[Image courtesy: dabblelicious]

MS Excel is spreadsheet format of Microsoft Office suite that enables a user to store, organize, and manage data. It is a spreadsheet consisting rows and columns, the intersection of a row and a column is called as a cell. Every cell in your Excel sheet is the basic unit for storing data. Moreover, you can apply complex calculations on the data stored on these cells and based on this data in cells, you can even create charts. In this way, MS Excel is the best way to manipulate and manage your numerical data.

However, in any case, if you encounter corruption in your Excel sheet, then you may become completely unable to access your data stored in this file. Your Excel sheet or Excel workbook generally gets corrupt when you perform indecent system shutdown while Excel file is opened on your system, virus infection. Generally, the corruption of Excel sheet renders an error message. Some of the common error messages exhibited by a corrupt MS Excel sheet are:

• File format is not valid
• Excel cannot open file
• Access denied
• EXCEL.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being created
• This file is not in a recognizable format
• ‘XYZ.xls’ cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location.

Mentioned above are some common error messages; however, you may encounter some other error messages rendering Excel corruption as well. You can try below mentioned methods to resolve Excel corruption errors.

Repair File Manually

You can try repairing your Excel file manually by ‘Open and Repair’ utility of MS Excel. Follow below mentioned steps to use this utility:

• Click ‘Open’ on the ‘File’ menu.
• Open dialog box opens, from it select the Excel file that you want to open and click the arrow next to ‘Open’ button.
• Click ‘Open and Repair’ and select one method by which you want to repair your Excel sheet.

Saving in Other Formats

If the manual method does not work, then save your Excel file in some other format like in SYLK format or in HTML format. Now restore the file in Excel format and then try to open it.

Partial Recovery

If you still are getting a corruption error message, then try opening it in WordPad. If your file opens there, then you may recover the Visual Basic code applied on your MS Excel sheet. However, you have to search for the words ‘Sub’ or ‘Functions’ for recovering the same.

Using Professional Recovery Tools

Software If none of the above mentioned resolutions work, then use of a professional file recovery software for Excel file is recommended. Reliable file recovery tools for MS Excel repair corrupt or damaged Excel spreadsheets and restore the data stored in them.

This guest post was written by Mansi Khurana. She is a professional blogger and love to write on technology. She has written several articles on Excel file repair and other technologies.

Windows 8 is already here and making some waves in the PC and tablet world. It has been the first time since Windows 95 that I have seen Microsoft radically revamped windows UI and did it for good. Not just that, it’s a solid operating system at its core, bringing the best of tried and tested Windows 7 and beautiful UI which bridges the gap between mobile, tablet and PC.

To understand what a fun it is to explore Windows 8, you have to get yourself in the waters of Windows 8. To install it, you have 3 options:

1. Upgrade your existing OS to Windows 8

2. Install Windows 8 on separate partition  (dual boot)

3. Install Windows 8 on virtual machine

If you just want to play with Windows 8, the safest option of all is to install it on a virtual machine. That way you can ensure that your favorite OS and personal data remains intact and still get to play with Windows 8 as if it was installed on physical machine. That is the option I went for!

Which Virtual Machine Software is the Best?

After bit of googling I came to know that Windows 8 is supported on below platforms:

1. Hyper-V in Windows 8 Developer Preview
2. Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2
3. VMware Workstation 8.0 for Windows
4. VirtualBox 4.1.2 for Windows

The quickest and easiest of all is to download VM player from VMWare site, the non-commercial version of which is free of cost.

Creating Virtual Machine

VM player provides New Virtual Machine wizard which takes you step by step through the process of creating virtual machine. So let’s get started!

Step 1. Select the option I will install the operating system later

Step 2. Select the Guest operating system as Microsoft Windows and version as Windows 8

Step 3. Give virtual machine a name and location where VMWare will store the virtual machine files

Step 4. Keep the recommended disk space as it is i.e. 60 GB and select the option Store virtual disk as a single file. Don’t worry if you don’t have 60 GB of free space. VMWare won’t allocate 60GB when creating a virtual machine, it is just maximum disk space. In other words, VMWare will occupy more space as and when needed, max being 60 GB.

Step 5. VM wizard will show you the setting you chose for confirmation. Press Finish to create the virtual machine

Installing Windows 8

Well done! Now that you successfully completed the important step of creating virtual machine, let’s get to the installing Windows 8 on it without further ado. I can assure you that it is even simple than creating virtual machine.

