I am a great fan of sonyericsson phones. Do you own a sony ericsson phone? Check out the tutorial, I wrote some time back, about changing your default menu icons.

Unlike the first wave of eight-megapixel hot shots, including the LG Renoir, Samsung Pixon and Samsung i8510, the C905 sliderphone doesn’t have touchscreen control or smartphone functionality, but it does work its Cyber-shot credentials hard.

Read the rest of the review here.

I am sure everyone who uses windows should have seen this annoying message even though you are not using the file or folder.

Tim has written a very useful post about how to delete these locked files using unlocker. Check it out here.

Check out this useful list of mobile codes. So next time when you get a miss call you know where to look

http://mobilecodes.blogspot.com/

I had a real bad ending at office today. I came out late from office with a sad and frustated face to see this wonderful sky!!!!

It made me smile and say WOW!! … I quickly grabbed my camera to realise that I needed a telescope and not camera. But before I miss this some one posted a picture in flickr. Check it out.

moon

Christmas is just round the corner. Do you have a geek girl friend or boy friend? Why not surprise them with some cool Geeky gifts for this christmas. I have compiled 10 geeky christmas gifts. Take a look.

1. Personal sound track T-Shirt : Add BG music to your life.

Does your life seem dull and uninteresting compared to the drama and action of movies and television? Make Your Ordinary Life More Exciting. The Personal Soundtrack Shirt is an amazing new wearable audio solution that features a working speaker embedded into the front of the shirt. When you push the appropriate button on the pocketable remote you get music or sound effects appropriate for any situation. Read more

2. GoldKey Personal Security Key : 256bit AES Hardware Encryption

Protect yourself with the same kind of encryption the NSA uses for TOP SECRET documents. The GoldKey security token includes software that recognizes the key and encrypts your files and folders into encrypted volumes that are only accessible if you have your personalized GoldKey and the password you entered. Read more.

3. Ironkey Military Strength Flash Drives : This thum drive will self destruct in 10 seconds…

There is no need for an introduction about Thum drives. And I am sure there is no need for an introduction about securty software for thumb drives. But this one is special. Ironkey military strength flash drives are one-part thumb drive and two-parts mission impossible! Their thumb drives hold up to 8 Gigabytes of data, but includes a hardware encryption chip that scrambles the data so as to be completely unreadable without a password.

Passwords can be hacked, but not the IronKey. It’s built to withstand attacks both virtual and physical. 10 incorrect password attempts, and the encryption chip self-destructs, making the contents of the flash drive totally unreadable. Interested ? read more

4. Ladies laptop bags : Ok now over to some Girls stuff. Do you have a geek girlfriend who always complains about her dull looking laptop bag? Then this is the perfect gift. These bags come in three styles, a black faux crocodile, a pink quilted faux suede, and a modern canvas stripe. It’s the two-zipper style that meet in the middle, to make it easier to get to your gear. Much like many of the female geeks we know (and are), this bag is stylish on the outside and funky on the inside. Read more here

5. I’m blogging about this T-shirt : This is one of my favourite. Put the world on notice. It’s unlikely that you’ll actually see anyone overtly change their behavior lest they be blogged, but you’ll certainly shake up a paranoid few. Also available in ladies babydoll version. Read more

6. Caffeine Mug : Coffee!!!! Cofee is one of the main energy drink which keeps most of the geeks awake at night. HOw about gifting your geek with a nice coffee mug?

7. BluAlert Bluetooth Bracelet : Your cellphone is sitting at the bottom of your bag, or perhaps lost in the cavernous folds of your jacket pocket. With the noise of the environment around you, you’ll never hear it ringing. Maybe it’s your girlfriend saying she wrecked your car, your mom informing you of an unexpected inheritance, your roommate telling you that Ed McMahon’s waiting for you at your apartment with a giant novelty check, or Jessica Alba asking you out on a date (hey, it could happen). The bottom line is, when your phone rings, you had better know it, ’cause you never know who’s calling.

The BluAlert bracelet uses Bluetooth technology to buzz discretely on your wrist when your phone rings. Even in the loudest room, or the most boisterous dance-floor, you won’t miss it when BlueAlert goes off.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/front/blualert_bracelet.jpg

8. Laser cut opening watch : This watch has its own laser cut opening. The white face of the watch contains a laser cut opening which is equivalent to the hour hand. As it turns, the “hand” reveals a portion of the number marking each hour. The face also has a minute and second hand. Read more here

9. Sonicum Iconic Speaker Set : These flat panel speakers with included subwoofer sound great and look sharp. Shaped like audio volume icons your computer will feel right at home with the innovative design and your ears will appreciate the crisp highs delivered by the flat panel drivers.

