Use VLC Player to convert Videos

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD’s, audio CD’s, VCD’s and various streaming protocols.


VLC player is a very powerful multimedia player, which allows you to reproduce practically all the formats of audio and video that are mostly used. VLC plays everything and it has been announced as an official site.


You might not have ever imagines that VLC player can also be used for converting the videos from various to various formats. The files can easy be converted into various video (mp4, ogg, webm and tc) and into audio (mp3, mp4, ogg, acc and cd) formats.


VLC player is available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

Download VLC Player

In this tutorial I’ll show you a trick to convert videos to different-different formats.

1. Run VLC player.
2. Click on Media and then to Covert/save option, new windows will popup.

3. In this Window click on files tab and then on Add button to select the file that you want to be converted.

4. You can also click on use a Subtitle option to add subtitle that will be hard coded to your converted file.
5. Click on browse button to give path of the subtitle file and then select the alignment and the font size option.
6. Then, click on Covert/save option, which will open another new window.

7. Make the selection of Designation file and Profile(Conversion Format-the format to which the file is to be converted)

8. Finally, click on start button to begin the conversion.


This tutorial would prove to be very productive for those who do not have Video Converters installed in
their systems.

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Compress 1GB file to 10MB file with KGB Archiver

KGB Archiver is free and open source software released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Version 2 beta 2 is available for Microsoft Windows and a command line version of KGB Archiver 1.0 is available for Unix-like operating systems. KGB Archiver is one of the few applications that works with the PAQ algorithm for making its KGB files. It has ten levels of compression, from very weak to maximum, a greater variety than that found in most other compression software. However, at higher compression levels, the time required to compress a file increases significantly.

System requirements

The minimum requirements for running KGB Archiver are:

• 256 MB RAM
• 1.5 GHz processor
• [edit]Features

Supports native .kgb files and .zip files

• AES-256 encryption
• It is able to create self-extracting archives
• Unicode is supported in both the user interface and filesystems
• Multilanguage support (including Arabic, German, Greek, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish, and Ukrainian)
• An Explorer shell extension is available for the windows versions.
  
  

Download Now

How to install and use KBC Archiver

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Host your Website on Google Free

In what looks like a brilliant PR win for Google, the Royal Family of UK has selected Google as the web hosting provider for Prince William’s official wedding website. The site, available at officialroyalwedding2011.org, contains news updates, photo galleries and videos and all this is hosted on Google App Engine.

What’s new here? Web developers have long used Google App Engine to host web apps in the cloud – see Sleeping Time and Tall Tweets for example – but this is probably the first time that Google’s infrastructure is being used to host a ‘static website’ of an event that will get plenty of press attention and web traffic in the coming days.

Host your own website on Google App Engine

There are quite a few advantages with hosting websites on Google App Engine. First, it should be more reliable since your site will get served through Google’s own data centers.

Second, if you have a low traffic website, it is highly likely that you won’t have to spend a penny for web hosting. You get 1 GB of free storage space for hosting your images, HTML web pages and other files and 1 GB of bandwidth per day. If you exceed that quota, you pay-per-use similar to Amazon S3.

Ready to jump?

With a regular web hosting company, you rend some storage space on their server, you then transfer your HTML and other files to that server using FTP or cPanel and your website is ready to serve. Google App Engine works in similar manner except that the file transfer mechanism is a bit different.

Step 1: Go to appengine.google.com and create a new application. If you have never used App Engine before, you might be asked to verify your mobile phone number before you can create a new app.

Step 2: Give your application a name – it should be unique and may only include lowercase alphabets and digits. For this example, our app identifier is “thisismyawesomewebsite”.

Step 3: The next two sub-steps may scare some of you but trust me, they simply require you download and run two installers in the given sequence.

3a. Download and install Python from python.org.
3b. Download and install App Engine SDK from this code.google.com.

Step 4: Download and unzip this file – website.zip – somewhere on your desktop. It contains a basic website with some HTML pages, images and CSS that we’ll try to host with Google App Engine.

Step 5: Open the app.yaml file with notepad and replace the word ‘labnol’ with the application identifier that you created in Step 2 above. Save the changes.

Step 6: Finally it’s time to deploy /upload our website to Google App Engine. Open the Google App Engine Launcher program from the Start Menu, choose File –> Add Existing Application and browse to the folder where you unzipped the website.

Hit the deploy button, input your Google Account credentials and within seconds, your website should become available online at abc.appspot.com where abc is your unique app identifier. Later, if you add or modify any web page, press Deploy again and your new /edited files will get uploaded to App Engine.

