FEQS-Frequently Encountered Questions

Disable No Right Click Scripts

2008-11-27T10:13:00.001+05:30

There are quite a few people under the mistaken belief
that a no right click script will protect their page
content. A no right click script does nothing of the
sort but it may interfere with your navigation of their
site in those browsers where it does anything at all.
Rather than just giving up on their site though you can
instead just turn that script off.

The easiest way to disable no right click scripts is
for you to right click on the following link and save
it to your favorites/bookmarks.

Enable Right Click

When you reach a page that disables the context menu in
your browser simply select this option from your
favorites/bookmarks menu and whatever method that they
have used to disable right clicking will itself be
disabled and you will once more be able to access the
navigation options in the context (right click) menu.

NOTE that this bookmarklet is provided to re-enable a
menu that is legitimately used by some web visitors for
web navigation. Despite the fact that "No Right
Click" scripts serve no useful purpose, you should
NOT use this bookmarklet to perform functions that the
web page owner was misguidedly attempting to block.

How to Add yahoo search to your blog/website?

2008-11-12T12:04:00.013+05:30

To add search widget to your blog/website just copy and paste this code.
This will add functionality to your blog/website.
In case of blogger go to the layout option.
Then click on Add a gadget .
Then In HTML/Javascript section.
Paste the following code.

NOTE:-Dont make any changes in the code else it wont work.

HERE IS THE CODE:-

You will have to replace "*" which is present in the beginning of each line by "<"

*form id="searchForm" enctype="multipart/form-data" action="http://search.myhpf.co.uk/dosearch.asp" target="_new" method="get">

*fieldset>

*img id="hpYahooLogo" alt="image" src="http://www.myhpf.co.uk/css/imgs/yahoo-larger.gif" width="146" height="30" />

*input value="82681" name="CID" type="hidden">

*input id="hpEntryBox" value="" name="q" type="text">

*input id="hpSearchBut" value="Search" name="search" type="submit">

*div style="width: 500px; line-height: 20px;" align="center">

*script src="http://www.poweredbyalpexus.com/prefilledfunction.asp?CID=82681&bLoc=c">

*/fieldset>

*div style="width: 500px; line-height: 20px;" align="center">

*script src="http://www.poweredbyalpexus.com/prefilledfunction.asp?CID=82681&bLoc=c">

*/form

Or

Simply click on GET THIS WIDGET Below

Search Box-Add Functionality to your website/bloggreat free widgetsWidgetbox

Prevent Content Theft and Copyright Infringement

2008-10-21T20:28:00.002+05:30

How annoying it is, spending an awful amount of time researching and writing articles for your Blog, only to find out that some people have stolen your articles and reproduced them in their blogs as though they wrote them. Over the weekend, we decided to take action against one of the several “thieves” and we relate our experience here so that you have an idea how you should proceed when you meet someone who steals your website or Blog contents. Our Blog is exactly 5 months old and if such incident can happen to new bloggers like us, it can happen to you too.

Copyright

You see this legal term often. Basically, what it means is that if you are the author of a piece of work (writing, drama, music score, art, etc.), you own the “copyright” to that work. Under the laws of many countries, your works enjoy copyright protection. You can authorize or prohibit others from reproducing, distributing, publishing, displaying or performing your works.

In U.S. for instance, you need not register your work in order to secure your copyright. Copyright protection is automatic i.e., it starts the moment your work is created. Unlike the previous laws, there is also no longer a need for you to insert any copyright notice in your site reminding people of the copyright protection. You can put a notice, but you don't have to. Essentially, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Theft and Hijacking

These are how the internet thieves steal:-

a. Writing and Images

They block copy your original writing, paste it into their Blog post. They use your images, graphics and artwork as well. Nothing is mentioned about you. Readers will think they wrote these articles. They establish their pool of readers and earn revenue through their AdSense impressions or clicks. Even if there is a mention about you somewhere, all their contents are lifted from you. You put in the efforts but they enjoy the rewards.

These people even went so far as to ask us questions which their own readers asked them. Once we replied to these Anonymous queries, they in turn let their readers know, in the manner that the answers came from them.

b. RSS Feed

You can put other people's Feed headlines into your Blog. Go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element and select “Feed”. Type in the RSS or Atom Feed URL of that site and you will have the headlines of their five recent posts displayed in your Blog. Some blogs have no original content, except for these Feed headlines from many different blogs.

Many of us don't mind having these headlines in other blogs. Readers who want to learn more about the article will click these links and be brought to our Blogs. However, these thieves go beyond that. Some of them reproduce the full post based on the Feeds. We saw commercial sites using Feed converters to save our contents and put the articles up for sale to interested parties.

We had therefore changed our Feed settings from Full to Short, so that feed readers will only get an excerpt of the articles. If they want to know more, they will have to visit our site to read the details. If you want to change yours too, go to Settings -> Site Feed and under “Allow Blog Feed”, choose “Short”.

c. Hijacking

Instead of just a couple of posts, these thieves can steal everything from the layout and design to the contents and links, thus the term “blog hijacking”. Your site is literally duplicated. When we obtained our first Google Page Rank, a PR5, we found this problem to be rather serious. People were trying to pass off their sites as if they were ours or related to ours.

Steps to take when contents are stolen

1. Stay calm

It is natural to be angry at the thief. Let not anger taint our decisions. We must act professionally. If you are tempted to spam the thief's blog with threats and insults, please don't. You may in the process get yourself into unnecessary legal trouble. Not forgetting, a person who has no qualms stealing your contents can probably do you lots of other harm if he/she wants to. In that same spirit, although we shall make references to the thief who stole our content, we shall not be naming him. We shall call the thief Mr X in this article.

2. Identify what has been stolen

Before making any claim, we should be certain as to what has been taken from us. In our incident, it was a clear-cut case of hijacking. Mr X used a Blog title that could mislead the public into thinking that it was related to us, the description of the Blog was exactly the same as ours, the posts and pictures were an exact duplicate, and the post titles, colors and labels were the same.

Excerpt of Mr X's Blog description:-

Excerpt of Mr X's post titled “Add Video Clip to Blog”:-

It is important to save these as evidence of infringement. Go to the offending Blog site, click a “Print Screen” button on your keyboard. If you have a printer, save the printed copies. Otherwise, if you have a Photo software, open a new image file, paste the image and save. Note down the date and time these images were taken. We took only a few samples because there were simply too many; all the 23 articles on Mr X's site were ours.

3. Find the thief

Most of them do not have email addresses or contact particulars in their blogs or profile pages. Even if they do, they are likely to be fake. Nonetheless, there are several ways to ascertain the identity. In this case, Mr X had several other blogs under his profile page. One of them was titled Mahathir bin Mohamad, the contents were an exact replica of the page at Wikipedia relating to the former Prime Minister of Malaysia. There was another blog titled “Kelantan history”. We went to our visitor stats, tracked by Statcounter and Google, zoomed in on the unusual visitor activities, and identified the IP address of one that was from Kota Bharu in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. We could be wrong. The person could have routed his traffic through Malaysia. He could very well be a U.S. citizen interested in Malaysian politics. Be that as it may, we had a possible lead.

Next, we visited his source page. In Firefox, go to “View” and “Page Source” or press Ctrl+U. In Internet Explorer, go to “View” and “Source”. From the source code, look for “google_ad_client” to find out his Google AdSense publisher number. Most of these thieves steal your content so that they can earn advertising revenue from visitors to their sites. Invariably, they will have some form of advertisements. If it is not AdSense, just look for any other Ad codes. Take note of all these. Better still, save a copy of the source code as evidence.

Read all the blogs by this person. Often, the remarks made in the comments or chatbox may give you an indication as to who the person is.

Search the net for other links to this person's identity. The blog may be registered in some blog directories. Start with Technorati, and move on to social networking sites. All you want is to gather as much information as possible regarding this person or his internet activities. If the matter becomes contentious, a court action may have to be filed and notice served on the offending party.

4. Contact the thief

After you have done sufficient homework, write your first note to the person. If there is no email address, leave a message in one of the posts. Our first message to Mr X was polite and non-confrontational. This was what we wrote:-

While I am honored that you have found my guides useful, copying them wholesale and reproducing them as if they are yours is an outright breach of copyright. Please remove the articles immediately.

We waited for a day and checked back. There was no response and the blog was still what it was. That was when we adopted a stern tone, and our second message was this:-

I have written to you yesterday informing you that you have illegally copied and reproduced my articles from my blog. These are original content of which I, as the author of the articles, own the copyright. Your act in reproducing them without my permission is clearly illegal under the laws.

If you do not take immediate action to remove all the 23 offending articles, I shall proceed to inform all the relevant parties, including but not limited to Google, search engines, advertisers and the authorities. I reserve as well my rights to claim for any damages and costs as a result of your illegal action.

Mr X responded and said in our chatbox, “hello bro..sorry.i still new blogger.i delete all that article already...sorry again.” [No, he is not our brother. As I understand, it is their form of greeting.] His excuse was that he was new to blogging. Our response was simple - “I don't think copying or plagiarizing has to do with new or not new blogger. And from the way you copied, I think you know enough about coding, maybe more so than us.” There is no excuse for committing illegal acts and we are not going to feel bad just because they call themselves new bloggers.

With that, we let the matter rest. However, we want to let you know what we had prepared in the meantime while we awaited his response.

5. Contact directories

The first place we searched was one of our favorites - Technorati. We saw Mr X's blog and contacted the staff. We highlighted the infringement and requested for a temporary suspension of the offending blog while we proceeded to take the necessary actions. The staff was very prompt in their response and upon their review, they temporarily suspended the blog. Note that in this instance, every one of the 23 articles he had were ours. If it had been just one or two articles copied, the staff may not readily agree to a suspension of the listing. Since the articles have now been removed, we had written to the staff updating them on the matter.

Locate all the listings in the various directories and keep them handy. Often, if it were a genuine case, the administrators will take action or advise you on the cause of action. This is a damage control step. We want to minimize the exposure of these stolen content to other net users.

6. Contact advertisers

We were prepared to contact the Google AdSense staff since we had on hand the publisher number of Mr X. Under the AdSense policies, there is a term that reads:-

“Copyrighted Material

Website publishers may not display Google ads on web pages with content protected by copyright law unless they have the necessary legal rights to display that content. Please see our DMCA policy for more information.”

You can report the incident to them, although in order for them to act, they are likely to request that you file the official notice of infringement.

The details can be found at the Google page on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We prepared a draft of the notice which we would have used if Mr X did not respond. You have permission to adapt from this draft if you have to serve a similar notice to Google AdSense in future:-

[Date]

Google, Inc.
Attn: Google Legal Support, AdSense DMCA Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

[or Via Fax: (650) 618-8507, Attn: Google AdSense Support, DMCA complaints]

Dear Sirs

Copyright Infringement Notification for AdSense

I am the author and copyright holder of the original articles at [blog address]. Among the copyright protected material are these articles at:-

[Titles and URLs of original articles]

I found out that another site at [thief's blog address] bearing the AdSense publisher ID [number] had used the abovementioned material without my permission, namely by reproducing them in their site as follows:-

[Titles and URLs of offending articles]

I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials as described above is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Yours faithfully

[Name]
[Signature]

[Address and contact particulars]

If there are other advertisers, contact them too. No advertiser will want to be embroiled in a copyright infringement battle. Chances are that they will withdraw the advertisements, temporarily or otherwise. Without advertisement revenue, the theft of the content becomes worthless for the thief.

7. Ban from Search Engines

The offending blog can be removed from search engine listings too. You can find out what you have to do for search engines like Yahoo, Google, and MSN when you come across sites that have stolen your Blog contents.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act Title II “creates a safe harbor for online service providers (OSPs, including ISPs) against copyright liability if they adhere to and qualify for certain prescribed safe harbor guidelines and promptly block access to allegedly infringing material (or remove such material from their systems) if they receive a notification claiming infringement from a copyright holder or the copyright holder's agent.” Although worded differently, a quick check on the Copyright Acts of Commonwealth and other jurisdictions suggest that the spirit of their laws are similar. Under the terms of service, most blog hosts and service providers, like Blogger.com, will act on notice of copyright infringement and take actions which may include “removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity and/or terminating subscribers.”

We have talked about contacting Google AdSense and Google search engine. Although Blogger.com is owned by Google, being a big company, there are certainly different sets of people handling complaints like this. If the person's blog is registered with Blogger.com, you may use the above draft letter but change the addressee to:-

Google, Inc. Attn: Google Legal Support, Blogger DMCA Complaints 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 [or Via Fax: (650) 618-2680, Attn: Blogger Legal Support, DMCA Complaints]

These are the links to the detailed copyright protection policies of some of the popular blog hosts:-

Blogger.com

Wordpress

Xanga

Multiply.com

LiveJournal

Typepad

MySpace

Yahoo 360°

Soulcast

9. Creative Commons License

If you do not want a full copyright protection, you can use a Creative Commons License and give certain rights to people to use, distribute or build upon your work. Read the terms of the various types of Creative Commons Licenses that you can use and choose the one that best suits your purpose. Click on the logo and you will be brought to another page where they give you the HTML code to place the appropriate logo into your Blog. If you want the logo in your sidebar, login, go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element at the sidebar, choose HTML/JavaScript and paste the code. With the logo, viewers will know what license applies to the material in your Blog.

Let us as Blog owners be united in protecting our legal rights. If we come across any infringing sites, keep each other informed. In that way, we can protect our works and justify the blood, sweat and tears that we have put into them.

Internet Security and Blogger Virus

2008-10-21T20:23:00.001+05:30

The internet was abuzz with talk that Blogger.com site got hacked and was compromised. Blog owners suddenly found fake spam Posts in their Blogs which contained links to virus downloads and data mining sites. Some were faced with inexplicable web page load times and yet others noticed odd codes appearing in their templates. The natural reaction is to blame all these on the people responsible for the viral attacks, even though that might not be the case. In this article, we shall share with you some tips that we have learned on internet security and protection. This include the actions we can take to prevent or minimize the possibility of having Blogger blogs hacked or hijacked.

Is Blogger.com safe?

The article in BBC, Bloggers battered by viral storm, reported that the latest incidents were the work of a group of hackers who had been mounting attacks since January. They used spam messages posted on bogus sites or sent through email to trick users to download malicious programs. The links can sometimes be couched as Youtube links or digital greeting card links. Also, the email subjects contained informal internet jargon which led recipients to think that the mail came from their friends.

In an official response yesterday, Eric of the Blogger team had confirmed that “Blogger was not compromised. Instead, the blog posts are from bloggers whose machines were compromised by a Trojan horse. These bloggers had their mail2blogger email addresses in their computers' address books ... so when the malicious software spammed every address in their address book with its content, a copy of that email was posted to their blog.”

In short, the Blogger platform is safe and if any, the Blog owners should ensure that their own computers are checked and protected against malware. Where then does this leave us?

How the virus got into Blogs

Before we look at the preventive actions to take, we may want to know how these fake posts made their way into our Blogs. When you are logged into Blogger, you can see under Settings -> Email a “Mail-to-Blogger Address” feature. This enables you to post to your Blog by emailing the Post content to a mail-to-blogger address.

For those who have not used this feature, you can set up the address by entering a word or characters into the part in red. This will be the address to which posts can be sent.

user.xxxxxx@blogger.com

If you have checked the “Publish” box, any message that is sent to this address will automatically get published in the Blog. If the “Publish” box is unchecked, the message will be saved and you have to log in to your Blogger account to publish it. The email subject heading will appear as the Title of the Blog Post.

Although this is a useful feature for people on the go, it is also one that can be exploited. All it takes is for anyone to post an email to this address and whatever is in that email will appear in your Blog. It is therefore imperative that this address remain secret and confidential and anybody who is not authorized to post on your Blog should not know about it.

The moment a virus takes root in your computer, it can send malicious posts to the email addresses saved in your system's address book. If the above email address is one of them, you will see the post in your Blog. Since your Blog is legitimate, your readers and friends may read the post and click some of the links thinking that you would not put harmful material on your Blog. Once they do that, their computers may inadvertently be infected with the malware and they in turn have malicious links appear in their own blogs, and the cycle continues.

Preventive Steps to ensure Blog Security

1. Scan Computer and Protect against Threats

This sounds obvious and yet there are many who do not see the need to protect their systems against viral threats. Some may find the scanning time long (stretches to an hour for a full scan) or do not have a habit of scanning their systems. Others may find it costly to pay for an anti-virus software license. Always consider the alternative – the risk of losing all your data or having to reformat your hard drive – and you would probably agree that a little effort goes a long way to ensure a peace of mind.

If you don't have an updated antivirus software installed in your computer, make it a point to scan your computer using one of the free online virus scanners, such as:-

a. Trend Micro Housecall
b. BitDefender Online Virus Scanner
c. Kaspersky Online Scanner
d. F-Secure Online Virus Scanner
e. Symantec Security Check

If you Google “online scanners”, you may see many sites which claim to provide free online virus scans. While many are authentic, there could well be a few which are not. Check them out if you'd like and stick to the tried-and-tested sites for future scans.

You can also download and install the free Google Pack and include the Norton Security Scan which eliminates viruses and the Spyware Doctor which removes spywares, adwares, trojans and keyloggers.

Another free software that we highly recommend is AVG Anti-Virus software. Go for the Free Edition. For a complete protection, install as well ZoneAlarm Firewall if you are not using your MS Windows Defender. These softwares update their programs and definitions regularly and the reviews on them have been very positive.

2. Configure Mail-to-Blogger Address

If you see a need to post to your blog via email, or think that others know your mail-to-blogger address, go back to Settings -> Email and pick/change the address into something that nobody can easily guess. Since the intent of this function is to have posts published without having to log in to Blogger, ticking the “Publish” option makes sense. After saving the Settings, go back to your email software e.g., Outlook Express, Eudora. Remove that mail-to-blogger address from the address book. By making no mention of it anywhere, even if the virus sends out mail to all the addresses in the address book, nothing will be sent to your Blog.

3. Create different email and login addresses

Out of convenience, many people stick to one name for all their logins, emails and signatures. For example, they may have these:-

blog name: myname.blogspot.com login name: myname@gmail.com email address given to readers: myname@gmail.com user: myname

If people are bent on hacking your Blog, it is easy for them to figure out what your login name is and use programs to crack your password. When you create your next blog, consider assigning different names or not using your actual name:-

blog name: blogname.blogspot.com login name: notmyname@gmail.com email address given to readers: anothername@gmail.com user: screenname

4. Set browser security

In Internet Explorer -> Tools -> Internet Options, set the Security level for Internet zone to Medium-High or High. Also, in the later versions, you can turn on the Automatic Website Checking feature in the Phishing Filter settings.

If you are using Firefox, go to Tools -> Add-ons and click the “Get Extensions” link. Look for a popular extension called “NoScript”. What it does is to block JavaScripts and executable files and only allows those that you trust. It makes surfing the net a lot safer, and lessens the chance of unintentionally running malicious scripts.

5. Use third party scripts with care

JavaScripts make our websites dynamic and vibrant, but malicious scripts can cause a great deal of harm. In our eagerness to place nice-looking widgets and interactivity into our sites, we sometimes overlook the fact that third party service providers are not always trustworthy. Some domains last a few days, just enough for the hijacker to place downloadable widget scripts on the sites and to back out of the domain purchase after the cooling-off period. Blogs can also list harmful scripts, some of them blindly copied from other sites while others intentionally created to trick readers.

For instance, you may come across an application that you like and are given a code to place into your template. This code typically contains a link to a file ending with .js extension. When your Blog page is loaded, this script is retrieved from the site where the file is stored and it runs in the background. Some prudent Blog owners do take the trouble to go through the script language and ascertain that there is nothing wrong with it. However, because the file is hosted in that provider's server, if they should decide to change it later and throw in something extra, you would have unknowingly introduced that into your Blog.

For the same reason, we have cautioned readers against downloading ready-made and customized templates from unknown or untested sources. Since not all of us are technical experts, we may not notice an undesirable script hidden somewhere in the template. Hence, for our guides such as the three columns template guides, we prefer to show you how to DIY and customize your own template. In this way, you know what goes into it and can easily reverse the change in future.

6. Watch what we say or write

We thought we should add this. Many of these people either do it for the challenge or out of spite. Just as wearing skimpy clothes invites unnecessary attention and opening our door invites thieves, words and actions can give hackers the excuse to compromise your site. Observe basic courtesy and net etiquette. Be modest about your site. Every site can be the target of hijacks, including ours; no site is invulnerable.

What to do if Blog is hacked?

Despite all the security and preventive steps, if the day should come when the Blog contents disappear, the first thing to do is to scan the computer for viruses and malware. Do not login to your email or other accounts since this might open up more doors for the virus. Once the system is completely scanned and rendered safe, you may login to your Dashboard and view the Settings. Take note of the information that has been altered.

It is also possible that you are unable to login because the password has been changed, or that the Blog and Blog Posts are deleted. Write to the Blogger Support Team using another email account. Give them as much details as possible and allow them time to investigate the cause. Since Google servers would have backed up our data, it should be possible for them to reinstate your Blog upon proof of ownership.

Where the contents cannot be entirely retrieved, you may have to re-create the Blog. In moments like this, you would appreciate the importance of keeping backups of the template source codes and saving copies of the articles you have written.

Further reading:-

As mentioned, if the Blog page load takes longer than usual, it is not necessarily caused by a virus. Blogger.com could be experiencing a downtime, or the external sites where information is retrieved from may be causing the delay. This usually happens when we put a number of third party applications and widgets into our site, such as advertising services, gadgets and scripts.

Images not shown in Internet Explorer

2008-10-21T20:20:00.001+05:30

Sometimes, the photos, images, pictures or graphics do not show or display in a website in Internet Explorer (“IE”) browser or an email in MS Outlook Express. Instead, where the pictures ought to be, there is a Red X or a placeholder.

Several factors could have caused this problem of images not being displayed in IE. In this Help guide, we'll look at these reasons and the solutions to show images in IE. Some of the possible causes may only be resolved by the webmaster. If you are an owner of a Blog or a webmaster, these tips might be useful to note when you are uploading images onto your Blog or webpage.

1. Image type not supported by IE

When you see a red X or placeholder, right-click on it to view the “Properties” of the image. Look at the image “Type” and “Address (URL”). IE supports images with .art, .avi, .bmp, .emf, .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, .mov, .mpeg, .mpg, .png, .wmf, and .xbm extensions. As a webmaster, if you have to put images on your website, try to stick to the usual image formats or have alternative images in these formats.

2. “Show Pictures” option in IE not selected

If you are using IE 7, under Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced tab, there is an option called “Show pictures” under the “Multimedia” heading. Select this option and press OK to save the change. In other IE versions, the option may fall under a different heading.

3. Scripts disabled in IE

Webmasters may use Active scripts, Scriptlets, Java applet, ActiveX control, or cookies to display the images on their sites. If the security setting in IE browser is set to “High”, these features may be blocked. To enable them, go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Security tab. View the “Internet” zone and under “Security level for this zone” change it to “Medium” or “Medium-high”. You can also reset the zone to “Default” level. Likewise, under Tools -> Internet Options -> Privacy tab where you define the cookie settings, you may set it to “Default” level. Click OK to save.

