August 2008 has been a very good month at Tech Spikes. We’ve got a new minimalistic look (which we hope you like) and I’ve begun posting regularly too!. Also we’ve also had a new (attractive!) lady blogger, Suneyna Swaroop on board (since July actually!) to spice things up a bit. Her introduction is still due from my side, my apologies for that! That will be among my immediate priorities!. In the meanwhile, all of you can check out her posts.

More on August 2008 - We’ve had 38 posts this month and hope to increase that figure in September. Here are some of the good posts for you to check out if you’ve missed out on them.

How To Encrypt And Decrypt Files With One Click

When ‘The Pirate Bay’ Becomes ‘The Pirate Bat’ - (Batman!!)

Six Top Tips for Optimizing BitTorrent Download Speeds

25 Free WordPress Magazine Themes

Want To Have Your Voice Blasted In Norway? Call This Number!

Firefox 3 Features You Have Never Heard Before!

20+ Free Online & Offline Alternatives To MS Word

How To Wrap Text Around Images

Calvin & Jobs

StumbleUpon Removes The 200 Friends Limit

Firefox 3 Easter Eggs

What To Do When You Receive A Telephonic Bomb Threat

25+ Unseen Multi Monitor Wallpapers!

Michael Phelps Cartoons

How To Use Different Wallpapers with Dual Monitors

Airtel Hack: Unlimited Mobile Office @ INR 25!!

More Michael Phelps Cartoons

91% Off On Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007! Grab Now!!

Sony announces New Playstation Portable - PSP 3000

How To Create An Effective Archives Page For Your WordPress Blog

Working GoDaddy Coupon Codes

Record, Edit and Convert With Blaze Media Pro

How To Get RSS Subscribers Count In Plain Text

How To Add Facebook Chat To Firefox Sidebar

Manage Gmail, Google Docs, Google Reader etc on Your Desktop with GMDesk

How To Stop Your Blog From PageRank Dilution

5 Little Known Ways To Use Your Mouse Wheel To Do More In Firefox

That’s it guys! We hope to have another great month with good posts and content Do comment and let us know what kind of content you’d want to see more of!

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The basic use of a mouse scroll wheel is to scroll up and down a web page. In Firefox however, you can do a lot more than just scroll up and down. Lets see how.

Following are a few time saving tips on using your mouse scroll wheel in Firefox.

1. Use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom a page:
To zoom into a page, hold the Ctrl key and turn the scroll wheel up or away from you. Likewise, to zoom out, hold the Ctrl key and turn the scroll wheel down or towards you.

2. Use the mouse scroll wheel to scroll through tabs:
Most Firefox users end up using a lot of tabs simultaneously. When that’s the case, one can see an arrow at either end of the tabs to let you scroll through the tabs and view the hidden tabs. A much easier way is to place your mouse cursor anywhere on the tab bar and scroll your mouse wheel up and down to scroll through the opened tabs.

3. Use the mouse scroll wheel to open hyperlinks in a new tab:
The usual way of opening hyperlinks in a new tab is by right-clicking on the the link and choosing ‘Open Link in New Tab’. Here’s a much faster but a relatively unknown way of doing it. Just click on the link with the scroll wheel. The link will open in a new tab.

Bonus Tip: You can even click on the Home button or the Forward/Back button to open the respective url in a new tab.

4. Use the mouse scroll wheel to close tabs:
Just place your mouse cursor over a tab and click with the scroll wheel to close a tab. This I think is the most efficient and faster way to close a tab rather than clicking on the small cross on the tabs.

5. Use the mouse scroll wheel to go forward or back web pages:
The scroll wheel can be used as an alternative to using the Forward (Go forward one page) and Back (Go back one page) buttons on the toolbar. Hold the Shift key and rotate the wheel up to view the next page or rotate down to see the previous page.

Image courtesy: Instructables

If you like this post, then do consider subscribing to our blog. Thanks!

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PageRank dilution is when outbound links siphon off your Google PageRank which would normally be distributed to your internal pages, therefore reducing your site or blog’s overall PageRank. How much effect PageRank dilution has on your blog or site depends on the strength of your internal linking and how many outbound links you have.

So how do we counter PageRank leaks?

1. Increasing internal linking on your blog or website.
2. Eliminating redundant outbound links.

Internal linking is easy and is something you should get into the habit of doing regularly.

• Link to other relevant posts in the body of articles.
• Tag your posts.
• Link to recent/popular posts in your sidebar.
• Add related posts to single pages.

Removing redundant outbound links: Usually in blogs most people include a blogroll in their sidebar. The problem lies here is that this blogroll will be displayed on each and every single page on your blog which in turn drains out your PageRank out of your blog. Imagine those whose blogroll runs pages and pages! While outbound links contained within a post add some relevance to the post, sitewide blogrolls add no relevant value to the content on display. Therefore they are redundant and it is best to limit the damage that they can cause.

