Show Status, Updates from All Facebook Friends Instead "Most Interact With"

If you didn’t knew facebook doesn’t show you status updates from all friends. They show the friends with whom you "interact" with the most. No one know what the proper meaning of "interaction" means but has to do something with your comment, likes and the most frequent social connections you share with a person on facebook like mutual friends, photo tags etc.
Tip: Facts About Facebook "POKE"

Show Updates from All Friends in your Facebook News Feed

You can now choose to show all friends in your facebook newsfeed, activity stream.
Step 1 : Go to your Facebook Homepage (News Feed) and Scroll down (till you can’t scroll anymore)

Step 2 : Click on the Edit Options link, and a window called "Edit Your News Feed Settings" opens.

Step 3 : Select the option Show posts from as All of your friends and pages.
This will ensure that you get facebook updates from all friends instead of the people whom you interact mostly… Note, You can also remove someone from your news feed by clicking the [x] beside their update.
I agree facebook’s "most interact with" filter helps to see only the people with whom you are connecting more frequently online but it leaves out lot of important friends who matter a lot.
So I think its better to disable the social filter and choose to show all friends in your news feed. (Although I have noticed this doesn’t guarantee full visibility of updates from all friends, there are still many friends from whom I don’t get updates from)

Make Google Chrome Browser Faster with Hardware Acceleration

Hardware acceleration is becoming an integral part of every next generation browsers. But many browsers don’t support this feature yet, but luckily Google Chrome version 8 already gives you the ability to enable hardware acceleration and make chrome perform faster and better.
Tip : Convert Webpages into PDF in Chrome

Improve Chrome Browser Performance, Speed

If your PC has good memory resources and processor speed, and if you can open multiple tabs and heavy sites without any problem in Chrome then you can choose to turn on Hardware Acceleration for your chrome browser.
Step 1: Open Chrome browser and type in about:flags in the address bar, and press enter.
Step 2: This will take you to the experimental features page. Scroll down and Enable the following features.

• GPU Accelerated Compositing: Enables 3D CSS and higher performance compositing of web pages using Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) hardware.
• GPU Accelerated Canvas 2D: Enables higher performance of canvas tags with a 2D context by rendering using Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) hardware.
• Web Page Prerendering: Speculatively prerenders complete webpages in the background for a faster browsing experience.

Step 3: After you’ve enabled these 3 features. Restart chrome browser for the changes in settings to take effect.
These settings will significantly improve the quality and performance of chrome browser making it faster than before.
You can also check out the FastestChrome(link) extension which saves time and enhances your productivity by pre-fetching quick definitions, auto-load next pages, search faster, and more.

Prevent Firefox Slowing Down your System: Reduce Memory Hogging

No matter how good chrome gets, Firefox will still be the no.1 choice for more geeky web users. But one thing which Firefox still has issues with is memory hogging. After surfing for some time you might notice your whole system slowing down due to the increased usage of cpu memory.

Avoid Memory Hogging by Restarting Firefox After Exceeding RAM Limit

Here is a simple way to prevent memory hogging in Firefox.

# Memory Restart Add-on : Link

Memory Restart will let Firefox users will see the browser’s memory usage in the status bar. Once memory usage reaches a certain threshold, the status bar text display will turn red, and the user can click on the status bar to quickly restart Firefox.

The memory threshold is configurable, so the user determines how much memory Firefox can consume before it needs a restart. The default is 500Mb. When used with the Firefox option "Show my windows and tabs from last time", this allows you to quickly restart Firefox and fix any memory consumption issues, without losing your existing tabs.

Get Back System Memory When Firefox is Minimized

Windows has an useful feature by which it can grab memory back from applications, programs that are minimized, but Firefox prevents that and so it keeps all the memory to itself after getting minimized, but unless you enable this tweak.
1) Type about:config into your Firefox address bar and hit Enter.
2) Right-Click on anywhere on the window and choose New > Boolean

3) On the window that pops up, enter config.trim_on_minimize and click OK.