4. Scripts disabled by Firewall

Other than IE, the configurations in your Firewall program (Norton Personal Firewall, Zonealarm, McAfee, BitDefender, etc.) may have disabled some of these scripts. View the help file of the program you are using and follow their instructions to enable some of these scripts. For this reason, webmasters should avoid using too many scripts for the main contents of the sites. Consider adding text using <noscript> tags to cater to those who have scripts disabled.

5. Web bugs

Be careful when you are configuring the above settings. The web pages you view or emails you receive may sometimes contain hidden web bugs. These are usually small little graphics 1px by 1px that track user statistics like location, usage, pages visited, or whether an email has been read. This is even used in organizations and companies to find out how many times a message is forwarded or read by the staff. They do not pose major threats, but there are those who do not like this infringement of privacy. Take a stand and configure your security and privacy settings accordingly.

6. Images blocked in Outlook Express

We touch briefly on the problem of images not displayed in Outlook Express email program. When you are in Outlook Express, go to Tools -> Options -> Security and you'll see a “Download Images” configuration. If you want to view images in your email, do not tick the “Block images and other external content in HTML e-mail” option. Click OK and save the change. You should now be able to view images in Outlook and not see the red X symbol.

7. Images not sent in Outlook Express

Also, if you are sending email with images, you could have disabled these images in the configuration. Those receiving your email will only see the red X or placeholders rather than the images. The solution to this is to go to your Outlook Express Tools -> Options -> Send tab. The “Mail Sending Format” should be “HTML” and not “Plain Text”. Click the “HTML Settings” button and check the box next to “Send pictures with messages.” Click OK to save.

8. Character Set not recognized by IE

This sounds rather technical. In layman terms, the browser interprets the code page or encoding of the web page. If your IE browser does not recognize this character set, or if a file in your browser software is corrupted or missing, the images may not be displayed when viewing the web page. For instance, the web page may be in a foreign language. If so, see that this language has been added to the browser settings. In IE, go to Tools -> Internet Options -> General. Under “Appearance” there is a “Languages” button. (In other versions of IE, the Language option may be under a different heading.) Add the languages that you would use to read the web page and click OK to save. If you are still unable to view the page, it is possible that a file or registry key is corrupted or missing. To resolve this, you may follow the Microsoft Help guide on your desktop to restore or repair your Windows software.

9. Image Server is down

Since free blogging platforms including Blogger.com have limits on the amount of storage space taken up by the Blog photos, images and graphics, it is worth considering hosting these images on an external server and linking to them from your Blog. These too have limits on space and bandwidth. All servers, even Blogger.com, can have downtimes. When these image hosts are busy, undergoing maintenance, temporarily suspended, offline, or when the download bandwidth has been exceeded, the images linked to the Blog will not be displayed. The problem could be temporary, and should you need to see these images on a particular Blog, revisit the Blog an hour or so later.

10. Image links are broken or dead

Since the images are hosted on another platform and linked, there could be instances when the webmasters typed a wrong URL, placed the " at the wrong places or omitted the closing image tags. The image HTML code and attributes are discussed in Hyperlinks and Image Links. The image links could be broken or dead when webmasters delete the images from the server or switch image servers without updating the image links. It is also possible that the image is not hotlinked. By this we mean that when the image is stored on the image server, the link given is not a direct link to the image, but a page containing the image and other contents. Hotlinking takes up bandwidth and some image servers do not provide that service. If such URL is used in the image HTML code, the image will not show.

11. Cache not cleared

The Browser cache stores web page content of the sites you have visited on your hard disk. These are the Temporary Internet Files which supposedly speed up the page download when you revisit a site since some of the contents are already stored. However, these files can comprise cookies and JavaScripts too. Make it a habit to clear the cache regularly to remove these files. In IE, go to Tools -> Internet Options -> General and under “Browsing history” click “Delete” button. Delete all the Files and offline content. These are temporary files that can be removed. If you are unable to view images, sometimes deleting these Temporary Internet Files may solve the problem.

Hide or Remove Navbar in Blogger

2008-10-21T20:18:00.000+05:30

The Blogger or Blogspot Navbar is a default feature that appears at the top of every Blogger powered blog. It is a useful navigation tool which allows readers to search the blog for targeted content, mark the blog as objectionable, and randomly view other member blogs.

The Navbar can be disabled for users who publish contents via FTP, but it will appear on all freely hosted BlogSpot blogs. While the feature is undeniably useful, some people find that its position at the top of the page looks obtrusive even with a choice of 4 colors. Some therefore pick a template with a black background to blend well with a black navigation bar. There are also parents and educators who find the 'view random blogs' feature inappropriate, as their children may inadvertently view objectionable blogs.

Nevertheless, this article is not a discussion on the merits or demerits of a Navbar. That is for you to decide. Here, I am assuming that you have made a conscious decision to hide or remove the Navbar. Having so decided, this is the guide on how you can do it.

Log into your dashboard, go to Template -> Edit HTML. Scroll to anywhere on the template and insert the following CSS style definition in red within the head section.

#navbar-iframe { display: none; } </head>

Preview the template. You will notice that the Navbar is no longer displayed, and (depending on your template) your contents might shift upwards to take up the space reserved for the Navbar.

[Update:

This code display:none no longer works. Those who have used this may want to try out the other 2 methods (height and visibility) instead.]

Now, try this style definition:-

#navbar-iframe { height: 0px; }

This will reduce the Navbar height to zero, effectively removing the Navbar. You can also explore this other style:-

#navbar-iframe { visibility: hidden; }

You will notice that your contents do not shift upwards. The space is still reserved for the Navbar, but the Navbar is now hidden and not visible.

Either one of the above codes would do. You can also combine them if you'd like. For example, giving a numerical value for the height of the Navbar and hiding the visibility will give you a margin at the top and yet without the Navbar. Choose one that best fits your blog design. If you change your mind in future, and wish to have back your Navbar, simply remove the style definition.

Search Box

If you decide to remove the Navbar. This is one of the great features in the Blogger Navbar.

Feedburner - FeedCount Chicklet Text

2008-10-21T20:10:00.001+05:30

Feedburner is a very popular feed aggregator and provides a host of services which you can tap on to publicize and promote your Blog. One widely used service is their FeedCount Chicklet which displays your Blog Feed's circulation statistics. The chicklet can be static (displaying the number of “readers”) or animated (showing the number of “readers” via feed). Although you can change the background and text color for the graphic display, there is no option for you to change the text. This hack will explain how to change and personalize the FeedCount Chicklet text as well as to change the animation settings so that it rolls the text more than once.

For those who have yet to sign up for a Feedburner account, consider doing so right away. Now that it is under the Google family, there is an easy way for you to channel all your Blogger feed subscribers to Feedburner. Login to Blogger, and under Settings -> Site Feed, enter your Blog's Feedburner Feed address into the box beside “Post Feed Redirect URL.” Readers who click the “Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)” link or the RSS icon in their browsers will be redirected to your Feedburner Feed.

FeedCount Chicklet

When you are logged into Feedburner account and are viewing your Feed details, click the Publicize -> FeedCount tab. This is where you can generate a code to display a chicklet in your Blog which shows the subscriber count. Whether or not you already have a high number of subscribers doesn't really matter. A nice chicklet can draw readers' attention and make it easy for them to click the Feed link.

Choose the custom colors of the body and text and click “Activate”. You will be given a HTML code for the Chicklet. We have to edit this code. Open MS Notepad (usually found under All Programs -> Accessories in Microsoft Windows) or a word processor program. Copy and paste this code.

Static FeedCount HTML Code

The static FeedCount code will look something like this:-

<p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ TipsForNewBloggers"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/ TipsForNewBloggers?bg=99CCFF&fg=444444& anim=0" height="26" width="88" style="border:0" alt="" /></a></p>

This is the standard FeedCount chicklet you see:-

To change the word “readers” to some other text such as “Viewers”, insert this other code (shown in red). You can change the word “Viewers” to other text, but because of the space constraint, keep it to no more than 7 characters.

<p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ TipsForNewBloggers"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/ TipsForNewBloggers?bg=99CCFF&fg=444444& anim=0&label=Viewers" height="26" width="88" style="border:0" alt="" /></a></p>

The FeedCount chicklet now looks like this:-

You can change the text to capital letters or include characters, e.g., “*FANS*”, and your new FeedCount Chicklet will look like this:-

Animated FeedCount HTML Code

The animated FeedCount code is rather similar except that the animation value is set as “1” instead of “0”.

<p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ TipsForNewBloggers"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/ TipsForNewBloggers?bg=99CCFF&fg=444444& anim=1" height="26" width="88" style="border:0" alt="" /></a></p>

When the page is loaded, viewers will see a one-time rolling text of number of “readers” via feed.

The word “readers” can be changed to other text like “Members” by inserting the code (shown in red):-

<p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ TipsForNewBloggers"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/ TipsForNewBloggers?bg=99CCFF&fg=444444& anim=1&label=Members" height="26" width="88" style="border:0" alt="" /></a></p>

This is the new FeedCount Chicklet you will see. Insert the relevant text that suits your Blog.

Animation to play more than once

Other than the change in text, you can also set the animation to play more than once by changing the anim value to something greater than 1. Since readers are unlikely to stay on a page for too long, it need not be too big a value. When the page is refreshed, the animation count will start all over again.

<p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ TipsForNewBloggers"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/ TipsForNewBloggers?bg=99CCFF&fg=444444& anim=50&label=Friends" height="26" width="88" style="border:0" alt="" /></a></p>

Our animated FeedCount Chicklet will now look like this:-

Further reading:-

Another useful service that Feedburner has is their Headline Animator. You can create a nice animated banner that automatically displays the titles of your recent posts.

Difference - HTML and XHTML

2008-10-21T19:15:00.003+05:30

When inserting codes into the Blogger template, page element, or blog post, you may have seen error messages that the code could not be parsed, was not well-formed, was broken, or that the elements were not closed properly. These errors can be corrected if you understand the rules that must be adhered to in XHTML documents. Blogger templates use the XHTML 1.0 Strict Document Type. In this article, we shall explain some of the XHTML syntax or rules, so that you may troubleshoot and resolve the problems if these error messages should occur.

XML, HTML and XHTML

We shall keep this short. Just so as you understand what we said about document type, view the Page Source or Source of your Blogger blog. You should see this document type declaration at the very top:-

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

The terms – XML, HTML and XHTML - refer to the markup language used to write the web pages. Many of us would have heard of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), invented by Tim Berners-Lee, and used since the early days of internet. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a meta-language, used to create other markup languages. The traditional HTML was later recast to use the rules of XML and that resulted in a new XML application, called XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language). Because XHTML rules are strict and unforgiving, not conforming to them when attempting to modify the template would result in error messages. So, what are these rules that Bloggers like us should take note of?

Basic Rules of XHTML

1. Codes to be in lowercase

Since XML is case sensitive, all the element keywords and attribute names used in XHTML should be in the lowercase. For example, the template code is not this:-

<TITLE>FEQS-Frequently Encountered Questions</TITLE>

but this:-

<title>FEQS-Frequently Encountered Questions</title>

If you have noticed, the elements and attribute names between the lesser than (<) and greater than (>) signs have to be in the lowercase. However, the value, which in this case is “FEQS-Frequently Encountered Questions”, can be in the uppercase, lowercase, or mixed case.

2. Attribute values to be in quotation marks

All the attribute values have to be enclosed either in single or double quotation marks. The following examples are not accepted by XHTML:-

<div id=header-wrapper> <a href=http://feqs.blogspot.com>Text Link</a> <img src=photo.jpg/> <table width=200 border=0 cellpadding=2>

Instead, they should be written as such:-

<div id='header-wrapper'> <a href="http://feqs.blogspot.com">Text Link</a> <img src="photo.jpg"/> <table width="200" border="0" cellpadding="2">

3. Container elements must have closing tags

This is not correct:-

<p>A paragraph.

In XHTML, there must be a closing tag with a forward slash (/) at the end:-

<p>A paragraph.</p>

Examples of the many non-empty elements that have opening and corresponding closing tags are:-

<ul> ... </ul> <li> ... </li> <table> ... </table> <h2> ... </h2> <div> ... </div> <span> ... </span> <dt> ... </dt> <dd> ... </dd> <a href> ... </a>

4. Standalone elements to be closed

Some of the elements are empty or standalone. They do not have associated closing tags. Common examples are:-

<br> <img> <input> <frame> <hr> <meta> <link>

Nonetheless, in XHTML, these elements must be terminated or closed. There are two ways to do that. One way to terminate the element is to put a forward slash (/) at the end like this:-

<br/> <img/> <input/> <frame/> <hr/> <meta/> <link/>

The second way is to add a corresponding closing tag like this:-

<br> ... </br> <img> ... </img> <input> ... </input> <frame> ... </frame> <hr> ... </hr> <meta> ... </meta> <link> ... </link>

5. Elements to be properly nested

This means that elements must be closed in the reverse order. For example, this code is not accepted in XHTML:-

<form><table> ... </form></table>

It is improperly nested because the form was created first followed by the table. To close them in the proper order, the table must be closed before the form, like this:-

<form><table> ... </table></form>

6. Document to have only one root element

In the XHTML document, you will see that except for the document type declaration, all the codes are nested between <html> and </html>. This is the root element and all other elements or sub elements are in between. The document structure will look like this:-

<html> <head> ... </head> <body> ... </body> </html>

7. Attribute minimization is not allowed

In XHTML, all attributes should be in the form name="value". Even if the value is the same as the name, it cannot be minimized to one word. Hence the textarea code is not this:-

<textarea readonly>Hyperlink Code</textarea>

but this:-

<textarea readonly="readonly">Hyperlink Code</textarea>

XHTML Character Entities

Quite a number of readers had asked why they were unable to display HTML codes in their blog posts or why their codes were not well-parsed when inserted into the template. If you have noticed by now, the codes are wrapped in the lesser than (<) and greater than (>) signs. The moment these are posted, they will be interpreted as codes and will trigger an action by the browser. Should you want to display these as part of the text, use their character entities instead.

"	"
&	&
<	<
>	>

The next time you see an error message to the effect that the code is not well formed, not well parsed, not properly closed, etc., take a look at this guide, troubleshoot the problem and try out the possible solutions.

Customize Video Upload in Blogger

2008-10-19T12:25:00.003+05:30

There is now an icon in your Post Editor allowing you to upload a video into your post, in the same manner as you would for photos. At the moment, the feature is only available in the Post Editor and not as a Page element. However, we shall explain how you can insert the video into the Sidebar Page Element and not merely have it in the Post. As well, you will learn how to resize and align the uploaded Blogger video.

Upload Video

When creating a New Post, you can see a new “Add Video” icon in the toolbar:-

Write the post and when you want to add a video, click this link. You will be asked to upload a video file from your computer. This file has to be in AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Realplayer, and Windows Media formats and should not exceed 100MB in size. We don't know if there are bugs but we tried uploading 10 videos in different formats and were not successful in 8 of them. If you do see an error message, you can report it to Blogger Support citing the incident ID and try to upload it again. At the same time, assign a title to the video.

Video Upload Terms and Conditions

At the bottom, you will have to check the box to indicate that you have read and agreed to the Upload Terms and Conditions. These are the terms imposed by Google Video which Blogger is using for their video upload function. Most of us would not have bothered to read the standard terms. Nevertheless, from a layman's perspective, some salient terms are worth noting:-

1. Google has a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free license to use your name, logo and brand for advertising or promotional purposes.

2. If Google offers a service whereby you may charge end users to download or view your videos, you will receive only seventy percent (70%) of the gross revenues.

3. You warrant that you have the right to use and upload the video. Among other things:-

a. You are at least 18 years of age and are legally allowed to enter into the Agreement and grant license rights.

b. The video is not, in whole or in part, pornographic or obscene.

c. You own all the necessary rights, such as copyrights, trademark rights and rights of publicity in the videos.

d. The display or use of the videos do not and will not violate any applicable laws or regulations and will not be in breach of any rights of persons or intellectual property. (Bear in mind that YouTube has faced many threats of actions and lawsuits by notable figures around the world for illegal videos uploaded onto their site.)

4. If there should be any liability imposed on Google, you have to indemnify them.

Storage Space for Videos

Once you are done, the upload process will start, and since the files are usually big, it will take much longer than photos. You can in the meantime continue to work on the remaining contents of your Post. There is a 1GB storage limit for photos and images uploaded into your Blog. Since videos are hosted under Google Video and not Picasa Web Album, the video files will not be taking up this storage space. The Google Video terms do not seem to stipulate a storage limit for uploaded videos.

Resize Video

The Blogger video has a width of 320px and a height of 280px. This should fit nicely into the Blog Post segment of all standard Blogger templates. Some people may have customized their Blog layouts and reduced or extended the width of the Blog Posts. To adjust the size of the uploaded videos, after uploading it, view the post under “Edit HTML” mode instead of “Compose” mode.

Locate the video code. It should look something like this:-

<object id="BLOG_video-f4854f080ae662a4" class="BLOG_video_class" contentid="f4854f080ae662a4" height="280" width="320"></object>

You can change the width and the height (shown in red). Just ensure that the width does not exceed the width of the main post column, which is usually found under the #main-wrapper or #main-wrap of the template source code.

Align Video to Center or Right

By default the video is aligned to the left of the post. If you want it in the center, you may add this code (in blue) to the above video code.

<div align="center"><object id="BLOG_video-f4854f080ae662a4" class="BLOG_video_class" contentid="f4854f080ae662a4" height="280" width="320"></object></div>

Change the word "center" to "right" if you want it on the right side of the post.

Place Video in Sidebar

As mentioned above, there is presently no “Add Video” option under “Add a Page Element”. To have a Blogger video in the sidebar, we have to first create a post. It can be a temporary post which you can delete later. Upload the video and follow the above guidelines to resize it to a small screen. For example, we resized our test video to a width of "200" and height of "180". Publish the post.

Refresh your Blog. You should see the temporary post together with the small video. View the source code of your Blog. For Firefox users, in your browser toolbar, go to View -> Page Source or press Ctrl+U. For Internet Explorer users, View -> Source. Next, press Ctrl+F, enter the word “video” to search for the video code. It is a rather long code and looks something like this:-

<object classid="..." id="BLOG_video-f4854f080ae662a4" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/ cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="180" height="200" class="BLOG_video_class"> <param name="movie" value="..."> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"> <embed width="180" src="..." type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="200"></embed> </object>

Block copy this entire piece of code. Now go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element in the sidebar, and choose “HTML/JavaScript”. Paste this code. If you want the video to be in the center of the sidebar, add the alignment tags outlined in the earlier section. After saving, drag and drop the element to the part of the sidebar where you want it to appear and Save the Template. You may go to Posting -> Edit Posts to delete the temporary post. View your Blog to see the Video in the Sidebar!

Background Image for Blogger Template

2008-10-19T12:23:00.002+05:30

With this guide, you would be able to add a background image or picture to your Blog, customize the position of your image, and have a static background image that stays in place when you scroll through the contents of your blog.

You will need to create an image. Find a picture you like. If you need a free photo editing tool, you can either search the net for one or use Google's Photo Editing Software Picasa. You can also use a small tile-size image which can be repeated so as to cover the entire page. Try not to have an image file that is too large as your page may take a little longer to load.

After creating a picture, you will need to upload it onto a free picture host.Next, log in to your dashboard layout; under Template -> Edit HTML, scroll to where you see this:-

body { background:$bgcolor;

Change background color

If you would like to change the background color of your blog to a very unique color, you can manually specify the color value. take a look at the HTML Color Chart to see if you can find your desired color. For example, if you have chosen a color code #B38481, change the above code to this:-

body { background-color:#B38481;

If you are changing the background color of your sidebar only, add the color code under the relevant sidebar heading.

#sidebar-wrapper { background-color:#B38481;

Similarly, if you want a different color for your main post column, add the color code as follows:-

#main-wrapper { background-color:#B38481;

Note that different templates may label their stylesheets differently. The #sidebar-wrapper may be called #side-wrap or something to that effect.

In some templates like the TicTac Template, the background color you see is due to a background image and inserting a color code into the template will not help. To have a different color, this background image will have to be edited. For more details, read the article on Background Color of TicTac Template.

Add a background image

The code to insert is this:-

body { background-image: url(URL address of your image);

Remember to insert the URL address of your image in the brackets.

Insert the URL of this test image into the above brackets and Preview your blog.

You can also have a background image just for your sidebar. Locate the style and add the background image code accordingly.

#sidebar-wrapper { background-image: url(URL address of your image);

For a background image to your main post body only, add the code here:-

#main-wrapper { background-image: url(URL address of your image);

Repeat background image

By default, the image is repeated to fill up the entire background of the page. If you have a small or tile-sized image, it will appear like a print pattern in the background. Sometimes, you may choose not to have the image repeated. If that is the case, you can insert this code:-

background-repeat: no-repeat;

Alternatively, you may only want the image to be repeated horizontally. The code is this:-

background-repeat: repeat-x;

To have the image repeated vertically, the code is this:-

background-repeat: repeat-y;

Position background image

If you have an image that is not repeated, you may like to specify the exact position of this image on your page. The HTML code to be inserted is this:-

background-position: top left;

Your image will appear at the top left corner of your page. The other possible values that you can use to replace “top left” are:-

top center;
top right;
center left;
center center;
center right;
bottom left;
bottom center;
bottom right;

If you do not want it entirely left, right or center, you can also define the horizontal and vertical alignments either in percentage or in pixels. Use either of these values instead, with x being the horizontal value and y being the vertical value.

x% y%;
xpx ypx;

Static background image

After that, you may specify whether you want your background image to remain in a fixed position when the contents of your blog are scrolled. By default, the picture scrolls with your content. To have it stay put, the code to insert is this:-

background-attachment: fixed;

Putting it all together

The eventual CSS code that you will have for your customized template may look like this:-

body { background-color:#B38481; background-image: url(http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s255/ownlblog/narutosasuke1024x768.jpg); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: center center; background-attachment: fixed;

You can also combine the attributes into one line and the shorthand code will look like this:-

body { background:#B38481 url(http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s255/ownlblog/narutosasuke1024x768.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed;

Putting the above code into my blog, this is what you would see.

Of course, after having added the background image, you will need to adjust the colors of your text so that they stand out against the backdrop. Go to Template -> Fonts and Colors to do that.

This guide will give you an image background to your Blog. Sometimes, you may have several images, all of which are suitable for your Blog.

Animated Banner with Rotating Headlines

2008-10-19T12:21:00.002+05:30

This article is about creating a nice looking banner that incorporates rotating headlines of your 5 recent Blog articles. It is nothing more than a picture to represent your Blog.

Nonetheless, a nicely designed banner can attract more visitors and add a touch of professionalism to your Blog. I am not a graphic designer and I believe you can produce much nicer pictures. There are also GIF animator softwares on the net which will help you create a moving image, blinking text, and so on. What I intend to do here is to share with you alternative ideas on how you can create your own unique animated banner.

