Going to a good doctor is the only option one should go for while experiencing or suspecting an illness taking over. However it could also be just flu and a doctor’s visit might waste time and money; therefore, it wouldn’t hurt to get an idea of what you might be down with.

Symptom Checker is one website that can help you do that.

Just like doctors, Symptom Checker reaches its conclusions based on the symptoms you face. The symptoms are categorized into two major categories: Adult and Child.

Say you’re an adult who is facing abdominal pain. Click on the ‘abdominal pain’ link:

Once you do that you will be presented with checkboxes to tick, in order to close in on your ailment. Let’s say that the abdominal pain you’re facing is a burning pain in the upper right abdomen, caused by stress, accompanied by abdominal swelling, and relieved by drinking more water. Click the relevant checkboxes and click on the ‘find causes’ button:

You are then presented with the possible diseases you might have. The most likely one is located on top and as you move downwards, the diseases become less likely. The condition you specified is due to at least one of the listed diseases:

Do keep in mind that while Symptom Checker is a great tool, by no means is it a substitute for a good doctor. But do give it a try the next time you’re down with something. It would only help to know more about the condition you’re in.

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To find the speed of your internet connections, you can use a number of free websites including this broadband speed test. These websites first ask you to choose a server; then they proceed to send data back and forth to the server from your computer. This way your download and upload speeds are both calculated.

While the speed calculating is certainly useful, it doesn’t necessarily reveal the quality of your connection. It doesn’t specify what services will run best on your connection and what won’t.

To find those, more useful details about your internet connection, visit Pingtest.

Pingtest is a website that lets you choose a global server and run some connection tests.

The first is a Packet Loss percentage test. ‘Packets’ are pieces of information which are transferred from the server to your system. If the packet loss percentage is greater than zero, then your connection needs to be looked into.

The second is the highly common Ping test; it is used to send packets of information to a server and check the round-trip time it takes i.e. time taken to the server and back. If you’ve chosen a recommended server by Pingtest, any good connection should give a ping test result of less than 100ms.

Ping tests can exhibit variation in their patterns. For instance running the ping test twice on the same server may give you a 32ms result difference. This variation is known as jitter. The lower the jitter, the better your connection. So the third internet test Pingtest runs is the Jitter test which calculates the jitter in your internet connection.

After running all these tests your internet connection is categorized in one of five categories; here’s how Pingtest has named and explained the categories:

• Category A: “An excellent result! Expect all Internet applications to work very well assuming you have sufficient bandwidth.”
• Category B: “Very good! Your connection should work well for any Internet application. Some online games may not perform optimally.”
• Category C: “Acceptable. Your VoIP quality will suffer some, and you will have a disadvantage in many online games. Most streaming media will be fine. You should try testing again to another server close to you.”
• Category D: “Concerning. Most online applications will not perform well but should function in some capacity. Try testing to other servers to verify the result. You might need to contact your ISP for help.”
• Category F: “Very poor. Real-time Internet application performance will suffer greatly on such a connection. Test to other servers to confirm the result, but definitely talk to your ISP about troubleshooting the issue.”

Pingtest is a great tool from the same people behind the highly popular Speedtest. If ever in doubt about your internet connection quality, head on over to Pingtest to confirm or subside your fears.

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Having your emails stored on your PC rather than your online inbox can provide you with easy offline access to your emails. This way you don’t need to log in to your inbox each time you want to read your email. As a result, you save a lot of time by spending no time on logging in and getting right down to business.

However, your email inbox might be too large i.e. too large for you to want to save it all on your PC. You might only require certain messages to be saved for offline viewing. For instance you might want only those emails to be downloaded which are from your professor who sends assignments and notes via emails.

Choosing individually which emails to download can be quite time-consuming. But now, with a great new feature of Offline Gmail, you can work around this time-consuming issue.

By enabling Offline Gmail in the Google Labs, you can already have your emails/messages downloaded for offline viewing. Now however, Offline Gmail has been made to facilitate you further by enabling you to save only certain messages.  Say you want to download all conversations in the last month which were labeled with a keyword which you can assign. With Google Gmail, you can do that with ease:

If you do such a maneuver and click ‘Save,’ and Gmail has already downloaded some messages from your previous usage of Offline Gmail, the new messages (according to your specifications) will now be downloaded and the messages which don’t plan to read will be removed off your hard drive, reducing clutter.

