Unfortunately, I couldn’t manage to write posts between school time, tuition classes and the never-ending tests. I’m aiming at something around 90% this time and I can only hope I can achieve that. Wish me good luck

Although I haven’t updated this blog frequently, I want to thank the 3,500+ readers who’re still patiently subscribed to the feed – I have plenty of stuff coming up when my school ends, I promise. I have a lot of ideas on head, and I’m going to execute them one by one this summer since I’ll be quite free to do whatever I wish – there won’t be school then to bother me.

The traffic on both of my blogs are quite steady and they haven’t seen a big fall at all. Have a look:

I said it’s been a great year because a lot of good things have happened to me. My monthly income has grown and I’ve grown – as a better person than I was in 2007. I’ve got more friends and even more well wishers than ever before.

That being said, I don’t want this post to be much of a personal ramble. I know it’s a bit early, but to everyone who is reading this, “Happy New Year!”.

I’ll be back with a bang in April 2009.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

It’s been a great year

However, some photos have restricted permissions and have the ‘All Sizes’ option missing or disabled and it’s not possible to directly retrieve the original version of the photo.

Get Flickr is a tool from TechRoam that helps you retrieve the original size of  a Flickr image easily when the ‘All Sizes’ option is hidden. The page provides a text box where you have to copy and paste the photo ID of a particular Flickr photo.

Entering the ID shows the URL of the image’s biggest version. You can then download it to your local computer. When I tried it for a bunch of URLs, it worked almost for all of them (not all).  You could still try your luck.

Get Flickr – View Full Size of Flickr Photos

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

How to view the original size of a Flickr photo when the All Sizes option is missing?

As promised, the three 30 GB Free Annual SugarSync subscriptions go to Narayanan Hariharan, Madhur Kapoor and Arun. Your SugarSync accounts will be upgraded soon with the 30GB space for one whole year! I’m sure you’ll find it useful, guys. Enjoy!

And, Proto.in, dubbed India’s Startup Event is happening this year on July 18 and 19 at IIT, Delhi. The event brings entrepreneurs, techies, bloggers, and students together. It’s a platform for good exposure and you could showcase and present your technology ideas.

I’ve got around 3 bloggers’ passes for the event to giveaway. If you need one, leave a trackback here. I’ll make sure you get one for free!

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

SugarSync Giveaway Winners, Proto.in Blogger’s Passes Available

I’ve got three 30-GB SugarSync annual subscriptions (each has a retail value of $49.99) to give away. You’ll find details on how you can grab one for yourself at the end of this post.

What is SugarSync?

SugarSync is an application that synchronizes files and data across your devices – desktop or laptop computers and even mobile phones.

How Does SugarSync Work?

First, sign up for Sugar Sync and then download and install the SugarSync manager (available for Windows, Mac and your mobile). Installation is straight forward, and happens without any hassles.

When you run the application for the first time, you’ll need to login to your SugarSync account using the ID that you created during when signing up.

Once that is done, give a name to your current machine whose files need to be synced across other devices.

Then, choose the folders that need to constantly monitored for changes and then synced – you can choose the predefined My Documents, Pictures or Music folders or point to more additional locations using the Add button in this window:

If you’ll need access to your data from your mobile phone, you can configure that too from the next window.

You should see the SugarSync Manager window popping up now. As you can see in the screenshot below, the manager lists the folders that have been selected for syncing – and instantly starts uploading stuff to the SugarSync servers.

You make a change to your file on your PC and then save it – the file is updated instantly across devices – your laptops and other machines – if they’re currently online and have SugarSync installed.

Nothing explains things better than the official SugarSync screencast. (This is a must-watch video!)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVeDR63w6LU[/youtube]

SugarSync also creates a pre-configured folder called Magic Briefcase in your My Documents folder. If you happen to save something inside that folder, it is immediately synced between all your devices.

You can also configure your folders to be archived on the web (Web Archive). The folders that you want to be archived are copied only once online and edits to the file are not synced. Use this when you’re editing a file, but also want to preserve an earlier version of the same file online.

