Friday 31 August 2012

Winners of Backup4All Professional Giveaway

Two weeks ago, we announced a quick Giveaway contest, in which we were giving out licences to win Backup4All Professional software. The software works on Windows and should be very helpful to our winners.

The good news is that we have enough licences to give away to everyone who took part. That means there is not need for drawing lots to decide the lucky winners.

The Winners

  1. Manas
  2. Suyanto
  3. Briareoushex
  4. Owen
  5. Firdaus

Congratulations to the winners. You will be soon receiving your licence code to register the software via email. It will be sent to the email you left while leaving a comment.

Additionally you can download Backup4All Professional from here.

Link: Backup4All Professional

-- This Post Winners of Backup4All Professional Giveaway is Published on Devils Workshop .





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Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 796541

Thursday 30 August 2012

Wolfram Alpha now shows what all Facebook knows about you

Wolfram|Alpha, the impressive computational engine now can tell a lot about you by collecting data from your Facebook account. If you're an over-sharer, it can get a little creepy too!

facebook-report-wolfram

All you need is a Wolfram account and a Facebook account (obviously) and you're good to go. Login to your Wolfram account, authenticate the app through Facebook and type "facebook report" in search box. It'll take a bit of time depending on how much of your data is stored on Facebook.

You'll get to see a lot of information like your most popular status, number of likes/comments, most contacted friends, your post frequency etc.

If you're feeling a bit privacy deprived, note that Wolfram|Alpha will only store the data for one hour, deleting it afterwards. Also, you can always revoke apps through Facebook app settings.

You can also download the page if you've subscribed to Wolfram|Alpha pro, which also unlocks a lot of features.

Link: Wolfram|Alpha

Related: How to create widgets for your blog using Wolfram Alpha

-- This Post Wolfram Alpha now shows what all Facebook knows about you is Published on Devils Workshop .


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Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Camera and Windows 8 Phone

Samsung might have had its confidence a little dented after losing to Apple over the patent case, but nothing puts behind a bad week like announcing new products. Samsung has done just that by announcing some interesting gadgets at the IFA event in Berlin, Germany.

Samsung Galaxy Camera

Samsung might be one of Apple's big competitor but it seems they have not forgotten Sony either. Galaxy Camera is a digital camera which allows sharing photos and videos online with Wi-Fi. It can also share with other Wi-Fi devices nearby.

Features:

  • Operating System: Android 4.1 (Jellybeans)
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi
  • Camera: 16 MP camera capable of taking video at 120 frames per second.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

The Galaxy Note 2 was expected for while now. The rumours about it are pretty much true. The phone is unique in the sense it is a lot bigger than Galaxy S III and is expected to be a bridge between a phone and tablet.

Features:

  • The phone will run on Android 4.1 (Jellybean). It will have a 1.6 GHz quad-core processor.
  • Note 2 is unique in the sense it allows stylus pen device. The S-pen functions are expected to be a lot improved from its predecessor Galaxy Note.
  • Galaxy Note 2 will be available in 16, 32 and 64GB versions.

Samsung ATIV S (First Windows 8 Phone)

Samsung ATIV S, is the first Windows 8 phone. It is incredible that even with Nokia's close relationship with Microsoft, Samsung is the company that has unveiled the first phone running on Windows 8.

Features:

  • The phone is expected to have dual core processor. The memory will be expandable upto 64 GB.
  • The phone will also support NFC, which is available more frequently with Google's Nexus phones.
  • It will be shipped with MS Office apps and surely it will leverage SkyDrive for online storage.
  • The camera on this phone is a 5 MP back backer while front facing camera is 1.9 Megapixel.
Though with a potential $1 billion hole in its pocket, Samsung does not seem to be showing any signs of slowing down. Its Android phones are still selling well and it has also diversified with being the first one to come out with a Windows 8 phone.
Now over to the guys at Apple, who are expected to announce iPhone 5 in September. :-)

-- This Post Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Camera and Windows 8 Phone is Published on Devils Workshop .


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PHP5.4, Imagemagick & Pecl Installation

After upgrading to PHP 5.4.x, by using source compilation method, I realised our PHP was missing imagemagick extension.

ImageMagick is replacement for php's default GD library which WordPress uses for creating thumbnails on the fly. Using ImageMagick WordPress plugin, you can tell WordPress to use ImageMagick rather than PHP's default GD library. But for this to work your PHP must have ImageMagick extension enabled.