With this step Gmail takes free emailing service to another level.

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Splitting large files into smaller files can prove to be highly convenient while transferring them. For instance your instant messaging software doesn’t allow the transfer of files greater than 5 MB; you walk around this restriction by splitting any file greater than 5 MB into smaller pieces and then sending them to the receiver. The receiver can then compile them and see what you’ve sent.

While facilitating, users usually find this method of compressions quite difficult. Other problems also occur with the splitting and merging of files namely, the compatibility of your compressions software. A file spanned out into smaller files with a particular software might not be extractable by some other software.

The complete solution to both these problems is Winmend File Splitter.

Winmend File Splitter is a compression freeware which doesn’t span out your selected file into ZIP, RAR, or 7ZIP archives; instead it uses a format familiar to windows i.e. you can extract the files simply using Windows and no other third party software.

Winmend requires no registration; the 1.5 MB setup file can be instantly downloaded and installed. The interface is self-explanatory and makes usage extremely simple:

After you select a file, you can choose the method the file is spanned out: you can either choose the total number of files over which your file will be spanned out, or you can specify the size of each file yourself.

Winmend’s speed to span out files is remarkably high and it gets the job done before you even know it.

A wonderfully useful freeware, Winmend is one application you should try out right away.

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As technology advances, it gets increasingly complicated for the average man. A few years ago, the television with the largest screen was the understood to be the best; but now, there’s contrast ratio, response time, and all other things to consider while buying a television.

The average Joe can now use Measy to make his gadget purchases a lot easier by making it a lot less confusing.

Measy is a free web service which asks you a series of simple questions to know your budget and preferences; it then suggests what it calculates are the best gadgets for you.

First you choose your category:

Then you pick your price range:

And then you answer a series of simple questions which help Measy decide what product you would be most interest in:

Doing so, you will be presented with the gadgets that not only fit your budget but also your tastes.

Alternatively, you can also do away with Measy deciding for you and simply browse Measy’s gadget list yourself:

We mere mortals desperately needed something like Measy to make buying gadgets a less arduous affair; thank God it’s finally here.

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There’s nothing impossible when it comes to the web. So what do you get when you cross the fastest internet browser, Chrome, with one of the most popular social networking website, Twitter? You get Chromed Bird!  Chromed Bird is a free Google Chrome extension which provides Chrome users with ultra-easy accessibility to their Twitter account:

When you’ve clicked the ‘Add to Chrome’ button you can access your Twitter account by a small button on the address bar:

Just click on it and enter your Twitter info on the first run:

Then click on ‘Go!’ and that’s all there’s to it! From now when you click on the Chromed Bird icon, you’ll be able to follow your Twitter account via a conveniently placed box:

You can even click on the ‘RT Reply’ and Tweet without even leaving the webpage you’re on:

Chromed Bird is only one example of Chrome’s superiority over other internet browsers. With its already speedy interface, and with amazing extensions such as this one, Chrome is on its path to be the perfect internet browsers for us internet users.

More: Chromed Bird

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Browsing the internet you must have come across interesting reading material countless times. While for some of this material, you immediately take out time, others you pass due to time restrictions. Often you’re not able to find the missed material which you earlier found interesting. Resultantly you never get to read something that might have included vital information for you.

Of course one solution would be keep bookmarking the pages you want to read later. But that procedure can’t be declared efficient as it creates a messy clutter of bookmarks.  For Firefox users, there is one solution: Read It Later.

You can see by the user rating how convenient this makes life for internet users:

Read it later adds a check mark to your address bar which you can click each time you come across something you want saved for reading later:

You can even have ReadItLater save the page for offline reading:

ReadItLater packs a variety of other features as well, some of which are:

You can save all tabs in ReadItLater to be read later
Once you’ve read the material, you can post it on a number of popular websites to share with other people:

Add links to ReadItLater with just one click on the check mark

ReadItLater also comes for the iPhone and can be gotten for it here.

When you know that you can save something to read later, you won’t waste your time on it and won’t let it interfere with your online tasks. Thus ReadItLater also improves an internet user’s efficiency.

