How To

How To Insert Your Profile Picture As Emoticon In Facebook Chat

December 29, 2011 by Avinash Leave a Comment

For all those Facebook chat fans, here is a cool trick to insert your profile picture as emoticon inside chat windows. In fact, this trick works with any of the profile pictures, Facebook pages. This means you can insert Mark Zuckerberg’s face or even Jessica Alba’s picture while chatting with your friends.

As shown in the above picture (leave those red rectangles), you can insert profile pictures of Facebook users and also pages inside chat windows.

Steps:

To test out, select one of your friends as a victim and start chatting!
In the conversation, put your profile ID in double brackets. For example, the page https://www.facebook.com/cosmoGeek has cosmoGeek as the profile ID and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alba-Jessica/304045381665 has 304045381665 as the profile ID.
To insert above pages pictures as emoticons in the conversation, just type [[cosmoGeek]] or [[304045381665]]
You can do the same thing for individual profile pictures of your friends. Indeed, you can use anybody’s profile picture as emoticon.

Even though, they show up in small pictures, if you mouse hover the emoticon, you can see its profile ID.

Liked it? If you feel tired of using your boring friends’ pictures, try out these codes –

Troll face: [[171108522930776]]
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME: [[143220739082110]]
Not bad Obama: [[169919399735055]]
Me Gusta: [[211782832186415]]
Mother of God: [[142670085793927]]
Cereal Guy: [[170815706323196]]
LOL Face: [[168456309878025]]
NO Guy: [[167359756658519]]
Yao Ming: [[218595638164996]]
Derp: [[224812970902314]]
Derpina: [[192644604154319]]
Forever Alone: [[177903015598419]]
Not Bad: [[NotBaad]]
Fuck yeah: [[105387672833401]]
Challenge accepted: [[100002727365206]]
Okay face: [[100002752520227]]
Dumb bitch: [[218595638164996]]
Poker face: [[129627277060203]]
Okay face: [[224812970902314]]
Socially awkward penguin: [[98438140742]]
Rage face: [[FUUUOFFICIAL]]
Lamp: [[100001256102462]]
No: [[167359756658519]]
MOG: [[142670085793927]]
Feel like a sir: [[168040846586189]]
Forever alone christmas: [[125038607580286]]

How To Convert YouTube Videos To MP3 Format

December 24, 2011 by Avinash Leave a Comment

YouTube to mp3 websites are wonderful tools for anyone who enjoys listening to their music on YouTube and want it in mp3 format. In the digital age, it is certainly not unusual for people to see a video on YouTube that features great music they would love to have in their own personal collection. However, you cannot simply download a video and automatically get it in mp3 format. This is where conversion websites that provide a service comes handy.

The YouTube to mp3 conversion tool is highly useful and extremely convenient. Simply go to google and type in “YouTube to mp3” and you are presented with a number of sites that provide this service for free. There is no need to download any software to your computer, which is great because the fact is, you never know what you might get — malware included. The conversion tool is simple to use and is in fact a website that anyone with Internet access can venture to. All that is needed is a URL from YouTube, and you will be all set. Find a great video featuring a song you have been wishing to download, copy the link and then paste it into the field provided on the site. From there, all you would need to do is to click on the large button below to begin the download process. The website prides itself in being the most reliable and convenient conversion tool for music from YouTube to be made into mp3 format.

Free is Best
One of the best aspects of the YouTube to mp3 converter is that it is 100 percent free. There is also no limit on how many downloads you can perform, so you will no doubt find yourself venturing back to the website time and time again. This is a great way to get your favorite music in mp3 format without having to spend loads of money! The website urges all of its users to spread the word about the great service to as many people as possible so that they too can experience the convenience of downloading their favorite tunes.

Depending on your Internet connection, the actual conversion and download process can take anywhere from a mere minute or as much as five minutes. In general, most people will see results within two to three minutes due to the fact that most online users rely on a cable or DSL Internet connection. Of course, if you are a bit behind in the times and use dial-up, the download will take a somewhat longer amount of time.

This is a guest post by Shon Siemonek. Shon is the owner of Luscious Media Technology blog.

