Friday, November 19, 2010

Tips on Coding Web Designs Better

 Some Tips on Coding Web Designs Better

Writing semantic, efficient and valid HTML and CSS can be a time-intensive process that only gets better with experience. While it is important to take the time to produce high-quality code — as it is what separates professionals from hobbyists — it is equally important to produce websites as expeditiously and efficiently as possible.
As web designers, we’re always looking for ways to be more productive. Getting more work done in less time while at the same time maintaining (or improving) our products’ quality is a lifelong quest for many of us.
This article discusses a few fundamental techniques for writing high quality and efficient HTML and CSS.

Use Templates and Frameworks (Even If It’s Homemade)

Using templates and frameworks provides you with a solid baseline from which to start from. For example, CSS frameworks such as the 960 Grid System and Blueprint can save you time in having to write code for bulletproof web page layouts. The purpose of a framework is to reduce development time by avoiding having to repeatedly write cross-browser-tested code for each of your projects. However, take note: Using frameworks involves a learning curve and can bulk up your web page sizes with unnecessary style rules and markup.
Even something as simple as using this XHTML 1.0 strict template — a skeleton for your HTML documents — can be a time-saver.
XHTML 1.0 strict template
Whether you choose to use a premade framework or not, the notion you should take a note of is just how much code you end up writing over and over again. It’s imperative to discover these repetitive tasks so that you can come up with a system (a custom template/framework) to help you speed up your workflow.

Conform to XHTML 1.0 Strict Doctype

Writing under the Strict doctype forces you to produce smarter and specifications-conformant code. Strict doctype lowers your desire to use hacks, deprecated elements, proprietary code, and unconventional markup that in the future will give you grief and maintenance costs related to debugging and updating projects.
Conform to XHTML 1.0 Strict Doctype
Strict doctype also instructs web browsers to render your web pages under strict W3C specifications, which can reduce browser-specific bugs and thus lowering your development time.

Use Good and Consistent Naming Conventions

Always use consistent naming conventions for easier organization and so that you can produce work that is meaningful and expressive.
For example, if you use hyphens (-) to separate words in your classes and IDs (e.g. sidebar-blurb, about-us), don’t use underscores (_) for others (e.g. footer_nav, header_logo). Also, using standard and meaningful filenames for documents and directories is a good practice to get into.
Here are some popular classes, IDs and file names:
  • Structural IDs: #header, #footer, #sidebar, #content, #wrapper, #container
  • Main stylesheet: style.css, styles.css, global.css
  • Main JavaScript library: javascript.js, scripts.js
  • JavaScript directory: js, javascript or scripts
  • Image directory: images, img
  • CSS directory: css, stylesheets, styles
Naming Conventions
Always use meaningful words for your IDs and classes. For example, using left-col and right-col for div ID attribute values isn’t good because they rely on positional factors rather than semantics. Using something that has greater semantic value such as main-content or aside would be better so that you are giving your layout elements improved meaning and greater flexibility towards changes in the future.
In HTML5, the issue of proper naming conventions and uniformity for layout elements has been addressed with the introduction of new HTML elements such as <nav>, <footer> and <article>, but the concept of using proper naming conventions applies to all HTML elements with ID/class attributes, not just layout elements.
Read more about naming conventions in this article called Structural Naming Convention in CSS.
Good naming conventions are just a best practice in general, but as a bonus, it can help you speed up your development process because of organized and intuitive code, which makes finding and editing things quicker.

Understand and Take Advantage of CSS Inheritance

Instead of assigning every single element a font, color, background, etc., try to take advantage of CSS inheritance rules, especially for fonts, padding and margins. This can reduce the amount of code you have to write and maintain.
For example, the following is terser:
html, body {
  background: #eee;
  font: normal 11pt/14pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  color: #000;
}
ul, ol {
  font-size: 18pt;
}
Compared to:
html, body {
  background: #eee;
}
p {
  font: normal 11pt/14pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  color: #000;
}
ul, ol {
  font: normal 11pt/18pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  color: #000;
}
blockquote {
  font: normal 11pt/14pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  color: #000;
}

Reset Your Style Rules

One of the biggest time-sinks in web design is debugging browser-specific bugs. In order to ensure that you start off with a solid baseline — and thus avoid differences across web browsers — consider resetting your CSS. Read more about this subject in the article called Resetting Your Styles with CSS Reset.
Just like using CSS frameworks and HTML starter templates, there are several CSS reset templates that you can take advantage of. Here is a couple:
Here is Eric Meyer’s Reset CSS:
/* v1.0 | 20080212 */

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe,
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code,
del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var,
b, u, i, center,
dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,
fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0;
 border: 0;
 outline: 0;
 font-size: 100%;
 vertical-align: baseline;
 background: transparent;
}
body {
 line-height: 1;
}
ol, ul {
 list-style: none;
}
blockquote, q {
 quotes: none;
}
blockquote:before, blockquote:after,
q:before, q:after {
 content: '';
 content: none;
}

/* remember to define focus styles! */
:focus {
 outline: 0;
}

/* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */
ins {
 text-decoration: none;
}
del {
 text-decoration: line-through;
}

/* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */
table {
 border-collapse: collapse;
 border-spacing: 0;
}
The best practice for using CSS reset templates is to fill in the property values of "resetted" styles instead of re-declaring them again.
For example, in Eric Meyer’s Reset CSS shown above, the line-height of web pages on the site is set to 1. If you know that your line-height needs to be 1.5, then you should change 1 to 1.5.
Do not do this when using CSS reset templates:
/ * Not good */
body {
line-height: 1;
}
...
body { line-height: 1.5; }
In addition, it’s best to avoid resetting CSS properties using the universal selector (e.g. * { margin: 0; padding: 0; }) because, performance-wise, it is inefficient and can be resource-taxing on older computers. Read more about using efficient CSS selectors.

