Get 1024 GB HardDrive for free

Weekend is approaching and I'm feeling a bit lazy 'coz there's nothing planned and nothing to do this weekend. Hey, lemme pep up my PC. I can play some high end games on it then - all weekend long. That's it then - let's see what we need to build a monster PC with lotsa silicon juice. Lemme list what we've got -

• Case : Cooler Master Stacker from nVidia. Attractive aluminum chassis with rounded edges, smooth curves, a streamlined design, tool-free installation, enhanced thermal management and top-mounted I/O panel.
• Processor : Intel's Core2 Extreme Quad Core : 2.66-GHz
• Mother Board : nForce 680i SLI. Includes NVIDIA SLI-Ready memory support, dual PCI-E x16 SLI video slots, a third PCI-E slot for graphics/physics expansion, and dual Gigabit Ethernet.
• Video Card : nVidia's 8800 GTX 768-M cards. DirectX 10-compatible, with a core clock of 575 MHz, shader clock of 1350 MHz, and an effective memory frequency of 1.8 GHz.
• Memory : 2 GB DDR2 RAMs from Dominator.
• Optical Drive : Lite-On's LH-20A1s. Writing speed of 20x for DVD+/-R media, 8x for DVD+/-R9, 48x for CD-R/ROM, and 12x for DVD-RAM.

Great list huh? This will make your PC a bleeding-edge machine. Oh, I forgot to include a Hard Drive here. Let's settle that. How about a 160 GB segate Baracuda HDD? It's got SATA 3Gb/s interface, 2-MB cache buffer, 78 MB/s maximum sustained data transfer rate and spindle speed of 7,200 rpm. A decent enough HDD - huh? But this one comes at a cost. That too, slightly a bit at the higher end.

Now listen to this. How about Western Digital’s 1TB [That’s 1,024GB] external hard drive - My Book? It's got Serial Bus Transfer Rate of 800 Mbits/s , FireWire 800 & 400, USB 2.0, i.e. Triple Interface and much more. It can hold upto 285000 digital photos, 250000 MP3s, 76 hours of Digital Video, 400 hours of DVD quality video et al. Oh MY MY. It comes at a price of $400 - a little price for so much it offers.

And now the biggest thing U can imagine. How about getting it for free? :o Yeah, that's right. This one hell of a HDD - 1TB monster external drive could be yours for free. Haaaah - I can see you drooling already and craving for more. Wanna know how to get your hands on this?

Primarily, it's as easy as buttering the bread. Head over to John's site SiteFever to check the details. All you've got to do is write a post on your blog about this contest that he's carrying out and also write about what you're gonna do with that much capacity. And oh, U've got to link to his post in order to send him a pingback, as only pingbacks count! And if John is impressed enough, he'll handover this MyBook to you as a prize / gift. Easy enough - huh? But try your best. 'Coz there could be only one winner here and everybody is already vouching for it. And of course, though I'm letting you know about this offer, I'm your opponent too. ;) I soooo wanna get my hands on it. Oooooohhhh.

I was just imagining what are all the things that I'll do once I get it delivered to my doorstep. The shear possibility is giving me shivers. First of all, I'll just keep blogging about winning this for a couple of days, if not more and make sure that each and every person I know - knows about this win. :D After that, I'll start lapping up the juice. Presently I'm slugging with a 160 GB Baracuda HDD with all but one of the drives already packed to the brims. Everything I download is dumped on a single drive [drive P:]. So, that drive is now in a mess - content of all type scattered all through-out it. I need more space o breath. This 1TB MyBook would be such a huge relief. When I get my win 1TB, this is how I'll use it -

• Divide the whole 1TB HDD in drives of 75GB [more or less] each.
• A special drive of 200+ GB exclusive for Gaming. I'll no longer uninstall old games for installing new space hungry games. Bring them on.
• Another special drive of 200+ GB for all my high quality video, movies and songs. As I said, it can store upto 400 hours of DVD quality video. MAN ... All my movie needs are going to be fullfilled.
• Likewise, each drive will have it's own content type. Pics, Documents, Installers, Backups - all will have their own drives
• Pictures. And lots n lots of them. I already have a HUGE gallery of them. And now it's chocking the P: drive. So, am gonna move all my pictures to a special 'Snaps Only' drive; Organize them by date and event; and put up a show every-time someone visits me @ home.
• My Blogs, man - all 7 of them are now gonna be backed up. I'll back up everything that's mine and is online.
• And why just my blogs? MyBook's got much bigger belly than that. If not the whole internet, I can atleast download and backup anything I want from the internet. Now that's WWW made a small world. :)
• And I'm gonna install all those heavy duty softwares. Adobe Creative Suit, Macromedia, AIR, Silverlight, Corel and the brands. Unleash my creativity.

