Saurabh Says

Disclaimer: Following details are for training and information purpose only and not to be used in live business environment.

Don’t worry, even I don’t care about above disclaimer 

This is the easiest and coolest way for figuring out passwords in XP and Vista. Resetting of password is kinda easy, but figuring out other users password is slightly difficult.

Read more... http://saurabhsays.com/break-windows-xp-and-windows-vista-password/

These days pen drives and external hard disk have made it lot easier to carry data around. You can get 1 TB drive for as low as $50. You can carry music, movies, videos and lots and lots of files. But at times it becomes difficult to find the applications you need in cyber cafe or at friends place. You carry all the files in external disk but you feel if you could carry necessary applications also on your external hard disk or pen drive.

It is also not possible also to install applications in computers due to restrictions in your office or college by system administrators. That’s when winPenPack comes extremely handy. You can use it to copy applications to pen drive and use whenever necessary.  You dont have to install application when you connect your external harddisk/pen drive to any computer and can run applications directly from your external drive.

Read more.... http://saurabhsays.com/carry-your-softwares-in-pen-drive/

Website speed can make or break your business. On one side it makes it easy for your web visitor to get the information quickly, on the other side it helps you gain those crucial points in SEO. Google gives preference to faster sites and may penalize you for having slow website.

Firstly to figure out whether your website is slow or not you need to use some of the online available tools. The tools that I like the most are following:

HTML Validator:  http://validator.w3.org/

It will validate your webpage and come up with possible suggestions on how to fix errors.  Its important that you don’t have errors in webpage.

Google Insight:  https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights

Run it on your webpage and it will come up with all the suggestions that you can do to improve your website speed. Be it gzip, minify, caching etc; Google insight will check all those small points and tell you what you need to do reduce those extra bytes or minutes from your webpage.

Webpage Test:  http://www.webpagetest.org/

The only thing Google Insight doesnt do is to tell you how fast your page loads in terms of time. Different browser and different locations will load your same webpage in different time. www.webpagetest.org can load your page in different browsers from different locations and tell you how fast it will load in real scenario.  It also tells you how fast each of the component loads (java script, images, css etc).

Once you have figured these things out, you can get to actual task of understanding each aspect of website speed optimization. We will now cover most of the aspects of website speed.

1) Avoid CSS @import:

Always avoid using import of style sheet into your webpage. There are two ways to include a stylesheet in your web page.

You can use the LINK tag (Correct way):

<link rel=’stylesheet’ href=’saurabhsays.css’>

Or you can use the @import rule (Incorrect way):

<style>

@import url(‘saurabhsays.css’);

</style>

The reason for this is that browser is unable to download anything in parallel when “import” is used. Hence it results in higher page load time.

2) Avoid a character set in the meta tag

Pages are loaded by sending bytes to browser from webserver over internet. Browser try to understand the encoding using various algorithms and finally render the page. To reduce this effort always specify charset in response. You can do so by putting a line similar to the following line after <header> tag

<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=UTF-8″ />

It will give the information to browser which charset is being used and browser doesnt have to put effort in understanding the encoding.

3) Avoid bad requests

Request data from the location which doesn’t exist is waste of time and resources. You may be trying to access data from a site which results in 404 errors. Always avoid such situations.

4) Avoid landing page redirects

Thought there is no specific rule that stops you from doing redirects on pages, it is recommended that you dont put redirects which is expected to be a direct landing page from search engines.

5) Avoid long-running scripts

if you have a perl script that runs for 15 seconds, move it to background. You can always email results to user later rather than keeping him waiting in your browser window.

Read more.....http://saurabhsays.com/increase-website-speed-30-tips/

Recently a friend of mine asked me if there is any way to figure out to check if your website visitor is online on Facebook/ Twitter or Google. It can be quite useful if you are a website owner to figure out if your visitors are online in social sites so that you can show them appropriate popups or make them signup on your site accordingly. Wrote a small script and you can test it on following URL


http://saurabhsays.com/logincheck.html


It will popup windows based on whether you are logged into Facebook, Twitter, Google. You can download code on following URL:

http://saurabhsays.com/logincheck.txt

Online storage for backup or storing your files online is in demand. Today there are multiple options and tools available to backup your office/personal data and move it to cloud. Though there are risks involved in uploading your data on cloud, there are ways to encrypt your files locally and then upload. However in this post, we will try to evaluate some of the many Cloud file storage options. The main focus is value for money and service to be most cost effective.

