I remember the days when people used their all contacts to get a Gmail invitation, like I had to ask a stranger  in a Cybercafe to invite me on Gmail .

I remember the days when we eagerly waited for months to get Google Wave Invitation, like after waiting a long time for Google Wave invitation finally I gave up and posted a note on Facebook that I needed an invitation, fortunately  my one friend in Germany had few left so he invited me on Google Wave.

But I think time has changed. All my excitement turned into disappointment when no one in my friends group (including me) could find any meaningful use of Google Wave, and finally we all stopped using it.

Just to make things worse for themselves, Google played Google Buzz joke with everyone. In India we have been using Orkut (its also owned by Google) for long time, so finding that another social networking utility has been added to our Gmail accounts without our permission was rather offensive and also useless.

Yes it took some time to figure out how to remove Buzz from Gmail account, but finally most of us got success in removing it (although few opted to keep it).

So this time when I got to know about Google Voice I didn’t feel any excitement like old times. I filled the online invitation form and forgot about it (you can fill an invite form at this link – https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/ ).

Currently I am in USA on a business trip, and while being in US, suddenly last week I got an invitation mail from Google Voice. So fortunately I had chance to explore Google Voice and test its features.

I accepted the invitation and created my Google voice account last week. After using Google Voice for one week I can just say one thing very confidently that GOOGLE IS BACK… yes and this time Google is back with a bang.

This is one another revolutionary service which is going to change the way we have been using our phones. Now phone is going to be tightly connected with internet and it will open a new horizon by making it possible to take direct benefit of any progress made in the Internet technology  by using our phones.

Those who think that Google Voice is just another VoIP service are wrong.  Google Voice is NOT JUST ANOTHER VoIP SERVICE, it’s a lot more than VoIP. Google Voice will add a whole new dimension in the way telephones work today.

Key Features -

Setting Up Google Voice Account -

As soon as I opened my GV account (from now onwards we will refer Google Voice as GV), first thing it does is that it asks you to either associate your existing phone number with GV or get a new free phone  number (or call it a GV number if you wish to be technically correct) from GV.

First thing I want to clarify at this point is that both of these options are currently only based on American phone numbers. So if you would like to associate your existing phone number, it needs to be an USA phone number, if you opt for taking a new GV number that again will be an US phone number.

Phone number of any other country is not supported (although you may find some workaround on Internet about activating your GV account without US phone number).

I opted for a new number as this offers more benefit and one more reason is that very soon I will be going back India so my current US number will stop working.

While choosing a GV number you can give your preference and search for matching number, such as I entered 1234 as my preference and I was able to find a number like 234564_ _ _ _, you can also use alphabets to choose a number such as if I enter Ajay, I may get a number like 412-aja-y *** (which is 412-252-9***) . Yes Google has used the common sense while offering the numbers which will definitely make it easier to remember and also keep you happy with your favorite number.

This GV number will be like any normal US phone number, so you can think that you are getting an US phone number for free.

Now comes the second part, you need to associate some real US phone with this GV number. So whenever someone calls you on your GV number that call will be forwarded to your actual phone, or when someone sends you SMS on this GV number that sms will be stored on your GV account and also will be forwarded to your actual phone.

I would like to repeat that you can associate only a US phone number with your GV account  because Google does not forward calls to any other international phone number.

Once you associate a phone number with GV account, you need to confirm that attached number belongs to you. Google will call you on your number and you will need to enter a security code on your phone, which is given by GV. This makes sure that you enter a valid phone number and also that it’s a phone which you can access ( you can not use fake numbers or phone number of anyone else). Also you can not associate one phone number with more than one GV accounts.

Once you have associated at least one phone number with your GV account and have chosen to forward your calls and SMSs to that number, your GV account setup is complete and now you can start using GV features.

Google Voice Functionality-

1) Receiving Calls

When someone calls on your GV number (it can be dialed from any US number or from any other country using 001 code before your number) it will be forwarded to your associated real phone number. You can associate more than one number with your GV account and choose one or more number on which your incoming calls should land.

