How-to extend the time limited views of online tv

There are many websites that provide viewing of TV channels online. However, when you are in office and have limited access to all websites, and want to see cricket match online, there are very few channels that provide such a service but with limited time only. This technique will help you extend the time.

How-to create Chrome App and Extension for your Blog or website

Finally, after giving much thought, I published a Chrome app and an extension for this blog on the Google Chrome store. It has been an amazing experience, to know that it is nothing more than a small tweak from what Google has already provided. Even a beginner can write a basic Chrome app and publish it on the Chrome store in less than five minutes.

Many-to-may relationship in Excel

I have been working on a particular job of consolidating cost center wise data of products procured in the past. The problem is that the data is continuous array, separated by commas. The resolution is to first segregate the data first and then show it component wise.

Two ways to reset Windows 7 password

After my popular post on resetting Windows XP password earlier (read it here), this is a post on resetting password for Windows 7. There maybe many other ways to do this, but i am listing down here two methods that are typically easier.

Note: Even though there are no known issues, try it at your own risk

Candy Crush Hack for rooted users

Hack method: 3

How could i forget the hack of the most popular games of all times !! This however, is only for rooted users. For non-root users, you can download and use the modded Candy Crush. To know, how to root an Android phone, read my earlier post here.

Note: I won't be responsible, if you brick your phone, while trying to root. Try at your own risk.

Demo of my application in Android - Gadget Buzz

I have been quite updating on all social medias, to try out my app. I thought a little demo or walk-through would help those who does not have Android or have not installed them.

How to fill blank cells in Excel

Ok heres a quick tip on how to fill blank cells in Excel with zero or NA. Its simple find and replace function in Excel.

Copy the exact formula without shifting range

So you have just entered the SUM formula on 24th row on Excel, and wish to put an AVERAGE formula just below it. If you copy the formula for SUM (fig 1) which is just above it, the range will change automatically (fig 2.)

Sum of visible cells only in Excel

The SUM function in Excel provides the total SUM of all the cells mentioned in the range, be it hidden or not. Now, lets assume that it is the nth version of Excel working and you have hidden many rows, which you found to be irrelevant at that point in time. How will you find the sum of the visible cells only?

Resize your images before upload

I thought I had shared this tip earlier, seems i have missed out a lot of small little tips. I shall be covering them in the days to come. This tip is to reduce the size of bulky images without losing much on the quality, before making an upload to save your bandwidth.

Lesser known shortcuts in Excel

I have been using lots of shortcuts in Excel, and some of them are lesser known to people.
Here's a list, so that  it could improve your productivity more.

Note: Plus sign used here mean "and/ along with" and not the "+" operator

Separate first and last names in Excel

So you have got a list of full names, but require to sort it down by their first names. Excel has given a wonderful tool call "Text to columns", but it may not work all the time, if there a space or a dot or something else. Here is a simple solution to do that using formulas.

Get HTML color code of an image

Ever wondered how you can get the HTML color code of an image you loved ! There are many third-party tools where, there is an color picker to pick the color you like. This trick is to get the RGB codes of an image using MS Paint.

View GIF animations in Windows 7

Level: Intermediate

If you have been playing with Windows 7, you might have observed that animated GIF files does not play animations by default. On the contrary, GIF files will only play in Internet Explorer only. If you think that you set "Windows Photo Viewer" as the default program instead, it still wont work.

Note: Some third-party tools like Irfanview claims to be able to do so.

Calculate the total workdays between two dates in Excel

Level: Advanced

Ever came up with a task of calculating how many work days are there in the current year, but have no clue how to do it. One option is to count in manually, second option is using a function in Excel. If you want to know what a function is, read my earlier post here.

Using formulas, functions and charts in MS Excel

Level: Beginner

This is in continuation to the first introductory post on spreadsheets; if you have missed it, read it here.
The whole intention of writing the Excel tutorial is to enable the use of its functions to manipulate/ massage the data. So skipping all the steps on operating, formatting, templates, styles etc, we leap forward into the use of formulas and functions in Excel.

