How NOT to use Powerpoint [VID]
Posted by CeeTee in Random Thoughts, Tips and Tricks on March 5th, 2010
I have seen a LOT of bad presentations. Trust me.
I do not understand why people want to pack stuff with a crap load of paragraphs of a thesis, use obnoxious animations like fly-in, sound effects (How can you NOT have sound effects, right!? WRONG!), and the list goes on
This is something that I can absolutely relate to. And I am sure most of you would too!
Need access to Google Buzz? Here’s a hack!
Posted by CeeTee in Tips and Tricks, Twitter on February 10th, 2010
Ok, this post has been shamelessly ripped from Aalaap’s blog. So I guess I owe him one!
You probably don’t have Google Buzz in your Gmail yet. So here’s how you can use it on your PC without having to beg for invites.
Fire up Firefox.
Install the “User Agent Switcher” add-on and restart Firefox.
Go to Tools > Default User Agent > iPhone 3.0.
Visit http://google.com/buzz and start buzzing!
Firefox will ask you if you want to share your location with the website. Say yes!
When you’re done buzzing, switch back the user agent to default.
How does this work? It’s so simple, I feel shitty writing this. Google Buzz isn’t available in Gmail for everyone yet, but mobile web access to it is open. At least for those using the iPhone. You can login, post updates, follow people, comment on others’ updates, get updates from nearby and all of that. So you get Firefox, make it pretend that it’s an iPhone using the UA Switcher add-on, and use the mobile version of Buzz through it. Voila. An added advantage is that Firefox also supports geo-location – the same HTML5 API that’s used on the iPhone – so you actually get location-aware information.
The most useless invention ever – Guaranteed Laughter
Whenever I am feeling low, this is what I tune into – And I crack up every time I watch this.
This is by far, the most retarded and useless invention EVER made. BRILLIANT!
Click here to view this video directly on YouTube
Build a wifi signal booster (Hint: Me on national TV!)
Posted by CeeTee in Gadgets, Random Thoughts on January 11th, 2010
So here goes!
I had posted an article on my blog on how to boost your wifi signal with stuff you find easily around the house (for 10 bucks or less!)
I did a collaborative segment on Bloomberg UTV with Aalaap (who has been hosting this blog for me) and here goes!
Things I will do in 2010
Posted by CeeTee in Random Thoughts on January 10th, 2010
A LOT of people make resolutions on New Year’s day and 99% of the resolutions go straight to the crapper. I’ve given this one a serious thought (hence the delay of 10 days) for my resolutions in 2010
Work:
Give an opportunity to my colleagues to take charge at work
Less stress at work
Me:
Lose weight! (about time!)
Come on TV (Done already!)
Buy a smart(er) phone than my Nokia E71. Android? iPhone?
Travel overseas
Go on yet another adventure trip on motorcycles like the Leh Trip 
Buy atleast 1 killer gadget to brag about
Make something official ?
Family:
Buy something really nice for the family
Spend time with friends and family even more
Friends:
Spend time with friends and family even more
Others:
Associate myself with atleast 1 NGO or charity
Will India crumble and fall like the USSR ?
Posted by CeeTee in Random Thoughts on December 24th, 2009
This post is absolutely not biased whatsoever. It is basically what I know about the history of the ex-superpower USSR and what we people see happening in India.
I have quoted my points from the following post:
USSR – Millions of individuals lived and suffered under the seventy-year reign of the USSR, crushed under the dead weight of a stagnant empire.
India – Millions of individuals are living and suffering under a reign of anti-social elements, militants and separatists in a stagnant empire (e.g. Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, etc)
USSR – Gorbachev responded to the Soviet Union’s problems by introducing perestroika, or economic restructuring, and glasnost, an element of political freedom.
India – Indian government responded to Telangana’s problems by supporting the idea of a separate state, risking the downfall even further by another 4 regions requesting for a separate state for themselves
USSR – Corruption and bureaucracy was far too entrenched in the economy for legislation to make a dent in the economic crisis.
India – Corruption and bureaucracy has existed in India for decades and will continue to exist, risking a major bust in the economy in the near future
USSR – reformist politicians swept into power in regional positions across the nation
India – Reformist and Separatists politicians and groups are being encouraged across the nation, risking the division of India even further
USSR – Gorbachev’s decision to not use military force to put down revolutions in Eastern Europe further eroded the power of the Soviet Union during 1989 and 1990.
India – Indian Government’s decision to not use military forces to put down separatist groups and militants who create havoc in this country will most definitely cripple the power of the government and could end up giving the nation in the hands of separatist dogs, and the government would be just redundant
USSR – Non-Russian minority groups throughout the Soviet Union agitated for independence during this period. The Baltic Republics led the way in demanding freedom from Soviet occupation.
India – Minority groups in this country have been asking for freedom and a separate state/nation since the independence of this great nation we call India.
USSR – The tensions in the Soviet Union came to a head in August 1991 when a group of right wing military and KGB leaders staged a coup in Moscow while Gorbachev was on vacation in the Crimea.
India – Tensions in southern and north-eastern parts of India have been highlighted by the media to all the nations
USSR – Boris Yeltsin gained international acclaim when he occupied the Russian White House and faced down the threats of the leaders of the coup.