Therefore lets say  if you associate three phones to receive calls, all incoming calls will ring bell on all three phones, you can pick either of them

2) Making Calls -

Making  any call and sending SMS within USA is FREE. When you dial a number, GV will ask you to choose  one of your associated phones using which you want to connect this call, once you choose your phone, GV will first call your number, once you pick the call GV will call the other number and then both of you will get connected. If you have used WebEx to make conference calls you know how it works.

However if you are using a phone in which incoming is not free, then even on a free call within US you will be using your minutes for incoming call. However if incoming is free on your phone only then GV will make your call actually free.

You can also call any International number  (non-USA phone number), but that is not free and you will need to buy credits from GV.

3) Online Voicemails -

This is one of many great features of GV, if someone calls you on your GV number and if you could not pick up your phone, that call will go to Voice mail (like our normal phones). As soon as someone leaves a voice mail to you, that voicemail is sent to your mobile and also it gets stored on your GV account. You can open your GV account and listen to it on using Internet. GV also Transcripts your voice mail into text and you can get this text emailed to your email account.

Therefore no more need to access voicemails only using phone, you can have it stored online and access it any time.

I wont make this blog any longer, now its time for you to go and explore Google Voice yourself. Google Voice opens endless possibilities in the phone market, at least in USA. We will have to wait to see if it also comes to other countries.

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]]> http://ajay005.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/googlevoice/feed/ 2 ajay005 http://ajay005.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/how-to-boost-performance-of-computer-using-auslogics-boostspeed-4/ http://ajay005.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/how-to-boost-performance-of-computer-using-auslogics-boostspeed-4/#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 19:24:55 +0000 ajay005 http://ajay005.wordpress.com/?p=68 ]]> BoostSpeed is a wonderful suite of system utilities provided by Auslogics (http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/boost-speed), it has got 18 different system utilities neatly categorized for different purposes.

Auslogics claims that BoostSpeed can increase overall computer performance by 10%-100%.

Now lets check how exactly this software works and what all different utilities it comes with.

Although different utilities can be accessed directly from the start menu, BoostSpeed provides us a ‘BoostSpeed Integrator’ where you will find all different tools categorized according to different maintenance task.

One Button Checkup –

This option will run Disk Cleanup, Registry Cleanup, Disk Defrag and System protection utilities.

Disk Cleaner –

Disk Cleaner will scan partitions of hard drive for unwanted files and folders and will help you in cleaning up your pc. You can select different categories which needs to be checked.

Disk Defrag –

A great and extremely fast defrag utility provided by BoostSpeed. You will be amazed to see the performance of this tool.

Computer Clean Up –

Under this category we get different cleanup utilities and also utility to uninstall applications and also to control Computer Start-Up applications and services.

* Auslogics Disk Cleaner – A free and better alternative is CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/).

* Auslogics Registry Cleaner – A free and better alternative is ‘RegCleaner by Jouni Vuorio’.

* Auslogics Uninstall Manager – A free and better alternative is Revo uninstaller (http://www.revouninstaller.com/).

* Auslogics StartUp Manager – A free and better alternative is ‘RegCleaner by Jouni Vuorio’.

Computer Optimization –

Here you will get all different optimization and defrag tools.

* Auslogics Disk Defrag – This is also available for free (http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag) , however better alternative is O & O defrag ( http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/oodefrag/index.html) .

* Auslogics Registry Defrag

* Auslogics Internet Optimizer

* Auslogics Memory Optimizer

Computer Privacy and Security –

If you are worried about your privacy, in this section you will get tools to erase all traces of file usages.

* Auslogics Track Eraser

* Auslogics PC Security

* Auslogics File Shredder

* Auslogics Disk Wiper

Information and Control –

Here you will get tools to get different system related information, however you can also change few system settings using Tweak Manager and Service Manager.

* Auslogics Tweak Manager

* Auslogics Service Manager

* Auslogics System Information

* Auslogics Task Manager

Windows Tools –

This is a section which shows few system tools which are actually part of Windows operating system, however these are rarely used by users because most of the users are not even aware about these tools.

* Microsoft DirectX Diagnostics

* Windows Performance Monitor

* Windows Service Manager

* Computer Management

If you make any change using any of these tools, you can go to File>Rescue Center and rollback the changes made by BoostSpeed.