 

Box.net

https://www.box.com/pricing/

Free Usage: 5GB

Pricing: 50GB for $19.99 per month

File Size Limit: 1 GB

Per GB Annual Price: $ 4.78

Features: Desktop sync, Secure storage, Secure transfer, Mobile app, File sharing links

Carbonite

http://www.carbonite.com

Free Usage: NA

Plan: Business (Home plans are limited to one computer and cant be used on another computer)

Pricing: 250GB for $229 per year

Per GB Annual Price: $ 0.916

Features: Versioning, Encrypted storage, Automatic Backup

Dropbox

https://www.dropbox.com

Free Usage: 2GB

Plan: PRO

Pricing: 250GB for $229 per year

Per GB Annual Price: $ 1.0

Features: Sync from multiple devices and Oss

Mozy

http://mozy.com

Plan: PRO

Pricing: 250GB for $1044.89 per year

Per GB Annual Price: $ 4.17

Features: Encryption, Local backup, Mobile app, SQL Support, Exchange Support, Automatic Backup

Google Drive

https://drive.google.com

Free Usage: 5 GB

Pricing: 200GB for $120 per year

Per GB Annual Price: $ 0.6

Features: Reliability of google, online document edit, Not the backup features but file storage features.

GoDaddy

http://www.godaddy.com

Pricing: 100GB for $29.88 per year

Per GB Annual Price: $ 0.2988

Features: ftp support, auto sync tool for PC and Mac,  browser upload and download options.

As you can see GoDaddy online cloud storage is a clear winner in this, both in terms of features as well as cost effectiveness. They provide ftp option and have windows sync clients. Its cheap, feature rich and reliable.

Thumbs up for GoDaddy cloud storage.

 http://saurabhsays.com/cloud-storage-service-providers/

You went out the other night with friends and saw some cool smart phones. You want to buy one too which is cost effective and fully loaded with functions. How to find a right phone according to your need and pocket?


Here is a small guide which might help you in choosing just the right phone for you.…
What to look for:


With all the major mobile phone manufacturers being bullish on India’s potential you see newer models being launched every month. The newer models not only allow you to talk but can also store your music and photo files. There are so many additional features available which range from letting you access Internet on the phone to capturing a video on it.


When shopping for a phone, you can do some simple hands-on tests in the store to make sure the phone has everything you need. Depending upon your actual use, the answers you find for the following questions would determine the phone you would like to buy:

Need of the phone:
Some people just need phone to talk or send SMS and for some it is a complete communication solution like making calls, taking pictures, listening to music, updating status messages on Facebook, browsing internet or make a video call, for this kind of person a smartphones is the best choice. Good smart phone from some phone companies start at Rs. 6000/- onwards.


Call Quality:
Some of the most simple, bare-bones “feature” phones offer the best call quality–and on the other side, some fancy smart phones have bad voice quaiity. When evaluating phones, be sure to make a few test calls. If possible try in some noisy area and in closed room. You will get to kne the different of voice clarity in both the situations.


Design:Your choices range from flip-open clamshell-style phones to candy bar-style phones to slider-style phones with full-QWERTY keyboards. Whichever type of phone you select, check its ergonomics. Is it comfortable to hold against your ear, and can you hear callers without constant adjustment? You have to make sure your phone is easy to handle and looks attractive too. These days touch screens are very much in. But some phones provide both QWERTY key pad and touch screen both. If you do lot of typing like e-Mails, Documents or simple texting, go either for the dual ones or the one which has good QWERTY pad (either physical or enlarged touch screen).


Features:Look for the features like 3G, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, Java support, Apps store etc.


Service Provider:
Also beforehand make sure which kind of service provider you are choosing. If you use multiple phone its better to go for dual or triple SIM phones. Or if you want something easy and cheap go for CDMA ones. It will just narrow down your options to the convenient ones only.


Operating system:
If you’re looking to do more than make calls and send text messages with your phone, consider the platform on which it runs. The most popular platforms are Google’s Android OS (found on multiple devices), iOS (found only on the iPhone) and BlackBerry OS (found on BlackBerrys of various designs). Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and you should definitely familiarize yourself with all of the platforms before settling on one. Other platforms include Symbian (found on most Nokia smartphones) and Windows Phone 7. Latest version of OS will be costlier than the old versions. So if it suits you, you can also go for older version OS to save cost.