A wonderful application, ReadItLater should be grabbed by all Firefox and iPhone users.

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Nowadays digital photography has come within the reach of the masses. The price of the digital cameras has hit rock bottom. However, the present generation mobile phones are also being considered by many people as a viable alternative to entry level digital cameras. The latest high end camera phones have advanced photo editing and capture features that rival those of a dedicated digital camera. In fact, the market is flooded with so many camera mobiles that choosing the right one can be troublesome for a person. Therefore, a person willing to buy a camera mobile needs to consider certain aspects and do his homework properly before going to the stores.

There are lots of cell phones with cameras ranging from average to professional quality. The pricing varies accordingly. Hence, a person should set a budget before hunting for camera mobiles. He also needs to be clear about his need. If he already has a camera then it would be practical to buy a phone with an entry level camera. This can be used for taking casual outdoor shots. On the contrary, someone with deep pockets may opt for a 5 Megapixel camera phone that will deliver near digicam picture quality.

The Megapixel count can also be a bit tricky. While a camera with higher megapixel sensor delivers better picture, image quality is also affected by many other factors than its resolution. There is a discernible difference between the picture quality of a camera with 2MP resolution and another with 5MP resolution. But in most of the cases the images captured by a 5MP and an 8MP sensor look almost identical.

It is always better to opt for a camera mobile that offers optical zoom instead of digital zoom. This is because higher amount of digital zoom results in inferior image quality and excessive pixilation. However, most of the camera mobiles still use digital zoom to maintain the compact size. The Lens type can also have a direct impact on the image quality captured by a camera handset. Some of the high end mobiles come equipped with powerful lens made by companies like Carl-Zeiss and they capture sharper and brighter images than handsets with a standard lens.

Some handset manufacturers bundle their sets with external storage cards for storing data and media. These cards are also used for storing images shot by the phone. Therefore, it would be more sensible to buy a handset that comes bundled with a storage card. With prolonged usage, the phone’s internal memory will become full and then the user would be forced to use the external memory for storing the images.

People do not buy camera mobiles to store the captured images inside forever. They often have to transfer the captured images and videos to computers and share them over the web. Therefore, a camera handset with better connectivity options is always preferable from a buyer’s perspective. In addition to USB, Bluetooth is a desirable feature in a mobile as it offers wireless data transfer between devices. Apart from these, features like inbuilt photo and video editing is found in some handsets. These are handy if you want to take some snaps at any event and share them on the way using the Internet.

The battery life of a handset should be considered in this context. Using Flash, Bluetooth and web access can drain the battery faster. Hence, a phone with longer battery life should be the choice of a person interested in mobile photography.

For more cameraphone buying tips click here.

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In the world of digital photography, Canon holds a place of importance. In fact, a majority of professional photographers stick to Canon digital and SLR cameras for accurate color reproduction and sharp images. Particularly its iXus and PowerShot range of cameras have become very popular among photographers. However, there are some lesser known ways to extract maximum performance from a Canon digital and D-SLR camera.

There exists a simple and free software named CHDK that enables Canon camera owners to perform various advanced tasks with their shooters. CHDK or Canon Hacker’s Development Kit is basically a software framework that relies on open source standard. By using it, a Canon camera owner can add histograms, enable RAW image support and burst mode on his camera.

This software works only with Canon cameras. However, results depend on the model a person uses and its firmware version. The software should be used by people who have extensive knowledge in cameras and they should remember that using it can make the warranty provided by Canon void. It is not risky as the firmware of the camera is not affected by it and it is stored in memory card of the camera. A person needs to check the CHDK web site to know if his Canon model will support the software or not. He also needs to download a compatible version of the software.

To install CHDK on a SD card, a utility named Card Tricks is required. Using it the card can be formatted in FAT. Thereafter, the user needs to make it bootable using the same software. Next, he should proceed to the CHDK site and download a compatible version for his camera. The CHDK software is downloaded in zipped format. Using Card Tricks, the zip file needs to be extracted on the SD card. After locking the SD card, inserting in the camera and powering on the device, a splash screen will appear that will show that CHDK is in operation.

