Legal & Full-length movies on YouTube

Did you know, YouTube hosts scores of full-length movies & award-winning documentaries that you can watch online for free? There are movies from around the world in over a dozen genres. There are also a good number of Bollywood flicks there although you may not find your favorite ones.Jennifer informs...

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Test your backups

The popular bloggers, Jeff Atwood & Phil Haack, lost their respective blog content after their sites went down to a hard drive failure. Interestingly, both of them share the same physical server & host their sites on Virtual Servers on the machine.  The Virtual Hard Drive files (usually...

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HOW TO GMail Chat in an Indian language

It is possible to chat in a number of Indian languages using Google's Transliteration tools. These tools let you type in English & convert the text to the supported Indian language of your choice on the fly.There are at least three ways to GMail Chat in an Indian language -1. Google India Labs'...

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Google contest to promote Hindi on the Web, Knol & Transliteration tool

Google is running a Hindi essay contest called 'Hai Baaton Mein Dum?' till January 31st, 2010. Participants can submit an essay on any of the five topics given below in Hindi language -EntertainmentTravelSportsHealthSocial, Economic and Political issuesThere is no limit to the number of entries per...

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Book Review: Website Owner's Manual

Ever since the Internet took off in a big way towards the end of the last century, it has revolutionized the way we live & work. It is a great platform for selling ideas or products as it provides a level playing field to anyone in the world with Internet access that wishes to leverage the medium....

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JavaScript - Trivia & Facts

- As of 2009, the latest version of the language is JavaScript 1.8.1. However, not all browsers support the latest version (as there is no specific need). IE 8 supports JScript 6 (which is equivalent to ECMAScript 3, JavaScript 1.5 - more bug fixes over JScript 5) while Firefox 3.0 supports JavaScript...

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BigTech offers NGOs software titles at huge discounts

Heard this interesting news from Vinod Unny -Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in India can get loads of software (& hardware) from Microsoft and other vendors at very low prices. All they need to do is sign up with BiG Tech, the philanthropy program of NASCOMM Foundation and provide details...

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Free .NET 4 & VS 2010 Learning Resources

There is news that Visual Studio 2010 may be launched in the first quarter of 2010.(Trivia: Typically VS products release in the year in their product names but VS 2008 released Nov 2007)There are already a number of useful learning resources on the upcoming technologies -Visual Studio 2010 and .NET...

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PDF Security - a myth?

In the whitepaper "How Secure is PDF?", Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) Bryan Guignard's conclusion on PDF security is -The only way your property can be safe is if you keep it to yourself.The site Giveaway Of The Day (GAOTD) is even giving away a commercial tool called Recover PDF Password for free. This...

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Resize an Image & Email with just 2 steps

Got to know from Vinod Unny's tweet that you can select some pics in Explorer and click the "Email" button to auto-resize to emailable format in Windows7.This feature works in Windows XP & Vista too! Right click a large image that you want to email. Choose Send To > Mail Recipient -As soon as...

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Say Goodbye to Privacy

Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does. Regina BrettDanny Dover makes an interesting point on privacy -The privacy conflicts .. encountered in the offline world are nothing compared to those .. in the online world.With a story & hard facts he illustrates how our private details are...

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Don't let Chrome & Firefox remember your passwords on a shared computer

If you like your browser to remember your passwords, you would have to be careful if you are agreeing to this setting in Chrome & Firefox, especially on a shared computer.Any unscrupulous person can find them out with little effort as this post by Roy Osherove explains.With Firefox, the default...

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Some Software Engineering Myths Busted

Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight. – Bill GatesNachi Nagappan, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research worked with Microsoft development teams to validate conventional software-engineering wisdom and came out with these findings...

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Interviews with Programming legends

Jeff Atwood points out that key interviews from the book Programmers at Work (1986) are available online.This includes 6 out of the 19 interviews in that book with the following luminaries -Charles SimonyiButler LampsonJohn WarnockGary Kildall Bill GatesJohn PageAlso see:"The History of Microsoft" SeriesThe...

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Mapping APIs for India

There are quite a few free mapping services for India on the Web but only some among them offer APIs that web publishers can extend & integrate in their own websites.There is news now that BIG Maps has also released its application programming interface (API). The documentation is pretty comprehensive...

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My favorite Developer Cheat-Sheets

The SEO Cheat Sheet I ran into recently .........reminded me of all the other Cheat-Sheets that have helped me in the past -CSS Cheat-Sheet JavaScript Cheat-SheetjQuery Cheat-SheetRegular Expressions Cheat-SheetWeb Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet Also see:Keyboard shortcuts common to Firefox & IE 8My...

