Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Tight Policy for Adult Contents on Blogger!



Adult Content Policy Changed for Blogger


After March 23, 2015, sexually explicit or nude contents are not allowed to publicly share in sites hosted by blogger. But Blogger will allow nude contents only if it is artistic, educational or scientific. Nothing was clearly mentioned about sexually explicit text - policy changed only for images, videos and graphics.


All of you know that Blogger is one of the major blogging platforms next to WordPress. It allows us to share our personal views, opinions, ideas with the world. Above all, it's a social media. And Google is trying to punish those who are earning through sharing sexual contents. 


Previous Policy

Earlier, it was allowed to share sexually explicit videos or images in blogger. And such blogs should be marked as "Adult". So that the visitors can understand that they are about to enter a site with adult contents.


Settings > Other > Adult Content? > Yes > Save Settings. 


Blogger Content Warning Message

But Google has changed its policy. And certainly this is a good move to keep the web safe. I really appreciate this decision. 



Changes to the Existing Blog

  • Any existing blog with sexually explicit contents will be automatically made private after March 23, 2015. 
  • No content will be removed from the site.
  • Only admins, owners or registered users can access the site. 

What Should the Vulnerable Sites Do?

Clean up or get out! It's simple. You've only two options open. You can either - 
  • Remove sexually explicit contents from your site.
  • Or, mark your site as private.

How to Make Blogger Site Private


Settings > Basic > Permissions > Blog Readers > Choose any of the two Private options > Hit the Save Changes button. 



New Offenders - Beware!

Those are still thinking of making money through creating policy violating site, please be aware! Any site (which include sexually explicit contents) that will be created after March 23, 2015, blogger authority reserves the right to delete the blog or take any other action. 





Read more about Blogger Content Policy . . .

Source



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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Tutorial on Goal Seek (Project File Included)

Using Goal Seek in Excel



Goal Seek helps you to find a specific target from a given data. Suppose you are required to adjust either cost or price or production unit to make a certain amount of profit. In this situation, you can use Goal Seek to find out the optimum level of input to meet your target. Here you must know that the Goal Seek can only work with a single variable. 

Note: This tutorial is prepared on Excel 2013. Excel 2007 and 2010 will be much similar to version 2013. 


Example 1

Let's start by a simple example. Go to Excel > Open a Blank Worksheet > Input the data as shown below:


Excel Rows and Columns

The red figures are negative values.

  • Input the figures in Sales for Product A, B and C.
  • Enter Cost of Goods Sold in the next row.
  • Deduct 3rd row from 2nd row to find out the Gross Profit. (i.e. =B2-B3)
  • Enter the other expenses in the 5th row.
  • Deduct expenses from Gross profit to find Net Profit. (i.e. =B4-B5)

Important: you must find out the Gross Profit, Net Profit through formula. Otherwise, the Goal Seek function may not work.

At the 6th row, we get the Net Profit for Product A, B and C as 250000, 180000 and 195000 respectively. 


Problems & Solutions

In this settings, how can we increase the Net Profit of Product C from 195000 to 200000?

Ans: You can either increase sales, or decrease COGS and other expenses. But you have only one choice. Choose any of the three variables what you are supposed to change. Suppose, you have to change COGS. That means, cell D3. Use Goal Seek as follows:

Excel Worksheet


  • Select the D6 cell. Move to the DATA tab > What-If Analysis > Choose Goal Seek.

Input Data on Goal Seek

  • Make sure that the Set Cell box contains D6.
  • Type 200000 in To Value box.
  • Click on the By changing cell box and choose D3 from the worksheet. Then it will be automatically converted to $D$3.
  • Hit OK > You will get the following result - 

Goal Seek Result

This example is easy to calculate. You can find the result through manual process. Now I would like to move to the more complex example.


Example 2

Go to Excel > Create a new worksheet. Input the data as shown below:

Date Input for Goal Seek


  • Input the price of finished goods in B1.
  • Per unit variable cost in B2.
  • Enter the total number of units produced in B3.
  • Get total variable cost by multiplying variable cost and total unit (=B3*B2).
  • Enter the fixed cost as given.
  • Multiply price with total number of units produced to find out Revenue (=B3*B1).
  • Deduct fixed cost and variable cost from revenue to determine profit (=B6-B5-B4).

In the above example, the profit is 3000. How to make it 5000?

Well, you may have several choice as:
  • Changing the price
  • Reducing the variable cost
  • Increasing the production unit etc.

Suppose, you have no way to reduce the cost or increase the production. In that situation, you can only adjust the price. Let's raise it through Goal Seek . . . 


Goal Seek Example

  • Click on the cell B1
  • Move to Data > What-It Analysis > Goal Seek
  • Set Cell B1
  • To Value 5000
  • By Changing Cell, choose B1 ($B$1)
  • Hit OK > Finally Get the following result - 

Goal Seek Output

Within wasting much time, you can calculate the optimum product price to earn your target profit. You just raise the price by .40 to increase the profit from 3000 to 5000. Similarly, you can also adjust variable cost or production unit. But you can't work with more than  one variable at a time. 



Project File

I've uploaded the project file in Google Drive. You can download this if necessary. The project file is saved as .xlsx format. You must need at least Excel 2007 or above to open this file. 

There are two sheets - Sheet 1 and Sheet 2. Download the Goal Seek tutorial . . . 



