Google Street view gets a Time machine

Google Street View was launched in 2007, and has been expanding all over the world ever since. Now the search giant has collected all its imagery from then until now, so you can travel through time in Street View.
In a blog post, Google Street View Product Manager Vinay Shet explained how they have added a clock icon to Street View images, which allows you to slide through the different images Google has taken of that place since 2007.

This means you can do things like see the 2014 World Cup stadium in Fortaleza, Brazil, or the Freedom Tower in New York being built. Vinay Shey also said that these historical images serve as records for recent history, like viewing earthquake damage and reconstruction. Depending on when Google took its Street View imagery, you can also use it to see the same place in different seasons.
Google Street view history is currently only available in the Chrome browser on desktops. Google has not said when this will be rolled out to mobile versions (or other browsers).

Chrome 34 update speeds up load times, adds supervised user import

Google has updated its Chrome browser with the usual performance and bug fixes. The company is making web pages load faster than ever with new web developer tools to format images. Chrome looks at which device the page is being loaded on and offers the optimal photo size. This speeds up load times and reduces bandwidth usage, which mobile users will appreciate.
Also new to the browser is the ability to import and sync supervised users. Google released parental controls two versions ago and now you can sync these user profiles across devices.

To import a supervised user, head to Settings and click "Add new user." At the bottom of the window, you'll see an option to "Import an existing supervised user."
Now you can easily import and sync browser settings for the entire family across all your devices.
If you're already running Chrome, you can update the browser by clicking the Menu button and "About Chrome." The browser will automatically look for updates to install.

Broadcast your life with Livestream for Google Glass

Google Glass is great for sharing video from a first-person perspective. Now you can share live with the Livestream app for Google Glass.
The app lets users upload live video to Livestream's website where your friends (or the public) can watch. The app doesn't much besides broadcast video, though you can see chat messages in real time.
The interface is simple with a red record button when you're live, an elapsed time counter, and viewer count. There's also a display for connection speed at the top right to let you know if your video is streaming properly.
To install Livestream for Glass, you'll have to install an app on your PC or Mac. Pair your Glass with a Livestream event and begin broadcasting by saying, "OK glass, Livestream."
If you want to share live video privately, use Google Hangouts for Glass instead.

Chrome 34's password manager can save your bank passwords

Banks, and other sites that have a heightened sense of security normally evade browsers that ask to save passwords. Chrome 34's password manager ignores this by default, so your passwords for these site will be saved. Websites that include the code autocomplete='off' normally sidestep password managers, forcing users to enter them every time they access a site. This has the advantage that anyone else using your computer can't access your bank account, for example. But the new Chrome 34 ignores autocomplete='off' by default, if users have the password manager enabled.
The Chrome team's view is 'that this is very important for user security by allowing users to have unique and more complex passwords for websites.' They also point out that 'this does not affect non-password fields', so it may be you still have to manually enter some information to access your secure sites, although it very much depends on how those sites are designed.
While it's true that you are more likely to choose a complex password if Chrome will remember it for you, this does mean you have to entrust Chrome with that information. If you use Chrome Sync, you also have to trust that information will be safe being sent across Google's servers.
You can choose to turn off ignore autocomplete='off' in the password manager, but it's unlikely that normal users would actually do that.
This feature does make it easier to use complex passwords, but at the same time means they will be saved by Chrome. Online services such as banks would be more secure if you simply use a complex password and remember it, as your head is less likely to be a victim of hacking than a server or computer.

Why Facebook is Blue in Color?

When you open Facebook, the first thing that you notice is the blue color it uses. Ever wondered why is Facebook so blue in color and not changing its color scheme?

Ever since they started as 'thefacebook', Facebook has stayed with the blue color. Although major changes have been made in the Facebook theme since then, the major unchanged thing has been the blue color.

Facebook from its early days when it was known as  thefacebook

An exciting fact: In its earlier days, thefacebook.com required you to have an  .edu email id to join.

Everywhere from its login page to Facebook groups, you find only blue.

Facebook Login Page. All Blue!

The reason for this is that  Mark Zuckerberg, the young founder of Facebook is red-green color-blind and blue is the richest colour for him which he confirmed in an online interview with Leo Laporte.

Another important commercial factor for using blue color is the fact that most colors tend to distract the viewers. Blue on the other hand acts as a transparent background to the main content as visible to the human brain due to which most popular websites tend to use the blue color. It can easily be called a webmaster's favorite color. Blue color is also sometimes referred to as 'Nirvana' for the brain.

All these factors make blue a prominent color on Facebook.

How to Save Money Shopping Online

he internet isn't just a great way to shop without leaving your home, it's also a great way to save money without the tedious, old-fashioned task of clipping coupons. With a little smart shopping and a few extra resources, the internet's vast stretches can save your budget and even give you a little extra room to "splurge" after you've got all of the essentials covered.

Online Coupon Sites

This might be the most popular way to save money when shopping on the internet. Coupon sites are all over the internet and they rely on user contributions to display a list of coupon codes for each online shopping website out there. These coupon codes range from small savings, like free shipping on your order, to bigger deals that will save you between 15 percent and 50 percent on orders at certain websites.

It's as easy as copying and pasting the special code into the website's "promotional code" box when you begin the checkout process. You'll see your savings automatically, and it will probably elicit a sigh of accomplishment. There's no greater feeling than finding a "secret" coupon code that saves you big bucks in an online purchase.

Buy Your Basics Online

You can actually buy everything from your deodorant to your toothpaste and other necessities online. You can even find products online that have been discontinued from store shelves -- and you can buy them in bulk!

These websites are officially affiliated with the Rite Aid chain of convenience stores, but the online prices are far below what you would pay in the retail store. The good news is, first-time buyers can save 20 percent on their first order as well as score free shipping. And every purchase earns a 5 percent cash back reward that can be redeemed quarterly. If you go through lots of toiletries, these websites can offset your costs dramatically. Consistent purchases can end up landing you $20 or more in cash back rewards, and at these prices, that's good enough for a month's worth of free shampoo, toothpaste, and even vitamins.