Use CSS Shorthand Properties

Writing less CSS means saving time. Not only does using shorthand CSS reduce code-writing, but it also lowers the file sizes of your stylesheets, which ultimately means faster page response times. Additionally, shorthand CSS makes your code cleaner and — albeit arguably depending on your preference — easier to read and maintain.
The following are some popular shorthand syntax to memorize and use, with the longhand syntax equivalent preceding it.

Margin and Padding Properties

/* Longhand */
margin-top: 0;
margin-right: 20px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
margin-left: 15px;
padding-top: 0px;
padding-right: 20px;
padding-bottom: 0px;
padding-left: 20px;
/* Shorthand */
margin: 0 20px 10px 15px;
padding: 15px 20px 0;
A quick guide:
  • When 4 property values are used – margin/padding: [top | right | bottom | left]
  • When 3 property values are used – margin/padding: [top | left and right | bottom]
  • When 2 property values are used – margin/padding: [top and bottom | left and right]
  • When 1 property value is used – margin/padding: [top, right, bottom, and left ]

Font Properties

/* Longhand */
font-style: normal;
line-height: 11px;
font-size: 18px;
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
/* Shorthand */
font: normal 18px/11px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
A quick guide:
  • font: [font-style | font-size/line-height | font-family];

Background Properties

/* Longhand */
background-color: #ffffff;
background-image: url('../images/background.jpg');
background-repeat: repeat-x;
background-position: top center;
/* Shorthand */
background: #fff url('../images/background.jpg') repeat-x top center;
A quick guide:
  • background: [background-color | background-image:url() | background-repeat | background-position];
To discover more shorthand CSS syntax, take a look at the CSS Shorthand Guide.

Put Things in the Proper Place and Order

Always put things in the conventional place, i.e., where best practices and W3C specifications say they should go. For example, it is best practice to reference external JavaScript libraries after external stylesheet references to improve page responsiveness and to take advantage of the nature of parallel downloading.
This is the best way:
<head>
  <!-- CSS on top, JavaScript after -->
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles.css" />
  <script type="text/javascript" src="script.js" />
</head>
The suboptimal way:
<head>
<!-- CSS at the bottom, JavaScript on top -->
  <script type="text/javascript" src="script.js" />
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles.css" />
</head>
Note that both code blocks above are valid under specs, but one is better than the other.
When writing structural markup, think in terms of top to bottom and left to right because that’s the accepted convention. If a sidebar is to the right of a content area and below a header, then the markup should be organized as follows:
<div id="header">
</div>
<div id="content">
</div>
<div id="sidebar">
</div>
However, if the sidebar is on the left, a better practice would be to organize markup like this:
<div id="header">
</div>
<div id="sidebar">
</div>
<div id="content">
</div>
A caveat to the above is when you are optimizing your work for screen readers. The second code block above means that screen readers will always encounter the secondary content (#sidebar) before the main content (#content), which can hamper the reading of people that require screen-reading assistive technologies. In this case, you could place #sidebar lower down the document and use CSS for visual positioning (i.e. float #sidebar to the left, float #content to the right).
In addition to putting HTML elements in their respective places, it’s also important to organize CSS (again, for easier maintenance and readability). In a way, it should mimic the organization of your markup. For example, the #header styles should be before the #footer styles. This is a matter of preference, but it is also a conventional way of organizing style rules.
/* Structural Styles */
#header {
  // header properties
}
#header .logo {
  //site's logo properties
}
#footer {
  // footer properties
}
 
Wait "Tips on Coding Web Designs Better" Part 2

Learn How to Download iTunes in Linux Ubuntu

Learn How to Download iTunes in Linux Ubuntu in 12 step

1

Download WINE. WINE is a software written for Linux that allows it to run Windows software. You can download WINE through the terminal:

sudo dpkg -i wine_0.9.45~winehq0~ubuntu~7.04-1_i386.deb

2

Next, you need to configure WINE to the options that we need. To do this, simply type in the terminal "winecfg". Follow these instructions:

-Choose the Windows XP option in the Applications tab.
-Select Autodetect in the Drivers tab.
-Check the ALSA Driver and uncheck the OSS Driver in the Audio tab.

Click OK. Your changes will be saved.

3

As far as I know, the latest version of iTunes that can be downloaded on Linux Ubuntu is version 7.2. You can find a download of it here:

http://www.oldapps.com/itunes.php?old_itunes=20

NOTE: IF THIS LINK IS BROKEN BECAUSE OF FUTURE UPDATES, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I SHALL EDIT THIS POST AND FIND ANOTHER LINK WHERE YOU CAN SUCCESSFULLY DOWNLOAD THIS. THANKS!!

4

Once you have downloaded iTunes 7.2, go to the terminal once again and type

wine iTunesSetup.exe

5
Welcome Screen

This will take you to a Welcome Screen.

6
iTunes License

Accept the license.

7
Installer Options

Select the installer options as seen in the picture.

8
Autorun Popout

A popout will appear, asking for autorun.