4) Select true in the final dialog box and restart Firefox for the changes to take effect.
From now on every time you minimize Firefox window, windows will try to recover some of the memory space hogged by Firefox and put them into the application that are active.

Boost Sound Quality, Volume, Loudness of Headphones in Windows 7

I mostly use headphones with my PC and laptop but somehow the volume is quite low in the headphones in windows 7 and the sound quality isn’t any better. But here is a simple tweak which will improve the overall system audio quality and make volume in the headphone louder noticeably.
Tip: Improve Sound Quality, Volume of MP3 Files

Enhance, Make Audio Louder in Windows 7

Follow this simple step by step guide to increase loudness in headphones and improve sound quality in windows 7.
1) Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound and click on Sound.

2) In the Sound options window, under the Playback tab click Speakers and then click on the Properties button.

3) In the Speaker Properties window, under Enhancements tab, locate and check to enable Virtual Surround and Loudness Equalization and click Apply.

** Keep a song playing while Applying these fixes to notice the change it does to the sound quality and loudness which is significantly improved.
Note: Sometimes Windows 7 sets different volume levels for different applications playing audio including pc games, online videos etc. So make sure they are individually set to the right sound level (max. in my case).

You can access the options by right-clicking on the volume Speaker icon in the system tray and selecting Open Volume Mixer. (see above)

Windows, Browser Settings To Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

According to experts, the risk of being a target of identity theft has grown higher than ever in recent years. Criminals employ many means to collect victims’ personal information, including impersonation (like fake facebook account) , outright theft of personal belongings and more.
Increasingly, these criminals are going online to steal victims’ identities and information through phishing, and though experts have warned about the threat of online ID theft for well over 10 years now, the rise and proliferation of social networks has compounded the problem.

Customize Windows to Protect Your Online Identity

While popular security programs have expanded their services, and an industry dedicated to protecting users from identity theft has emerged. In fact, many operating systems and browsers now feature security measures that allow users to project their own identity online.
However, these options can be difficult for less-experienced users to find, and often confusing to understand. Even so, you don’t need a criminal justice degree to learn how to project yourself. Just making a few simple changes you can make within Windows, and the Internet Explorer and Firefox Web browsers can help safeguard your identity online.
In Windows, go to “Control Panel” and find Windows Update and Windows Firewall – these features may be under different headings, depending on which version of Windows you are using. (find some more firewall tools)

Check to make sure Windows is up to date, then be sure to set Windows Update to "Update Automatically" so that you do not miss any important updates. Most users should also make sure that Windows Firewall is enabled, but running more than one firewall can cause conflicts; check your firewall’s frequently asked questions (FAQ) to learn more.

Additionally, both Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox offer Private Browsing, a feature that keeps the browser from storing the information collected while surfing sites. Private Browsing deletes the history, cookies, forms and settings for that session.
This often forces you to make certain concessions that most users would rather avoid, such as logging in to sites every time you visit. More advanced users can tailor their online security using “Internet Options,” available in both browsers under Tools.
In IE, you can set your privacy and security simply by adjusting the settings under the appropriate tabs. "Medium-High" should be sufficient for most users on both tabs, but be sure to check “Enable Protected Mode” on the “Security” tab.

In Firefox, you can choose which security features you wish to use under these same tabs and then customize their settings. You can also often find extensions and plug-ins that automate this process and make it much easier to complete. Under "Privacy," you might want to uncheck the "Remember Download" and "Remember Search and Form" history options.

Similarly, under "Security," make sure the first three boxes are checked, which keep sites from installing unwanted software without your permission and keep you from wandering onto dangerous or compromised sites.
These simple changes, along with a firewall, will help protect you from identity theft and other criminal activities. However it is important to remember that there are no completely fail-proof methods to projecting yourself from identity theft. Online criminals are always looking for ways to compromise victims’ security. The only way to protect yourself from identity theft is to remain aware and vigilant, and use common sense when it comes to sharing your personal information online.