India – India supported the threats of non-violent, hunger strikes by various politicians, hence making them even more popular and gain more followers to support him/her, instead of facing down the threats of separation
USSR – Although Gorbachev was the nominal chief of state, Boris Yeltsin now had immense popular support and wielded more substantial power.
India – Although Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister of India, Congress president Sonia Gandhi assured that separate state can be provided to Telangana.
USSR – Eventually, after 70 years of struggle, on 25th December 1991, USSR broke down into 15 individual states, ending the reign and power of the USSR
India – Any time now ?
Scary as it might seem, but the trend looks like it could happen anytime. India has prospered in almost every aspect and is turning into a superpower.
Like the English boxing legend Bob Fitzsimmons once said ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’. This was very true in the case of the great USSR back in the World War times. With the huge population in this country, I just hope and pray nothing like this happens to India and we continue to proper and live in harmony.
My Secret Santa gift – A LOLcat mug!
Posted by CeeTee in Random Thoughts on December 24th, 2009
LOLcat mug
10 must-have applications on a freshly formatted Windows box
1. Notepad2
A notepad on mild steroids, if I may. A lot of people (read: developers/programmers) prefer Notepad++, but that, I think is too powerful for a person like me. Notepad2 has color schemes per programming language (to read/understand the code), antialias zoom, and is HIGHLY customizable.
Alternative: Notepad++
2. Avafind
Perhaps this should be right on top of this list. Avafind caches the file names and not the contents. So if you know the name of the file you are looking for, all you do is hit Shift+Esc and start typing the name of the file. Search results are returned at runtime and is insanely fast. Indexing for a 500GB hard drive takes not more than 60 seconds. Newly created files are automatically indexed in the Scout Bot feature. VERY VERY impressive piece of software, but shame that the company shutdown a couple of years ago.
Alternative: Everything
3. Opera
Well, no description needed here. A LOT of people prefer FireFox saying that it is a very powerful browser. Agreed, but have you seen the bloat on it when you install the addons to make it powerful as they say it is? Opera is one COMPLETE browser. It does NOT need any additional addons to make it powerful. Bittorrent, download manager, themes, built-in plugins, RSS reader, email and chat client, etc. What else can you ask for ? One thing which impressed me the most is that with the newer major versions of Opera, the size of the installer shrinks!
Alternative: Firefox
4. Paint.NET
People who use MSPaint are either retarded or are just ignorant. Those who use a cracked version of Photoshop just to resize their pictures are even more retarded (Yes, I know a few). Paint.NET is seriously MSPaint on double the steriods. Very very powerful for a novice who edits images on the fly and does not care about installing/purchasing a copy of Adobe Photoshop.
Alternative: GIMP
5. CDBurnerXP
Those were the days when you bought a new CD/DVD Recorder and you got a copy of Nero Burning ROM v6 with it. Nero v7 was insanely huge (it had a 700MB installer, if my memory serves me right). Switched to CDBurnerXP 3-4 years back and I am stuck on it since. A confusing name (with the part with ‘XP’ in it), people wonder if it would run on a Windows 7 box (well, yes it does!)
Alternative: Can’t think of any as good as CDBurnerXP
6. 7-Zip
I still see a LOT of people at work and otherwise use the evaluation version of WinZIP v7 which probably died back in the early 2000s. A few use WinRAR and the intelligent lot use 7-zip. Insane compression ratios, can uncompress RAR, ZIP, gz, tar.gz, and a whole lot of archives. Best part is that it can read contents of an ISO file too!
Alternative: WinRAR? Maybe.
8. Foobar2000
A no-nonsense, light media player. Sweet 2MB memory footprint when playing minimized. Maxes out at about 8MB of RAM usage. The kinky Winamp v5 who wants to whip the llama’s ass is still a preferred choice among Windows Media Player and others. Foobar is highly customizable with skins, plugins and what not. Note that once you start with the eye-candy, you will be sacrificing the available RAM on your PC. I like it simple and light.
Alternative: Windows Media Player 11
9. Unlocker
Many a times, when people want to delete a couple of files, Windows throws a message on the person’s face saying ‘Cannot delete file: Access is denied’ and does not let him/her delete the file until he/she reboots the machine. Worry no more, Unlocker is here. Right click on the file, click Unlocker, Click on the ‘Unlock All’ button and you are good to delete the file.
Alternative: None since I started using this one.
10. Launchy
OSX folk have QuickSilver, Linux users have Gnome-Do. Windows users have an app somewhere in the middle of the awesomeness of launching applications. A quick (customizable) hotkey combination and start typing the name of the app you want to launch. Hit Enter and it pops open! No need of going to Start > Programs > Blah 2008 > Blah 2008 blah. Launchy is also customizable with plugins. You start typing a simple mathematical calculation and Launchy’s Calcy plugin shows you the result and asks you if you would like to launch the answer in Google. How awesome is THAT!?
Alternative: Not sure if Rocketdock falls in the same category as Launchy
This is my list of 10 must-have applications after a fresh PC format. This list does NOT include any Personal Antivirus/firewall application – You are free to choose whatever you are comfortable with.
Feel free to post in your comments below
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