29 Incredibly Useful Websites You Wish You Knew Earlier !

There are so many wonderful websites around, and it is difficult to know each and every one of them. The below list provides some of those websites that I find particularly helpful, even though they are not as famous or as prevalent as some of the big names out there.

1. BugMeNot

Are you bugged constantly to sign up for websites, even though you do not wish to share your email? If yes, then BugMeNot is for you. Instead of creating new logins, BugMeNot has shared logins across thousands of websites which can be used.

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2. Get Notify

This nifty little website tracks whether the emails sent by you were opened and read by the receiver. Moreover, it also provides the recipient’s IP Address, location, browser details, and more.

3. Zero Dollar Movies

If you are on a constant lookout of free full length movies, then Zero Dollar movies provides a collection of over 15,000 movies in multiple languages that are available to watch for free on Youtube. It indexes only full length movies and no trailers, or partial uploads. In addition, it has a clean interface, contributing to a good movie watching experience.

4. Livestream

Livestream allows you to watch and broadcast events live to viewers on any platform. For the next time when you want to share your company’s annual CEO speech live to employees who are on remote locations, Livestream serves as a perfect platform.

5. scr.im

scr.im converts your email address into a short custom URLs, that can be shared on public websites. This prevents your email id from getting picked up by spam robots, and email harvesters who are on a constant lookout from your email id.

6. TinEye

TinEye is a Reverse Image search tool which is as accurate as Google’s Reverse Image search tool. As opposed to Google, TinEye provides a set of APIs that can be used for personal and commercial purposes, which makes it very useful for developers.

7. Fax Zero

Fax Zero allows you to send faxes to US and Canada for free. Additionally, it enables you to send faxes to countries outside North America at a fixed pay per use cost.

8. Snopes

Do you believe that fingernails and hair continue to grow after death? Why don’t you check out if this is true, along with thousands of other urban folklore out there, at Snopes?

9. Stickk

Is it difficult for you to stick to goals ? If yes, then let Stickk help you reach your goals. It makes use of commitment contracts to empower you to better your lifestyle.

10. Boxoh

Boxoh can track the status of any shipment package on Google Maps.

11. PicMonkey

PicMonkey is an online Image editor, that allows you to touch up your images. Also, you can apply different effects, fonts, and designs to your images. It is a perfect tool to create pins for Pinterest and  awesome looking Facebook covers.

12. Trello

Trello is a great online tool for organizing just about anything using Kanban style cards. It provides a highly visual way for Online Collaboration, and is a simple free tool for Task and Project Management.

13. Short Reckonings

Short Reckonings is an online tool to keep track of shared expenses. It is deceptively simple, easy to use, and allows you to enter expenses with the fewest possible clicks. A clean, ad-free interface adds to the charm of this simple website.

14. Memrise

Do you fancy learning new things in small byte sized packages? If yes, then Memrise is for you. The additive nature of gaming combined with memory improvement makes this an excellent resource.

15. Instructables

Instructables provides instructions to help you build just about anything you can imagine. It provides a platform for people to explore, document, and share their creations.

16. join.me

In today’s world, where collaboration across multiple stakeholders is key,join.me provides an online platform to share desktop screens. Record audio for meetings conducted with participants not in the same room. In addition, it is a simple tool to share your screen with just about anybody on the web.

17. Sync.in

Sync.in allows multiple people to edit documents and notes in real time. It is a great tool for online collaboration.

18. Privnote

Do you wish to share notes and information that self destructs immediately after it is read ? Privnote does exactly that.

19. ScribbleMaps

Have you ever wanted to place your personal markers, shapes, and scribbles on Google Maps? Even though Google Maps does not allow that, ScribbleMaps does, and it does a great job at it.

20. TripIt

TripIt is a painless way to organize all the details of your vacation or business trip. Forget your flight time? Can’t find the e-mail with your hotel’s address? That won’t happen with TripIt, which keeps your itinerary in one place.

21. Skyscanner

Skyscanner is a leading global travel search site, providing instant online comparisons for millions of flights on over a thousand airlines, as well as car hire and hotels.

22. Hostel Bookers

Hostel Bookers is one of the best search engines to search for cheap hostels and hotels while backpacking or traveling around the globe.

23. Fitday

Fitday allows you to track you diet and weight loss through its journal. The personal dietician and free articles on nutrition and weight loss on their site are a great bonus.