Somebody stop me. I've getting goose bumps. Ok, John - promise me that you'll give this to me. :p Plz PLz PLZ.

The contest is closing on October 13th. Am eagerly and painstakingly waiting for that day when the winner will be announced. Fingers crossed. Wish me luck. And oh - you can also try your luck. Visit SiteFever and enter the contest. But I'll appreciate it if you do so just to spread the word and not actually win MyBook 'coz I'm all for it. ;)

17 + images in Orkut album

Some weird kind of news for Orkut loving people. All of us know that there's a limitation in Orkut album, which is - You can upload only upto 12 images in your album. But today I came across someone's Orkut album which has 17 images. I wonder how he managed to do it....!!! There isn't any Orkut pro account like they have it in Flickr, is there?

Anyways, have a look at the snapshot of the 'special' album below. Click the image to see a full page snap and click the text link below that to visit his Orkut Album page.

Visit his Orkut Album

I've dropped a scrap there asking him to explain his feat. Will post the hack here when he reverts back to me. Keep a watch here.

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Tips to optimize your blog and get maximum visits

If you are new to the blogsphere, or been blogging for a while but don't get that many visitors, it's time that you have look at the layout of different specs on your item page. Most of the visits that a site gets is through search engine results or link form other sites or RSS feeds. On all these cases, visitors land on item page of some specific post of your blog. They may just read the post and leave. But if you wanna get them back as loyal readers, you've gotta spice up your page to make a good first impression. But be cautious. Overdo it, and you may just irritate your visitor away.

Here I give you few essentials tips to make your page optimally user-friendly. Follow them closely, implement them and see the popularity of your site soaring high.

• Title : Give your post a proper title. When a visitor has come to your site following a link to your post, he's already formed an idea about the post, as per the title. So, if it's not catchy enough, he just might not be interested in reading it at all. And if it doesn't justify or match with the content of the post, the visitors feels lost, or worse - mislead and cheated. So, be careful while choosing a title.


• Time Stamp : The best place to show the time stamp, i.e., when the post was written, is just after the post title. Don't make the visitor shuttle between top and bottom of the post just to check when it was posted. A visitors needs to know the currency of the post before reading it, not after finishing it. Check one such ideal use in pic below.
  


• Font Size and Line Spacing : Use moderate font sizes. Don't make the reader squint their eyes to read your content. 1em is considered the perfect size for a comfortable reading. Add or subtract .1 or .2 em as per your linking, but don't make it too tiny or too large. Best option is, you can use a variable font-size widget. Check this.
  
  Just like font size, line spacing is also an important property. It's set by the CSS property line-height. As the name itself makes it clear, without line spacing, all the text lines look crammed. Use

  line-height: 1.5em

  or some other value that suits you.
  
  Check the two images below for comparison. First image is example of how the text looks when there's no line spacing. 2nd image is of the same post, but with 1.5 em line-height. Text n background is green in both pics as the text is selected to highlight the space between two lines.
  
  Text without line spacing [line-height: 0]
  
  
  Text with line spacing [line-height: 1.5em]


• Image margin : Probably the most visually appealing property that can ruin the mood of your visitors if not used properly. There should be some empty space all around the images of your post. Give your images some breathing space. Check image on right. Have at least 5 px space between your images and text. This property can be set using

  .img {
  margin: 5px
  }

  code in the post-image class in your stylesheet or you can use it as follows -

  <img src="image.jpg" style="margin: 5px" >

  for individual images.


• Use Blockquote & Pullquote : Whenever you are quoting someone or some other source, use blockquote. To instantly draw the attention of the visitor to a particular important part of the post, use Pullquote. Their implementations are explained in code section below.
  



