buyers across the world looking at acquiring Jaguar or Land Rover products for the next 12 months.

Then there is the fact that Ford will continue to supply key technology and components to both brands for some time to come.

In a hurriedly organized conference call, Ravi Kant, MD, Tata Motors said the existing management at Jaguar and Land Rover would be retained.

And that Geoff Polites, the current CEO at both companies, has agreed to continue in his existing role. He also reiterated there would be no job cuts at the manufacturing facilities in the UK and that it would be business as usual.

But motoring analysts remain sceptical of Tata Motors' ability to restore the brands to their former glory.

Most powerful tech CEOs of INDIA

Welcome to the age of reluctant economic reforms, new-found cannon of corporate governance and the insolence of technology. This has created a new hierarchy in the India Inc who have their businesses crossed national boundaries and expanded India's global footprint.

One of the prominent portion of this power brigade are the technocrats who have become an important part of the India's Power Group.

Recently, The Economic Times Corporate Dossier commissioned India Inc's Most Powerful CEOs survey conducted by IMRB International. The survey ranks CEOs in terms of power they wield in corporate India, and the country's economy at large. Here we bring to you the tech CEOs who form an important part of the list.


The most powerful tech CEO on the list is NR Narayana Murthy, Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies (ranks at third position on the India's 100 Most Powerful CEO's list).

Murthy founded Infosys in 1981 along with six other software professionals and served as the CEO for 21 years before handing over the reins of the company to co-founder Nandan M Nilekani in March 2002. Under his leadership, Infosys was listed on NASDAQ in 1999. He served as the Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor from 2002 to 2006.

Murthy is the recipient of numerous awards and honours. The Economist ranked him 8th on its list of 15 most admired global leaders in 2005. He was ranked 28th among the world's most respected business leaders by The Financial Times in 2005.

Murthy holds a BE (Electrical) from the University of Mysore (1967) and MTech (Electrical) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (1969). He has been conferred with honorary doctorate degrees by leading universities across the world.

The return of dotcommers

Circa 2001, these were not exceptions but the rule. Websites were collapsing like a heap with similar storylines: frenzied hiring, high overheads, no business plans and no clear revenue streams. The bloodbath sucked out money (read: venture capital) from India's fledgling Net economy and with it, some people faded away too.

Some, but not all. Much of the entrepreneurial fade-out turned out to be transitory and many returned to their start-up ways after a lull, but kept a low profile. Some changed their tack, re-inventing their tech story and moving on to the next best trend. A few went on investing undeterred and went from strength to strength. Only a few hung up their entrepreneurial boots, selling their babies for a price.

Here's catching up the posterboys of dotcom era, boys who were mattered most during the sunshine days of dotcoms.

Search Engine of Japan - MIXI

If it's Baidu in China, it's Mixi in Japan. The site has developed into a top social outlet for Japanese young people since its creation in 2004.

A Japanese version of MySpace was also launched in 2006 in a joint venture with Internet conglomerate Softbank Corp aimed at winning over some of Mixi's business in the Internet-savvy country. However, Mixi has continued to grow. It says it currently has 13.3 million members, up from 8.01 million a year ago.

Mixi's share price nearly doubled within a day of being listed in September 2006. Japan's popular online social networking site recently announced its plans to expand into China.

The Tokyo-based company was founded in 1997 as an operator of a job search service, started Mixi.jp in 2004 and listed its shares in 2006.

www.Baidu.com - China's Leading

Popularly known as Google trouncer in China, Baidu is the No. 1 serach engine in China and was the third-largest worldwide search property with 3.4 billion searches in December 2007, capturing 5.2 per cent of worldwide search share and beating Microsoft Sites for third place, according to comScore.

In China, Baidu.com leads the search engine market with as much as 61 per cent marketshare, Google comes a distant second with a 25 per cent share, followed by Yahoo China with 9.6 per cent.

In December 2007, Baidu became the first company from China to be included in the NASDAQ-100 index. The site's name Baidu has been inspired by a Song Dynasty poem written by Xin Qiji in the 12th century.

One of the most popular features on Baidu is its music search, called "MP3 Search," which includes Baidu 500 a comprehensive listing of popular Chinese music. Baidu started its own search engine in Japan known as www.baidu.jp. The company recently announced public tests of its new voice-activated search.

'Tax'ing time for Techies - Slowdown

Indian IT’s cost cutting spree is intensifying. Apprehensive of a recession in the US, technology firms have embarked on a conscious budget shrinking exercise, under which even travel bills are going under the scanner.

It is not just about those frequent global jaunts techies go for. The spending on upcountry client visits is also being tightened. Senior executives, including in vice-president and GM levels, are being asked to travel by cabs, that too with one or two other colleagues.