Step 1. Select the virtual machine you created in VMware player and click on Play virtual machine

Step 2. Once the VM starts, it checks for the presence of bootable device to load OS. You have two options to start the installation:

a. Insert the bootable Windows 8 installation disc in physical CD-ROM OR

b. Click on the Change CD/DVD Settings popup at the bottom of the VM

In the dialog box, select Use ISO image file option and select the Windows 8 image file

Click on Restart VM button

Step 3. Now WMware will start installing Windows 8 on your virtual machine.

Step 4. Select the language and keyboard layout.

Step 5. Click on Install Now button

Step 6. Click on Accept on License Terms screen.

Step 7. In the type of installation screen, click on Custom: Install Windows Only (Advanced)

Step 8. Installer will present you with the drive on which to install the Windows. Since we have only one drive, click on Next

Step 9. Windows will start the installation. You can enjoy reading a book or play some nice movie as it will take approximately an hour for Windows 8 installation to complete.

Step 10. Once the setup has installed the core OS, it will present you with personalization options starting with Color and PC name.

Step 11. In the next step, you can either choose express settings to accept default settings or customize the options as you like.

Step 12. This is the major change when it comes to Windows 8. Everything in Windows 8 is linked with an email account. So when login to Windows, you need to use Windows live account or create new if you don’t have it already. Of course, you could sign in without Microsoft account, but it’s better to have one as you won’t be able to use services like SkyDrive or Windows store without it.

Step 13. Sign in with your windows email address and password.

Step 14. In this step, you will provide some security information like phone number, alternate email address, security question and answer. This information will be used in case you forget your login password.

Step 15. Voila! Windows 8 is ready at your service.

It’ easy as pie, isn’t it? I would love to hear about your experiences or problems with Windows 8. So start exploring Windows 8, I bet it will be fun and yes, keep geeking!

[image courtesy: hisks]

Running a successful blog is just like running any other profitable business out there. It requires commitment, time management, maintenance, innovation, and creativity. Without these big five, your personal blog may struggle to gather a strong following and will unlikely be able to sustain itself in the years to come. Yet when you’re all alone in your efforts to run a blog, the struggle to keep things fresh, creative, and running well can be difficult. ‘How can the efforts of one blogger really make a difference?’ you may wonder to yourself. Well, here’s the good news: all blogs have small beginnings.

Some of the greatest, most famous blogs started out as miniscule personal blogs. Take for instance, Design*Sponge, which started out as a freelance writer’s design blog and has grown to have an estimated 100,000 visitors each day. Even the website Perez Hilton started out as a simple Hollywood gossip blog and has now become one of the most reliable sources for celebrity news.

I’m not suggesting that your blog will necessary turn into one of these ultra-popular blogs overnight, but with the right work ethic and commitment, you can expand your blog’s following over time. And if you keep working and pushing forward, it’s likely your blog can become as successful as blogs like Gawker, Buzz Feed, and Jezebel. Check out these five tips below on how to keep your blog running like a well-oiled machine on its way to becoming one of the most popular blogs on the web-verse.

Start with daily updates and then increase

There seems to be a huge misunderstanding about the number of times an author should update their blog. Let me clear the air and be honest about the matter: It is of dire importance that you update your blog at least once a day, if not more, when starting out. You may be thinking to yourself, ‘Well, I’m just getting started. Why do I have to update it so much?’ If you don’t, your visitors will start quickly falling off the map. Some of my favorite blogs are updated numerous times a day; can you imagine how confused I would be if they suddenly stopped updating their content for a week? Not only would I be confused, I’d likely stop reading most them. Start with one update a day and then increase from there. Perhaps set goals for how many posts you’d like to increase each month until you reach a manageable amount of daily posts.

Get big names on your blog

One thing that draws a lot of attention to a blog is when the author writes about something unique or features someone or something relatively popular in society. The greatest posts I’ve written generally feature a well-known person or public figure. One of the most wonderful things about having a blog is that people will inevitably want to speak to you for self-exposure purposes. I was lucky enough in that I was able to get authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, to speak to me. No, it wasn’t easy to get in touch with Ms. Gilbert, but once her literary agent got back to me to schedule an interview, I was able to talk to Ms. Gilbert and get the post up on my blog. To this day, that post is one of my most viewed ones of all time. So, find out how you can interview innovators, inventors, CEOs, authors, actors, etc. for your blog. It will help generate a lot of traffic your way.

