Google Search from your mobile via sms, Now Available in India

Power cuts are no big deal in India. If you ever fell victim of power cuts and wanted to do some google search in that time or just want a mobile Google Search Solution, Google India has launched the SMS search service. The sms costs you (Rs 2 or whatever is the rate for national sms for your provider). This is a big plus because you dont have to pay for premium sms as you would have to do if you used other shortcodes.

So how do you perform a search? The number to remember (or to add to your contacts) for google search is:

9-77-33-00000

Send your query as sms to this number and you will get a reply containing the results. Here is a sample reply which you would get if you search for “weather delhi”. There are special searches for trains, cricket scores and similar stuff.You can find some example queries and other details here.

Similar service existed in other countries like US, but has recently been launched in India. A welcome feature for the mobile phone crazy India! Way to go Google India!

Windows 7: How to Enable Disk Quota Management

By using Disk Quotas, administrators can limit how much disk space users can utilize on an NTFS formatted volume. This is essential in limiting the amount of personal data (music files, photos, videos, etc.) and also to help make the user practice better file management.

1. Click the Orb (Start button) and select Computer.

2. Right-click the volume you want to enable disk quotas on and select Properties.

3. Select the Quota tab.

4. Click the Show Quota Settings button.

5. Continue through the UAC prompt.

6. Click the Enable Quota Management checkbox. Also check the Deny disk space to users exceeding quota limit checkbox so that users will receive an insufficient disk space error when they exceed quota limits.Select the Limit disk space radio button and input the desired amount of space using the textbox and dropdown. Input the desired amount of space that you wish the user to receive a warning at.

8. Click the OK button.

Innovative Ways To Access Blocked Sites

Is you school, college or office blocking you from getting on social network sites like Friendster, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Hi5, Orkut, etc? Here’s few ways you can bypass the restrictions and surf like normal, but please check with your local authorities before using them. We will not held any responsibility if you’ve breach the regulations of any.

Full list after jump.

1. Using IP Instead of URL

   This depends on the software/application used. Sometimes blocked sites are stored as a list of URLs (eg. www.yahoo.com, www.donwload.com,etc) and typing the IP instead of the URL might sometimes work. In a local computer, doing a ping domain.com command in Command Prompt (Mac users use Terminal) will return you the IP address. You can also do it online via www.whatsmyip.org

2. Redirection with Short URL service

   Sometimes the URL you intend to browse might be ban, but converting them to another a shorter URL with short URL services might just help you to bypass the settings.
   Here’s 2 Short URL service we’ve previously mentioned – MooURL, SnipURL

3. Google Cache

   Search engines like Google and Yahoo cache webpages and these cached pages are stored in search engines themselves, which likely will be added to the blocked list. Click on the ‘cache’ will bring you to a cache version of the page, as updated as how Google caches it.
   
   

4. Internet Archive – Wayback Machine

   Wayback Machine is a internet service that periodically keeps a copy of almost all websites in the Internet way from the date they’re started. Clicking on the latest copy of what Wayback Machine have should be somewhat similar to the real site. Another way to access blocked sites via caches.
   
   

5. Anonymous Surfing

   Some site allows you to take advantage of their proxy or domain to surf other sites as anonymous. Here’s 90+ proxy websites we’ve previously mentioned.
   More anonymous surfing services: 90+ Proxy Websites To Access Blocked Websites

6. Use Proxy in Browsers

   There are tons of sites out there that distributes free proxies of almost any country. Here’s an example. Check out the following methods on how/where to insert proxies in your web browsers.
   Proxy Surfing – Firefox
   
   Under Advanced tab, select Network tab, then click inside Connection Settings. Select Manual proxy configuration, put proxy under HTTP proxy.
   Proxy Surfing – Internet Explorer
   
   Go to Tools -> Internet Options. Select Connections tab. Click into LAN Settings, check Proxy Server. Insert your proxy URL inside Address.
   

7. Bypass with Translations services

   Online translation services like AltaVista BabelFish, Google Translate allows you to translate a website from one language to another and display the translated results on their own page.The trick here is to enter the URL (website you’re blocked), retranslate it even if you don’t need to and let Google or AltaVista fetch you the content.
   

8. Subscribe to RSS Feed

This might not work for all sites, but if the site you intended to visit provides RSS feeds, you can subscribe and read it with a RSS reader, or have it regularly send the contents to your email

9. Retrieve web pages via Email

Web2Mail is a free service that sends websites you want to read right into your inbox. All you need to do is send an email to www@web2mail.com with the URL as subject title.

Photoshop Tips and Tricks for Beginners

These Photoshop beginner tips and shortcuts address some of the most common things you'll do in Photoshop, and learning them will save you lots of time down the road.

Create Project-Specific Custom Workspaces

Photoshop lets you create custom workspaces that display just the palettes you need for a specific project. For instance, if you're planning on working with text, you'll want to have the Paragraph and the Character palette open. But later you might be editing some Photos and want to close your text palettes to make room for photo editing palettes like color swatches and brushes. With custom workspaces you can switch quickly.

