ReadersZone » Tools

Build Electronic Devices Using Gadgeteer

Jay Pathak — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:51:24 +0000

Have you ever want to build devices made up of components like sensors, lights, switches, displays, communications, motor controllers, and much more but missing the knowledge of these components. To address this problem Microsoft released an open source project called Gadgeteer. Gadgeteer allows you to build small electronic device using the .NET Micro Framework and Visual Studio or Visual C# Express.

A .NET Gadgeteer system is composed of a mainboard containing an embedded processor and a variety of modules which connect to the mainboard through a simple plug-and-play interface. There are lots of .NET Gadgeteer modules available today: display, camera, networking, storage, input controls, and more modules are being designed all the time!
The .NET Gadgeteer mainboard’s sockets are numbered, and each is labeled with one or more letters which indicate which modules can be plugged into it:

Each .NET Gadgeteer module contains a corresponding socket which indicates what sort of mainboard sockets it requires. Just match the letters between mainboard and module, and you’ve assembled a working electronic device!

.NET Gadgeteer devices are programmed in C# using the .NET Micro Framework. You can apply your knowledge of .NET programming on the desktop, Web or phone to embedded devices. Plus, you get wonderful Visual Studio features like Intellisense.

You can also debug your .NET Gadgeteer programs while they are running on the device – a unique feature which makes troubleshooting your .NET Gadgeteer devices much easier.

View and Edit Raw Images In Photo Gallery

Jay Pathak — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 07:27:52 +0000

Microsoft Camera Codec Pack allows you views and edit Raw images on windows 7 and Windows vista. Raw images are uncompressed images taken from digital camera’s. Raw images a several advantages over compressed image like higher image quality, finer control, and more image information. We can say Raw images are negatives of your digital images.

After installing Microsoft Camera Codec Pack , you will be able to view and edit raw images on Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Photo Gallery makes a copy of the raw original and converts it to either JPEG or the far superior JPEG-XR (or HD Photo) format. With JPEG-XR, all of the quality of the raw original is there so you can fine-tune different editing effects. You can fix red-eye, remove blemishes, or make detailed image adjustments with confidence knowing your original raw file is safe. When you use your raw files to construct an amazing panoramic stitch or Photo Fuse, a new file is generated and you get an even higher quality result than before.

With the new codec pack, Windows will now support viewing and editing a wide range of photo file formats including raw, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and more.

The Microsoft Camera Codec Pack provides support for the following device formats:

Canon: EOS 1000D (EOS Kiss F in Japan and the EOS Rebel XS in North America), EOS 10D, EOS 1D Mk2, EOS 1D Mk3, EOS 1D Mk4, EOS 1D Mk2 N, EOS 1Ds Mk2, EOS 1Ds Mk3, EOS 20D, EOS 300D (the Kiss Digital in Japan and the Digital Rebel in North America) , EOS 30D, EOS 350D (the Canon EOS Kiss Digital N in Japan and EOS Digital Rebel XT in North America), EOS 400D (the Kiss Digital X in Japan and the Digital Rebel XTi in North America), EOS 40D, EOS 450D (EOS Kiss X2 in Japan and the EOS Rebel XSi in North America), EOS 500D (EOS Kiss X3 in Japan and the EOS Rebel T1i in North America), EOS 550D (EOS Kiss X4 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T2i in North America), EOS 50D, EOS 5D, EOS 5D Mk2, EOS 7D, EOS D30, EOS D60, G2, G3, G5, G6, G9, G10, G11, Pro1, S90
Nikon: D100, D1H, D200, D2H, D2Hs, D2X, D2Xs, D3, D3s, D300, D3000, D300s, D3X, D40, D40x, D50, D5000, D60, D70, D700, D70s, D80, D90, P6000
Sony: A100, A200, A230, A300, A330, A350, A380, A700, A850, A900, DSC-R1
Olympus: C7070, C8080, E1, E10, E20, E3, E30, E300, E330, E400, E410, E420, E450, E500, E510, E520, E620, EP1
Pentax (PEF formats only): K100D, K100D Super, K10D, K110D, K200D, K20D, K7, K-x, *ist D, *ist DL, *ist DS
Leica: Digilux 3, D-LUX4, M8, M9
Minolta: DiMage A1, DiMage A2, Maxxum 7D (Dynax 7D in Europe, ?-7 Digital in Japan)
Epson: RD1
Panasonic: G1, GH1, GF1, LX3