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Write your Name in different styles & Languages

Looking to write your name in different styles? Here’re some online tools to help you do just that:

1. Google Transliterate – India is a land of many languages and this online tool from Google will help you write your name in almost all prominent languages of the country including Hindi, Urdu, Tamil and Bengali.

2. Google Translate – If you want to write your name in a language like Chinese, Japanese or even Greek, you really need to get hold of a person who can speak that language. If you can’t find one, Google Translate is the next best option.

3. Elvish Language – This is something for Lord of the Rings fans. The page describes how you can easily represent your English name using the Tengwar script. The writing looks mysterious and it’s not very hard.

4. Braille Generator – The tool will convert your name into Braille, a popular writing system that enables blind people to read and write through touch. They just run their fingers across these tiny dots to read them.

5. Hobbit Runes – The runes were in use during the 1st century AD and were later replaced by the Latin alphabet. The tool will help you write you name using the ancient runic alphabets.

6. Babylon Tablets – Use this tool to write your name in the cuneiform script, the earliest known writing system in the world of the Babylonian era. The script was written on clay tablets and was then baked hard in a kiln.

7. Morse Code – Write your name in Morse Code, a system that was invented in the 19th century to transmit information using telegraph lines. The most popular Morse code phrase is SOS which is represented by “…—…” or 3 dots followed by 3 dashes followed by 3 dots.

8. Ancient Egyptian – The writing system of ancient Egyptians, known as Hieroglyphs, used symbols instead of characters. The tool take the first 16 characters of your name and converts them into the same hieroglyphs symbols that were used by Ancient Egyptians.

9. FДКЗ CУЯILLIC – Remember how they wrote "BORДT" on the movie posters of “Borat” – that’s was fake Russian and this tool can help you convert just about any English text into the same style.

[*] The above postcard was printed on Google’s Internet Bus.

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Test Your Eyes online

They say that you should get your eyes checked every two years but if haven’t had the chance to see a doctor all this time, you can test your vision on your computer as well.

Of course these self eye tests are no substitute for visiting your doctor but if you follow the steps well, you may get some idea about how good (or bad) your vision is.

The Snellen Eye Chart

Most of us are familiar with the Snellen Chart that is made of rows of alphabets of different sizes – you read these letters from a distance, usually twenty feet, and the smallest row that you can recognize accurately indicates whether you have normal vision or not.

The various eye testing tools that are available online make use of the same Snellen chart.

Test your Eyesight Online

You should start with University at Buffalo’s IVAC tool. Use a physical ruler to measure the length of the line on the screen (the length will vary depending on your screen resolution). Also measure the distance of your eyes from the computer screen. Now read the row of letters on the screen and press ‘smaller’ to display more rows in decreasing sizes.

While performing the test, you need to cover one eye and when you have read all the characters from top-to-bottom, read them again but cover the other eye this time. When you can no longer read the letters, stop!

Another Flash based eye testing tool is hosted on thinkquest.org – this can work accurately only with computer monitors that are either 15”, 17” or 19” in size. Stand four feet from the screen and then follow the on-screen instructions. When the characters are no longer readable, hit the stop button and it will display your visual acuity.

Finally, if you are looking for more DIY solution, try this. Open the Snellen Chart image on your computer screen and measure the size of the big letter E using a ruler. Multiply that number by 2.838 and stand that far from the screen while taking the test. Now try reading the different letters, top to bottom, to check your vision.

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Tutorial Guide : All about Wikipedia

Since its launch in 2001, the global army of passionate and dedicated Wikipedians have created close to 3 million articles on the English version of Wikipedia encyclopedia alone. Britannica Encyclopedia has about about half a million topics only though it has been around since 1768.

 

Some Frequently asked Questions about Wikipedia

Q: I am completely new to Wikipedia and wikis in general. How do I get started?

A: Wikipedia has a detailed tutorial on everything you need to get going with the Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Another useful resource is the online version of Wikipedia’s Missing Manual– it’s free and has all the information you need to master Wikipedia.

Q: I know Word and some basic HTML tags but find the Wiki syntax complex and confusing. Do you know of any Wikipedia editing tools?

A: You can write a document inside Microsoft Word and this extension will convert that Word Document into a markup that Wikipedia can understand. Alternatively, you can use any HTML editor – like Dreamweaver or Live Writer – and then convert your HTML tags into Wiki markup using this tool.