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Google Spreadsheet Size Limits

I found that the column T is the last you will find by default in a sheet in Google Spreadsheets. After a little digging, I found that it can have up to 256 columns, or up to 200,000 cells, or up to 100 sheets -- whichever limit is reached first. There's no limit on number of rows.So how do you go beyond...

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SQL Server DATENAME function returns Month number instead of name?

I recently came across a query posted by a puzzled developer -Why does SELECT DATENAME(MONTH,GETDATE()) return '09' instead of the obvious result of 'September'?The DATENAME function, after all, returns a character string representing the specified datepart of the specified date.It turns out that if...

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Free Anti-Virus Software from Microsoft

There are at least 36 AV software tools for the Windows Platform out of which about a dozen are free. Now, Microsoft Security Essentials joins that list. It is a free download that requires the OS where it is installed to be genuine Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7It is lightweight & provides real-time...

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MVP award renewed

Microsoft recognizes those who make contributions to technical communities with the annual Most Valuable Professional award. I'm thrilled to receive the news that this award which I first received in 2005 & in subsequent years has been renewed for this year as well. I thank everyone who made this...

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The Beauty of Command-line Utilities

I like the way command-line tools can be adapted for automating complex tasks.For instance, if you had to populate the list of names of computers in your LAN in a combo box, the net.exe command can be utilized with the Process.Start() method in C#Process netsend = new Process(); netsend.StartInfo.FileName...

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Book Review: Beginning SQL Server 2005 for Developers

Beginning SQL Server 2005 for Developers by Robin Dewson lives up to it's title of being a helpful resource for beginners to SQL Server 2005. The author patiently walks the reader through the basics & a wide breadth of topics with adequate examples in the 500+ paged book spanning 14 chapters. Many...

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Book Review: Cancer Has Its Privileges

We have put a man on the moon decades ago, but it's sad that science doesn't have a solution yet to wipe out the scourge of Cancer which has been there for centuries. The Big C is a devastating illness that cripples it's victims physically, monetarily & more than that, mentally as it affects their...

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Doloto - useful addition to a Web Developer's Toolkit

I have been using the following Web Development tools over the past few years and they have helped me to be more productive -FirebugYSlowneXpert FiddlerI discovered 2 new tools that not just tell you what is inhibiting performance of a page but also cut the fat off web pages making them speedier - Doloto...

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Free eBook: The Principles Of Successful Freelancing‏

SitePoint occasionally gives away ebooks of some of their publications. In the recent past, they have given away titles like "The Art & Science Of CSS" and "Firefox 3 REVEALED".For a limited time, they are offering a free eBook "The Principles Of Successful Freelancing" if you follow them on Twitter...

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See what Google is suggesting

Google does not seem to keep the secret questions we ask anonymously to itself :-)... nor does it mind poking ...

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Appending to file with BCP

I found an interesting tip about BCP (the SQL Server command line tool) on the MSDN ForumsWhile exporting data from SQL Server to a file using BCP, it always overwrites the contents of the file specified in command if it already exists or creates a new file but it cannot append.If ever you need the...

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Excel Tips & Tricks

My Wife & I, share a liking for Excel (& good food). Once in a while, we exchange Excel tips & tricks that we may have picked up. I recognized this common interest a couple of years ago, when she pointed out that the count of rows & columns have thankfully increased since Excel 2003...

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Exporting to Excel with bcp

I was recently looking for a quick way to export SQL Server table data (over 1,00,000 records) to a Excel file.I found that the bcp command line tool can export SQL Server table data to a .xls file but when I export it to a Excel 2007 (.xlsx) file, I couldn't open the file. It throws a warning - "Excel...

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Travel Planning & Reservation Tips using Online Tools

A number of online tools & services have emerged for travelers in India in the last couple of years that help you plan & complete reservations, faster than ever.What is the fastest and/or cheapest way to travel between two places in India?Try 90di.com's online travel search engine. It gets you...

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Microsoft Office Labs Community Clips

I knew that there were free screencasting tools available, but I did not know about the Microsoft Office Labs Community Clips until I read about it on Channel 10. Community Clips provides a little app that on installing integrates into Office applications. It lets you record a clip or a tutorial in...

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Spelling & Grammar Check in Browsers

It's good to see browsers picking the good features of each other & in some cases refining them so that it becomes a standard in subsequent versions of other browsers. Tabbed browsing, In-line Search, "Find As You Type", Undo Close Window (Ctrl+Shift+T), built-in Developer Tools are all innovative...