Sign Up for Auto-Refill Services

Online storefronts like Soap.com are not alone in offering "automatic refill" subscriptions for the products you buy regularly throughout the year. Nutritional stores like GNC also offer this convenient service, and subscribing can land you free shipping and even regular discounts on products.

When you sign up for an automatic refill process, you give the site permission to charge your debit or credit card automatically at the same time every month. The products you've elected to buy each month are then automatically shipped to your home address without you intervening at all. You'll receive an email notification that the products are on their way as well as tracking information -- and that's all you'll need!

Because this service is brand new, many companies are encouraging customers to sign up by offering free shopping on automatic refill orders. You won't have to scour the internet for coupon codes anymore, just by signing up. Additionally, many companies offer up to a 15 percent discount on automatically-refilled orders, which can saver you further amounts from the already-discounted prices you'll find online. And, let's face it, everyone needs a regular refill of toothpaste, or shampoo, or their daily multivitamin. It really is a no-brainer to sign up and get started.

The ways to save money online are as numerous as the websites that populate the internet, but these are a few great ways to save on basic items that will allow you to spend more money on "fun" things, like clothes, vacations, and dining. Of course, those luxuries can also be found at great savings online -- but that's for another time.

5 Essential free Software for Windows PC

Imagine, you have a new high end PC with Windows installed. You switch on the PC in excitement only to ask yourself the question, what should I do now? Even the most high end hardware is useless without the right software. This article deals with such five essential software for your PC that do not put any dent on your pocket. For convenience purposes, each software is provided according to the category of its usage. So lets begin.

All the freeware mentioned support all versions of Windows including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

1.  Browsers: It is fair to say that for majority of PC users, surfing the internet is the only major use for their PC. So, it would have been unfair to begin this list with any other category. Although, Windows comes with Internet Explorer, it would not be totally wrong to say that IE is no more than an average web browser. So an alternative web browser is an absolute necessity. Coming to the point, there are two major contenders for inclusion in this category. So, I was unsure which one to choose. So I decided to include them both. (I have intentionally not numbered the browsers)

a. Mozilla Firefox: Mozilla is not totally wrong to say that the Firefox Web browser is the faster, more secure, and fully customizable way to browse the web. Firefox is one of the most complete browsers available. It is considered to be the first browser to shake Internet Explorer's dominance. One of the good things about Firefox is that it keeps up with the needs of time. Another cool thing about Firefox is that it has a perfect score in Acid 3 test. Firefox wins the race with other browsers in terms of available themes, plugins, and security. Overall, Firefox is a must have browser on your PC.

b.  Google Chrome: When Google does something, it is huge and the same is true for Google Chrome. Everything was looking settled in the browser market when Google all of a sudden came up with their new browser with the unique thought of building it almost from scratch. Google's Chrome is currently the fastest browser on the planet with tremendous JavaScript rendering capabilities. Like Firefox, Chrome has a perfect score in Acid 3. Themes and plugins also make Chrome a totally customizable browser. Overall, Chrome is fast, safe and customizable. If you have no problem with Google's products, Chrome is a must have browser on your PC.

2.  Media Player: If we check our hard drives, one thing which most of us will find on them is media. To play that media, we need a media player. So a media player is important for most PC users. One can say that Windows comes with Windows Media Player, so why is another media player needed? To them, I say that Windows Media Player does not have the ability to play all the media formats unless you install the necessary codecs. So, a media player which comes with almost all codecs installed is needed. There is one such media player available. It is VideoLAN's free offering, VLC Media Player.

 VLC  Media Player: VLC Media Player is an open source, multi-platform media player that comes with almost all of the codecs required to play all different types of media on your PC. So you do not have to worry about installing codecs to play your files. Moreover, the best part about VLC media player is that being open source, you can install it on almost any operating system. Moreover, VLC media player is portable so you can carry it in your flash drive. All this combined with stability, performance, ability to convert and cut videos make VLC Media Player an absolute essential software.

3.  Image Viewer: Well most of us like to take images, and most of us like to edit them as well. This leads to a large amount of images in different formats. The inbuilt image viewer in Windows is not all that bad but the problem arises when we try to open files of different formats. Imagine this situation, you have a great collection of images which are of different formats. Now you invite your friends to show those images. But you have one problem, Windows Image Viewer is not opening the images as they are of unsupported formats. What do you do? Well you install Irfan View with plugins.

Irfan View: Irfan View is developed by Irfan Skiljan, a student at the University of Vienna in 1996. Irfan View is one of the most popular image viewer worldwide. Irfan View gets downloaded over 1 million times each month. One of the major advantages of Irfan View is that it has a light interface, is fast in opening images and can open virtually every type of image image file possible. It can even open Flash files and also serves as a small media player as it can play movie files and mp3 files as well! And that is not all, Irfan View can be used to do minor image editing as well.

Some of its features are:
Slide show, batch conversion, Acquiring from a TWAIN source, Batch acquire or scan, adding text to photos, converting to greyscale, enhancing colours and even capturing screen shots. Honestly, that is not even 5 % of what Irfan View is capable of. All this at a tremendously small size make Irfan View a must have essential.

Irfan View Plugins can add further functionality to this already great software.

4.  Security: This could well be the most important category of this article. Security of a PC is the most important thing in the cyber world now. There was a time when this was not essential but those were the good old days. Now one cannot even think of browsing the web without having an anti virus or anti spyware installed. Big organizations and corporate companies spend millions for securing their network but you don't have to. There are some free tools which do the job equally well without costing you a penny. (To read a full article on securing your PC, visit How to Improve your Cyber Security.)

There were many alternatives to include in this category. So I decided to include the most popular one which is presumably AVG Free Edition.

AVG Free Edition: AVG is a popular antivirus with a slick interface having the ability to detect viruses and spywares. It receives updates frequently and is light on resources. Some of its key features are Automatic Update Functionality, Resident Shield, Email Scanner, free lifetime database updates for home users, Anti Spyware, Anti Virus, AVG toolbar and Search Scan. All these premium features are available free of cost in AVG making it a must have free anti virus/spyware for your PC.

