Tech-Freak Stuff

It happens a lot of times that your Mouse Freezes (i.e. it gets stuck and the cursor does not move) or does not respond properly. In this case we don't have any other option than to wait till the mouse starts responding or hit the Control-Alt-Delete combination. You can also check out our Guide to Clean a Computer Mouse.

I have come across many individuals who don't actually use mouse and work totally with the keyboard. But it wont be easy for a Beginner or a Non-Geek to do so. But can you imagine how interesting it will be to control the mouse Cursor/Pointer without actually using the mouse? Lets learn how!

All you have to do is to Activate a small feature and you can do all you important work even when your mouse stops responding. Follow the steps:

1. Log-In to your Windows Account with Administrative rights.

2. Press Alt+Shift+NumLock keys all together [remember that it works only with the left-Shift key]. Now a Mouse Keys message box will be opened. Just select Yes and get started or you may change the settings of this feature as per your convenience.

3. Click on Settings button or a link saying "Go to the Ease of Access Center", if you want to adjust the Mouse cursor settings in detail.

4. Now a new Settings window is opened where you can Manage and Edit all mouse settings like "Mouse Cursor Speed", "Acceleration" and other features.
Now save the settings and you are done!

Now what are the Controls for your Keyboard-turned-Mouse?
You have to use the Number-Pad for all the mouse movements and functions.

• 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 and 9 keys are used for moving the mouse cursor into different directions.


• Key 5 is used for a Mouse Single-Click.


• + Key used to double click.


• Insert (Ins) key used to Keep holding the Mouse button for the Drag function.


• Delete button used to release the Mouse button.

Click the NumLock key to turn off this feature. While the feature is ON, you can see an Icon as shown in the alongside image in your TaskBar.

Note: This Function works in all versions of Windows. It might not work in some Laptops because all laptops do not have the Right-Side Number-Pad on their default keyboard.

Continue Reading this article >>

Twitter is among the many websites which don't tolerate Spam! When Twitter finds some suspicious activity on your account, it Red-Flags you and keep a close watch on you. If the suspicious activity continues, your Twitter account is suspended temporarily or Permanently.

But there have been cases, where people think that their account is Suspended for No-Reason. These might me because of Human Errors by people managing the Twitter Suspensions and these people sometimes even accept the Fact that, there takes place erogenous Suspensions. There have been many cases where such Accounts are activated within a short time.

Keeping it all aside, we must know our limits on Twitter. We must try to follow the rules so that the chances of our own account getting suspended are minimized.

Twitter hates Spammers more than anyone else and Suspends the account of the Spammer when suspicious activity is observed on he Account. Now, What things are included in this Suspicious activity? I will tell you 5 such behaviors which will lead twitter to think that you are a Spammer and eventually ban you.

1. Mass Follow or UnFollow

If you follow/unfollow large number of people in a short time span. This happens when you use third-party Twitter applications to gain Followers. It is also caused when you try to be a celebrity even when you are not, by unfollowing your Followers and increasing your Followers to Following ratio within a short time-span.
TIP: Do not follow or unfollow more than 100 people in a single day.

2. Commercial or promotional use of Twitter

Excessive promotion of different money-making schemes or Affiliate products with your Tweets. Posting Advertisements frequently in the Tweets for making money. Trying to Promote yourself by following High-Profile accounts without creating healthy Relationships with them.

3. Following Inappropriate people

There are millions of Spammers out there on Twitter and they try their best to get Followers. Twitter Red-Flags such Spammy accounts, and you might suffer if you follow many of such spammy accounts. You might be regarded as one among them and eventually banned.

There have been cases where Twitter has banned genuine accounts because there were a lot of Spammers following them. This is an Error on Twitter's part, just remember that this can also happen. So, don't forget to Block such accounts.

Spammers create multiple Twitter accounts and Follow each other to increase their Followers base to impress genuine users. If a large number of users have blocked you compared to the People following you then you will be regarded as a Spammer.