The next option is wikEd with Greasemonkey – it turns your web browser into a WYSIWYG editor for Wikipedia and you’ll also be able to import rich text from Word Documents and web pages.

Q: How do I get the Wikipedia community to write a page about me?

A: Unless you are notable or "worthy of notice", it’s highly unlikely that your biography will make it to the Wikipedia website.

There’s however a workaround. You can create an account at Wikipedia – this will get you a special user page on Wikipedia where you are free to write about your own self. You can also upload images, include contact information or add external links to your Wikipedia profile page as in this example.

Q: Do you know exactly how many people are contributing to Wikipedia?

A: There are over 9 million registered Wikipedians or people who write and edit articles on Wikipedia. But you’ll be equally surprised to know that around 75% of all the edits are done by just 2% of people. The remaining 25% of edits are from people who make minor contributions like spelling fixes, etc. Here’s a full list of most active users who have made the maximum contributions to Wikipedia.

Q: The article I was looking for has been deleted by the Wikipedia community. How do I retrieve it now?

A: If a page has been deleted from Wikipedia, you can find a copy of the article on Deletionpedia – it’s an archive of deleted Wikipedia pages. They track the Wikipedia’s deletion log and grab pages as soon as they removed from Wikipedia. 

Q: How do perform ego-surfing on Wikipedia? I want to know about all Wikipedia pages that link to my blog / website.

A: Open the Link Search tool on Wikipedia and type the address of your website. Always use a wildcard before the domain name to take care of both www and non-www links. For instance, a query like *.xyz.com will show all Wikipedia articles that link to the xyz.com site.

Alternatively, you may use the linkdomain: search operator on Yahoo (see: Search Features in Yahoo!)

Q: I am an Internet Marketer and need to do some SEO related keyword research on certain Wikipedia pages. How to get started?

A: To know the daily page views of any Wikipedia article, start with stats.grok.se. If you are curious to learn about trends or topics that are currently popular on Wikipedia, tryWikirank. Another service that analyzes Wikipedia server logs at frequent intervals isWikiStics.

Wiki Checker is a slightly different statistics tool that shows the exact date when a particular page on Wikipedia was first created, how many people are involved in editing that page, and best of all, you get know what other pages are being edited by users who frequently edit that page.

Q: How can I read Wikipedia on a mobile phone?

A: The mobile version of Wikipedia is available at mobile.wikipedia.org but you can also use Wikipedia on a cell phone via email. Just send a message to ask@snapask.com with the topic name (e.g. wiki Mickey Mouse) in the subject line and you’ll get the relevant Wikipedia page via email. Another service is Web in Mail though it would require you to specify the full URL of the Wikipedia page before fetching it.

Q: How do I print Wikipedia pages?

A: While all Wikipedia articles do have a print-ready version, these pages carry lot of extra information like images, reference URLs, etc. that aren’t really useful on paper. 

If you are looking to print multiple pages from Wikipedia, start here. You can download the finished book as a PDF (ready to print) or it can be ordered as a bound physical book.

Q: I need access to Wikipedia on my iPhone even in areas where the network is absent.

A: If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, get Wiki2Touch or Encyclopedia – these are offline Wikipedia readers that will provide you access to Wikipedia content everywhere – even in an airplane.

Q: How can I add information from Wikipedia articles to my Google search pages?

A: Googlepedia and WebMynd are two useful Firefox extensions that add snippets from Wikipedia articles that seem to match your Google query.

Q: While the built-in Wikipedia search works great if I know the topic name, are there any other "more efficient" Wikipedia search engines?

A: You should try PowerSet from Microsoft – it’s a Wikipedia specific search engine that will not only help you find all Wikipedia articles relevant to your search query but it also provides a summary of these articles for quick reading. You may want to add PowerSet to your browser’s search box – it’s that useful.

Q: I am a content publisher and looking for other Wikipedia articles that could be related to my niche.

A: Go to Simipedia and type the URL of your website or copy-paste some relevant text into the search box. The tool will help you find relevant English Wikipedia articles that have similar content to a blog, news article, or an entire web page.

Q: I am looking for some free images for my website. Can I use images from Wikipedia on my website without worrying about copyright?

A: It depends. Every image (or media) available on Wikipedia has an associated copyright tag which indicates the license of that file. If the image is not in Public Domain but under a Creative Commons license, you need to attribute the creator even if the image is on Wikipedia. This page has more information on reusing content outside Wikipedia.

Q: How can I download the whole of Wikipedia and use it on an offline computer?