 
5.  Office Suite: An office suite has become an absolute necessity these days. We use it to create text documents,presentations, making tables, graphs, recording data, managing schedules,creating spreadsheets and workbooks. A full fledged Office Suite like Microsoft Office will cost you no less than 500 USD (Rs. 25000). That is too high a price for any user. So what should one do? Well, use the Open Office Suite instead.

Open Office Suite: Open Office Suite is an open source, multi lingual, multi platform project developed by Sun Micro systems. Among all the Office Suites available, Open Office is considered to be the only worthy competitor to Microsoft Office. It is fast, available in many languages, works on all computers, stores all data in an international open standard format, read and write files from other common office packages and the best of all, is free of charge for any purpose(commercial or private). It can even edit PDF files.

These freeware will definitely help you to make your PC more usable. Although there are many more free software for Windows that are worthwhile, these 5 are an absolute must for a freeware dominated Windows PC.

Get Popular on the Internet

We all wish to be popular. But unfortunately, getting popular is not so easy in the real world. However, in the cyber world of which we all are part of, it is not so tough if you follow some tips given below. Now what are you waiting for? Bring your Pen and Paper start taking notes on how to become famous.

1.  Start a Website: You might have heard the cliche, "everyone popular has a website." But fortunately, you don't have to be famous to have a website. You can have your website made from a specialist or can make it yourself. Just choose a topic you like, get your pen...err... keyboard ready and start creating killer content for which people would come back again and again.

2.  Start a Blog: Some bloggers are ridiculously famous. No matter what they write, people like it and start praising them. Although such wizardry would have no reason in the real world, the cyber world has a reason for everything. To become one such popular blogger, the basic thing required is killer content. The second most important thing is being regular in posting articles, and probably the most important thing required is humility. You can have your self hosted blog or choose any of the free blog hosting platforms. The two leading ones are Blogger and WordPress.

3.  Join Facebook: Facebook is the second most visited website on the internet after Google. Almost everyone is on Facebook. Having so much traffic each day make Facebook a potential advertising source. Just Join Facebook, add everyone you know as a friend and also add the friends of your friends to your friends list.
Create a Facebook Fan page and add a link to your website and blog on it. Observe what people like on Facebook and start a postathon of posting such articles. 'Like' other people's posts and give genuine comments on them. There is a good chance that they might get to your fan page and start following you.

4.  Join Twitter: Twitter is the latest buzz on the internet. Everyone well-known is on Twitter. Be it Tom Cruise or Sachin Tendulkar, Twitter has left no one untouched. So why shouldn't you be on Twitter too? Join Twitter and start following people. It is more than likely that they will follow you in return. Be controversial but only to a limit. Moreover, tweet on any latest buzz you might see on the internet. e.g. Octopus Paul was the latest buzz on the internet in World Cup 2010. A lot more than many people tweeted about it. Most of them are popular on the internet.

5.  Join Social Networking Sites: Aside from Twitter and Facebook, join all the social networking sites you can think of. Try to be an active member of the community and take part in discussions. People will eventually start liking you and will be pulled to click on your Profile. Have an amazing profile and do not forget to add a link to your website, blog, Facebook fan page and Twitter account.

6.  Join Forums: Be helpful in forums. Welcome new members and don't discourage newbies. Always encourage them and remember that there are people on the other side of your Computer reading what you are typing. If you do all this, people will feel that they are under a charm and will click on your Profile. Again don't forget to add a link to your website, blog, Twitter account and Facebook fan page in your profile.

7.  Your Profile:  Having a well written profile for uploading in social networking sites, your blog and website will help make you notorious much sooner. Remember to have a descriptive profile, with a slight comic touch. People will praise your profile and will be attracted to you like bees to honey.

8.  Start Commenting: Give intelligent comments on other blogs/websites with a link to your website/blog. But remember not to give spammy comments followed by a link. Use the Name/URL field to give a link. Try to correct other blogs and suggest improvements in the posted articles. But remember not to become too much of a corrector. People don't like such commentators.

I am pretty sure that if you follow all of the suggestions given above, you will also become popular on the internet in no time and would also join the elite group of famous people.

How to Start Windows in Safe Mode Easily

Safe Mode is a special diagnostic mode in which Windows runs with the minimum amount of features. As the features are limited, Windows does not load unnecessary startup items and runs only those files and drivers that are necessary for the basic functioning of the operating system. This allows users to remove recently installed programs that might be preventing Windows from starting correctly. As Windows does not start unnecessary programs while in Safe Mode, Safe Mode can also be used to remove viruses and malware that cannot be removed normally without risking the infection getting worse.

There are different ways in which you can get into the Safe Mode in Windows. They depend on the version of Windows you are using.

In this article:

1. Steps for Windows 8 users
2. Steps for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and users of previous versions
3. Force Windows to start in Safe mode
4. Which Safe Mode option should you choose?

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Previous versions

If you are using these versions of Windows, you can try the following methods.

The Trusted F8 key method
1) Restart your computer if it is on.
2) Right before the system starts to boot, start tapping the F8 key continuously.
3) This should load the Windows Advanced Options boot menu.
4) Select a Safe Mode option based on your need using the arrow keys and press Enter.
5) Windows will start in Safe mode. To get out of Safe mode, simply restart your computer.

This method should work on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows ME. However, if it does not, you can always force Windows to boot in Safe Mode if your computer is working "properly".

Faulty Startup Method
If the F8 key method does not take you to the Advanced Options boot menu, you could try turning your computer off when it boots into Windows. Upon next restart, Windows will notice that the computer did not boot successfully and take you to the Advanced Options boot menu. Then, select a Safe mode option based on your need. This method is risky and should only be tried as a last resort. It could result in some of your files being deleted which could make your Windows installation unusable.

