Sankaranand Balaradjou

Tag: featured

  • Google Talk Freezes with show music status using Winamp 5.5

    winampgtalk1.png

    I am a die hard fan of Winamp and using it for more than 5 years. What I like about this music tool is its light and easy to use features. When you compare other media players like iTunes and Jet Audio, Winamp uses a very light and easy to use playlist organizer. If you just want to hear mp3 songs then you can go with Winamp lite version which is not filled with bloats and add-ons.

    Coming to the point, we know very well about the famous Google talk’s “show my current music status” and might be using it without any problem in Winamp although WMP needs an in activation. But after installing the latest version of Winamp 5.5, I had a few problems with the Google talk Integration.

    Whenever you select the Show my current music track, Google talk either freezes or stops responding. This is actually a technical issue with Google talk or Winamp which is yet to be discovered but many users who have upgraded to Winamp 5.5 are facing this problem, so one of a guy has posted a simple resolution for fixing this bug.

    The solution is:

    Step 1: Go to the root directory of Winamp which is usually in C:\Program Files\Winamp\

    Step 2: Select Tools->Folder Options->View (Tab) and uncheck the hide extensions for known file types and click Ok.

    Step 3: Now create an empty file (Right click the mouse -> New -> Text document), so the default file would be like “New Text Document.txt”.

    Step4: Rename the above file to “winamp.m3u” and save.

    Step5: Close Winamp and Google Talk. Now open again and Your Show Current music track status should work like a charm 

    Tip: Google Talk Help Group .

  • Bajaj Pulsar 300cc is a hoax?

    During a conversion about new bikes in India, my friend was talking about Bajaj, India’s largest and world fourth largest two wheeler manufacturer revolutionary in India. Frankly speaking I am no fan of Bajaj Products I always believe in companies like TVS, Yamaha and Honda when it comes to biking.

    Talking about my friend who alerted me about Bajaj’s upcoming release of a new powerful biking which is probably the BAJAJ PULSAR 300CC. At first it was 100CC then 120,150,180,200 and now its 220cc.

    So now a 300 cc bike for Indian roads? Are we power drivers? Already Price of fuel is sky rocketing while traffic in parallel increases. Soon I went through a research over internet about Bajaj launching the new 300cc bike to confirm the news.

    At last I concluded it is PURELY HOAX. Bajaj has officially not announced any plans to launch 300cc right now in India. So if you come across any news about it then it’s completely one of false gossips.

    pulsar300cc1.jpg

    Above is the picture of Virtual stimulated photography of Pulsar claiming to be 300cc bike from Bajaj.

    Lastly guys please don’t offend me I don’t like Bajaj products due to their constant discontinuation of vehicle models. Some of examples are they discontinued Sunny, Chetak, Cub, Super, Wave, Legend, Bravo, Eliminator, Wind 125, Kawasaki 4s Champion, Kawasaki KB 100 RTZ, Boxer and Caliber. No news at all about Blade and Sonic.

    Do anyone ever thinked about the customers using the above model vehicles? Are they assured with any availability of Spare parts? So I usually depend on TVS and other companies! Although many companies constantly discontinue vehicles when they are out of fashion but Bajaj has a biggest list.

    *This is my personal opinion and it has nothing to do with real criticism if so it is purely due to the coincidence.

    Anyways do you have plans to buy a new bike? What’s your choice ?

  • Creating a simple web 2.0 favicon – Tutorial

    Inspired with the favicon design of web 2.0 sites like Tech Crunch, Lifehacker, Technorati, etc? Well follow this simple tutorial for creating web 2.0 fav icon using Photoshop. All you need is just Adobe Photoshop software installed.

    favicon1.giffavicon2.giffavicon3.gif

    Ok let’s get started!

    Open a new project in Photoshop either by navigating to File > New or just press Ctrl + N.

    pic1.gif

    Now make sure the width and height its 400px so that you can get a square shaped fav icon with the background color as white.

    Now select the desired background color you want to use for your fav icon by clicking set foreground color as show in the figure. Choose a nice web 2.0 color from the Color library.

    pic2.gif

    pic4.gif

    After selecting the BG color to be used, in the tool box of the Photoshop select Gradient tool or just press (G).

    Now below the menu bar you will get a gradient color option, which looks similar to the screenshot posted below, click it and select foreground to transparent palette.pic5.gif

    After selecting, drag your mouse from the outermost top of the project to its extreme end via +y to –y axis and leave down to get a color background. While dragging if you seem to have white color over the bottom then press ctrl + z to re-drag and this time drag it out of the bottom extreme to make the white color disappear,

    After getting desired web2.0 background for the fav icon, select the horizontal text tool from the tool box and type the first name of your website or added two different layers of text if you need two initials in your fav icon.

    After typing your desired initial, select a color for the text which matches the background perfectly or your website theme. (Basically both the background and foreground should match the website theme color). But if you add two initials in the fav icon make sure you give two different colors then.

    Now the next part is the optional part of adding 3-d effect. If you satisfy with the current design you can skip this step otherwise add a bevel or emboss effect to the text by right clicking the text and selecting the blending option.

    pic7.gif

    That’s it now the next process is exporting the created project as jpeg image by navigating to File > Save as > and selecting jpeg as format and click save.

    The exported jpeg can be easily converted to .ico favicon by visiting this website.

    Please forgive me if you have expected more about the design coz I have already mentioned the title as how to design a “SIMPLE” web 2.0 icon which made my tutorial concise after all this is my first tutorial. I have uploaded the .PSD files and made available for download which you can modify according to your wish.

    Last but not least, I am expecting your comments and suggestions…

    Download: Sample 1 | Sample 2 | Sample 3 (PSD Format).

    [update]: Sample 2,3 are live at Technical Blog & BlogTalkz please don’t inherit the same design.

  • Pick the Best 250 cc bike – pulsar, fazer and taurus

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    As you all know day by day people giving up mass transit and opting to buy their own vehicle which gradually made the automobile industry hot. Nowadays we can experience an increase in vehicles as well as traffic but without caring about the future the automobile industry is firing up the market with brand new models and features that inspires customers to buy their own vehicle.

    Born out of this competition, came up these three beasts that burn up the Indian roads. They are none other than Bajaj Pulsar 250cc, TVS Taurus Fiero f3 and Yamaha Fazer 250. Economic bike drivers please stay away from this post and keep worrying about your petrol consumptions while young energetic drivers out there I am sure these bikes will quench your test. The main catch about these bikes are their 250 Cubic capacities but they inherit different design and performance.

    Hope everyone will eagerly be waiting for launch of these vehicles in India but until then I want your personal suggestion of which bike outta 3 will rock?

    So go ahead and post your comments for which out of these three bikes goanna rock the Indian roads and why?

    The nominations are

    Bajaj Pulsar 250 ccbajaj_pulsar_250.jpg

    TVS Taurus Fiero F3
    Yamaha Fazer 250yfazer250.jpg

    I am eagerly waiting for your comments on it…