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Virtual TechDays

If you work with Microsoft technologies, there have been a lot of new developments that you may have to keep pace with to stay current. Microsoft India is conducting free online sessions (nearly 50 in all) from August 19 to 21st on the following topics:Web DevelopmentWindows 7 and Client DevelopmentMicrosoft’s...

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Free SQL Server Tools

SQL Server Magazine has compiled The Mega Guide to Free SQL Server Tools that has over 80 tools for under these categories -AdministrationBackup and RecoveryBest Practice and ComplianceBusiness IntelligenceChange ManagementCode FormattersDatabase ComparisonDatabase SecurityDevelopmentJob ManagementLog...

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HOW TO access a HTML Label tag's text programmatically

On a technical Forum that I frequent, there was a question on how to get the Label tag's text associated with a radio button (or for that matter any other control). The easiest way I found is to use jQuery -alert($("label[for='radio1']").text()); //radio1 is the ID of a radio buttonYou would need to...

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ASP.NET MVC vs. Web Forms

The July edition of MSDN mag has an interesting article by Dino Esposito that compares Web Forms And ASP.NET MVC. The author presents an excellent 100 feet view of ASP.NET MVC and I loved reading it. As I'm going to re-read it & recommend it to others, I've made a Reader's Digest version of it that...

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Selecting multiple attachments at once in GMail

I came across the multi-select attachments in GMail feature by accident but later found that this has been documented or rather blogcumented. You have to hold down the Ctrl key and click on each file you want to attach to your message.However, there is a twist. This feature works in all browsers (IE,...

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Mobile OS Upgrades

In a mailing list that I'm part of, there was a question on why installing a new OS on a Mobile is difficult. MVP Saurav's response was interesting and I quote him (with permission) -Mobile Phone ecosystem is not like a PC. On a PC a user can upgrade the hardware as he wants. If he wants a higher megapixel...

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HOW TO automatically read your favorite English blogs in your native language

If you like reading blogs in English in your native language but find having to translate them EACH TIME with online translation tools a hassle, then this Google Reader tip will come as a big time-saver. This tip will help only if your native language is one of the 21 languages that Google Reader currently...

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Project Tuva makes Science fun

"...many of the sciences are so abstract, and the amount of things you have to learn before you start connecting to those practical issues can be very daunting." - Bill Gates Microsoft Research has been releasing a lot of interesting projects this year - Songsmith, an improved Translator, WorldWide...

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Startup 101 - free, online serialized book for first-time entrepreneurs

Ever wanted to be a Web entrepreneur? Startup 101 is an online serialized book that shows you what's invovled in becoming one."Startup 101" is a serialized book about the thrills and spills of starting a Web technology venture....Startup 101 is for first-time entrepreneurs who want to go through the...

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Save the Earth

Just in case you haven't heard of it yet or seen it, HOME is a documentary movie by Yann Arthus-Bertrand with breathtaking photography on how we can preserve the Earth before it's too late. It is available for free viewing on YouTube.Synopsis of the documentary:In 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has...

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HOW TO test a web page in different versions of IE

Pete LePage, an Internet Explorer Product Manager discourages running multiple versions of IE on the same box (he calls them "Frankenbuilds") using tools like IETester.There 2 good free alternatives for testing your web application in different versions of IE -Install the Virtual PC (VPC) images of...

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HOW TO upload multiple files using ASP.NET

Here are a few options I have come across -Use the jQuery Multiple File Upload Plugin. An example showing how to use it with ASP.NET with code in VB.NETUse a Flash based component to upload multiple files in a medium-trust hosting environment. This has a Progress Bar too.Also see:HOW TO implement AutoComplete...

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Resources on Improving Scalability of ASP.NET apps

I plan to compile all the good stuff I find on Scaling ASP.NET applications here for easy reference. If you know of any other useful resources, please leave a comment1) The freely downloadable Patterns & Practices guide Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability has exhaustive info and...

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Fiction to Fact

Just like Jules Verne's ideas on submarine in the book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea have turned out to be prophetic, the idea of a gestural interface in the movie Minority Report seems to have inspired many researchers and such a UX technology could be commonplace in the near future.Scott Hanselman...

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Online Reputation/Recommendation systems

It is interesting to see how the Web is increasingly being used to help as a reputation/recommendation system.(from Dilbert.com)On the work front, there is a good chance that LinkedIn.com can give you some background about a person you are about to meet for the first time. For many, the ratings &...

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