4. Posting inappropriate content

This is a tricky one! Inappropriate content applies to Racist/Violent content along with Se*ually Explicit content. Tweeting about harsh issues or Offending someone is not allowed. Writing Updates to Show-Up in search results and Publishing other user’s content without attribution is spam.

A large number of unnecessary @replies just to show acquaintance with some account is regarded as Spam. Excessive Linking to irrelevant topics compared to your Tweets (using # tags) and Tweeting the Same post again-and-again is spammy behavior. Disguising the Same link in different Tweets (i.e. writing about one thing but linking to another) may also be considered spam.

5. Phishing and Privacy Breaching

Trying to Impersonated the person you are NOT by misleading, confusing, or deceiving others or posting other people's private and confidential information is regarded as Privacy Breaching.

Trying to "sell" followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive is also considered as a forced Effect. Linking to malicious content intended to damage or disrupt another user’s browser or computer is considered as a Malicious behavior while Registering popular UserNames just for the sake of Blocking others from using it is also regarded as fraud.

These five reasons are among the leading causes of Twitter accounts getting suspended. Take Care that your account doesn't get banned because of these reasons. You can also enlighten us with some other reasons which lead to Twitter accounts being suspended.

Continue Reading this article >>

It frequently happens that people neglect our Status Updates on popular Social networking websites like FaceBook and Twitter. No-one comments on our status update on FaceBook while no-one Retweets our Updates on Twitter. So, how do we change this situation and become popular and have a good follower base?

Its not that difficult to achieve! People are often irritated by the Crap we write on Social Networking websites. So, how to filter this crap and attract a good amount of people who are actually interested in what you are doing. Unless you are a very well know personality, it takes a little amount of time to get adjusted to the techniques I will tell you, but they will help you for sure!

Why are you creating an Account?

Identify the main intention of you creating an Account in that site. Do you want to promote your Blog or Make Business contacts or Make Casual friends. Identify the main intention properly and then look forward to making friends.

Making a Profile

Fill out as much part of the Profile as possible. Best, If you fill the entire profile. Avoid giving false details of what you are not! In the Personal URL field, give the URL of your Blog or other Social networking profile. Do NOT give URL of Websites you are no-way associated with.

Making contacts

While creating contacts, just remember to make friends only with those whom you find interesting! Get contacts from your Emails, to join you on the Network so that you are not left alone in a gang of total strangers. But sometimes, it works good to be with strangers and make good contacts with them. You may form good contacts and such people may be of good help when you actually need it!

Writing updates

This is among the most important parts of framing your Identity in the Social Network. Write about what you are interested in and what you look forward to look forward in future. Don't behave like a totally professional person. Sometimes its Good to have some Fun, Crack Jokes, etc. But remember, Do Not cross your limits. Everything in Excess is bad!

Writing Better Updates

Once you are acquainted with the Network, when you get the basic idea of what people around you are interested in and are looking for, Start giving them what they want! This means, Help them in some cases, if possible. Talk about their work, Complement them, Tell them their mistakes, etc. Telling mistakes is the most important part where most people mess up everything! Do not offend anyone while showing their mistakes. Make then feel that you are trying to help them by showing them their mistakes.

Talk about your professional life and what work you are currently doing. Talking about personal topics should be kept minimal. But sometimes, If you find that a person is very emotional or very close to you, then sharing some secrets make them feel Special!
Note: Sharing personal secrets may land you in trouble, So Beware while doing so.

Uploading Photos and Videos

Do not upload Controversial/Obscene photos or Videos. They have a wrong impact on your Image, unless you are promoting yourself in the way you appear in the Pics. Pics must be decent and sometimes Funny. The way you appear in the Pics has a lot to say about yourself! So, be choosy while selecting Pics and Videos to upload. Remember that morphing photos from Social Networking Websites is on the Rise, So BEWARE.