Battery Life:
Battery life of phone varies based on screen size, phone maker, usage. Please see phone has sufficient battery life based on your usage. There are two things
1) Talk time: For how long you can talk continuously without recharge
2) Standby Time: It’s for how long phone will remain on if not used before recharge need to happen.


Display:
If you intend to send and receive text messages, surf the Web, or use the phone’s organizer, make sure the screen is up to snuff. If you’re going to surf the Web or edit office documents on your phone, a screen should be bigger than 2.7 inches diagonally. Samsung Provides wide variety of Smart phones varying in screen size. Phone’s price increase with increase in size and better OS.
The screen’s contrast and backlight are also important. If your phone allows you to adjust such settings, you can make text and graphics easily viewable–even in bright places.


Temperature:
At times some of the phone models tend to heat up when you use. It becomes very inconvenient if phone heats up when you talking on the phone and can’t keep it close to your cheek. Please take feedback from your friends or check online about if phone has heating problem.


Radiation:
Cell phone radiation levels are measured in SAR (Specific Absorption Rate), is a measure of the amount of radio frequency (RF) energy absorbed by the body when using the handset. Higher the SAR value, worse it is for human body. Please ensure you check SAR rating of your phone before buying.
If you’re concerned about limiting your SAR exposure, you can take a few easy steps. You can text instead placing a voice call, use a speakerphone or headset whenever possible, and carry your phone at least 1 inch from your body (making sure the antenna is facing away from you). If you’re pregnant, you should avoid carrying a phone next to your abdomen. Some researchers also caution against using your phone in areas with a weak signal since phones emit more electro-magnetic radiation during those times. Children, who have smaller and thinner skulls, should limit cell phone use, and people of any age should not sleep with an active phone next to the bedside or under the pillow.


3G/4G support and availability:
3G’s and 4G’s faster download speeds significantly improve streaming video and allow features such as videoconferencing and network gaming. Check first with your service provider whether they have 3G/4G support or not. All major telecom providers offer 3G services in most Indian cities today and therefore 3G /4G compatibility is important for a new phone.


Camera: 
If you intend to take a lot of photos with your phone, you’ll definitely want to pay attention to the camera specifications. For mid- to high-level Smart phones, 5 megapixels is now pretty much the standard. Some phones ship with 8- or 12-megapixel cameras, but a higher megapixel count doesn’t necessarily mean a better camera. Verify that the phone you’re interested in has a flash–dual-LED or Xenon flashes work the best–or else you won’t be able to take any pictures indoors or at night without their looking like blurry messes. Try to take a few pictures in the store to get a good idea of the camera’s photo quality.


Most cell phone cameras also have video-capture capabilities; some high-end phones can even capture high-definition 720p or 1080p video. If video is your thing, make sure that the OS provides an easy way to upload your videos to Facebook or YouTube.


Sound System:
If you are looking for listening to music or watching videos, make sure you test phone for sound quality before buying. The voice should not flutter or break in between and is good enough for you to hear in noisy area also.
Phew! After a lot of consideration you finally short listed one model. Don’t forget if you buying from any store to check with the deals and discount they are running and freebies along with the phone. If buying online compare the price at 3-4 website before buying.

Surely send a picture of your new phone if this guide helped you. 

So, HAPPY SHOPPING!

Now you can run restricted linux shell in browser. No need to install linux on a computer, just open browser and run linux using following link.


https://saurabhsays.com:4200/

(You may get a warning for SSL security certificate, please click on “Continue to the website”. Terminal will open in new windows, so kindly disable your popup blocker.)

username: guest
password: guest


Supported commands are (vi, ls, cd, pwd, logout, exit). You can run vi command on the prompt to use text editor.

Searching on Google is not about typing some keywords and getting results. Google search is a powerful tool which can be used to do much more than just search the web. You can use it to retrieve desired information, translate text, do math calculations or retrieve flight details. Read on for further details


Define: use the keyword define to get information about a site, product or brand. For example searching define:pepsi will come up with following result.





Similarly you can use define to search for other query terms you want information about.