Look at this example I made for my other blog. Notice how the titles of the 5 recent posts, taken from the site's feed, are rotated in the banner. Instead of a plain image, the headline animation adds life and attracts readers who want to read the details of your articles to click the banner.

This is done through a popular feed aggregator service called Feedburner. If you do not have an account with them, go to their main page, type in your Blog URL and follow their instructions to create a free account. Even if you have subscribed to other feed services like Feedblitz, there is no harm having more service providers publicize your Blog for free.

Once you have successfully created an account, you can browse through their services and tools to pick the ones that you like. Here, we shall talk only about their Headline animator. Go to “Publicize” tab and “Headline Animator” to create a new animated banner.

The instructions given by Feedburner are pretty simple to follow. The first thing you need to do is to pick a “theme” which can be their standard black and white backgrounds, or their dynamic and seasonal images. If you merely want to test the outcome, pick any of the schemes. The normal banner size is 468px x 60px and you may want to use this for a start. After that, choose the colors, font size, and position the title, date and headline. Click “Activate” when you are done. They will generate a HTML code for you to copy and paste into your template.

While this may give you a banner that contains the headlines of your posts, it does not give you a unique identity. If you have the time, you should try to create your own banner image. For instance, if you have a nice picture that you like, crop it or resize it to 468px x 60px using a photo editing software. If you don't have one, you may try Google's Picasa or search the net for other free softwares. If possible, leave a clear background somewhere for the date and headline. Save the image in the .gif (not .jpg) format. A background image can look like these.

The image will have to be uploaded onto an image host. There are a number of free hosts available on the net.After uploading the image file, take note of the image URL.

Go back to Feedburner's “Publicize” tab. This time, under the “Theme” select “Provide your own background”. You will be prompted to enter the “Image URL”. Again, you can adjust the positions of the title, date and headline by dragging them to the desired positions. Click “Activate” once you are satisfied with the layout and obtain the generated HTML code.

Log in to your Dashboard, go to Template ->Page Elements -> Add a Page Element and choose “HTML/JavaScript”. Copy the generated HTML code, paste and save. If you want to use this banner for publicizing your Blog in blog directories or advertisements, your new animated banner URL is your Feedburner feed address with a .gif extension. If you are still unsure, the banner URL for this site is:-

http://feeds.feedburner.com/KP.gif

The portion in red is my feed address. If I enter the above banner URL, I will get this image:-

Alert Message and Dialog Box

2008-10-19T12:20:00.001+05:30

You can display an alert message box to give a special announcement, provide information, or warn the readers before they view the full contents of your site. The pop up box will contain your message and have an “OK” button for viewers to proceed, or a prompt or cancel button to redirect readers to another site. We can further customize our Blog by asking for the reader's name and inserting this input automatically into a welcome message. This tutorial will show you how the JavaScript for these alert and dialog boxes can be inserted into your Blog.

Do note that because JavaScript programs run the moment the page is loaded, many users may, for security measures, set their browsers to disable JavaScripts. Also, too many of these scripts may make your . Insert this only if you think it appropriate or useful. Since these are system dialog windows, they may look different in different browsers and operating systems.

Alert Box with OK button

You can have a serious message for sites with adult contents:-

Or a light-hearted humorous message just for the fun of it:-

To create an alert message box, login to your account, go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element in your left sidebar or post body area, and select HTML/JavaScript. Paste the code shown below:-

<script type="text/javascript"> alert('You are about to enter an extremely funny site. People who are prone to laughing fits ... Beware!') </script> <noscript>Enable javascript in your browser to view an important message.</noscript>

Substitute the words in red with the message that you want to have displayed when users view your Blog. The words in green are the alternative text which will be displayed if the users have turned off their JavaScript functions.

Alert Box with Confirmation button

Although free speech is the order for the day, as authors of Blogs, we should be sensitive to the ethics and morality concerns of the people all over the world. If the Blog contains contents that are explicit or unsuitable for a select group of people, give the readers a choice not to proceed to read your Blog. The JavaScript for this alert box shows two buttons – “OK” and “Cancel” – which the readers can select. If their option is to “Cancel”, they will be redirected to a safe site. For this example, we have used Google's site as the safe landing page.

To insert the alert dialog box, login to your account, go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element in your left sidebar or post body area, and select HTML/JavaScript. Paste the code shown below:-

<script type="text/javascript"> confirm('This site contains explicit contents. Are you sure you want to continue?'); if (confirm('This site contains explicit contents. Are you sure you want to continue?')) { window.location = "http://feqs.blogspot.com/"; } else { window.location = "http://www.google.com/"; } </script>

Your message appears in the red portion. Enter your Blog URL in the blue colored part of the code. This is where your visitors will go to if they click “OK”. In the orange part, enter the URL of the place to redirect your visitors to should they click “Cancel”.

Alert Box with Prompt field

Another type of dialog box prompts the user to enter some information. For instance, the prompt box can ask the reader for his name and use that to customize the web page. Be reminded that many browsers are configured to disable scripts that ask for information. Have fun customizing your Blog but don't make this a key aspect of the contents. For example, if you have a story that keeps mentioning the name of the reader, the parts where the name should be will appear “null”.

In Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element we add a HTML/JavaScript and paste the following code:-

<script type="text/javascript"> var yourName = prompt("How can we address you?", "Reader"); </script>

The question can be changed. The user will be prompted to enter something in the dialog box. He can of course leave it blank and press “OK” or click “Cancel”.

Below this JavaScript, in your main body, add another HTML/JavaScript page element. This time, you can type in this:-

Welcome back <script type="text/javascript">document.write(yourName)</script>! Feel free to look around. If you like what you read, mention us in your post or link to this site. Hope to see you again <script type="text/javascript">document.write(yourName)</script>

This is what will appear in your Blog, based on the input that the reader keys in.

Change the wordings to suit you and wherever you want the reader's name mentioned, add the script (shown in red). Try to phrase the wordings such that if the user enters nothing and clicks “OK”, the blank space is not obvious. A prompt dialog box like this adds a personal touch to your Blog.

Add Scrollbars to Blog Widgets

2008-10-19T12:17:00.001+05:30

This tutorial shows you how to create widgets or boxes with scrollbars. When the contents in the widget exceed a certain specified height or width, there will be a vertical or horizontal scrollbar to enable users to read the contents that overflow or exceed the box area. This scrolling element is especially useful for our Link List or Labels widget which may be very lengthy. It reduces the total height of the widget and yet allows readers the option of scrolling through and viewing the entire content. We shall discuss how to customize the template design to include the scrollbars and the various modifications that can be made to the stylesheet.

The “overflow” style property

Let us first explain what the code is about. We use the “overflow” property to create the scrollbars in CSS or the stylesheet. There are several values that can be assigned to it, although not all are useful for our purposes.

1. overflow:visible

This is the default value. The extra content is either rendered outside the box or the length of the box is extended to include the extra content. Don't bother to use this in Blogger blogs because you will see the contents of the widgets overlapped like this:-

2. overflow:hidden

This will cut off the extra content that overflows and there will be no scrollbar to the box. It doesn't serve our purpose as well.

3. overflow:scroll

The content is clipped but there will be scrollbars at the sides.

4. overflow:auto

We like this attribute. Basically, it tells the browser to display a scrollbar only when necessary i.e., when the content overflows the width and height settings.

Scrollbar in All Widgets

Now that we know what the code does, we can apply it to our template. If we have many widgets in our sidebar, we can specify a fixed height for all the widgets. Carefully planned, our layout can look very neat since all the widgets will have the same height.

Login and go to Template -> Edit HTML. Insert this piece of code. For easy reference, we have added it under the /* Sidebar Content */ :-

/* Sidebar Content */ .sidebar .widget{ height:200px; overflow:auto; }

In our example, we applied a height of 200px to the widgets. This can be changed to other values. Look at both sidebars. Notice the neatness and symmetry. Be careful though if you have AdSense Ads in the sidebars. It is against AdSense TOS to cut off the Ads and put scrollbars to their Ad Units.

Scrollbar in Widgets of One Sidebar

Let us assume for our discussion that you have modified your template to include an additional sidebar using our Three Column Template guides. We may have all the AdSense Ads in one sidebar and we want to add the scrollbars into the widgets of the other sidebar. The style that can be inserted into the template will be this:-

/* Sidebar Content */ #newsidebar .widget{ height:200px; overflow:auto; }

Or this:-

/* Sidebar Content */ #sidebar .widget{ height:200px; overflow:auto; }

depending on which sidebar your widgets are at. Preview the template and if it is what you want, save the Template and refresh your Blog.

Scrollbar in One Widget only

We can add the scrollbar only to one or several of the widgets. To do that, we must first know the ID of the widget. When we are at Template -> Edit HTML, scroll towards the bottom of the template code. You will see something like this:-

<div id='sidebar-wrapper'> <b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'> <b:widget id='LinkList1' locked='false' title='General' type='LinkList'/> <b:widget id='HTML1' locked='false' title='' type='HTML'/> <b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Label' type='Label'/> </b:section> </div>

In this example, we have added a Link List Page Element into our Sidebar and the ID for this widget is “Linklist1”. If we have more link lists, the IDs will be “Linklist2”, “Linklist3” and so on. Also, we have inserted a HTML/JavaScript Page Element and the ID is “HTML1”. The third widget we added is a Label list and the ID is “Label1”. Look at your template and identify the widget. Take note of the widget ID.

With the ID, we can now add the overflow property into the stylesheet under /* Sidebar Content */:-

/* Sidebar Content */ #Label1{ height:200px; overflow:auto; }

This will add the scroll-bar to the Labels widget only without affecting the other widgets. Insert the relevant ID of your widget into the portion shown in red.

Scrollbar in All Widgets except One

A further variation is to add scrollbars to all the Widgets except one or two. As mentioned earlier, AdSense widgets should not have scrollbars and it might be your intention to have scrollbars in the rest of the widgets.

Follow the guide above to insert scrollbars into all the widgets. After that for the ones that you do not want scrollbars to appear, specify a bigger value for the height:-

/* Sidebar Content */ #AdSense1{ height:600px; }

For example, if your AdSense unit is a 160x600 Vertical Wide Banner, put the height of the widget as 600px. Since the contents fit nicely into this size, the scrollbars should not appear. Change the widget ID accordingly to point to the widget that you want to exclude and adjust the height value.

Scrollbar for Links and Labels

We need scrollbars usually for Label lists and Blogrolls created using Link lists because these are usually lengthy. You may have noticed that using the above codes, the entire widget is included in the scroll. Supposing we want the title to remain static and have a scrollbar only for the links or labels, we can insert a code as follows (remember to enter the relevant ID into the part shown in red):-

/* Sidebar Content */ #LinkList1 ul{ height:200px; overflow:auto; }

Scrollbar for Blog Posts

Should you want the scrollbars for each of your blog posts, scroll to where you see this code and add the portion (shown in red):-

.post { height:200px; overflow:auto; }

Scrollbar for text within Blog Posts

Perhaps you might not want to have scrollbars for all the Blog Posts, but only for a piece of text within a Blog Post. You can follow the steps in this guide to insert scrollbars to text within the post.

Scrollbar for Long Text

If you have a long piece of text like those found in the usual Terms of Service, User Agreements, Rules, Privacy Policy, etc., scrollbars will be very useful in minimizing the text area and yet allowing readers to view the full contents.

Under Template -> Edit HTML, /* Sidebar Content */ , define a class as follows:-

.scrollingtext { height:200px; width:200px; border:0; overflow:auto; }

What we have done is to specify that the text will be contained in a box with scrollbars automatically added if the text overflows the 200px x 200px area. The values of the border, height and width can be changed to suit your needs.

We can now type the text. This text can either appear in a Blog Post, or as an element in the Template. If it is in a Blog Post, after you have typed the TEXT in the Post Editor, switch to “Edit HTML” mode and insert these tags (shown in blue):-

<div class="scrollingtext">TEXT</div>

The TEXT can be inserted directly into the template via Template -> Page Elements -> Text. Similarly, if you have typed it in the rich editor mode, you can click the “Edit HTML” link at the top right corner and insert the above tags.

After publishing the post or saving the page element, you will be able to see the TEXT within a box and the scrollbars automatically inserted.

Add Page Element to Blogger Header and Blog Posts

2008-10-19T12:16:00.002+05:30

You would notice under Template -> Page Elements that there are options to add a Page Element to the sidebar and the footer. However, there is none for the Header and Blog Posts. Having a Page Element option to these latter two is useful. You may want to add a picture at the top, or a Google Adsense ad at the top or bottom of your blog posts.

To have an “Add a Page Element” option, under “Template”, click “Edit HTML”. Scroll down and towards the bottom, you will see these lines:-

<div id='header-wrapper'> <b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>

Change them to this:-

<div id='header-wrapper'> <b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='3' showaddelement='yes'>

This will give you 2 more page elements that you can add to your Header. You can increase this number if you want.

Right after that are these lines:-

<div id='main-wrapper'> <b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='no'>

Change them to this:-

<div id='main-wrapper'> <b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='yes'>

You are now able to add Page Elements either before or after your Blog Posts.

Note:

1. In different templates, the 'header-wrapper' may be called 'header-wrap' or 'header' and so on. Scroll to where you see an option called showaddelement and you can probably figure out the rest.

2. We realized that in some templates like the Dots Template, there is no separate Header at the top. Instead, the Header is contained in the left sidebar and the main posts appear on the right. This is the template layout and it is probably the reason for your choosing this design. In such templates, you can Add Page Elements to the 'main-wrapper' but not at the Header. Nevertheless, you can still look at the guidelines below to Add Page Elements in the 'crosscol-wrapper' part of the template. This will give you the option to Add Page Elements right on top of both the sidebar and main posts. You can upload images, insert AdSense code, text or other scripts into this section.

Update:

There is an additional position where you can add Page Elements to. This is between the Header and the Blog Posts. When you add a Page Element in the Header section, it follows the Header styles (like font, color and margin settings) and similarly, if you add a Page Element in the Blog Posts section, it follows the styles defined for the Blog Posts. You might want to include a Horizontal Menu or Navigation Bar or AdSense Ad unit just below the Header but before the Blog Posts and sidebars.

To do that, scroll to here and change to the value (shown in red):-

<div id='content-wrapper'> <div id='crosscol-wrapper' style='text-align:center'> <b:section class='crosscol' id='crosscol' showaddelement='yes'/> </div>

This should appear in all new Blogger templates. If you don't see this in your template, you can also add the entire code (shown in green). When you view your Template -> Page Elements, you should now see a new section in between the Blog Header and Blog Posts where you can insert Page Elements.

Once these are done, Save the Template. Click the “Page Elements” tab, and you will now see “Add a Page Element” option at the top of the Header and Blog Posts. Assuming you decide to add the element below the Header or Blog Posts, not to worry. Simply create whatever element you want and save. Next, drag and drop the element to the bottom of the Header or Blog Posts. Click the Save button at the top right hand corner of the page, and your settings have been saved.

Add or Remove Borders in CSS Templates

2008-10-19T12:14:00.005+05:30

I have received a number of queries from people wanting to remove the image borders or add sidebar borders in the CSS layouts. In this article, we cover briefly what the border styles in CSS templates are and where you can find them. With this guide, you will be able to remove the borders around the images, sidebar or main posts, or change the style and color of the borders to match the Blog design.

The point to note is that some templates such as Scribe,TicTac and Thisaway use background images to create the look of the main post and sidebar sections. The 'borders' you see in these templates are the result of the background images. To change or remove the 'borders' around the main post and sidebar, the images will have to be altered and replaced. The sections in this article on CSS borders around Blog Posts or Sidebar will not apply to these templates.

Border Property

When you are logged into Blogger, go to Template -> Edit HTML and do a search (Ctrl+F) for the word “border”. You will see it appearing in a number of places in the template. In most of the stylesheets, the border settings are defined in one shorthand declaration like this:-

border:1px solid $bordercolor;

1. border

This is a shorthand setting for all the four borders. Instead of “border”, we may sometimes see “border-top”, “border-bottom”, “border-left” or “border-right” which sets a style specifically for that element's top, bottom, left or right border respectively.

2. border-width

There are three properties in the declaration. The first setting is the border width. It can be stated as a value in pixels like the example given or in general terms. The possible values are:-

1px (or any other length) thin medium thick

3. border-style

The second setting in the shorthand declaration is the border style. Here, the possible styles are:-

none hidden dotted solid dashed double groove ridge inset outset

You can see some of these styles in our following examples.

4. border-color

The final setting is the border color. If you see $bordercolor, it is a variable (“Border Color”) that you can change via Template -> Fonts and Colors. If you want a specific color for the border of an element, you can also change $bordercolor to a color code. Possible values are:-

#cc0000 rgb(204,0,0)

For a list of color codes, you may refer to our Color Code Chart.

Now that we understand what these styles are, we can proceed to customize our template. Go to Template -> Edit HTML and locate the border settings.

Border around Profile Image

Look for this line and if you do not want the border, change it to “0px”:-

.profile-img { border: 0px solid $bordercolor; }

or “none”:-

.profile-img { border: none; }

If you want a different style or color, amend the settings to one of the other possible values outlined above. For example, if we change the code to this:-

.profile-img { border: 2px dashed #ff00ff; }

Border around Images in Blog Posts

The border styles for the images in Blog Posts are found here:-

.post img { border:1px solid $bordercolor; }

Set it to “0px” or “none” to remove the image borders in the Blog Posts or customize the border style to something you like. Without a border, an image looks like this:-

With a border style such as this:-

.post img { border:3px outset #ff00ff; }

The image is contained within a box:-

If you post a lot of pictures and graphics on your Blog, you may like to spend some time configuring this and choosing an appropriate border setting.

Border around Image Links

In many of the templates, there is a style defined for image links. These are the clickable images which bring you to another webpage or URL when clicked.

You can customize the border settings of image links at:-

a img { border:0; }

Border around Images in Sidebar

In our Minima template, there is no unique style definition for images in the Sidebar. We can still set a special border style just for the images in the Sidebar, without affecting the border styles in our Blog Posts. Add into the stylesheet this code:-

.sidebar img { border:6px ridge #ff00ff; }

Border around Header

Many people upload images into the Blog Header and a border around the Header will stick out like a sore thumb. To remove the Header border, look for the border settings under any of these.

#header-wrapper #header #head-wrap #head

Border around Blog Posts

To demarcate each post, instead of a line at the bottom, you can have a border around the entire Blog Post.

Scroll to where you see this and change or insert the code (shown in red):-

.post { border:1px dotted #ff00ff; padding:1.5em; }

We have included a padding to give some space between the contents and the border. Without this padding, the text will be too close to the border.

Border around Sidebar

Similarly, to add a distinctive border around the Sidebar, change or insert this code (shown in red):-

#sidebar-wrapper { border:1px dotted #ff00ff; padding:1.0em; }

In some templates, you may insert the code under any of these:-

#sidebar-wrap
#sidebar

The padding adds a space between the Sidebar content and the border. Preview the template. If you find that the layout is affected because of the padding, reduce the margin between the Blog Posts and the Sidebar.

Border around Footer

If your template has a Footer element, the border style can be found under:-

#footer { border:1px solid $bordercolor; }

Border around Entire Blog

If you wish to have a border surrounding the entire Blog, you may add a border style to this part of the template:-

body { border:1px solid #ff00ff; }

Add Music to Blogspot blog

2008-10-19T12:14:00.004+05:30

This article is updated to address the difference in the way the code is interpreted by the different browsers, namely Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. We have also included a sample music file which you can use to test the effects of adding the sound file to your Blog.“Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.” ... Joseph Addison

Depending on the subject matter of your blog, having music played in the background may either enhance the pleasure of reading or annoy your visitor. Imagine the agony of surfing the web in discreet, only to catch the attention of your office colleagues or parents when the music automatically blasts off in the background. Not to mention, a big music file may cause a slower page download. Nevertheless, the solution, as shall be explained later, is simple - have an option for the reader to play or stop the music.

To begin, you will need to have a music file uploaded onto a server.Upon uploading, note down the URL of the file.

Alternatively, there are several sites that offer free download of their music files. You can enter search words like “free music download” or search for a popular artist name in the Google search box. Most of the sites that offer free download will lead you to the file location stored in their servers. Copy the URL of the music file that you have chosen.

If you would like to hear how the music works on your Blog, you can also use this music file which we have uploaded onto Google Pages - http://ownlblog.googlepages.com/BalladePourAdeline.mid - whenever you are prompted to enter the “URL of music file”. This file is for testing purposes only. Please do not link permanently to this file as it may be changed or deleted in due course.

Next, you would have to decide how you want the music to be played.

Link for reader to click

This is a text link. Your visitor can click the link if he wants to hear the music.

<a href="URL of music file">Click to hear music file</a>

Remember to enter the URL of music file into the above code. This code can be inserted into your Blog post. If you want to put it in your sidebar, you can go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element, select HTML/JavaScript and insert the code. Whatever words you type into the “Click to hear music file” will appear as the text link.

Music with a console

A music player console with controls of the volume, on and off buttons, would give your visitors a choice on how he wants the music played. With the code stated below, the music will not play unless the visitor clicks the play button.

You can either insert the music console into your Blog post or your sidebar. If you want it in the sidebar, go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element, select HTML/JavaScript.

The code to insert is this:-

<embed autostart="false" height="40" loop="true" playcount="2" src="URL of music file" width="300"/></embed>

For instance, using the following code:-

<embed autostart="false" height="40" loop="true" src="http://ownlblog.googlepages.com/BalladePourAdeline.mid" width="300"/></embed>

this is what you see:-

It will look different in IE and Firefox, depending on the installed plugins.

Note the following attributes and how they work on different browsers:-

1. Insert your URL of music file into the code.

2. The width of the example you see above is "300". If you want it to be embedded neatly into your sidebar, the width should not be greater than the sidebar width. For example, if your sidebar width is 150px, the width of your console should be about 140px.

3. The height would depend on your preference and space constraints.

4. The autostart attribute has two options. If you choose "true", the music will automatically play when your page is loaded. As I have mentioned earlier, this is not a good option unless you are absolutely sure all your visitors would not mind the music. The better option is to state it as "false". If the visitor wishes to hear the music, he can click the play button to start the music.

Note, however, that while it works fine in Internet Explorer, it may not be so in Mozilla Firefox. The default setting for IE is "false" which means the music will not play automatically. The default setting for Firefox is "true", and when we experimented with .wma and .wav files, they automatically played even when we set the autostart to "false". If you are working on the Mac, the default setting for both browsers is "false".

5. The loop attribute indicates whether the music should stop once that particular tune ends. The common attributes are "false" or "true". If the attribute is "false", the music ends after it is played once. If it is "true", the music will automatically loop and continue playing until the visitor clicks the stop button or leaves your site. For short music pieces, you may want it to repeat and choose "true".

