Thursday, December 29, 2011

How to Use Profile Picture as Facebook Chat Emoticon

Bored of sending the usual emoticons on Facebook chat? Fret not, as now you can use the profile picture of an user, page or any event as an emoticon in the Facebook conversation! Even if you are not friends with a particular person, you can now use his/her profile picture as an emoticon in your Facebook chat.


Here's how :

1. Visit the profile, fan page or event that you want to use as an emoticon.

2. Check the URL in the address bar of your browser. See the username or profile ID at the end of the URL such as “Techmeasy” i.e. http://www.facebook.com/Techmeasy, “britneyspears”, “zuck” (Mark Zuckerberg), or even “100000550591954″



3.Now in the Facebook chat box, place that username or profile id in double brackets like [[Techmeasy]] or [[100000550591954]]

That’s it. Hit Enter and  the text will turn into that person, page, or event’s profile picture. You can even send these emoticons from your mobile device.

To get started, here’s a few Facebook username's that you could use as emoticons :

Unlike
[[unliike]]
Mark Zuckerberg
[[Zuck]]
Pikachu
[[326134990738733]]
Shin chan
[[196431117116365]]
Smiley Face
[[107300705969843]]
Teddy bear
[[113847208655524]]
Packman
[[110183382339001]]
Britney Spears
[[britneyspears]]

[[UPDATE #1]]

High Resolution Facebook Emoticons

Usage : Copy the codes and paste it on your chat box

1.Mask

[[255006724575192]] [[255006727908525]] [[255006737908524]] [[255006734575191]] [[255006731241858]]
[[255006827908515]] [[255006831241848]] [[255006824575182]] [[255006817908516]] [[255006821241849]]
[[255006874575177]] [[255006871241844]] [[255006884575176]] [[255006877908510]] [[255006881241843]]
[[255006934575171]] [[255006931241838]] [[255006941241837]] [[255006944575170]] [[255006937908504]]
[[255007004575164]] [[255007001241831]] [[255006994575165]] [[255006997908498]] [[255006991241832]]
[[255007084575156]] [[255007101241821]] [[255007077908490]] [[255007091241822]] [[255007081241823]]

2. Jack Sparrow

[[298356520217565]] [[298356516884232]] [[298356506884233]] [[298356510217566]]
[[298356513550899]] [[298356620217555]] [[298356606884223]] [[298356616884222]]
[[298356610217556]] [[298356613550889]] [[298356673550883]] [[298356676884216]]
[[298356666884217]] [[298356680217549]] [[298356670217550]] [[298356740217543]]
[[298356733550877]] [[298356743550876]] [[298356730217544]] [[298356736884210]]
[[298356823550868]] [[298356810217536]] [[298356820217535]] [[298356826884201]]
[[298356813550869]] [[298356906884193]] [[298356896884194]] [[298356900217527]]
[[298356903550860]] [[298356893550861]] [[298356950217522]] [[298356946884189]]

3. Superman

[[299528860107644]] [[299528863440977]] [[299528866774310]] [[299528856774311]]
[[299528870107643]] [[299528950107635]] [[299528943440969]] [[299528946774302]]
[[299528953440968]] [[299528956774301]] [[299529013440962]] [[299529016774295]]
[[299529010107629]] [[299529003440963]] [[299529006774296]] [[299529060107624]]
[[299529063440957]] [[299529066774290]] [[299529070107623]] [[299529073440956]]
[[299529173440946]] [[299529183440945]] [[299529180107612]] [[299529176774279]]
[[299529186774278]] [[299529243440939]] [[299529236774273]] [[299529240107606]]

4. Elmo

[[302117289844540]] [[302117283177874]] [[302117276511208]] [[302117279844541]] [[302117286511207]] [[302117366511199]]
[[302117369844532]] [[302117373177865]] [[302117383177864]] [[302117379844531]] [[302117426511193]] [[302117436511192]]
[[302117429844526]] [[302117423177860]] [[302117433177859]] [[302117523177850]] [[302117529844516]] [[302117526511183]]
[[302117536511182]] [[302117533177849]] [[302117606511175]] [[302117596511176]] [[302117599844509]] [[302117593177843]]
[[302117603177842]] [[302117646511171]] [[302117649844504]] [[302117659844503]] [[302117656511170]] [[302117653177837]]
[[302117706511165]] [[302117703177832]] [[302117699844499]] [[302117709844498]] [[302117696511166]] [[302117749844494]]

