Binod's Blog

Tag: Tips & Tricks

Search Google like a pro

by on Feb.27, 2012, under General, Tips & Tricks

Whenever I go for teaching or some presentation or sometime when I’m in Facebook. Many of my students and junior ask me some question. Whenever I Google it I find the solution in the top or the first link. When replying back why don’t u Google it? They just answer me ‘Google doesn’t give me the result.’ That means you gys are not using Google in an efficient way. Google is a powerful tool, but you’re missing out on a lot of that power if you just type words into it. Master Google and find the best results faster with these search tricks.

Exact Words and Phrases

One of the most basic and widely known search tricks is using quotation marks to search for an exact phrase. For example, perform the following search and you’ll only get pages that contain the word “Hello” followed by the word “World.”

“Hello World”

This same method now works for exact-word queries. For example, if you search for “mining,” Google will also show pages that contain the words “miners.” Previously, you’d use a plus sign and search for +mining, but now you have to enclose the word in quotes:

“mining”

Excluding a Word

The minus sign allows you to specify words that shouldn’t appear in your results. For example, if you’re looking for pages about Windows software that don’t mention linux, use the following search:

windows software -linux

Site Search

The site: operator allows you to perform a search in a specific site. Let’s say you’re looking for information on Windows 7 on binodranabhat.com.np. You could use the following search

site:binodranabhat.com.np windows 7

You can also use the site: operator to specify a domain. For example, if you’re looking for high-quality references, you could use site:.edu to only pull up results from .edu domains.

Related Words

The tilde (~) operator is the opposite of enclosing a single word in quotes — it searches for related words, not just the word you type. For example, if you ran the following search, you’d find search results with words similar to “geek”:

~geek

Apparently, “Linux” is the most similar word to geek, followed by “Greek.” “Nerd” comes in third. (Hey, no one ever said Google was perfect.)

The Wildcard

The asterisk (*) is a wildcard that can match any word. For example, if you wanted to see what companies Google has purchased and how much they paid, you could use this search:

“google purchased * for * dollars”

Time Ranges

A little-known search operator allows you to specify a specific time range. For example, use the following search to find results about Ubuntu from between 2008 and 2010:

ubuntu 2008..2010

File Type

The filetype: operator lets you search for files of a specific file type. For example, you could search for only PDF files.

filetype:pdf guide to php programming

One Word or the Other

The “OR” operator lets you find words that contain one term or another. For example, using the following search will pull up results that contain either the word “Ubuntu” or the word “Linux.”

ubuntu OR linux

Word Definitions

You don’t have to Google a word and look for a dictionary link if you want to see its definition. Use the following search trick and you’ll see an inline definition:

define:word

Calculator

Use Google instead of pulling one out or launching a calculator app. Use the +, -, * and / symbols to specify arithmetic operations. You can also use brackets for more complicated expressions. Here’s an example:

(7 + 5) * (9 / 3)

Unit Conversions

The calculator can also convert between units. Just type “X [units] in [units]”. Here’s an example:

5 kilometers in meters

Combine these search operators to create more complex queries. Want to search a specific website for a PDF file, created between 2001 and 2003, that contains a specific phrase but not another phrase? Go ahead.

 

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Mobile phones could be charged by the power of speech

by on Jun.09, 2011, under FuN, General, Technology

For mobile phone users, a flat battery or a lost charger are among the frustrations of modern life.
Now new research promises a way to recharge phones using nothing but the power of the human voice.
Electrical engineers have developed a new technique for turning sound into electricity, allowing a mobile to be powered up while its user holds a conversation.
The technology would also be able to harness background noise and even music to charge a phone while it is not in use.

However, there could be a downside to the innovation, if it gives people a new reason to shout into their phones as they attempt to squeeze in every extra bit of power they can.

Dr Sang-Woo Kim, who has been developing the design at the institute of nanotechnology at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea, said: “A number of approaches for scavenging energy from environments have been intensively explored.

“The sound that always exists in our everyday life and environments has been overlooked as a source. This motivated us to realise power generation by turning sound energy from speech, music or noise into electrical power.

“Sound power can be used for various novel applications including cellular phones that can be charged during conversations and sound-insulating walls near highways that generate electricity from the sound of passing vehicles.

“The latter development would have the additional benefit of reducing noise levels near highways by absorbing the sound energy of vehicles.”

The technology uses tiny strands of zinc oxide sandwiched between two electrodes. A sound absorbing pad on top vibrates when sound waves hit it, causing the tiny zinc oxide wires to compress and release. This movement generates an electrical current that can then be used to charge a battery.

A prototype of the technology was able to convert sound of around 100 decibels – the equivalent of noisy traffic – to generate 50 millivolts of electricity.

“This is not enough to charge a phone properly, but Dr Kim and his colleagues hope that by altering the material the wires are made from they will be able to produce more energy at lower sounds levels.

He said: “Our current output performance can be applied to various electronic devices with low-power consumption such as self-powered sensors and body-implantable tiny devices. We believe that we can realise more efficient sound-driven nanogenerators.”

Researchers and some manufacturers have already started looking at using ‘energy scavenging’ as a way of powering portable electronic devices.

Scientists have developed devices that can use the heartbeat to power MP3 players, while Nokia has filed a patent for a device which harvests energy from movement, much like a kinetic energy powered watch.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

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Using XAMPP and IIS together

by on May.23, 2011, under Technology, Tips & Tricks, Web Designing

Today I installed IIS in my windows, it worked…. OMG i just remembered i had installed XAMPP (the windows flavor of Apache, MySQL, Perl and PHP) as well and when i started running it the Apache Server couldn’t get started. When i looked for the issue i could see that IIS uses port 80 for its functioning so Apache of XAMPP couldn’t get started. I guess most of the Web Developers who needs to install both services might be facing this problem, As i did. Today i got a solution for that.

Snap Shots: This is a snapshot when i try to run apache, the service of Apache couldn’t get started. [IIS has already been installed and it doesn't allow to use port 80]

xaamp

There are two ways to solve this:

  • Either change IIS (the harder way)
  • Change the Apache config (the easier way)

from both way you’ll achieve the same thing. Personally I went the Apache route and here’s how I did it (using XAMPP ).

Only one way Change the  Default Port

By default IIS uses ports 80 and 443 for HTTP and HTTPS access respectively. By default, Apache also assumes these same settings. By altering two config files in Apache you can easily over-ride this:

Steps to go:

Firstly find xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf

  • Find Listen :80 …. Change to 81 [this tells Apache to listen to all IP addresses on port 81]
  • Again find ServerName localhost:80 change it to 81

Secondly find xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-ssl.conf

  • Find Listen 443…. Change to 442 [This changes the SSL (HTTPS) port to 442 (or again, your port of choice).]

Snap Shot : I edit the two files as mentioned above.

edit

Finally You are done….Enjoy Both Servers at the same time

apapa

The Service had been Started after editing 2 files.

iis xaa

NOTE: When You start the XAMPP in browser type : localhost:81

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