This helps you to restore the system if you made some wrong changes.

After looking at the tools given in BoostSpeed you will very soon feel that this is one of the most complete and best collections of system tools.

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That is that moment when we start looking for an option to split a large file into small manageable chunks, which can be easily uploaded or copied to the external storage device like CD, DVD or USB drive.

Let’s check few of the options available in this scenario.

File Splitter Application –

In this category we can put those applications which are specially designed for the purpose of splitting and joining files.

We can find a lot of applications for this purpose but two best applications are these:

1)      WhitSoft File Splitter :-

This is one of the oldest but the best available file splitter application.

It has got everything which will make you fall in love with it . It is free, it is only 41 KB in size ( Yes this is not a typing mistake, WhitSoft File Splitter is only 41 kb in size), it can split and join files and does not need to be installed.

You can either choose from the predefined files sizes from the list or type any size you want to define for each piece of file.

It comes with radio buttons to choose between Split or Splice.

Once you use it to split a file, it will create files with extension 001, 002, 003 and so on depending on the number of pieces.

Files created by both ‘HJSplit’ and ‘WhitSoft File Splitter’ are compatible with each other, so they can be joined using any of these softwares.

However to join pieces of file, it’s necessary to have either of these software on the other machine.

If you are looking for just a plain and simple splitter, nothing can be better than this.

2)      HJSplit :-

Another free utility with many features. HJSplit v2.3 is 306 kb in size and does not need to be installed.

It provides following features –

A)     File Split

B)     File Join

C)     File Compare

D)     File Checksum

It’s very easy and professional looking software, and it allows you to define custom size for each piece of the output file.

Like WhitSoft File Splitter, after splitting HJSplit also creates files with extension 001, 002, 003 and so on depending on the number of pieces.

Files created by both ‘HJSplit’ and ‘WhitSoft File Splitter’ are compatible with each other, so they can be joined using any of these software.

However to join pieces of file, it’s necessary to have either of these software on the other machine.

3)      JASP (Just Another File Splitter) –

Another tiny tool (300 Kb size), which comes for free and does its work perfectly. JASP allows you to set many of its configurations, the best thing about this software is that it creates a batch file which joins files at the destination.

Therefore we do not need to have JASP installed (yes it can not be run directly from exe, it needs to be installed) on the destination machine and files can be joined by simply double clicking the batch file created by JASP.

However personally I will not recommend using JASP because –

a)      It needs to be installed can not be run directly from the exe, and it also adds itself to shell, so you will find on more entry in your right click menu.

b)       Difficult to find and download. I don’t know why but this software was not available on its aurther’s site (http://www.aadima.com/downloads/jasp16.zip), some how after searching a lot I could find it on the server of freeware files .

c)      Using a custom size for file chunk requires you to set it in settings, this makes it a bit difficult to use different file sizes for pieces of file.

4)      How to Split file using WinZip –

Yes our old friend WinZip can also split files for us, and its also very easy to use.

First compress a file and create a zip file, now go to Actions Menu> Split option. Now specify file name and size of pieces and click OK.

That’s all, you will get your large file divided into small pieces of specified size. When you want to join them, simply extract the archive using the main zip file and it will automatically join all chunks.

5)      How to split file using WinRar –

Right click on the file or folder which you want to compress and split using WinRar, now select option ‘Add to Archive’.

This will open an ‘Archive name and parameter’ window; here you will have option of set ‘Split to volumes’ setting.

Now specify the size for each piece of file.

At the destination you will need to extract the main .rar file and it will automatically join all pieces while extracting the file.

6)      How to split file using 7zip –

Process of splitting a file using 7-zip utility is almost same as the processed used with Winrar.

Right click on the file or folder which you want to compress and split using 7-zip, now select option ‘Add to Archive’.

This will open an ‘Archive name and parameter’ window; here you set ‘Split to volumes’ option.

At the destination you will need to extract the main file and it will automatically join all pieces while extracting the file.

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Great look, awesome graphical display and cool features, all these make Safari a great browser.

As soon as you open Safari it will attract you with its thumbnail view of frequently visited sites called Top Sites.