Code Section :

Code for Above tricks
Given below is the ideal pieces of code to implement above tips. Change the integer values as per your liking and check the effects. You need to place these codes appropriately in your stylesheet or between opening <style> and closing </style> tag of your site template.


body {
 font: 1em 'Lucide Grande', Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;
 line-height: 1.5em;
}

.img {
 margin: 5px;
 padding: 3px;
}

.blockquote {
 background: url('blockquote.gif') no-repeat top left;
 margin-left: 3.9em;
 color: #8f8f8f;
 width: 80%;
}

.pullquote {
 padding: 10px;
 width: 200px;
 float:right;
 margin:10px 0 10px 10px;
 border-top:2px solid #694e1c;
 border-bottom:2px solid #694e1c;
 text-align: center;
 line-height: 22px;
 font-family: georgia, verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
 font-variant: small-caps;
 color:#ccc;}  /* Usage - h4 class="pullquote"   */




• Easy Comment Option : Commenting on the article should be easy. The more comments your post has got, the more popular and attractive it seems to the visitors. Wordpress style commenting is the best. But blogspot bloggers doesn't have this feature. You can use this hack. Otherwise, the link for comment form should be placed in such a location that it could be found easily. Preferably, just at the end of the post.


• Top Commentators : Another way to get your readers involved is to use a 'Top Commentators' widget on the sidebar. Everyone wants to be on 'Top 10', don't they. So, if you have such a widget, which will list 10 people as top readers / commentators, it'd seem like reward for the visitors. They will comment on your posts with more enthusiasm. Check this post for ways to install 'Top Commentator' widget. And if you're not a wordpress user, go for the recent comments widget as explained here.


• Bookmark Options : This is one important way to get more visitors. Provide social bookmark links at the end of your post. [Check end of this post, for example] This will help other visitors to find your post and eventually visit it, leading to more traffic to your site. One very useful way of providing social bookmarking options is explained here. Alternatively, you can make use of Add This. It provides options for bookmarking your story to all major social bookmarking sites. Follow instructions there.


• Related Post : At the end of post - use a widget like Related Post. The visitor has come to your site to read about some particular topic. And if you provid ehim with alternate links of related post, he'll surely visit some of them, in turn staying on your site for more time.


• Top Articles : Sidebar is the best location to place a widget like "Top Viewed Posts" of your blog. This will prompt the visitor to visit your other posts, instead of leaving your site. You can manually build one such list of posts and place it on the sidebar. Or, there are some vendors who provide such widgets. Check Spotplex. Trust me, this is really a very useful widget.


• Provide feeds easily : All these done and now the visitor is impressed with your blog. But if it takes him long to figure out how to subscribe to it or where to get the feed, he'll simply close the window. Place the site feed subscription options either at the top or bottom of the sidebar. I strongly oppose placing it in between. And, provide both Bookmarking and email subscription options. Use Feedburner as it provides a host useful services along with your feed. And use the standard RSS Feed icon instead of a text link as it will help visitors to easily locate it and understand its purpose.

Ok, so these are the few minimum basics that you should follow to optimize your post page. Once the visitor is impressed, he'll surely visit it again and refer it to his / her pals. That way, the readership of your site will keep increasing. Lemme know if you need help regarding any of the tips above. I'll be glad to assist you in any way. Keep blogging. Chao.

$4000 worth prizes being given away

How many times have you tried to win something from the web, or TV show or any where? Guess most of the times U've returned empty handed. Don't worry pal, I'm also one of you. All these 'Win' offers never give us something. They seem like moon on sky, which we can't reach. But now, it seems finally it is possible. :) Wanna know how....?? Check this -


All you blog enthusiasts and graphic designers must be already knowing David Airey and his graphic design blog. Those of you who're not sure or were ignorant till date - David Airey is self-employed as a graphic designer and design consultant, with the majority of his time spent creating, and advising on, marketing promotions, such as:

• Corporate identity (logos etc)
• advertising campaigns
• brochures etc.