Installing & Enabling ImageMagick using Pecl

Installation is just 1-command job (usually)

pecl install imagick

But at the time of writing this post, when running above command against php5.4.x, installation will fail with following error:

/tmp/pear/temp/imagick/imagick_class.c:9534:2: error: 'struct _php_core_globals' has no member named 'safe_mode'

By default, pecl attempt to install stable build of imagick which as of today is not ready for PHP5.4. But they already have RC build here - http://pecl.php.net/package/imagick/3.1.0RC1

To force, pecl to install RC build, run following command:

pear config-set preferred_state beta

Now you can attempt installation again:

pecl install imagick

This time it should work! You will see output like below:

 Build process completed successfully   Installing '/opt/php5/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20100525/imagick.so'   Installing '/opt/php5/include/php/ext/imagick/php_imagick.h'   Installing '/opt/php5/include/php/ext/imagick/php_imagick_shared.h'   Installing '/opt/php5/include/php/ext/imagick/php_imagick_defs.h'   install ok: channel://pecl.php.net/imagick-3.1.0RC2   configuration option "php_ini" is not set to php.ini location   You should add "extension=imagick.so" to php.ini

As suggested by last line, do not forget to add extension=imagick.so in php.ini

-- This Post PHP5.4, Imagemagick & Pecl Installation is Published on Devils Workshop .





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Wednesday 29 August 2012

5 Ways to make the PC to Mac transition more smooth

I've recently got a Macbook (mid-2012 MBP) for myself, and the experience has been awesome – be it the design or apps or the smoothness of OS, Apple has got you covered.

Apparently, like everyone else, I've been using Windows (and Ubuntu sometimes) all my life. The transition from PC to Mac wasn't so smooth but I've come across a lot of apps (and tricks) which made Mac a lot more user friendly.

1. Setup the Mac trackpad to work like that of Windows laptops

The Mac trackpad is the best in its market, that's for sure. It's so large (even on the 13″ MBP) that can fit all your five fingers allowing numerous inbuilt gestures. The whole trackpad itself is a button.

But wait, there's an annoying thing about the Mac trackpad – there's no tap-to-click by default, along with no double tap-to-drag.

Open the Settings app and go to Trackpad > Point & click, tick next to 'Tap to click'. For one finger dragging, go to Accessibility > Mouse and Trackpad > Trackpad options, and select dragging 'without drag lock'. Also, too many gestures can confuse you, so feel free to un-tick the ones which aren't useful.

2. Better window management with Hyperdock

window-preview

Hyperdock brings Aero Snap (a Windows 7 feature) to Mac, which makes window management a breeze. Just move a window to a screen edge and it resizes itself.

It's not all about window management, anyway. You also get window previews when you hover cursor over any opened dock item.

Link: Hyperdock

3. Making most out of Finder

go-to-folder

Mac's finder can be too simple (and incomplete) at first sight, without showing path and all the stuff you're used to in Windows explorer.

First of all, you can enter path to open a directory in Finder: Right-click Finder icon in dock and hit "Go to folder". Note that hitting Tab key will auto-complete the path, which can be useful.

Windows converts who are used to Ctrl+X for cutting and pasting files will be easily annoyed as Cmd+X doesn't work. The point is simple, there's no 'Cut' option in Mac, but you can just drag a file to any folder and it's moved. For keyboard junkies, Cmd+Alt+V does the trick.

4. Remap keyboard keys for easier typing

modifier-keys

If you find yourself hitting Ctrl key too often instead of Cmd, then here's a nice tip. You can remap keyboard keys using the built in Settings app in Mac. Go to Settings > Keyboard > Modifier keys, and now you can assign Control function for Cmd key, etc.

5. Booting from an external drive or an USB

For some reason if you want to boot from an external drive, just hold the Option key before the Apple logo flashes during the booting process.

It'll then show what all drives it can boot into – if you've Windows installed on your Mac through Bootcamp, it'll show that too. Also, you'll see a Recovery HD to boot into, if the Macintosh HD has failed.

Drop in your comments and more tips on how to make moving from Windows to Mac a lot easier.

-- This Post 5 Ways to make the PC to Mac transition more smooth is Published on Devils Workshop .


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[Editorial] Aditya Kane Completes 3 Years with DW

Dear DW readers,

It seems like ages that I have posted an editorial here!

Aditya Kane completes 3 years!

Well, I feel ashamed to share this good news little late!

Aditya Kane, our Editor-in-Chief has completed 3 years with Devils Workshop 3 days back (on August 26)

Thanks Aditya for safeguarding DW against all spammers and greedy evils. I don't care what Google Analytics, Alexa or AdSense stats tell about your performance.

Pride cannot be measured by any tool and I am proud to have you as Editor-in-Chief at DW… :-)

My Status Update!

From last few weeks, I am finding some time to purse my oldest hobby i.e. writing here on Devils Workshop. I posted few articles recently mostly on Ubuntu and server-administration stuff. Well these things are what I am doing these days mainly. I always find it hard to write about things that I am not involved in. So in future you may not read about windows, facebook, social-media, wordpress-coding from me.