Once you've arranged the palettes just the way you want them, choose Window> Workspace> Save Workspace. Name your workspace and then click Save. Here's another tip - plan ahead so your custom workspace names make sense. This will be another time-saver later on when you need to locate one from the Workspace submenu.

Display The Same Image In Two Windows

When doing detail work on an image you may need to zoom in to take a closer look at the pixels. But to make sure that any changes you're making in this magnified state will look realistic at a normal view you'll have to zoom out for a quick look. Here's a great tip - instead of zooming in and out you can have the same image open in two windows at the same time.

With an open image selected choose Window> Arrange> New Window (the original file name will be listed). The same image will now appear in a new second window. 

Keep one window set at 100% to see your effects, and work in the second window - either zoomed in or zoomed out. Sweet.

Instant Grabber Hand

Ever been frustrated by having to switch tools to move your image around the canvas? Here's the solution — Press the Spacebar to temporarily activate the Hand Tool. Click to move an image freely inside a canvas area that is smaller than the image. Release the Spacebar and the hand tool will revert back to the current tool you have selected. 

Getting Rid Of The Marching Ants

Selecting an object will activate a line of dashes that blink to show you the selection's edge (marching ants), but they can be a visual nuisance at times. To quickly hide the selection marquee, Press Command+H (PC: Control+H). To view them again just repeat the shortcut.

Quick Revert - The Undo Command

To undo your last image modification Press Control+Z (MAC: Command+Z), and repeat the shortcut to undo the undo. Toggling back and forth like this is a good technique to review the before and after effects of a one-step change to an image, like dodge or burn.

For situations where you need to perform a multiple undo, go Edit> Step Backward or use Control-Alt-Z (MAC: Command-Option-Z. To go the other way (multiple redo) go Edit> Step Forward or use Control-Shift-Z (MAC: Command-Shift-Z). The number of steps available is the same as the number of History States, which can be changed in General Preferences.

Control Your Color Squares

Press D to reset your color squares to their default of black as the foreground color and white as the background color.

Press X to switch your foreground color and your background color.

To change the color of one of the color squares Click on a Color Square. This brings up the color picker, where you can select a new color.

Selecting Colors From An Image Quickly

Press I to activate the Eyedropper Tool and then click on any color in your image to turn that color into the foreground color. Press the ALT Key and click on any color in your image to turn that color into the background color.

Change Brush Tip Sizes Quickly

With a brush selected, simply Press the Right Bracket Key "]" to increase the size of your brush tip, or Press the Left Bracket Key "[" to decrease the size of your brush tip.

The Move Tool & The Arrow Keys

Get in the habit of calling up the Move Tool with the keyboard shortcut, which is the letter V. Also, once the Move Tool is active you can use your Keyboard Arrow Keys to nudge a layer or selection in 1 pixel increments. To speed things up, Press Shift along with an arrow key to nudge in 10 pixel increments.

Hide Your Palettes

Press Tab once to hide all your palettes. Press Tab again to bring them back. Press Shift+Tab to hide all your palettes except the toolbar.

Zooming In & Zooming Out

To zoom in Press Command and the plus sign "+" (PC: Control and the plus sign). To zoom out Press Command and the minus sign "-" (PC: Control and the minus sign).

Navigating In Magnified Images

If you've zoomed in on a large image and have lost your bearings you can jump quickly to specific views using these shortcuts:

Press the Home Key to set the view to the top left hand corner of your image.

Press the End Key to set the view to the bottom right hand corner of your image.

Press the Page Down Key to move the view one full screen down.

Press Command+Page Down (PC: Control+Page Down) to move the view one full screen to the right.

Press Command+Page Up (PC: Control+Page Up) to move the view one full screen to the left.

Selecting Just The Pixels On A Layer

An easy way to select an object that is on a transparent layer is to Press the Command Key (PC: Control key) and click on the layer with the object in the Layers Palette. This makes sure that only the opaque pixels (the pixels that are visible) will be selected with the marching ants, instead of the entire layer.

Tile Images For Better Visibility

When you open many files at once Photoshop has them cascade, and the overlapping files can make it difficult to select individual ones. To get around this choose Window> Arrange> Tile and all of your open files will rearrange themselves to be visible all at once. When you're ready to close them all don't spend time closing them individually, instead use the Close All shortcut Command+Alt+W (PC: Control+Option+W).

Getting Rid Of The Welcome Screen - And Bringing It Back

When first launching Photoshop CS you'll see a Welcome Screen that has links to some Tutorials, some Tips and Tricks, and a set of Color Management Help Files. After a while you might want to get rid of this screen. There's a check box at the bottom you can select to hide the screen at startup. 

If you change your mind later and decide you'd like to investigate the tutorials and other goodies, you can temporarily bring the screen back by going under the Help menu and choosing Welcome Screen.

Cycle Through All Of Your Open Documents 

Sometimes you'll want to find one of your open documents that is hidden, but navigating using the Window menu won't help because you can't recall the name of the file. Instead press Control-Tab repeatedly (MAC and PC) to cycle through all of your open documents.