5. Troll face

[[242538225822042]] [[242538222488709]] [[242538232488708]] [[242538219155376]] [[242538229155375]] [[242538339155364]]
[[242538335822031]] [[242538342488697]] [[242538345822030]] [[242538349155363]] [[242538392488692]] [[242538395822025]]
[[242538399155358]] [[242538402488691]] [[242538405822024]] [[242538475822017]] [[242538472488684]] [[242538489155349]]
[[242538492488682]] [[242538485822016]] [[242538562488675]] [[242538565822008]] [[242538569155341]] [[242538575822007]]
[[242538572488674]] [[242538612488670]] [[
242538625822002]] [[242538619155336]] [[242538622488669]] [[242538615822003]]
[[242538675821997]] [[242538682488663]] [[242538672488664]] [[242538679155330]] [[242538685821996]] [[242538742488657]]

6. Mr. Bean

[[255016264574238]] [[255016271240904]] [[255016277907570]]
[[255016267907571]] [[255016274574237]] [[255016384574226]]
[[255016387907559]] [[255016394574225]] [[255016401240891]]
[[255016391240892]] [[255016464574218]] [[255016454574219]]
[[255016457907552]] [[255016461240885]] [[255016451240886]]
[[255016537907544]] [[255016531240878]] [[255016534574211]]
[[255016541240877]] [[255016527907545]] [[255016634574201]]

[[UPDATE #2]]

Check my new post if you wish to create your own high resolution Facebook chat emoticon .



Also check :

Monday, December 26, 2011

Google Easter Eggs : "Santa" and "Kwanzaa"

Recently we shared two festival inspired Easter eggs found in Google search called "Let it Snow" and "Hanukkah” with you. To amuse us even more, Google has now added 2 new Easter eggs : "Santa" and "Kwanzaa".

[[ NOTE ]]  Festival or season specific Easter Eggs only work at their specific times

Santa :

Type "Santa" in Google search and press Enter.Your search results will appear with Christmas lights below the search box :

Santa Easter Egg

You can also try the word "Christmas" instead of "Santa"

Kwanzaa :

Typing Kwanzaa in Google search bar shows a row consisting of  colorful candles below the Google search bar. Kwanzaa is a festival honoring African-American festival celebrated from 26th December to 1st January each year in United States.

Kwanzaa Easter Egg

Though these new Easter eggs are not as much fun as "Do a Barrel Roll" or "Google Gravity", they are nevertheless amusing.

Also Check

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Software to Detect if an Image has been Altered or Photoshopped

Which one is real ?
User52 : Does anyone know how to tell if an image has been Photoshopped? 

Like User52, ever wondered if a digital image has been altered? Improvements in photo manipulation softwares such as Photoshop and GIMP have made image alteration both easier to commit and harder to detect. 

But now thanks to a small software called JPEGsnoop, anyone can determine if a photo is edited using any photo editing software. Though not foolproof, this free and portable utility for Windows does a great job at detecting if an image is original or it has been altered.

First download JPEGsnoop from here and extract JPEGsnoop.exe anywhere on your computer. Start the software and check “I have read the terms” box and click OK (see screenshot below).



Program's main window will appear, now drag the image to this window and wait for the report to generate. Scroll down to the last paragraph of this report and look for the word "assessment". Here if it says “Image is processed/edited”, then the image is surly been altered by software means. Chances are, directly above that that line you may even find what program was used to edit the image!


(Click to Enlarge)


The only drawback of JPEGsnoop is that it can't predict what portions of the image has been altered and to what extent the modified image is different from the original one. That is, it can tell if an image has been altered from its original but not by how much.

Image Error Level Analyzer is a great online tool, using which, you can perform a quick scan of a JPEG image and analyze which sections might be modified. You can even play with the quality slider to spot anomalies in the error level.


FotoForensics is another online tool that's worth mentioning here. Do check their tutorial page that demonstrates different modification levels with sample photos. 

Mac Users can use the software Photo Sniff ( priced at $1.99 in the Mac App Store) to accomplish the same.

Also Check :

Monday, December 19, 2011

Google Easter Eggs : "Let it Snow" and "Hanukkah”

[[ NOTE ]]  Festival or season specific Easter Eggs only work at their specific times

With one week to go before Christmas,Google has added a seasonal touch to its search engine by bringing two new Easter Eggs : Let it Snow and Hanukkah

"Let it Snow" Easter Egg
Visit Google.com and type Let it snow and you'll be treated with snowflakes falling from the top of your screen.