CLICK NO!!!!

9
Installing iTunes

The file will download.

10
Click Finish

Click Finish.

11

It took me a couple of gos, but I got it to work in the end. Once iTunes has been successfully installed, run the program using:

wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/iTunes/iTunes.exe

12

And that's it! You now have iTunes installed on Linux Ubuntu. Congratulations!!
source : ehow.com

The Best Ways to Get Pregnant

 The Best Ways to Get Pregnant :
For some women, conceiving can be as easy as tossing out their contraception, whether they're working on their first baby or their fourth. For others, reaching the goal of fertilization becomes a nightly chore, a mad mating dance that revolves around ovulation kits, specific sexual positions, and, more and more commonly, a succession of fertility tests to help pinpoint possible problems.
Whether you've just started trying to become pregnant or have been at it for a while, heeding some common sense advice that's based on good science can help boost your odds of conceiving. Here, noted fertility experts from around the country have outlined the do's, don'ts, and don't-bother-withs of getting pregnant.
1 - Have sex frequently. It may seem like a no-brainer, but given many couples' hectic schedules, it's easy to overlook this one. If you're not timing your cycles or you have irregular periods, you can cover your bases by having sex every other day, say fertility specialists.
2 - Figure out when you ovulate. Women with very regular 28-day cycles can just count 14 days from the first day of their period to determine their ovulation date. If your cycles aren't regular (or even if they are), an ovulation kit can help you pinpoint your most fertile time.
Most ovulation kits measure the level of luteinizing hormone (LH)  -- one of the hormones that signals the ovaries to release an egg  -- present in your urine. LH begins to surge around 36 hours before you ovulate, but most kits don't detect it until 24 hours prior. A woman with a 28-day cycle should start testing her urine on day nine or ten after the start of her period so she doesn't miss her surge.
A new palm-size, electronic device called ClearPlan Easy measures LH and estrogen levels, and can signal ovulation up to five days in advance.
Monitoring cervical mucus is another way to track ovulation. "It's not as reliable as a kit," says Sandra Carson, M.D., professor of ob-gyn at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, "but it doesn't cost anything." This method involves checking your secretions for a few months until you notice a pattern. Estrogen causes mucus to thin after your period, while rising levels of progesterone right after ovulation make it thicken. Once you pinpoint when you ovulate, you can plan to have sex several times leading up to that day.
The drawbacks: Many women find this method inconvenient, or inaccurate since such factors as nursing and antihistamines, even fertility drugs, can dry up mucus.
Charting your basal body temperature is useful for figuring out when you ovulate. "Your temperature usually dips by half a degree 24 hours before you ovulate; then it goes up as you ovulate," says Pette Zarmakoupis, M.D., an ob-gyn and director of the Kentucky Center for Reproductive Medicine, in Lexington. But since basal body temperature can be thrown off by a number of things, such as illness, don't rely on it alone. 

3 - Step up sex before ovulation. As soon as you pick up a hormonal surge, have sex that day, plus the next two days. Pregnancy rates peak two days before ovulation, says Clarice Weinberg, Ph.D., chief of biostatistics at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Some experts speculate that's when cervical mucus is at its optimum for helping sperm travel to the egg and break down its shell-like coating.
Sperm can live inside the uterus for 24 to 48 hours, which means there will be plenty on hand to greet the egg once ovulation starts.
Another reason to have sex before you ovulate, as opposed to the day it happens: An egg survives for only 12 to 24 hours after ovulation, so if you begin to ovulate in the morning and wait until nighttime to have sex, the egg may lose its viability by the time the sperm gets to it. In addition, says Dr. Zarmakoupis, cervical mucus starts to become thick and impenetrable right after ovulation, rendering it "hostile" to the passage of sperm.
4 - Enjoy yourself. "The most important thing to remember is to keep sex fun," says Felicia Stewart, M.D., coauthor of Understanding Your Body: Every Woman's Guide to Gynecology and Health. When it becomes a chore, it's easy to view sex as just one more item on your to-do list.
5 - Give it time. Barring fertility problems and other conditions or habits that can interfere with conception, half of all couples get pregnant within six months, says Dr. Stewart, and 85 percent do so within a year.
Marisa Fox writes about health for national magazines.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

WP Firewall - Secure Your WordPress Blog

WP Firewall - Secure Your WordPress Blog
is an important plugin for your blog. It will protect your blog from most noticeable attacks like SQL injection or directory traversal. As hackers are getting smarter day by day, so it is very important plugin for your to secure your blog from hackers attacks


Download

Quintessential Media Player - winamp Alternative

Quintessential Media Player

Quintessential Media Player is a feature rich media player for Microsoft Windows. It supports all popular audio formats including MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and CDs. QMP is highly skinnable and has a robust plug-in architecture

DivX Plus Player Free Windows Media Player Alternative

http://www.tipsblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/divx-plus-media-player-217x300.jpg
DivX Plus Player
DivX Plus Player is another popular one built to give you the best video playback performance and media management on your PC. It can play DivX, AVI, MKV, MP4 and MOV videos. Other features include easier navigation of videos with greater speed and precision, transferring videos to your devices etc.