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Monday, February 09, 2015

Transcend - The King of Flash Drives


Transcend USB JetFlash


Very often, I face a common question - which flash drive should I purchase? Or which flash drive do you use? Or which flash drive is faster? Considering a number of factors, the answer is Transcend and always. Transcend is a brand which I can trust and recommend to others. It's the king of USB flash drives!


Flash drives you know are the most commonly used devices for offline file sharing. When we share a movie, large software or documents we usually use USB Flash Drives or Micro SD Cards. If you need to transfer the files faster and your drive is slower, definitely it kills your valuable time.

Transcend 64 GB Pen Drive Pack


If you want super speed, then you must go for USB 3.0 Flash Drives. But your device may not have supports for this. In that case, you will get only USB 2.0 features. And some brands will charge you too much. So, I always prefer Transcend considering the following factors:
  • Speed
  • Actual Storage Capacity
  • Compatibility
  • Durability
  • Warranty
  • Price

To be honest, the speed varies with the models. But I can assure that you will get at least 7/8 MB write speed (per second) in any transcend flash drive. Though the speed depends on what type of file you're transferring. And the read speed will be at least 20 MB per second.

In terms of capacity, Transcend is great. All of you know that, the actual capacity of any memory device is less than the stated capacity. Some brands will give you too less space. But a 16 GB Transcend flash drive will give you at least 15 GB storage capacity.

Though it's not a unique feature, still I would like to mention that, Transcend is compatible with any hardware and any software wherever the USB flash drive is supported.

More than 6 years ago, I purchased a 2 GB Transcend USB Flash Drive. It's still functioning smoothly. Transcend's flash drives are really durable.

Transcend gives lifetime warranty for its flash drives. I'm not sure but it could be product lifetime warranty. You can register your product through Transcend's website and check the status of your warranty.

Couple of weeks ago, I purchased a 32 GB flash drive. In my currency, it costs me $ 15. And I think the price is quite reasonable. 



Supports & Services

Supports and services are not same for all types devices. You can check Transcend Support page to see what supports are available for you. There is a list below for you:

  • JetFlash Online Recovery: With this tool you can recover your device when something goes wrong. While running this operation, you must be connected to the internet. 
  • Product Verification: You can verify your product through Product Verification page. Simply go to the Product Verification page and check whether it's original by entering serial number.
  • Product Registration: You can register your product through Product Registration page. To register your device, you must have an account on Transcend or sign up for a new account through Email ID.
  • Compatibility: To check your device compatibility, go to the Compatibility page.
  • Where to Buy: Transcend flash drives are available anywhere. Have a visit to this page for choosing your purchase location.
  • Warranty Service: Maybe your dealer will deal with Transcend for warranty service. If you don't have such facility, you can directly contact Transcend for Warranty Service.


Transcend 64 GB Pen Drive



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Sunday, February 01, 2015

AddThis Social Sharing Sidebar for your Site


AddThis Sharing Sidebar


AddThis sharing sidebar is a very common gadget for social sharing. Smart developers or bloggers often use AddThis tools in their webpages. Because it looks nice and thus attracts many visitors to share your contents in their networks. And I also like it because it's small in size and loads faster. 


If you would like to design your own sharing buttons, then it's okay. But if you're thinking of third party tool, then I recommend AddThis. It's very easy to setup. You've to register in AddThis website. There you will get a dashboard which provides your sharing analytics!


Limitation

AddThis has both paid and free tools. Of course the paid users get more benefits. Suppose if you're a free user, then you will not have button counts in your gadget. 


Registration/ Sign Up

First you've to create an account in AddThis. Creating an account is very easy here. You can sign up via Google, Facebook or Twitter. Or you can simply create an account through your email ID. The link below is the account opening page:


After completing the sign up process, sign in to your account and go to the Dashboard. Here you will get Analytics and Tools menu. Go to the tools menu to check available tools for your site. 


Choosing the Right Tool for your Site

As mentioned earlier, you will get several paid and free tools in the tools page. And you know I always focus on free tools. There are different types of tools such as - Sharing Tools, Follow Tools, Recommended Contents etc. 

Hopefully you already know which tool is used for which work. And their setup system is almost same. So, I will just talk about Sharing Sidebar. Have a look at the sample:


AddThis Social Sharing Sitebar


Have you noticed the behavior of the above sidebar? When someone visits your site, the sidebar will be displayed in the left or right as you've configured. And the visitors can vanish the sidebar anytime by pressing a small arrow which will be located below the bar.

I think it's very handy for the visitors. Because if they can't read something in the page due to the sharing bar, then they can hide it. And if the readers like your article and would like to share it, then they can get the bar back! 



How to Setup?

Setting up the code is also very easy. Simply follow the steps below:
  1. Go to the Tools page.
  2. Then move to the Share Tools > Sharing Sidebar > Setup.
  3. Choose a side - Left or Right.
  4. Choose your site theme i.e. Dark, White, Transparent etc.
  5. Enter your Title if necessary (It appears above the bar).
  6. Choose number of buttons to be shown. You can also choose which buttons will appear.
  7. Hit on the Show more options if you need to adjust more.
  8. Hit on the Activate button.

Your code is now active. But in order to appear the sidebar on your page, you must place the code (The code which you get at the bottom of your settings page) in your page source. This is my code:

<!-- Go to www.addthis.com/dashboard to customize your tools --><script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-54caee1f0a654417" async="async"></script>

You have to place this code in your site's source code/ HTML in the <body> section. If you're using blogger, then you can place the code through HTML/JavaScript gadget


For other websites, place the code in the <body> section. 






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