That's not all, let the snow to fall for a few seconds and then use your mouse cursor to draw in the frosted glass! To start over again, simply click the “defrost” button and you’ll see a clear screen with falling snowflakes.

Frosted Glass


Typing Hanukkah in Google search bar shows a row of stars below the search bar. (Hanukkah, also known as Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday)

Hanukkah Easter Egg


You can also try the words "Chanukah" or "Chanukkah" instead of "Hanukkah"

Thanks to Abhishek Nair for his input.

Also check :

Friday, December 16, 2011

Find Big Mail

If you're running out of space in your Gmail or Google Apps inbox, the quickest fix is deleting the largest attachments you've got in your mail. But, you can't do that from Gmail's web interface.
Here, FindBigMail comes to rescue. It scans your Gmail, labelling the large ones so you can reclaim some space.

Link: https://www.findbigmail.com/

Update : FindBigMail is now available for Google Apps. Search "big mail" in the Google Apps Marketplace to try out.

Note that FindBigMail is free for Gmail accounts and a trial of one week / 5 scan for any domain version for Google Apps domains is available.

Also check :

Monday, December 12, 2011

15 Most Amazing Animated Google Doodles


Over the years, doodles on the Google homepage have made searching on Google more fun and enjoyable for its users. Doodles are not limited to images, some of the doodles are even interactive and animated and you can spend fun time playing with them. Here is a list of 15 most amazing animated Google doodles over the years :


1. Jim Henson's 75th Birthday Doodle

This Doodle features 6 animated characters which users can manipulate using a mouse and keyboard.

Play with Jim Henson's animated characters

2. Google Heart Doodle

This Valentine's themed Doodle features a heart that follows your cursor and even confesses its love for you. Requires Java.
Play with Heart Doodle

3. Packman Doodle

A playable and fully functional rendition of the classic Pac-Man game reshaped into the Google logo. Click on  "Insert Coin" to start the game.

Play with Packman Doodle

4. Les Paul Doodle

This doodle features an interactive guitar that can be played, and includes the ability to record and playback.
Play with Les Paul Doodle

5. Stanislaw Lem Doodle

The line drawing animation is a HTML5-powered, multilevel game in which you solve puzzles to reach new levels.
Play with Stanislaw Len Doodle

6. Interactive Doodle

The word "Google" is made up of a bunch of colorful particles. Move your mouse toward the particles and they scatter about the screen and attempt to return to form the logo

Play with Interactive Doodle

7. Earth Day Doodle

Place cursor on various creatures in this doodle to animate them.

Play with Earth Day Doodle
8. Robert Moog's 78th Birthday

This Doodle features an interactive electronic synthesizer which can be played by clicking on its keys using the mouse. Like the Les Paul Doodle, it also includes the ability to record and playback.

Play with Robert Moog's 78th Birthday Doodle


9. Thanksgiving Doodle

This Doodle features a drawing of a turkey whose feathers and wings move when your cursor runs over it.

Play with Thanksgiving Doodle



10. Martha Graham Doodle

This doodle gives a glimpse of the dancing skills of legendary American modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham.
Watch Martha Graham Doodle

11. Jules Verne Doodle

This doodle emulates the science fiction novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”. Drag the handle with your mouse to move the submarine.

Play with Jules Verne Doodle
12. Alexander Calder's 113th Birthday

This doodle moves on its own and can be controlled by mouse gestures. Moreover, you can even move it gravitationally by rocking your laptop side to side.

Note : You need an accelerometer-equipped laptop to move it gravitationally.

Play Alexander Calder Doodle


13. 160th Anniversary of first World's Fair Doodle

Hover your mouse to explore the doodle through a magnifying glass.

Play with World's Fair Doodle

14.  Lucille Ball's 100th Birthday Doodle

The Google doodle features a vintage TV set that drew the Google logo in a manner similar to the "I Love Lucy" opening credits. Clicking on the "Play" button brought up a few seconds of various "Lucy" episodes.

Watch Lucille Ball's Doodle

15. Robert Benson's 200th Birthday Doodle

Play with Robert Benson Doodle

A complete list of Google Doodles can be found HERE.

Also check :

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Create Super Hidden Files or Folders in Windows WITHOUT any Software


Making a file or folder hidden in Windows is simple : Right click on the file or folder you want to hide, select "Properties" and on the "General" tab, check the box in the "Attributes" section named "Hidden". Click "OK" and you are done.

