Monday, April 28, 2014

How to Download a Part of YouTube Video?


Download a Part of YouTube Video using Clip Converter


Most people download the whole YouTube video even when he needs a small portion of that video. And certainly this wastes huge amount of data as well as valuable time. But you can easily cut an YouTube video and download only the part you need out of a large video! 



Background Story

Couple of weeks ago I was searching for an old Bengali song on YouTube. But it was not available in the largest video sharing site of the world! Fortunately, I got the full movie instead of the song. And that movie is 2.5 hours long. What should I do now? Download the full movie for a 5-minute song? Even the 3gp format of this movie is over 400 MB. When the song is only 12 MB. 

Though I know hundreds of different ways to download videos from YouTube, but I never think of downloading a small part. Then I googled to find out a way. And you will be happy to know that I got something there! Today I'm gonna share how to download a part of YouTube video instead of full video. 



Clip Converter: Free Online Media Recorder

Actually I'm gonna talking about a site which will do the cutting process for you - Clip Converter. With the help of this site, you can - 
  • Download & Convert Videos into MP3, MP4, 3GP, AVI etc.
  • Cut and download a specific portion of the large videos.



Instruction

First of all, you need to find your desired video from YouTube. Then open that video and copy the URL from the address bar. You can close YouTube to save your bandwidth. Now follow the link below: 




Paste the video link in Media URL option and hit on the Continue button. After hitting the Continue button, this site will be looking for necessary information of the video ie. screenshot, filename etc. 


Clip Converter Conversion Format


Now if you simply wanna download the video, without cutting or converting, choose the download format from available options ie. MP3, MP4 or 3GP. Then hit on the Start button. You will be redirected and wait for a few seconds to get the Download button. When the Download button appears, download the video. 



Downloading the Part of a Video

The procedure is almost similar to the previous one. You have to enter the video URL and then choose a download format ie. 3GP. But you need to choose conversion options here as follows:


Clip Converter Conversion Options



Here I choose 3GP format. When you unmark the options Start of Video and End of Video, you will be able to cut the video. But you must know the exact time of the part you wanna download. Now enter the starting and the ending time of your video as HH:MM:SS. Then hit on the Start button and wait for the download button to be appeared. As soon as you get the download button, you can download your specific part of the video! 


Note: Always load this site completely. Otherwise some button could be missing and you may not be able to see the Download button. 

Remember, there are several large download buttons in this site. Never click on these download buttons. Because these are Ads only. Only use those buttons which shows in my screenshots. 



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Saturday, April 26, 2014

How to Sign out of Gmail Remotely?


How to Sign out of Gmail account from a remote location

Your email account is as important as your cell phone. Even sometimes it's more important than a cell phone. Because it may contain lots of personal as well as official information. Once hacked, it could be really tough to get back. So, you should keep your email ID safe and secured. Today I'm gonna discuss about how to sign out of Gmail from a remote location. 



Background Story


When I was in college, during my graduation, I used to sign in to my Gmail account from Computer Lab. And I used to select the Remember me option for quick login. One day, when I was working in my Gmail inbox, the electric supply interrupted. And I didn't have enough time to wait. So, I had to leave my account signed in to that browser. 


I was not sure whether the next user would get my account signed in or not. I was lucky that I didn't save my password. Otherwise anyone could see the saved password and access my account. 


However, there was nothing to worry about! Because Gmail has a great way to sign out of all other sessions except the current one. And you can also change your password any time. 






You may need to sign in to your Gmail account from different locations. Suppose your friend's PC, cybercafe, library, cell phones or any other public places. By mistake, if you forget to sign out, your account might be unsafe. Or if you lost your cell phone with Gmail account signed in, then what? Simply sign out of all other sessions from your Gmail inbox. 


Account Activity

If you need to sign out of all other sessions, then you have to go to the Account Activity options from your inbox. Account activity is available at the bottom of your inbox. If you're using basic HTML view then you will get the account activity as below:


Last Account Activity in Gmail

Look at the red mark. Last account activity. And look at the yellow shade - Detials. Hit on the details button to view your activities. And if you're using the standard view of Gmail then it looks like as below -

Last Account Activity in Gmail

And this will be located at the bttom right corner of your inbox. After hitting the Details option, you will be redirected to a new page named Activity on this Account. Look at the image below:


Gmail Account Activity


Since my account is not open anywhere, it shows - This account doesn't seem to be open in any other location. If there is any unusual login detected, it would show different message. 