I am heading a wordpress company but on daily basis I am not coding anything on WordPress since long. So no wordpress-coding articles from me! I spend my free time with Ubuntu, Nginx and sever administration stuff. Also, I am learning Ruby (and Rails). So my articles will be mostly related to this…

Things that are changing…

As I am finding some time to spend here on DW, we restored our support forum back. Feel free to use it - http://devilsworkshop.org/support/. I will try to personally answer any query related to my knowledge domain within 24-hours (except weekends!) I am married now, so weekends are sometimes reserved… ;-)

To reduce load on Aditya's shoulders, our Editor-in-Chief, we have changed our contact page with new guidelines. Updated contact page is here – http://www.devilsworkshop.org/contact

We already removed most ads except Google AdSense. In our continued attempt to enhance reading experience on DW, we may remove few more stuff (ads, widgets, etc) in coming days.

-- This Post [Editorial] Aditya Kane Completes 3 Years with DW is Published on Devils Workshop .





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Tuesday 28 August 2012

Twitter is Systematically Killing 3rd Party Apps

Twitter has removed the mention of clients from Tweets. You might have noticed while reading an individual tweet, it was easy to note which client was used to send that particular tweet. This was a great way for Twitter users to find and adopt new Twitter mobile apps and desktop clients. This latest move confirms my view that Twitter is systematically killing 3rd party apps.

For instance below is the image of tweet I sent a few months ago from TweetDeck.

Now under new Twitter guidelines, the client name will not show up with individual tweets. This is not a isolated incident, Twitter has also introduced new API guidelines which has restricted 3rd party apps to only having 100,000 users at a time. That severely restricts 3rd party clients from monetizing their products and effectively meaning the death of it.

Twitter's change of heart towards 3rd party clients

Twitter for me was about being a open ended platform. Despite Facebook being the big fish in the social pond, Twitter has carved out a unique identity. That unique identity was a lot due to third-party clients and mobile apps that were developed for Twitter.

These third party apps made retweeting and organizing Twitter accounts we followed into lists very easy. Even Twitter adopted the retweet feature and creating lists on its own website and mobile apps.

But as Twitter grew into several hundred millions of users, it was still not making enough money. Atleast not as much as a company with that sort of brand name and presence should. This is when Twitter started to get defensive about 3rd party apps. First they bought TweetDeck, a hugely popular desktop client for using Twiter. It was probably bought to make sure TweetDeck did get acquired by another company. Today TweetDeck is more or less the official desktop client app for the Windows platform.

Twitter can not be blamed entirely

Even though, Twitter does look like a villain, feeding of 3rd party developers for so long and now casting them aside, it cannot be entirely blamed. Twitter makes hardly a great deal of money. A website like Twitter takes a lot of money to keep it running. It cannot allow 3rd party apps to thrive and make money off Twitter, while it struggles to do the same. By making Twitter not lucrative for 3rd party apps, it is diverting all money making opportunities towards itself.

Do you think Twitter's idea of killing off 3rd party apps will affect it badly in the long run? Or will it finally give Twitter more control over its own platform for the better? Do drop in your comments.

Related: 5 Reasons why Twitter will outlast social networks

-- This Post Twitter is Systematically Killing 3rd Party Apps is Published on Devils Workshop .


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New Facebook for iOS, Version 5.0 [Review]

Facebook finally updated their Facebook for iOS application i.e. official applications for iPhone, iPad and iTouch with a new look, faster engine and timeline support. The main thing about this update was to provide a faster mobile app and they did it perfectly. As compared to older version of Facebook for iOS this version 5.0 takes very less time to load. They have also removed the "Slide to Refresh" option, now you just have to click on the banner to see new updates. Let's have a deeper look at the application.

Design:

I like the overall design of the new application. Check out some screenshots of the app:

Speed:

This latest version of Facebook for iOS is very good when it comes to speed i.e. the time it takes to load homepage or profile or some picture and that too without getting crashed again and again.

Messages:

You must be familiar with the application "Facebook Messenger", it's a nice application where you can send or receive Facebook inbox messages without accessing whole Facebook news feed. But you don't need a messenger separately now as Facebook integrated same messenger interface in Facebook for iOS 5.0. Now you can easily send and receive messages to your friends and get to know when they read your message.

Photos:

Again a faster loading feature, now it takes very less time to open a picture than it used to be in earlier versions.

What Else?

Finally this version of Facebook supports "Timeline Profiles", except that there are some other changes as well. Like, now you don't need to go to the top and refresh page again and again to read latest updates. It updates automatically and you just have to click on top "New Stories" bar.

Another feature they have added is that you have Instant access to your Notifications. No need to open a separate page to open likes or comments.

Not so good thing:

One thing I don't like about this update is that the news feed is showing cropped pictures instead of full uploaded pictures. Most of the time it automatically crops the face of the person in the picture. Check the news feed and actual picture size screenshots below:

Another feature which is not present here is small thumbnails of all the pictures uploaded to that album which used to be on the bottom of picture in earlier versions.