Introduction to spreadsheets- Part One

Level: Beginner
This is my first part, on an initiative to start introducing my viewers to few of the areas where I have had some experience and learning. Lets start with the understanding, definition and history behind to understand it better.

Speed up your Windows 7 machine

Many of my friends and colleagues, who might have started to use Windows 7 find it to be sluggish and heavy. I would often suggest a few steps, to which they would object, mainly because they have not yet moved out of the Windows XP experience (can you believe it?). They are intimidated by the Windows 7 features like aero peek, windows animations etc but they want to embrace it with the performance of XP !!

Copy protect your Blog - Disable Copy/ Paste

With the increasing number of blogs, social networks and various advancements in technology, it is more increasingly important to secure your blogs from being copied by others. Imagine the time one spends in getting an idea, draft it, test it and probably work on the feed backs of respondents as well. What if all the efforts put in your blog, are copied by some user and puts up in his blog, claiming to be his/ her?

How to create an Android app

Sounds hard and techie to you? Not anymore ! You can not create an Android app on the fly, with a few clicks. There are a number of websites that offer free as well as professional services for developing an Android application online. I have had tried my hand on a few of them, and shall discuss in detail on it.

Schedule your social posts using Hootsuite

Ever thought of expanding and collaborating your social networks, but have to switch often back between the various tools/ sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. A trending social marketing tool in the market is Hootsuite, where you can post simultaneously on multiple sites, or even schedule it.

Creating a drop-down list in Excel

Most of my colleagues in office, often come up asking how to create a drop-down list in Excel.
Seemingly simple though it may be, with more and more functions being embedded in Excel, I even sometimes tend to forget which tools is under which section.

Extract day, month or year in Excel

Many a times, we go though dates given in format DD/MM/YYY in Excel, and struggle to extract out the day, date, month or year. Well fret no more, there is a simple solution / formula that will end the woes.

How to add recommended posts or related posts in Blogger

With the concept of link sharing, feeds, podcasts etc in todays viral marketing, most of the blogging platforms feature a number of third-party plugins that display stories on their blog which are recommended or related to the current post, or even point to other blogs on the Internet.

Hack any Android game - Method 2

Hack Method: 2

I had earlier shared shown how to hack scores/ coins of Android games using GameKiller app, read it here.
Like GameKiller, GameCIH allows you to modify variables of any program you are running.

Note: This tutorial is prepared for educational purposes only! I'm not responsible for whatever risk you take in hacking any applications.

How to root an android phone

Everybody loves their device, and has formed an important asset in our lives. Every phone company has laid down some quality standards and protocols to ensure security and safety requirements.
Rooting the phone will give you all the privileges that your phone can do out of the box—overclocking, customizing , remove system apps etc. Lets get ahead and understand, what rooting is, understand the technical terms and how to root it.

Note: This tutorial is prepared for educational purposes and not to promote rooting nor instigate anyone. Should you consider to proceed, you take all responsibility of whatever happens to your phone. I'm not responsible for whatever risk you take in rooting or getting it bricked in the event.

Change Whatsapp profile picture (prank)

For no reason whatsoever, WhatsApp may claim that it provides good security and does not allows you to download Pictures of your WhatsApp Contacts. But the truth is that it automatically downloads the pictures when you view them once, so that it can be launched faster next time. Exploiting this loophole, we can change the profile pictures of your contacts.

Note: This tutorial is prepared for educational purposes and meant to be used as a prank! I'm not responsible for whatever risk you may bring to the contact, or dishonoring his/ her privacy.

Show your Android device screen on PC

There are times, when you wish to show the Android device screen to audience or prepare a tutorial.
One way is to use a video camera, another way is to use a JAVA based file called Droid Screen.

Using the tool/ Java file - Droid@Screen you can easily show the screen of an Android device on a computer/laptop. Perhaps if the audience is large, then you could even project the desktop using a LCD-projector. Droid@Screen is mostly used for training/teaching and demonstration purposes.