This software enables image saving in the RAW format. To enable Raw image saving the user needs to go to Alt mode by clicking ‘Direct Print’. Next, he needs to select Raw parameters and activate the menu ‘Save Raw’. To use the customized RAW images made by the software, a person can use a tool named Photoline. It is available for both Mac and Windows.

Many cameras show a histogram preview after a picture is shot. However, it would be better if the camera shows live histogram. CHDK makes it possible. When CHDK is activated, a person needs to select Alt mode and go to ‘Histogram parameters’ using the Menu button. From there, he can activate the sub menu ‘Show Live Histogram’. Some models support real time Live histogram toggle.

Sometimes outdoor shots and night scenes look nice when they are shot with long exposures. However, many entry level cameras do not support long exposure by default. With CHDK installed, they can override this limitation. However, to shot long exposure images with a point and shoot camera, using a tripod becomes mandatory. To enable this feature a person needs to select Alt mode in his camera. Thereafter, he needs to select ‘Extra Photo Operations’ and click on ‘Override shutter Speed’. The value factor should be set to 1. After this, the camera will allow the user to select a custom shutter length instead of using the inbuilt one.

More: CHDK

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Online shoppers are always on the lookout for special offers and coupons that can provide them with amazing discounted prices. Offers which provide one free product with X number of purchases, offers that provide a coupon code for a discounted price, travel offers providing discounted rates for a special season, and other offers can be highly beneficial to the people who need them.

So how does one learn about these offers? Heavily advertising is what the offers-providing companies do; but the vastness of the internet lets much of the target audience slip through the cracks. Consequently the people who can use those deals never get to hear about them. Even when you’re actively looking for discounted online prices, you’re not sure whether you’ve found the best deal or not; you still might end up paying more than the lowest possible price online.

That is the entirety of the online shopper’s dilemma. And here’s the solution: Offers.com.

Offers.com collects the best offers around the internet and, with a few clicks, presents them to you. The offers gathered total more than 8400 from than 1600 companies! And the offers’ statuses aren’t static either: they’re constantly being updated, so if a company upgrades its offer to something better (or downgrades it) Offers.com would know!

Here are some of the numerous offers’ categories on Offers.com: Computers, Entertainment, Dining discounts, Clothing, Tools, and Automotive. These and more categories make it possible to find offers on almost any kind of product. You can browse for offers without creating any account with Offers.com, without downloading or installing anything, and without paying anything!

Using the Offers Locker feature of Offers.com, you can even keep tabs on particular offers and get the updates on them via email:

Offers.com is truly a website facilitating online shoppers. Anytime you want to buy absolutely anything online, do visit Offers.com – you could save a lot!

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This week’s European Champions League games features a make or break game for Liverpool Vs Lyon.  Is Rafa up for the chop?  Can Liverpool win without Steven Gerrard?  Probably not.

If you’re not blessed with a premium sports subscription, then did you know you can still watch football free online?  To watch Champions League Football matches free on your PC then read my guide then you will be watching football online using Sopcast in 5 minutes.  The guide also works for Premiership And UEFA Cup Football Online also allows you to watch all major European leagues including the English Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and Primera Division.

The pick of this week’s games is AC Milan V Real Madrid (all times GMT):

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

• AC Milan v Real Madrid, Gp C, 19:45
• Apoel Nicosia v FC Porto, Gp D, 19:45
• Atletico Madrid v Chelsea, Gp D, 19:45
• Bayern Munich v Bordeaux, Gp A, 19:45
• Besiktas v Wolfsburg, Gp B, 19:45
• Maccabi Haifa v Juventus, Gp A, 19:45
• Man Utd v CSKA Moscow, Gp B, 19:45
• Marseille v FC Zurich, Gp C, 19:45

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

• Arsenal v AZ Alkmaar, Gp H, 19:45
• Dynamo Kiev v Inter Milan, Gp F, 19:45
• Fiorentina v Debrecen, Gp E, 19:45
• Lyon v Liverpool, Gp E, 19:45
• Rubin Kazan v Barcelona, Gp F, 17:30
• Sevilla v VfB Stuttgart, Gp G, 19:45
• Standard Liege v Olympiakos, Gp H, 19:45
• Unirea Urziceni v Rangers, Gp G, 19:45

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With the number of Google Chrome users exponentially increasing, more features, extensions, and services are being created to enhance the user’s experience with Google Chrome. One such tool for Google Chrome is Google Chrome Backup.

