The Guiding Tech blog takes a look at the ChromaPaper addon for Google Chrome that integrates with your Instapaper account and allows you to read your saved articles even when offline. If you’re a long time Instapaper user and if Chrome is your browser of choice, this is one tip you shouldn’t miss.

Evernote has become our app of choice for storing things we’d otherwise forget. But, did you know that your notes aren’t synced to the cloud immediately? PC Geek Blog has a quick how-to on how you can enable automatic sync in Evernote so you can be assured your notes are immediately available on other computers or on your phone.

Talking of Evernote, searching could be a pain if you have a few hundred notes saved. That’s when you should tell Evernote to optimize the database and make searches faster. This option isn’t always visible to the user, though – you need to enable a hidden menu to optimize Evernote storage so check out How-To Geek’s article on how you can do that.

Most of us work from multiple computers once in a while and hence an extension that saves browser sessions and syncs them to multiple computers would come in handy. Nirmal from Life Rocks reviews TabCloud, one such extension for Firefox and Google Chrome.

Opening up a new browser tab, locating that one image that you’ve been trying to upload for the last five minutes, and hitting upload only to find that you have to fill an obscure captcha is annoying. PC Tonic has a clever workaround to launch Imgur from the desktop so that you can save a few seconds when uploading those screenshots or photos.

Google Instant Search has really impressed many of you and it’s even available for Google Chrome. If you’re still stuck with Firefox for some reason, the Simple Help blog has a quick guide on how you can turn on Google Instant using the Instant Firefox extension.

If you’ve got an iPad with iOS 4.3 and if you’re wondering how to enable multitouch gestures on it, you’re not alone. And it’s not easy either, according to BlogsDNA. They’ve got a neatly-laid guide on how you can get multitouch enabled using XCode though, and you certainly should see it if you own an iPad.

The best education will come from the web in five years, remarked Bill Gates recently. Techie Buzz reviews TeachNext, an end-to-end educational solution complete with a set-top box and state of the art software and educational content.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Killer Links, 2011 Edition

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Killer Tech Tips is offering two of you a chance to win a 50 GB account (each) for Syncplicity. If you don’t know what Syncplicity is, it’s a really functional program that will keep files and folder synchronized between computers. If you frequently work on multiple computers, you’ll find Syncplicity indispensable.

All you have to do is just install the Syncplicity client on your computer and tell what should be backed up online. Install the client in the other computer that should be synchronized with the file changes and you’re done. If you want to share a file with a friend, just right click on any synced file for a shareable link that you can pass around. The entire process is encrypted, so it’s a very secure program that you can try. Read all about its features here.

All in all, Syncplicity keeps you away from all your backup worries and hassles. You can use Syncplicity for FREE if you have less than 2 GB of data to backup. However, for more storage, you have to pay. Don’t worry though: we’re giving away two 50 GB Syncplicity Pro accounts (each) that are valid for a year. They’d otherwise cost you around a hundred bucks. You can sync between an unlimited number of computers and have 50 GB worth of data backed up safe, online.

Here’s how you can participate in the giveaway:

• Use Twitter to tweet this post.
• Come back here, and leave a comment on this post with a valid email address and the link to your tweet. Please don’t post the link to your Twitter ID, but instead to your tweet (eg: http://twitter.com/ampercent/status/1565048015)
• You should also tell in the comments why you really need the 50 GB Syncplicity account.

I’ll be picking up two winners randomly in about 3-4 days. Update: The giveaway is closed. Winners have been announced.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Giveaway: Win Two 50 GB Syncplicity Pro Accounts

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Copyscape

You can call Copyscape a ‘content theft search engine’. All you have to do is go to the site and type in your blog’s URL, and it scours the internet for websites and blogs that have either stolen or quoted your blog’s content. You can then decide on further course of action by contacting the plagiarist or the web host. Copyscape also provides a premium account using which you can do unlimited searches, copy and paste a block of text to look for its copies on the web, etc.

Visit Copyscape

Fair Share

Most of blog content theft these days happens using automated RSS Feed scraping. You can go to Fair Share and type in your blog feed URL. Their engine searches for plagiarised content and provides you with an RSS feed that links to the scrapers’ sites, so that you can keep an eye on the plagiarists from your feed reader itself.