AppDok: Get Site Notifications, Install Useful Apps on your Browser

AppDok is an apps platform, which helps users to get a delightful browsing experience. AppDok works on every major browser – Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

AppDok : Very Useful In-Browser Application Platform for Browsers

► You can try AppDok by getting it for your browser at http://appdok.com

How AppDok Works ?

Your AppDok is always available to you on all websites you visit – at the top left corner of the screen. When not in use, it’s always hidden and does not obstructs your browsing.

When you take your mouse over to the AppDok, it will expand to show all the Apps you have added. AppDok opens when you hover your mouse on it

Check Website Loading Speed on Different Browsers, Country Locations

If you have a traffic from various countries, or your site or blog is hosted in a different country from where most visitors come from, it is useful to see how long it takes to load your web pages and blog posts.
Loads.in lets you test and find out how fast your (or any) website loads in a real browser from over 50 locations worldwide.

Find How Fast your Blog, Site Loads with Different Browsers and Various Country Locations

# Go to http://loads.in/
Simply enter the full URL of the page you want to check, and the page is retrieved by any browser at a random location. After that run you can choose a specific location and any other browser to recheck how your site loads in a different country through any browser.

The result will show you the loading time of the webpage, snapshots of the webpage at different times during loading, errors or warnings if they occur. A complete timing break down of loading of all elements of your page in a waterfall chart which you can download as the timing results in the Http Archive (HAR) format.
It is an unique and free tool which checks your site with real browsers. You can choose from Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer or Firefox browser profiles. It checks your site from over 50 different visitor locations and also provides snapshots and waterfall charts for each check. It also shows if your site has any javascript, html errors.

Create Beautiful Scanner Photography, Make Original Scanner Art

Bored with traditional photography? Sick of drawing stick figures in your sketch book? Why not try scanner art? It’s cheap, creative, and fun — and the best part? It can capture three-dimensional and high-resolution images/objects fantastically.

Sometimes known as scanography, or scanner photography, scanner art was popularized by practitioners of macro photography in the late 1960s and has since been taken up by amateurs and semi-professionals worldwide.

How To Make Original Scanner Art

Want to learn how to get artistic with your scanner? Read on.

Gather Your Materials

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First, envision what you want your scanner art to look like. Lots of vibrant colors, or a more muted tone? Grainy or smooth texture? Many subjects (for a collage effect), or just one or two? You can use almost anything as material for scanner art — feathers, beads, dollar bills, random shapes made out of construction paper, flower petals, vegetables, mini machine parts, dolls, hands and faces, seashells, photographs, etc. Any object will do, really. Get creative! Just make sure that your proposed subject isn’t wet or greasy, which can ruin the scanner. (For extra protection, use a thin plastic film to prevent objects from scratching the surface.)

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If you don’t have a scanner, there are lots of cheap or used ones easily available on sites like eBay and Craigslist — you can even buy new ones for $100 or less at office supply chains. If you like scanning a lot of text, you might want to consider getting a specially-made book scanner, as well.

Place Them Properly and Re-Scan

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Remove the top of your flatbed scanner and carefully place your materials on it (as if you’re looking up from the scanner.) Don’t close the lid. Turn off the lights and locate the Start button. Done!

Re-scan different arrangements until you’re satisfied that you’ve tried every combination (it’ll make the editing process a lot less stressful). Use the “preview” function on your computer to ease the process.

There are many interesting composition schemes to try; for example, if you take, say, a dollar bill and spin and drag it as the scanner light travels across the bed, you can make an interesting distorted rainbow effect. Objects that move by themselves will be harder to control with the flow of light, though.

Edit

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If you’re planning on using your scanner art for something other than personal enjoyment (selling it, for example) then you might want do do a little Photoshop editing — or, if that’s too expensive, try GIMP (it’s a free, downloadable photo image editor that works almost just as well.) Polish your picture to perfection: you can add frames and colourful background designs, intensify colours, delete a stray hair, and clean up any dust (or bugs!) that got caught in your picture from the scanner. You can even use your editor to “flatten” the background, making your subjects appear to “float” in the foreground.