Self-promotion is necessary

I find that a lot of people shy away from self-promotion. It’s an uncomfortable thing to have to do when you’re humble and shy, but there is absolutely no way around it. If you want your blog to gain followers, you have to get your name and blog out there. And why shouldn’t you put your blog out there? You’re likely writing it in the effort to get people to see your work, so don’t be afraid to use Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to show off your posts. If you are confident enough, ask other bloggers, fellow readers, etc. to feature your blog post on their websites. You may find that it is one of the most reliable ways to gather more followers on your blog.

Imagery is key

Imagery is one of the most important parts of any blog. Without any imagery, we are stuck staring at a canvas of words and second-rate graphics. Many bloggers like to stick to the romantic notion that the power of the written word is so much more important than images and that a blog can make it without them. I firmly disagree with this assertion. Images have a way of creating an atmosphere or spirit, and if your blog is stocked full of them, not only will readers feel like they are visiting a new world, they’ll feel engaged with your content. So do yourself a favor and invest in a small digital camera, if you have to, and starting painting your blog with imagery.

Recurring columns

Sometimes it’s hard to come up with new content when you’re fresh out of unique ideas. If you find yourself struggling to come up with new blog ideas as the days go by, perhaps it’s a good idea to start developing recurring columns. The benefit of recurring columns is that you already know what your theme or topic is going to be; you’ll just need to find the subject. Most popular blogs have recurring columns that keep the flow and the schedule of the blog going. Take some time and develop one or more recurring columns you can do each week. Not only will this help you manage the content of your website more easily, it will also help pull in more readers.
It may seem like a faraway dream right now, but soon enough your blog will be growing in followers and popularity if you keep the hard work up. These five helpful steps will aid you in your quest to transforming your personal blog into a well-run, creative machine.

This guest post has been provided courtesy of Mariana Ashley, an education blogger who offers accredited online colleges news to those investigating their career options. You can find her at mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.

Do you have a desktop or notebook PC which doesn’t support wireless network card? Are you thinking of spending your hard-earned money on buying a new USB wireless adapter? Hold on for now! In this time of economic slowdown, you may want to save any extra penny that you can. I am going to share with you a tip that will help you turn your android phone into portable wireless USB adapter without costing so much as a dime! Fascinating, eh? Stay with me.

Here are the steps:

• Turn on the Wi-Fi on your phone by going to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Wi-Fi
• Connect your phone to desktop or netbook PC using a USB cable that comes with the phone
• Now go to Settings -> Wireless & networks and selct the USB tethering option

Boom! Your PC is now connected to the wireless network. How difficult was that? Neither You need to install any special hardware nor you have to install any apps to take advantage of this valuable feature. USB tethering can be used on any phone running on android OS version 2.2 and onwards. If you are having any configuration issues, you may want to take a look at Android Devices: Tethering and Portable Wi-Fi Hotspots

So what are you waiting for? Go, get your hands dirty with this handy trick and don’t forget to share this post if you benefit from it. Keep geeking and keep experimenting!

Hello folks! How have you been? I hope in a good shape. It’s been a long time since we met, right? More than year I guess since I written the last post (excluding the guest posts that I am merely copy-pasting here!) Well, I know it’s a shame on my part and I should be writing more often. So, here I am today again to bring you some of coolest shortcuts in Windows that you never know are present (well, some of you might actually know, if you are a geek like me ) So, without further ado, here they are!

 Just Call me “Temp”

Windows has certain folders which gets special treatment. These are the folders which basically sits inside the Windows or Winnt folder on your installation drive, depending on whether it’s client or server Windows OS respectively. So special are these folders (and so frequently needed by application and developers alike) that Windows team doesn’t want you to waste time typing complete path to get to the folder. You can just type the folder name in the Run dialog and Windows will automatically take you to the correct folder. For example, if you wanted to navigate to the C:\\Windows\\Logs folder, you can just type “Logs” (without quotes) in the Run dialog box and C:\\Windows\\Logs folder will be correctly displayed to you. Same is true for any folder inside C:\\Windows folder. In case the folder name contains spaces, just enclose the entire folder name in double quotes and you are good. For example, to open Offline Web Pages folder, just type “Offline Web Pages” (including quotes) in the Run window. Isn’t that fun?