Visit Fair Share

Tracer

Tracer is a pretty aggressive way to track content theft and it works only after you install its gadget or code in your blog. It then tracks user activity just like an analytics program, looking for copy paste activities on your blog. When somebody copies your content and pastes it, the pasted text is automatically accompanied by a link to your blog. Have a look at the screenshot above for an instance where the pasted text is followed by the source link.

Visit Tracer

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Three Tools To Track and Defeat Content Theft

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1. How To Embed an RSS Feed On Your Website or Blog?

Let’s take a look at some Windows Live Writer plugins that could replace some standalone programs. These plugins may not stand up to the features offered by their equivalent standalone counterparts, but they do the simple tasks pretty quickly and effectively.

Text Templates Plugin

As a blogger, you might use the same piece of text in many of your blog posts. For instance, I frequently end my blog posts with a sentence that invites readers to post their comments and opinions on a blog post. It’s quite boring to type this manually in every blog post of mine, and it’s time-consuming as well.

Text Templates plugin comes handy by allowing you to save common text and html snips that can they be quickly inserted in your blog post in a matter of seconds. Once you’ve installed the plugin, click on the link in the WLW sidebar and add templates by using the Add New Templates option. When you want to insert a template that you’ve created in the blog post, just double click on the template from the Text Templates Window.

This could replace any common text substitution tools that you may be already using. Sure, it doesn’t have the bells and whistles of a powerful text replacement app, but it does the task for you perfectly.

Download Text Templates Plugin

Screen Capture Plugin

A screen capture tool is indispensable for bloggers, especially tech bloggers. Some people use SnagIt, while others stick to free screen capture apps.

However, if you’ve got this Screen Capture plugin for Windows Live Writer installed, you can quickly capture screenshots of your screen and add them to your blog posts without having to launch another bulky app for the same purpose. Admittedly, this plugin doesn’t have the bells and whistles for editing the captured image, but it just works and that might just be what many people need.

Download the .dll file from the link below and place it under the Plugins directory under C:\Program Files\Windows Live Writer. If the directory doesn’t exist, create it.

Download Screen Capture Plugin

Flickr Upload Plugin

If you upload your photos to Flickr using the official Flickr Uploader and then copy paste shitloads of codes from the Flickr site to insert the photos in your blog post, you should take a look at the Flickr upload plugin for Windows live writer.

Install the plugin, click on its name in the sidebar, authorize and you’re pretty much ready to use it. To upload photos to Flickr, just click on Flickr Upload from the sidebar, choose the photos, add tags and click the Upload button. The image is uploaded and is added to the blog post instantly. Makes your job a piece of cake.

Download Flickr Uploader Plugin

That’s all I could think of. Know of any other addons for Windows Live Writer? Sharing them in the comments is much appreciated.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Three Windows Live Writer Plugins That Could Replace Stand Alone Programs

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It’s time you set things right and make your Windows computer faster. Trust me: These five programs are all that you’ll need to make Windows run faster on your computer. Nothing else. Take my word for it: use the following programs and then come back and tell me how your Windows computer runs faster.

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1. CCleaner (Download)

Crap Cleaner. The name says it all. CCleaner cleans up unused temporary files and traces left by a myriad of programs. CCleaner also doubles triples up as a registry cleaner and an uninstaller. Ask anyone who has used it – they’ll tell you how great the program is.

2. Startup Delayer (Download)

When Windows boots, your startup programs are also loaded along with it which causes a drag in initial performance – there are many programs that you probably won’t use in the first few minutes or so – what’s the point in loading them anyway? Startup Delayer can be used to launch the startup programs sometime after Windows boots (e.g.: I can use this app to launch my media player about 10 minutes after Windows starts).

3. PC Decrapifier (Download)

This freeware can remove all the bloatware that comes preloaded with your brand new computer. PC Decrapifier uses this list and removes all the preinstalled software in one go, unattended – doing it manually will be pain in the neck. Restart and voila! Windows should run faster because you’ve removed most of the crapware.

4. Defraggler (Download)

Coming from the makers of aforementioned CCleaner, Defraggler speeds up the otherwise slow defragment process and lets you defrag individual files. It can be carried on your pen drive as a single .exe file. Supports both NTFS and FAT32 file systems. Defragmenting should make Windows run faster.