A: Yes, you can download an HTML dump of the entire Wikipedia Website for use elsewhere but the problem is that these dumps aren’t updated frequently and each can be a few gigs in size so don’t think about it if you are on a slow internet connection. A better option would be to download Wikipedia  as an XML file – they are updated nightly and you can use a software like WikiTaxi to turn these XMLs into human readable web pages that you may also read offline.

Q: Can I buy Wikipedia on a DVD just like Microsoft Encarta or Britannica?

A: It’s not official but a children’s charity group in UK has created a Wikipedia DVD with some 5,500+ Wikipedia articles designed for use by school children. You can download the school Wikipedia DVD via BitTorrent or the contents may be accessed online at schools-wikipedia.org.

Q: I have a website and like to integrate Wikipedia articles into my web pages. What are the available options?

A: Get Apture. If you link to a Wikipedia article, your readers will be able to see the Wikipedia entry in a neat pop-up without having to leaving your site.

Q: We have a local MediaWiki installation in our company for internal use. Is is possible to import certain pages from Wikipedia into our own wiki?

A: Go here and list down all the Wikipedia pages that you want to copy into your own wiki. The tool will create an XML file will the full text and history of the requested pages that you may import into your MediaWiki.

Q: Can I subscribe to Wikipedia pages via RSS feeds?

A: Every article on Wikipedia has an RSS feed but you need to take an extra step for subscribing to these feeds. Click the "History" tab on any Wikipedia page and you’ll find RSS icons in the left toolbox. 

Q: Our Government has blocked Wikipedia across the country. Any workarounds?

A: Wikipedia is routinely blocked in countries like China, Iran, Syria, etc. Please read this guide on how to access blocked sites for reading Wikipedia through alternate routes.

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How to Pin Apps or Folders to the Metro Start Screen of Windows 8 PC

Windows 8 has a new feature that allows you to natively pin both applications and folders to the Start screen. This is an improvement over Windows 7, which requires third party tools to pin folders to the Start menu.

To pin an application to the Start screen, open Windows Explorer by clicking on the Windows Explorer tile in the lower, left corner of the Start screen.

If you’re on the Desktop, Windows Explorer is accessible on the Taskbar, just like it is in Windows 7.

In Explorer, navigate to the folder containing the application you want to pin. Right-click on the .exe file and select Pin to Start from the popup menu.

The shortcut, or tile, is placed on the right side of the Start screen.

The process for pinning a folder to the Start screen is the same. Navigate to the desired folder, right-click on it and select Pin to Start.

Here is an application and a folder pinned to the Start screen.

By default, new shortcuts are placed on the right side of the Start screen. You may want to move the tiles you create to the left side of the screen so you don’t have to scroll to access your shortcuts. To do this, simply drag the tile to the left side and drop it in place.

Here’s four custom tiles moved to the left side of the Start screen for easy access.

We grouped the four tiles together. However, you can easily create new groups of tiles. For example, if we wanted to group the app tiles together and the folder tiles together, we can drag our folder tile between the new group of custom tiles and the group of tiles to the right until there is a gray bar.

Release the mouse button and your folder tile sits all by itself in its own group. You can always move it back to the original group by dragging it on top of the tiles in the other group.

When you click on a shortcut to a folder, the folder is opened in Windows Explorer on the Desktop.

You can just as easily unpin a folder or an app from the Start screen. To unpin a folder, right-click on the folder’s tile. A check mark displays in the corner of the tile.

The options for the tile display at the bottom of the Start screen. Click Unpin from Start to remove the tile.

When you right-click on an application tile, there are more options available. Just like you did with the folder’s tile, click Unpin from Start to remove the application’s tile from the Start screen.

By default the name of the tile is the name of the .exe file for applications or the folder name. However, changing the name of a custom tile is easy. Right-click on the tile you want to change so it is checked and click Open file location at the bottom of the Start screen.

The following folder containing the program and folder shortcuts for the Start screen opens in Windows Explorer.

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Select the shortcut you want to change and press F2. Change the name as desired and press Enter.

NOTE: You can also click twice slowly on the file name to make it editable.

The tile on the Start screen reflects the new name.

If you install a program that puts a shortcut to itself on the Desktop but not the Start screen, you can easily pin it to the Start screen. Simply right-click on the Desktop shortcut and select Pin to Start from the popup menu.

The Windows 8 Start screen, or Metro screen, may take some getting used to, but it can be customized to fit the way you work and play.

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