However, the problem with this trick is that its quite old and almost every windows user knows how to get access to hidden folders/files (In case you don't know, you can view hidden files/folders by first opening "My Computer" then selecting Tools > Folder options > View and checking the "Do not show hidden files and folders" box)

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a super hidden file or folder that you can't find by simply checking "Show hidden files and folders"

1. Click on the Start orb and in the search bar type"cmd" (without quotes) and hit enter to open command prompt. (XP users: click Start, then Run and type "cmd" and hit enter)

2. Change the path to the directory in which the file\folder is present

3. Now type :

                                                        attrib +s +h FolderHide

Replace “FolderHide” with the name of the folder/file you want to hide.

Note : If your folder/file has spaces in between, then enclose the folder name in double quotes. For example if the folder name is Folder Hide, then your command should be :

                                                        attrib +s +h "Folder Hide"

That's it ! Now, go back to the place where the file or folder is located and look, it’s not there! You cannot find it through simply browsing around, through the command prompt, or even if you click “Show Hidden Files and Folders”.



In this method, what we did is that we altered the file/folder's attributes to Operating System file\folder attribute. This trick works because, by default, the option, "Hide Protected Operating System Files" (in Tools > Folder options > View) is checked.  As normally no one un-checks this option, (as on unchecking, Windows gives a warning detailing why one should not un-check this option), hence the file or folder becomes super hidden. 

To un-hide the folder or file again, open command prompt and navigate to the folder where the hidden folder is located and type :

                                                        attrib -s -h FolderHide

Make sure to replace "FolderHide" with the name of the folder or file

Also Check :
 

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Use Google Search to Plot Heart Shaped Graphs

From being able to do translations to doing calculations for you, Google search has already had a number of cool features built in. Yesterday Google goes a step further by adding graphing functionality on Google. Now you can plot mathematical functions right on the Google search result page. Just type in a function and you’ll see an interactive graph on the search results.

Check out this function’s graph on Google Search bar



Interesting, right? But do you know that you can even use this feature to show your love (and ahem, nerdiness) by plotting a heart?

Type the following functions in Google Search bar :

(sqrt(cos(x))*cos(75x)+sqrt(abs(x))-.7)*(4-x*x)^.2, sqrt(9-x^2), -sqrt(9-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5, -x


(sqrt(cos(x))*cos(200x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(9-x^2), -sqrt(9-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5


(sqrt(cos(x))*cos(200*x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01,sqrt(9-x^2),-sqrt(9-x^2)


sqrt(1-(abs(x)-1)^2), arccos(1-abs(x))-pi 


((sqrt(cos(x))*cos(500*x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.4)*(4-x*x)^0.1


abs(x)-(1-x^2)^(1/2), abs(x)+(1-x^2)^(1/2), x+ 0.25 from -3 to 3


3D Heart curve :

5 + (-sqrt(1-x^2-(y-abs(x))^2))*cos(30*((1-x^2-(y-abs(x))^2))), x is from -1 to 1, y is from -1 to 1.5, z is from 1 to 6



Also check :

Monday, December 5, 2011

Customize your Browser Home Page to Look like Windows 8

Bored looking at the same default home page whenever your browser starts? Then try "EIGHT", a browser start screen inspired from Windows 8's tiled interface. It is basically a web page created using HTML, CSS and jQuery. It shows website shortcuts as tiles which when clicked open the associated URLs. It's also got a search bar right in the page itself.



Not only EIGHT looks awesome, it is customizable too. You can replace the shortcuts with your own favorite sites, you can change the default search engine, you can customize the background color and you can even use a wallpaper as background. EIGHT is compatible with all the major browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer).

To use it, first download the ZIP file from here and extract the folder contained in it somewhere on your hard drive. Navigate to the folder (usually named "EIGHT-firefox start page+config") and open the “index.htm” with your preferred web browser. Close all other opened tabs before you continue.

Mozilla Firefox Users : Click on the orange Firefox button and choose "Options". Under the "General" tab select “Show my home page” from “When Firefox starts“ and click the "Use Current Pages" button. Press [enter].




Google Chrome Users : Copy the URL from the address bar. Click on the "wrench" button and select "Options". Choose "Open the following pages:" under "On startup" and in the "New tab" field paste the URL you copied earlier. Also, select "Open this page" from "Home page" and paste the same URL in its field. Close the tab and reload.