Info: Use info keyword to get information about a website. For example quering info:timesoindia.com will come up with following results






Exact Phrase: use double quotes to search for an exact keyword. Wrap the keywords in double quotes to get the search results with all the keywords in the same pattern. For example
“Cloud Computing” will result in google results which have “Cloud Computing” together in same way
Cloud Computing will result in google results which have Cloud/Computing/cloud computing/computing cloud in all possible ways.



OR Keyword: use or keyword if you want to search for multiple keywords at the same time. For example olympics location 2014 OR 2018 will results in location of Olympic in 2014 and 2018.

Search for Number range: use .. operator to search for number range. For example “laptop 30000..50000” will get results for laptop priced between 30000 to 50000. If you specify a number after two periods, it will mean the upper limit. For example “laptop..40000” will give you results of laptop which have price of 40,000/- in their limits.






Asterisk: Use an asterisk within a query for any unknown term. Use * to find variations of any exact phrase. For example “olympic *” query will result in following output






Weather: use google to retrieve weather related information of a city. For example typing “weather in Bangalore” results in following output






Filetype: you can use google to search for a specific filetype. For example you want to search for presentation on Cloud Computing, you can query “filetype:ppt Cloud Computing”. It will come up with only results containing power point files with “Clound Computing” as keyword.






Site Search: Searching on google can be quite painful and time consuming. Results come from all the sites. Now imagine you are looking for “Windows 7” on Microsoft, searching whole google can be really disgusting. You can query site:microsoft.com “windows 7”, you will now get results from Microsoft site only. Similarly you can use any other site to search for specific terms.






Ignoring certain search results: If you search google with search term as “saurabh”, you will get lot of results from “saurabh shukla” as he is a known actor in bollywood. Now assume you want to ignore all results which are for “saurabh shukla”, you can simply query for “saurabh –shukla” in google. It will ignore all results for “saurabh shukla” and show you other results.






Related keywords: searching for related keywords and synonym was never so easy. Google provides you with an option to search for all synonym and keywords. For example “~beverage” will give you following results:



Add “~” to any keyword to get related keywords in your search.

Translate: Use google to translate love letters . For example “translate:English to hindi I love you” results in following results






Link: As part of SEO it is critical to check the backlinks you have from search engines like Google. Google allows you to check the link it has indexed by keyword “link”, to use it query “link:saurabhsays.com”, it will results in following output






Time: Google can provide you with local time, for example just query “time delhi”






Conversion: You can use Google to convert one unit to another, it can be length/weight/time/temperature etc, google will come up with correct results. Use following syntax:

Search for nearby Stuff: use maps.google.com to search for schools, colleges, theaters, ATM, gas station around you. Use “schools near kormanagala, Bangalore, Karnataka”






Flight Information: Just type a flight number without “-“ in google search query and get the scheduled time and even airport terminal details. It also works for Fedex & DHL packets and other courier related information. Just type dispatch details and google will provide you with necessary info.






Cache: See the google cached page of any url, use “cache: saurabhsays.com” to check last captured version the URL.






inurl, intitle, inanchor and intext: use search keywords like inurl, intitle, inanchor and intext to get filtered results in google, for example
inurl: it will search for keyword in url string like “inurl: seo optimization” and will come up with results which has mentioned search string in URL.
Intitle: search for keyword in title of webpage
Intext: will search for keyword in the result page



Math Calculations: Don’t use calculators for math calculations, use google. Google math engine is powerful to come up with results of your complex equations in minutes.






You can mix and match above provided secrets to come up with desired results. For example if you are searching for a pdf document with a document title “Introduction to Java” in all “.edu” sites, you can use a following query string to get desired results


GOOGLE SEARCH: site:edu intitle:”Introduction to Java” filetype:pdf

As per Wikipedia: Cloud computing is the delivery of computing and storage capacity as a service to a community of end-recipients. The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts services with a user's data, software and computation over a network.

A cloud service is distinguished from traditional managed hosting services by three main characteristics:

·         Dashboard (Horizon) provides a web front end to the other OpenStack services

·         Compute (Nova) stores and retrieves virtual disks ("images") and associated metadata in Glance

·         Image (Glance) can store the actual virtual disk files in Object (Swift)

·         Services authenticate with Identity (Keystone)

Logical OpenStack Architecture

·         End users can interact through a common web interface (Horizon) or directly to each service through their API

·         All services authenticate through a common source (facilitated through Keystone)

·         Individual services interact with each other through their public APIs (except where privileged administrator commands are necessary)