24. Endomondo

Endomondo is a mobile app that allows you to track your workouts. The website allows detailed analysis of your training, that makes it a valuable tool to understand and plan your workouts.

25. My Fitness Pal

If counting calories is your main goal, then My Fitness Pal is the best web and mobile application out there. The service has a massive database of meals and exercises to make it easy to accurately count calories.

26. Fuelly

Fuelly tracks the gas mileage for your cars and helps you to analyze, share, and compare your vehicles fuel consumption.

27. 3-Minute Journal

3 Minute Journal is different than most other Journals out there. This application allows you to track your moods, achievements, failures, and moments of gratitude. In addition, it does great analysis over these parameters.

28. 750 Words

750 Words is based on the idea of “Morning Pages”; that advises aspiring creatives to start each morning with three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing to clear away the mental clutter, leaving you with a clearer mind to face the day.

29. Kiva

Kiva is a micro finance website, that attempts to leverage the Internet and a worldwide distribution of micro-finance institutions. It alleviates poverty by connecting lenders to people in need.

Do you have other favorite sites that you find incredibly useful?

Clarks Original Patternity Desert Boots..WOW !

Clarks Originals and Patternity got together for a second collaboration, this bold Desert Boot, available in three colorways. The new boot comes in two micro dot patterns, white on black and glossy black on matte black, and a monochrome black version. The fall and winter design will be available in men’s and women’s sizes online and from select retailers worldwide.

Read more: http://blog.gessato.com/2014/08/10/clarks-originals-x-patternity-desert-boot/#ixzz3A5yi7nJN

Want to see what your WiFi looks like ??

This Is What Your WiFi Looks Like

August 10, 2014 at 9:30:00 AM by James Joiner | 0 Comments

(All photos by Luis Hernan)

The air around us is alive. Radio waves, WiFi signals, all manner of frequencies are zipping about, unseen and unheard yet bringing life to our phones, computers, radios, and more. Sometimes it almost seems if you squint your eyes you can see them: rainbow-like spider webs of digital connectivity. At least, that’s how designer, photographer, and PhD candidate Luis Hernan envisions them in his new photo series Digital Ethereal.

"The images are created by combining technical and performative components," he explains. “In the technical, I designed an instrument which continuously prompts for the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) through active scans of WiFi networks. This is in turn represented as colors. The other component is the interpretation of the results…. The device is carried across a space, with the operator improvising movements to reflect the values that are being returned. This process is recorded using long-exposure photography, which registers the trail left by the instrument's movement as a consistent presence in the scene.”


“What you see in the images is a combination of the fluctuations in the WiFi network with the movements of the operator. Colors change depending on the signal strength of a specific point in space. The curved lines are the result of the device's operator moving it across the image. The coloration responds to a perceptual model of warmth. Red signifies the stronger signal strength, whilst blue stands for the weaker.”







Hernan is currently working on his PhD in architecture and interactive design, and he describes the Digital Ethereal project as, “research through design, where you use the process and result of design as a way of exploring a particular subject.”

Get ready to pay for WhatsApp, Viber and such like !!!

TRAI may implement usage fee on WhatsApp, Viber and the likes: Report

#MESSAGING APPS INDIA

By tech2 News Staff /  07 Aug 2014 , 12:18

With the rise of instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber and others, telcos had started to make noise against the rampant adoption of these services. In April, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) disclosed to be working on discussion paper that looks at the impact of Over-The-Top (OTT) players such as messaging apps. Looks like, TRAI is on its way to find a solution by putting a fee on such apps.

According to a report by Business Today, TRAI held a seminar to initiate the process to bring in a regulation for providers of apps like WhatsApp and Viber to pay connectivity charges to telecom companies and share revenue with the government.

The key pointers of discussion at the seminar were ‘new developments in OTT, impact of OTT on telecom services providers and their counter measures, legal and regulatory framework for OTT’. It also plans to release a discussion paper. However, the report further points out it may not pose major restrictions on such apps.

The good old ‘SMS’ and even phone calls have been suffering due to the rise in popularity of these apps. Several telcos including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, reportedly want app providers to pay a connectivity charge to make up for the losses in revenue, since many apps replace core revenue streams such as SMSes or phone calls.

The report points out that telcos currently ‘lose around Rs 5,000 crore annually’ because of such free apps . This figure is expected to cross Rs 16,400 crore in the next two years, as the number of users opting for data will increase.