Personally I like this version of Facebook mainly because of its performance and User Interface. Don't forget to share your views with us.

-- This Post New Facebook for iOS, Version 5.0 [Review] is Published on Devils Workshop .


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Monday 27 August 2012

5 Great Bandwidth Saving Tips for Mozilla Thunderbird

In India, it's still not uncommon to see people using a limited internet connection. In some cases, the limit is ridiculously low. If you send and receive a lot of emails, using an email client can help you save some bandwidth. An email client like Thunderbird downloads all your emails to your computer. So if you need to check a previously downloaded email, you won't be using any bandwidth again.

However, at times an email client can also use unnecessary bandwidth. For instance, it will download all spam messages with loads of images in them. Or large attachments which you may not want to download. These can be skipped while using webmail, but not in Thunderbird.

So if you are using Thunderbird, here are a few tips to save bandwidth:

Thunderbird

#1. Do not check for messages at startup

Thunderbird checks for new emails for every account on each startup. However, if you have multiple accounts configured, you might want to skip some of them at times. To do this, go to Tools>Account Settings. Locate the account you want to skip in the left page. Select Server Settings below it from. On the right, uncheck the option named Check for new messages at startup. Now Thunderbird will not check for new messages at every startup for this account.

Check new emails at startup

#2. Frequency of checking messages

While Thunderbird is running, it keeps checking for new emails every once in a while. You can save some bandwidth by reducing this frequency. For this, Go to Server settings as stated above. You will see another option named Check for new messages every __ minutes. Reduce this frequency according to your requirements. Say, if you need to check emails frequently, set it to 15. For personal and less important emails, you can set it to 60.

Reduce frequency of message checking in thunderbird

#3. Download only headers

The next option you can tinker with, located a little below the above options, is Fetch headers only. If you select this option, Thunderbird will only download the subject of the email. The rest of the email will be downloaded only if you select the email. I personally find this a bit annoying because I have to wait after clicking on the subject. Loss of productivity. So I would advise using it only in one of the following two cases:

  • You receive a lot of spam emails
  • You are on a really tight bandwidth limit

Fetch headers only in Thunderbird

#4. Do not download large messages

Attachments use a lot of bandwidth. There might be multiple reasons why you might not want to download an attachment. For instance, you might be on the move, checking email via an expensive 3G plan. So you might want to wait till you can access your unlimited broadband connection at home.

To prevent Thunderbird from downloading large attachments automatically, in Account Settings dialog box, select Disk Space from the left pane. On the right, look for the option named To save disk space do not download messages larger than __.

Set size limit for downloading messages

Set the value according to your needs. In general, you could set it to 50-70 KB if you want only text. 100-200 KB should do for emails with small images. Now whenever an email exceeds this size limit, it will not be downloaded completely. You will have the option to download it manually.

Manually download large messages

#5. Disable automatic update

This is pretty straightforward. You disable automatic updates to save bandwidth. To do this, go to Tools>Options. Select Advanced and go to the Update tab. Under Automatically check for updates to: uncheck both Thunderbird and Installed Add-ons.

Desable automatic updates in thunderbird

#6. Do not forward e-mails with attachments (Bonus Tip)

This is not exactly related to Thunderbird but it is good tip to save bandwidth. If you receive an email with attachment that you want to forward, do not forward it from your client. The reason being that the client will have to upload the attachment from your computer. But if you use the web interface of your email, you can forward the attachment from your inbox without downloading it.

Using these simple tips we can save on a lot of bandwidth. So implement these now. Who knows, your next month's internet bill might end being a little lower.

-- This Post 5 Great Bandwidth Saving Tips for Mozilla Thunderbird is Published on Devils Workshop .





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Sunday 26 August 2012

Dropbox brings in Two factor authentication for better security

After recent reports of Dropbox users getting spammed and usernames/passwords getting stolen, they have finally introduced a couple of security features which includes the much needed Two-factor authentication.

To enable it, go to security tab in your account page and look up for 'Two-step verification' (shown in the screenshot). Hit the 'change' link, and you'll be guided through the process.

With Two-factor authentication on, you will be asked to enter a six-digit code (apart from password) every time you login through a new device. You can receive the code either through SMS or the Dropbox app.

You'll also be given a 16-digit backup code which you need to write down. You can use that code for logging in if you don't have access to your mobile.

Apart from Two-factor authentication, the security page also gives you information about previous logins – location, time and browser used to access the site. Also, your verified devices (for which you don't need to enter any extra code) appear there.

It's a bit of work, but definitely worth it if you store confidential information in the cloud.The feature will probably added to the stable build of Dropbox soon.

Link: Dropbox (account page)


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-- This Post Dropbox brings in Two factor authentication for better security is Published on Devils Workshop .





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Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 796541