Windows 8

The F8 key method does not work on Windows 8. Hence, getting onto Safe Mode requires the following steps:-

If your PC is working properly:
1) On Windows 8 Start Screen, type Advanced. In the search results, click on the Settings category.
2) Click on Advanced startup options.
3) Under the Advanced Startup heading at the bottom of the General Settings screen, click on Restart now.
4) Your computer will restart and you will be taken to the Advanced Startup Options menu. To easily reach this menu, on Windows 8 start screen, you could choose restart while holding the Shift key.
5) Click on Troubleshoot and then on the Advanced Options button.
6) Now, click on Startup Settings.
7) At the Startup Settings Screen, click on Restart.
8) Your computer will restart to Advanced Boot options from where you can choose a Safe mode option based on your need.

You can also force Windows to start in Safe mode.

If your PC is not working properly:
Windows 8 monitors your PC's startup for problems and when an error is detected, it automatically takes you to the new Recovery mode with the message "Recovery. It looks like Windows didn't load correctly." In this case:-

1) Select Advanced Repair Options and then click on Troubleshoot.
2) Click on the Advanced Options button.
6) Now click on Startup Settings.
7) At the Startup Settings Screen, click on Restart.
8) Your computer will restart to Advance Boot Options from where you can choose a Safe mode option based on your need.

Force Windows to restart in Safe Mode using the System Configuration Utility

Most users looking to boot Windows in safe mode will have a computer that is not working properly. Unfortunately, this method will not help them as it requires the user to have a working computer.

Steps:
1) On Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and previous versions of Windows, click on Start. Go to Run in Windows XP and previous versions and go to Search in Windows 7 and Vista. On Windows 8, go to the Start screen. Alternatively, press Windows key+R to load the Run dialog box.
2) Type msconfig and press Enter.
3) This will start the System Configuration Utility.
4) On Windows XP, go to the BOOT.INI tab and check /SAFEBOOT. On Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista, go to the Boot tab and check Safe Boot.
5) Click OK.
6) Click on Restart in the following dialog box.-

Your computer will restart in Safe mode.

Different Safe Mode Options. Which to choose?

These are the various safe mode options available in Windows. You can choose one based on the features you require.

Safe Mode
This is safe mode in its most basic form without any extra features. It is useful for troubleshooting most common problems .

Safe Mode with Networking
This offers additional support of connecting to the internet or any other network. This is useful when your PC has a problem which might require you to frequently use the internet to troubleshoot.

Safe Mode with Command Prompt
This option will allow you to use all the unique features of the Windows command prompt while in Safe mode.

Convert FAT32 to NTFS Without Formatting or Losing Data

You have a flash drive or probably an external hard drive that currently has FAT32 file system and you want to change it to NTFS, because FAT32 does not support handling large files (over 4GB) or it is just simply old for your taste but there is just one problem, you don't want to lose your saved data. This article is for you then as it explains exactly how you can achieve seamless transition from FAT to NTFS without involving any data loss.

While it is generally recommended to use the NTFS file system because of its stability, security and lesser defragmentation time, most of us end up using FAT32 because that is what most disks are preformatted with. Unless, we notice the “Not enough disk space error” despite disk space being available, we don't bother to change the file system. Moreover, most of us don't change it because of the risk of losing important data and lack of time (read laziness). As Microsoft was aware of this scenario, they added a capability in the command prompt to overcome this by executing a simple command. There are many software that support this too but the Convert command is one of the easiest ways to do so. Follow the steps below to know how:-

Important: While this method works perfectly, I would still advise you to backup your data in case anything goes wrong.

FAT 32 to NTFS Conversion Steps

1) Go to Computer, and note the name of the drive whose file system you wish to convert.
2) Click on Start.
3) Type cmd in the search bar if you use Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows Vista. If you use Windows XP, click on Run and then execute cmd.
4) Execute "chkdsk h: /f " (without quotes) where H is the letter of the drive to undergo conversion. This checks the drive for errors and fixes them automatically.
5) Execute "Convert H: /FS:NTFS" (without quotes). H is again the letter of the drive to be converted.
6) The command prompt will start the conversion process and after a few minutes, CMD will say that conversion was successful.
7) You can check it in the properties of the drive through right click<Properties.

This works on Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows Vista. I converted my flash drive's file system using these steps and it worked flawlessly. It is interesting to note that this method cannot be used to reconvert NTFS file system back to FAT32. To reconvert back to FAT32, you will need to format the entire drive which will definitely cause data loss.

PC Security Tips : Make Computer Secure

Here are some tips which will enable you to make your PC more secure.

Anti-virus

1. Never, ever turn off the resident protection of your antivirus even if it decreases performance. Upgrade if necessary.

2. Keep your virus definitions up-to-date. Use the automatic update feature of your anti-virus and try not to ignore the "Do you want to update now" message however often it might pop up.

3. Even if you update regularly and you have not seen any suspicious activity on your PC, do a deep scan at least once a month.

4. Always create an emergency boot disk and keep it in a safe place.

5. Run a deep scan in safe mode at least once every two months to kill viruses that would otherwise remain hidden.

Firewalls

1. If you are unsure about the alert displayed by your firewall, try searching it on the internet.

2. A firewall is a powerful tool that requires an understanding of how the program works and exactly what it is doing and whether it is secure or not. Reading the help files is extremely important in successful configuration of your firewall.

3. If you are running a third party firewall,be sure to turn off the Windows Firewall.

4. You can temporarily disable a firewall by right clicking the icon in the tray. This is handy when you know a site is one you can trust but your firewall is blocking it. But remember to re-enable it as soon as possible.

5. Read firewall notices carefully when they pop up so that you don't let a bad thing in or prevent good traffic.


Anti-Spyware

1. You should regularly check for updates. Enable the automatic update feature.

2. Remember to do a scan every now and then, or schedule scans if your program allows it. If you don't want to sit that long for scans to complete, use a single folder for all your downloads, then scan only that folder, Windows installation folder and the Registry. Alternately, you can do a quick scan if your program allows it.


Anti-Spam

1. Be patient with anti-spam software, it will get better over time.

2. Even if it looks that your anti-spam software is working great, periodically check the 'Spam' folder for good mail. None of the anti-spam software is perfect right now.

3. Don't give your anti-spam software too much rules, because it will not learn anything then. It is better if it learns on its own.