Now look at the button - Sign out of all other sessions. If you hit on this button, your account will be automatically signed out from any devices/ sessions except the current one. If you're signed in into your mobile, it will also be signed out. 

Also look at the Recent activity table. It shows from where your account has been accessed, with location, IP address, date/time and duration.  


Hopefull this will be really helpful for you to keep your Gmail account safe. Facebook has also  similar option. You will get it from settings. 


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Friday, April 25, 2014

Bliss - World's Most Viewed Photo!


Bliss - The Most Viewed Photo of the World


Windows users are certianly familiar with the default wallpaper of Windows XP - Bliss. In fact, most of the people are familiar with the Bliss wallpaper even not being a computer user! Over the last decade it's been the most viewed as well as famous photo of the world. You should know Microsoft has stopped providing technical support for Windows XP from April 08, 2014. And now it's time to say Goodbye to this popular operating system. 


Microsoft purchased this photo from Charles O'Rear who is a former National Geographic photographer. Microsoft team visited his house before saying goodbye to Windows XP. You can watch the interview in YouTube


The Story Behind Bliss Wallpaper

Bliss is the default desktop wallpaper of Microsoft Windows XP. It is an image of a rolling green hill and a blue sky with clouds. Only few people can recognize this picture as natural. Most of us think that it's graphically manipulated. But the photographer said - it was not! Have a look - 


The Default Wallpaper of Microsoft Windows XP


This photo was taken by Charles O'Rear, former National Geographic photographer, a resident of Napa Valley, in January, 1998. O'Rear was on his way to meet his Girl Friend Daphne Irwin (who he later married). He saw the hill free of vineyears. The grass was perfect green. There was bright sunshine with clouds in the blue sky. 


Charles O'Rear


O'Rear stopped somewhere near the Napa-Sonoma county line and set his Mamiya RZ67 Medium-Format camera on a stand. He chose Fuji film for its excellent quality. He took four pictures and later one of these was licensed by Microsoft. 


Mamiya RZ67 Medium-Format Camera


Charles also said that many photographer took the picture of same area of California. But he was really lucky. Because the light was great. The sky was little bit cloudy and green. The hillside was covered by green grass. But normally there is only grapevines. 


Bliss Location on World Map

This map is showing the approximate location where the Bliss image area is located. The exact position is 38.2489660 North and 122.410269West. 


8 years later, on November 27, 2006, Goldin+Senneby visited the site in Sonoma Valley where the Bliss image was taken. The same location was completely different. That place was full of vines. Have a look . . . 

Bliss Location in November 2006




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Saturday, April 19, 2014

Feeding Frenzy 2 Free Download !!!



Free Download Feeding Frenzy 2

Feeding Frenzy 2 is a survival game. You have to play with a fish where the larger one eats the smaller ones. You have to eat those fishes which are smaller than you. Basically there will be three stages. After finishing the first stage, you will be larger and capable of eating more fishes. Thus after clearing the three stages, you will be able to go to the next level. There are total 60 levels! 


Just couple of hours ago, I've shared another game - Egg Hunt. And I'm quite happy to share two games in a row at the same day! :) 

Download Feeding Frenzy 2


Download the game from the above link. Download size is 17.6 MB. I've uploaded the game in zip format. So after downloading, you've to unzip it first. And it's a portable version. It's already installed. You don't need to install it at all. :)



Animated Game Feeding Frenzy


Instruction

Go to the game folder and double click on FeedingFrenzyTwo.exe to run the game. Now hit on the Start Game button. Choose Resume if you've any saved game earlier. Or choose New Game if you wanna create a new profile. 

Remember, you've to maintain a profile. Because you've to save it. Otherwise your progress will be lost. 

After starting a new game, you will ge a fish. You have to move it through mouse. Look at the top left corner. Menu will show the type of fish you can eat. And Growth will show your progress. 

After eating some fishes, you will be larger in size. And then you will be able to eat larger fishes. If you're in front of a fish which is bigger than you, you will die. But you will get three chances to pass a level. 

If you're able to clear a level without dying, you will get extra lives in the next levels. Thus lives will be added from one level to another. 


This game is 100% mouse dependent. But it doesn't require so many clicks. There are some stages which need mouse clicks. In most levels, you just need to move your mouse. 


Options

From the options, you can control sound, music, mouse speed etc. 


It's a nice animated game. And I hope, all of you will like it. Don't forget to comment . . .