How-to: View Raw Files on Windows Video

Download Microsoft Camera Codec Pack

Create Living News Paper of Companies Using CompanyCrowd

Jay Pathak — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:54:21 +0000

Microsoft research announced a new tool called CompanyCrowd . CompanyCrowd automatically collects stories, media, and social content to create a living newspaper about the companies that are most important to You. It’s fast, easy, and crowd-curated. CompanyCrowd makes this easy by first finding all the social data into one search index and then leverages the wisdom of the crowd to curate the right topics, experts, and personalities for the company or product in question.

To Create a new company crowd page, You need to enter a few pieces of information to help locate content to populate your page. First, the name for the page (e.g., the name of the company or topic), and then four or more keywords that you use when searching for stories about your company or topic. Remember to add the company or topic as one of the keywords.

Keep in mind, specific keywords are better when it comes to searching. For example, the keyword “Microsoft Windows” will generate more correct results than just the keyword “Windows”. Once your page has been created, you can change your keywords at any time.

Microsoft CompanyCrowd Page

Adobe CompanyCrowd Page

Once the page is created you can use Edit panel to update the content on page. History view enables you to view the changes made by you or others. You can also use the search box to search only the content for this company

You can also sign in to the website using Windows Live, Facebook or Twitter. Once you sign into CompanyCrowd, you can go to My Pages and view all the pages created by you. This page lists of all of the company pages you’ve created. You can click your page to view it; unpublish it to hide it from the gallery, or delete it to remove from CompanyCrowd entirely. To see other pages, go back to the gallery by clicking on the CompanyCrowd logo. This page also allows you to add new company.

CompanyCrowd is developed by Microsoft and FUSE Labs. FUSE Labs works in partnership with product and research teams to ideate, develop, and deliver new social, real-time, and media-rich experiences for home and work. FUSE Labs experiences give users new ways to create, connect and collaborate with the people, information and ideas that matter to them.

Group Windows7 Start Menu Using Start Menu XP

Jay Pathak — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 05:56:24 +0000

With the release of Windows7, Microsoft has introduced a new start menu. Windows users can type and search start menu programs. Although the new start menu does not have some basic features like grouping and menu organization. Start Menu XP is a program that is intended for users of Windows 7 and earlier versions and makes the program menu a lot more convenient and easy to use.

Start Menu XP is a tool for everyone who wants to use all the modern capabilities of the menu, such as searching and frequently used programs, but hates scrolling and limitation of the size of the list of programs.
This software makes the menu pop out and sports other useful features,such as virtual groups.

The menu becomes more convenient for the following reasons:

The entire screen area is used, thus making scrolling unnecessary. The menu pops out, just as it did in Windows XP.
The menu supports virtual groups containing programs of the same type: Office, Games, etc.
Virtual groups can be minimized. This allows the user to organize the menu in a way where the most frequently used programs will be shown on the screen initially and the rest will appear when the mouse cursor is placed over them.

Download Start Menu XP

How to Create Multi Resolution Icon File

Jay Pathak — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 06:38:38 +0000

X-Icon Editor is a HTML 5 application, that allows you to create high resolution icons directly from browser. You can create icons of four different resolutions: 64×64, 32×32, 24×24 and 16×16 pixels. This tools also has a very good feature, that allows you to use your existing images including .PNG, .JPG, .BMP, .GIF and .ICO formats. To use this feature, just import images into X-Icon Editor. After importing the images you can dynamically adjust the area.

Icons created using X-Icon Editor follows .ICO standards and it will work with any other application. However Internet Explorer 9 will offer to your users a premium experience, by rendering a custom-branded look.