Connect a Laptop or Desktop Computer to a TV Easily

Suppose you wish to watch a movie or share a slide-show of pictures with your family on your PC but have a screen that leaves much to be desired. In such a situation, you can connect your computer to a television screen to allow your entire family to enjoy comfortably.

There are many ways in which you can connect your laptop/ computer to a television. However, the overall video quality will be different for different methods. You can choose which one to use based on the quality or the availability of hardware. The first step is to know what type of ports and connections your TV and computer have. If you already know the type of ports and connections available on your hardware, you can directly jump to Step 2. If not, then the different types of ports are explained in detail below:-

Different types of PC to TV connection ports

1) RCA/Composite: The oldest and the lowest quality connection available. They are the Yellow, Red and White connections most of us are familiar with. Yellow is used for composite video, white for left analog audio and red for right analog audio.

2) S-Video: S-Video or Super Video offers slightly better quality than Composite connections. As it is one of the oldest type of connections available, most televisions and computers have it. There are two types of S-Video ports, one containing 4 pins and the other containing 7 pins. This type of connection is used only for video. So you will need to connect an audio cable from your computer's headphone jack to the red and white audio inputs on your TV if you want audio to work.

3) VGA(Video Graphics Array): Most computers and televisions have a VGA port. It offers much better quality than S-Video and should be preferred if you have a HDTV. Older CRT TVs however, will not have a VGA port and will require a PC to Television converter. Just like S-Video, VGA also does not support audio and will require an additional audio cable.

Different types of connecting cables to connect computers to TVs

4) DVI: Digital Video Interface offers much better quality than VGA connections. Most laptop computers and HD TVs will have these connections. Just as the name suggest, this type of connection can be used only with digital TVs. Also like the previous two, DVI connections also require the use of an audio cable for audio to work.

5) HDMI: The highest quality connections available. Most HD TVs will have this connection, however, chances are that your computer would not. If your computer happens to have a HDMI connection port, this should be preferably used. If your computer doesn't, you can use an HDMI to DVI adapter to convert HDMI to DVI.

Step 2: Once a common type of port between the two devices is recognized, you will need the right connector cable to physically connect them. The different types of connector cables are pictured above. If you do not find two matching types of connection ports, you will need an adapter to make the connections type match.

Step 3: After connecting the two devices, on your TV, select the external input with which your TV is connected to the computer. It may be HDMI1 or AV1 depending on how you have made the connection. This is much similar to how you select input from your DVD player.

If you have followed the steps correctly, your TV should now be displaying your computer's screen.

Important: If your computer is not recognizing the external display, you must connect the TV before starting your computer. If the picture appears distorted, you will need to change the screen resolution of your TV by altering the display settings from your computer. Most older TVs will support only one display resolution while newer TVs will support plenty of them.

What is Runtime Error r6034 and How to Fix It?

There is no doubt that Microsoft Windows is the most widely used operating system in all parts of the world. Apart from being simple to use, it is quite rich in features as well, which makes our lives quite easy.
The Run command available on Windows operating system is one such power packed feature that lets you to open a document or an application instantly with the help of just 1 command. So, rather than clicking several icons or using multiple commands, you can use the Run command to open any program or document instantly. For that you will need to Create Run Commands for any software of your Choice which you use Frequently.

But, do you know how to Create Run Commands of your Own? Well, it is really easy, which involves just few steps. Through this article, I will help you understand how to access your favorite applications by creating custom Run commands.

Open Run Command:

Before I show you how to create your own Run commands, let’s take a quick look on how to open Run Command. First of all, you need to open the Run window by just pressing the Windows Key along with the R key, i.e. Windows + R. Now, you have to type the name of the program that you desire to open up or execute. Unfortunately, not all programs can be accessed through this method. So, let me show you how to create Run commands that do not come as inbuilt commands.

---

Steps to Create run commands of your own

---

Step 1. The first step is to select the software or application for which you want to make custom Run command. For example, let us consider Google Chrome as the example here. Remember, you can choose any application other than which is already there in the Run command.

---

Step 2. In the second step, right click on the desktop of your computer system and make a new shortcut.
Right click > New > Shortcut

---

Step 3. As you select the Shortcut option in the 2nd Step, it will open up a dialog box. And, the dialog box will ask you path of the application or software for which you want to create the Run command.

---

Step 4. Now, you need to browse through the files and choose the one that shows “chrome.exe”. Well, it is quite obvious that all the executable files can be found in the C drive (or wherever the Operating System has been installed), inside the folder “Program Files”. For example, “C:\Program Files\Google Chrome\chrome.exe”

---

Step 5. Once you are done with Step number 4, just click on “Next” button and simply provide a relative name to that shortcut. Remember, the same name will be used later in the Run command.
For example, “GC” for Google Chrome

---

Step 6. Now, click on the “Finish” button. Once it is done, an icon related to that application or software will show up on your computer’s screen. It means that the process of creating shortcut has been done successfully.

---

Step 7. In this step, just cut and paste that recently made shortcut icon into your computer’s root drive, in its Windows folder.
For example, C:\ Windows , Make sure you are the administrator of the computer or have its password.

---

Step 8. Now, you are done with the set up and can run the application through Run Command. Just go to Run and enter the keyword “GC”, and Google Chrome will begin executing.

Safely share files with these 4 tips

It's increasingly common to share all kinds of files through services such as DropBox, OneDrive and Drive. We post pictures on Photobucket and Imgur, upload files to MediaFire or Mega, and put music on Soundcloud. If you want to share these files, you can create a private link; anyone who receives it can use it to access these files.

If there are bugs in the app's security, however, or if the link is shared on an open network, your data might end up in Google, which continuously scans the network for new links. If you send the private link to someone who is careless, for example, they might share the link in an email or post, which can be scanned by Google. Once its in the system, there is little you can do, except hide the files or delete them.

A document stored in Dropbox can be accessible from Google

File sharing isn't something to be taken lightly: apps can make mistakes, just like people. If you want to share something with the minimum guarantee of security, follow these basic tips.

Tip 1: regularly check your shared files

It's good to regularly review what you're sharing. Google Drive has filters that quickly let you see public documents, or documents that have been shared via a link.