Giving your Opinion

When people update their Status or when Someone sends a Good and Informative Tweet on twitter, make it a point to comment on it and bring it to the notice of other people. ReTweeting shows How Social you are! Commenting on Status Updates on FaceBook also makes people aware that you are interested in them! Conversely, people start taking interest in you when you take interest in them!

Writing Cool Status Updates

Not all updates are worth commenting! The tact of writing updates which attracts comments is very important! So, what makes an update worth commenting?
The update must be Controversial ! Or it must be very funny! It might also be about your weird thinking or about your strategy about the future! It can also be a Sad note where all the people are commenting to make you feel good. But don't over do this Sad thing, as it might have a bad effect on your friends that you are a SADist.

From now on, your major effort should be to post important Updates which will attract comments and go Viral. I am 100% sure that I have missed a lot of things. Please bring those ones to notice! And if you have a cool new idea, you are always welcome to tell it to us!

Continue Reading this article >>

Follow me on Twitter!      Join me on FaceBook!
These words have been the song of the current generation. Also, we need to keep pace with them due to the ever increasing Marketing opportunities available at these Social networking websites. FaceBook already claims that one-fifth of the total Internet users have a FaceBook account! Due to such great potential of these Websites, it is essential that we promote our services here for gaining a large audience and also get a good response.

Twitter has also been growing tremendously as a service in a whole and also attracting a lot of users. Twitter is already poised to be the next big hit in the Social Networking Market after Facebook! So, it is essential that we get adapted to it as soon as possible and create our Brand Empire there for gaining quality customers.

Using twitter is only about telling people "What are you doing?" Also, each time you write something, you need to take care that you don't use more than 140 characters! Interesting, Right? But there are people who have found a Marketing strategy to promote services on twitter by using links to the service. But the URL of the service is not always small to fit the 140 character limit, so URL Shorteners came into existence.

URL shorteners basically shrink your URL into a small URL so that you can effectively use it where small place is available for data entry (as in Twitter) When someone clicks these small URLs they are transferred to the original URL using 301 redirection, thus protecting against PageRank leak.

Now these Shortened URL appear like http://bit.ly/MSW2i or http://bit.ly/22rK9 or http://tinyurl.com/m48qeg, etc. Looking at these URLs, the first thing that strikes your Mind is that a service named bit.ly or tinyurl would have been used to shorten these URLs. So, indirectly you are helping these services promote themselves. How about the idea of creating a Customized URL Shortening service for your Brand?

You can actually do it in three ways:

Option 1:

Using Shorty! Shorty will allow you to convert your Domain name into a URL shortening service. It is basically a PHP application and needs a server enabled with PHP version 4+ and SQL database. You can get all the information regarding installing and activating Shorty from their Forum.

Option 2:

Using Google Apps! But it is only available for sites that use Google Apps for their Domains. Start with adding the Google Short Links service to your Google Apps domain. You are free to choose any other sub-domain, but by default your Redirection service will be available at links.example.com.

Go to Dashboard, Open your Short Links settings and add a new URL. Delete the default links sub-domain and select any sub-domain of your choice. Try to keep it as short as possible. Now open your Domain CPanel and create a CNAME record using the sub-domain you chose in the previous step and point it to ghs.google.com After DNS changes take effect(after about 2-3 hours), your URL shortening service will start working!
Note: This method uses 302 temporary redirect, so it wont be very effective for SEO purposes.

If you do not want to go through all these hassles, I have a simpler way for you!

Option 3:

Use 9MP! 9MP allows you to add your brand to your URL shortener. Example: http://techfreakstuff.9mp.com/ I use this service most of the times while shortening my links so that the viewers become aware of the fact that, the URL is shortened by a brand named TechFreakStuff. So, How do you get this service enabled?

Go to 9MP and Click on Request A Branded URL in the Top-Right corner. On the branding Page, fill out the Contact Us form! You will be asked your desired brand name. After filling out the form, you can expect an Email from their Administrator within 24 hours if your desired brand name is available! The next steps will be explained in the Conformation email. Use a smart Brand name for this purpose, so that you can attract a good amount of visitors for your service. But take care, that signing up for Major established Brand names will reduce your chances of getting it.