You can browse through your synced photos in photo gallery mode. Get SugarSync installed in your mobile device, take some snaps and they’re automatically synced and can be viewed in photo gallery mode.

You can also access the synced files from your web browser by pointing to your-name.sugarsync.com (your-name refers to the name that you allotted during sign-up).

Concluding Thoughts

SugarSync is an absolutely awesome service – it doesn’t have any niggles at all. I tried it and I loved it. Only thing is that people want file

SugarSync syncs any folder that you’ve told it to sync. Dropbox, another file backup service that I’ve tried previously, requires you to put your files in a specific location for them to be synced online.

However, I should also mention that SugarSync does not come free of cost – you can try a 10 GB plan for free up to 45 days, after which you can pay to choose from 5 different plans according to your needs. Check the rates and features here. You can sign up for SugarSync from here.

Free SugarSync Subscriptions Giveaway

The guys at SugarSync have offered THREE 30 GB annual subscriptions to giveaway to KTT readers. Each will cost you $49.99, but you can win them for free here!

Here’s how: First, sign up for a free 45-day trial of a 10 GB SugarSync account (NO credit card required). This is an absolute must. Then, come back and tell us in the comments section below why YOU need a $49.99 worth SugarSync subscription and how you’ll use it. In the comments form, make sure that you leave the email that you have associated with your SugarSync account.

The three most compelling answers will be chosen by me, and the winners will be announced in about a week from now. Just subscribe to the blog for updates.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

SugarSync Review and Three SugarSync 30 GB Annual Subscriptions Giveaway!

So, in no definite order here goes a list of my very close friends in the blogiverse who’ve always offered their kind help to me!

Saad Hamid – For all the SEO tips he’s given me

Ashish Mohta – For being very frank in giving feedback on my writing

Keith – For always encouraging me and for offering my first job as a freelance blogger on his blog.

Aibek, Mark – For offering me a job at Make Use Of. It’s given me a lot of exposure that I’d have never received.

Madhur, Syahid, Ashwin, Nirmal, Jalaj, Aseem, Kanak, Venu, Hari Shankar, Kenny – For taking the time to comment on my blog posts.

Sumesh, Mayank, Ashfame, Sankar Anand, Narayanan, Ram – We’ve exchanged a lot of things in our discussions, you guys have always shared your knowledge with me.

Daniel Scocco – A very friendly gentleman who has always answered my IM messages, inspite of being a very busy person.

Gili – For giving me tips on monetizing my sites.

Talsiach, Rami Reddy, Shivaranjan, Benedict, Maki, Ross, Brajeshwar, Karthik, Michael, Abhijeet, David, John TP, Nasir, Sujith, Thirumurugan, Joel, Nicholas, Kuan Hoong – For all the social media support!

And I can’t forget to mention Mackenzie, Kyle, Simonne, Myo, Haris, Logesh, Ravi, Vinod, Arpit, Manas, Aravind, Debasys, Ilker, Vivien, Lovedeep, Mahesh Bhat, Shashank, Vijay.

I’ve taken care to include as many as possible. Sorry if I’ve missed you

Thank you. Without you, my blogs are not where they are now. Love you all!

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Thank You, Fellow Bloggers

As you know, I’ve been giving a mixture of some personal stuff along with other niche articles on blog.shankarganesh.com. Sometimes, I found it all weird.

Niche blogging on a personal domain name isn’t good after all. I’ve been contemplating this for a while.

At last, I’ve decided to move to killertechtips.com. All tech related posts will be published on Killer Tech Tips henceforth. As for the feed URL, there’s no change, and you can access it at http://feeds.feedburner.com/shankarstechblog

I’ll be losing the authority of my old blog, but in the long term, I hope to build an authoritative blog and a community around, so I had to go off with the personal domain name.

Hope you give your continued support here

If you’re wondering who on earth is supporting this site, it’s Mr. Srinivasan. This new year, he’s offering hosting at the rate of Re.1 per MB.

I can assure you that his service is very reliable. You should have noticed that the blog wasn’t down even for a minute when we were on Digg!

He can be reached at sapauljoseph AT gmail DOT com

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Some Important Notes