Today we are going to discuss something related to search engine optimization for websites. We have already optimized our site for SEO in the best way we can. We tried adding more keywords to our posts,
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Today we are going to discuss something related to search engine optimization for websites. We have already optimized our site for SEO in the best way we can. We tried adding more keywords to our posts,
Later today in the MIX10 developer conference, Microsoft has revealed the first ever public preview of Internet Explorer Platform. No matter how hard Microsoft tries to name it in a politically correct way, it is what we’ll soon call – Internet Explorer 9!
Currently it’s just bare bones but rather impressive one at that. I downloaded the preview version, which pretty much is just the rendering engine and not the full fledged browser and am having my hands on it. Let me tell you folks if this is what the preview is, IE9 is definitely going to be ‘huge’.
First of all, IE9 Preview supports majority of the web-standards like HTML5 and thereby CSS3. For example the ‘border-radius’ property of CSS3 is now beautifully rendered in IE9 Preview. The much anticipated GPU powered sub-pixel layout capabilities will now be a part of IE9 which will use the Windows 7 Direct2D and DirectWrite technologies.
The figure to the right shows the performance graph of IE9 Platform Preview against other browsers. It clearly surpasses Opera 10.10 and even Firefox 3.7 Alpha.
In the ACID test however, the kid scores 55/100 which is in fact not too bad for a pre-alpha.
IE9 Preview basically gives the demonstration on how latest web standards will be incorporated in IE9. However, you can surf and test other websites too. Just click ‘Page’ > ‘Open’. Enter the URL of the website and click OK.
IE9 Preview hints at major breakthrough in overall performance boost compared to its predecessors and complying to the latest web-standards. Although, the developing team has declared that they will roll out browser code updates every 8 weeks with first such roll out in May, it is yet unclear when IE9 Beta will be made available to general public.
As of now, this is all you have –
Download Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview
For more details on IE9 Platform Preview, visit the official MSDN IEBlog.
Jan 27 was the day when iPad happened and shortly after we caught a glimpse of it’s look-alike on a French company’s website – The ExoPC Slate and this is what it looks like:
Too much of resemblance to the iPad eh! Even we think so. Now here’s the interesting part. It just doesn’t look as awesome as the iPad, it even claims to perform as good as (if not better) than it. We’ve got the specs of the ExoPC Slate and would love to have a one on one with Apple’s iPad.
| ExoPC Slate | iPad | |
| Display | 11.6” multi-touchscreen | 9.7” multi-touchscreen |
| Thickness | 0.55” | 0.50” |
| Resolution | 1366 x 768 | 1024 x 768 |
| Processor | 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 | 1 GHz Apple A4 Chip |
| Storage | 32 GB, 64GB Solid state | 16 GB, 32 GB*, 64 GB** Flash |
| RAM | 2 GB | 1 GB (presumably) |
| Bluetooth | Yes | Yes |
| Wi-Fi | Yes | Yes |
| 3G | No | Yes (costs $130 more) |
| OS | Windows 7 | iPhone OS 3.2 |
| Battery life | 5 hrs, several weeks standby | 10 hrs, over a month standby |
| Webcam | Yes (1.3 MP) | No |
| USB Ports | 3 | None |
| Card reader | Yes (SD, MMC) | No |
| SIM Port | Yes | Only in Wi-Fi+3G models |
| Sensors | Yes (Accelerometer) | Yes (Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor) |
| Headfone jack | Yes | Yes |
| Microphone | Yes | Yes |
| Price | $599 (for 32GB) | Starts at $499. $829 for 64 GB with 3G |
* 32 GB model costs $599 ($499 + $100).
** 64 GB model costs $699 ($499 + $200).
More information about the ExoPC Slate can be found at the official website.
The ExoPC Slate surely does have some strong features to put one into a dilemma, like the Windows 7 OS, the webcam, SIM Port, 2 GB RAM, USB ports and not to forget the widescreen experience. Both iPad and the ExoPC Slate will be out roughly at the same time.
So finally it narrows down to what you feel about the ExoPC Slate. Do you think it can give a tough fight to Apple iPad?
Avast is one of the well-known names in free antivirus category since years. It has been repeatedly ranked amongst Top 3 free antivirus products and now to add to its glory, Alwil has slipped out its stylized revamped avatar, Avast 5.0.
I have been really happy with Avast and am using it since my college days. Mainly because it is free, less annoying, can be updated offline with installable virus definitions and shows no pity to the bad guys. So obviously when a new version comes out, I am urged to speak a few words about it.
New Interface:
Avast 5.0 Beta has a lot of visible changes compared to previous versions. The new interface is awesomely intuitive, everything’s handy and has a great work-flow. Unlike version 4.7, if you remember, the main interface is large, has most of the crucial options visible at all times. However, it gives a faint impression of Kaspersky’s interface but that’s not a big deal when under-the-hood functionality is way different and simple too.
Ergonomics:
As you can see in the above screenshots, the interface is ergonomically designed keeping ease of use as the top priority. Large buttons with collapsible menus make is easier to perform tasks. During the scan it also provides additional real-time information about the current activity. Even the virus definitions update and the program modules update has been differentiated well. In earlier versions, I have seen people getting confused amongst them because of lack of proper differentiation.
Additional enhancements:
When a program does a makeover, at least I look for some additional features beside optimization of the regular ones. Alwil added new and useful functionality like the Silent/Gaming Mode and the Real-time graphical representation of Shields.