Suppose your computer is used by multiple people and you have each user has a lot of information stored in the browser; this information can be anything from usernames, to passwords, to forms’ details, etc.

Saving information in the browser can pose some obvious problems when there are multiple users using the computer. If security is not an issue, then this is: user 1 wanting his information saved but every time user 2 uses the computer, user 1’s information is overwritten.

And that’s where Google Chrome Backup steps in.

Google Chrome Backup is program for Google Chrome which saves profiles of the users of the browser. The setup file is only ~1 MB large and downloads in a jiffy.

Once you’ve got it installed, Google Chrome backup, amongst other functions, lets users save profiles (which includes all the Chrome information: saved passwords, usernames, form fields, etc.), lets users load up profiles, and even delete profiles.

This little backup tool is not only suited to Chrome users on the same PC, but to everyone. Since Chrome is currently in its beta testing stage, it would be a wise option for all Chrome users to backup their data using this nifty program.

Google Chrome Backup is just the kind of program that will enhance the Chrome experience for users and help Chrome achieve the glorified status of the best internet browser.

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Tech-geeks had started popping up tweaks, tips, and tricks for Windows 7 long before it was officially released for retail. Already lauded for its improved ease of access, Windows 7 seems to be the best Windows out yet. Today we go over a utility that might just make the best Windows even better.

Windows Access Panel is a quick-access for some very important tools which are usually accessed by more than a few clicks. Here is how it looks like:

Ordinarily to access the objects/utilities listed in the panel, one would need to access the Control Panel first and then be able to adjust/modify the settings. However, with the help of the Access Panel, all you do is click on the relevant icon to be taken directly to the settings you want to change.

The Access Panel comes in an archive file of only ~500 KB in size. Since no installation is required after extraction of the archive, having the panel up and running is quite a breeze. Another plus point of no installation is that the panel becomes portable, giving you the option of storing it in your flash drive and taking it wherever you go, and run it on whichever PC you use.

For current Vista users who haven’t upgraded to 7 yet, no worries: WAP (Windows Access Panel) is also compatible with Windows Vista!

An amazing tool available for the two leading operating systems, WAP is an important utility which everybody should have.

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Nowadays the bulky CRT TVs have almost become extinct and the LCD and Plasma TVs are in vogue. However, not may people know how to get the maximum performance out of their LCD HDTVs. While it is true that most of the present generation HDTVs are easy to setup and offer plug and play compatibility,some amount of tweaking is still required to get an immersive audio-visual experience.

Even if the HDTV set supports FullHD display, you will never get to see the colors as they should appear unless calibration is done. While calibration is not as easy as changing the brightness it is not excruciating either. It can be easily done with a DVD that has a movie featuring THX audio. THX certified Blu-Ray discs and DVDs contain calibration tools. One just needs to select the THX optimizer and abide by the instructions thereafter. It is imperative to set the room light to ideal viewing condition.

Before running the optimizer the sharpness needs to be reduced to normal and the color temperature should be set to 6500K. It is not difficult to navigate through the test patterns shown by the optimizer application. There are some high-end calibration setups in the market like DVE that can be purchased in both Blu Ray and DVD versions.

Apart from the calibration the HDTV owners also need to decide if they want to use the motion blur reduction technology or not. The blur reduction technology is referred by many names by various manufacturers. Sony calls it Motion Flow while LG calls it Tru Motion. However, all these techniques interpolate extra frames to eliminate motion blur. While some people prefer it, some others do not and say it makes the motion seem artificial. It is up to a HDTV owner to decide if he wants to enable this feature or not. A number of HDTVs use a technology called overscan that may incorporate artifacts and reduce HD resolution. Therefore, the users need to set the Zero-overscan mode active in their HDTVs.

The HDTV experience can never be complete without sound that matches the visuals. The aforesaid THX optimizer also contains audio calibration tools. The HDTVs have speakers but they can not match the performance of external speakers. If a person does not want wires spread out all over the room he can try a sound bar. It sits below the LCD TV on the wall and produces rich sound. Sound bars are not expensive either. The physical position of the speakers can play an important role in ideal sound reproduction. For example, in case of a 5.1 sound system, two speakers should be put at side at ear-level. Other two should be placed by the side of the screen. The center channel needs to be put below the screen. Generally sub-woofer is placed on the floor level.