Now, the big news is - He's conducting an 1 year anniversary giveaway contest on his blog. There are more than $4,000 worth of prizes to be given away. And evrybody stands a chance to win something here, as the prize catalog is so vast and vivid. Wanna know what's in offer? Here it is -

• Logo design from David Airey.
• Custom WordPress theme design from Nate Whitehill of Nate Whitehill dot Com.
• Personal marketing / advertising plan from Maki of Dosh Dosh.
• One year’s hosting and blog setup from John Boardley of I Love Typography.
• Signed copy of Blogging Tips by Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on WordPress.
• Logo design from Tara Roskell of Graphic Design Blog.
• One hour SEO consultation with Lyndon Antcliff of Cornwall SEO.
• $60 of books from Amazon, courtesy of Darren Rowse of ProBlogger
• Logo / blog header design from Jonathan-C. Phillips of Smart Wealthy Rich.
• One hour blog optimization consultation with Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips.
• Revolution Premium WordPress theme package from Brian Gardner
• Blog review and email interview published on Make It Great!

As if these weren't enough, there are some more prizes that will be drawn individually.

• Behringer Podcastudio USB Podcasting Kit, kindly donated by Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog.
• $25 via PayPal courtesy of Gayla McCord of Mom Gadget.
• 2GB USB storage key x 3 courtesy of Jamie Clague at Terinea Weblog.
• Full blog review with deep links and images published on Blog-Op with Chris Lodge.
• Blog review from Aaron Russell of miLienzo
• Expert WordPress blog help from Lakshmi Mareddy of Chilligavva.
• Blog review from Hock Ng of Marketing Tools Review.
• Blog writing consultation with Ben Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog.
• Two 45 minute coaching consultations with Mark McGuinness of Wishful Thinking.
• 4 hour business growth consultation with Rebecca Caroe, via telephone / Skype, or face-to-face in London / Cambridge.
• A one-hour, private telephone consult with professional mediator and conflict coach Tammy Lenski.
• One hour product launch consultation with Design Translator (DT) of Design Sojourn.
• Blog improvement or monetization advice with Easton Ellsworth of Business Blogwire.
• Two premium quality books designed and produced by David Hyde of david the designer.
• Copy of Brand Aid by Brad VanAuken of The Blake Project.
• Watercolour print from Ed Roach Watercolours.
• 728px by 90px banner ad for 30 days above the fold on The Blog Experiment, courtesy of Sara.
• 125px by 125px image ad for 30 days on Smart Wealthy Rich.
• Ad icon located site-wide in the top left of Blog-Op, courtesy of Chris Lodge.
• 30 day text link ad shown site-wide on Contest Blogger.
• 125px by 125px image ad for 30 days on Freelance Folder.
• Lifetime membership to the paid membership site that Andy Beard, WordPress SEO and Niche Marketer, will launch on Andybeard.eu

BREATH. Wow. That's one hell of a list. U can just win anything of these. So, What are you waiting for...?? Jump right in. :D Visit David Airey's Blog to know what you've gotta do to get your hands on these. It's damn easy. Infact, I've already done it. Don't miss the chance. All the best.

Blogger Hacked ...?

Just as I logged into blogger today, I found the blogger logo missing from the header of the dashboard. Instead of the Blogger logo, there was this half cropped image having 'Books' written on it. Have a look below.

What's this....?? Blogger hacked? I don't think so. Guess the logo has somehow been replaced with this weird image. The logo URL is http://www.blogger.com/img/logo40.gif but this now shows the 'Books' image. Google - look what's wrong.

PC Synchronization : Be cautious

Last night, during a PC sync operation, my w810i handset lost all it's data - Contacts, Notes, Calendar et all. [ Read it in details here. ] And it was all my fault. I didn't check my sync manager options which caused all the nuisance.

Data loss is the biggest horror, worst nightmare that a techie or any person today can face. I faced it twice and and am very upset about it now. 'Coz both time, it was all my fault. Anyway, I'm writing this post so that others don't fall pray to similar mistakes. Learn from my mistakes.

This post gives a detail insight into the Sync Manager activity of the Sony Ericsson w810i handset. Guess all Sony Ericsson models have similar or same process. And though other brands' handset might not have similar interfaces, all must be having similar options. So, follow it closely to be on the safe side of data security.