5. TweakUI (Download)

Tweak UI comes straight from the horse’s mouth (Microsoft). This paragraph is just not enough to list all the things it lets you tweak. It can fine-tune everything from the Windows user interface to the Windows menu speed, making Windows run considerably faster. This is a must have for everyone who likes to tinker with their Windows OS to get the best out of it.

Did these freeware make Windows run faster?

Your Verdict: How far did these programs help you in making your Windows computer faster? Please take a minute or two to share your experiences in the comments. Much appreciated!

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Post from: Killer Tech Tips

The Only 5 Freeware You’ll Need To Make Your Windows Computer Faster

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Adobe AIR aims to facilitate access to web apps and services from your desktop. I was introduced to Adobe AIR applications just a few days back and now I am totally addicted to them. Out of a number of Adobe AIR apps that I tried and tested, here’s a compilation of the top 10 which bloggers would love to have in their armoury.

But before that just make sure you have the latest version of Adobe AIR installed on your system. You can get it from here.

1. Google Analytics Reporting Suite

The Google Analytics Reporting Suite brings Google Analytics to the desktop. You can access your blog’s traffic statistics from your Desktop itself – you need not necessarily login to the analytics website.

2. ReadAir

As mentioned before, you can access Google Reader from your desktop using this Adobe AIR application. ReadAIR’s features include:

• Mac themed scrollbars and form elements
• Add/Remove/Manage tags
• Subscribe/Unsubscribe from feeds
• Search your feeds
• Auto software update

Another similar app is the Fresh RSS Reader

3. Twhirl

Twhirl is again a desktop twitter client, based on the Adobe AIR platform.

Some of twhirl’s features are:

• connects to multiple Twitter and Friendfeed accounts, cross-post updates to Pownce and Jaiku
• notifications on new tweets
• post images to TwitPic
• search tweets using TweetScan
• timeline filtering
• localized to English, German, Italian and Spanish

4. Webkut

WebKut is an Adobe AIR application that allows you to capture web pages, or parts of them in a very simple way. It provides you 3 capture options: the entire page, the current view, or only a selection.

5. AIRPress

AIRPress is rich blog editor. You can create new posts, and manage your WordPress blogs AIRPress. The only issue is that it requires an older version of Adobe AIR (i.e., Adobe AIR beta 2)

6. Color Browser

Colour Browser lets you create and organize your favourite colour palettes. Sets of colours are easily viewable in a clean interface. Edit them, rearrange them, create new sets, and make your own. This is a must have application if you are going to design your blog theme or redesign an existing blog template.

7. ShifD

With ShifD, you can create notes and bookmark websites. You can add content with tags that are easily editable. These are then synced, and you’ll be able to access them from your mobile too.

I hope you like the above mentioned applications. If you know any other apps that may be useful to bloggers, please tell us in the comments.

Get latest technology and internet updates, tutorials, software reviews, tips and tricks by subscribing to Rakshit Khare’s blog at Aarambh.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Top 7 Useful Adobe AIR Applications for Bloggers

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1. Distraction-Free Writing Environment With Q10

Writing quickly and efficiently (without compromising on quality) is one of the challenges that every writer faces (blogger in this specific example). Computers can be notorious in causing distractions, what with all the hundreds of desktop applications, various websites/services and music.

To write in a distraction-free environment, you could do either of the following two things: use a separate computer solely for writing purposes (which has no fancy applications). Skellie is one blogger who uses this method of a separate Macbook for writing.

A better idea is to use an application to block out all distractions. Darkroom (WriteRoom for Mac) has been for long a blogger’s productivity tool and a prime weapon in their arsenal, but there are better options.

Q10 for a productive writing environment

Weighing in at just 896 KB for the full portable version with spell checker, Q10 is one such application for Windows that improves upon the idea of WriteRoom and DarkRoom. Q10 features a full black screen similar to DarkRoom, a better default font and colors etc. A status bar is present at the bottom, which shows useful information like number of words, pages and characters.

In addition to the default installer, portable versions of the installer are available. I would recommend using the portable edition so that you can save your data even in case of switching between computers (simply drop them to a USB drive and copy it to the other computer’s hard drive).

Files are stored in standard text files, which makes it easy to use with some other program. For example, the .txt files can be copy/pasted to Windows Live Writer or WordPress post editor once you’re done writing. Instead of an ugly green font-color, Q10 goes with a normal white text on black background. At least to me, that is a big bonus, because we’re used to high contrast and require it.

