Kiran Upadhyay

A Guest Post by Johnny B Truant I saw Gary Coleman on TV last night and thought, “That guy has to be rich. Everyone knows who he is.” But then I realized that Gary’s true paid celebrity ended over 20 years ago, and whether he’s rich or not today is really a matter of luck and investment. But that’s not how most people are wired to think. We figure that if someone is or ever was in the public eye, they probably have a big fortune. But who knows how well Gary invests? It’s distinctly possible that most of us here have more money then he does. This whole thing occurred to me after a few people asked me if I was loaded yet, since I made Problogger’s list of 30 bloggers to watch in 2010 . They were asking tongue-in-cheek, but there was a grain of truth behind it. The simple fact is that people equate popularity with riches, and that’s not accurate at all. I’ve gotten a fair number of new readers and Twitter followers since that list came out… but I had a couple of five-figure months und

Tapes have given way to CDs and now CDs have given way (some if not all) to MP3 files. Then there are a huge lot of MP3 songs we download from the web or rip from music CDs . The first rule of organization says that we should neatly put them in the right folders and then tag them. There are tools for the job and some good ones at that. Going back to the job of making our music collection look neat, we come to the ‘face’ of our songs and music albums – the album cover or specifically, album cover art. Just like film posters, album covers deck up a song or the album it belongs to. Album cover art also fancies up the visual interface of our digital music players. For instance, cycling through the album art in your iPod. So just compare the two windows – one with album covers and one with just data tags. Get the picture (pun intended)? Tools such as MP3Tag (recommended as one of the better ones in the free download category) ping online databases like Amazon , Discogs , or freedb t

Networks are finicky at best.  Wireless or Ethernet, almost everyone has had their share of network connection problems.  It could be anything from not being to access the Internet despite being connected to the network, to not being able to connect to the network at all. Unfortunately, network connection problems are sometimes hard to diagnose.  A few articles here on MakeUseOf give some help.  Guy McDowell’s about weak wireless signals , and Karl Gechlik’s about some simple diagnosis steps are both great resources. Here I will lay out four easy solutions you can try to get your Internet access back.  I will give instructions for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Check Your Hosts File Windows can use the hosts file to set IP addresses to particular domains.  This means though that it can be used to redirect or effectively cut off your Internet access . When I need to troubleshoot an Internet connection, this is usually the first place I look. To view the file in Windows XP, ju

We have shown you plenty of alarm clocks in the past but before you write this one off because you just happen to love the one you are using, let me tell you that this ‘Alarm Clock’ is different. First off, this alarm scheduler is a Linux application, specifically for Gnome users. It is called ‘Alarm Clock’ but it is capable of so much more. In fact the name doesn’t entirely do justice to the application. With a little effort you can get it to do some pretty neat things. Debian/Ubuntu based users can install using “ sudo apt-get install alarm-clock “. It can also be downloaded if you are using some other distro. Of course it does alarms. Create an alarm, set the time and you are done. You can also choose between a countdown timer or a new alarm. If you go the countdown timer route you will be able to specify the hours, minutes and seconds after which the alarm will go off. The “ Create new alarm from scratch ” offers much more features and options that can be used for a number of

The first rule about fight club is that we don’t talk about….oh wait that is the other club.  So you want to learn to fight like a Ultimate Fighting Champion? You want to rule the streets and kick sand in a bigger guy’s face? Make sure you are learning how to fight like a UFC fighter for good reasons and not to act like a jerk. What’s that? You want to fight? Oh you want to know how to fight!  OK, let us take a look at some free online resources such as videos and tutorials that should help you get started. The first site I found in my conquest for street fighting domination was Defense On Demand. You will notice the arrow pointing you towards the download videos section here at Defense On Demand. I find these a very good starting place. Once you get there you will see these options: Click on the first one to begin learning how to fight like a UFC fighter and watch the video. Continue on watching all 10 videos. Then you will have a base understanding and can move on. Each sect

Joomla is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) in the world, used in over 30 million sites, with over 200,000 community users and endless amounts of extensions. There are extensions for almost every purpose: social networking, advanced comment services, checkout services, easy-to-setup photo albums, the list is endless. So how do you sort through all of them to find those that can really improve your visitors’ experience? Here are some of the free Joomla extensions you shouldn’t be without. Stalker – Social Network Mod Most people nowadays use social networks to publicize their ideas and to bring in new visitors to their sites, so having an easy way for people to connect to you is becoming a “must have” for most sites. That’s where this perfectly named extension can be handy. Stalker is the easiest Joomla extension to display links to all your social networks on your Joomla. It uses an attractive interface that is bound to attract your visitors. Stalker come

I find myself being obsessed with eBooks lately — probably because I’ve just entered the world. But while making my first steps, I keep discovering new and impressive feats. In the past, we’ve already talked about stripping Mobi and PRC files of their DRM protection (read: restriction), where to find free eBooks , and reviewed Calibre , quite possibly the best management suite. This time, I’d like to talk about a problem I’ve had with some of my eBooks, and a convenient (albeit improvised) solution. I’m talking about displaying scanned or pre-formatted eBooks in a readable eReader eBook format. What’s The Fuss About? Reading on an eReader is fantastic. You won’t hear me saying anything negative in that area. But to be able to enjoy a good read, you first need to be able to read the damn thing. Normally, most eReaders come equipped with a zooming feature. A hit of a button can take your text up to ridiculous point sizes. The only problem is when you’ve got eBooks that are in fac