Dealing with blogroll:

• You can create a separate page to display your blogroll. This definitely works but a lot of bloggers prefer to keep their blogroll in the sidebar.
• Adding a nofollow attribute to links on blogroll. However, this is a very antisocial and selfish approach and really loses the meaning of having a blogroll. But then, if you have to do it, then you have to do it!
• Display your blogroll only on the homepage. Is this possible? Yes, it is and lets see how.

How to display your blogroll only on the homepage?

This can be done with a little a PHP code. This PHP code will instruct WordPress under what conditions our blogroll should be displayed.

Step 1: Add the following code at the beginning of your sidebar.php file.

<?php if (is_home()) { $check_home = '1'; } else { $check_home = '0'; } ?>

This simply checks if the current page is the homepage. This code is necessary because the ‘is_home()’ function in WordPress does not register the homepage correctly.

Step 2: Use the following code to display your blogroll only when a user is on the homepage.

<?php if ($check_home == '1') { ?>
Add your blogroll code here
<?php } ?>

This simple piece of PHP code can also be used to limit other sidebar items to the homepage as well, such as the Top Commentators list, some ads that you want displayed only on the homepage and so on.

Do keep in mind that you should not be completely eliminating outbound links as they are also one of the factors Google takes into consideration when determining PageRank. The key is to link to relevant and trustworthy sites.

More about PageRank

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GMDesk is an single stand alone Adobe AIR-based client for Google services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Reader, Picasa Web Albums and Google Maps. If you are using GMDesk, then there is no need to open up all the various Google Services in a web browser, or have it clutter your workspace.

Using GMDesk is very easy, launch the application and just alt-tab (on Windows or Linux) or Cmd-tab (on Mac) to shift between this application and the other ones you are running. GMDesk also offers an easy menu as well as keyboard shortcuts (Control + [1-6]) to switch between various Google services, and you can specify what default service you want the application to start with. Google Apps users have something to rejoice for here as it supports Google Apps as well

GMDesk however has a couple of limitations.

1. You can have only one window open at a time
2. Font size is small - (The developer is looking into this issue currently and will soon come up with a fix)

If these two limitations are overcome, then GMDesk will be among the best Adobe AIR applications managing 6 services at one go.

Download GMDesk. Do note that it requires Adobe AIR.

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Facebook Chat is a little difficult to use the way it is incorporated within Facebook. However, there is a way by which it can be added to the Firefox Sidebar and made better use of.

Related: How to Add Google Talk to Firefox Sidebar

• Right Click on the Bookmarks Toolbar and click on the New Bookmark
• Enter a name. Enter http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php for the location and check the Load this bookmark in the sidebar checkbox.

Now you can select the just created bookmark to load Facebook Chat on your Firefox Sidebar!

Related: How to Add Google Talk to Firefox Sidebar

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If you all have been wondering why there haven’t been any new posts, I’m really sorry for that. Like I had mentioned earlier, we just completed shifting to a new server and that got complete in the morning. Do comment and let me know if there are any broken links or any other issues to take care of.

I’ve been randomly browsing the last couple of days and stumbled upon this incident of a lady who passed away but Citibank kept billing her on her credit card Read on, its damn hilarious to say the least!

“A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00, now somewhere around $60.00. A family member placed a call to Citibank.

Here is the exchange:

Family Member: “I am calling to tell you she died in January.”

Citibank: “The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.”

Family Member: “Maybe, you should turn it over to collections.”

Citibank: “Since it is two months past due, it already has been.”

Family Member : So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?”

Citibank: “Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!”

Family Member: “Do you think God will be mad at her?” (I really liked this part!!!!)

Citibank: “Excuse me?”

Family Member: “Did you just get what I was telling you - the part about her being dead?”

Citibank: “Sir, you’ll have to speak to my supervisor.” (Duh!)

Supervisor gets on the phone:

Family Member: “I’m calling to tell you, she died in January.”

Citibank: “The account was never closed and late fees and charges still apply.” (This must be a phrase taught by the bank!)

Family Member: “You mean you want to collect from her estate?”

Citibank: (Stammer) “Are you her lawyer?”

Family Member: “No, I’m her great nephew.”

(Lawyer info given)

Citibank: “Could you fax us a certificate of death?”

Family Member: “Sure.” (Fax number is given)

After they get the fax:

Citibank: “Our system just isn’t setup for death. I don’t know what more I can do to help.”

Family Member: “Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. I don’t think she will care.”

Citibank: “Well, the late fees and charges do still apply.” (What is wrong with these people?!?)

Family Member: “Would you like her new billing address?”

Citibank: “That might help.”

Family Member: “Odessa Memorial Cemetery , Highway 129, Plot Number 69.”

Citibank: “Sir, that’s a cemetery!”

The Conversation ended here but I wonder if Citibank is still sending credit card statements and collection staff to this address.”

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Some good news for all Tech Spikes readers! Off late we have noticed that our blog was loading a bit slow and in an effort to change that, we are shifting to a bigger and better server. That’s the good news!

Now for some bad news - there might be a duration of time when you may not be able to access Tech Spikes. Our apologies for that. We’ll try and get the blog up and running ASAP

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