For certain versions of Netscape browsers, another attribute that might work is loop="n" where n is a number. If n is 2 for example, the music will play twice and stop. The similar attribute in Internet Explorer is playcount.

6. You can specify the number of times the music is to be played. In the above example, where playcount="2", the same piece of music is played twice before it stops. If you want the music to be played once, you can delete playcount altogether. Note that this only works in Internet Explorer.

Background music to play automatically

For the music to play the moment your page is loaded, the code will have to appear in the HTML document of your site. Note that in so doing, there are no controls for the visitor to choose whether or not to listen to the music, nor options to turn it off. Login to your Dashboard and under “Template”, click “Edit HTML”. Somewhere near the top, after the word <Head>, insert this code:-

<embed autostart="true" height="0" loop="true" src="URL of music file" width="0"/>

Remember to insert the URL of music file into the code. There is no image of a console and readers cannot choose to turn off the music. Use this option with discretion.

Troubleshooting

The sound files can be in any format provided that your browser has the necessary plugin to play that file. Many people have problems playing MP3 files because their Firefox browsers do not have the necessary plugins. To check what your Firefox browser can support, enter this command into your browser:-

about:plugins

It will list all the installed plugins and the media files that can be played. If you need additional Mozilla Firefox add-ons, you can visit their Add-ons Page.

Further reading:

Add Favicon icon to Blogger URL

2008-10-19T12:12:00.001+05:30

Have you wondered how these little icons appear next to the web addresses, like the one you see above? When you visit the sites or bookmark them, these icons will make these URLs stand out. These are “Favicons” or “Favorite Icons”.

You would first need to have an icon which you would like to use, bearing the extension .ico format. If you search your hard disk, you might find some icons which are generic. I would suggest that you create one to represent your own unique identity. There are quite a number of free icon editor software which you can download from the net.

As for myself, I went to Download.com site and downloaded a very small program called Imagicon which can transform images into .ico format. I created an image using Photoshop. You can use any image or pictures if you do not wish to create one. Next, run the program. It is rather simple to use. While you can create icons in 2 sizes – 16x16 and 32x32 – I would think a 16x16 icon is preferable since it is readable in most older browsers.

If you do not wish to download any software, you may also try creating an icon online. Just enter the keywords “online icon generator” into your Google search bar, and you should be able to find several programs that you can try.

Once you have created an icon, save it into your hard disk. The next step of attaching the icon is a little tricky. Ideally, all you need to do is to save it in the root directory of your blog site. Nevertheless, there is no way this can be done. For one, if you try to upload an icon image, Blogger will reject it. Two, any file that is uploaded will not go into the Blogger root directory.

The only method to use will be to upload the icon into some web folder, and create a link.Once you have done that, take note of the URL of your icon. If you are using Google Page Creator, hovering your mouse over the link, you will see that the file is stored under a directory which looks like this http://yourname.googlepages.com/iconname.ico
where “yourname” is your Gmail account name, and “iconname” is the file name. Copy this URL.

Go back to your Blogger dashboard and under the Template tab, go to “Edit HTML”. Near the top you will see a line like this:-

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

Update:

Copy and insert the following code below the line:-

<link href='URL of your icon file' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Inserting this will also work but the former is preferred:-

<link href='URL of your icon file' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/x-icon'/>

Remember to type in the “URL of your icon file”.

Save the template. When you refresh your blog site, you should see your nice little Favicon next to the blog address.

Other image types

The .ico image format has been used by many but you can also create an image under the .png or .gif format. Ensure that the size of the image is either 16x16 pixels or 32x32 pixels.

If you have a PNG format image, the link to insert is:-

<link href='URL of your icon file' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/png'/>

If it is a GIF format image, the link is:-

<link href='URL of your icon file' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/gif'/>

External Domain

For those who have hosted sites in external domains, insert the link in the root directory as well. Otherwise, you can upload the file into the root directory and name it favicon.ico

As an example, if your domain name is www.domain.com, the URL of the favicon will be www.domain.com/favicon.ico

This method is not preferred but a number of browser versions are able to process the icon. Since we do not have external domains to try out this alternative, you may want to see if it works for you.

Compatibility

While you can see the Favicon in Mozilla Firefox, many have problems seeing the Favicon in Internet Explorer. This is a known problem and has been a sore point with many IE users. In some versions of IE, bookmarking the site will display the Favicon. This is not necessarily so in IE7 that we are using. In fact, when we bookmarked the highly popular search engine sites, their Favicons don't show in our IE bookmarks too although they show well in Firefox. Perhaps this is one more reason to download Mozilla Firefox if you have not already done so.

Add Digg button to Blogger or Blogspot

2008-10-19T12:11:00.002+05:30

This is a step-by-step guide to automatically place a real-time Digg count and vote button to every single blog post. Digg is a social content website where your readers or you can submit content to. If you have a good story, members will 'digg' the post and write comments. As a blog owner, you may want to make it easy for and encourage your readers to submit and digg your articles.

Automatic Count and Vote Button

Before you do that though, you would want to take note of the following:-

1. Your blog should be set to save Post Pages. Post Pages are archived blog posts published to their own web page. Each post will have a unique URL, which is required by Digg for the individual posts to be submitted. To verify or enable it, login to your Blogger Dashboard. Under Settings-> Archiving, set the “Enable Post Pages?” to “Yes” and save the settings.

2. This template hack will put a Digg button to every post. You are therefore not able to choose which post you want to include or exclude a button. If you would prefer to have a Digg button added only to some posts, read the later part of this article on “Button for selective posts.”

3. The code reads the URL of the individual blog page and this shall be the URL used for submission of the story to Digg.

Under “Template”, click the “Edit HTML” tab. Block copy the entire HTML code for your site and save it in a text file. You can also click the "Download Template" link. This is one of the two necessary steps whenever you want to change the template. The second step is of course to “Preview” the new changes, and save the changes only when you are satisfied. The backup you have saved in a text file will come in handy when you accidentally click to save the changes without previewing them. With a backup, you can easily restore the template to the prior state if need be.

Click the box next to “Expand Widget Templates”. Scroll about two-thirds down the template to look for the code that reads:-

<p><data:post.body/></p>

If you want the button to show at the top right corner of your post, replace the above code with this.

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div> <p><data:post.body/></p>

If you would like the button to appear at the end of your post, replace with this following code instead.

<p><data:post.body/></p> <div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div>

If you want to have the button at the top left corner of your post, change the alignment.

<div style='float:left; margin-right:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div> <p><data:post.body/></p>

Digg has another compact button. If you insert this code:-

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; digg_skin="compact"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div> <p><data:post.body/></p>

You can also change the background color of the button to blend with your site. For example, a code like this:-

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; digg_bgcolor="#BDEDFF"; digg_skin="compact"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div> <p><data:post.body/></p>

You can insert the color code of your choice into the red portion. For a list of color values to insert, you may refer to the Hexadecimal HTML color code list.

Automatic Count Button in Blog Footer

[Update] This segment is added in response to user's request to have the Digg button in the Blog footer, i.e., after the labels. If you scroll through your template, you will see this chunk of code which gives the labels in your Blog footer.

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> <b:if cond='data:post.labels'> <data:postLabelsLabel/> <b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'> <a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if> </b:loop> </b:if> </span> </p>

If you want a Digg button to appear just after the labels, add the appropriate Digg button code right after the above code. For example, if you want the compact Digg button, add this code below the labels code:-

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; digg_skin="compact"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div>

Move the Digg button code above the labels if you'd like. Experiment a little. Just remember to preview the template and not to save it unless you are satisfied.

Digg Button in Blog Footer

If you do not want to see an Automatic Count button, you can also place a link button into the template. This button will appear at the bottom right corner of every post and readers can click it to submit that post to Digg.

Scroll to this part of the template and insert the lines (in red):-

<div class='post-body'> <p><data:post.body/></p> <div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats --> </div> <div style="float:right; margin-left:10px;"> <a expr:href='"http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img border="0" alt="Digg this" src="http://digg.com/img/badges/91x17-digg-button.gif"/></a></div>

You can change the position of this button. Go through what we discussed earlier in this article to understand where to place the code if you should want the button to be at the top of the article.

The button 91x17-digg-button.gif is simply an example. As the following section explains, there are many buttons you can use. To change the button to another design, replace the image URL with that of the new button.

Button for selective posts

The methods of manually adding a Digg button to selective posts are rather tedious and complicated. The problem is that Blogger does not allow you to simply insert a JavaScript into a blog post. Since this blog is targeted at the majority of us who are not computer experts, I shall suggest a method that I think is simple enough for us.

First, go to the Digg tools site to select a Digg button that you like. You will see a wide selection of Digg buttons.

Take note of the image URL. For example, the image URL of this button is

http://digg.com/img/badges/91x17-digg-button.gif

Write a post and publish it. Next, refresh the page and click on the title of your post. This will bring you to the post page. Take note of the new URL of your story. Insert it into the orange portion of this HTML code. If you want a different image, insert the image URL into the blue portion of the code.

<a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=URLofyourstory" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Digg my article" src="http://digg.com/img/badges/91x17-digg-button.gif"/></a>

Now, go back to your article and Edit it. Choose the “Edit HTML” mode and not “Compose” mode. Copy the above code and paste it into whichever part of your blog article. “Preview” it, and if you are happy with it, “Publish” it.

For this article, I have manually inserted the Digg button.

Add Blogger search box

2008-10-19T12:09:00.001+05:30

The Google Navigation bar at the top of your Blogger blogs has an embedded search box. However, you may want to include a similar box in the main body of your blog (like what I have done), or the sidebar. Other than the convenience for users, the added advantage is that unlike Google search box, the search results of this Blogger.com search box appear in the main body of your Blog.

Under Template->Page Elements tab, click “Add a Page Element” at the place where you want your search box to appear. Select “HTML/JavaScript”.

There are several HTML codes posted on the net. I tried a few, and found the one that works as follows:-

<p align="left"> <form id="searchthis" action="YOUR BLOG URL/search" style="display:inline;" method="get"> <strong>NAME OF YOUR BLOG<br/></strong> <input id="b-query" maxlength="255" name="q" size="20" type="text"/> <input id="b-searchbtn" value="Search" type="submit"/> </form></p>

Remember to change YOUR BLOG URL to the URL or web address of your Blog. Also, change the NAME OF YOUR BLOG to that which you want to call your site. For instance, if your Blog Name is long, you may want to write something like “Search Here” or “Search this site”.

You can also change the “Search” button to say, “Hit” or “Go”, by changing the Value.

Save the code and refresh your page. If you want a longer or shorter search box, you can play around with the size. The above example of a width size="20" and value="Hit" will give you this:-

Whereas a width size="30" and value="Go" will give you this:-

The size of the search box is a matter of appearance. You may have noticed that the maxlength="255". This indicates that a user may enter up to 255 characters in the search box, which I think is sufficient and need not be altered.

Image instead of Search button

Just for the fun of it, if you want readers to click an image instead of a button, you will first need to do up a small picture. You can also resize a picture you already have with photo editing tools like Google's Picasa. After creating a picture, upload it onto a free server like GooglePages or Google Groups, or other free hosts that offer direct links to the image files. Take note of this IMAGE URL.

The HTML code to insert is this:-

<p align="left"> <form id="searchthis" action="YOUR BLOG URL/search" style="display:inline;" method="get"> <strong>NAME OF YOUR BLOG<br/></strong> <input id="b-query" maxlength="255" name="q" size="20" type="text"/> <input id="b-searchbtn" type="image" src="IMAGE URL" align="top"/> </form></p>

Remember to insert into the code the IMAGE URL, where your picture is uploaded. You can align the image to the top, bottom or set a horizontal space between the bar and the image by using a hspace tag.

While it is alright to replace the button of your Blogger search box, you may not want to do that with the Google search box since their T.O.S. disallows any alteration of their code.

Scrolling Text - Marquee HTML Code

2008-10-19T12:06:00.003+05:30

This HTML term Marquee is used to create a scrolling or sliding text. The text can move across the screen horizontally or vertically at a certain speed determined by you. Note, however, that while it looks nice to have scrolling announcements, advertisements, quotations, or links, having too much animation in your Blog may distract and irritate your readers. We had earlier created a line of scrolling text in the Header of our Quotes Blog to let you have an idea what you can do for your Blog. Also, animated tags like this are not W3C-compliant. Microsoft came up with the marquee tag and while most browsers support it, W3 did not accept it. We shall be discussing this in later articles on CSS3 and JavaScript alternatives.

For this tutorial, we begin with a short explanation of what the attributes do before giving you examples of how these attributes can be applied.

Marquee Attributes

behavior="scroll" behavior="alternate" behavior="slide"

This defines how the text will move. The default is Scroll. If the behavior is not specified, the text scrolls by moving from one end to another. Where the behavior is Alternate, the text will move back and forth. The Slide seems to have the same effect as Scroll in Firefox browser. In Internet Explorer, the text under Slide may move to one end and stop.

direction="left" direction="right" direction="up" direction="down"

The default is "left", meaning that if no direction is specified, the text will move from right to left.

loop="3"

This sets the number of times the marquee will scroll. For example, in Internet Explorer, if the number is 3, the text will scroll 3 times and stop. This command might be ignored by Firefox and the text continues to scroll. For both browsers, if no value is specified or if this attribute is omitted, the marquee will scroll or loop continuously.

scrollamount="1"

This is the amount of scrolling (in pixels). If the number is 1, the text moves by 1 pixel each time and therefore scrolls at a slow pace. If this attribute is not stated, the default value is 6. The higher the number, the faster the text scrolls.

scrolldelay="100"

This is used to set the interval between each scroll movement in milliseconds. The default value is 85. Here, the higher the value, the slower the text scrolls. A value that is smaller than 60 would be ignored and replaced by the value 60. In Internet Explorer, if you really want the text to zoom at lightning speed, you can set a small delay like 20 and specify the truespeed attribute as true (see below).

truespeed="true" truespeed="false"

This tells the browser whether or not to stick to the scrolldelay values lower than 60 that you have set. The default value is false and the browser will ignore values less than 60. Set it as true if you want the browser to adhere to the low scrolldelay value and have the text scroll very fast.

bgcolor: rgb(255,0,0)">#XXXXXX"

Should you want a background color for the scrolling text, you can specify the color code into #XXXXXX. You may refer to the HTML Color Code Chart for the color codes.

height="50px" height="80%"

You can specify the height of the marquee box in pixels or percentage value. The default value is the height of the contained text.

width="200px" width="80%"

Similarly, you can set the width of the marquee box in pixels or percentage value. The default width is the width of the frame that the marquee appears in.

vspace="20px" vspace="80%"

In Internet Explorer, you can set the top and bottom margins outside the scrolling text by stating a vspace (vertical space) margin in pixels or percentage value.

hspace="20px" hspace="80%"

You can also set the left and right margins outside the scrolling text by stating a hspace (horizontal space) margin either in pixels or percentage value.

Where to place the marquee code

You can place the scrolling text either in your Header, Footer, Sidebar, or blog post.

Add Page Element in the Header and Post Body.

Go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element, select HTML/JavaScript to add the marquee code.

If you want the text to be in your Posts, just like what you see in this post, see that you are in the “Edit HTML” mode and not “Compose” mode when you add the marquee code.

Marquee HTML Code

The basic code to add is this:-

Example 1

<marquee bgcolor="#ffffcc">Text scrolls from right to left by default.</marquee>

Text scrolls from right to left by default.

Notice that by default, the text scrolls from right to left, and it loops continuously. You can of course change the background color by specifying the Hexadecimal color code under bgcolor.

Further Examples of the Marquee code, applying the attributes discussed above:-

Example 2

<marquee behavior="alternate" width="80%" bgcolor="#ffffcc">Bouncing text using the alternate behavior.</marquee>

Bouncing text using the alternate behavior.

Here, the text bounces from one side to the other and the width of the text box has been reduced to 80%.

Example 3

<marquee scrolldelay="150" direction="up" width="300px" height="100px" bgcolor="#ffffcc">Text scrolls upwards. For the text to appear in the next line, add this tag <p></p> after the previous line.</marquee>

Text scrolls upwards.

For the text to appear in the next line, add this tag <p></p> after the previous line.

The scrolldelay has been set at 150. Increase this value if you want a slower speed.

Example 4

<marquee hspace="50%" direction="down" scrollamount="2" height="100px" bgcolor="#ffffcc">Text scrolls downwards. For the text to appear in the next line, add this tag <p></p> after the previous line.</marquee>

Text scrolls downwards.

For the text to appear in the next line, add this tag <p></p> after the previous line.

In this example, we use scrollamount to control the speed. The higher the value, the faster the speed. In Internet Explorer, you will see the left and right margins set under hspace.

Change Font style and Color of text

Notice in the above examples that the text is black. If you want a different color or style for your text, you can set the style of the text before the marquee code. Here are some examples:-

Example 5

<span style="color:#F6358A; font-weight:bold;"><marquee direction="right" scrollamount="3" bgcolor="#333333">Text scrolls from left to right.</marquee></span>

Text scrolls from left to right.

What we have done here is to specify a color for the text. You can look up the Color Code Chart for more colors.

Example 6

<span style="color:#6AFB92; font-size:xx-large; font-family:fantasy; font-weight:bold;"><marquee direction="right" scrollamount="3" bgcolor="#333333">Text scrolls from left to right.</marquee></span>

Text scrolls from left to right.

You can set the font-family for the text. It can be a generic font like cursive, serif, monospace, fantasy and so on. It can also be a specific font family like times, arial, courier, verdana, etc. You can state the font-size as xx-small, x-small, small, smaller, xx-large, x-large, large, larger, or a percentage value.

Update:

Pause/Stop and Start a Scroll

Readers have asked whether the scrolling text can be paused when a visitor moves his mouse cursor over the text. This is useful when he wants to read the text or click a link with the text. To start and start a marquee, the additional arguments used are the "onmouseover" and "onmouseout" events to add a simple JavaScript. It will pause the scrolling text when the mouse is over it and resume the scroll when the mouse leaves the text.

Example 7

<marquee bgcolor="#ffffcc" onmouseover="this.stop()" onmouseout="this.start()">Text scroll pauses when the mouse hovers over it and starts again when the mouse is moved out of the text.</marquee>

Text scroll pauses when the mouse hovers over it and starts again when the mouse is moved out of the text.

Scrolling Link List

Nokia Codes Tips and Tricks!All you need to know..4

2008-10-17T16:29:00.001+05:30

Unlock SP lock
Here is a way to Unlock your phone which is Service Provider locked, without to know SPLock code !!!!
Give it a try:
First of all, PIN CODE MUST BE ON, then press:
C

C and hold until it clears display
* and hold until start to blink
* and hold until start to blink
04* * *your pin#
Each time you turn your phone OFF it resets the lock, so this need to be done each time you'll turn your phone ON :-(
Anyway it's better than nothing, isn't it?
6110 Sim Card Locking
There are four different types of Sim Locks on the 6110 (not sure about 5110 yet).
1 = Country Lock - Lock to Specific Country
2 = Network Lock - Lock to Network
3 = Provider Lock - Lock to Service Provider

4 = Sim Lock - Lock to Specific SIM Card
To see the status of your phone
#pw+(mastercode)+X#
(mastercode) is a 10 digit number WITHOUT the brackets.
X is a number 1 through 4, it shows the above locks. Not sure of which numbers are assigned to which lock yet. (The numbers above stand for X => for esample: 1 = Country Lock
Sim not restricted message means your phone is NOT sim locked - Check all 4 to be sure.
Most SIMs are locked with the Service Provider Lock => f.e. to the network of MAX

Adding NEW Ring Tones
Set SMSC to +358405202999 (Smart Messaging)
Senf a SMS to 99999 with the word TONES in the message
When you get the reply, edit the message so that the tone that you want does not have a asterisk in front of it. Now send the message to 99999. The phone will display NEW RINGTONE RECEIVED.
Turning on Car Kit and Head Set Menus (Cannot be turned off)
To enable the headset-function, you have to short-circuit the "3" and "4". After a short time there is "Headset" on the display Now, menu 3-6 is now enabled!
To enable the carkit-function you have to short-circuit the "4" and "5". After a short time, "Car" is shown on the display and the menu 3-7 is enabled!!
If you short-circuit the left and the right contact with the middle contact ("3", "6" and "9") the Nokia Software hangs! The profile "Headset" will be activated. Before you do this, just active the "auto call receive" function in the headphone profile and set the ringing volume to "mute" Now you can use your phone for checking out what people are talking about in a room. Place the phone somewhere under a table in this room and call your phone! The phone receives the call without ringing and you can listen to the words these people are talking about!

Nokia 1610

To view IMEI number *#06#
To view Software Version enter *#170602112302#
Latest Version is under Phone Info
Pinouts
Desktop Charger----------------------|

A "Firmware" is the phone's operating system stored in internal Flash memory of the device (disk Z.
Manufacturers release new firmware versions containing bug fixes, improvements and - sometimes - offering new functions.
Firmware upgrade can only be made in authorized Nokia service centre (point).
To check your current firmware version simply type *#0000# on main Phone screen.

·

How to check your IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)?

Type *#06# on main Phone screen.

Start up in Safe Mode so no 'auto start' apps will be running:

To make sure that no memory-resident programs start when you reboot your phone,
hold down the pencil key when you turn on the phone and hold it on untill you have to enter your PIN code.
(When you have trouble booting up the phone with the MMC in it because it got corrupted for some reason, this trick will
almost always let you boot up the phone so you can remove the latest installed app which might have caused the
problem or if your phone is "unrepairable" you can still back up your important data before you do a format.)

Q: How to totally format your Nokia 3650 and remove all installed applications, user files and restore all
settings to default like it's new out of the box? (OEM apps won't be deleted like Camera and RealOne Player).

A: First Format your MMC: Menu > Extras > Memory > Options > Format mem. card > Yes.
Note: It is very important to format your MMC before you format your phone!
Then format your phone by typing *#7370# on main Phone screen.
Phone will ask: "Restore all original phone settings? Phone will restart." Press 'Yes' and enter your Lock code (default is 12345).
Tip: Formatting takes several minutes so you'd better connect your Nokia 3650
to a charger to ensure that your battery doesn't get empty in the middle of formatting.
Note: All your created acces points and mailboxes will be lost so take a note of them. And all application settings will be reset.

Page 1 2 3 4

Nokia Codes Tips and Tricks!All you need to know..3

2008-10-17T16:27:00.006+05:30

Tip 1 : Do u know how to use the edit button (abc or pencil button)?
Heres how... in the inbox for example; u wanna delete multiple sms, simply hold the edit button, scroll down, and then, press c to delete the marked sms. The edit button can also b used to copy and past text in sms, simply hold it and scroll across, choose copy. pretty good for placing song names in ngages
Tip 2 : Shit happens, on a smartphone, its inevitable u do something wrong, and tis calls for a format of fone. to format the fone, press *#7370#, then enter the lock code, which is the sec code of the fone. NOTE: batt must b full, else if format is disrupted by low batt, consequences will b disatrous
I heard the code *#7780# works too, pretty much the same i tink.
for 6600 users, to format the fone, theres an alternative way. Press and hold <3>, <*>, and the buttons, then power on fone, keep holding on the 3 buttons, till u come to a format screen. tis method ONLY works on 6600, and need not enter the sec code. BUT sec code wun be reset to default 12345.
Tip 3 : TO NGAGE USERS; Did u know u can install .sis files simply using the cable given? Juz plug it in, place the .sis file anywhere on e: (the mmc), not in any folders, root of e:, disconnect, then look for it in manager.