Windows Phone 7 Gets Its Own Cydia Like Store – Bazaar [How To Guide]

December 12, 2011 by Avinash Leave a Comment

Microsoft is doing decently good with their recently launched Windows Phone 7.5 platform. I had a chance to test some of its exciting features on Samsung Focus i917.

Just like Apple’s iOS App Store alternative for jailbreakers – Cydia, Windows Phone 7 users get an alternative apps distribution platform to Windows Market Place, known as Bazaar.

These alternative platforms let in apps that are rejected from the official App Store or Market Place. Just like Apple’s App Store, Microsoft’s Market Place is a well monitored and closed system unlike Google’s Android market. All apps that are submitted that are submitted for App Store or Market Place goes through a strict screening process. If an app is found to be violated guidelines set by Apple or Microsoft, it is rejected and sent back to the developer.

Over at XDA-developers, Bazaar is launched by those enthusiastic developers as a public beta that contains temporary repository of the official marketplace free apps. The important note at the post also mentions that Bazaar is not a place to distribute cracked games and apps.

The only problem right now about Bazaar is that currently it does not work with ChevronWP7 – which is the official unlocking procedure for Windows Phones. Yes, it is an official unlocking tool from Microsoft.

In the following guidelines, you’ll learn how to download and install Bazaar on your Windows Phone 7 devices.

Follow this procedure at your own risk with your developer unlocked Windows Phone 7 device –

Pre-requisites:

Developer unlocked Windows Phone 7 device. Currently does not work with before mentioned ChevronWP7 unlocked devices
Custom ROM which supports XAP installation. XDA developers site has bunch of them. ROMs like DFT, NextGen, Deepshining do support these features. Flash your device with one of them.
Finally, install Windows Phone Developer Tools and Zune on your PC

Steps:

Download Bazaar (.xap file) from the XDA developers link from here
From Windows Phone Developer Tools on your PC, launch Application Deployment.
Select the above downloaded .xap file with target as Windows Phone Device. Do not click Deploy button now.

4. Connect your Windows Phone device now and sync with Zune

5. Now, again from Application Deployment, click Deploy.

6. You device should now have Bazaar installed

As noted on XDA forum, Bazaar is currently in early Beta stage of development, and at this time, when clicking install any app from Bazaar, the app will just download and will not install it.

Let me know if you tried out this procedure and face any problems.

How To Verify If You Have Carrier IQ Keylogger On Your Android Without Rooting

December 2, 2011 by Avinash Leave a Comment

The latest buzz about Carrier IQ is all around tech and non-tech world. Yesterday, we learned how to verify and remove Carrier IQ from your Android device. But, that method requires you to root your device.

Now, we learn how to detect about this spying software, but not yet remove, and no rooting of your Android device is required.

While this Carrier IQ crap develops, battle between OS developers and mobile carriers continues, a free app Voodoo Carrier IQ Detector lets you verify whether your Android device is infected or not. Unfortunately, it only verifies but do not remove. After installing, once you launch this app, if you see the detection score as 0 which means best, and anything above zero means Carrier IQ is present and you should seriously consider rooting your Android phone.

Unfortunately, Apple admitted that it included a copy of Carrier IQ in all devices up through iOS 5. This option is disabled on iOS 5; older versions may send back information. If you have an iOS 5 device, turning off “Diagnostics and Usage” option to “Don’t Send” appears to be enough under Settings > General > About > Diagnostics and Usage.

Android users may have to wait for now. As discussed earlier, you always have an option if your Android device is rooted. Just follow this procedure.

Download Voodoo Carrier IQ Detector from Android Market here. Let the world know if your device is effected in the comments section below.

How To Verify And Remove Carrier IQ Keylogger On Android

December 2, 2011 by Avinash Leave a Comment

You must have read this shocking news about Carrier IQ software already. This piece of software logs texts, key taps, calls, emails, strokes, etc. without your knowledge. Here is how to verify and remove Carrier IQ on your Android device.