Download

10 Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

The Microsoft Office suite takes up a lot of memory, both in hard drive space and in RAM. The full and complete package of Office costs more than some people's mortgage payments. Fortunately, Office is not the only option available to get the work done. Here are ten FREE alternatives to what Microsoft Office has to offer.
  1. Google Docs (Web Based): The Web Based Google Docs is an easy to use set of applications that users can create word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. You can share these documents with friends and coworkers quite effectively with the push of a few buttons.
  2. Open Office (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux): Open Office is a great solution for those who are looking for a free open source alternative to the Microsoft family. The suite offers a great open source alternative to the Microsoft family of products. The suite has word processing, a database program, a spreadsheet application and a layout program to create most documents.
  3. KOffice (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux): There are eight packages in this suite, including a spreadsheet, presentation software, project planning and image editing. It is fast, functional and open source.
  4. NeoOffice 3.1.1 (Mac OS X): NeoOffice took the features of OpenOffice and expanded them to be Mac specific. This offers the same programs in OpenOffice and streamlined them specifically for the Mac user. It is faster than OpenOffice, and uses the Mac OSX Leopard grammar checking features.
  5. Lotus Symphony (Windows): Lotus Symphony diverges from its OpenOffice base by offering a browser-like system of creating and editing documents. Three tools are offered: word processing, spreadsheets and presentation. In the word processing application, you can use templates, spellcheck and insert your own creations into the document.
  6. Zoho (Web Based): Zoho aims to be a comprehensive set of applications like Google docs. There are programs for writing and spreadsheets, but the Zoho suite goes beyond that by offering a wiki, a planner, email and CRM.
  7. GnomeOffice (Linux, Windows): This was a Linux suite in the beginning, catering to those users with a word processor and a spreadsheet program. It has since expanded to the Windows arena, allowing you to take your documents anywhere with the Open Document format. Gnumeric, the spreadsheet program, offers 189 functions that are not available anywhere else.
  8. ThinkFree (Web Based): ThinkFree allows you to open Excel spreadsheets, MS Word Docs and PowerPoint presentations. The tools are Web Based, requiring a login that can be coordinated through your Google account. You have the option of collaborating with others. Being a Web Based system, it is accessible from anywhere that has an internet connection.
  9. Jarte (Word Processor, Windows): Jarte is self-described as 'a fast starting, easy to use word processor that expands well beyond the Wordpad feature set.' You can insert photos and tables and export to html or PDF formats. You can also send documents out via email.
  10. Atlantis Nova (Word Processor, Windows): The claim to fame for Atlantis Nova is that you get all of the traditional tools for word processing, but you don't have to worry about it chewing up processing power. The basic version of the program is free, or you can choose to pay $35 for registration

Saturday, November 13, 2010

10 Excellent Open Source and Free Alternatives to Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a given in any designer’s wish list, and it comes with a host of features that allow for excellent and professional photo editing. The biggest obstacle to any designer who wants Photoshop is the price, which can be prohibitive. Fortunately there are a number of open source (and completely free) programs out there that do much of what Photoshop can, and sometimes more.
In this collection, you will find 10 excellent examples of open source and free alternatives to Adobe Photoshop

1. GIMP

GIMP stands for “GNU image manipulation program”, and it is one of the oldest and most well known alternatives to Photoshop in existence. Although it doesn’t quite have all of them, you’ll find most of the features included in Photoshop somewhere in GIMP. GIMP is cross platform and supported by a large community.
If just having the feature set isn’t enough for you, there is an alternative based on GIMP known as GIMPShop. It’s the same as GIMP, except the layout has been structured as close to Photoshop as possible, so anyone making the transition should still feel right at home.
GIMP - screen shot.

2. Krita

Krita has been lauded for ease of use and won the Akademy Award for Best Application in 2006. Part of the Koffice suite for Linux, Krita is slightly less powerful than both Photoshop and GIMP, but does contain some unique features.
Krita - screen shot.

3. Paint.NET

Paint.NET has grown out of a simple replacement for the well known MSPaint into a fully featured open source image editor with a wide support base. You’ll need Windows to run Paint.NET.
Paint.NET - screen shot.

4. ChocoFlop

ChocoFlop is a design application designed exclusively for Mac, optimized for Mac architecture. It’s quick and fairly well featured. This program won’t always be free, but until a stable version is released (it’s currently in beta) they are allowing free use. The program works pretty well as is, and if you’re the type who doesn’t mind an occasional bug it’s certainly worth a look.
ChocoFlop - screen shot.

5. Cinepaint

Cinepaint is designed primarily for video often used to make animated feature films by major studios, but it is also a great image editor capable of high fidelity 32 bit color. Currently there is no stable version for Windows.
Cinepaint - screen shot.

6. Pixia

Pixia was originally designed in Japanese but English versions now exist for this rich editor. Although the original focus was on anime/manga, it is a very capable editor in general. Some of the features are a little counter intuitive, but there are plenty of English tutorials available now if you want to give it a shot. The website seems to have changed recently, so be sure to use our link if you don’t want a Japanese error message. Pixia works for Windows.
Pixia - screen shot.

7. Pixen

Pixen is designed as a pixel artist’s dream, but has expanded into a smooth and well featured overall editor. It’s definitely best at animation though, if that’s your style. Pixen is Mac (10.4x or later) only.
Pixen - screen shot.

8. Picnik

Picnik is a web based photo editor that has recently taken off due to a partnership with Flickr. It has all the basic features plus a few advanced ones like layers and special effects. It is cross platform since you only need a browser.
Picnik - screen shot.

9. Splashup

Another web based application, Splashup has a strong set of features (including those layers) and will remind you somewhat of Photoshop. It integrates easily with photo sharing websites and just like the above, is cross platform.
Splashup - screen shot.