10. A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek : And Finally, Geeks!,  this is the perfect gift for your girlfriend. Geeks are human, yes, but sometimes they seem like a different species. They have social interactions that don’t resemble anything else found in nature; they have language aspects and conventions that go against rational thought; and they many times have a unique body odor. Ok, ok. We have that unique body odor, too. For we are they and they are you and we are you and… we’re all geeks. And we need people to understand us so they can date us. This book helps.

How many of you have used your neighbour’s wifi connection without his permission? A recent survey shows one in 6 people do not secure their wifi connection and one in 9 people have used a wifi connection without its owner’s permission.

Setting up a wireless network is a very easy task today. Even a person with little computer knowledge can setup a wireless network for home use within minutes and for this reason most of the answers for “Is you wifi secure?” will be “I dont know” because many of us think that adding security to a wifi network is “too technical”.

Do you still see this in your list of wifi networks?

Do you want someone to know

• Every copy of every e-mail message you sent *and* received.
• A list of the Web sites you visited.

Its high time you start securing your wifi network. There are lot of tutorials available in the internet so I am not going to explain in detail. Below are some useful links you to get you started.

• Secure Your Home Wi-Fi Network
• How to Protect Your Wi-Fi Network from the WPA Hack
• How to catch hackers on your wireless network
• Protect Your Wi-Fi (Wireless) Network from Intruders
• A More Secure Home WiFi Design
• How Secure Is Your Wi-Fi Connection?

Why should I miss writing about Obama and McCain when everyone is writinng about US elections? Honestly I hate politics and I hate to write about politics. But being a geek myself I shold write about other geeks. Cartoon geeks around the world have come up with few nice cartoons about Obama and McCain. Here are some of those.

And here are some funny videos

and here is my favourite.

Here is a list of 52 interesting things you can do with Google other than search!