Tip 4: Save on battery and system memory being used by regulary checking the task manager which can be accessed by holding down the menu button!!
Tip 5: Type *#06# to display your IMEI serial number, very valuable for the unlocking your phone to other sim cards
Tip 6: Type *#0000# to view which firmware version you are running
Tip 4a: Set the screen saver to a short time out period to prolong battery life.
Tip 4b: Avoid restarting the phone, or repeatedly turning it on and off. This helps increase battery life.
Tip 7: If you would like to avoid being "blue jacked", keep bluetooth turned off, or set your phone's visibility to hidden.

Tip 9: Save memory when installing apps, by installing over bluetooth. This can be done using the nokia phone suite and a bluetooth serial connection. Only works with .SIS files, so java still has to be sent to the phone, but will save space when using .SIS files.
Tip 10: Operator logos
Use a filemanager like FExplorer or SeleQ to add the folders: "c:/system/Apps/phone/oplogo". Add a .bmp picture to folder "oplogo" and restart your phone! The .bmp picture size needs to be: 97 x 25 pixels
Tip 11: Check if the recepients phone is on
Delivery reports
or
Type *0# your message in the message composer window space then write your message, the recipient will not see the star zero hash bit - just the message When they read it it will relay a message back to your fone showing the time they recieved it. (haven't yet tried it myself though)
Tip 12: BlueJacking
First up, you need to know what Bluetooth is. There are lots of types of modern devices that incorporate Bluetooth as one of their many features. PDAs, mobile phones and laptops are a few of these modern devices. Bluetooth means that Bluetooth enabled devices can send things like phonebook/address book contacts, pictures & notes to other Bluetooth enabled devices wirelessly over a range of about 10 metres. So, we've got past the boring part. Now, using a phone with Bluetooth, you can create a phonebook contact and write a message, eg. 'Hello, you've been bluejacked', in the 'Name' field. Then you can search for other phones with Bluetooth and send that phonebook contact to them. On their phone, a message will popup saying "'Hello, you've been bluejacked' has just been received by Bluetooth" or something along those lines. For most 'victims' they will have no idea as to how the message appeared on their phone.

Tip 13: While you are viewing a picture in your phone's gallery, press one of these shortcut keys (definitely works on 6600, not sure about other symbians)
1 - turn image anticlockwise
3 - turn image clockwise
* - toggle on/off of full screen

How to free more RAM on your phone >>>

>>> Method 1: Flight mode:
Put your phone in "Flight mode" with Psiloc System Tools. Install System Tools, open it and select "Flight mode". This way you can restart the phone without your SIM card so there will be no running phone tasks in the background. Now you can have up to 3,5 MB of free RAM!

Note: ironically enough, Flight mode doesn't work when Smart Launcher is installed, at least in my case.
But i've also heard several reports of people who have both apps running without any problems.

>>> Method 2: Smart Launcher trick:
Install Smart Launcher and open it. Go to Options, Settings and put Launcher ON.
Now plug in your charger and switch off your phone. Wait untill the battery meter appears and short press the Menu button (don't hold).
The menu should appear and now you can have 3,5 to 4,5 MB free RAM! (Hold Menu button to check RAM).

The trick is that with the charger plugged in, the phone must get a minimum software support for charging, even when
the phone is switched off. And somehow Smart Launcher has still got it's shortcut running and that's the Menu button. So when
you press the Menu button, you go directly to the Menu without any other phone tasks running in the background so
you trick the phone and you have more free RAM!
Note: when you unplug the charger, the phone will switch off.

>>> Method 3: Menu :
This method I found it by myself, it frees a little about 100~200 KB but I guess it's useful sometime

Close your menu not by selecting the right selection key "exit", or pressing the menu key another time, they only hide the menu app but do not close it, to close it select the left selection key "option" and scroll down and select "exit"

So when you open an app needs more ram reopen menu and close it, it's useful when play low bit rate video in realplayer paradis.
Nokia 3210/5110/6110

To view IMEI number *#06#
To view Software Version enter *#0000#
To view Status of Sim Clock Stop. Enter *#746025625#
Latest Version is under Phone Info
Type is NSE-3NX
*#92702689# offers you Serial Number and also IMEI number. There are various options to scroll here.
The code is easier to remember as *#war0anty# (warranty)
The next screen is the date of manufacture in the format Made: 1197
The next screen is the purchase date in the format Purchasing Date: 1197 (this can be edited)
The next screen has Repaired: 0000 (presumable at repair the date is entered)
The next screen has Transfer User Data? (the same option as the 8110)
To exit turn the phone off and then back on.
After pressing these codes the phone will shut down and start up again with the service activated/deactivated.

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Nokia Codes Tips and Tricks!All you need to know..2

2008-10-17T16:27:00.005+05:30

***Things You Never Knew Your Cell Phone Could Do!!!!***

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies.
Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out
the things that you can do with it: -
1 EMERGENCY
* The Emergency Number worldwide for **Mobile** is 112 ...* If you find yourself out of
coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile
will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly
this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. **Try it out.**
2 Have you locked your keys in the car? Does you car have remote keys?
This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in
the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your
cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your
home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will
unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You
could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote"
for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
3 Hidden Battery power
Imagine your cell battery is very low , you are expecting an important call and you don't have
a charger. Nokia instrument comes with a reserve battery. To activate, press the keys *3370#
Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in
battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time.
.:: NOKIA ::Nokia Universal Codes Code Description
These Nokia codes will work on most Nokia Mobile Phones
(1) *3370# Activate Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR) - Your phone uses the best sound
quality but talktime is reduced my approx. 5%
(2)#3370# Deactivate Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR) OR *3370# ( Favourite )
(3)*#4720# Activate Half Rate Codec - Your phone uses a lower quality sound but you
should gain approx 30% more Talk Time.
(4)*#4720# Deactivate Half Rate Codec.
(5)*#0000# Displays your phones software version, 1st Line : Software Version, 2nd Line :
Software Release Date, 3rd Line : Compression Type. ( Favourite )
(6)*#9999# Phones software version if *#0000# does not work.
(7)*#06# For checking the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI Number). (
Favourite )
(8)#pw+1234567890+1# Provider Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w"
and "+" symbols).
(9)#pw+1234567890+2# Network Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w"
and "+" symbols).
(10)#pw+1234567890+3# Country Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w"
and "+" symbols).
(11)#pw+1234567890+4# SIM Card Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w"
and "+" symbols).
(12)*#147# (vodafone) this lets you know who called you last.
(13)*#1471# Last call (Only vodofone).
(14)*#21# Allows you to check the number that "All Calls" are diverted to
(15)*#2640# Displays security code in use.
(16)*#30# Lets you see the private number.
(17)*#43# Allows you to check the "Call Waiting" status of your phone.
(18)*#61# Allows you to check the number that "On No Reply" calls are diverted to.
(19)*#62# Allows you to check the number that "Divert If Unreachable (no service)" calls
are diverted to.
(20)*#67# Allows you to check the number that "On Busy Calls" are diverted to.
(21)*#67705646# Removes operator logo on 3310 & 3330.
(22)*#73# Reset phone timers and game scores.
23)*#746025625# Displays the SIM Clock status, if your phone supports this power saving
feature "SIM Clock Stop Allowed", it means you will get the best standby time possible.
(24) *#7760# Manufactures code.
(25)*#7780# Restore factory settings.
(26)*#8110# Software version for the nokia 8110.
(27)*#92702689# Displays - 1.Serial Number, 2.Date Made, 3.Purchase Date, 4.Date of last
repair (0000 for no repairs), 5.Transfer User Data. To exit this mode you need to switch your
phone off then on again. ( Favourite )
(28)*#94870345123456789# Deactivate the PWM-Mem.
(29)**21*number# Turn on "All Calls" diverting to the phone number entered.
(30)**61*number# Turn on "No Reply" diverting to the phone number entered.
(31)**67*number# Turn on "On Busy" diverting to the phone number entered.
(32)12345 This is the default security code.
press and hold # Lets you switch between lines NOKIA 5110/5120/5130/5190 IMEI number:
* # 0 6 #

Manufacturer Info
Date of Manufacturing *#3283#
*3001#12345# (TDMA phones only) This will put your phone into programming mode, and
you'll be presented with the programming menu.
2) Select "NAM1"
3) Select "PSID/RSID"
4) Select "P/RSID 1"
Note: Any of the P/RSIDs will work
5) Select "System Type" and set it to Private
6) Select "PSID/RSID" and set it to 1
7) Select "Connected System ID"
Note: Enter your System ID for Cantel, which is 16401 or 16423. If you don't know yours,
ask your local dealer for it.
8) Select "Alpha Tag"
9) Enter a new tag, then press OK
10) Select "Operator Code (SOC)" and set it to 2050
11) Select "Country Code" and set it to 302 for Canada, and 310 for the US.
12) Power down the phone and power it back on again
ISDN Code
To check the ISDN number on your Nokia use this code *#92772689#
***Simple To Find LoSt MoBiLeS***
An IMEI number-The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is an
international identity number used to uniquely identify a mobile phone. The 15-digit IMEI
number is an electronic fingerprint transmitted every time a phone is used, which reveals the
identity of the mobile handset.
How can I find out my IMEI number? IMEI numbers are independent of the phone number
and are usually written underneath the battery or on the back of the handset. Mobile phone
users can also check their 15 digit IMEI number by dialling *#06# on their mobile handset.
Mobile phone owners should make a note of their IMEI number and keep the details in a safe
place.
If u lost your mobile, send an e-mail to cop@vsnl.net with the following info.
Your name:
Address:
Phone model:
Make:
Last used No.:
E-mail for communication:
Missed date:
IMEI No.:

Page 1 2 3 4

Nokia Codes Tips and Tricks!All you need to know..

2008-10-16T14:35:00.006+05:30

To check the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) Type-
*#06#
Information you get from the IMEIXXXXXX
XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code
FAC = Final assembly code
SNR = Serial number
SP = Spare
To check the phones Software revision type-
*#0000#
Information you get from the Software revision-
V 05.31
18-02-99
NSE-3
1ST Line = Software revision
2ND Line = The date of the software release
3RD Line = Phone type
To enter the service menu type-
*#92702689# (*#WAR0ANTY#)
Serial number (IMEI)
Production date (MM/YY)
Purchase date (MM/YY) You can only enter the date once.
Date of last repair (0000=No repair)
Transfer user data to another Nokia phone via Infra-Red
Clock Stopping
To check weather your SIM Card supports clock stopping type-
*#746025625# (*#SIM0CLOCK#)
Revealing the Headphone and Car-Kit menus
Please note that if you do these next tricks, the new menus can't be erased without
retoring the factory default settings. To do these tricks you need to short-circuit the pins
on the bottom of the phone next to where you plug in you charger.
1. To activate the "Headset" menu, you need to short-circuit pins "3" and "4". After a
short time the word "Headset" will be shown in the display. Menu 3-6 is now enabled.
2. To activate the "Car" menu, you need to short-circuit pins "4" and "5". After a short
time the word "Car" will be shown in the display. Menu 3-7 is now enabled.
THE REBOOT TRICK
This should work on all software versions of the 6110.
1. Go to the Calendar (Menu-8)
2. Make a note or reminder.
3. Enter some text into the edit box.
4. Hold "Clear" until the whole text is cleared, then press "Back".
5. Press "0". The main screen will now be showing but a space appears on the screen.
(you can't see it)
6. Enter 4 digits (e.g. 1234).
7. Use the down arrow to move the cursor to the left side of the numbers and the space
(Down arrow twice).
8. Now enter 6 digits and press the call button.
Wait for a few seconds, the screen should start to flash and reboots. It should alsowork on
other menus like the "Profiles" menu.

THE JAMES BOND TRICK
If you short-circuit theleft middle and right pins on the bottom of the phone with all
connections touching each other, the Nokia software hangs! The profile "Headset" will be
activated. Before you do this just activate the "Automatic Answer" in the headset profile
and set the ringing volume to "Mute". Now you can use your phone for checking out
what people are talking about in a room. Just place it under a table in a room and call it.
The phone receives the call without ringing and you can listen to what people are saying
NETWORK MONITOR
There is a hidden menu inside your Nokia phone. If you want to activate it, you'll have to
re-program some chips inside of your phone.
Check your software version. You can only continue if you have v4.33, v4.73 or v5.24.
Take apart the phone.
De-solder the EEPROM (ATMEL AT 24C64).
Read out the data with an EEPROM programmer and save it to a file (Backup).
If you have v.33 or v4.73, change the address "03B8" from "00" to "FF".
If you have v5.24 then change the address "0378" from "00" to "FF".
Write the new data to the EEPROM and solder it back to the phone,
Power on your phone and you should have "Netmonitor" enabled.
The Network Monitor gives you the following information.
Carrier number
MS RX Level in DBM
Received signal quality
MS TX power level
C1 (Path loss criterion, used for cell selection and reselection). The range is -99 to 99.
RTL (Radio link timeout).
Timeslot
Indication of the transmitter status
Information on the Network parameters.
TMSI (Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity).
Cell identification (Cell ID, Number of cells being used).
MCC (Mobile country code)
MCN (Mobile network code)
LAC (Location area code)
Ciphering (On/Off)
Hopping (On/Off)
DTX (On/Off)
Discard cell barred information
CHECK SIM-LOCK
Note - If you bought your Nokia on UK Vodafone or UK Cellnet you do not need to
check this because they both transmit on GSM900, and they don't lock the phones.
However if you bought your phone on UK Orange or UK One2one your phone may be
blocked. The reason is that they both transmitt on GSM1800. To make a call on
GSM1800 you need what is known as a "Dual band" phone. A dual band phone is able to
transmit on both GSM900 and GSM1800, so they lock the phones so you can't use it with
any other network simcard. If you find that your phone is locked you can try different
software to unlock it. (we havn't found one that works yet), or you can ask your service
provider who will gladly exchange the 10 digit code for about £35.
This is how to check the status of the 4 different locks. Aslo don't try entering the wrong
number, because after 3 times it will block the phone for good..
There are 4 different locks on your Nokia phone.
COUNTRY-LOCK
NETWORK-LOCK
PROVIDER-LOCK
SIMCARD-LOCK
The code to read out the sim-lock status of your phone is
#PW+(MASTERCODE)+(Y)#
# = DOUBLE-CROSS
W = PRESS "*" THREE TIMES
P = PRESS "*" FOUR TIMES
+ = PRESS "*" TWO TIMES
MASTERCODE = 1234567890
Y = NUMBER 1 TO 4
The master code is a secret code. The code has 10 digits, To read out the sim-lock status
you can enter every combination you want!
"Y" Shows the status of the network-lock. Here you can enter a number from "1" to "4".
The "4" is for the sim-card lock.

Page 1 2 3 4

Fixed Deposit Rates,Lowest Home Loan Rates,Lowest Vehicle Loan Rates

2008-10-14T16:11:00.006+05:30

Current Highest Fixed Deposit Rates in Banks for Residents

Max Rates Non-Seniors
(based on deposit period)

Duration	Institutions	Rate
3 months	Punjab and Sind Bank	9.05
6 months	ING Vysya Bank	10.00
1 year	ING Vysya Bank Karur Vysya Bank	11.00
2 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.00
3 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.00
4 years	Tamilnad Mercantile Bank	10.25
5 years	Tamilnad Mercantile Bank	10.25
>5 years	ING Vysya Bank City Union Bank Barclays Bank Kotak Mahindra Bank Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Lakshmi Vilas Bank	10.00

Max Rates for Seniors
(based on deposit period)

Duration	Institutions	Rate
3 months	Punjab and Sind Bank	9.05
6 months	ING Vysya Bank	10.50
1 year	ING Vysya Bank Karur Vysya Bank	11.50
2 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.50
3 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.50
4 years	ING Vysya Bank Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Lakshmi Vilas Bank YES Bank	10.50
5 years	ING Vysya Bank Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Lakshmi Vilas Bank YES Bank	10.50
>5 years	ING Vysya Bank Lakshmi Vilas Bank	10.50

Top 10 Rates for Non-Seniors

Duration	Institutions	Rate
1 year	ING Vysya Bank	11.00
1 year-2 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.00
2 years-3 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.00
777 days	Tamilnad Marcantile Bank	11.00
400 days	City Union Bank	11.00
200 days	IndusInd Bank	10.75
1 year-2 years	YES Bank	10.75
1 year	Catholic Syrian Bank	10.70
500 days-2 years	Canara Bank	10.60
300 days	Dhanalakshmi Bank	10.60
1 year-2 years	Bank Of Rajasthan	10.60
400 days	State Bank of Travancore	10.60
400 days	IndusInd Bank	10.60
390 days	Kotak Mahindra Bank	10.60
300 days	South Indian Bank	10.60
1 year	Federal Bank	10.60
1000 days	State Bank Of India	10.60
1 year	South Indian Bank	10.60
500 days-2 years	Canara Bank	10.50
366 days-2 years	ING Vysya Bank	10.50

Top 10 Rates for Seniors

Duration	Institutions	Rate
1 year	ING Vysya Bank	11.50
1 year-2 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.50
2 years-3 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.50
400 days	City Union Bank	11.35
777 days	Tamilnad Marcantile Bank	11.30
200 days	IndusInd Bank	11.25
1 year-2 years	YES Bank	11.25
720 days	Indian Overseas Bank	11.25
1 year	Catholic Syrian Bank	11.20
300 days	Dhanalakshmi Bank	11.10
1 year-2 years	Bank Of Rajasthan	11.10
400 days	State Bank of Travancore	11.10
400 days	IndusInd Bank	11.10
300 days	South Indian Bank	11.10
1 year	Federal Bank	11.10
1000 days	State Bank Of India	11.10
1 year	South Indian Bank	11.10
500 days-2 years	Canara Bank	11.00
366 days-2 years	ING Vysya Bank	11.00
390 days	ICICI Bank	11.00

Current Highest Fixed Deposit Rates for NRIs

Compare fixed deposit rates in India for NRIs using our search tools. Compare NRO fixed deposit rates using criteria such as fixed deposit period and institution type or get the best FCNR and NRE rates in banks.

Max NRE Rates

Duration	Rate
1 year to less than 2 years	4.46
2 years to less than 3 years	3.77
3 years to less than 5 years	4.06

Max NRO Rates

Duration	Institutions	Rate
3 months	Barclays Bank DBS Bank	8.00
6 months	ING Vysya Bank	10.00
1 year	Kotak Mahindra Bank	10.50
2 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.00
3 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.00
4 years	Tamilnad Mercantile Bank	10.25
5 years	Tamilnad Mercantile Bank	10.25
>5 years	Tamilnad Mercantile Bank ING Vysya Bank Barclays Bank Kotak Mahindra Bank	10.00

NRO Top 20 Rates

Duration	Institutions	Rate
1 year	ING Vysya Bank	11.00
2 years-3 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.00
1 year-2 years	Karur Vysya Bank	11.00
777 days	Tamilnad Marcantile Bank	11.00
1 year-2 years	YES Bank	10.75
200 days	IndusInd Bank	10.75
1 year	Catholic Syrian Bank	10.70
300 days	South Indian Bank	10.60
300 days	Dhanalakshmi Bank	10.60
400 days	State Bank of Travancore	10.60
390 days	Kotak Mahindra Bank	10.60
500 days-2 years	Canara Bank	10.60
400 days	IndusInd Bank	10.60
1 year-2 years	Bank Of Rajasthan	10.60
1000 days	State Bank Of India	10.60
1 year	South Indian Bank	10.60
1 year-2 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	10.50
890 days	IDBI Bank	10.50
391 days-2 years	Kotak Mahindra Bank	10.50
366 days-2 years	ING Vysya Bank	10.50

Max FCNR Rates

	US$	Euro	GBP	CAN$	AUD	YEN
1 year to less than 2 years	3.71	5.24	6.27	4.55	7.55	0.97
2 years to less than 3 years	3.02	4.37	5.07	2.77	6.05	0.86
3 years to less than 4 years	3.31	4.34	5.00	2.92	6.06	0.96
4 years to less than 5 years	3.45	4.37	4.96	3.05	6.11	1.05
5 years	3.64	4.37	4.93	3.17	6.09	1.12

Current Lowest Home Loan Rates in India

Compare home loans in India using our search tools. Get the best home loan rates as well as EMI, quantum of home loan, margin amount for home loan, fees, home loans eligibility checks based on EMI/NMI and more. Adjust the home loan duration to get the right EMI for you or to reduce the total interest payment.

Lowest Fixed Rates

Duration	Institutions	Rate
0-5 years	Central Bank Of India	10.00
5-10 years	Oriental Bank Of Commerce	11.00
10-15 years	Oriental Bank Of Commerce	11.25
15-20 years	Oriental Bank Of Commerce	11.25
20-25 years	Corporation Bank	11.75

Lowest Floating Rates

Duration	Institutions	Rate
0-5 years	Central Bank Of India	9.25
5-10 years	Bank Of India Indian Bank	9.75
10-15 years	Bank Of India Indian Bank	10.00
15-20 years	Bank Of India	10.00
20-25 years	Bank Of Baroda	10.50

Current Lowest Vehicle Loan Rates in India

Compare best car (new or pre-owned) or two wheeler loans in India using our search tools.

New Cars

Duration	Institutions	Rate
1 year	Punjab and Sind Bank	10.75
2 years	Punjab and Sind Bank	10.75
3 years	Punjab and Sind Bank	10.75
4 years	Punjab and Sind Bank	10.75
5 years	Punjab and Sind Bank	10.75
6 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50
7 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50

Pre-Owned Cars

Duration	Institutions	Rate
1 year	Punjab and Sind Bank	10.75
2 years	Punjab and Sind Bank	10.75
3 years	Punjab and Sind Bank	10.75
4 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50
5 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50
6 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50
7 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50

Two Wheelers

Duration	Institutions	Rate
1 year	Bank Of Maharashtra Central Bank Of India SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.25
2 years	Bank Of Maharashtra Central Bank Of India SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.25
3 years	Bank Of Maharashtra Central Bank Of India SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.25
4 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50
5 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50
6 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50
7 years	SBI Commercial and International Bank	11.50

Saint Alphonsa

2008-10-12T12:09:00.003+05:30

When sister Alphonsa died in 1946, around two dozen people attended her funeral. In her 36-year lifespan, she did not do anything big and very few people knew her too. Not many noticed anything special about her.

She was the opposite of Mother Teresa, who was known all over the world and was beatified, a step below the sainthood, soon after her death.

She is the first person to be conferred sainthood from the Kerala Church which traces its origins to St Thomas the Apostle, who was believed to have arrived in Kerala in AD 52. She is also the first Indian woman to become a saint of the Catholic Church.