For PC to HDTV connectivity it is best to use HDMI port. DVI is another good option but it only transfers the video signal and so using another audio cable becomes necessary. If the TV is in a position where direct connectivity is not possible, it would be a good idea to use a media player box.

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Two years back Microsoft launched Windows Vista with much fanfare and touted it as the most secured and advanced OS ever produced. However, the resource guzzling nature of Vista created a huge uproar all over the world and several buyers who got Vista pre-installed opted for a XP downgrade. But it is quite obvious that Microsoft will gradually phase out the support for XP and Windows 7 will take some time to be accepted by the computer users. Hence, the existing users of Vista need to be aware of the ways to survive with it on their existing computers.

With some amount of tweaking and setting adjustment one can reduce the resource consumption of Vista to an extent e.g here’s one good guide for speeding up Vista.  More tips for making Vista faster, particularly useful for people who have older computers at home and do not want to replace the existing PC anytime soon, are below.

Discarding the eye candy: It is well known that Vista is equipped with lots of visual effects that do precious little than revving up the interface. However, most of the home users do not need a glossy interface if it comes at the price of a reduced performance. Sidebar is a widget that consumes resource and it can be turned off if not required. One can also switch off visual effects like fading and shadows from control panel. Besides, it is possible to speed up the machine significantly by shunning the Aero theme altogether.

Opt for Readyboost: Windows Vista has a neat feature known as Readyboost that lets the users obtain enhanced performance by using a USB drive. This feature instructs Vista to treat an external data storage device as additional memory. While it is not the equivalent to physical memory upgrades the results are quite satisfying for the users of slower computers.

Disabling unnecessary Services: By default, Vista runs a set of services that are not required by the majority of home users. These services can be manually disabled to cut down on computer resources. To stop unnecessary services one can type services.msc in the run dialog box. Thereafter, a list of services running under the OS will be shown with descriptions. Services like Remote Registry, Offline Files etc can be safely disabled. However, essential services like Superfetch and Windows Driver Foundation should not be disabled. Hard Drive performance tweaks: People having SATA hard drives in their PCs can boost the performance of the hard disks under Windows Vista. There is a setting under device manager named ‘Enable Advanced Performance’ that significantly improves hard disk performance. The downside is that the user stands to lose data in the event of a power cut. Hence, people who have an UPS at home should use this feature.

Defrag: some people mistakenly think that Windows Vista does not need to be defragged like its predecessors. This is not correct. The users need to defrag their hard drives at least twice a month to keep the PC running fast. There are some third party disk fragmenting software that do a better job than the Windows integrated application.

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Sometimes we lose track of what we were saying; we forget where we were supposed to go; something important slips our mind; we are checking out a webpage, and in the middle we make a mental note to check out another website but forget it soon afterwards. These memory losses happen to the best of us.

At least for keeping your memory safe while using your computer, there is now a solution: Evernote.

Evernote is an organizational program that lets you take a lot of notes, no matter what form those notes are in.

Evernote’s slogan is “Remember everything” and that is exactly what Evernote helps the user do. To get started however, one must go through the short and fast process of registering for a free account. Once that is done and settled, one can go to his/her Evernote page and access his notebook, where all the notes are stored:

To make a new note, one can click on ‘New’ to be taken to an email-like page which looks like this:

The user can write text, attach media, store whatever information is possible in this note. When done, simply click ‘Save and close.’ When you go back to your notebook, you will see all your notes:

Evernote offers a quick and easy way to save things information and ideas so nothing is left to memory. Multiple notebooks can be made for different purposes for instance for storing information on different subjects.

On Evernote’s website, users will find that Evernote also has an application for the iPhone. It is possible to make notes on the go with Evernote’s iPhone application.

With its easy and colorful interface, Evernote facilitates computer users in an unimaginable way.

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Especially when we install a new operating system, reinstalling our programs takes up an enormous amount of valuable time. Even when we have an up and running operating system, installing new application usually translates into pausing our important work and supervising the setup process. How great would it be to be able to select the desired program to be installed, and have it install into our system in the background with all the right options checked? Even more so, how great would it be to do this with multiple applications simultaneously so that while we work, a number of our selected applications install on our system in the background?