10. Adobe Photoshop Express

Adobe actually has a free web based photo editor of their own. It has all the basic functionality you’d expect as well as a few advanced features (sadly though, no layers), and interfaces well with a number of photo sharing websites. Again, completely cross platform.
Adobe Photoshop Express - screen shot.

If you Prefer other programs let us know them through comments

http://thebestandfree.blogspot.com

Windows Live Messenger

With MSN Messenger you can chat online instantly in real time with friends, family and colleagues. It’s faster than e-mail, more discreet than a phone call.
Chat using a webcam, send text messages to mobile phones, and express yourself instantly online in real time with new, cool emoticons.
MSN Messenger looks like you! Sign in with your own picture, create your own emoticons, and represent yourself with new, cool backgrounds!

VLC Media Player

VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg…) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Top 5 Free Android Apps

I have been using Android since the original G1, and have tested most of the top phones running Google’s OS. As thoroughly as I test review phones, it’s a slightly different experience when using a phone of my very own. I snagged the Sprint EVO 4G yesterday, and have been testing free apps to make the Android experience even better. Here are the top five free apps I have settled on so far. My list will not likely match the list of other Android users as we all are after different things. I am also sure my list will grow over time to include other apps that strike my fancy.
1. Twicca. I am a big Twitter user and always look for a good client on every mobile device I use. I like the genuine Twitter app for Android, but Twicca has knocked it off my home page. Twicca has full functionality for using Twitter, and in a package that is attractive and easy to use. It’s also hard not to appreciate the magical connotation of its name. Don’t let the image fool you; Twicca works in English, too.
2. Dolphin Browser HD. The stock Android browser on the EVO is pretty good, but Dolphin brings most of the functionality of a full desktop browser to the big EVO screen. It has all the expected features, tabbed browsing, multiple windows and the like. The implementation of gestures is a nice touch for the EVO screen and add-ons are useful. Dolphin is so fast on the EVO 4G it is downright scary.
3.  Toodle Droid. I use the ToodleDo task list online and on the iPad, and it keeps me on top of my to-do list each day. Toodle Droid is an app that interfaces with ToodleDo and presents my list with a very basic presentation. It is nothing fancy, just very functional. You can add new tasks using Toodle Droid, but if you need extensive interaction with your to-do list then it will not meet your needs. I use it as a reference only, and like the simplistic approach of Toodle Droid.
4. Speedtest.net. The EVO 4G has the speedy network in its favor, and the ability to dish it out as a mobile hotspot (monthly fee required) is a nice bonus. I find myself regularly keeping an eye on connection speeds to see how things are moving along, and Speed Test is a nice way to do that. If you are familiar with the online test site speedtest.net, then you are already familiar with this app. It does one thing, and well.
5.  Google Voice. You would think Google would integrate Google Voice tightly with Android, and they sure did. Google Voice turns the Android phone into a full Google Voice phone. There is complete control over how the phone integrates with Voice, including letting GV take over all aspects of phone calls completely if desired.
These are the first apps that have earned a permanent place on my home screen, but they will by no means be the only ones. I am continuing to investigate offerings in the Android Market and will share my findings from time to time. If you have favorite Android apps you can’t live without, please share those in the comments. You can never have too many apps.

Convert Any File To PDF Format Using Nitro Reade

Today we have a number of free and open source solutions to create PDF files. Better yet, these tools allow us to create the document in our familiar software environment, say Microsoft Word, and convert them to PDF format.
One such great app is Nitro Reader, which is free to use and is loaded with a lot of great features.

Overview

Nitro Reader supports both Windows 32 bit and 64 bit platforms. On the download page, there is a field to enter your email address to get email updates about Nitro Reader. Submitting the email address is a not a mandatory requirement and you can download the file straight away.
Once the download is complete, the installation is very quick and does not include any other bundled toolbars or trialware. After installation, Nitro Reader set itself as the default PDF reader of choice without giving a choice, which I found a bit annoying. You can revert this back by going into the Preferences section.

Reading PDF Files

convert to pdf format
Nitro Reader has a clean, familiar ribbon interface just like Microsoft Office and a light footprint running smoothly without hogging system resources. It comes with the standard features we have come to expect from a standard PDF reader. Tasks and tools are separated appropriately for easy access.
create pdf files
The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is extremely customizable and you can pick & choose the shortcuts you use often to create an easily accessible group. Nitro Reader’s panes are context specific ie. they are displayed or hidden depending on the content on display.
An option to notify special features in the PDF file like security restrictions, digital certificates, or form fields is also available in Nitro Reader.
create pdf files
Accessing multiple PDF files is such a delight with a browser-like tabbed interface. While reading multiple documents, it is possible with Nitro Reader to set different page view settings for each of the documents that are open.

Creating PDF files

create pdf files
Nitro Reader can create PDF files from a whopping three hundred different file formats. PDF creation process is extremely simple. Select a file from the disk, choose the file optimization level (to reduce the file size), assign a location to save the created file and you are all done.
Nitro Reader creates the PDF file keeping the layout and style of the original document completely intact.

Content Extraction

convert to pdf format
Often we find the content formatting in the file to be too distracting to read or to save the images embedded in the file. Nitro Reader does a very fine job in extracting both text and images from the PDF file. The text extracted even the index without much damage to the original formatting & alignment.

