Specialised Search Engines

  When one thinks of search engines the first one that comes to mind
is google.However there are a few that do specific types of search.For
example sample these:
1.Copyscape:this site finds out if the content in a site is also present
in another site.(checks for online plagiarism)
2.Fizy:music search.
3.Tineye:finds the source of an image that us available online.
4.Technorati:blog search.
5.Wolfram-alpha:solves math problems.
6.Metasearch engines:these sites search a term in multiple search
engines and display the aggregated result.
  That's it for now...

Search Engines

 Search engines are the first place for looking up information online.The reason I'm writing about this at the end is because most searches do not give the right answer..atleast in my experience.
  A few useful things I've found about search engines are:
1.Different types of search (image,blog..) are available
2.Suggest:I've found this feature to be useful when only a part of the search term is known.
3.Searching a single site:in google this can be done by typing   "site:(site name) (search term)"
    eg:site:wikipedia.org bluetooth
 In my next post I'll list out a few specialised search engines.

Forums and Q&A Sites

 In question and answer sites like yahoo answers questions posed by users are answered by other users whereas forums are discussion boards;here topics,questions are discussed or resolved by members.
  Different forums cater to different topics.These forums can also be used to keep in touch with the latest developments like in weblogs.
  A few sites I browse are:
    1.Yahoo answers:http://in.answers.yahoo.com/
    2.Broadband forum:http://broadbandforum.in/
    3.Answers.com:http://www.answers.com/

Web Directory

  A web directory is a website where most websites present on the world wide web are classified topic-wise.For example sites like gmail,yahoomail,etc will be listed under email providers and so on.
  This can be used for research in many ways.Two ways in which I've used it are:
  1.Finding sites that feature a particular topic
  2.Find sites that are similar to a particular site.
       This can be done by searching the site name in the web directory.The search leads to the topic which features other similar sites.
   eg: go to the google directory(http://www.google.com/dirhp)
        search for google.com(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&cat=gwd/Top&ei=wdGVS9y4Lc60rAeK3-ycDA&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=google.com&spell=1)
        find the topic(http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Search_Engines/)
  Google has a web directory(http://www.google.com/dirhp)
  And wikipedia features a list of web directories here.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_directories)

Weblogs

  A blog is a website that deals with a particular topic and is updated on a regular basis.A new update(or post) can be about new developments or features.This in turn is discussed by readers via their comments.This way its possible to keep in touch with what's happening in a field.
  Plus one can read about others experiences and get new ideas..
    A few noted blogs which I read are:
       1.Digital Inspiration:http://www.labnol.org/
       2.http://howtogeek.com/
       3.Download Squad:http://www.downloadsquad.com/

Online Research:Different Techniques

  Starting this week I'm going to describe a few useful ways to obtain information online.I'll start off with wikipedia.
  Wikipedia is the online repository of information.Here are a few ways I've found it useful:
 1.Description of each topic is given.
 2.Links to related topics and for further reading are given.
    For example links can be tutorials.
 3.In topics like software a list of similar software plus a comparison is given(not always though).
 4.If the term is not available as a separate topic then it could be part of another topic.
    This can be used for further research.

 Tips:use the suggest feature to quickly find search terms(or even related topics).
        search the site using google to find if a term is present in any topic.

Backup and Synchronisation of Data

  First some basics.In a backup the data in one location is saved to another location.In synchronisation the backup operation is done in two directions;changes to data in one location are updated to data in another location and the reverse is also done.
  Some softwares also offer a third option;while doing a synchronisation no data is deleted.
  Standard features of backup software:
 1.Encryption of backed up data.
 2.Compression
 3.The backup destination can be in the same disk,external drive or a remote server.
 4.Preview the differences in files stored at the two locations.
 5.Email notifications on completion of backup/synchronisation tasks.
  In my following posts I'll describe a few backup software.