Trevor Eckhart, the same security researcher who actually discovered Carrier IQ’s fishy activities now posted an .APK with name Logging Checker. This software checks logging activity on your phone and lets you know where the logging data is going to. Additionally, it can also look for Google and HTC usage logs, Dropbox logs, etc.
There are two versions of this logging checker – free and paid. The paid version guides you to remove Carrier IQ activity. Before installing, you need to ensure that your phone is rooted and ‘Unknown sources’ option is enabled from Settings > Applications.
Download Logging Checker from official xda-developers thread here.
Download Logging Checker Pro from Android market here.
[via] The Verge

How To Unlock ATT iPhone 4S To Work on T-Mobile

November 17, 2011 by Avinash Leave a Comment

One of the iPhone hackers (developer of course) claims that he found a way to unlock the iPhone 4S without any hardware or software changes. This unlock seems to be working (I haven’t tried yet with my AT&T iPhone 4S) only with AT&T version only.

According to Chronic, this procedure will assist you to use your iPhone 4S on T-mobile’s network with T-mobile SIM card. You will need to cut the T-mobile SIM to fit into micro SIM slot of iPhone 4S. Proceed at your own risk –

Insert original carrier AT&T SIM card
Dial 611 for AT&T customer service hotline and drop the call
Turn on Airplane Mode
Take out AT&T SIM card
Insert T-Mobile SIM card
Make sure WiFi is off ( also tap on ‘Forget this Network” to make sure it doesn’t connect automatically later)
Switch off Airplane Mode and iPhone will search for network. This is followed by the Apple splash screen appearing.
Activation Required will be displayed on the screen
EDGE network will activate automatically – notice the ‘E’ on the top left corner of the screen
Wait for about 20-30 seconds and turn off the phone
Turn on iPhone and the same Activation Required screen will be displayed
When you see one signal bar, tap on Use Cellular Connection
Eject SIM card
Activation Required screen will be displayed the second time
Insert SIM card
Unlocked!

Above procedure is as described on Pastebin. Come back again to this post for more updates on this. Meanwhile, if anybody tried this procedure on your devices, let us know in the comments section below.

Online Backup: Don’t Be a Fool and Lose All of Your Important Data!

November 14, 2011 by Avinash 1 Comment

Why you need to back up your data

A surprising number of individuals do not back up their computer data. Such people often assume it would take too much effort to make backups. They might also think that data loss will simply never happen to them. If data loss has not happened to them before, they might not be worried. They should be. Data loss can and does strike without warning, from many directions. Among the causes of data loss are human error, hardware malfunctions, software bugs, hardware age, and physical accidents. Of course there is also always the case of a malicious enemy or angry ex who manually wipes your hard drive. Don’t be a fool. Back up your data.

Traditional ways to make backups

There are many traditional backup solutions. One simple way to make a backup is to save all your data files to flash drives or CDs. With large quantities of data, external hard drives are usually a better choice. Many computer users go a step further and make bootable backups. Bootable backups contain not only data files but also software program files. So they are basically clones of entire computers that exist on external hard drives. Bootable backups tend to take a good deal of time to create, but for many users the time is well worth it.

Where traditional backups fall short

Traditional backups fall short because they have a physical component. If you put your data on a flash drive and then proceed to lose the flash drive, you have lost your backup. The same can be said for backups that exist on CDs, DVDs, or external hard drives. Any physical device is susceptible to destruction or malfunction. Some forms of data storage also have time limits. For example, most DVDs are only expected to hold their data for seven years. After that time frame, any data on the disk could become corrupted.

Online backups provide the answer

Backing up data online solves the problems associated with traditional backups. When your data is stored in an online cloud, it cannot be destroyed by fire, water, or wind. It does not have the same time constraints of physical storage. People with online backups also save money on hardware. They do not have to continually buy new hard drives when their space runs out. Online backups provide an efficient, cost-effective security net for user data.

More advantages of online backups

Another major advantage of online backups is that they are accesible from anywhere in the world. As long as users have access to computers with internet, they can download their data. This quality can make travelling lighter because users do not have to bring their computer hardware with them if they do not wish to. Since tourists are often targets for theft, leaving the computer at home can be a wise decision.