How To Recover Broken MP3 Files

You’d be surprised how many of your files are already affected. Luckily, many of these errors stay below the radar, and these files will continue to play as if nothing were wrong. Most applications don’t rely too heavily on a particular MP3 tag.
But if a file suddenly has choppy sound or doesn’t play at all, and if a collection of songs can’t be added to iTunes, then you know what’s happening.

Depending on how grave the particular distortion is, it might be easy to solve, or not at all. Below are a bunch of applications, for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, that will help you detect the fault and recover corrupt MP3 files in your music collection.

Validating & Repairing MP3 Tags

Most of these errors have to do with so-called MP3 tags. These aren’t limited to the name of the artist and the album release year, but also contain critical technical information, like MPEG stream and Xing header data. When these don’t match up or there’s garbage at the beginning or end of the file, some MP3 players will get confused. The applications below analyze your files, try to realize what’s wrong, and fix it.

a) MP3 DiagsDownload (Windows, Linux)

This application is available for both Windows and Linux. If you’re experiencing trouble, try option (c).
MP3 Diags is a wonderfully extensive application that not only takes care of the aforementioned errors, but also helps you maintain the consumer-relevant tags and album artwork. For the purpose for this article, we will focus only on its repairing capabilities.
recover my file mp3
In this collection, MP3 Diags is the heaviest and most extended application. It works its magic fast, precise and with vast detail. If you’re technologically gifted, MP3 Diags will duly and thoroughly inform you of the nature of those errors. It’s obviously one of the better applications in this category.
The main development platform is Linux (OpenSUSE), so it’ll function best on Linux OS’s. Contrary to MP3val, MP3 Diags offers a decent GUI. Windows compilations should work fine though, although program crashes are slightly more likely. The Windows build is currently being developed and tested using Windows 7.

b) MP3 Scan+Repair (Mac OS X)

The Mac OS X handyman is called MP3 Scan+Repair. Barely 1MB, MP3 Scan+Repair is a small, but resourceful application, that’s just as easy (if not easier) to use as MP3val.
fix mp3 files
Files can be added from within the application, or by dragging it onto the application window or dock item. The application will immediately start scanning your files. To repair all (repairable) errors, select the corrupt files (click the warning icon at the top and select all) and press the hammer icon. Files will be moved to the trash and reconstructed in their stead.

c) MP3val (Windows, Linux)

This application is available for both Windows and Linux. If you’re experiencing trouble, try option (a).
MP3val is a lightweight application that can fix most of the aforementioned problems, lightning fast. It’s been the salvation of many an audiophile. You can include files manually, or add whole folders to scan. Once the MP3 problems have been determined, they can be fixed with the click of a button.
recover my file mp3
Although MP3val is technically a command-line tool, the MP3val frontend offers a graphical user interface for Windows users, as can be seen in the screenshot above. On the download page, make sure to select the MP3val-frontend 0.1.1 binaries.
The MP3val core (command-line) is up to version 0.1.8 and can be used on both Windows and on Linux after compilation.
The majority of, but not all, files can are repairable. It’s possible that some files have been distorted beyond repair. It’s also possible that you’re not looking at a ‘real’ MP3 file. If you downloaded this from a shady source, I suggest doing a full system spyware sweep.

Free Music Zilla – Easily Download Music From Social Websites

As most of you will know, your playlist controls are rather restricted in Last.fm. You can’t pause or navigate songs, never mind downloading; that’s what makes the service so cheap to use.

Downloading songs from Last.fm instead of YouTube poses a number of advantages; not least when we’re reviewing audio quality. Nevertheless, actually retrieving the mp3 files is an intricate tale, with more than enough blood, sweat and tears to mimic a war zone – Jason K. talked you through the process with Proxomitron and Firefox. Using Free Music Zilla, it gets a whole lot easier.

Free Music Zilla

Last.fm isn’t the only social music service, but they all tell a similar tale. There are different advantages to different services, but downloading the music is far from easy. Free Music Zilla, a free, light-weight Windows application, can help you with almost all of those services, including Last.fm, Pandora, Myspace, IMEEM, eSnips, MOG and iJigg.
music download sites
Unlike the well-known and often used YouTube Downloader, Free Music Zilla doesn’t track down your file from the web URL. Instead, it keeps a close eye on your internet activity and sniffs out all music files that are present on the webpage.

Any Browser You Want

These tools often work in conjunction with add-ons for one specific browser. Free Music Zilla tracks your browser activity from the outside in, so you don’t need to install any additional add-ons. This enables you to use it with nearly any browser you want.
music download sites
Free Music Zilla monitors only Internet Explorer and Firefox by default. If you use a different browser, you’ll have to give the application a hand. Open the Tools menu and select Preferences. Under the Monitoring tab, you can enable your browser. Locate more obscure browsers by checking Custom and navigating to your browser, or if you use multiple browsers on your PC, enable all of them.

How To Download MP3 Files From A Social Service

To download an MP3 file to your computer, first make sure your browser is enabled in the settings (see above) and Free Music Zilla is running. With your browser, surf to the social service and use it like you normally would. Once you hear something you like, switch to Free Music Zilla, where you should see the file listed; MP3 if the content is audio-only, MOV, MP4 or FLV if video is included. If you’re unsure which file to download, look at the time it was added.