Web Applications

  Over the past few months I've collected a few web applications;my main idea was that these could be good alternatives in case the software was not installed on the pc;to access these applications only a web browser is needed.
 1.Google docs:an online office suite available for free;this can be accessed using a gmail account.it can also store files upto a size of 250 mb.
 2.http://www.pdftoword.com/:online converter from the pdf to word file format.
 3.http://www.free-ocr.com/:this application can extract text from an image.
 4.http://www.screentoaster.com/:record your screen activity to make tutorials.
 5.http://aviary.com/:this site has multiple applications(image editing,audio editing,screen capture..).
 6.http://www.sumopaint.com/home/:online image editor.
 7.http://www.lovelycharts.com/:create diagrams online.
 8.Meebo:online chat application
 9.http://media-convert.com/:convert files(text,word or media files) to different formats.
 10.http://www.zoho.com/:online office suite.
   Well I hope this turns out to be useful..

Make Your PC run faster

  Over time the pc slows down.There are many reasons as to why this happens.Lets discuss general OS issues and how to solve them.
  One of the key factors is RAM usage.Some applications tend to automatically start with the pc.Examples are winzip,nero,anti-virus,..Amongst these only the anti-virus software is needed;the rest can be removed as per user preferences.In most cases removing the startup entry does not affect the application;run the application anytime it is needed.Removal can be done using msconfig,windows defender or ccleaner.

Another thing is to free the C drive;by removing temporary files,sytem restore points or moving data to other drives.This can be done using disk cleanup or ccleaner.The advantage of a tool like ccleaner is that it provides for selective removal of unwanted data.

 

Defragment the drives.Use the built-in defragment tool or others like defraggler.I did this on my pc yesterday and to my surprise it freed up 5 gb of space on my C drive.Alongside this also delete unwanted items in the registry using ccleaner or registry mechanic.

  Not to be forgotten scan for viruses and malware on the pc.Use multiple tools to scan.

  The last option is to restore the C drive from a backup made previously.If the backup was taken on the day the OS was installed the system will go back to that state.In other words it'll work like a new pc.

Screencasting Software

  Previously I've described how to take screenshots of a part of the screen(Screenshot tools).Now the same concept can be extended to make a video of the screen.Remember tutorial videos in Youtube or any other sites?
  Here I'll describe a few software which can be used to make screencasts.
 1.Screen2exe:This is a simple software;start off by setting the options like the part of the screen to be recorded,video frame rate and include/exclude audio and then start recording.

To stop the recording press F10 and to pause it press F9.After recording it is possible to edit the video:

 The final file is an .exe file;run this file to watch the video.Download this from http://www.screen-record.com/screen2exe.htm.Now I've taken this software an example to show how to use screencasting software generally.

CD and DVD Images

  Previously I've discussed about disk images;images can also be made of cds or dvds.In this case images can be used like the original disk i.e. it can be opened and used like the original cd/dvd.Primarily this is used to backup cds and dvds;the images are stored in the hard disk and can be used or burned to a cd/dvd anytime.
  Images can be made using cd/dvd burning software.For example in Nero an image can be made by selecting copy disc and image recorder as the writing device.However burning software do not allow the user to open the image and browse files;This is where Daemon Tools comes in.
  Daemon Tools allows the user to make and mount disc images.After mounting the image in a virtual cd/dvd rom the files cab be viewed the regular way.After installing the software a new cd/dvd rom is visible in my computer.When an image is mounted the files present in the image file can be accessed by clicking the above drive.
  To simplify things run the software and right click the tray icon.Select options.Here uncheck the autostart option(this will make sure that this software does not start with Windows) and in set file associations click on select all(this selects all the image file types).Now left clicking an image will automatically mount it in the virtual drive.There are many other options;set the number of virtual drives,manually mount/unmount disk images and so on.
  One small thing during installation uncheck the options to install any other software or change the browser homepage.
  There are many similar software.Go to this link to find out:
  Image Software:Wikipedia