In her life, Sr. Alphonsa had seen only suffering and pain. Most of her life she was confined to a room at the Franciscan Clarist Congregation in Bharnaganam, Kerala.

Soon after her death, the children at the nearby school, who were fond of her, would go to her grave to pay homage. The children found that their wishes, small as they were, fulfilled soon after praying there. The news spread all over Kerala.

�Many others certified that through her "godly intervention", many ailments were cured.

The veneration of Sr. Alphonsa continued and in 1986, on a visit to Kerala, Pope John Paul II, declared her 'Blessed' along with Fr Chavara Kuriakose Elias, who lived a hundred years before her. Sr. Alphonsa was a devotee of Blessed Chavara.

Beatification is a recognition by the Church of a dead person's accession to heaven. With the sainthood, Sister Alphonsa's portrait will be placed at the altar of Catholic churches all over the world and will be venerated. Churches and Catholic institutions can be named after her.

At the beatification ceremony, the Pope noted her letter to her spiritual director: "Dear Father, as my good Lord Jesus loves me so very much, I sincerely desire to remain on this sick bed and suffer not only this, but anything else besides, even to the end of the world. I feel now that God has intended my life to be an oblation, a sacrifice of suffering.' (November 1944).

'The weight of human suffering, even the misunderstanding or jealousy of others, could not extinguish the joy of the Lord which filled her heart,' the Pope noted.

The church needed major miracles, verified by several people including doctors, before declaring a person a saint. A physically challenged boy's family claimed he was cured of deformity after praying to Alphonsa. This was accepted by the church as true.
Believers say numerous other miracles occurred after praying to Sister Alphonsa.

Born Anna Muttathupadathu on August 2, 1910, in Kudamaloor, a village near Kottayam, to Muttathupadathu Ouseph and Mariam in the Archdiocese of Changanacherry, Kerala, she lost her mother in a month. She was brought up by her maternal aunt. As a child, Anna was inspired by St Therese of Lisieux; she wanted to follow the religious path and resisted her family's wish that she get married.

To avoid getting married, she even burnt and disfigured her feet herself. In 1925, she joined the convent and was ordained in 1927.

She became a nun on the day of the feast of St. Alphonse Ligori. The name Anna was forgotten and she became Alphonsa.

She continued her school education even after joining the convent. She also taught elementary school children for some time.

But most of the time she was ailing. Yet, she did not show the pain to anyone and suffered everything with a smile and prayer. Many people, who met her, said about the pleasant behaviour of her even on her deathbed.

Born August 19, 1910, Kottayam district, Kerala, India
Died July 28, 1946, Bharananganam
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Beatified February 8, 1986, Kottayam by Pope John Paul II
Canonized October 12, 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI
Feast July 28
Patronage against bodily ills
against illness
against sickness
against the death of parents
sick people

What is 123 agreement between India And USA?

2008-10-09T19:44:00.004+05:30

The 123 agreement between India and USA refers to Sec. 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act. There is a ban on transfer of nuclear technology to other countries under this Act. The Hyde Act was passed by U.S.A to make an exception for India, to enable transfer of technology for civil nuclear energy. The 123 Agreement is the terms of engagement which operationalizes the treaty agreement between india and u.s.a for transfer of civil nuclear technology. The next step is to enter into agreement with the IAEA ( international atomic energy agency) for safegaurds of the civil nuclear reactors to be set up under the 123 agreement and to enter into an agreement with the NSG ( nuclear suppliers group) for supply of nuclear fuel i.e uranium for the civil nuclear reactors. Once India completes the agreements with IAEA and NSG, then the U.S. Congress will vote on the 123 agreement. Once it is approved by the U.S. Congress, then the deal is complete and India and U.S.A can enter into nuclear commerce i.e supply of nuclear reactors, transfer of technology, supply of nuclear fuel etc.

The Text:-
AGREEMENT FOR COOPERATION BETWEEN
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
CONCERNING PEACEFUL USES OF NUCLEAR ENERGY (123 AGREEMENT)

The Government of India and the Government of the United States of America, hereinafter referred to as the Parties,

RECOGNIZING the significance of civilian nuclear energy for meeting growing global energy demands in a cleaner and more efficient manner;

DESIRING to cooperate extensively in the full development and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as a means of achieving energy security, on a stable, reliable and predictable basis;

WISHING to develop such cooperation on the basis of mutual respect for sovereignty, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality, mutual benefit, reciprocity and with due respect for each other's nuclear programmes;

DESIRING to establish the necessary legal framework and basis for cooperation concerning peaceful uses of nuclear energy;

AFFIRMING that cooperation under this Agreement is between two States possessing advanced nuclear technology, both Parties having the same benefits and advantages, both committed to preventing WMD proliferation;

NOTING the understandings expressed in the India - U.S. Joint Statement of July 18, 2005 to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation with India covering aspects of the associated nuclear fuel cycle;

AFFIRMING their support for the objectives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its safeguards system, as applicable to India and the United States of America, and its importance in ensuring that international cooperation in development and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is carried out under arrangements that will not contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices;

NOTING their respective commitments to safety and security of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, to adequate physical protection of nuclear material and effective national export controls;

MINDFUL that peaceful nuclear activities must be undertaken with a view to protecting the environment;

MINDFUL of their shared commitment to preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and

DESIROUS of strengthening the strategic partnership between them;

Have agreed on the following:

ARTICLE 1 - DEFINITIONS

For the purposes of this Agreement:

(A) "By-product material" means any radioactive material (except special fissionable material) yielded in or made radioactive by exposure to the radiation incident to the process of producing or utilizing special fissionable material. By-product material shall not be subject to safeguards or any other form of verification under this Agreement, unless it has been decided otherwise by prior mutual agreement in writing between the two Parties.

(B) "Component" means a component part of equipment, or other item so designated by agreement of the Parties.

(C) "Conversion" means any of the normal operations in the nuclear fuel cycle, preceding fuel fabrication and excluding enrichment, by which uranium is transformed from one chemical form to another - for example, from uranium hexafluoride (UF6) to uranium dioxide (UO2) or from uranium oxide to metal.

(D) "Decommissioning" means the actions taken at the end of a facility's useful life to retire the facility from service in the manner that provides adequate protection for the health and safety of the decommissioning workers and the general public, and for the environment. These actions can range from closing down the facility and a minimal removal of nuclear material coupled with continuing maintenance and surveillance, to a complete removal of residual radioactivity in excess of levels acceptable for unrestricted use of the facility and its site.

(E) "Dual-Use Item" means a nuclear related item which has a technical use in both nuclear and non-nuclear applications.

(F) "Equipment" means any equipment in nuclear operation including reactor, reactor pressure vessel, reactor fuel charging and discharging equipment, reactor control rods, reactor pressure tubes, reactor primary coolant pumps, zirconium tubing, equipment for fuel fabrication and any other item so designated by the Parties.

(G) "High enriched uranium" means uranium enriched to twenty percent or greater in the isotope 235.

(H) "Information" means any information that is not in the public domain and is transferred in any form pursuant to this Agreement and so designated and documented in hard copy or digital form by mutual agreement by the Parties that it shall be subject to this Agreement, but will cease to be information whenever the Party transferring the information or any third party legitimately releases it into the public domain.

(I) "Low enriched uranium" means uranium enriched to less than twenty percent in the isotope 235.

(J) "Major critical component" means any part or group of parts essential to the operation of a sensitive nuclear facility or heavy water production facility.

(K) "Non-nuclear material" means heavy water, or any other material suitable for use in a reactor to slow down high velocity neutrons and increase the likelihood of further fission, as may be jointly designated by the appropriate authorities of the Parties.

(L) "Nuclear material" means (1) source material and (2) special fissionable material. "Source material" means uranium containing the mixture of isotopes occurring in nature; uranium depleted in the isotope 235; thorium; any of the foregoing in the form of metal, alloy, chemical compound, or concentrate; any other material containing one or more of the foregoing in such concentration as the Board of Governors of the IAEA shall from time to time determine; and such other materials as the Board of Governors of the IAEA may determine or as may be agreed by the appropriate authorities of both Parties. "Special fissionable material" means plutonium, uranium-233, uranium enriched in the isotope 233 or 235, any substance containing one or more of the foregoing, and such other substances as the Board of Governors of the IAEA may determine or as may be agreed by the appropriate authorities of both Parties. "Special fissionable material" does not include "source material". Any determination by the Board of Governors of the IAEA under Article XX of that Agency's Statute or otherwise that amends the list of materials considered to be "source material" or "special fissionable material" shall only have effect under this Agreement when both Parties to this Agreement have informed each other in writing that they accept such amendment.

(M) "Peaceful purposes" include the use of information, nuclear material, equipment or components in such fields as research, power generation, medicine, agriculture and industry, but do not include use in, research on, or development of any nuclear explosive device or any other military purpose. Provision of power for a military base drawn from any power network, production of radioisotopes to be used for medical purposes in military environment for diagnostics, therapy and sterility assurance, and other similar purposes as may be mutually agreed by the Parties shall not be regarded as military purpose.

(N) "Person" means any individual or any entity subject to the territorial jurisdiction of either Party but does not include the Parties.

(O) "Reactor" means any apparatus, other than a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device, in which a self-sustaining fission chain reaction is maintained by utilizing uranium, plutonium, or thorium or any combination thereof.

(P) "Sensitive nuclear facility" means any facility designed or used primarily for uranium enrichment, reprocessing of nuclear fuel, or fabrication of nuclear fuel containing plutonium.

(Q) "Sensitive nuclear technology" means any information that is not in the public domain and that is important to the design, construction, fabrication, operation, or maintenance of any sensitive nuclear facility, or other such information that may be so designated by agreement of the Parties.

ARTICLE 2 - SCOPE OF COOPERATION

1. The Parties shall cooperate in the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement. Each Party shall implement this Agreement in accordance with its respective applicable treaties, national laws, regulations, and license requirements concerning the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

2. The purpose of the Agreement being to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation between the Parties, the Parties may pursue cooperation in all relevant areas to include, but not limited to, the following:

a. Advanced nuclear energy research and development in such areas as may be agreed between the Parties;
b. Nuclear safety matters of mutual interest and competence, as set out in Article 3;
c. Facilitation of exchange of scientists for visits, meetings, symposia and collaborative research;
d. Full civil nuclear cooperation activities covering nuclear reactors and aspects of the associated nuclear fuel cycleincluding technology transfer on an industrial or commercial scale between the Parties or authorized persons;
e. Development of a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any disruption of supply over the lifetime of India's reactors;
f. Advanced research and development in nuclear sciences including but not limited to biological research, medicine, agriculture and industry, environment and climate change;
g. Supply between the Parties, whether for use by or for the benefit of the Parties or third countries, of nuclear material;
h. Alteration in form or content of nuclear material as provided for in Article 6;
i. Supply between the Parties of equipment, whether for use by or for the benefit of the Parties or third countries;
j. Controlled thermonuclear fusion including in multilateral projects; and
k. Other areas of mutual interest as may be agreed by the Parties.

3. Transfer of nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, components and information under this Agreement may be undertaken directly between the Parties or through authorized persons. Such transfers shall be subject to this Agreement and to such additional terms and conditions as may be agreed by the Parties. Nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, components and information transferred from the territory of one Party to the territory of the other Party, whether directly or through a third country, will be regarded as having been transferred pursuant to this Agreement only upon confirmation, by the appropriate authority of the recipient Party to the appropriate authority of the supplier Party that such items both will be subject to the Agreement and have been received by the recipient Party.

4. The Parties affirm that the purpose of this Agreement is to provide for peaceful nuclear cooperation and not to affect the unsafeguarded nuclear activities of either Party. Accordingly, nothing in this Agreement shall be interpreted as affecting the rights of the Parties to use for their own purposes nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, components, information or technology produced, acquired or developed by them independent of any nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, components, information or technology transferred to them pursuant to this Agreement. This Agreement shall be implemented in a manner so as not to hinder or otherwise interfere with any other activities involving the use of nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, components, information or technology and military nuclear facilities produced, acquired or developed by them independent of this Agreement for their own purposes.

ARTICLE 3 - TRANSFER OF INFORMATION

1. Information concerning the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes may be transferred between the Parties. Transfers of information may be accomplished through reports, data banks and computer programs and any other means mutually agreed to by the Parties. Fields that may be covered include, but shall not be limited to, the following:

a. Research, development, design, construction, operation, maintenance and use of reactors, reactor experiments, and decommissioning;
b. The use of nuclear material in physical, chemical, radiological and biological research, medicine, agriculture and industry;
c. Fuel cycle activities to meet future world-wide civil nuclear energy needs, including multilateral approaches to which they are parties for ensuring nuclear fuel supply and appropriate techniques for management of nuclear wastes;
d. Advanced research and development in nuclear science and technology;
e. Health, safety, and environmental considerations related to the foregoing;
f. Assessments of the role nuclear power may play in national energy plans;
g. Codes, regulations and standards for the nuclear industry;
h. Research on controlled thermonuclear fusion including bilateral activities and contributions toward multilateral projects such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER); and
i. Any other field mutually agreed to by the Parties.

2. Cooperation pursuant to this Article may include, but is not limited to, training, exchange of personnel, meetings, exchange of samples, materials and instruments for experimental purposes and a balanced participation in joint studies and projects.

3. This Agreement does not require the transfer of any information regarding matters outside the scope of this Agreement, or information that the Parties are not permitted under their respective treaties, national laws, or regulations to transfer.

4. Restricted Data, as defined by each Party, shall not be transferred under this Agreement.

ARTICLE 4 - NUCLEAR TRADE

1. The Parties shall facilitate nuclear trade between themselves in the mutual interests of their respective industry, utilities and consumers and also, where appropriate, trade between third countries and either Party of items obligated to the other Party. The Parties recognize that reliability of supplies is essential to ensure smooth and uninterrupted operation of nuclear facilities and that industry in both the Parties needs continuing reassurance that deliveries can be made on time in order to plan for the efficient operation of nuclear installations.

2. Authorizations, including export and import licenses as well as authorizations or consents to third parties, relating to trade, industrial operations or nuclear material movement should be consistent with the sound and efficient administration of this Agreement and should not be used to restrict trade. It is further agreed that if the relevant authority of the concerned Party considers that an application cannot be processed within a twomonth period it shall immediately, upon request, provide reasoned information to the submitting Party. In the event of a refusal to authorize an application or a delay exceeding four months from the date of the first application the Party of the submitting persons or undertakings may call for urgent consultations under Article 13 of this Agreement, which shall take place at the earliest opportunity and in any case not later than 30 days after such a request.

ARTICLE 5 - TRANSFER OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL, NON-NUCLEAR MATERIAL, EQUIPMENT, COMPONENTS AND RELATED TECHNOLOGY

1. Nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment and components may be transferred for applications consistent with this Agreement. Any special fissionable material transferred under this Agreement shall be low enriched uranium, except as provided in paragraph 5.

2. Sensitive nuclear technology, heavy water production technology, sensitive nuclear facilities, heavy water production facilities and major critical components of such facilities may be transferred under this Agreement pursuant to an amendment to this Agreement. Transfers of dual-use items that could be used in enrichment, reprocessing or heavy water production facilities will be subject to the Parties' respective applicable laws, regulations and license policies.

3. Natural or low enriched uranium may be transferred for use as fuel in reactor experiments and in reactors, for conversion or fabrication, or for such other purposes as may be agreed to by the Parties.

4. The quantity of nuclear material transferred under this Agreement shall be consistent with any of the following purposes: use in reactor experiments or the loading of reactors, the efficient and continuous conduct of such reactor experiments or operation of reactors for their lifetime, use as samples, standards, detectors, and targets, and the accomplishment of other purposes as may be agreed by the Parties.

5. Small quantities of special fissionable material may be transferred for use as samples, standards, detectors, and targets, and for such other purposes as the Parties may agree.

6.

(a) The United States has conveyed its commitment to the reliable supply of fuel to India. Consistent with the July 18, 2005, Joint Statement, the United States has also reaffirmed its assurance to create the necessary conditions for India to have assured and full access to fuel for its reactors. As part of its implementation of the July 18, 2005, Joint Statement the United States is committed to seeking agreement from the U.S. Congress to amend its domestic laws and to work with friends and allies to adjust the practices of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to create the necessary conditions for India to obtain full access to the international fuel market, including reliable, uninterrupted and continual access to fuel supplies from firms in several nations.

(b) To further guard against any disruption of fuel supplies, the United States is prepared to take the following additional steps:

i) The United States is willing to incorporate assurances regarding fuel supply in the bilateral U.S.-India agreement on peaceful uses of nuclear energy under Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, which would be submitted to the U.S. Congress.

ii) The United States will join India in seeking to negotiate with the IAEA an India-specific fuel supply agreement.

iii) The United States will support an Indian effort to develop a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any disruption of supply over the lifetime of India's reactors.

iv) If despite these arrangements, a disruption of fuel supplies to India occurs, the United States and India would jointly convene a group of friendly supplier countries to include countries such as Russia, France and the United Kingdom to pursue such measures as would restore fuel supply to India.

(c) In light of the above understandings with the United States, an India-specific safeguards agreement will be negotiated between India and the IAEA providing for safeguards to guard against withdrawal of safeguarded nuclear material from civilian use at any time as well as providing for corrective measures that India may take to ensure uninterrupted operation of its civilian nuclear reactors in the event of disruption of foreign fuel supplies. Taking this into account, India will place its civilian nuclear facilities under India-specific safeguards in perpetuity and negotiate an appropriate safeguards agreement to this end with the IAEA.

ARTICLE 6 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE ACTIVITIES

In keeping with their commitment to full civil nuclear cooperation, both Parties, as they do with other states with advanced nuclear technology, may carry out the following nuclear fuel cycle activities:

i) Within the territorial jurisdiction of either Party, enrichment up to twenty percent in the isotope 235 of uranium transferred pursuant to this Agreement, as well as of uranium used in or produced through the use of equipment so transferred, may be carried out.

ii) Irradiation within the territorial jurisdiction of either Party of plutonium, uranium-233, high enriched uranium and irradiated nuclear material transferred pursuant to this Agreement or used in or produced through the use of non-nuclear material, nuclear material or equipment so transferred may be carried out.

iii) With a view to implementing full civil nuclear cooperation as envisioned in the Joint Statement of the Parties of July 18, 2005, the Parties grant each other consent to reprocess or otherwise alter in form or content nuclear material transferred pursuant to this Agreement and nuclear material and by-product material used in or produced through the use of nuclear material, non-nuclear material, or equipment so transferred. To bring these rights into effect, India will establish a new national reprocessing facility dedicated to reprocessing safeguarded nuclear material under IAEA safeguards and the Parties will agree on arrangements and procedures under which such reprocessing or other alteration in form or content will take place in this new facility. Consultations on arrangements and procedures will begin within six months of a request by either Party and will be concluded within one year. The Parties agree on the application of IAEA safeguards to all facilities concerned with the above activities. These arrangements and procedures shall include provisions with respect to physical protection standards set out in Article 8, storage standards set out in Article 7, and environmental protections set forth in Article 11 of this Agreement, and such other provisions as may be agreed by the Parties. Any special fissionable material that may be separated may only be utilized in national facilities under IAEA safeguards.

iv) Post-irradiation examination involving chemical dissolution or separation of irradiated nuclear material transferred pursuant to this Agreement or irradiated nuclear material used in or produced through the use of non-nuclear material, nuclear material or equipment so transferred may be carried out.

ARTICLE 7 - STORAGE AND RETRANSFERS

1. Plutonium and uranium 233 (except as either may be contained in irradiated fuel elements), and high enriched uranium, transferred pursuant to this Agreement or used in or produced through the use of material or equipment so transferred, may be stored in facilities that are at all times subject, as a minimum, to the levels of physical protection that are set out in IAEA document INFCIRC 225/REV 4 as it may be revised and accepted by the Parties. Each Party shall record such facilities on a list, made available to the other Party. A Party's list shall be held confidential if that Party so requests. Either Party may make changes to its list by notifying the other Party in writing and receiving a written acknowledgement. Such acknowledgement shall be given no later than thirty days after the receipt of the notification and shall be limited to a statement that the notification has been received. If there are grounds to believe that the provisions of this sub-Article are not being fully complied with, immediate consultations may be called for. Following upon such consultations, each Party shall ensure by means of such consultations that necessary remedial measures are taken immediately. Such measures shall be sufficient to restore the levels of physical protection referred to above at the facility in question. However, if the Party on whose territory the nuclear material in question is stored determines that such measures are not feasible, it will shift the nuclear material to another appropriate, listed facility it identifies.

2. Nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, components, and information transferred pursuant to this Agreement and any special fissionable material produced through the use of nuclear material, non-nuclear material or equipment so transferred shall not be transferred or re-transferred to unauthorized persons or, unless the Parties agree, beyond the recipient Party's territorial jurisdiction.

ARTICLE 8 - PHYSICAL PROTECTION

1. Adequate physical protection shall be maintained with respect to nuclear material and equipment transferred pursuant to this Agreement and nuclear material used in or produced through the use of nuclear material, non-nuclear material or equipment so transferred.

2. To fulfill the requirement in paragraph 1, each Party shall apply measures in accordance with (i) levels of physical protection at least equivalent to the recommendations published in IAEA document INFCIRC/225/Rev.4 entitled "The Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities," and in any subsequent revisions of that document agreed to by the Parties, and (ii) the provisions of the 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and any amendments to the Convention that enter into force for both Parties.

3. The Parties will keep each other informed through diplomatic channels of those agencies or authorities having responsibility for ensuring that levels of physical protection for nuclear material in their territory or under their jurisdiction or control are adequately met and having responsibility for coordinating response and recovery operations in the event of unauthorized use or handling of material subject to this Article. The Parties will also keep each other informed through diplomatic channels of the designated points of contact within their national authorities to cooperate on matters of out-of-country transportation and other matters of mutual concern.

4. The provisions of this Article shall be implemented in such a manner as to avoid undue interference in the Parties' peaceful nuclear activities and so as to be consistent with prudent management practices required for the safe and economic conduct of their peaceful nuclear programs.

ARTICLE 9 - PEACEFUL USE

Nuclear material, equipment and components transferred pursuant to this Agreement and nuclear material and by-product materialused in or produced through the use of any nuclear material, equipment, and components so transferred shall not be used by the recipient Party for any nuclear explosive device, for research on or development of any nuclear explosive device or for any military purpose.

ARTICLE 10 - IAEA SAFEGUARDS

1. Safeguards will be maintained with respect to all nuclear materials and equipment transferred pursuant to this Agreement, and with respect to all special fissionable material used in or produced through the use of such nuclear materials and equipment, so long as the material or equipment remains under the jurisdiction or control of the cooperating Party.

2. Taking into account Article 5.6 of this Agreement, India agrees that nuclear material and equipment transferred to India by the United States of America pursuant to this Agreement and any nuclear material used in or produced through the use of nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment or components so transferred shall be subject to safeguards in perpetuity in accordance with the India-specific Safeguards Agreement between India and the IAEA [identifying data] and an Additional Protocol, when in force.