Marketing has been of major help for promoting Online services, So don't stay back in promoting your Blog/ Website or even your online business using Branded URL shorteners.

Continue Reading this article >>

There are many Windows Tricks around and you may see people using such tips to play pranks on others! Its a lot of Fun to see someone totally confused about a Computer problem and then we can tell them that we just played a Crazy prank on them! The Prankster and the Pranked both laughing together after having Fun is not a rare sight. I told you some tricks like Creating an Undeletable Invisible Folder with NO-Name and Creating a Password Protected Folder (Folder-Lock) in Windows some-time-back.

But today, I will tell you a small trick to convert any Folder into a Recycle Bin or My Computer

Just Imagine if your Friend/Parent/Sibling clicks on any Folder and without any error the My Computer window opens. The first thing that will come to his/her mind is V!RUS.

That will be so much fun! You can just tell them that he/she has done something wrong and now let you deal with it. You can also blame them for their Dumbness or Negligence or whatever you want.

Enough of future-planning, Now let us learn the trick!

Step 1: Select the Folder you want to convert and decide what you want to convert it into.

Step 2: You just need to Right-Click on that folder and use the Rename option(without opening the folder).[i.e - You are renaming the Folder which you want to Convert]

Step 3: Now while renaming, just suffix[add at the end] the following codes to the name of the folder depending on your preferred result location:

My Computer: .{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
Recycle Bin: .{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Step 4: Now after renaming, Refresh the page. You can see that the Icon of the Folder has Changes to Recycle Bin or My Computer[sometimes it doesn't change]. When you click on it, you will directly go to Recycle Bin or My Computer rather than entering inside the Folder.

Example: I am converting a Folder named "Old Songs" into Recycle Bin. So I will first Rename it using the code given above. [Don't forget the Stop mark before the code]

Now my Old Songs Folder shows Recycle Bin! You can carry out all the Features of Recycle Bin/My Computer using this Folder.

OK! Now we have converted the Folder into that of our choice. But, How do we get our original contents back? Its very easy: Just rename it back and remove the Code along with the Stop Mark. Now Refresh and You are Back to normal!

Some more tips: You can also convert your Folder into some more Windows tools with the following codes[I have NOT checked these codes and these might not work]:

Control Panel: .{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Internet Explorer: .{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}

Sometimes while getting your Normal contents back you might not be able to rename the Folder Directly. You might have to use Command Prompt to rename it. Go to Command Prompt and browse to your Folder. Now type there:
ren Your_Folder_Name.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} Your_Folder_Name
I am not responsible for any loss of Data because of this trick [99.99% nothing will happen but I can't give complete guarantee]. Use this trick at your own Risk!

Continue Reading this article >>

Youtube is most famous Video Broadcasting website in the world. Millions of people watch Videos on this website everyday and most of them are addicted to it! There are a lot of features which Youtube supports and it recently launched the feature to Download Youtube Videos legally from the official website. Earlier, we had also talked about viewing Youtube videos in High Resolution using a Small hack. Youtube also pays you when your Original Videos are viewed by people all over the world.

But one feature which Youtube Power-Users are still missing is the ability to watch Multiple videos in the same Window.

Youtube does not allow watching different videos in the same TAB or Window. You need to open different videos in Different Tabs and watch them. But there is one third-party service which now enables us to watch a maximum of 3 Youtube videos in the Same window! Hence, the service is named You3b.

Now one question which might hit your mind is, How do I listen to the Audio of all the three videos simultaneously? You can't do that! For your ease, a Mute option is available for each of the three videos. You can Mute any of the videos you wish or even all of them.

You can also save the three videos you Played alongside as a Playlist like thing, but you need to register for that.

I personally liked You3b a lot as I could see all the video of my choice alongside each other. One good thing is that, they have a separate Low BandWidth mode which is only for registered members. And yes, Registration is absolutely free!

