Crowdsource which desktop tools & utilities to install

Although I don't find much use for most of the goodies that Giveaway of the Day provides, I like going through the candid comments that the site's loyal & informed users share. The technical discussions about the products are interesting as some folks in that community compare it with other available...

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What's in Google's secret PageRank sauce?

That's something some governments may start investigating as well. While going through an article by SEOmoz's Rand Fishkin, I came across a pie chart that shows components of Google's Ranking Algorithm as perceived by 72 SEO experts - -o-As I've been increasingly blogging about things other than...

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HOW TO open a PDF or Word .DOC file within the browser

I have seen this uncommon question come up on the Forums on how to make a PDF or a Word document show up within a browser rather than having that file open up in a separate window through Adobe Reader or MS Word (as the case may be). I realized while trying out Google Viewer that it can be used programmatically...

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Crowdsource your supplemental learning with Stack Overflow

I feel participating in technical Forums aids as a supplemental learning tool as you get to know about other developers real-life scenarios. Understanding these experiences & their resolutions can be  helpful in avoiding pitfalls & learning about best practices. For instance, did you know...

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View math calculation results directly in Firefox Search bar

I noticed something cool while trying out unit conversion (806333 KB = ? GB) with Google in the Firefox Search bar.I found that you don't even have to hit enter to open up the Google search page to view the result. As soon as I finished typing GB, I got the result as an auto-suggestion. This also works...

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Google Guide

The freely download-able Google Guide (pdf) had been lying in my ebook collection for a long time and I finally got to browse through it this weekend. Considering the guide was compiled in around 2005, it had some stale info but it is still useful and I would recommend Google Guide to newbies getting...

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HOW TO programmatically create Dynamic Icons in a jiffy

"A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open." — Frank Zappa  User Experience (UX) is more important today than ever, as users are getting more discerning & pampered by choices. Delivering functionality is not enough, the look and feel of an application is important as well...

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A Product is as good as it's Documentation & Community Support

I feel, the success of any product relies heavily on the documentation available for it & it's helpfulness to developers. If there is an active community around it that collaborates through Forums, it can boost the confidence of neophytes working with it & take the product to greater heights....

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MVP Open Day

I was at the MVP Open Day 2010 hosted by Microsoft in Hyderabad last month. (Pic from MVP Suthep's Flickr collection)It was a great opportunity to meet over a 100 MVPs from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand & Vietnam & hear about some of the new things Microsoft is coming...

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Tina Seelig's Insights on Life, Leadership

Having got to know that Stanford University lectures are available through iTunes, I checked one last weekend in which the very accomplished Tina Seelig, Executive Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, provides insights on life, leadership, and the little things that make a big difference...

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My favorite Chrome Extensions

As a Web developer at heart, I have a fascination for browsers.  I have the 5 popular browsers - IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera & Chrome, installed on both my home & work PCs mostly to look out for cross-browser issues. I like exploring browser features in all of them. Years ago, I was overjoyed...

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Explaining Technology in Plain English

If you have a tough time explaining computer topics to your parents, you can leave the job to the Common Craft folks. In fact, even regulars can benefit from watching their videos for their simple explanations. The enterprising pair of Lee & Sachi LeFever have been doing a great job of producing...

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Invalid Product Key?

"I often tell my people that I do not know which areas I belong to, and I just reckon myself to be a trouble shooter." - Ji-Rong Wen, Microsoft ResearchIt would scare anyone for a minute (or more) when they find that expensive software they have purchased and started to install, asks for a product or...

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More online storage options - Upload ANY file to Google Docs

It has been long rumored that Google has a plan to provide an online storage service called GDrive. Last month's announcement that you can upload (almost) any file of upto 1GB, brings a long standing expectation to fruition in a way. Although the free total storage limit of 1GB pales in comparision...

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HOW TO perform a HTTP 301 & 302 redirect using IIS

Google ran a SEO quiz using Google Docs a few weeks back and the answers are now online. Developers building a public-facing website can benefit from learning tricks of the SEO trade as it can significantly boost traffic to their site. This area also needs continual learning as new things emerge frequently.One...

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Building blazing fast Web pages

Everyone loves fast loading pages but building such pages requires care & implementing best practices. Some best practices only provide minor benefits but when put together the performance gain is significant.Steve Souders, the author of "High Performance Web Sites", who champions the cause of building...

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HOW TO prefix zeroes before a variable length number in Excel

Excel usually eats up any zeroes prefixed to a number that you type. So what if you explicitly needed them?For a fixed length number, you have to use the option Format Cells after right-clicking the cell or range that you want to impose a number format upon. In the dialog box that opens go to to the...

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