Display

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The methods of displaying your new scanner art are endless: postage stamps, personalized greeting cards, decoratively framed pictures, book covers, etc. Remember, you can use your scanner as a tool to record significant events in your life that might not be better suited for a camera — flowers from a first date, for example (you can’t capture the texture as well in a standard photograph!)

If you feel like you’ve gotten really good at scanner art, you may want to try submitting your work to real-life art galleries (yes, they have them just for scanographers!) Need more inspiration? Try looking here.

Automatically Adjust PC Monitor Brightness, Contrast Based on Time of the Day

You work on your computer during the day as well as night you might notice that if your room is lit by daylight during the day then by night monitor looks too bright and it hurts your eyes unless you tune the brightness/contrast ratio down.

Take Care of Eyes by Setting Your Monitor to Change Lighting At Night

F.lux takes care of the problem of different looking monitor screens during the day and night. It makes the color, brightness of your computer’s display adjust automatically to the time of day, warm at night and like daylight during daytime.

Basically the medical implications is that bright light from your monitor disrupts your brain of its day-night and sleep-awake cycle because of the colour (temperature) of your monitor’s lighting.
Windows Install

1. Click the f.lux Windows download link.
2. Run the installer and the f.lux settings page will appear.
3. Enter your location and select the type of lighting in your room at night.

Mac Install

1. Click the f.lux Mac download link.
2. Choose "Open with Stuffit Expander" and click OK.
3. Copy the "Flux" app to your Applications folder.
4. Double click the "Flux" application in your Finder window.
5. Enter your location, and select the type of lighting in your room at night.
6. Select Start f.lux at login and click Done.

Linux users can check out Redshift which does the same job as F.lux.

After installation you are asked of your geographic location and type of lighting in the room – tungsten halogen, fluorescent or daylight. Based on the info. it calculates exactly when the sun sets in your area and adjust the color temperature of the screen to simulate the lighting of the room.

Here is a simple video explaining how the light/temperature change works…
I tried using F.lux for a few days I can’t tell when the warming change appears. Its a slow and natural transition, which I liked. It can also be temporarily disabled from menu to work on colour-sensitive projects.
Thanks Ampercent for the tip.

Create Fake Facebook Comments, Twitter Conversation, iPhone SMS Text

Love those funny facebook comments on status fails or a funny twitter reply thread or those funny autocorrect iphone text conversations. If they seem fake to you then here are some free online tools to generate those type of fake facebook comments or iphone text conversations at a click of a button and post them on funtweets.com, failbook.failblog.org and damnyouautocorrect.com

Create Fake Facebook Comments Thread on Status Fails

Create fake Facebook Conversations at fakebookquotes.appspot.com.

Simple enter text as Person1: Status and on the next line Person2: Comment and next line as Person3: Comment and so on as shown above and click "Create Facebook Quote" to generate your funny facebook comments conversation.  
You can also create more natural looking facebook conversations at fakeconvos.com which lets you easily create fake Facebook news feeds and conversations with advanced settings.

Create Fake iPhone Text Conversations, Messages

Generate fake iPhone conversations, text at fakeiphonetext.com.

Simple enter text as Person1: Text Message and on the next line Person2: Reply Message and next line as Person1: Text Message and so on as shown above and click "Create" to generate your funny iphone conversations, text messages, autocorrect fails etc. 

Fake Tweet Builder, Create Fake Tweets

Make your own fake Twitter conversations, funny tweets at faketweetbuilder.com.

Simple enter text as Person1: Tweet and on the next line Person2: @ Reply Tweet and so on as shown above and click "Create Twitter Thread" to generate your funny tweets, twitter reply threads, conversations.
Here’s a video by gigafide explaining these online tools and how to use them to make fake iphone text messages, facebook & twitter conversations.