If you are looking for a tutorial of X-Icon Editor, we recommend you the following article

How to Create Pinned Sites

Jay Pathak — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 06:27:08 +0000

Pinned website is a new feature introduced with Internet Explorer 9, that allows users to access their favorite websites right from Windows 7 taskbar even without opening web browser. To enable website owners and web master to create pinned web site, Microsoft announced a new service called “ pinmywebsite”.

pinmywebsite allows web site owners and web master to create pinned website via an online wizard. This wizard allows you to create Pinned website, Jump List, Dynamic Jump List and pinning notification bar on the top my web pages.

The Four steps are as Follows

Basic Site Information

In this step you have to enter some basic information related to your website including Your Name, Email Address, Site Name, Site URL, Home Page URL and Main Site Icon.

Jump List Task

In the context of a Pinned Site, a task can be any common navigation or site functionality. Jump List items act as entry points into the website even when the browser is not running. These items should be commonly used destinations and tasks that apply to the whole site.

Dynamic Jump List and Notifications

A dynamic Jump List can contain items that will automatically change over time, to surface information that is updated on a regular basis, like News or Events.

To use this feature, your site must expose an RSS feed with the items that you want to show on the Jump List.

Add a Pinning Notification Bar On The Top My Web Pages

Pin Webapps to Windows 7 Taskbar

Jay Pathak — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:30:45 +0000

Out of the box Windows 7 taskbar support Pinning, Jump Lists and Live taskbar previews for Windows application. However there is no support for pinning your favorite Webapps. pokki is a free application, that enable you to pin Webapps just like you pin your windows application.

Once installed, they appear as icons on the taskbar and pops out when you click them, enabling easy access. If you are a web developer, you can also create a Pokki app using the API and add it to the list once it is approved.

Pokkies built using the latest web technologies and standards; HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript (ECMA-262). This means if you’re a capable front-end web developer, you are also a Pokki developer.

Each Pokki has three primary interface elements that users see and may interact with;

Taskbar icon – an icon located in the Pokki area of the user’s taskbar. Clicking on the icon opens and closes the Pokki’s pop-up window.
Pop-up window – a window which is displayed when the user clicks on the Pokki’s icon. This window’s content is complete dynamic, provides rich interactivity, is designed and defined by you.
Badge – a small badge displayed over the top right of the Pokki’s icon. Inside the badge is a number, which you may set and clear through the pop-up window or background process (more on this later).

The figure below shows the three interface elements for which Pokki users see and interact.

Currently pokki comes with Gmail, Facebook,Living social, Groupie, Headlines, Wall Street Journal, eBay and Tweeki.

Get a Free Copy of DocLock for Windows

Jay Pathak — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 04:17:41 +0000

We all have files on our computer that contain sensitive and personal information, such as tax returns, financial documents, medical records, photos, videos or other items we simply don’t want our children, roommate, work IT guy or others who may come into contact with our computer to see. How do you make certain these important files remain safe and secure?

Out of the box windows does not provide this kind of functionality, however you can encrypt entire drive using BitLocker, but by this way also you are not having folder and file level control. Meaning either the complete drive is accessible or it is not accessible. On top of that BitLocker is not available in all versions of Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

docLock allows you to password protect any file or folder on your computer with ease. Need to take your secure file with you? docLock makes it simple to transport via disk or portable drive for use on any PC. Keep sensitive information completely secure from anyone who may access your computer and keep your personal information in your control at all times.

Today only, Giveaway of the Day is giving away DocLock for Windows. It regularly sells for $49.95