3. Nuclear material and equipment transferred to the United States of America pursuant to this Agreement and any nuclear material used in or produced through the use of any nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, or components so transferred shall be subject to the Agreement between the United States of America and the IAEA for the application of safeguards in the United States of America, done at Vienna November 18, 1977, which entered into force on December 9, 1980, and an Additional Protocol, when in force.

4. If the IAEA decides that the application of IAEA safeguards is no longer possible, the supplier and recipient should consult and agree on appropriate verification measures.

5. Each Party shall take such measures as are necessary to maintain and facilitate the application of IAEA safeguards in its respective territory provided for under this Article.

6. Each Party shall establish and maintain a system of accounting for and control of nuclear material transferred pursuant to this Agreement and nuclear material used in or produced through the use of any material, equipment, or components so transferred. The procedures applicable to India shall be those set forth in the India-specific Safeguards Agreement referred to in Paragraph 2 of this Article.

7. Upon the request of either Party, the other Party shall report or permit the IAEA to report to the requesting Party on the status of all inventories of material subject to this Agreement.

8. The provisions of this Article shall be implemented in such a manner as to avoid hampering, delay, or undue interference in the Parties' peaceful nuclear activities and so as to be consistent with prudent management practices required for the safe and economic conduct of their peaceful nuclear programs.

ARTICLE 11 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

The Parties shall cooperate in following the best practices for minimizing the impact on the environment from any radioactive, chemical or thermal contamination arising from peaceful nuclear activities under this Agreement and in related matters of health and safety.

ARTICLE 12 - IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AGREEMENT

1. This Agreement shall be implemented in a manner designed:

a) to avoid hampering or delaying the nuclear activities in the territory of either Party;
b) to avoid interference in such activities;
c) to be consistent with prudent management practices required for the safe conduct of such activities; and
d) to take full account of the long term requirements of the nuclear energy programs of the Parties.

2. The provisions of this Agreement shall not be used to:

a) secure unfair commercial or industrial advantages or to restrict trade to the disadvantage of persons and undertakings of either Party or hamper their commercial or industrial interests, whether international or domestic;
b) interfere with the nuclear policy or programs for the promotion of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy including research and development; or
c) impede the free movement of nuclear material, non nuclear material and equipment supplied under this Agreement within the territory of the Parties.

3. When execution of an agreement or contract pursuant to this Agreement between Indian and United States organizations requires exchanges of experts, the Parties shall facilitate entry of the experts to their territories and their stay therein consistent with national laws, regulations and practices. When other cooperation pursuant to this Agreement requires visits of experts, the Parties shall facilitate entry of the experts to their territory and their stay therein consistent with national laws, regulations and practices.

ARTICLE 13 - CONSULTATIONS

1. The Parties undertake to consult at the request of either Party regarding the implementation of this Agreement and the development of further cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy on a stable, reliable and predictable basis. The Parties recognize that such consultations are between two States with advanced nuclear technology, which have agreed to assume the same responsibilities and practices and acquire the same benefits and advantages as other leading countries with advanced nuclear technology.

2. Each Party shall endeavor to avoid taking any action that adversely affects cooperation envisaged under Article 2 of this Agreement. If either Party at any time following the entry into force of this Agreement does not comply with the provisions of this Agreement, the Parties shall promptly hold consultations with a view to resolving the matter in a way that protects the legitimate interests of both Parties, it being understood that rights of either Party under Article 16.2 remain unaffected.

3. Consultations under this Article may be carried out by a Joint Committee specifically established for this purpose. A Joint Technical Working Group reporting to the Joint Committee will be set up to ensure the fulfillment of the requirements of the Administrative Arrangements referred to in Article 17.

ARTICLE 14 - TERMINATION AND CESSATION OF COOPERATION

1. Either Party shall have the right to terminate this Agreement prior to its expiration on one year's written notice to the other Party. A Party giving notice of termination shall provide the reasons for seeking such termination. The Agreement shall terminate one year from the date of the written notice, unless the notice has been withdrawn by the providing Party in writing prior to the date of termination.

2. Before this Agreement is terminated pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article, the Parties shall consider the relevant circumstances and promptly hold consultations, as provided in Article 13, to address the reasons cited by the Party seeking termination. The Party seeking termination has the right to cease further cooperation under this Agreement if it determines that a mutually acceptable resolution of outstanding issues has not been possible or cannot be achieved through consultations. The Parties agree to consider carefully the circumstances that may lead to termination or cessation of cooperation. They further agree to take into account whether the circumstances that may lead to termination or cessation resulted from a Party's serious concern about a changed security environment or as a response to similar actions by other States which could impact national security.

3. If a Party seeking termination cites a violation of this Agreement as the reason for notice for seeking termination, the Parties shall consider whether the action was caused inadvertently or otherwise and whether the violation could be considered as material. No violation may be considered as being material unless corresponding to the definition of material violation or breach in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. If a Party seeking termination cites a violation of an IAEA safeguards agreement as the reason for notice for seeking termination, a crucial factor will be whether the IAEA Board of Governors has made a finding of non-compliance.

4. Following the cessation of cooperation under this Agreement, either Party shall have the right to require the return by the other Party of any nuclear material, equipment, non-nuclear material or components transferred under this Agreement and any special fissionable material produced through their use. A notice by a Party that is invoking the right of return shall be delivered to the other Party on or before the date of termination of this Agreement. The notice shall contain a statement of the items subject to this Agreement as to which the Party is requesting return. Except as provided in provisions of Article 16.3, all other legal obligations pertaining to this Agreement shall cease to apply with respect to the nuclear items remaining on the territory of the Party concerned upon termination of this Agreement.

5. The two Parties recognize that exercising the right of return would have profound implications for their relations. If either Party seeks to exercise its right pursuant to paragraph 4 of this Article, it shall, prior to the removal from the territory or from the control of the other Party of any nuclear items mentioned in paragraph 4, undertake consultations with the other Party. Such consultations shall give special consideration to the importance of uninterrupted operation of nuclear reactors of the Party concerned with respect to the availability of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as a means of achieving energy security. Both Parties shall take into account the potential negative consequences of such termination on the on-going contracts and projects initiated under this Agreement of significance for the respective nuclear programmes of either Party.

6. If either Party exercises its right of return pursuant to paragraph 4 of this Article, it shall, prior to the removal from the territory or from the control of the other Party, compensate promptly that Party for the fair market value thereof and for the costs incurred as a consequence of such removal. If the return of nuclear items is required, the Parties shall agree on methods and arrangements for the return of the items, the relevant quantity of the items to be returned, and the amount of compensation that would have to be paid by the Party exercising the right to the other Party.

7. Prior to return of nuclear items, the Parties shall satisfy themselves that full safety, radiological and physical protection measures have been ensured in accordance with their existing national regulations and that the transfers pose no unreasonable risk to either Party, countries through which the nuclear items may transit and to the global environment and are in accordance with existing international regulations.

8. The Party seeking the return of nuclear items shall ensure that the timing, methods and arrangements for return of nuclear items are in accordance with paragraphs 5, 6 and 7. Accordingly, the consultations between the Parties shall address mutual commitments as contained in Article 5.6. It is not the purpose of the provisions of this Article regarding cessation of cooperation and right of return to derogate from the rights of the Parties under Article 5.6.

9. The arrangements and procedures concluded pursuant to Article 6(iii) shall be subject to suspension by either Party in exceptional circumstances, as defined by the Parties, after consultations have been held between the Parties aimed at reaching mutually acceptable resolution of outstanding issues, while taking into account the effects of such suspension on other aspects of cooperation under this Agreement.

ARTICLE 15 - SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES

Any dispute concerning the interpretation or implementation of the provisions of this Agreement shall be promptly negotiated by the Parties with a view to resolving that dispute.

ARTICLE 16 - ENTRY INTO FORCE AND DURATION

1. This Agreement shall enter into force on the date on which the Parties exchange diplomatic notes informing each other that they have completed all applicable requirements for its entry into force.

2. This Agreement shall remain in force for a period of40 years. It shall continue in force thereafter for additional periods of 10 years each. Each Party may, by giving 6 months written notice to the other Party, terminate this Agreement at the end of the initial 40 year period or at the end of any subsequent 10 year period.

3. Notwithstanding the termination or expiration of this Agreement or withdrawal of a Party from this Agreement, Articles 5.6(c), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 15 shall continue in effect so long as any nuclear material, non-nuclear material, by-product material, equipment or components subject to these articles remains in the territory of the Party concerned or under its jurisdiction or control anywhere, or until such time as the Parties agree that such nuclear material is no longer usable for any nuclear activity relevant from the point of view of safeguards.

4. This Agreement shall be implemented in good faith and in accordance with the principles of international law.

5. The Parties may consult, at the request of either Party, on possible amendments to this Agreement. This Agreement may be amended if the Parties so agree. Any amendment shall enter into force on the date on which the Parties exchange diplomatic notes informing each other that their respective internal legal procedures necessary for the entry into force have been completed.

ARTICLE 17 - ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENT

1. The appropriate authorities of the Parties shall establish an Administrative Arrangement in order to provide for the effective implementation of the provisions of this Agreement.

2. The principles of fungibility and equivalence shall apply to nuclear material and non-nuclear material subject to this Agreement. Detailed provisions for applying these principles shall be set forth in the Administrative Arrangement.

3. The Administrative Arrangement established pursuant to this Article may be amended by agreement of the appropriate authorities of the Parties.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, being duly authorized, have signed this Agreement.

DONE at , this day of , 200 , in duplicate.

FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

FOR THE GOVERNMENT
OF INDIA:

AGREED MINUTE

During the negotiation of the Agreement for Cooperation Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of India Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy ("the Agreement") signed today, the following understandings, which shall be an integral part of the Agreement, were reached.

Proportionality

For the purposes of implementing the rights specified in Articles 6 and 7 of the Agreement with respect to special fissionable material and by-product material produced through the use of nuclear material and non-nuclear material, respectively, transferred pursuant to the Agreement and not used in or produced through the use of equipment transferred pursuant to the Agreement, such rights shall in practice be applied to that proportion of special fissionable material and by-product material produced that represents the ratio of transferred nuclear material and non-nuclear material, respectively, used in the production of the special fissionable material and by-product material to the total amount of nuclear material and non-nuclear material so used, and similarly for subsequent generations.

By-product material

The Parties agree that reporting and exchanges of information on by-product material subject to the Agreement will be limited to the following:

(1) Both Parties would comply with the provisions as contained in the IAEA document GOV/1999/19/Rev.2, with regard to by-product material subject to the Agreement.

(2) With regard to tritium subject to the Agreement, the Parties will exchange annually information pertaining to its disposition for peaceful purposes consistent with Article 9 of this Agreement.

FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

FOR THE GOVERNMENT
OF INDIA:

What is a Rave Party?

2008-10-09T19:31:00.001+05:30

Raves started at as a bit of a underground movement stemming from the credo of PLUR (peace, love, unity, respect), sort of like neo-hippies for lack of a better term. Originally it was a bunch of like minded individuals getting together at "raves" most of which showcased electronic music performances of all flavors. The idea was originally just to get together and have a good time despite people's differences.

As time passed raves began to get demonized as dark and scary ecstasy parties due to the sometimes frequent use of the drug and a lack of primo venues willing to house raves. Eventually the movement lost site of its roots, people simply looking to get messed up diluted the scene, every party became a neon Halloween, and trance ultimately took over as the dominant music.

What are called raves today are a far cry from what a rave was in the early 90s. If you went to a rave today you'd most likely find yourself listening to a lot of generic trance or house music in a club. I could probably go on at length about this but that's nuts and bolts of it.

1) n. any gathering of people centered around listening to and dancing to electronic music, as played by a set of live djs. Originated in 1989 in the UK as underground, often illegal gatherings in abandoned warehouses. Often characterized by the positive, psychedelic atmosphere, influnced often (but not always) by drugs and casual sex.

2) v. to dance in a style characteristic of dancers at raves, synonymous with fluid, liquid
1) There is this awesome rave tomorrow night in a warehouse downtown; all these famous djs will be playing

2) Some clubbers don't like it when I rave to hip-hop music ;-)

n. An organized underground party involving music and dancing. Raves typically involve one or more DJs playing electronic dance music such as techno, trance, breakbeat, jungle, and ambient. Usually starting after dusk and lasting through 'til dawn, drug use at raves often runs rampant; particularly the use of Ecstasy and LSD. Raves can vary greatly in size and scope, hosting from dozens to thousands of guests, and lasting from one night to a few days. Classically, ravers have maintained a strong community spirit and have promoted an ideal called PLUR, an acronym for Peace, Love, Unity and Respect. These values have unfortunately faded somewhat since the onset of a newer generation of ravers unfamiliar with these concepts so elemental to the original scene.
Guys, we went to a rave last night, right? Cause, I'm not sure WHAT we did there, but I don't remember a thing.

An underground party in which electronic music is played, dancing occurs in a very free-form fashion. The dress of the partygoers is quite unrestrained. It is rumoured that there is ALWAYS drug use involved, but this is not ALWAYS correct. There are straight-edge ravers who don't take part in drug use. Like me.
I went to a rave yesterday. It was mad phat, illin' like a villian.

The Great Depression

2008-09-21T17:24:00.002+05:30

The Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world.

Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they had dropped to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929. Besides ruining many thousands of individual investors, this precipitous decline in the value of assets greatly strained banks and other financial institutions, particularly those holding stocks in their portfolios. Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency; by 1933, 11,000 of the United States' 25,000 banks had failed. The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising unemployment; by 1932, U.S. manufacturing output had fallen to 54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the work force.

The Great Depression began in the United States but quickly turned into a worldwide economic slump owing to the special and intimate relationships that had been forged between the United States and European economies after World War I. The United States had emerged from the war as the major creditor and financier of postwar Europe, whose national economies had been greatly weakened by the war itself, by war debts, and, in the case of Germany and other defeated nations, by the need to pay war reparations. So once the American economy slumped and the flow of American investment credits to Europe dried up, prosperity tended to collapse there as well. The Depression hit hardest those nations that were most deeply indebted to the United States, i.e., Germany and Great Britain. In Germany, unemployment rose sharply beginning in late 1929, and by early 1932 it had reached 6 million workers, or 25 percent of the work force. Britain was less severely affected, but its industrial and export sectors remained seriously depressed until World War II. Many other countries had been affected by the slump by 1931.

Almost all nations sought to protect their domestic production by imposing tariffs, raising existing ones, and setting quotas on foreign imports. The effect of these restrictive measures was to greatly reduce the volume of international trade: by 1932 the total value of world trade had fallen by more than half as country after country took measures against the importation of foreign goods.

The Great Depression had important consequences in the political sphere. In the United States, economic distress led to the election of the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency in late 1932. Roosevelt introduced a number of major changes in the structure of the American economy, using increased government regulation and massive public-works projects to promote a recovery. But despite this active intervention, mass unemployment and economic stagnation continued, though on a somewhat reduced scale, with about 15 percent of the work force still unemployed in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. After that, unemployment dropped rapidly as American factories were flooded with orders from overseas for armaments and munitions. The depression ended completely soon after the United States' entry into World War II in 1941. In Europe, the Great Depression strengthened extremist forces and lowered the prestige of liberal democracy. In Germany, economic distress directly contributed to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. The Nazis' public-works projects and their rapid expansion of munitions production ended the Depression there by 1936.

At least in part, the Great Depression was caused by underlying weaknesses and imbalances within the U.S. economy that had been obscured by the boom psychology and speculative euphoria of the 1920s. The Depression exposed those weaknesses, as it did the inability of the nation's political and financial institutions to cope with the vicious downward economic cycle that had set in by 1930. Prior to the Great Depression, governments traditionally took little or no action in times of business downturn, relying instead on impersonal market forces to achieve the necessary economic correction. But market forces alone proved unable to achieve the desired recovery in the early years of the Great Depression, and this painful discovery eventually inspired some fundamental changes in the United States' economic structure. After the Great Depression, government action, whether in the form of taxation, industrial regulation, public works, social insurance, social-welfare services, or deficit spending, came to assume a principal role in ensuring economic stability in most industrial nations with market economies.

What is Alt-A Lending?

2008-09-21T17:21:00.001+05:30

An Alt-A mortgage, short for Alternative A-paper, is a type of U.S. mortgage that, for various reasons, is considered riskier than A-paper, or "prime", and less risky than "subprime," the riskiest category. Alt-A interest rates, which are determined by credit risk, therefore tend to be between those of prime and subprime home loans.
Contents

Characteristics of Alt-A

Within the U.S. mortgage industry, different mortgage products are generally defined by how they differ from the types of "conforming" or "agency" mortgages, ones guaranteed by the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

There are numerous factors that might cause a mortgage not to qualify under the GSEs' lending guidelines even though the borrower's creditworthiness is generally strong. A few of the more important factors are:

* Reduced borrower income and asset documentation (for example, "stated income", "stated assets", "no income verification")
* Borrower debt-to-income ratios above what Fannie or Freddie will allow for the borrower credit, assets and type of property being financed
* Credit history with too many problems to qualify for an "agency" loan, but not so many as to require a subprime loan (for example, low scores or serious delinquencies, but no recent charge-offs or bankruptcy)
* Loan to value ratios (percentage of the property price being borrowed) above agency limits for the property, occupancy or borrower characteristics involved

In this way, Alt-A loans are "alternatives" to the gold standard of conforming, GSE-backed mortgages.

A classification of mortgages where the risk profile falls between prime and subprime. The borrowers behind these mortgages will typically have clean credit histories, but the mortgage itself will generally have some issues that increase its risk profile. These issues include higher loan-to-value and debt-to-income ratios or inadequate documentation of the borrower's income.
Investopedia Says... These types of loans are attractive to lenders because the rates are higher than rates on prime classified mortgages, but they are still backed by borrowers with stronger credit ratings than subprime borrowers. However, with the higher rates comes additional risk for lenders because there is a lack of documentation - including limited proof of the borrower's income.

What is subprime Crisis?

2008-09-21T17:17:00.002+05:30

In Brief
Subprime Lending is primarily referring to loans extended to those with lower credit. It's considered to be much more riskier than Alt-A Lending.
Now that our economy is taking a hit(in the mortgage market), there's a very large amount of loan defaults on the SubPrime Loans(riskier loans), causing a problem across the Loan Market.
I personally believe that this whole situation will greatly affect the CPI(Consumer Price Index), causing inflation to appear lower than actual levels, due to many people who are downsizing housing expenses, at the expense of Lenders.

Explaination:-
The subprime mortgage crisis is an ongoing economic problem characterized by contracted liquidity in the global credit markets and banking system. An undervaluation of real risk in the subprime market is cascading, rippling and ultimately severely adversely affecting the world economy.

The crisis began with the bursting of the United States housing bubble[1][2] and high default rates on "subprime" and adjustable rate mortgages (ARM). Loan incentives, such as easy initial terms, in conjunction with an acceleration in rising housing prices encouraged borrowers to assume difficult mortgages on the belief they would be able to quickly refinance at more favorable terms. However, once housing prices started to drop moderately in 2006–2007 in many parts of the U.S., refinancing became more difficult. Defaults and foreclosure activity increased dramatically, as easy initial terms expired, home prices failed to go up as anticipated, and ARM interest rates reset higher. Foreclosures accelerated in the United States in late 2006 and triggered a global financial crisis through 2007 and 2008. During 2007, nearly 1.3 million U.S. housing properties were subject to foreclosure activity, up 79% from 2006.[3]

The mortgage lenders that retained credit risk (the risk of payment default) were the first to be affected, as borrowers became unable or unwilling to make payments. Major banks and other financial institutions around the world have reported losses of approximately US$435 billion as of 17 July 2008.[4][5] Owing to a form of financial engineering called securitization, many mortgage lenders had passed the rights to the mortgage payments and related credit/default risk to third-party investors via mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO). Corporate, individual and institutional investors holding MBS or CDO faced significant losses, as the value of the underlying mortgage assets declined. Stock markets in many countries declined significantly.

The widespread dispersion of credit risk and the unclear effect on financial institutions caused reduced lending activity and increased spreads on higher interest rates. Similarly, the ability of corporations to obtain funds through the issuance of commercial paper was affected. This aspect of the crisis is consistent with a credit crunch. The liquidity concerns drove central banks around the world to take action to provide funds to member banks to encourage lending to worthy borrowers and to restore faith in the commercial paper markets. The U.S. government also bailed-out key financial institutions, assuming significant additional financial commitments.

The subprime crisis has adversely affected several inputs in the economy, resulting in downward pressure on economic growth. Fewer and more expensive loans tend to result in decreased business investment and consumer spending. The initial leveling off in the housing market has become a downturn in many areas due to a surplus inventory of homes. The reduction and shift in demand versus supply has resulted in a significant decline in new home construction.[6]

With interest rates on a large number of subprime and other ARM due to adjust upward during the 2008 period, U.S. legislators, the U.S. Treasury Department, and financial institutions are taking action. A systematic program to limit or defer interest rate adjustments was implemented to reduce the effect. In addition, lenders and borrowers facing defaults have been encouraged to cooperate to enable borrowers to stay in their homes. Banks have sought and received over $250 billion in additional funds from investors to offset losses.[7] The risks to the broader economy created by the financial market crisis and housing market downturn were primary factors in several decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and the economic stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush on 13 February 2008.[8][9][10] Both actions are designed to stimulate economic growth and inspire confidence in the financial markets.

Windows Vista Registry Tweaks and tricks

2008-09-11T13:38:00.002+05:30

The idea behind AutoAdminLogon is that a user(name) can logon at a computer without having to type a password. A typical scenario would be a test machine on a private network. With AutoAdminLogon enabled, when you restart the machine it automatically logs on a named user. The trick, which also its liability, is to set a value for DefaultPassword in the registry.

1. Launch Regedit.

2. Navigate to:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\winlogon
Set: AutoAdminLogon = 1 (one means on, zero means off)

3. Tip: Try Regedit's 'Find': AutoAdminLogon

4. Create a new String Value called DefaultPassword
Set: DefaultPassword = "P@ssw0rd"

5. Check for the existence of a REG_SZ called DefaultUserName. The value should reflect the user who you wish to logon automatically. If this value does not exist, then right-click in the right pane, New, REG_SZ, name it, DefaultUserName. Set the string value to the required UserName.

6. Optional Item: If your Vista Machine has joined a domain, then create a String Value called DefaultDomainName.
Set: DefaultDomainName = "OnlyYouKnowDomain"

Here is a summary of the four key registry settings:

"AutoAdminLogon"="1"
"DefaultUserName"="xxx"
"DefaultPassword"="xxxx0xxxx"
"DefaultDomainName"="xxx.xxx". Definitely needed in a domain situation.