Common mistakes by Android users

There are a list of commonly committed mistakes, no matter how expert one may be. They may be considered as simple steps, which are probably too small enough and hence frequently overlooked by users. Some of these steps, probably could lead you to brick your Android even.
So let me list down few of the mistakes and lessons learnt, which i have encountered myself.

Unable to connect Android phone to PC via USB

One of the most common issue one faces an Adroid user faces is unability to connect the phone via USB. There are many varied solutions given in various other forums and blogs, where some worked and some didn't. I will here, show you how to get the same resolved using simple steps.

Note: This tutorial is prepared for educational purposes only! I'm not responsible for whatever risk you take or mistake you may commit while doing so.

Hack any Android game - Method 1

There a quite a few tools in the Android world, that can help you hack the coins/ money or scores to whatever value you want. Many of you would question if its legal, if it will hamper the phone etc and so on. So this post is basically for those who do not want to spend money on buying coins or health. The tool(s) which I am going to use require root, if you already have..you can proceed.

Note: This tutorial is prepared for educational purposes only! I'm not responsible for whatever risk you take in hacking any applications.

App that will ensure you never miss a birthday now

With a smartphone, life has become much easier and convenient. There are hundreds of applications available in the market today for almost anything. One such app is Birthdays, which will notify you using a pop-up UI on top of the screen.

Smudge faces on photos

There are many a times, when you would feel like hiding peoples faces from a photograph. One of the simple tool that we can use is the MS Paint, which is the one of the default image processing tool in Windows.

Install an unsigned zip file in Android

If you have got hold of a zip file, that is unsigned and you are problems installing it, there is an easy way out.

Install an application (APK) from unknown sources in Android

By default, Android phone will not allow you to install applications (APK) downloaded from sources other than the Andorid Market or Play Store.

Comparison of file copiers

Most of us commonly use the default Windows file copy which offers little control over file copy and transfer operations. I am sure the majority of users wouldn't care, as long as any of it does the job, however let me assure you that its only when people realize that their computers regularly freeze up while moving large number of files between disks.

Commonly faced issues in Android

Based on my experience and research done over the years, listed below are few of the issues one faces sometime or other. The most common issue being, phone slow down/ lag, frequent hang etc.

Second Wedding anniversary

Below poem was written and sent via SMS to my loving wife on our second wedding anniversary.

Another year of togetherness, & forever to go.

With each day, we grow strong and still so in love.

I am so happy to be spending my life with you.

There will never be enough words in a lifetime to tell how much I love you; 

and it will never be long enough to spend an eternity with you.

Happy Anniversary to my loving wife. 

Thank you for the last two years and many more years to come

Image courtesy: Desicomments.com

Controlling your FB audiences- how to show posts to selective users only

This is in addition to my post , Facebook tips and tricks published earlier. Today i would like to emphasize on publishing status updates to few or hide from specific users in your friend list.

Recently i have got many requests from Office friends, which i cannot ignore in a long span of time. So i did accept their friend requests, now guess what! When i publish something related to my office or work related, they pull my legs or tease me..no matter what the subject is. So it has become difficult to control what post i can publish and what not to. I have to think twice before i publish something related to work, and mostly its the senior people in work who would mind, comment or have issues in publishing something like that. So what i have come up is to customize thee way you publish a post. All you have to do is customize your privacy settings, so that the final result shows something like this below:

* Names have been struck out so that the actual users do not feel bad. Now to configure something like that, you need to follow the below steps
1) On your Facebook Page, go to Privacy settings.

2) Click on the Edit in “Who can see your future posts?” under "Who can see my Stuff?"
3) Click on the drop-down option and select "Custom". Add the users from whom you want to hide the post from "Don't share this with". Save the settings

4) Now when you want to publish a post, you do have the options of selecting which posts to show and which post to hide from the specific users. Before publishing the share button, select from among the options; Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends only or Custom (with hide to specific users).