7 Best Websites to Find Free Photoshop Textures, Background Styles

Textures are essential resources needed by every photoshop designer as they offer the possibility to create backgrounds, visual styles and environments to the design work. There are many places where you can find free textures for Photoshop, however some of the best site that are interesting for different types of content are mentioned below. Have a look…

Top Websites for Free Photoshop Textures 

1. Grunge Textures (url)

It is a place where you will find all sorts of grunge textures. With over 1400 textures sorted in 21 categories the site is a good choice for those designing in this style so appealing. provide quality background textures that can be used free of charge for digital artwork, 3D rendering, web design and print projects. They specialize in weathered and worn surfaces.

2. DeviantArt (url)

deviantART is a platform that allows emerging and established artists to exhibit, promote, and share their digital art works within a peer community dedicated to the digital art.There you will find a wide variety of designs including photoshop textures uploaded by members. It is undoubtedly one of the best sites to find textures, background styles.

3. Shizoo (url)

It is notable for its unique textures which are really interesting and original. There are also a number of other useful resources for your designs like brushes and icons.

4. Amazing Textures (url)

If you are looking for free textures for Photoshop in an orderly and then classified Amazing Textures is a great option and should give you a ride. Among other things, the site lets you upload your own creations. Their texture library has hundreds of free textures to download, high-resolution textures, images, backgrounds, wallpapers and texture maps.

5. Texture King (url)

Download free high resolution, high quality textures for personal and commercial use from TextureKing. The textures range in subject from house insulation to cracked marble to paint-splattered concrete. The categories include Concrete, Grunge, Wood, Metals, Stone/Rock, Fabric, Paint, Rust, Dirt/Sand, Plastic, Liquids, Plaster, Glass etc.

6. Star Textures (url)

Startextures.com provides quality high resolution textures, that can be used in any kind of digital and design artwork. It is a gallery of high resolution, quality textures classified into several categories with creative and unique content and really useful for those who want to make quality designs. All the textures are free to use in any kind of computer graphics, games, printed material, movies, website design and 3D models.

7. Texture Warehouse (url)

The site offers textures ideal for those who want to experiment with 3D design. They offer free, high resolution textures to designers and 3D artist. The images are licensed under a Creative Commons Licensed. The textures are updated frequently.
If you want to add some of your favourite sites to the list leave a comment. I hope this list will be useful for your photoshop design work.

 

Host Live Radio Shows Online, Create Podcasts, Broadcast DJ Sessions

Spreaker (http://www.spreaker.com) offers a new perspective on online radio: everyone has a voice and everyone gets a chance to speak their mind. By registering for free on www.spreaker.com you can record podcasts or go live with your own personal radio shows, audio web shows, start a discussion on whatever topic you wish, and people will listen.
It’s easy to start: Log in, or register with your Facebook account, and set up a profile by adding your personal information.
Click on the “Broadcast” link to start your show, and think of a snappy title for your show. Then select what category your show falls under.
Click on “Broadcast” and  the DJ console will load. Choose to go live or record a podcast.

Start recording! From here you can start your radio show by clicking on the circular button in the “Broadcast section”. Prepare an intro, or improvise on the spot for a more casual feel. Conduct interviews, respond to callers using Skype, and take in requests from listeners using Spreaker’s instant messenger.

Share your show on Facebook, Twitter, embed on your personal blog, and elsewhere. Get your friends’ attention and gain listeners with every broadcast. 
To make your show more enriched and personalized manage media files and commercial breaks:

Populate your tracklist. Click the add button pick out some music tracks from the the Music library, or  you can add your own media by clicking on “upload.” Drag and drop the track over one of the mixing decks.

Add sound effects. Use the effects pad to browse available sound effects or upload your own. Add laughter, applause, and other quirky sounds to give your show some panache.

Take Commercial breaks. The Commercial break countdown tells you how long before the next break starts, or trigger commercial break before the counter reaches zero so you can manage your show more easily.

Spreaker is the perfect platform for casual podcasting. You can add a new episode of your podcast from everywhere and it becomes immediately accessible to your audience (they can listen to you live or play the recording afterwards) as you can also embed your shows in blogs, websites. You can also embed in your facebook fan page.