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Silent/Gaming Mode, once activated, stops popping of messages and notifications. This comes as a life-saver when playing games or watching movies.
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The Real-time shields option, reminiscent of Kaspersky, gives real time graphical representation of the scanning activities performed by its shields.
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Apart from this, the speed and the efficiency of Avast 5.0 Beta indicates better heuristics and many other under-the-hood changes. Not only for the local files, but Web activity is thoroughly and efficiently monitored real-time.
TechExplorer verdict:
The features offered by the new Avast 5.0 are really too good to be true for the $0 price tag. One can take the liberty to compare Avast with most paid antivirus programs out there. Considering it still in the Beta and the features offered, Avast 5.0 Beta deserves a generous 4.2/5
While watching movies with subtitles it is very important to have same framerates for both – the movie file and the subtitle file. Although it does not apply to hardcoded subtitles, unsynced framerates is one of the most common annoyances when we use an explicit subtitle file to overlay on the video. Here, the change of delay to a positive/negative value simply doesn’t work. You need to sync up their framerates and not the timing of the subtitles.
Problems due to unsynchronized framerates:
Suppose if you have a video with framerate 25.000 and subtitles with framerate 23.976, then the subtitles will slowly lag in time as the video continues. The only solution is to change the subtitle framerate so as to sync it with the framerate of the video.
Here is a nice utility that comes to the rescue – Subtitle Framerate Changer. Now I don’t need to say what it does right? Just enter the path to your SRT file (subtitle file) with ‘bad’ framerate, specify the new framerate and click ‘Convert’.
The results are really good. I have tested this utility with different videos and subtitles with different framerates and I’ve found it very good. The only glitch is that it only accepts SRT files. But that won’t be much of a problem I guess! 
Download Subtitle Framerate Changer / 212 KB
I was unable to post for almost a week and there is a reason for that. A happy reason. Uptill now, TechExplorer was hosted on blogger platform and we recently made a switch to BlueHost and now using WordPress as our CMS. During the whole process I frequently dealt with online money transactions and which made this post possible. I made some apparent conclusions on what browsers one should use while dealing with sensitive online transactions.
Although most browsers have evolved themselves and are quite capable for online transactions and the security measures that come alongwith, here are the top 3 browsers one should use irrespective of what your favorite one is.
#3 – Opera 10.x
Opera is certainly one of the highly anticipated and much loved browser with great features. However, I felt the browser being a little slow while making online transactions. It takes quite a time to load a page during a transaction and urges you to hit the refresh button again (which is a terrible thing to do while the transaction is in process). Moreover, I felt that Opera is a bit tacky in handling and displaying Ajax content that reloads a specific content on your webpage. So, Opera goes at #3.
#2 – Mozilla Firefox 3.x.x
My personal favorite. Mozilla Firefox is unarguably the best browser I have used. But when it comes to online transactions, it ‘sometimes’ behaves unexpectedly. The worst thing is, you never know when. We know that Mozilla Firefox is notorious for being resource hungry and chokes your computer if lot of tabs are open or if an addon misbehaves. This can ruin your work. Otherwise, the transaction itself is a smooth process in Firefox. You just have to be a bit careful on opening multiple instances of Firefox windows and tabs while doing some important work. Hence, #2 for Mozilla Firefox.
#1 – Internet Explorer 7+
Not so happy about ranking IE as #1 but when it comes to compatibility with almost all websites, specifically the ones involving money transactions, IE is an out-n-out winner. The reason lies not in the capability but the popularity of IE. Web devs design their websites keeping the compatibility with IE at the top of their list. This is reason enough to use IE when dealing with online transactions. Moreover, it is my personal experience that certain websites of banks and financial institutions are rather shoddy and can only be used with IE if you seek a glitch free experience. Hence, #1 for IE.
Finally, it’s needless to say your browser should be up-to-date with a good antivirus running on your computer while performing an online transaction.
When we switch over to a newer operating system, we ought to look for the compatible programs that work optimally with the new OS platform. The final release of Windows 7 is just around the corner and that makes it important for the user to know the compatible software applications. Well, I can safely say that Microsoft tops the list when it comes to backward compatibility and support for legacy programs but the people at Microsoft doesn’t seem to take any chances and that is why Microsoft has tested most of the applications out there under strict conditions. The software/application that passed all the tests were given a ‘Compatible with Windows 7’ badge.
Following are some of the Antivirus applications which are perfectly compatible with Windows 7 and I hope the list would help you make a wiser choice. The prices indicated are for 1 year license and are subject to change. Please refer the official websites for exact figures.
Kaspersky Antivirus for Windows 7 (RC available for download)
Expected Price: $65, INR 1500/- [Reduced prices for India]
Price: Free (Home Edition) / $39.95 (Professional Edition), INR 2000/- (approx.)
Price: $39.99, INR 2000/- (approx.)
Price: $34.99, INR 999/- [Reduced prices for India]
Expected Price: $34.99, INR 1750/- (approx.)
Norton Antivirus 2010 with Antispyware
Price: $39.99, INR 2000/- (approx.)
Price: $29.95, INR 1500/- (approx.)
Then there are bunch of other antivirus applications which are also favored by Microsoft: TrendMicro Antivirus, F-Secure, Panda Security, Webroot, Bullguard, Rising Antivirus, GData, Ahnlab Antivirus and Sunbelt’s Vipre Antivirus.
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