You will also find that now history and bookmarks are not just links where you can click, they now appear as visual pages, and you can flip through them.

Although initially you may find it a bit awkward to have page tables on title bar, very soon after working with it for some time, it will start to look great.

Safari boasts to have 150 (Wow!!)  features in it and you can find a complete list and details of all 150 features Here.

You can also check ‘What’s New’ list.

Go and grab it.

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Even if you are logged in as an administrator just try to paste a file on C drive and check how may message boxes you need to click on .

Because of this behavior I know many people who have decided to simply disable the UAC.

However I was never in favor of disabling the UAC, so it tried to find some midway in this scenario.

TweakUAC with Quiet Mode -

The first option I got was to use a free utility called TweakUAC (http://www.tweak-uac.com/home/).

Apart from Turning UAV on or off, using TeakUAC you can also set UAC to work in quiet mode.

In this mode you will not be prompted to click on “Windows needs your permission to continue” dialog box every time when you try to do some administrative work or when your application needs administrative privileges.

However still any application will not run automatically and without your permission.

So this was a neat and clear approach to handle the nuisance of UAC.

Norton UAC Tool from Symantec Norton Labs –

This is a great tool developed by the Norton Labs (http://www.nortonlabs.com/inthelab/uac.php) .

It simply replaces some parts of the default UAC and makes it more user friendly. After installing this tool you will start getting a ‘Don’t Ask Me Again’ option on the UAC prompt.

If you check the option of ‘Don’t Ask Me Again’ while giving per mission to an operation, UAC will remember your decision and will not ask you or show you UAC prompt for the same.

Therefore let say once you can make your UAC remember that it should allow you to run Disk Defragmenter, UAC will not show any prompt when you run Disk Defragmenter for the next time.

This software is being provided for free from Symantec Norton and does not need you to have Norton Antivirus installed on your system.

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Convert Video from one format to other –

Total Video Converter (TVC) supports a large range of video and audio formats. Therefore it does not matter which video/audio format you are using for input and what format you want as output, you will find it supported by TVC.

Conversion process is extremely easy and as soon as you select a file, you will be asked to choose the output file format from a huge but neatly grouped list of file formats.

You can also select a sub-title file if you want to show subtitles in video.

After this you just need to click on Covert button and conversion will start.

While converting you can also set this process to background and continue doing other work on computer, as conversion of large files, like conversion of a complete movie will take long time (above 30 minutes).

However the time taken in the conversion process depends a lot on the selected output file format and the selected output quality, apart from the normal factors like size of the file and hardware of the computer.

I used tried version 3.11 of the TVC (newer version is available free on its site as a trial), and in this version of application I had 5 categories of supported file types –

1) Mobile – For mobile Mpeg4, H264/Avc Mpeg4, 3GP, Asf/WMV/Zune, Digital Camera, Apple Video, PSP Mpeg4, Nokia Cell Phone, Sony Cell Phone formats are supported. Under this categories you will find sub categories of different file formats, therefore lets say if you choose Nokia Cell Phone, you will get a large list of different models of Nokia. From this list of cell phone model you can choose that to which model you want to create compatible video.

2) MS Avi – These video formats are mainly based on video codec’s provided by Microsoft.

3) Wet – This category provides flash or macromedia based file formats, like Swf video, Flv Video or GIF.

4) Mpec – This category is all about different VCD/DVD related formats. So you can choose between DVD mpeg, SVCD mpeg, VCD mpeg and simply Mpeg 1 formats.

5) QuickTime – Here we get Mpeg4 Mov file format, Mpeg 2 TS format and Jpeg Images.

6) Audio – Whole bunch of Audio format is available here. It includes Wav, Mp3, AAC, WMA, Flac, Amr/Awb, Ogg, MMF, Ac3 and Au audio format.

I have not checked the latest version of TVC , so you may get more codec options in the latest available version.

Cut Video or Audio -

We can also use TVC for the purpose of cutting a portion of Video/Audio file and can save this cutted segment in any supported file format.

So, now if you like a song in a movie you not necessarily need to cut that song and save it as a video file, you can simply choose to save that song directly into mp3 file.