The answer is obvious: very great; it would be very great for something like that to happen. And with Ninite Easy PC Setup that something is very possible.

On Ninite’s webpage, you can select the programs you want installed and Ninite will generate a custom installer which will operate in the background to setup those application on your PC while your other work goes uninterrupted.

After checking your applications you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the ‘Get Installer’ button. If you require an application which is not listed on the website, you can request Ninite to have it listed.

Clicking on the ‘Get Installer button starts the download of an installer.

I took Ninite out on a test drive and selected Python and WinRAR to download. Here is how the installer looked like:

It automatically proceeded to download Python and WinRAR and install them without bugging me with any pesky dialogue boxes. Ninite is the easiest way to download application and provides amazing convenience.

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The replacement for Windows Vista, Windows 7 launched on Thursday.  Microsoft themselves didn’t make a big song and dance about the product because Windows 7 is so good it is selling itself!  Windows 7 is selling so well, that more copies had been sold before it was even launched than Windows Vista sold in its whole first year!

Even though there are only 3 versions of Windows 7; Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate it is still checking which Windows 7 version is right for you so that you don’t waste money.

Windows 7 News & Tips have pulled together a good Windows 7 Buying Guide that will help users decide what version of Windows 7 is right for them, based on what features they need.  If you haven’t checked out Windows 7 yet then you should do now – your PC will thank you!

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Is there a particular program you want to be always visible? For instance you are working with multiple spreadsheets but every time you are working on Excel, your calculator gets shoved to the back, and you need to click it each time to use it. Once or twice is fine but soon it gets quite frustrating.

An excellent solution to this is Deskpins.

The file to be downloaded is unbelievably small (~100 KB) so setting up the program becomes a very fast process.

Here is how it works: once the program is installed, it neatly sits as an icon on the taskbar.

By clicking on this icon once with the left mouse button, you prepare it to pin a program. For instance I have opened Microsoft Math and I want it to stay on top of all windows, I will click on the Deskpins icon once, the cursor will transform from the regular mouse pointer to a different shape; now I move this pointer over to Microsoft Math, and I have it pinned.

The screenshot above is of the pinned Microsoft Math. Regardless of what happens, whether a new program is opened or some other program pops up an alert, my first and front-most view will be of Microsoft Math.

Key features include

• Unlimited number of pins available.
• Intelligent handling of various application types.
• Powerful wildcard-based automatic pin support.
• Global hotkeys.
• Negligible system resources usage.

There really isn’t much requirements to run this freeware. It can be run on all the major Windows operating systems including Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003.. Other than that you must have at least 386/10MHz class CPU or higher, 4 GB (even though I ran it on 1 GB and it works just fine with that as well).

Deskpins is a minuscule application that packs a heavy punch and come quite handy if you need some application to always stay in front of your eyes.

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A large percentage of us internet users use multiple social networking websites today. Personally, I use Twitter, Facebook, and Orkut. For me managing these networks and checking all of them for updates can become very tedious and time-consuming.

For people, such as me, who are having management troubles regarding their accounts on multiple social networking websites, check out Kazle.

Using Kazle, users can manage many popular social networking websites from a single Dashboard. In their own words, Kazle is a “multi-networking aggregation platform.” Amongst the networks Kazle supports are Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, MySpace, Plurk, Brightkite, Flickr, and others.

The interface is conveniently simple to use and makes sharing over multiple networks easier than imaginable; all you do is enter what is on your mind in the text bar, and click ‘Update.’ Your update is then communicated to the accounts you have connected with your Kazle Dashboard. Within seconds, you update your status over all networks.

Along with modifying and updating your status, you can import pictures from your accounts on the social networks that Kazle supports. Conversely, you can also upload photos from Kazle to your accounts on other networks. Simultaneously uploading photos on multiple networks becomes one of it’s obvious timesaving features.

Furthermore, it can report back live feeds from your networking accounts. Your subscriptions can all be accessed right from within Kazle.

A massively facilitating free web service, Kazle’s friendly user-interface and its flawless functionality is bound to make it a popular tool amongst internet users who use social networking websites.

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