Scoopler real time search engine

Dying to know the latest scoop online? Here comes Scoopler!

Scoopler is a real time search engine created by AJ Asver and Dilan Jayawardane. Yes, you heard it right – real-time! The main factor that got everybody into Twitter frenzy lately. Scoopler gathers all the real-time results from the web, and presents you the most relevant and breaking news available based on your keyword search.

Scoopler

The page is divided into 3 columns. The middle column shows the live updates of your search. Once you mouseover any particular result, the updating will pause temporary for you to scan through the content and find your best pick. At the same time, two option buttons will appear:

  • “Peek” to preview the content before navigating to the real site; and
  • “Shared” that allows submission to Digg, Stumbleupon, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and more.

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Boost your productivity with Xplorer2

I’m a big fan of replacing stock Windows apps, Paint, Print Screen, Calculator, Notepad and others. There isn’t a thing in Windows that somebody else haven’t done better and offered it for free. In fact, somebody should do a collection of free alternative to native Windows programs. In fact, I believe somebody have already done so, check out Alternativeto.net/.

Xplorer2

Today, we will take aim at Windows Explorer and seek to replace it with a much better alternative: Xplorer2.

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Malwarebytes Anti Malware and Update Notifier

Today we are going to look at two tools, which will hopefully be a part of your computer’s toolkit; one will tackle the problem of malware and the other will be tasked to ensure your computer software is kept up to date.

Malwarebytes Anti Malware

Malwarebytes is a lesser-known company, which makes a good anti-malware software named Anti-Malware. It belongs in the same league as Ad-Aware and Spybot’s Search & Destroy, both of which are great anti-malware tools as well.

Anti malware

I have largely given up on Ad-Aware and moved to Spybot for the last couple of years and it has served me quite well, being un-intrusive and generally quite capable of dealing with spyware and Trojan horses. However, there is a nagging feeling that relying on just one software isn’t really a good solution as it might miss out detecting other viruses due to the definitions being outdated. That’s where Anti-Malware comes in – it is a very fast and efficient tool to scan your system for so-called “Malware” and they update their definitions every day, making it capable of quickly reacting to new threats. It is also capable of picking up stuff missed out by Spybot.

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Polaris makes Google Analytics fun again

Polaris is a desktop application, which pulls data from your Google Analytics account and displays them in a simple, clean interface giving you quick access to all your stats in an aesthetically pleasing interface.

Granted, the data displayed can always be found just by logging on to Google’s website, but this method allows you to have a full-featured desktop application that aggregates the data in a more user-friendly way.

Polaris

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A Step by Step Guide to Create Favicon for your Blog

What Is Favicon?

Ever been to a website and notice there is a small icon embedded next to the site’s URL? For example, here in Kongtechnology.com’s address bar, you will notice a King Kong been trapped inside a square box. Pretty neat huh? This is called favicon, a short term referring to “Favourite Icon”.

Favicon

What Does a Favicon Do?

Although some people find favicon useless, and opined its existence as ‘to beautify’ a website. This is not entirely true.

Favicon

For a cyber world that crawls with millions of websites, it is important to stand out from the crowd and get people to remember you. You might not notice, but our brain is more likely to remember an image rather than a lengthy URL. If you do not own a logo for your blog, brand your site with a catchy favicon is a great way to attract people’s attention. Ditch the orange Blogger or black-white WordPress favicon, and let new visitors have a second look at your URL. Get recognized!

Today I will be covering ways to insert a favicon to your blog header in Blogger, WordPress and Self-Hosted site. Before I go further with each platform, you need to have your favicon image ready first.

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Pogoplug makes NAS easy

NAS, or Network Attached Storage, is a new term used to describe a device that plugs into your home network either via LAN or WIFI and contains a hard disk inside and all its contents are available to anybody connected to that network.