So, If you are a YouTube addict then it must not take you a lot of time before thanking me for sharing such a Cool website!

Continue Reading this article >>

Making Money online cant get simpler than this! And its without any investment!
You may be knowing free domain services like .CO.CC and .CO.TV. These services allow you to have you own domain and use it for free.
Let us learn "What is Domain parking?"
In simple words Domain Parking means, not using the Domain name for anything!(might be for making money) The Wikipedia Definition says, "Domain parking refers to the registration of an internet domain name without that domain being associated with any services such as e-mail or a website."

Now, we are going to use .CO.CC and .CO.TV domain names for Parking. So, How will it earn money for us?
We will use these free Domain names with Adsense for Domains. Adsense will put Ads on these Domain names without any content being written! And you will be paid when anyone clicks on those Ads. Its that Simple!!

Now, Let us go about this procedure step-by-step:
Step 1:
Register a Domain Name with .CO.CC and/or .CO.TV. Remember to grab a good domain name with these tips.

Step 2:
After registering the Domain name , Go to Google Adsense. I hope you already have a Working Adsense account.

Step 3:
Go to the AdSense SetUp Tab >> AdSense for Domains. Then, When the next page opens click on + Add new domains

Step 4:

Now see the Screen Shot and type the Domains which you have registered, each on different lines. Don't forget to set the Language as English. If you have a domain in a different language then you can select that. Click on Add Domains. Let us Follow the Steps given on the Next Page.

Step 5:

Now see the screen Shot above and Create four "A" aliases by keeping the Host field Blank, TTL: 1D, Type: A, Value: 216.239.32.21 then 216.239.34.21 then 216.239.36.21 and finally 216.239.38.21 Also create a CNAME entry as shown in the Screen Shot below.

Step 6:
Now the final Zone records must look like the screen shot.

Now just Close the window and you are done! Adsense will Check your Domain (so it will be in Pending Mode for some time, Then It will mostly get accepted) After getting accepted, your Domain will look like: http://www.sscresults.co.cc

Step 7:
Now find out ways and means to drive traffic to your Domain so that people visit it and Click on Ads. Submit to forums, or give a link from your Blog, etc. Make Merry!!

Continue Reading this article >>

Hosting any files online requires Hosting Space. Hosting providers are broadly classified into Free and Premium. The free providers provide the services free of cost and the Premium providers charge money for the same. So, the quality of service provided by Free providers is not upto-the-mark. Premium providers provide fabulous services and rarely we hear any complains against them. DreamHost is one such Premium hosting provider.

DreamHost has started a service named DreamHost Apps, which provides hosting for well known Applications like WordPress, Drupal, phpBB, etc for free. A Premium Hosting provider like Dreamhost providing these services for free and also allowing you to host your Domain name is surely a deal to grab.

I will show you some Pros and Cons of this service.

Pros of DreamHost Apps

• Best WordPress hosting
  
• Unlimited Disk Space
  
• Easy Web-Based Toolbox
  
• Free WordPress installation
  
• Free WordPress upgrades
  
• WordPress-friendly hosting
  
• Free subdomain
  
• WordPress Optimized servers
  
• Easy WordPress Setup(Like Fantastico)
  
• Unlimited Bandwidth

Cons of DreamHost Apps

• The Terms of Service clearly Mentions - DreamHost may terminate service under this contract at any time, without penalty, at DreamHost's discretion. This means your hosting is not safe and you can loose your files if DreamHost terminates his service.
  
• FTP access is not allowed
  
• Only 43 Templates to Choose from in Wordpress. You can't upload your own template.
  
• Only a few plug-ins to choose from. You cannot upload and install you own Plug-in.
  
• You cannot access the database of your blog
  
• You Cannot upgrade the wordpress software yourself. DreamHost staff will do it for you. But they generally take a little time for it.
  