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Download Flash Game Egg Hunt for Free!!


Download Egg Hunt


Hey Gamers! Are you busy with highly graphics consuming big games? Let's play a tiny flash game - Egg Hunt. Though somewhat childish, but Egg Hunt is really a challenging game. All you need to do is just collect eggs and avoid crap. You have to collect eggs through a basket to earn point. But if you take crap by mistake, points will be deducted! 


Have a look at the game screen. This is really attractive. Specially kids like this game a lot. 


Egg Hunt Screenshot


Many flash games are harmful for your mouse.  But in this game, you don't need to click a button. You just need to move your button to collect eggs! So don't need to think about your mouse lifetime. ;)




Download the game from the above link. It's just 550 KB. Now unzip it. Remember, this is the German version. I didn't find the English version of this game. But I can translate the words for you! 

German -  English

Punkte     -  Points
Zeit           -  Time



Instruction

Double click on EggHunt.exe to run the game. Now hit on the Start button to play. After starting the game, you will get a basket. Move the basket with mouse pointer to collect eggs. There are 5 chickens which lay down eggs. There are 3 types of eggs.

  • Normal egg is worth of 1 point
  • Silver egg is worth of 5 points
  • Golden egg is word of 10 points

Beware of craps. If you collect crap/ shit instead of eggs, you will get -10 points. That means 10 points will be deducted from your total points. 


You will get 60 seconds to collect eggs. How many eggs you collected, missed and how many craps you taken will be shown at the bottom. After finishing the game you may enter your name and comment. 

Then hit on Fenster Schliessen. It means Close Window. 

  • While playing, if you need to go to Desktop, press Start + D (Game will be running)
  • If you need to close the game, Press Alt+F4. 


© 2001 by Frank Lamozik

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Friday, April 18, 2014

Cook Timer: Free Countdown Clock


Cook Timer Countdown Clock


Today I'm gonna share a nice countdown tool with you. Often you may need to set alarms while working with something. This is a light-weight and handy timer. It's known as Cook Timer. I think this will be really helpful for you.


Have a look at the interface below:


Cook Timer Countdown Clock


I think you've already got an idea from the above image. Look, I've set 5 minutes. And it's counting down. After finishing the 5 minutes, it will ring for two times - Tick tick. 


Presets

By default, you get 4 preset options. Choose any of the 4 radio buttons which you need. But if presets don't work for you, then choose Custom option. 


Custom

Choose custom to set alarm manually. Then set your time as HH:MM:SS.


Stop (Pause)

If you need to pause the timer for any reason, hit on the Stop button. When you need to resume, press Start. 


Reset

If you wanna stop the timer and start a new alarm, then hit on the Reset button. Then set it again. 


Automatic Restart

Suppose you need to hear alarm in every 5 minutes. Set the alarm accordingly. Select Automatic Restart option. Now start the alarm. After 5 minutes, the clock will ring for two times, and it will start again for another 5 minutes. This process will continue until you stop this. 


Ring Forever

Suppose you set the clock for 15 minutes. Maybe you need to stop the water pump when the clock will ring. After 15 minutes the clock rings, but can't hear. Because you're so busy with a phone call, or there was an aircraft passing your area. Finally you are 3 minutes late to stop the water pump. And your roof is flooded by water! 

But if you just select the Ring Forever option, it wouldn't happen. It will be ringing continuously until you stop the timer. :) 


Download Cook Timer


Download the Cook Timer from the above link. It's just 230 KB! After downloading, unzip it first. Then keep it in a safe place of your hard disk.


Usage

It's name is Cook Timer. That means you can use this while cooking something. Personally I use this handy tool when running my water pump. I set time when start the motor. And stop it when the timer rings. 

Besides you can use this for different purpose. 


Pin the Timer To Taskbar

You can pin this timer on your task bar for easy access. Find the CookTimer.exe from your hard disk. Then right click on it and hit on Pin to Taskbar. See the image below:


Pinning Something to Taskbar

Now you will get the Cook Timer icon on your taskbar. To start the timer, simply click on it. You can also start it by pressing Start + (Cook Timer Position). 


Icons in the Taskbar


This is Cook Timer in my Taskbar. To run the timer, I just need to press Start + 5. Because this is in the fifth position in my taskbar. 

In this way you can run the timer up to 9th place. If your timer is out of 9th place then drag and reposition it in your taskbar. 


How funny! I've crossed 500 words to write about just a little soft. Small tools sometimes could be smart if it gets a smart user! 