The privacy of those files can be modified with a few mouse clicks. Mark them and go to the "Share" menu.

SkyDrive (soon to be OneDrive) works in a similar way: if you click on the "Shared" menu, you'll see all the files you're sharing publicly or through a private link. In properties, you can then change the files back to being private.

If you're using Dropbox, there are two sections where you can check what you're sharing: one with folders, and one with private links. "Unsharing" is as simple as clicking on the cross which is in the box next to the file.

Tip 2: delete metadata and other sensitive information

There's much more information contained in a file than is visible at first glance. Even after removing personal data – something that's highly recommended – a Word DOC ​​may contain information that can lead you to the person who created it.

Doc Scrubber eliminates metadata from Word documents

This information is called "metadata" (data about the data), and almost every file contains it: pictures, videos, music, documents– no file is immune. You can use tools like MetaStripper or Doc Scrubber to remove metadata from your files.

Tip 3: Set up Google Alerts for your personal data

If you're worried about the possibility of information being leaked, it's worth setting up a Google Alert. Google Alerts warn you when new results appear for a chosen piece of text. You can get the alert straight away, or after a few hours so that if one of your files has filtered into a public network, you'll be the first to know.

With Alerts, it can be useful to include a fragment of your current account number or ID number, your full name, or your phone number. Unfortunately, Google Alerts aren't yet able to tell you about the appearance of duplicated or plagiarized images.

Tip 4: Choose the most appropriate site for file sharing

There are an infinite number of services that let you share files on the Internet, but using Dropbox and Mega, for example, is not the same thing. The characteristics of each service determine what's best to share through it. Some sites are best used for sharing files in a fleeting way, for example, through the use of deletion codes.

"Large files that you wouldn't care if they were deleted? Go on then, upload to Mega..."

If you want to distribute a file in the short term and include an expiry date on it, for example, it's best to use Mega, while for collaborative editing, it makes more sense to upload it to SkyDrive or Google Drive. The important thing is to know at all times what you're sharing, and where.

Want security at the next level? Set some passwords

These tips will help protect you from getting into the majority of trouble that's associated with data leaks, but you should be aware that sharing something using online methods can expose your data to all kinds of unforeseen circumstances.

Maximum security can be achieved through data encryption, or a combination of compression and encryption. If you upload an RAR 5.0 file with 256-bit encryption instead of a document that isn't encrypted, your privacy will be more secure.

The Mini Mobile Robotic Printer will let you bring your office anywhere

There are a few things in the office that don’t really travel well. One of the main things is a printer, which can make life pretty stressful if you’re on the go constantly. You come to rely on a hotel having one for public use, but sometimes that doesn’t always happen.
If you often find yourself needing to print things without a way of doing it, then the Mini Mobile Robotic Printer might be able to lend you a hand. This is about the size of your fist, and can print an A4 page in about 40 seconds. Simply activate the printer by sliding the hatch to reveal the inkjet, and start printing away. The inkjet will last for about 1,000 pages, and at the moment, you’ll only be able to print grayscale images or black text. This is a rechargeable device, and will last for about an hour on one charge.
You will need to make sure you line up the printer properly, otherwise your printing is going to be everywhere but where you want it. It is capable of printing multiple pages, and will stop once it has reached the bottom, and will wait until you move it to the new page, and tap the correct button on the corresponding app. The cartridge is easy to find as it is a standard HP one, so you can find it just about anywhere. This will be available in white and black, and will cost around $200-220.

Create Your Facebook Movie

Yes, there is a feature name "Look Back" on Facebook which convert your 2 year back Facebook activity into Short Movie Video. Only you have to Click on a Link and your Facebook movie will be ready automatically.

Here is the link :-   https://facebook.com/lookback/

IRS Pays Microsoft for Extended XP Support

Microsoft may have officially pulled the plug on Windows XP, but organizations that want to keep enduring the operating system on life support have to pay up. In the case of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), it is taxpayers who are footing the bill.
The agency is paying Microsoft less than $500,000 to support its 58,000 Windows XP systems, according to an April 11 report in Computerworld. At less than $9 per PC, the figure not only falls well below estimates of millions of dollars that quickly made the rounds online, but also comes in far under the price businesses can expect to pay to keep their Windows XP systems bug-free as time drags on. Businesses can expect to pay $200 per PC for Windows XP support this year, according to Sumir Karayi, CEO of 1E, an IT software and services firm. "This means that from April 2014, a company with 5000 computers still on Windows XP would be looking at a bill from Microsoft of $1 million for support alone," he told eWEEK. The IRS had already switched 52,000 workstations over to Windows 7 ahead of the deadline, reported The Washington Post recently. The remaining Windows XP will have no impact on taxpayers' ability to file their returns, asserted the IRS.

 

Transforming Traditional Security Strategies into an Early Warning System for Advanced Threats

Download Now

Funding, not negligence, caused the agency to miss Microsoft's deadline, indicated IRS Commissioner John Koskinen during an April 7 budget hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. The IRS faces an estimated $300 million shortfall on IT projects, $30 million of which is required to upgrade the remaining Windows XP PCs to Windows 7. The IRS has an annual budget of approximately $11 billion and employs 90,000 workers.

Dire warnings from Microsoft and security professionals regarding the unsupported OS did not fall on deaf ears at the IRS. In his testimony, Koskinen said his agency is "very concerned" that not completing the transition away from Windows XP can have security implications and cause an "unstable environment" at the agency. Microsoft stopped supporting the 12-year-old desktop OS on April 8, putting an end to the monthly tradition of issuing security patches and bug fixes for Windows XP. While XP users have no reason to panic yet, the future does not bode well for the OS. Tim Rains, director of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, recently warned that even surfing the Web on a Windows XP system may soon compromise its security. "New exploits for Windows XP will likely be added to cybersecurity exploit kits that are sold/leased to attackers," he wrote in a Microsoft Security Blog post. Those kits will make it a trivial matter for attackers to pump out "malicious websites that try to install malware on systems that visit those sites," he added.