A week ago, Vipin Mohan, vice-president with an MNC, was asked to make a client visit in Hyderabad. “We normally fly on such visits. This time, a couple of other colleagues and I were asked to take a cab to Hyderabad. It was cumbersome, exhaustive and time consuming. But our company made it clear that it was on a cost-cutting drive, so we had no choice.”

A return AC cab with infotainment on board costs Rs 7,500 to Hyderabad, Rs 5,000 to Chennai and Rs 7,500 to Kochi from Bangalore, against the return air fare (for a single person) of Rs 4,500 to 6,500, Rs 3,000 to 4,000 and Rs 3,500 to 4,500 respectively.

“The logic is that at least three employees can get to a client’s location and return at a minimal cost. The same cab can be used for local logistics support at the client’s place, which again is economical,” said a logistics in charge of a tier 1 tech major.

Says Rohan Murthy, product head of a leading software R&D firm “I can’t understand why companies are getting so paranoid of the recession. My friends and family used to always see me flying on work. Now they are amused to hear about my taxi trips.”

A large number of techies are experiencing this plight -- taking taxis instead of ‘taxiing’ on airport runways.

Several large tech firms and BPO companies have already started floating emails and departmental circulars on cost cutting on travel, say industry sources.

Companies that used to foot return air tickets for their fresh/junior recruits also are shying away, by replacing the trips with III AC and Volvo fares.

Some enterprises have also started using hired buses to ferry their large volume recruits to cut costs.

Now It's Time For Google to Cut Jobs

Google Inc plans to make an unspecified number of job cuts at DoubleClick Inc following the closing of its $3.1 billion acquisition of the advertising technology company, Google said.

In a statement on Google's website, the Internet leader said it has been limited by law from making detailed integration plans, but by early April it expects to have a plan for staffing levels in DoubleClick's US operations.

"An immediate task we'll undertake over the next few weeks is matching and aligning DoubleClick employees with our organizational plan for the business," Google said in a blog post.

"As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the US and possibly in other regions as well," the company said.

DoubleClick has 1,500 employees. Outside of the United States, Google will begin consultations with employee organizations on potential job reductions in line with local laws, it said.

A pioneer in the field of Web advertising, DoubleClick was headquartered in New York in the same building as Google's local offices. Google completed the acquisition earlier Tuesday.

Meet the Web Giants That You didn't Even Know

Google, Yahoo and MSN may be the global Internet leaders. However, these leaders face tough competition from local favourites in several countries.

Baidu is known as a Google trouncer in China, Yahoo has just been dethroned by Wretch in Taiwan. The social networking site SkyRock leads in Belgium. Similarly there are several other local and several small international players which have emerged as top online destinations in several countries giving global Internet poster boys a run for their money.

Meet the Web giants you didn't know about.

To Protect the Computer from Internet Attacks - Set a Blank Pasword in Windows XP

Some useful information. Your Windows XP computer is more safe if you don’t set any password at all than using some weak password like "abc123" which can be easily guessed by hackers.

Using a blank password (or no password at all) makes your computer more secure because Windows XP accounts, that are not protected by a password, cannot be accessed remotely over the network or the Internet.

You have to be physically infront of the computer in order to get in. Due to this default behavior, it is better to leave a blank password assigned to an XP account rather than assigning a weak, easily guessed password.

An official guide from Microsoft on Password strength therefore suggests using blank passwords on Windows XP machines when the following criteria are met:

• You only have one computer or you have several computers but you do not need to access information on one computer from another one

• The computer is physically secure (you trust everyone who has physical access to the computer - like your family members)

The use of a blank password is not always a good idea particularly when the computer is not in a secure location. For example, a laptop computer that you take with you is probably not physically secure, so on those you should have a strong password.

Update: If you want to access your XP Professional computer over the network ever after the password is blank, run gpedit.msc in the Run box and disable the setting "Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only" available under Local Policies.

Windows Desktop on a USB Drive - Microsoft StartKey

Microsoft StartKey will put your entire Windows desktop on a USB Flash drive including the software programs, files and settings.

You can then plug this USB stick into any PC and use it as if it were your own personal workstation.

Related: Carry Your Windows Computer on a USB Drive

While this is not a new concept and existing applications like MojoPac do offer similar functionality, Microsoft Startkey will definitely help in popularizing this whole idea of converting a portable storage device into a computer, especially among the non-techie crowd.

The first public beta of StartKey is expected later this year. For more on Windows Startkey, check out ZDNet.