Google Lets You Watch Live Data From NASA's Long Lost Satellite !!

GOOGLE

Robert Sorokanich, Gawker Media

Aug 9, 2014, 07.30 PM IST

NASA's ISEE-3 was launched in 1977 and sent data home for 20 years. Recently, NASA discovered the abandoned satellite is still transmitting data, and turned over the controls to a group of citizen scientists. ISEE-3 zooms by the moon tomorrow, and thanks to a new Google project, you can ride along at home.

When citizen scientists first discovered that ISEE-3 was still out there transmitting data, they put together a crowdfunding project and took over an abandoned McDonalds, hoping to regain control of the satellite's flight path and send it on new missions. Unfortunately, ISEE-3's propulsion systems are shot.

But ISEE-3 is still transmitting data, and this weekend the lonely capsule will swing past the moon and wave at earth for the first time in decades. And thanks to the Google Chrome experiment A Spacecraft For All, regular old folks like you and me can tap into ISEE-3's data feeds and watch live as it cruises through the old neighborhood.

The real action happens tomorrow, with a live lunar fly-by demo, interviews with the original NASA scientists and the Reboot team now monitoring ISEE-3, and a real-time data feed. But Google's deeply-interactive website for the prodigal satellite has plenty of cool stuff to play with today, whether it's learning about the history of ISEE-3 or watching the live data it's constantly beaming down.

Seriously, go check it out. You'll be glad you did. [A Space Craft For All via TNW]

Now Your Lost Android Device Can Phone Home

APPS

Robert Sorokanich, Gawker Media

Aug 9, 2014, 10.30 PM IST

Google added a sneaky little update to Android Device Manager this week: A new lock screen button implores whoever found your phone to call a number that you specify. Now just hope that they're not calling to ask for ransom.

Just like before, Device Manager lets you remotely lock or wipe a lost Android device, or set the ringer to blast so you can find it under that pile of laundry or out in the yard. But the newest update lets you put a message on the lock screen, as well as a button to phone home. Just don't put your cellphone number in there, dummy. (For the record, it looks like the lock screen just shows a green "Call" button, and doesn't actually display the phone number you specify.)

Theoretically, this is how it works: You realize you've misplaced your phone. You log into Android Device Manager's website, and remotely set a lockscreen button that will call your friend, your parents' house, whatever. Maybe you put a message on the lock screen that says something about "I lost my phone, please call me!" And with any luck, the good-hearted person who stumbled across your lost phone follows those instructions and doesn't chuck your phone in a river or sell it.

Google hasn't officially announced the update yet, but you can see the new feature on the Android Device Manager app listing (which you only need to download if you want to remotely wipe or lock your device from another Android device-the web portal offers all the same functions from your computer). Just be smart, and don't put your street address or anything like that on the lock screen, okay? [Android Device Manager via Phandroid]

See Inside A Living Rat Brain Thanks To Lasers And Carbon Nanotubes

HEALTH

Sarah Zhang, Gawker Media

Aug 8, 2014, 01.51 AM IST

The living brain has always been a tricky thing to study. How do you figure out what's going on without poking, prodding, and jostling the brain so much that it's not working right? A relatively non-invasive new technique developed by neuroscientists at Stanford and Massachusetts General Hospital uses a laser and fluorescent carbon nanotubes to look at the web of tiny blood vessels in the brain.

In mice, the technique can be used to visualize blood in even the tiniest blood vessels just microns in diameter. Diseases like stroke, migraines, and Alzheimer's all affect blood flow in the brain.Current techniques for tracking blood flow are either more invasive (popping off a piece of the skull, for example) or at a lower resolution (CT, MRI).

To start, the team injected mice with carbon nanotubes. By shining a near-infrared laser that on fluorescent nanotubes, they could track blood coursing through the brain. Those nanotubes were specially designed to exhibit fluorescence at long wavelengths that could penetrate through intact bone and scalp. The mice did need a bit of a shave, but their heads stayed otherwise unharmed.The downside is, of course, that the laser still doesn't penetrate that deep, only about three millimeters, which makes imaging larger brains like humans a good deal more difficult.

For now, it's a cool new way to look at how mouse brains work-both when they're functioning normally, and when they have a mouse version of Alzheimer's or a stroke. [Stanford]

Images courtesy of Dai lab