docLock Features

Securely Lock Files, Folders, Documents : docLock allows you to select the files, folders, documents, photos, video’s, Zip files, PDF’s and other files you wish to lock and password protect. Secure only the files you wish to keep safe.
Protect Against Lost or Stolen Personal Information :docLock allows you a simple way to password protect any personal or sensitive information. Protect yourself against identity theft, financial loss and privacy invasion.
Simple to Use :Install and run in minutes. Follow the “Getting Started” screen to lock your first file in a matter of seconds. No need to read help files, documentation, user manuals, or call the neighborhood computer guru to get started.
Drag and Drop Locking/Unlocking Technology :Lock/Unlock a document at lightning speed with 3 shortcut options; 1) drag and drop the file to docLock, 2) right click the file and choose to Lock/Unlock, or 3) browse to your desired file. So quick!
Compact File Size :docLock is 5 MB in file size, most security software is around 100MB, which means docLock saves the valuable computer resources you need to run programs or surf the web.
Share/Email Locked Files : docLock allows you to share any locked file via email, disk or portable drive with a friend as long as they have the password you created. Feel confident the recipient will be the only one able to access the file.
Portable Version :Take any locked file with you for use on ANY computer by creating a portable version with a simple click of your mouse. Save your files to memory sticks, USB drives, flash drives, external hard drives, or any other device you use to carry or store files.
Complements all Security Software :docLock works with all security and PDF software. Add an additional layer of protection to your Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, Anti-Spyware, Firewall and PDF Software by locking your files.
Password Generator :docLock makes creating a strong password for you a snap. It will automatically generate a password containing letters, upper and lower case, numbers, and symbols, ensuring the greatest password protection over any locked files. Ensure your passwords are impossible to crack.
Conceal Passwords in Photos :Sometimes passwords are hard to remember, remember a photo instead. To make your life easier, docLock can hide your password in any photo you choose (JPEG, Bitmap, or PNG file). Simply choose any password and then tell docLock to hide the password in the photo of your dog Sparky, when you are ready to unlock the file simply choose the picture of Sparky and your file will unlock.
Manage Passwords :Change a locked file’s password at any time. Just choose the file in which you want to make the password change and select a new password. Updating passwords is easy and helps to maintain ultimate security.
Secure Delete :Often times a deleted file will still be recoverable from your hard drive. docLock Secure Delete makes it easy to remove files so they will be completely unrecoverable.
Clean Free Space :docLock will clean all free space on your computer drives. This helps ensure deleted items remain unrecoverable and your computer continues to run smoothly by removing remnants of old files.
WiFi Document Security :Connect to any WiFi network whether at the local coffee shop, traveling through an airport or hotel, with complete piece of mind knowing that even snoops cannot view or read your locked files. Your information is always kept private and in your control when you are on the go.
Military Grade Security : Computer users of all levels can now use the same security technology military and government agencies use every day to secure their most secret files. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to use the same underlying technology the government uses.
Advanced Features : For those who want to really take it to the next level, choose from 8 different encryption algorithms, for complete and total control of all your locked files and folders. Included are; BlowFish, Cast-128, 3Des, Des, Gost, RC2, Rijnadael, and Twofish. Keep in mind it would take significantly longer than the age of the universe to crack a 128-bit key, which is already automatically set within docLock. This ensures your locked files remain completely secure.

How To Download Files From Multiple Sources

Jay Pathak — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 06:44:12 +0000

Fetch.io is a new service that helps you to download files from multiple sources from a single user interface. Fetch.io supports all of the popular download sites such as MediaFire, Rapidshare, MegaUpload, and even protocols such as Bittorrent.

Instead of downloading files on your local computer, you specify the download url in Fetch.io and it will download files for you and store it in cloud. Fetch.io will use it’s own network connection to download files from specified website and send a notification once download is complete.

Fetch.io automatically encode media in mp4 or Flash format. Once media files are encoded you can play on mobile devices such as the iPhone/iPad. You may also stream from UPNP enabled devices such as Apple TV or XBox.

Most importantly Fetch.io also offer API, so developers can create all sorts of brilliant add-ons on top of the Fetch.io platform

Setup BitTorrent Client On Amazon EC2

Design Attractive Presentations with VisualBee PowerPoint Add-in

Jay Pathak — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:50:27 +0000

What if you can create an attractive presentation but you don’t have the time, desire, or skill set to design an attractive presentation on your own.

VisualBee is free PowerPoint add-in, that allows you to create attractive PowerPoint presentations via just entering content, subject line and bullet text. After you add your content, VisualBee goes to work to automatically match appropriate images and incorporate graphics and design. You always have the option to finalize it to meet your personal preferences.

ReadersZone » Tools

Build Electronic Devices Using Gadgeteer

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View and Edit Raw Images In Photo Gallery

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Get a Free Copy of DocLock for Windows

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