Copy Command Line Output to Windows Clipboard Directly

Windows XP offers no easy solution for copying the output of DOS commands to the clipboard.

You have to select Mark from the contextual menu, use the mouse to highlight text that has to be copied and then press Enter.

Some DOS veterans use the redirect operator (> or >>) that puts all the command line output to a text file which can be opened in Notepad. (Also read: "Most Useful Windows DOS Commands")

Since both the above methods involve way too many steps, we look at a simple alternative - use Clip - a free DOS utility from Microsoft that is included in Windows Server 2003 resource kit but works just fine for Windows XP or Vista.

Just copy this clip.exe [14 kb] file to your Windows folder and then use it with a PIPE (|) operator in your DOS commands. Here are some examples:

dir /h | clip - Copy the help manual for DIR command to the clipboard

tracert www.labnol.org | clip - Trace the path from your computer to another website - the output is automatically copied to the clipboard and not displayed on the screen.

netstat | clip - Check if your computer is connecting to websites without your knowledge.

The clip.exe utility can also be used to copy contents of text files to clipboard directly from the command line.

clip < C:\AUTOEXEC.bat - this will copy all the text from autoexec.bat to your Windows Clipboard.



The clip.exe file comes only with the Windows 2003 or Windows Vista so I am not sure if they are distributing the original Windows file on petri.co.il or written something similar on their own.

Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta1 Released - Download From Microsoft Website

Microsoft has released the first public beta of Internet Explorer 8 for Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2.

Following are the download links for IE8 mentioned on the Microsoft IE8 Readiness website.

1. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Window XP SP2

2. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Windows Vista

This release is essentially for people who want to make sure that their websites or web applications do not breaking in the upcoming IE 8 release that contains some key changes.

Update: The download links for IE8 were returning a 404 at the time of writing this story but am sure that’s just a temporary glitch.

Blogging is the Hottest CEO Tool

Brands such as O2 and Topshop have been quick to jump on the social networking bandwagon by using sites such as Facebook to target consumers, but a more recent trend and one that carries some risk has been the use of personal blogs as a communications tool.

Last month Waitrose managing director Mark Price, nicknamed the ‘chubby grocer’, launched a blog on the retailer’s website in which he shares his experiences on a healthier eating regime and tracks his efforts to lose weight, as well as arguing for the introduction of tea trolleys to airport immigration halls.

Price’s actions are relatively unusual, as corporate blogging is still in its infancy in the UK. However, it is thought likely that it will become as popular as it is in the US, where practitioners include General Motors vice-chairman Bob Lutz.

Several other brands, including Dell and Benetton, also operate blogs where employees and consumers can interact.

The appeal is obvious. Blogs are a way of achieving vast reach at a minimal cost. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates spoke about the benefits of communicating with customers via blogs at Microsoft’s CEO Summit in 2004.

It had advantages over more traditional communication methods such as emails, he argued, which could be too imposing or exclude potential audiences.

Microsoft encourages its staff to talk to consumers through blogging; it claims that more than 2000 employees use blogs to keep people up to date with their projects.

“It is a great way to communicate with a wider audience,” says Dave Gartenberg, HR director at Microsoft UK. “We are lucky that some of the most prominent bloggers in the world are based at Microsoft.”

Coming Up - Transparent Touch Screens

While touch screen devices are increasing in popularity, the small screen sizes are proving to be a problem because users’ fingers block the graphical elements he wishes to work with. Now, a US researcher at Microsoft has created an interface that gives the user a semi-transparent view of the device, thus providing easier navigation.

Researcher Patrick Baudisch demonstrated his ‘LucidTouch’ technology at TechFest, Microsoft’s annual display of experimental technology in Redmond on Tuesday.

LucidTouch allows users of touch-screen devices, such as GPS units or mobile phones, to perform operations from behind the device, so their actions do not block their view of the display.

The device currently uses a camera mounted behind the unit; but the researcher is planning to integrate the necessary sensors into the back panel.

“The key to making this usable is what we call pseudo-transparency,” said Baudisch. “By overlaying an image of the user’s hands onto the screen, we create the illusion of the mobile device itself being semi-transparent. This pseudo-transparency allows users to accurately acquire targets while not occluding the screen with their fingers and hand.

LucidTouch also supports multi-touch input, allowing users to operate the device simultaneously with all 10 fingers.

Baudisch envisions myriad uses for the device, from navigation tools and personal computing to graphic design and video games. For instance, gamers can control multiple units in a strategy game. Two gamers may put the tablet between them and each play one side in a sports game.

At this year’s Techfest, forty new technologies were displayed, showing how computing enables new experiences and how the basic tools of computer science are evolving to help all sciences advance more rapidly.