Traditionally, they are sold as an all-in-one device by people like Buffalo, Apple, Western Digital, etc.; and usually they come with a premium as those who want something like this have no choice but to pony up the money to get it. There are no cheaper alternatives and that has always been the rule of the game.

Pogoplug

However, Pogoplug aims to change that with their device, also called the Pogoplug. From the outside, it looks like a cute white little power adapter which costs US$99 and all you need to do is slot in any ordinary SATA hard disk into it, connect it to a power plug and link it up via Ethernet to your router and that’s it!

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Microsoft Xbox 360 problems

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has been dogged by unreliability since the day it was launched. It took them some 3 years before they got a handle of the problem, also referred to affectionately as the Red Ring of Death (RROD).

The problem had something to do with the console overheating itself and causing the motherboard to warp and loosening the graphics chip. As a result, many aftermarket “modded” coolers were made available to try to rectify the problem, while Microsoft responded by basically reengineering the console’s innards.

Xbox

Then there was another problem with the power adapter overheating if placed on carpeted floor.

In response to these problems, Microsoft launched back in 2007 a warranty program that guarantees the console against the infamous RROD for three years, or a replacement is yours free of charge. It was more of a marketing gimmick rather than a solid step in solving the problem though, as reports of RROD continue to pour in, although at least you can get a replacement for free so the only loss is time and effort. It was only recently that they have finally stamped out most of the problem.

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Using Access Database on IIS7

Although PHP is a very much preferred programming language on the web now, especially on open source applications, but we must not forget Microsoft IIS. I was doing a web project for a client when I realized their server is running on Microsoft Windows and obviously their application server is running on IIS. I had no choice but to adhere to their requirements and develop the project in ASP and Microsoft Access. Yes, they are a perfect match for small to medium sized applications.

Now, my local computer is running Windows Vista with IIS7. Running classic ASP applications on this setup is not as smooth sailing as it used to be when we were using Windows XP or Windows 2000… I just hate the new security that were introduced in newer version of Windows.

There are a few changes in IIS7 which Classic ASP developers should be aware of… but one of them which has been bugging me for a while is the dreaded:

Microsoft JET Database Engine error ‘80004005’
Unspecified error

message thrown when my ASP script tried to read and write to the Access database. Stupid ACL security on Windows Vista.

How do you fix this problem?

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Hulu – The Next Best Thing in Video Streaming

So we are all familiar with YouTube and Metacafe, both serve as video streaming platforms for users to upload and share video clips. But what about Hulu??

Hulu

As I was reading through an article: You Like Hulu: Video Site Shows Strong Growth, I was having jaw-dropped moments when it announces that Hulu has been showing tremendous growth lately, with video views increased by 62% in 6 months since launched in October 2008; 380 million video views and a 2.6% market share. The author, Ben Parr claims that Hulu is to be second only to YouTube. I’m not surprised, since Hulu is actually on the no.4 spot for TIME’s Best Inventions of 2008 out of 50 other entries.

What is Hulu?

According to Internet News, Hulu is a joint venture web video site for NBC Universal and News Crop. Since October, 2008, it has been streaming video clips, ranging from full-length TV programs, movies and trailers for various networks, such as Fox, PBS and even film studios like Warner Bros, Sony etc.

Hulu videos

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PSP4000 the iPod Touch killer?

Sony has confirmed the next PSP will be called PSP4000. Initially, the name suggests an incremental update, thinner form factor perhaps, maybe a longer battery life and better screen resolution. Nothing earth shattering.

However there have been rumors stirring that the PSP4000 might well turn out to be the PSP2. Currently it is slated for a before-Christmas release date, but word is mum on whether it is the next generation of Sony’s popular handheld game console or just another ho-hum update to an aging platform.

PSP4000

Sources from game developers say the next PSP will be very similar to the iPhone/iPod Touch that Sony would publicly admit. It will be in a similar form-factor (AKA thin and lightweight) but with a slide screen which will reveal a d-pad and, get this, dual analog controls! The screen will also be touch-capable.

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