How BlackBerry Lost Its Status as the Enterprise Mobile Gold Standard

I was reading Michelle Maisto's well-researched and well-written story about how enterprises are slowly moving away from BlackBerry as the standard for secure mobile communications. While I was doing this, I was waiting for the new BlackBerry Z30 GSM phone to restart—a process that was taking far longer than it should. This device that I'm reviewing for eWEEK should have been BlackBerry's tour de force. Instead, this device that was intended to help bring the company back to life does little to inspire confidence. In fact, this lack of confidence is such that I'm packing a spare phone just in case this device gives up the ghost again. But enough of writing about the Z30. This phone will appear in a detailed review that will appear soon on eWEEK. Instead, we need to examine how it was that a company with such a commanding role in the market, and with such good hardware engineering, lost its way so completely. In the process it's also necessary to separate fact from fiction, since a great deal that's said and believed about the mobile enterprise market is almost entirely fiction.

 

An example is that only about 2 percent of the mobile devices out there are BlackBerry devices, seemingly inundated in a sea of iPhones. Another is that the enterprise has virtually abandoned the maker in favor of cooler choices. In fact, as Maisto writes, a Gartner report places the installed base of BlackBerry devices at 26 percent in the enterprise, on average. That may not be the company's once commanding lead, but it's a far cry from 2 percent.

Clearly, the enterprise has not abandoned BlackBerry. But what is the source of this misinformation about BlackBerry's market position? Partly it's because there's confusion between gross sales, sales into the enterprise, total installed base and enterprise installed base. It's also partly due to a skewing of figures when the numbers are taken from U.S. sales versus global sales. Still, the share of BlackBerry in the enterprise is shrinking overall, although the numbers vary by the type of enterprise. Consider the government and financial services industries, and BlackBerry is doing fine. But that's not the case in every industry. The one constant is that in companies where security is of paramount importance, there are a lot of BlackBerry devices. In enterprises where security is less important than user happiness, other brands prevail. BlackBerry was forced into its long retreat from the top of the mobile market for two reasons. First, the company chose to ignore the trends clearly being set by Apple and Android phones for far too long.

The second was that when BlackBerry did respond to those trends, it did so with too little, far too late. When the Z10 arrived, it was a very nice touch-screen phone in a sea of other very nice phones.
BlackBerry's failure to innovate is well-documented, so I won't go into it again here. What was perhaps worse was the company's failure to deliver. The BlackBerry 10 operating system and the phones that run it were months late, meaning that the company had to make do with its seemingly antiquated QWERTY phones and tiny screens when the rest of the world was moving to smartphones with screens large enough to allow practical Web browsing. While enterprise buyers weren't necessarily swayed by such coolness, their users were. This popularity with users translated into lots of useful apps, some of which were good for business. BlackBerry, meanwhile, commissioned few apps, and worse, required developers to choose between the functionally limited BlackBerry 7 platform, which has many users, and the more effective BlackBerry 10 platform that had few users. Things are changing at BlackBerry, but at a glacial pace. It's now possible, a year after it was introduced, to load most Android apps onto a BlackBerry 10 device, but only if those apps aren't on Google Play. However, finding this information out so you can do it requires searching non-company sources and downloading third-party apps.

 

If it sounds like BlackBerry is trying its best to become a business school worst-case analysis, you wouldn't be far off. Here, for example, is the company that desperately needs customers dumping a major carrier because that carrier basically hurt its feelings. This is how you plan a comeback?

It's no wonder BlackBerry fell from grace as the enterprise gold standard. The company did to itself what competitors couldn't have done. BlackBerry managed to knock itself out of the top rankings. The other question now becomes, who will replace BlackBerry? The answer is nobody. After BlackBerry lost its place as the corporate go-to company, other vendors have picked up parts of what was once the gold standard. Apple and Android have the app markets, for example, while Microsoft has some important support for the enterprise and it has integration with the rest of the world of Windows. In reality, the future is what you see now. You can still buy a BlackBerry if you need hard-core security, but other devices are plenty good enough for most purposes. Those other phones even might do a better job of supporting the features that you need the most, a need that BlackBerry can't fill anymore.

How to upload gameplay videos to YouTube

If you've recorded or edited gameplay videos and want to share them, there's no easier way to do it than posting it on YouTube. Here, we'll give you a few tips so that you know what to keep in mind to appeal to viewers when uploading videos on YouTube.

Preparation: setting up your YouTube account and channel

To make your YouTube video public, you have to set up a YouTube account by creating a Google account (you'll already have an account if you use Gmail). Once you've done this, access YouTube and log in with your Google Account, if it doesn't do so automatically. Click on the cog icon in the top right corner of the screen and select YouTube settings.
You should now be on the overview page of your YouTube profile. Click on Create a Channel. Make sure to create a channel with a relevant name so that your videos will be well-organized in YouTube.
Now comes the exciting part: uploading your videos.

Uploading videos

To upload a video, click Upload and select your file. Alternatively, drag the file to the upload button in your browser.

While the video's uploading, you can fill in the title, description and tags, select your privacy settings, and choose an appropriate category.
The title and description fields will help attract viewers to your video.  some important tips about this:

• Choose a title that's attractive, but accurate. Don't lie, and don't just think about search engines or keywords that will get you a good ranking in YouTube.
• Give the video a good description which is search engine friendly. The field should coherently answer the question of why the video is useful.
• Adds links to your website in the description, if available. Also link sources that you've used in the video. This particularly applies to music. Your viewers will ask you about songs, and its good to answer in advance and express yourself as briefly as possible in the description.
• Choose a good thumbnail. After uploading, YouTube suggests three different snapshots from the video. Make sure you don't use any ambiguous images, otherwise you might mislead the user and end up with something that has nothing to do with your video. Good and bad thumbnails have an impact on your long-term positioning in YouTube.

Other things to consider are tags and categories, which help make your video accessible to the right audience. Entertainment, for example, is more appropriate than Travel and Events for gameplay videos. Tags are short keywords that help make it easier to search for videos. Here, the name of the video game and the subject of your video are good options.