1. Browse the classics without opening a book
   With Google Book Search, you can flick through books from the comfort of your home .
2. Never wake up your Australian relatives at 3am again
   Use Google Search to make sure you don’t rudely awaken anyone the next time you make a call. Type ‘time’ followed by the location, and midnight disruptions will be a thing of the past.
3. Convert £ to Yuan instantly
   Going someplace nice? Type the currency you want to convert into the search box to find out how much it’s worth in another currency.
4. See the Cerne Giant in your bedroom
   Visit some of the world’s most famous and unusual places on Google Earth. You can search for places you know or visit the Google Earth KML directory to make new discoveries.
5. Automatically save every draft of your wedding list/seating plan
   Google Docs automatically saves every version of your document so you never have to worry about losing a valuable draft again.
6. Flight arrival and departure times in real time
   With Google Search, you can enter a flight number and get updated information on when the flight is arriving or departing.
7. Say ‘I don’t speak Italian’, in Italian
   With Google Translate, type the word or phrase you want to translate and select your languages to receive your translation.
8. Are you big in Uzbekistan?
   With YouTube Insights, you can find out what countries your viewers are from and also get additional information like viewer demographics.
9. Settle trivia disputes in the pub
   Settle a bet in the pub with Google Search on your mobile. Access all the information on the web without needing to be in front of your computer. Go to Google search on your mobile by typing m.google.co.uk into your mobile phone browser
10. Watch your favourite YouTube clips in high-resolution
    If you have a fast internet connection, you can change the setting in your YouTube account to always play videos in high definition when available.
11. Stargaze on a bright sunny day, or on a cloudy afternoon
    Amateur astronomers rejoice. With the Sky feature in Google Earth, you can stargaze at any time of day or night. View everything from supernovas to entire constellations, complete with information on what you’re looking at.
12. Get directions when you’re on the move
    Taken a wrong turn? Use the My Location feature of Google Maps on your mobile to figure out approximately where you are. No GPS required. It’s also handy if you want to get directions from your current spot without typing in the address. *Available for most web-enabled mobile phones, including Java, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia/Symbian devices.
13. Find out who’s free for lunch without asking
    Struggling to figure out when everyone’s free for a get together? With Google Calendar, you can add the calendars of friends, family and colleagues to your own calendar, and your only problem will be agreeing on a restaurant
14. Keep your family videos in the family
    Keep family videos private by using the privacy setting on YouTube videos.That way, only the people you want to see your videos are able to.
15. Know not only when the FTSE moves, but why
    Stock prices go up and down. Google Finance pairs financial charts with related news of the day. So you can see what happened and why, when you’re reviewing your portfolio.
16. Find local cinema times
    Get big-screen showtimes on your little screen. Type the movie you want to see and your postcode into the search box to get current times and locations. If you need ideas on what to see, you can type the word ‘film’ and your location to see what movies are playing in your area.
17. Make your homepage YOUR homepage
    Personalise your homepage by adding your favourite content to iGoogle. If you want to give it an extra special something, you can also add designs by well-known artists.
18. Inspiration, insight or information for your essay, dissertation or thesis
    Begin your research with Google Scholar. Search hundreds of different journals, universities, books and other sources from the comfort of your favourite armchair.
19. Turn your email into a conversation
    Instead of emailing back and forth, you can reply to an email by chat instead with Google Mail. Your conversations are automatically saved, so you can revisit them just like email.
20. Show your kid where the Komodo dragon lives
    To see where the endangered species of the world live, use Google Earth’s ARKive layer to display their locations and important facts about them. *Download required.
21. Go back to work without going back to the office
    Never be without that important file again. With Google Docs, all your documents are saved online. So no matter what computer you’re using, or where in the world you are, you can pick up where you left off
22. What Coleridge actually wrote was…
    To avoid misquoting the greats of literature, use Google Book Search to check those famous lines, word for word
23. Have your daily schedule sent to you every morning
    Stay on top of your schedule by setting up Google Calendar to email your agenda to you every morning. You can also set up text reminders to your mobile phone.
24. Map out the local sights for visiting friends
    With My Maps, you can add your own information to a Google Map, such as descriptions and photos, and share it in an email, instant message, or on a web page. It’s a great way to help out-of-town guests find their way, show a favorite route to your running club, or plan your next family road trip.
25. Share your YouTube favorites on the bus
    Liven up your commute with YouTube on your mobile. Search for videos, browse categories or sign in to your account to view your own videos or favourites. Go to YouTube on your mobile by typing m.youtube.co.uk into your mobile phone browser.
26. Get the latest weather forecast for Hyderabad, or anywhere else on Earth
    Taking a trip or going for a stroll? Find out the weather before heading out by typing ‘weather’ and the location into the Google search box.
27. Search the web Elmer Fudd style
    Feewing Wucky? Google Search Preferences lets you choose the language you want to see when you use Google. In addition to many of the world’s popular languages, you’ll find a few fun ones, like Elmer Fudd and Pig Latin.
28. Fill in web forms with one click
    Chances are you’ve entered your personal details on websites more times than you can count. With Google Toolbar’s AutoFill feature, you can enter all of that information once, and the next time you encounter a web form, just click the AutoFill button and your information will be entered automatically.
29. Add comments directly into your videos
    With YouTube annotations, you can add speech bubbles, comments or spotlight a particular section of your video to make sure your audience gets your message. For more information, visit http://uk.youtube.com/t/annotations_about
30. Star or label important emails for easy reference
