Desktop trick : Baffle anybody

Just a little prank, instead of Geeky reviews or news this time. Here's a little something that won't take much of your time and will let U drive your friends crazy / mad.

Consider this : Your friend opens his desktop PC [ or laptop for that matter. ;) ] and click the 'start' button of windows taskbar. But the start menu doesn't show up. He clicks again and again but to no avail. "What's wrong ...???" he wonders. And then he discovers, icons on the desktop also don't work. Nothing happens upon clicking on them. As if the icons aren't there at all. He frantically click every single inch possible on the desktop but nothing happens. All this while, U r looking at him with a smirk on your face. Finally U emerge from the shadows, to relieve him from his agony. With a few clicks, U fix his PC and he can't find enough words to thank you.

Oh, it's just one case possibility. U can play it any way U want. Wanna have a try at it. Let's dig in. Lemme show U how to go about this mission.

1. First of all, minimize all windows [ of the PC, not your building's ] and take a snapshot of the desktop. The 'Print Scrn' button on top row of keyboard does that.


2. Open a new empty document on MSPaint and paste the snapshot here [ by pressing ctrl + v ]. Save this image.


3. Now, right click on an empty space of the desktop and uncheck the 'show desktop icons' option. All the icons on the desktop should get hidden now and it should be free of all icons.


4. Set the saved image as the wallpaper on your desktop. Half of your job is done.


5. Now, right click on the taskbar and select 'properties'. On the window that pops-up, check / select the 'auto hide' option so that it is enabled. Next click 'OK'.

AND VOILA. U'r ready with all your camouflage ready.

Hope U have lotsa fun playing this prank on all your friends [ and opponents as well ]. Lemme know what did U do with this and how many time. See U next time.

And, BTW, if U are a Harry Potter fan, head over to genius @ play for a series of write ups on Harry. It's not just regular blah blah s. It's HUGE and involves a copyright violation notice from Google itself. Click through.

Modern Web Design

Today came across this awesome n funny pie chart while browsing.


Every site owner, who's actually worked on his / her site's design will totally identify with this chart. Specially, the pink and yellow pie-parts are something that really bothers, and that's why they are consuming that much part of the chart.

Lemme know about your take on this. Leave it as a comment here.

I found this chart at ZLythern.

Orkut changing to Socialstream

There's a huge news for all Orkut enthusiasts. Now whether it is good or bad, that decision rests upon individual users. The thing is - google is working on completely renovating the user experience on Orkut. In fact, the project's scope is not to simply redesign the interface but “rethink and reinvent online social networking.” The project goal is to “create a system for users to seamlessly share, view, and respond to many types of social content across multiple networks.” The project is codenamed SocialStream. Below is the screenshot of it's homepage.



Several new and exciting features are going to be added here. Such as -

• All your contacts in one place
• Know when your contacts post new updates
• Discover what's important with an interactive visualization
• Browse by contact
• Sharing Without Barriers
• Different levels of sharing
• Track viewers of content and new comments.

Check the snapshots below - [ continued in Full Post ]

Check the details of these and other features at the official site here.

Now, as far as my view is concerned, the UI looks good and the features are promising. But we are now so much used to the Orkut UI that sudden migration to this new UI will bewilder us for sometime. But once we're used to this change, I'm sure it's gonna take our concept of Social Networking to a new level.

G @ P v4.0 Launched today

Finally, after weeklong work, G @ P v4.0 is released today. The new look is iCandy. Here's the snapshot of the launch page.

Read the details here.


The main highlight of this new design is it's rolling topbar which is named 'Curtain' as it rolls out and back in on the click of a "Pull" string. The effect is really snazzy. Visit the site to have a look at it.

There are 'NavBar' and 'Top' links clicking on which results in the page automatically smoothly scrolling to the bottom and top of the page, respectively. U just look with amazement as the scrollbar swiftly glides up or down. Zooooom past.

The use of icons is very impressive. Some high resolution icons and mouse hover effects are truly eye catchy. Check for the icon prefixed before a post name on Main or Archive page and Flickr, YouTube icons at the bottom of the page. Or, different blog icons in the 'Curtain'.

And, if U r in a mood for random reading, there's a widget which can take u to any random article.

There's an embedded chat window. :) U can chat with the site owner using this. This is a welcome change from the 'No Contact' trend of current set of blogs. U no longer need to keep searching for the mail id of the owner or leave your msg as comment.

U can add the owner to your Delicious network; grab the site feed; subscribe to it via email, and lots more.

In short, this site is visitor's delight. Do pay it a visit and if U like it, subscribe its feed. Do drop a line or two there.

What are you waiting for? Click - genius @ play.

Sony Ericsson