How to choose an online backup provider

Users have many online backup providers to choose from. Each user must choose the provider that will best meet their individualized needs. Costs vary based on quantity of data backed up and other considerations. Users should think about both how much data they intend to back up and how frequently they expect to back it up. Some providers automatically make backups behind the scenes, while other may require users to manually start each backup process. Lastly, anyone considering an agreement with an online backup provider should verify that the provider is a legitimate business with an established track record. Taking time to read online reviews and business rankings can help ensure the best decision is made.

This article is written by Jen Silva. Jen works for ChooseWhat.com and is interested in various small business resource topics such as how to start a business, how to build a website, and how to order business cards online. Visit ChooseWhat.com to read great articles for those interested in small business tools and resources.

How To Enable Google+ For Google Apps

October 28, 2011 by Avinash Leave a Comment

Google Apps users now have the option to play with circles. Google+ is now available to people who use Google Apps at college, at work or at home. These users will have the same set of features that are available to every Google+ user.

In addition to sharing publicly or with your circles, you’ll have the option to share with everyone in your organization, even if you haven’t all of those people to a circle.

Here is the detailed procedure to enable Google+ in your organization. Please note that Google+ requires Picasa web albums, Google Talk services to be ON.

Log in to your Google Apps administrative control panel. The URL looks something similar to https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/primary-domain-name, where primary-domain-name is the domain name you used to sign up for Google Apps.
Click Organizations & users
Choose the organization from the left pane and click Services

Drag down to Google+ and turn ON the feature. You may get a warning for it to have Picasa Web Albums and Google Talk features will be turned on for all of your users.
Finally, save changes

You may have to inform your users that you’ve enabled Google+ for their accounts and information in signing into Google+.

How To Install Windows 8 on a Virtual Machine

September 15, 2011 by Avinash 4 Comments

Now that Microsoft released Windows 8 Developer Preview build officially this Tuesday, want to see and test all new features right from your machine without disturbing existing operating system? Read on..

Interesting part about Windows 8 is that Microsoft is foreseeing an OS that scales right from small form factors, tablets and all the way to big servers. Major updates in this new operating system include Tablet Optimization, Picture Password, New Start Screen with ‘Tile’ (apps), Metro UI, Charms, IE 10.

In order to test out Windows 8 Dev Preview in a virtual machine, I tried installing it in Microsoft’s Windows Virtual PC and as well as VMWare. Unfortunately, installation failed in both virtualization technologies with random blue screen errors. And here is the screenshot of all new re-imagined version of blue screen in Widows 8.

Even I tried installing on Oracle’s Virtual Box with default settings. It failed in that too. Finally, after tweaking some settings in Virtual Box, I was able to install and run Windows 8 Developer Preview 32 bit version on my laptop with host operating system running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Before starting out following steps, make sure your PC supports hardware virtualization and enabled in BIOS (most of the PCs come preloaded with this option disabled in BIOS). Also, I would recommend you to allocate at least 1.5 GB of RAM to the virtual machine.

Steps:

Download and install VirtualBox (its free!) from here
Download Windows 8 Developer Preview (pick either 32 bit or 64 bit or both) from MSDN. I have tested 32 bit Developer Preview (2.8 GB) for this tutorial
VirtualBox installation is pretty much easy and after that, create a new VM
In the step by step wizard, select Windows 7 as OS type, allocate 1.5 GB of RAM and desired HDD space
Once the VM is created, click ‘Settings’ of this newly created VM and modify following settings
Under System, in the Motherboard tab, check Enable IO APIC and make sure chipset is selected to PIIX3
In the Processor tab under the same System, check Enable PAE/NX
If you want, you can enable 2D acceleration and other video settings under Display and try out after installation is completed
Once you start the VM, it asks you to point to the Windows 8 ISO location downloaded in step 2
The process is all same even if you are running on a Mac (of course, I mean host operating system)

Enjoy Windows 8 and discover all new features in it. Finally, here is a quick tip – if you want to disable the Metro UI, go to the registry settings in your Windows 8 and change the value of RPEnabled from 1 to 0 under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

New Task Manager –

Leave a comment below if you face any issues in installing and configuring.