If you are planning to host your own Domain, then take care that your NameServers point to DreamHost:
ns1.dreamhost.com
ns2.dreamhost.com
ns3.dreamhost.com

Now, After I have showed you the Advantages and Disadvantages, its depends on you to Go for this Hosting or not. But I personally wont recommend it for Professionals because, I know they wont like their hands to be locked in some cases.

Continue Reading this article >>

All the Bloggers and Web-publishers have the ultimate aim of making high profits on the Internet. So, they monetize their websites with Ads (mostly Google Adsense). Google Adsense is the most popular revenue generating source for most Bloggers. It basically works on the principle that, Google will place Ads relevant to your content on your Blog and when someone clicks on those, you get paid!

This makes bloggers to place more and more Ads on their Blogs to earn maximum profits. But there is no Fixed rate of payment for each Ad click. Each Ad clicked pays differently and It depends on which Ad it is. For Example: If an Ad related to FOREX is clicked then it is supposed to earn more revenue for the Blogger than a Click for a WALLPAPER's Ad.

Which Ads are to be placed on the Webpage are decided by the Google Adsense Bot after crawling the webpage and understanding the content of that webpage. So, Can we manipulate the Google Adsense Bot to place High-paying Ads on our Web-site?

If we are able to manipulate the behavior of Google Adsense Bot on our website then we can surely make a lot of profit from it! Now let us learn how....

Google Bot crawls the contents of the webpage and tries to figure out the density of different keywords in it. On the basis of density of keywords and other factors like the size of text and stress on some particular points, it decides the approximate content of the Webpage. (Remember that Google has a very smart algorithm to find Content spams, so don't fill your articles with unnecessary keywords.) After knowing the content of the Webpage, Ads relating to it are placed on it.

Now what makes Google Bot place Low-Paying Ads on some websites?
Some times, it happens that the Bot get confused over the content of the article. For Example: If I write about Forex in the First part of the Article, then I start talking about my personal life and after a while I start talking about different Cars. This will totally confuse the Google Bot and will lead to Low paying Ads being served on the Website.

It happens that many bloggers talk about different things on their Blog. They first start talking about celebrity gossips, then they start taking about Money-Making techniques on the Internet, and sometimes they even talk about their Pet Animals and Personal life. Crawling such a Blog becomes too difficult for a Google Crawler and this leads to Low Paying Ads being served on that Blog. So, even though there are a lot of people clicking Ads on this Blog, the earnings will be quite low.

So, the ultimate conclusion is that we must stick to a particular Niche while writing a blog and not post irrelevant things over it. But always keep in mind that your Visitors are your first priority and sometimes it is good to satisfy your readers rather than focusing on making a lot of Money! So writing off-topic articles, once-in-a-while is acceptable. Keep in mind that using Black-Hat techniques to increase your Adsense earnings may result in your Adsense account being banned, And here we are using a proper way to help the Google Bot crawl our site with ease.


Note: Due to some Technical Difficulties, I have postponed my shift to Wordpress by about 8-10 days

Continue Reading this article >>

Hey all you friends! I have been out of blogging for 2 months now and its high time I should be back. Just want to say SORRY to all of you, who kept waiting for my Blogging-Return since a long time. Anyways, I was out-of-blogging because of my Engineering Exams which ended on 9th June 2009.
OK, leave it aside! Let me tell you, I have a lot of Cool Tech-Freak Stuff lining up for you in the next few months.

Firstly, I am glad to inform you that Tech-Freak Stuff is finally moving to WordPress and is soon going to be available in a completely new look.

Secondly, I have lot of Cool Tricks and Hacks to unveil and you can get to know about them quite soon.

And last but not the least, Tech-Freak Stuff is soon planning to start hosting Contests and GiveAways for all the readers!

OOPS, I forgot to tell you one Good News. Tech-Freak Stuff is now Page-Rank 1

Note: I am going to resume Hardcore Blogging after 13th June. I am planning to make the Move to Wordpress in these three Days.

Continue Reading this article >>