    Google Mail makes it easy to locate important messages in more ways than one. Star or label your messages so you’ll be able to easily find them again
31. See tomorrow’s storm coming a thousand miles off
    Try your hand at weather forecasting by using the weather layer in Google Earth to see when the next storm is coming. *Download required.
32. Multiply 27,334.56 by 21.3 without a calculator
    Use the built-in calculator in Google search to solve maths problems, as well as units of measure, conversions, and physical constants. For the full range of possibilities, visit our instructions page: http://www.google.co.uk/help/calculator.html
33. Tart up your holiday snaps before sending them out to mates
    Make your next holiday slideshow for your dinner guests more interesting. Use Picasa to turn your images into black & white or sepia, or add captions and visual effects.
34. Read a newspaper written in a language you don’t speak
    Browse a foreign website by entering the URL into Google Translate to convert it into the language of your choice. Please note that Translate is only available in some language pairs. We’re adding more as fast as we can.
35. Learn a new skill in a minute
    Watch instructional videos on YouTube to learn new skills, from badminton to the piano. Search for the topics you’re interested in or browse the ‘How-to & Style’ section.
36. You are here. The pub you want is there
    Use the My Location feature of Google Maps for Mobile to figure out approximately where you are. No GPS required. Once you know where you are, you can also search for nearby places to go. *Download required. *Available for most web-enabled mobile phones, including Java, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia/Symbian devices
37. Work on the same document from four corners of the Earth
    With Google Docs, people can work on the same document at the same time, without sending attachments back and forth, or merging changes.
38. Know when to take the high road or the low road
    Customise your route with Google Maps. Use features like the ‘avoid highways’ option to tailor your directions.
39. Make yourself feel better - convert your weight from pounds to kilos
    Use the built-in calculator in Google search to convert your measurements. For more possibilities, go to http://www.google.co.uk/help/calculator.
40. Translate your website into 13 languages with a single line of code
    No hablo Espanol? No problem. Add the Google Translate gadget to your website, and visitors can view a translation of your site by choosing their language from a list. Please note that Translate is only available in some language pairs. We’re adding more as fast as we can.
41. Glam up your YouTube channel
    Give your YouTube channel the red carpet treatment it deserves. Pick a new colour combination, add a border, or include your own background images.
42. Find the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything
    You could meditate under a waterfall for the answer to life. Or try typing it into Google Search and see what you get.
43. Find the email in the haystack
    Tired of trawling through 1,932 important emails to find the really important one? Google Mail automatically groups email replies in a single thread, and you also can search by name or keyword to find what you’re looking for.
44. DJ at your friend’s party…take your playlist with you
    Leave your record bags at home and take your laptop to play a set at your mate’s party. YouTube’s QuickList feature allows you to add videos to your playlist with just one click.
45. See the effects of climate change for yourself
    Add KML files to Google Earth to see a variety of information geographically displayed, such as the predicted effects of climate change or what country an unusual species calls home.
46. Survey your mates to conclusively agree on the best film of all time
    Settle a friendly debate amongst your friends by using Google Docs to create a survey. Email it to your friends and Google Docs will automatically update with their responses.
47. Be famous for 15 seconds, minutes or days
    Could you be the next YouTube star? Upload your latest video and spread the word.
48. Travel as the crow flies, or go right around the houses
    If you prefer the scenic route, use the draggable route feature in Google Maps to change your course and your directions will automatically update to reflect your changes.
49. Work on your online documents even when you’re offline
    With the offline feature of Google Docs, you can work on your documents on a plane, at the beach, or in a land far away. Your changes will be automatically saved online the next time you sign in.
50. Love this video? Don’t miss the sequel
    Make sure you’re in the know when the latest videos are released by your favourite YouTube stars. By subscribing to their channels, you’ll receive an update as soon as they add new videos.
51. Preserve instant message conversations
    Google Mail automatically saves all your instant messages, so you can refer to them later on. Of course, there are some you may not want to keep around. In those cases, simply take the conversation Off The Record, and it won’t be saved.
52. Add a YouTube player to your website
    You can create a custom YouTube player to play your own videos, or your favourites from others, on your website. You can also embed individual videos by copying and pasting the embed code next to a video into your website.

Source : http://www.google.co.uk/landing/thingstodo/#tip22

Are you a frequent twitter user? Do you find it annoying to login to twitter everytime and post? Wouldn’t it be nice if you can post your tweets from your google talk?

post2twitter IM bot helps you do this. Just add post2twitter@bot.im as a friend in your google talk and once the bot comes online you can post your tweets using the following format as a message. If you need aany help, just send help as a message.

username$password$message

eg : adam$passwrd$This is a tst message

post2Twitter

As you can see your message gets posted immediately.

Note: This is a very simple IM bot created using PHP and www.imified.com. I will post the soucecode soon in my other blog www.codegeeks.net. Any questions, please post it as a comment.

One of my friend called me and said that he was having a peculiar behaviour from Google while searching “ASP to ASP.NET Migration”. This is what I got by searching this “ASP to ASP.NET Migration” and navigating to page 12.

We’re sorry…

… but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.

We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

If you’re continually receiving this error, you may be able to resolve the problem by deleting your Google cookie and revisiting Google. For browser-specific instructions, please consult your browser’s online support center.

If your entire network is affected, more information is available in the Google Web Search Help Center.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we’ll see you again on Google.

How does it behave for you?