You can tick off the checkbox next to a file and hit the Download button to save it to your computer. You have to especially mind the Leech Timeout column. This is inherent to the anti leech protection these social services use, and what makes it so hard to download. Once the countdown reaches zero, you’ll be unable to download the file, so try to make it fast enough.
Free Music Zilla is one of the most – no, the easiest tool to download from sites like IMEEM and Last.fm

How To Build A Linux Web Server With An Old Computer - Part 2

in part one of this series. Now learn how to upload your files and finally view your web server from anywhere in the world!
Now that our server is functional, we have to take care of the part where we can actually use it. Basically we need to expose the server to the outside world, so from here on out it is important to keep the server up to date with all of its patches – the Ubuntu Update Manager will take care of this for you.

Finding The Server’s Local IP Address

First thing you need to do is to find the server’s local IP address and set it to something you will later be able to reference. Let’s find the server’s currently set IP address – found via the dynamic DHCP protocol – in the Network Information box.
Right click on your network connection which will be an up/down array and go to “Connection Information.” This will pop up a box with your current IP address, network adapter card, broadcast address, gateway, and DNS server. Write this down as we will use it in the next step.
linux web server software
What we need to do is edit your connection information to give you a static IP address on your local network. Right click that menu but this time go to “Edit Connections.” Select the adapter name from the previous step – in my case it is eth1, and edit those settings. Select the IPv4 tab and switch “Method” to “Manual” rather than “Automatic (DHCP)” which is what it defaults to when you install. Type in the information from your connection settings.
linux server for web hosting
The one difference we will have this time will be your IP address. Keep the first three octets (the numbers between the dots) and change the last one to a high number under 254. It is important that this number not be in use on your network, and if you are not sure, pick a high IP address like 250. For our example I know that .10 is free, so let’s say our new IP address is 192.168.2.10. This will be your static, local IP address.

Sharing The Web Folder

Sharing a folder is probably the easiest way to access and upload files onto your server. However, and this is a big one, this also opens your server up security-wise and it is important to only use this method if your server is on a private network and you do not run the risk of anyone connecting to it, via wired or wireless, and accessing your shares.
First we need to relax the permissions on our web folder. Open a terminal by going to Applications->Accessories->Terminal. Enter the following command:
$ sudo chmod 777 /var/www
It will prompt your for your password and then change the permissions, which will have no message returned if it went successfully.
linux server for web hosting
Now go to the file browser (Places->Computer) and go to File System->/var/. Right click the www folder and then “Sharing options.” Check off “Share this folder“. For security options, you can either share it with or without a password. Select “Guest access” to share the folder without requiring a username and password.
This means that you or anyone else will be able to access the files without a password. For this reason, I recommend sharing with a password. It will be more of a pain because you will need to enter this information, but it is certainly more secure. Also check off “Allow others to create and delete files in this folder.” This allows write access from the shared directory.
linux web server software
To view your files, go to the network location //192.168.2.10/www. It will either prompt you for your password or allow you access straight to your files, depending on your security settings. This is the same set of files that you can access in your web browser by going to http://192.168.2.10/.

Port Forwarding

Now that we have our IP address, an important concept to understand is port forwarding. Every single person connected to the internet is behind an IP address. For most home connections, and also some business connections, the IP of your local computer is not actually exposed to the internet – it will be in a private range that is either 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x. So how do visitors to your website actually contact your server? We do this with port forwarding.
Ports on a server are similar to doors or windows on a house – each one will give you access to a different service running on the server. Web servers use port 80 by default.
Your router should have a section called “Port Forwarding“, or “Applications” which will allow you to forward ports properly. Forward TCP port 80 to inside your network on the IP address we specified above. Each router is different, so refer to your router’s operations manual on how to set this up properly.

Getting A Static Hostname

Most home connections have what is called a dynamic IP, which means that it will change after a set period, usually a week or so. We have covered the fantastic DynDNS server here on MakeUseOf last year, so check out that article for more information on using the DynDNS service. Make sure you use the Linux client for updating your dynamic IP with the DynDNS servers. For our web server you will want to forward TCP port 80. Forward this port to the local static IP address, in our case this is 192.168.2.10.
You should now be able to visit your web server from the outside world by going to the URL: http://yourhostname.dyndns.org. Some ISPs will block port 80 to your router. In this case, forward something like port 8080 to port 80. This will allow you to visit your website by going to http://yourhostname.dyndns.org:8080.

The World Is Your Oyster

That is it for our down and dirty guide to running your own web server on an old computer. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want and there are many variables thrown into the process so it is easy to get caught up on something. If you run into any problems, feel free to leave a response below and we’ll guide you through the process as best as we can.
Now that your web server is set up, you can focus on programming or installing your own software!

How To Build A Linux Web Server With An Old Computer - Part 1


Ubuntu and Mint Linux. After getting up and running you will have a platform for hosting your website in-house either for development or to self-host a website.
This how-to article is broken down into 4 major steps: 1. Acquire an old computer, 2. Install Operating system, 3. Set up the application web server software (Apache, PHP, MySQL), and 4. Reaching the computer from the internet.

Acquire an Old Computer

Linux is a versatile operating system in that it can be run on the slowest of PCs, at least in command line mode. For simplicity’s sake, we are going to be running Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick Meercat” which was just released and reviewed by Justin.