For this purpose you have start selection and end selection buttons given below the preview window, these buttons are named as ‘[‘ ( Set As Starting Point) and ‘]’ ( Set as End Point).

Although you can also directly put starting point and end point as time value in the ‘Input File Settings’.

Other Features -

TVC also comes with many useful but not so often used features. Such as join two or more than two files, extract and save audio and video in two separate files, multiple audio and video taken from two different files and create one file.

All these features are available in Tools button > Advance Tools.

You can also perform some extra tasks like ripping audio CD/video DVD or creating a slide show, by clicking on ‘New Task’ button.

Extra Bonus Applications -

As an extra bonus TVC comes with two other applications, Total Video Player to play all different kinds of Audio/Video files and a Media burner to burn Audio CD, VCD, DVD and SVCD.

Huhhh… even after talking so much about this application I still fear that I may have missed some feature of this application …

Limitations -

Anway, just before I end let me tell you that I have also noticed few limitations in this application (version was 3.11).

1) One very annoying limitation is that once you started conversion you cannot pause it, you can only stop it. Therefore it is not possible to pause and resume conversion later.

Once you start a conversion, you have to wait till it ends (conversion of big files will take long time). The only workaround I found is to simply Hibernate the PC, if you need to shut-down the pc. Next time when you will restart the pc, conversion will resume.

2) On Vista OS, TVC version 3.11 was working fine, however on Win XP system I don’t know why but I was not getting close button on the top right hand side of the TVC. However pressing ‘Esc’ key was closing the application.

3) While importing files if we select more than one files at once to be imported, by default only the last file will be checked. So if you simply click on Import Files, select and import multiple files as once and click on ‘Convert Now’ button, TVC will convert only the last file, because all other files are unchecked. So every time you need to manually check all files after importing. This is not a bug, but definitely a very annoying behavior.

4) Selecting ‘Default Converted Folder’ more than once overwrites the folder locations in the textbox, thus starts showing garbled text.

Enough said; now it time for you to start playing with the Total Video Convertor, and don’t forget to come back and share your feedback.

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For those who do not know what a Portable Software is, in short I can say that unlike most of the normal applications, we do not need to install a Portable software and it can be run directly by executing a single exe file.

After getting fascinated by the portable applications it was my turn to learn how to make portable software.

I started checking different available options and found following three different approaches (there may be many other approaches as well but I stopped looking after finding VMWare ThinApp) –

1)      Using Reg Rapper –

Nice and free, but does not work with all applications. You may find a great tutorial about using Reg Rapper to make an installed application portable at following link –

http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-1498-make-a-portable-application-with-reg-rapper

2)       Using NSIS script –

I was not interested in spending time to learn a new script or in spending days learning things before I could start working, so did not check this possibility much. However as far as I could go on this, I can say it involves unpacking a installer and then making some scripts to handle different files and registry settings. Anyway … not interested !!

3)      Using VMWare ThinApp –

I think his was the easiest and most reliable way of making an application portable. This required just a few steps to make a portable application which can be run on any system without installing it.

This application mainly goes through following stages to make an application portable –

A)    Scan system and take a snapshot of system before installation of target application.

B)     Install target application, which needs to be converted into portable application.

C)    Re-scan the system and identify all changes which this newly installed application has made by comparing first snapshot with the second snapshot of system.

D)    Create a single executable after identifying all the required files and settings for the application.

By using a wizard, ThinApp makes it very easy to convert any normal software installation into a portable application which can be directly run on any system without any installation.

However many software companies may take it as a license violation, therefore check the license information or consult with the software company before converting their application into a portable version.

4)Using PackageFactory for U3 –

By using a small utility called “PackageFactory for U3” we can create portable applications for U3 enabled pen drives; this utility comes free for non-commercial use.

This software can be downloaded from – http://www.eure.ca/

However this application has many limitations and can not be used to create desktop based portable applications.

In order to make an application portable it also requires either the application to be a U3 aware application or this application should have minimal registry and external file dependencies.

The output will be a file with .u3p extension which can be run only on a U3 enabled Usb drive using U3 Launchpad  (check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3 for more inform on U3 enabled usb drive).

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