To Display the Windows Vista (TM) Build 6000
1. Launch Regedit See more details on starting regedit
Navigate to this key:
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
3. Scroll down and find the existing entry called PaintDesktopVersion. Double click and change its value to numeric one. Please note that there is no need to create this DWORD, as it's already there.
4. Check you now see: PaintDesktopVersion = 1
5. The default is PaintDesktopVersion = 0 meaning do not display the build number. Incidentally, this DWORD is also found in XP and Windows Server 2003.

Key Learning Points

* A simple registry tweak to change a value from zero (setting disabled) to one (setting enabled)
* Do you find the PaintDesktopVersion value in HKCU** or HKLM?
Answer: HKCU
* Should you add a value, or modify an existing setting?
Answer: Modify 0 --> 1
* Is PaintDesktopVersion a String Value or a DWORD?
Answer: DWORD.
* Do you need to Restart, or merely Log Off / On?
Answer: Log Off --> Log On and view: Build 6000 (or 6001 after applying SP1).
* Tip: Add this Value, PaintDesktopVersion to Regedit's Favorites menu
* Tip: To find the value that controls the build number quickly; launch regedit, click on the Edit menu, Find, type PaintDesktopVersion.

How to Remove Arrows on Shortcuts
The shortcut arrow is actually an overlay, which is stored in the master icon file called shell32.dll. If you open this file, then you will see familiar icons for folders, CD Drives and Start Menu items (see screenshot). Now each icon has a number associated with it, and the shortcut's number is 29. What we will do is launch the registry editor, and redirect number 29 to a different icon, one that is transparent.

Incidentally, to see the shell32.dll icons, right-click any shortcut, select Change Icon and browse to windows\system32\shell32.dll.
Method 1 (Best): Remove Arrows with Shell Icons

Our mission is to tweak the registry so that we can remove arrows on shortcuts icon. As a preliminary step, make sure that you have a shortcut on your desktop, then you will be able to see the changes, for example, create a shortcut to calc.exe.

Note: Unlike many registry hacks, this only works on Vista (and not XP).

Registry Instructions for Shell Icons Method

1. Launch Regedit.
2. Navigate to this path:
** HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\
3. Underneath \explorer, create:
a) A new Key called: Shell Icons (note plural)
b) In Shell Icons, create a new REG_SZ called: 29
4. Assign to 29 a value of: %SystemRoot%\\noarrow.ico,0
5. Note: noarrow.ico must refer to the name of the file that you add to the %systemroot% folder.
In other words, download noarrow.ico, extract the file and copy it to the \Windows folder.Deleting Vista's Shortcut Arrows
6. Once you have edited the registry, and copied the noarrow.ico file, then logoff and log back on again. (If something goes wrong, or you try several experiments, you may need to restart.)

Reliance Big TV

2008-09-11T13:16:00.005+05:30

Well the wait is over and Big TV has been launched in India by
Reliance,

Big TV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications and an new entrant in the direct-to-home (DTH) segment, is looking at charging carriage fees from small broadcasters.

Currently, Big TV is not charging the broadcasters any carriage fee, which would become a major source of revenue for the company in the near term.

"We will look at charging carriage fees from small broadcasters. We can't carry every channel on our platform, so we are considering charging carriage fees from the upcoming new channels as well as small broadcasters." a senior company official said to Televisionpoint.com.

Carriage fee is paid by television broadcasters to multi-system operators (MSO's) and DTH players to beam their channels on their network.

Big TV had launched its DTH services on August 19 and is looking to capture 40 per cent of the market share within one year. The DTH service would offer 202 channels at present, which would be increased to 300 by the middle of next year.

Big TV is available at Rs 1,490, which would include a three-month complimentary subscription. The service would be available at 1,00,000 retail outlets across 6,500 towns in the country.

At present, Reliance Big TV has eight transponders, which can support 230 channels. The company would acquire four more transponders in next three to four months, which would take its total channels capacity to 360.
Reliance Brings Momentum in DTH
Reliance-backed Big TV launched its digital DTH satellite pay-TV platform August 19, targeting a potential 40% share of the Indian DTH pay-TV market over the next 12 months.

Reliance’s entry into the capital intensive pay-TV sector is significant as it has the resources to fund long term losses and hefty sub acquisition costs (SAC). Dish TV continues to grow its top line aggressively but its SAC continues to climb along with losses while the cash burn at Tata Sky, a US$600 mil. JV between the Tatas, News Corp. and Temasek, is significant.

Making money in the mass market is the name of the game but between them, three cable MSOs - Hathway, DEN and Digicable - now lay claim to almost 25 mil. homes passed in aggregate, with Hathway in particular building a profitable franchises that could be emulated in time by DEN and Digicable. Hathway’s growing acquisition of primary points and its success with broadband is instructive and the company is on track to generate annualized EBITDA of US$40 mil. by FYE March 2009 on sales of US$160 mil. Hathway’s digital subs are likely to pass 1 mil. shortly. More funds and cash will be needed by cable however.

MPA’s latest analysis suggests approximately 6.3 mil. DTH pay-TV subs in India at present, based on net numbers from three platforms: Dish TV (~ 3 mil.), Tata Sky (2.3 mil.), and Sun Direct TV (1 mil.). MPA forecasts indicate that the DTH market could grow to 13.3 mil. net subs by end-2009 and 17.4 mil. by end-2010. Reliance reckons that another 10 – 11 mil. gross subs could be added over the next 12 – 18 months. Videocon will launch DTH services in Sept. 2008, followed swiftly by Bharti. Big TV offers 200 channels to customers, including more than 30 VOD movie channels and wide availability of all the pay-TV channel bouquets. The service is available across 6,500 towns in the country. The service is priced at Rs2,490 (Rs1,490 initial deposit plus Rs1,000 in total install fees) similar to offered by Dish TV and Tata Sky at present.

Leading Indian DTH pay-TV operator Dish (DSTV.BO) plans to acquire 5 mil. subs by FYE March 2009, adding 2 mil. new subs in the process. The company saw subscribers grow at record pace during its June 2008 quarter costs and losses also increased sharply. Encouragingly, Dish reported gross adds of 167,000 for last month, driven by offers targeting the South. Dish TV revenues grew 85% Y/Y to Rs1.6 bil./US$40 during its June 2008 quarter but EBITDA losses increased Y/Y to Rs666 mil. because of growing sub acquisition costs, averaged Rs3,000 for the quarter, up almost 100% Y/Y. Gross for the quarter reached Rs173. Dish TV hopes to fund future with a Rs12 bil. rights issue, which chairman Subhash Chandra says will complete later this year. The company has also added more capacity to launch new TV channels with nine transponders ProtoStar 1.

Features
-
More Channel Choice Pure Digital Experience Program at your
finger tips
Per View Movies
Mosaic Window
Parental Control
Reliable
After Sales Service

How is BIG TV so unique?

BIG TV will offer MPEG 4
technology for the first time in the country to provide DVD like video
and CD like audio quality TV viewing.

Now reagarding the details -

Big TV has the capacity of upto
250 TV channels which is much more than any current DTH opera
Big TV

View next photo
tor.
You
can enjoy upto 32 Pay - Per - View channels, never before seen in
India.
These channels will showcase Bollywood, Hollywood and Regional
films.
BIG TV also has Functions such as Zapper Banner; Mosaic;
Favourites; Search etc.
Bring the largest multiplex experience right
inside your home.

Some Faq’s posted for reference -

How many channels do I get to see on BIG TV ?

Currently you will be able to watch upto 150 channels & in the next
few months we will be adding more & more channels.

Which are the
channels I will be getting with monthly subscription of Rs. 325 /-?
You
will be getting ALL STAR / SONY / NDTV channels along with popular
Sports & News & Entertainment channels
Current Offer for Reliance Employees

Costing part for internal employees -

- Particulars BIG TV Employee
Offer
Upfront payment Rs. 1000 (No other charges)

Annual Subscription (paid monthly) Rs. 325 x 12 months = Rs. 3900

Free Pay Per View Movies Rs. 100/month x 12 = Rs. 1200

Net Annual Pay Out (Rs. 1000 + Rs. 3900) - Rs. 1200 = Rs. 3700

Advantages -

1. Mpeg 4 picture quality which will be the best , other providers like tata sky and dish offer mpeg 2
2. High definition content will also be beamed
3. Free movies worth Rs 100 every month
4. Ease of use, multiple features and access
5. Initial cost of ownership will be lower
6. Healthy competition which will force other DTH providers to improve service and reception quality

More
info will soon be available as soon as commercial launch take place next month.

I will update the review as and when i get more information -

Latest update --

Reliance is in advanced talks with Toshiba to sign an agreement for about
15 million LCD TVs, to be given along with the DTH connection. The proposal deal
stands like this: BIG DTH will offer its DTH connection for Rs 10,000-12,000 and
the consumer will get a Toshiba LCD TV free along with the DTH hardware. Also,
subscription will be free for the first six months or so.

Let’s see if this really happens ...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------

STB update - April 4

The STB is made in Taiwan and has the following outputs -

outputs on the back

Antenna In :
Input from terrestrial antenna. Connect to cable network or Active antenna

Loop Out & RF Out :
Terrestrial signal loop out & RF re-modulation out to Tv set. Connect to RF Terminal of Tv Set

Component :
Component Video (Y/Pb/Pr) output. Connect to Component video terminal of Tv set.

LNB Input :
Digital Satelite Signal input from dish antenna

DC Jack :
DC 12V input from power Adapter

Loop Out:
Loop through output from digital tuner

USB :

Connect USB Device

Audio L & R :

Left & Right output.

Video :

Composite output to video

What is NPT?

2008-09-08T23:29:00.002+05:30

THE TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION
OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
( NPT )

The States concluding this Treaty, hereinafter referred to as the Parties to the Treaty,

Considering the devastation that would be visited upon all mankind by a nuclear war and the consequent need to make every effort to avert the danger of such a war and to take measures to safeguard the security of peoples,

Believing that the proliferation of nuclear weapons would seriously enhance the danger of nuclear war,

In conformity with resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly calling for the conclusion of an agreement on the prevention of wider dissemination of nuclear weapons,

Undertaking to co-operate in facilitating the application of International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards on peaceful nuclear activities,

Expressing their support for research, development and other efforts to further the application, within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards system, of the principle of safeguarding effectively the flow of source and special fissionable materials by use of instruments and other techniques at certain strategic points,

Affirming the principle that the benefits of peaceful applications of nuclear technology, including any technological by-products which may be derived by nuclear-weapon States from the development of nuclear explosive devices, should be available for peaceful purposes to all Parties to the Treaty, whether nuclear-weapon or non-nuclear-weapon States,

Convinced that, in furtherance of this principle, all Parties to the Treaty are entitled to participate in the fullest possible exchange of scientific information for, and to contribute alone or in co-operation with other States to, the further development of the applications of atomic energy for peaceful purposes,

Declaring their intention to achieve at the earliest possible date the cessation of the nuclear arms race and to undertake effective measures in the direction of nuclear disarmament,

Urging the co-operation of all States in the attainment of this objective,

Recalling the determination expressed by the Parties to the 1963 Treaty banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water in its Preamble to seek to achieve the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time and to continue negotiations to this end,

Desiring to further the easing of international tension and the strengthening of trust between States in order to facilitate the cessation of the manufacture of nuclear weapons, the liquidation of all their existing stockpiles, and the elimination from national arsenals of nuclear weapons and the means of their delivery pursuant to a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control,

Recalling that, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, States must refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations, and that the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security are to be promoted with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources,

Have agreed as follows:

Article I

Each nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly; and not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce any non-nuclear-weapon State to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, or control over such weapons or explosive devices.

Article II

Each non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to receive the transfer from any transferor whatsoever of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or of control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly; not to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; and not to seek or receive any assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.

Article III

1. Each non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes to accept safeguards, as set forth in an agreement to be negotiated and concluded with the International Atomic Energy Agency in accordance with the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Agency’s safeguards system, for the exclusive purpose of verification of the fulfilment of its obligations assumed under this Treaty with a view to preventing diversion of nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. Procedures for the safeguards required by this Article shall be followed with respect to source or special fissionable material whether it is being produced, processed or used in any principal nuclear facility or is outside any such facility. The safeguards required by this Article shall be applied on all source or special fissionable material in all peaceful nuclear activities within the territory of such State, under its jurisdiction, or carried out under its control anywhere.

2. Each State Party to the Treaty undertakes not to provide: (a) source or special fissionable material, or (b) equipment or material especially designed or prepared for the processing, use or production of special fissionable material, to any non-nuclear-weapon State for peaceful purposes, unless the source or special fissionable material shall be subject to the safeguards required by this Article.

3. The safeguards required by this Article shall be implemented in a manner designed to comply with Article IV of this Treaty, and to avoid hampering the economic or technological development of the Parties or international co-operation in the field of peaceful nuclear activities, including the international exchange of nuclear material and equipment for the processing, use or production of nuclear material for peaceful purposes in accordance with the provisions of this Article and the principle of safeguarding set forth in the Preamble of the Treaty.

4. Non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty shall conclude agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency to meet the requirements of this Article either individually or together with other States in accordance with the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Negotiation of such agreements shall commence within 180 days from the original entry into force of this Treaty. For States depositing their instruments of ratification or accession after the 180-day period, negotiation of such agreements shall commence not later than the date of such deposit. Such agreements shall enter into force not later than eighteen months after the date of initiation of negotiations.

Article IV

1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.

2. All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.

Article V

Each Party to the Treaty undertakes to take appropriate measures to ensure that, in accordance with this Treaty, under appropriate international observation and through appropriate international procedures, potential benefits from any peaceful applications of nuclear explosions will be made available to non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty on a non-discriminatory basis and that the charge to such Parties for the explosive devices used will be as low as possible and exclude any charge for research and development. Non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty shall be able to obtain such benefits, pursuant to a special international agreement or agreements, through an appropriate international body with adequate representation of non-nuclear-weapon States. Negotiations on this subject shall commence as soon as possible after the Treaty enters into force. Non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty so desiring may also obtain such benefits pursuant to bilateral agreements.

Article VI

Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.

Article VII

Nothing in this Treaty affects the right of any group of States to conclude regional treaties in order to assure the total absence of nuclear weapons in their respective territories.

Article VIII

1. Any Party to the Treaty may propose amendments to this Treaty. The text of any proposed amendment shall be submitted to the Depositary Governments which shall circulate it to all Parties to the Treaty. Thereupon, if requested to do so by one-third or more of the Parties to the Treaty, the Depositary Governments shall convene a conference, to which they shall invite all the Parties to the Treaty, to consider such an amendment.

2. Any amendment to this Treaty must be approved by a majority of the votes of all the Parties to the Treaty, including the votes of all nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty and all other Parties which, on the date the amendment is circulated, are members of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The amendment shall enter into force for each Party that deposits its instrument of ratification of the amendment upon the deposit of such instruments of ratification by a majority of all the Parties, including the instruments of ratification of all nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty and all other Parties which, on the date the amendment is circulated, are members of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Thereafter, it shall enter into force for any other Party upon the deposit of its instrument of ratification of the amendment.

3. Five years after the entry into force of this Treaty, a conference of Parties to the Treaty shall be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in order to review the operation of this Treaty with a view to assuring that the purposes of the Preamble and the provisions of the Treaty are being realised. At intervals of five years thereafter, a majority of the Parties to the Treaty may obtain, by submitting a proposal to this effect to the Depositary Governments, the convening of further conferences with the same objective of reviewing the operation of the Treaty.

Article IX

1. This Treaty shall be open to all States for signature. Any State which does not sign the Treaty before its entry into force in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article may accede to it at any time.

2. This Treaty shall be subject to ratification by signatory States. Instruments of ratification and instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America, which are hereby designated the Depositary Governments.

3. This Treaty shall enter into force after its ratification by the States, the Governments of which are designated Depositaries of the Treaty, and forty other States signatory to this Treaty and the deposit of their instruments of ratification. For the purposes of this Treaty, a nuclear-weapon State is one which has manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device prior to 1 January 1967.

4. For States whose instruments of ratification or accession are deposited subsequent to the entry into force of this Treaty, it shall enter into force on the date of the deposit of their instruments of ratification or accession.

5. The Depositary Governments shall promptly inform all signatory and acceding States of the date of each signature, the date of deposit of each instrument of ratification or of accession, the date of the entry into force of this Treaty, and the date of receipt of any requests for convening a conference or other notices.

6. This Treaty shall be registered by the Depositary Governments pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations.

Article X

1. Each Party shall in exercising its national sovereignty have the right to withdraw from the Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this Treaty, have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country. It shall give notice of such withdrawal to all other Parties to the Treaty and to the United Nations Security Council three months in advance. Such notice shall include a statement of the extraordinary events it regards as having jeopardized its supreme interests.

2. Twenty-five years after the entry into force of the Treaty, a conference shall be convened to decide whether the Treaty shall continue in force indefinitely, or shall be extended for an additional fixed period or periods. This decision shall be taken by a majority of the Parties to the Treaty.1

Article XI

This Treaty, the English, Russian, French, Spanish and Chinese texts of which are equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the Depositary Governments. Duly certified copies of this Treaty shall be transmitted by the Depositary Governments to the Governments of the signatory and acceding States.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, duly authorized, have signed this Treaty.

DONE in triplicate, at the cities of London, Moscow and Washington, the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight.

India, Pakistan And Israel are the only Nuclear Power countries that haven't signed the NPT

How 2 Access Forgotten ADMIN Password in Win_XP..!

2008-09-05T20:17:00.002+05:30

STEP 1......

Petter Nordahl-Hagen's Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

This is absolutely one of the best free tools to reset the administrator password and gain access that I have ever used. It modifies the encrypted password in the registry's SAM file allowing you access to the account in Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista systems.

There is an image file to create a bootable floppy disk or bootable CD to modify the admin password and access NTFS partitions. You do not need to know the old password to set a new one. It will also offer to unlock disabled or locked user accounts (a very helpful feature). The program was just updated on April 9, 2007 to include Vista support.

Please visit the site by clicking on the link below to download a CD image or floppy image of this great program.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

OR STEP 2....

LoginRecovery.com

Another option is to decrypt the password and show you the actual administrator password. A great site for doing this is loginrecovery.com. Basically, you download a small program to extract the password from the computer, then you submit the encrypted password file to their site and they will recover the lost password. Of course, you need a computer with Internet access to upload the file and find the password.

With this option, the administrator password is not changed so you wont lose access to EFS encrypted files. Visit their site by clicking below

http://www.loginrecovery.com

Although there are probably other options to recover an administrator password, I find the two option shown above to be the quickest and easiest ways to either change or discover the password and allow you access to the user profile and data stored on the hard drive.

Microsoft Word Hotkeys | Keyboard Shortcuts

2008-09-05T20:14:00.001+05:30

CTRL and A Selects all in the current document.

CTRL and B Bold text.

CTRL and C Copies the item or text to the Clipboard and can be pasted using CTRL and V.

CTRL and D Displays the Font dialogue box.

CTRL and E Centre Alignment.

CTRL and F Displays the Find dialog box, to search the current document.

CTRL and G Displays the Go to dialog box, to go to a specific location in the current document.

CTRL and H Displays the Replace dialogue box.

CTRL and I Italic text.

CTRL and J Full Justification.

CTRL and K Create Hyperlink

CTRL and L Left Alignment

CTRL and M Tab

CTRL and N Creates a new document.

CTRL and O Displays the Open File dialogue box.

CTRL and P Displays the Print dialog box.

CTRL and R Right Alignment.

CTRL and S Displays the Save dialog box.

CTRL and U Underline text

CTRL and V Pastes the copied item or text from the Clipboard into the current position in the document.

CTRL and X Cuts the item or text selected to the Clipboard.

CTRL and Y Redo the last undone action.

CTRL and Z Undoes the last action.

CTRL and ENTER Insert Page Break.

CTRL and F2 Show Print preview.

CTRL and F4 Closes the active document window.

CTRL and F6 Opens the next document window.

F1 key Get help or use the Office assistant.

SHIFT and F1 Key Context sensitive help.

F2 Key Move text or image.

SHIFT and F2 Key Copy Text.

F3 Key Insert an autotext entry.

SHIFT and F3 Key Change the case of the selected text.

F4 Key Perform last action again.

SHIFT and F4 Key Perform a Find or Go to action again.

F5 Key Displays the Go to dialogue box, from here you can also Find and Replace.

SHIFT and F5 Key Move to a previous revision.

F6 Key Go to the next frame or pane.

SHIFT and F6 Key Go to the previous frame or pane.

F7 Key Launch the Spell checker.

SHIFT and F7 Key Launch the Thesaurus.

F8 Key Extend the current selection.

SHIFT and F8 Key Shrink the current selection.

F9 Key Update the selected fields.

SHIFT and F9 Key Switch between a field code and it's result.

F10 Key Activate the menu bar.

SHIFT and F10 Key Display a Shortcut Menu. Same as right clicking.

F11 Key Go to the next field.

SHIFT and F11 Key Go to the previous field.

F12 Key Save file As, equivalent to tools menu.

SHIFT and F12 Key Save document, equivalent to tools menu.

How 2 track d original location of email via IP? Google’s Gmail

2008-09-05T20:11:00.001+05:30

1. Log into your account and open the email in question.

2. Click on the down arrow that’s to the right of the Reply link. Choose "Show Original" from the list.

You need to look for the lines of text that start with “Received: from“. It might be easier to simply press Cntrl + F and perform a search for that phase. You’ll notice that there are several Received From’s in the message header. This is because the message header contains the IP addresses of all of servers involved in routing that email to you.

now when you got the IP address looks like "72.204.154.191"

open the web site http://www.ip2location.com/ & put the corresponding IP in the

right top corner IP location search Box "LIVE PRODUCT DEMO" & click finde location..

Huh... & you just can find out the Location n joy!!!....

How to check all of your email accounts from Gmail

2008-09-05T20:09:00.000+05:30

If you’re ok with Outlook, then there’s not a problem. However, if you prefer to use Gmail for everything since it’s web-based and therefore not tied down to one computer like Outlook, then you might be interested in knowing how to setup all of your email accounts in Gmail so you can receive all emails via your Google Inbox.

So here’s how to setup Gmail as a master account for collecting email from all of your other online accounts:

1. First, log into your Gmail account and click on Settings at the top right corner.

2. Now click on the Accounts tab and click on Add another email account under the Get
mail from other accounts heading.

3. Now you’ll be presented with a little pop-up window where you can enter in the email
address for the account you want to add in. The cool thing about this is that you don’t
have to sit there and worry about finding the pop and smtp server names for your ISP,
Google will automatically try to determine the servers for you based on the email
address!
4. After entering email address, Google automatically determined the POP server name and the port number. All you have to do is enter in your password for the account.

You also have the option to leave a copy in your account, label the messages from the new account so you can sort them quickly, and to archive them directly so that they don’t show up in your Inbox.

Now the email accounts will be checked by Google on some periodic basis and the emails will be retrieved and stored according to your preferences. Unfortunately, you cannot set the time period for the email checking.

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How 2 track d original location of email via IP? Google’s Gmail

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