Q10 Features

Spell check is a feature that I find myself using often with Q10. Also, you can set an alarm to speed up writing.

The width of the layout can be specified. Tip: Use a value between 600px and 900px, because it has been scientifically proven that short widths for reading columns are the best (and is the reason why newspapers have narrow columns).

Auto-correction is another feature that can be utilized wisely. Common characters are changed to specified ones. For example, two dashes will be changed to a double dash (long dash). Tip: Use the auto-correction facility to speed up writing HTML code for posts. For example, set a text string like ahref to be replaced automatically by <a href=”"></a> and then simply type ahref where you want a link. The HTML code for a hyper link will appear there, and you can fill up the link destination and link text.

Unconventional Shortcuts

The only gripe that I have discovered is that shortcuts are not standard. For example, exiting Q10 requires Control+Q, and not the usual Alt+F4. Not only did I use Alt+F4 instinctively and waste time, but Q10′s shortcut (Control+Q is rather difficult to type quickly when you’re touch-typing). But this is a small price to pay for such a wonderful application.

Along with some other productivity measures, I have been able to write in 6-8 hours, the same number of posts that I had earlier written in a week (because I’m away from home on weekdays).

Download Q10 (Windows Only, freeware)

Written by Sumesh, who blogs at TechZilo about software (reviews/hacks/tips), web apps and occasional blogging tips. Don’t forget to Subscribe to TechZilo’s RSS feed

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Distraction-Free Writing Environment With Q10

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• Start MS Word 2007, click on the Office Logo on the top left of the screen and select ‘New‘.
• Click ‘New Blog Post‘ and click ‘Create’.
• Click ‘Register Now‘ in the dialog that appears to get started.



• Choose your provider. I chose WordPress.
• Click ‘Next’ and type in your blog URL, username and password
• Click the button ‘Picture Options’ which is present in the bottom left of the dialog
• If you want to upload photos to your own FTP server, choose the option ‘My own Server‘
• In Upload URL, type in the FTP address of the location where the images should be uploaded
• In Source URL, type in the HTTP address of the location where the images are stored
• Press OK and when all’s well you’ll get a confirmation message telling the process was successful.
• You can now write blog posts in Word 2007 itself, specify categories and publish them using the button on the top left.

This post was actually written using Word 2007, and I had absolutely no problems using it. I could add categories and images. Try it and let me know your views in the comments.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Post to Your Blog from Microsoft Office Word 2007

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Here are some tips to optimize your blog post a bit for search engines if you’re looking for driving some traffic from Google and other crawlers. Try these, some day one of your posts will drive tens of hundreds of visitors via organic searches.

Though I’m not an expert in SEO, I can give you a few tips based on what I’ve learnt in the last year of blogging. Here we go!

Use short, keyword-filled titles

Yes, make your titles short and optimal. Think of the words that people will use when searching on Google. Think from their point of view. Use those words in your titles.

Don’t make them too long. This could dilute the ‘SEO value’ of the words.

Themes that have the post title followed by the blog title aren’t a good option. Edit your theme so that the individual post pages have only the post title in the title tag, and not the blog title.

Use ‘Post Slugs’ wisely

Your WordPress posts have permalinks that contain the title of the post in them, like this: yourblog.com/your-blog-post-title

Put it to good use.

Check this post on Copyblogger. Compare the post title and the permalink URI. Both are not exactly the same.

The title attracts people like you and me to read, the URL slug attracts search engines. The slug is short, and uses very good keywords that are often searched for. Mind you – search engines read URLs as well. So it’s a good thing to use an optimized post slug and make it friendlier for Google and other search engines.

You can alter the post slug from the right pane in the WordPress Post Editor page.

Use Headings

Use heading tags like <h2>, <h3> etc to put in your posts (like I’ve done here). Search Engines put emphasis on the heading tags, so make sure your post titles are in <H2> format.

There’s nothing wrong in using Heading tags inside a post to highlight sections in the post (like I’ve done here in this article). Besides being good for organic traffic, this also makes the post more readable and scannable.

But don’t overdo. Don’t make every other paragraph beginning as a heading. I don’t see many bloggers doing this, but decided to include this tip here.

Have you got any secret tips? Shout ‘em out now in the comments.

This post is a part of a Group Writing Project from Daily Blog Tips. Vote for this post if you like it.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Optimize your Blog Post for Google – Tips that you might not have heard

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