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Monday, April 14, 2014

IcoFX Portable Free Download !!


IcoFX Portable Free Download


IcoFx is a professional icon and cursor editing tool - an all in one solution for icon creation, extraction and editing. This is a small but smart tool. Numerous features has been added to this software. But all these features are not my concern. I'm just gonna show how to convert image into icon using this tool. 


Before I start, could you please remember or at least have a look at the following posts? 


Show Custom Picture on Pen Drive!!!



About two years ago, I published this post. It's a very cool trick. Most of the users were able to apply this to their flash drives. But some of them couldn't. Because they failed to create a proper icon of their desired images. Then I wrote another post.


Convert Image into Icon Online!



It's an online tool. It's quite handy. But sometimes you may need to work offline where no connection is available. And it doesn't have much customization capacity. That's why I'm writing about IcoFX Portable. 


System Requirements

It's compatible with any running version of Windows with no special requirement. But you should be skilled enough to operate this tool. It's interface is little bit confusing I think! 


Let's start by downloading the file (It's free of stupid Ads!).




It's a zipped file. After downloading the file your should unzip it first. Then install IcoFx Portable for one time. Choose a proper location to install. It shouldn't be the drive C:\, I mean the booting drive. Choose a different disk other than your Windows installation directory.  

Now go to the folder where you've installed the software. Find IcoFX Portable. You can create a shortcut either on Desktop, Taskbar or Start menu to ensure easy access to this soft. 


Let's convert image into icon. Run IcoFX Portable. Go to the File menu and hit on the Import Image (Press Ctrl+M). Now find and select an image from your hard drive. At the New Image window, select your desired colors and size. If you don't understand the options, keep it default. And then hit OK. 


IcoFX Color and Size Options



Now you will get a new window named Advanced Import. Crop or resize your image if necessary and hit OK. We're almost done! 

IcoFX Crop and Resize Option


Look below the Menu bar. There are both Windows and Apple Icon. Hit on the Windows icon to create icon for PC or hit on the Apple icon to create icon for Mac. 


Windows and Mac Option at IcoFX


Now choose your prefereces regarding color and size. Then hit OK again. 


Icon Formats for Windows in IcoFX


Finally save the icon. Choose .ico format for Windows and .icns for Mac. Have you got it? Please comment . . . :)


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Saturday, April 12, 2014

Optimize the Performance Settings of Photoshop


Adjusting the Performance Settings of Adobe Photoshop


Adjusting the performance settings could double your Photoshop experience. Though Photoshop automatically sets the performance depending on your hardware configuration. But sometimes you may need to adjust the default settings to improve the performance. If your hardware configuration is strong, you should customize the performance settings. 


Couple of days ago, I got a new CPU you know. And the following parts will affect the Photoshop performance: 
  • Intel Core i3 Processor (3.3 GHz, 3 MB Cache)
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM (1600 Bus)
  • 1 TB HDD
And I always use Photoshop CS5 (Portable) for edidting or creating image. The hardware of my old PC was not strong enough. And it didn't allow me to customize the settings so much. But the new one lets me customize the performance settings. 



Optimize the Performance Settings| Photoshop CS4, CS5, CS6

Don't be confused! All the images used in this post, options I'm talking about are based on Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended. Since I don't have old versions of Photoshop I'm not sure whether the options are same or different. But I hope, there could be a bit difference, not more than that. 

Let's start - 
  1. Run Adobe Photoshop.
  2. Go to Edit Menu and Choose Preferenes > Performance.
  3. Now you will get 4 sections: Memory Usage, History & Cache, Scratch Disks and GPU settings.
Let's customize one by one - 


Memory Usage

This is the most important part of this topic. I mean the usage of RAM. 

Usage of RAM in Adobe Photoshop

Look at the memory usage part. Available RAM indicates your usable RAM. Ideal range is the range which Photoshop thinks optimum for your PC. By default, Photoshop use 60% to 70% of available RAM. But I've 4 GB RAM installed in my PC. Why do I use 1585 MB only? 

I've chosen 100% of the available memory. There is a slider too. You can increase/ decrease the memory usage by sliding the indicator to the right or left. 


History & Cache

The next one is History & Cache. Look at the image below:

History & Cache Option in Adobe Photoshop

In this part our main concern is Cache. History doesn't matter. By default photoshop can save up to 1000 history states. But never do that. Remember, the more states will consume more hard disk space. Let's keep it to 20. Or you can reduce the value to 10. 