System Requirements

The Ubuntu 10.10 lists 256MB of RAM as the minimum amount it will work on. The installation itself takes up 3.3GB and then you want to leave space for the additional software and any files you need to work with, so I would peg that minimum at 10GB.
Ubuntu supports a wide variety of video cards, hard drives and other hardware; if you want to check before downloading the install disk, look at the Linux hardware compatibility list for both complete systems and individual components in your system to see if it will work. Before getting too caught up in this though, it is pretty quick and simple to test things out with a Live CD to make sure everything will work on your system.
If you plan on running the server 24/7, make sure it is in a well-ventilated area. It is better to place it in an air-conditioned room during the summer as heat will be your system’s main enemy.

Install Ubuntu

linux web server software
Installing Ubuntu is a cinch with the latest 10.10 installer. My favorite feature of the installer is that while you are still making choices about the installation, it is working to format and copy files over to your hard drive.
Head on over to the Ubuntu Desktop CD Download site to get the ISO file. These disk images have the latest versions of software so you should only have to do a minimum of upgrading after the install. Use the 64-bit version if your computer supports it or the 32-bit version otherwise. Burn the ISO to a CD or DVD, plug it into the drive of the computer and boot up.
If you need to change the BIOS settings to boot off of a CD then do so, or sometimes you need to press a key to select an alternative boot media. Boot off of the CD drive and select the “Install Ubuntu.” Generally speaking, we will be installing the least amount of software as possible for two reasons: the first is that the more software you install and services you run in the background, the slower your system will be. The second is that it also opens your system up to more potential security holes in the future.
Select “Download updates while installing” and “Install 3rd Party Software” and then “Erase and Use The Entire Disk”. Note that this will erase any other operating systems you have on this computer. Follow through the other options per your desired settings. I do not recommend encrypting your home folder. Reboot after the installation is complete.
linux server
Upon reboot, your install is essentially complete! The first thing you need to do after an install, similar to a Windows machine, is to apply any updates. Go to System->Administration->Update Manager and “Install Updates”. You may need to reboot after installing any updates it has found.
You now have a fully-functional Ubuntu install.

Set Up Application Services

You have a number of options here, but since most websites run on a combination of Apache, MySQL and PHP, we are going to install those. This is similar to what we recommended installing on Windows.
These applications are installed via the Ubuntu Software Center. Launch the software center via System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager. This is where we install the software we need.
Search for and install the following package names, each of which will include a number of prerequisites: apache2, php5, php5-mysql, and mysql-server. Apply the changes to install the packages.
linux server
The packages will download and install shortly. The installer will prompt you for the MySQL “root” password. No reboot is necessary.

Test Your Web Server!

You can test your web server by opening the Firefox web browser on your server and heading to the URL http://127.0.0.1/.
linux web server software
You should see an “It works!” message meaning that your web server is running! Both Apache and MySQL will be running in the background and will start on bootup. Your web server is now essentially working and you can edit the files in /var/www and see the changes live on your website.
Part two of this series, to be published shortly, will go over how to upload files to your Linux web server; and how to access your web server both over your local network and via the internet. Check back to see how to complete your setup. The setup is pretty straight forward but there are always hiccups along the way.
Questions from new system administrators? Ask away in the comments and I’ll be sure to get back to you!

How To Easily Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An E-Commerce Site

I am always amazed at the flexibility of WordPress. It has grown so far beyond just blogging. With the right plugin(s) and theme, you can change it into whatever kind of site you can imagine. Our project today requires a plugin called – I think you’ve guessed it – WP e-commerce.
With the latest generation of WordPress, you can find and install it directly from within your admin area. No FTP required.
e-commerce development
The popularity of this plugin has made other people create additional e-commerce plugins to complement the original. You can find a whole bunch of them by searching using “WP e-commerce” as the search string.
After installing the plugin, you can manage various aspects of your store from the “Store” menu at the sidebar.
e-commerce website design
For example, you can view a list of your available products from the “Products” tab under the store menu.
e-commerce website design
Another thing that you can do from this menu is add products. The process itself is similar to writing a blog post with additional fields like available units and price.
e-commerce website design
The best way to learn how to build the store is to familiarize yourself with the plugin and do some experiments.

E-Commerce Themes

After setting up the plugin, you can continue with your store front by complementing the plugin with a matching theme. There are actually WordPress themes specifically designed to accommodate WordPress e-commerce sites that use the WP e-commerce plugin.
You are not likely to find these kind of themes inside the WordPress.org theme gallery (I tried to search but could only find one), so you can’t install the themes using the search and install function of the WordPress admin area.
You can however search for them using a search engine, download them to your hard drive, then upload and install them to your WordPress via the admin area using the “Upload” menu. It’s more steps involved, compared to the plugin installation, but still no FTP required.
e-commerce website development
Here are four of several alternatives of WordPress e-commerce themes that you can try. The first three come from one developer, so they have more or less similar looks and tastes. The fourth one is one that I found from searching inside the admin area.

1. AppCloud

This theme has a minimalistic look and design. The interface is fairly easy to navigate so its easy to turn your future customers into real customers.
e-commerce website development

2. Kelontong

This theme is the dark version of AppCloud. I think the round corners and side menu makes it more elegant.
e-commerce website development

3. Dangdoot

This theme is designed to sell music-related items, but it’s also applicable for general use.
03c Dangdoot Theme.jpg

4. Crafty Cart

A retro shop theme designed for the WP e-commerce plugin. As the name suggests, the theme is perfect for those who wants to sell hand-made crafts.
e-commerce development
The plugin and themes that I mentioned above are just one of the many alternatives that you can use to turn WordPress into an e-commerce website. If you know more plugins and/or themes, please feel free to share them using the comments below.