Other Browser Users : Follow similar steps as mentioned above.


Customizing EIGHT :

To customize EIGHT, again navigate to "EIGHT-firefox start page+config" and run "config.htm". Modify the shortcuts and texts as per your preference and click "Generate settings file". Copy the entire code. Now open "source.js" (also present in "EIGHT-firefox start page+config" folder) with notepad, replace the original texts with the copied text. Save the file.

Note : If you wish to change any pre-defined website shortcut with a new one, first paste the website logo in the "thumbs" folder. Now run "config.htm", click on the shortcut tile you wish to replace and provide title and URL of the website along with the name of the website logo.

You can find thumbnails icons here : Thumbnails for "EIGHT" by ~jeppethe

Check this link if you want to change the background color or want to use your own wallpaper as background.

Also Check :
 

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Download Youtube Videos WITHOUT any Software


YouTube, the most popular video website doesn’t provide any mechanism to download videos directly from their site. Though there are numerous free softwares and browser plugins available that you can use to download videos from YouTube, today I will show you the simplest solution for downloading YouTube videos in any quality without the need of any additional software.

1. Open the YouTube video which you want to download.

2. Replace "youtube" with "savemedia" on the address bar of your browser.

For example, if the URL of the original YouTube video is

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymuqUJ3MsEs&feature=g-logo

Then add the word "save" between the www. and the youtube section, so as the URL looks like this:

http://www.saveyoutube.com/watch?v=ymuqUJ3MsEs&feature=g-logo

3. Hit Enter and the page will reload with the SaveYouTube website.


4. A warning box may pop-up. Select "Run". Don't worry, its just a Java Applet to convert the video to a downloadable format. Its perfectly safe and will not install any software.

5. A list of download links will appear. Right-click on the format you want and select "Save As..." to start your download.

Also Check :

Friday, December 2, 2011

Text 2 Folders: Create Multiple Folders at Once Using a Text File

Creating multiple number of folders is a monotonous and time consuming task. Like me, if you find creating folders in bulk tedious, then just download this free and portable utility called Text 2 Folders.

Text 2 Folders is a small program for Windows that creates multiple folders based on the content of a text file.

Simply create a plain text file using any text editor (such as Notepad) and write the name of every folder you wish to create on a new line. If you also want to create sub folders, then put a "\" after the parent folder and write the name of the sub folder after "\". Save the text file anywhere on your PC.


Now run Text2Folders.exe (after downloading and extracting it from the zip file), click on the check-box "Text file" and provide the path of the parent folder (where you want to create the folder structure) along with the text file we created earlier.


Click "Create folders" and you are done.



Thursday, December 1, 2011

How to Create a Photo Mosaic in Minutes

A Mosaic
(Click to Enlarge)
Just as printers create images with dots or patterns, a photo mosaic (also known as Photographic mosaic) is a single picture made out of a large number of other images. A photo mosaic when viewed without any magnification, appear as the primary image, however when magnified reveals that the image is in fact made up of a large number of smaller images.

Creating mosaics from photos is not at all easy and can be a laborious task. As an alternative to manually creating a mosaic, one could use applications that can accomplish the same thing. One such application is Andrea Mosaic.




To create a mosaic using Andrea Mosaic, simply follow these steps :

1. Download and install Andrea Mosaic

2. The first time you run the application, following window will appear :


Select "Rectangle Tiles (4:3)"

3. First you need to select a list of images that you wish to use as image tiles. Click on the "Tile Images" button. In the window that appears, you can add the folders where your images are located using the Add Folder button or by dragging and dropping the Folders in the "Folder List". If a folder has sub-folders with images in them, they will also be incorporated.



4. Click on the "Save List As" button and wait for the program to complete its operation. This may take a while (depending on the number and resolution of images). You can cancel the process anytime by pressing the "OK" button.

5.When the program reaches 100%, you will be asked for a location to save the list. Choose any location and any name.

6.Click "Open Archive" and select the collection you just created. Click "OK".


7.Now drag the primary image into the main window. Additionally, you can set various parameters according to your requirement or you can leave the default values.


8.Finally, click "Create Mosaic". A new window will appear along with details and status information. At the end of the process, a message will confirm that the mosaic was successfully created, asking you if you wish to open the folder where the mosaic is stored. The image will be created on the location your original image is stored.

Result

Oraginal Image

Resultant Image

You can check the resultant image in actual resolution and size HERE

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