To synchronize your cell data with your PC, U need to connect your cell to your PC with the USB cable provided with your handset. Once you've done that, U'll get an option on your cell screen asking whether you want it to switch to 'File Transfer' mode or remain in 'Phone Mode'. Select the 2nd option. It will prepare your cell for communication with the PC. A confirmation will be displayed on your cell screen.

[ Click the images below to open a fullsize clear image in a new window ]
<- Pic 1
Launch the Sony Ericsson PC Suite application on your PC. [ I'm assuming U've already installed it on your PC from the installation CD provided with your handset. ] The application looks like Pic 1. DON'T click the 'Synchronise Now' button. That might just cost you all your data.



Pic 2 ->
Click the 'Sync Manager' button just below that. This will open the 'Sync Manager' in a popup window [pic 2]. Click 'Settings...' button on this.

<- Pic 3


Pic 4 ->
Another window opens [pic 3] which have all the settings that will be used for the synchronization. If your window is different than that shown in pic3, chances are that it is in Wizard mode as shown in Pic4. You'll have lesser control over this one. So, click 'Manual Settings' button on this window to get the 'Settings...' window in Manual mode as in Pic3.

<- Pic 5
Here, 'categories' lists the 4 things that U can synchronise with your PC; namely - Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes. Uncheck the 'Synchronise this category' box for anything that U don't want to sync. [Check Pic5]

Pic 6 -> below
Now click the 'Conflict Policy' on the left pane as shown in pic6. This is one of the main settings that will control the data on your cell and PC. Make a mistake here and U might overwrite your modified / updated data with an old outdated record. Selection on this page should be based on which device do U use for constantly updating your data.
Case 1 : As and when any of your contacts change their number, U save the changes in your mobile handset. So, your mobile has latest data while data saved in PC outlook during last sync is outdated. In such a case, select the 'Keep item in the device and overwrite item in the PC' option. This will update the outdated data in your PC with the latest data on your handset.

Case 2 : You perform all your work online and make all the changes in your computer - like contact info updating, Notes and calendar addition etc. So, your computer has all the latest data. In such a case, select the 'Keep item in the PC and overwrite item in the device' option. This will update the outdated data in your handset with the latest data on your computer.

Case 3 : Or you might have mix of updated and outdated data on both your handheld cell and PC. For example, you have updated contact info on your cell while updated calendar info on your PC. In such a case, select the 'Use the item last modified' option. This will compare individual data records on your handset with its counterpart in PC, and whichever is modified last is used, the other record being overwritten with this one. Thus both the cell and PC will have latest updated data.

Make the selection wisely. If you're not sure, it's always a bit safe to 'Use the item last modified' option.

<- Pic 7
Now click the 'Delete Policy' on the left pane, as hown in pic7. This controls data from which category should be deleted from your PC, if they are deleted on your cell. By default, all four categories are selected. So, do check this page to save your data. Uncheck any category whose data you don't want to be deleted from your PC.

Click 'OK' to get back to the 'Sync Manager' window of pic2. Now you are ready to click the 'Synchronise Now' button. This will start the process in a new window.



Pic 8 ->
Click the 'Detailed View' on this window to get the progress details as shown in Pic8. Once the sync is over, you'll get a report stating what are all the changes made, as in Pic9. Click on each icon on the left pane to see individual changes made in each category. If you have taken all the proper precautions and followed the directions stated above, both your cell and PC should have the latest data now.

<- Pic 9







Pic 10 ->
For any reason, if you think that there's some error in the data, in cell or in PC, U can use the 'Advanced Sync' option. Check Pic2. This will open the window as in Pic10. There are 3 options here.

• Overwrite Device : will replace all items on your cell with items on your PC,
• Overwrite PC : will do just the opposite,
• Merge : will copy all data from cell to PC and vice versa.

.
This 'Advanced Sync' option is helpful in few lucky cases. Don't count on it too much. For, if your data is deleted during sync operation due to wrong settings, there's no way you can get it back.

That is all I had to share on Synchronisation. Best policy is to take regular backups. Once you've successfully synced your cell and data, take a backup of your outlook.pst file. And you can take a backup of your contact details in SIM card also, so that your memory card gets corrupted due to any reason, you have a backup.

Take Care.