If you have more than 3 GB usable RAM, set the Cache Levels to 8 and Tile Size to 1028 K. Or you can choose more cache levels for bigger documents with few layers. And fewer cache levels for smaller documents with many layers. 


Choosing higher cache levels and bigger tile size may slow down the speed while opening a document. But it will significantly improve the processing capacity. So if you have faster RAM and large hard disk, choose the higher cache levels and tile size. 


Scratch Disks

What is Scratch Disks? A list of your hard disk volumes! Before talking about this let's have a look at the snapshot:

Photoshop Scratch Disks and GPU settings

How much RAM you have? 2 GB, 4 GB, 8GB or more? Sometimes this is not enough for processing images. That's why Photoshop uses a part of your hard disk as scratch disk. By default, Photoshop uses the Drive C:\ to scratch. Normally we use C as booting drive. 

But using booting drive as scratch disk is not a good idea. Let's choose another drive which  is faster and having plenty of free space. Here I've choosen the drive D:\ as scratch disk. You can also choose more than one scratch disk if necessary. In that case you can rearrange the order using the up and down arrow. 

Suppose, you've selected drive D as scratch disk. Now if you run photoshop, you will see a temp file in the D drive. ie. Photoshop Temp54895112832. And after closing the photoshop, this file will be vanished automatically. 


If you have any external disk which is faster than your internal hard disk, you can use that disk as your scratch disk. 


GPU Settings

You can only use this feature if your video card supports this. Look at the above image. 

Detected Video Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 2500

Here you can Enable OpenGL Drawing. You may not be able to find any difference directly. But this option will enable some features that enhance the overall performance. 

OpenGL Drawing enables the following features:
  • Rotate View Tool
  • Birdseye Zooming
  • Pixel Grid
  • Flick Panning Preferences, Scrubby Zoom
  • HUD Color Picker, Sampling Ring etc.
Enhancements:
  • Smooth Pan and Zoom
  • Drop Shadow for Canvas Border
  • 3D Interaction Acceleration etc.


Hopefully, adjusting these performance settings will help you a lot to have a better photoshop experience. If you're confused with any option, please knock me . . . 


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Sunday, April 06, 2014

Working with Fill & Opacity in Photoshop


The Difference between Opacity & Fill


In Adobe Photoshop, both Opacity and Fill control the transparency of a layer. If you wanna make an image transparent, or if you wanna increase/ decrease its transparency, you can use any of the two. But while working with Fill and Opacity, you may try to find the difference between them. But it's really difficult to find out the difference between Opacity and Fill as they behave same in most of the cases! 

To be honest, I also didn't have idea about these two. Just in the evening, I've explored some  pages to know the fact. And now I've the sufficient knowledge to write about the basic difference between Opacity and Fill. 


Use of Fill and Opacity

Fill or Opacity is used to control the transparency of the image. You will find these options in the layer panel. Look at the image below:


Opacity and Fill in Adobe Photoshop CS5


If you need to change the transparency of an image, just select the layer of that image. Then decrease the value of Opacity or Fill. Both of them will do the same job. Look at the image below to get a clear idea:
Normal, Opacity and Fill Effects

There is no visual difference between the last two images. At least I can't identify any distinction. If you can see, please comment :) 


Difference between Opacity and Fill

Now I'm gonna show you the difference between Opacity and Fill. And before you go, you should remember - 

  • Opacity: Controls the transparency of everything on a layer including styles and effects.
  • Fill: Affects the actual contents of the layer only. It doesn't touch the layer styles or effect.

Observe the following image carefully. Trace out the distinction between the two parts of the image. 

Effects of Opacity and Fill


I've simply typed two words - Sun and Cloud. The left part is normal. The text color is green. Sun and Cloud has a stroke nothing else. Fill and Opacity is 100% by default. 

In the right part, I've chosen 0% Fill for Sun, 30% Opacity for Cloud. And what happens to the image?
  • The green color of the sun is vanished. It takes the color of the background I mean the color of the sun. But the outside stroke is untouched. Here I've used 0% Fill. 
  • And in the Cloud, the whole text gets dimmed. Both the green color and the stroke. Here I've used 30% Opacity. If you use 0% opacity here, your text will be vanished. Because it affects the stroke too. 

I've tried to make this complicated topic as simple as possible. But if you're new in Adobe Photoshop, then you might be puzzled. So, never hesitate to leave a comment if you need to know something. 



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