Post-processing on YouTube

At this point, you're pretty much done, but there are a few tricks that you can use to engage even more users. After videos have been made public, YouTube offers options to enhance videos with effects. Annotations are particularly effective.
In YouTube, open the video manager (accessible here). The video manager will give you an overview of all uploaded videos. Click on the arrow pointing down next to Edit, and select Annotations.  The window that appears is similar to that of a simple editing program. Move the marker on the timeline to the desired position and click Add annotation.

You can lay text over the video and add links to it, a practical way to link to more of your videos once your archive has grown. Annotations are also a good way of referring users to channels with similar content or themes.
A word of warning: annotations are a great way of keeping users on your own channel for longer, but too many boxes can be annoying and may cause irritated viewers to leave the page.

Quality is key

Nobody wants to see pixilated videos that are poor quality and have lots of background noise, so don't upload badly made videos. During recording, make sure you use HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixels or 1920 x 1080 pixels) and ensure that you don't lose any of the quality during post-processing.
Here, we explain how to edit videos using Free Video Dub without losing quality, and with FileLab Video Editor, a free web app, you can export your video with 1280 x 720 pixels. If you do need to render the video again, choose the highly efficient Codec H.264.

Customizing your channel

If you gradually fill your channel with videos, you should also customize it a bit as well. You can give your channel a personal touch by adding your own background image, a matching channel description, and links to your social network. This helps your viewers better recognize your brand.

Watch out for legal pitfalls

YouTube is especially handy for sharing gameplay videos: uploading is simple, there are millions of game fans already using it to search for gameplay videos, and videos can easily be shared with anyone. One thing you should note when uploading gameplay videos, however, is that you will be working with copyrighted material. Make sure that you credit all of your videos back to the original game source.

Make sure to check out our article on how to edit gameplay videos using Free Video Dub. 

It's time you start using a password manager

The Heartbleed internet vulnerability has left two-thirds of the internet vulnerable. The bug allows attackers to steal user names and passwords. Even popular sites like Google and Yahoo! were affected, though they've since patched the vulnerability.

While you can't stop hackers from attacking websites, you can take steps to protect your information. The first line of defense is to create secure and unique passwords for every site and service you use. The problem is, how are you supposed to remember all of these passwords? The answer is with password managers.

What's a password manager?

Password managers are programs that generate, store, and encrypt all your passwords. You'll just need to remember one, strong master password to get into your password database.
By creating unique and randomized passwords with letters, numbers, and symbols, you'll prevent compromising all of your accounts if your password is stolen. If your Facebook account gets hacked, the hacker can easily access your other accounts that use the same password.

Weak passwords with just letters and numbers are vulnerable to brute-force attacks. Short passwords make these types of attacks even easier.
Apps like 1Password and LastPass are great options and act as much more than just password managers. They can store sensitive documents, credit card information, and even your software licenses.

But what if someone steals my master password?

This is highly unlikely and password managers make it difficult for attackers to crack your master password. We spoke with Jeffrey Goldberg, Defender Against the Dark Arts (that's really his title) at 1Password about how the app protects master passwords. "Your 1Password data is encrypted with keys derived from your Master Password. Nobody has any access to those keys or your Master Password. If someone captures your 1Password data, they cannot decrypt it without your Master Password."

This is the same case with LastPass. Although LastPass syncs your password database with its servers, it doesn't send or store any encryption keys. All encryption keys are derived from your master password and stored locally on your computer or device.
"We use SSL only as a second level of protection. Our core protection is from storing keys locally," says LastPass CEO Joe Siegrist.

Do I really need to change all my passwords?

First check which sites you use that were affected by Heartbleed and make sure they've been patched. Mashable has a great list of popular sites and their reactions to Heartbleed. Make sure a site has fixed the Heartbleed bug before you change your password, otherwise you risk having your new password exposed as well. Although there have been reports that Heartbleed may be exaggerated, there's no harm in being just a bit paranoid.
Cloudflare, a content delivery network, proposed a challenge for people to steal private keys using a site with the Heartbleed bug. Within hours, several people were successful in exploiting the bug to steal private encryption keys, meaning the threat is very real.
"[Heartbleed] is not an exaggeration," says Siegrist. "Cloudflare has proven that it is exploitable. "It's quite possible that usernames and passwords were taken."

Changing passwords with a password manager is easy; the apps will remember the new passwords and store them for you. LastPass makes it even easier by alerting users which sites and accounts were vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug. They have a public website where you can type in URLs to check if they were affected. Mashable has compiled a great list of company responses to Heartbleed.
While there are no automation tools, both 1Password and Lastpass are working on this feature.
"You still have to find the password change form yourself and then let 1Password assist you with creating and saving a new strong login. Improving this process is something that were are always doing," says Goldberg.
Still, a little bit of work now can prevent a big headache in the future.

What else can I do to protect myself?

Password managers are the first step you should take to protect your accounts. Be vigilant about security news and pay attention to the websites you visit.
Phishing attacks, sites made to trick users into thinking they're another site, are a popular way to steal user data. Never click on suspicious links sent to you via email or over chat.
Password managers can help is this regard as well by taking users directly to the correct site. Sometimes the smallest typo in a web address can take you to a phishing site and you may not notice.

"People should try to take SSL/TLS warnings in their browsers more seriously," says Goldberg. The lock in the URL bar in modern browsers will show which sites are legitimate and are using encryption. Most browsers will warn you if you're visiting a dangerous site but awareness never hurts.
You should also enable two-factor authentication on sites and services that support it. Two-factor authentication basically requires two forms of identification: a password and a randomly generated code. Once you enter your password, you'll be required to provide a random code, which can be sent to you via SMS or via an authenticator app like Google Authenticator. The codes will only work for a small window of time before they expire.

Facebook, Google, Twitter, Evernote, and many other companies provide this extra layer of security. It may be a bit more work to get into your account but it's worth it to keep your accounts secure.
Finally, make sure to keep all your computers, phones, and tablets updated. Security flaws are often patched in system and software updates.
Apps like Avast! alert users about outdated software. Softonic for Windows also helps users keep their apps up to date.
For more information about Heartbleed and how you can protect yourself, check out our coverage below.