 Share On Fire

Let’s assume you are working on the network share drive which has ridiculously long and weird path.  Now, your boss comes to you and asks you the network share path as he wants to connect to the share too. How in the world are you going to get the network path from that drive? By hovering over the drive and typing path in notepad? or furiously going through the 19th century documentation to get the path? Relax. There is a simpler way. Just type in the below command in the command window and press enter: C:|> net share and you will be presented with the output something like this:

Since my computer is not on network, it just shows default shares whereas in case of network PC, you will see list of each share name along with fully qualified network path. Easy like a breeze, isn’t it?

Copy That Dialog

You are using some third-party application which does some pretty fancy financial calculations but instead of giving the output as a text file or some sort of disk storage, some nerd who developed it thought it is cool to just show a message box. Now you are stuck with a message box and you want to save those fancy numbers in excel so that you can do your own mumbo-jumbo on them. But you can’t, can you? Yes, of course you can!

While you are on message box, press the good old Ctrl+C to copy the message box text and paste it wherever you want using Ctrl+P. Tada! and you thought Copy-Paste was just for lazies?

Intelligent Command Window

If you are from era of DOS/Unix like me where commands were the dinosaurs that ruled the brainy IT world, you wouldn’t complain much about cryptic commands, terse switches and almost non-existent documentation of how that command works. But for the rest, it’s complicated! Whether long path names are supported? do they need to be enclosed in quotation marks? How to copy path to command window? Does command window supports drag-n-drop??

Don’t fret! Microsoft hasn’t got the reputation for user-friendliness just like that. We have a solution and that is, bit of intellisense.

How does it work? Simple. You don’t have to type the whole folder name, just enter a few characters and press TAB key and whoops! The characters will automatically expand to the first matching folder name. If there are multiple folders matching the characters and you are not on your desired folder yet, just keep pressing TAB until you hit the desired folder. Secondly, if the folder name contains spaces, the folder name will automatically be enclosed in quotation marks. So you don’t have to worry about it. This not only works for folder but sub-folders as well, so you can get the complete working path typed in within seconds. Nice, isn’t it? and by the way, you can drag-n-drop file/folder to command window to copy its path to the command prompt

Edit-Friendly Command Window

How many times you typed in long commands in command window which you copied from some freaky ugly looking DOS website and wished you could just copy and paste it in the command window? Well, as a matter of fact, you can!

How? Very simple. When you open a command window, click on the left-hand windows menu and select Edit option and click on Paste. That’s it! Other way round is possible too. From the same menu, you can use Mark option to select the text from command window and then press Enter key to copy it.

If you are frequent user of this like me, you can change the command window defaults so that you don’t have to do it every time. From the top-left windows menu, click on Defaults. In the Defaults dialog box, tick the Quick Edit Mode from Edit options on the Options tab.

Now whenever you open the command window, you can start with copy and paste right away! Windows is fun, isn’t it?

These are some of the tricks I learned over a period of time with experience. What are your hacks to work swiftly in Windows? Post them in the comments below and if you liked this article, please spread word about it by sharing. Keep geeking!

[image courtesy: bewiki]

Many of us dream of location-dependent careers that allow us to work anywhere and at any time we like. Making passive income with the Internet has become a way for many people to do just that. Unfortunately, you can’t just expect to start a blog, start typing away, and wait for the ad offers to roll in. However, there are a lot of ways that you can make money with your blog and by blogging for others. Here is a look at a few of the ways you can earn a side income through blogging:

Google AdSense/Chitika

These programs display contextual ads on your site and pays you for the number of clicks or number of impressions that come from your site. In the beginning, you will likely not see big dividends. However, as your blog gains readers and builds traffic, you can easily start to make a significant income from this source.

Text Link Ads

These are ads that are hyperlinked to certain words in your text. For instance, perhaps the word “shampoo” is hyperlinked to an ad for a new hair care product, or perhaps the word “hiking” is hyperlinked to an for new athletic shoes. These links are sold for a set amount, rather than being paid by the click or impression.

Amazon Associates/Affiliate Programs

Amazon is one of the more popular affiliate programs available, but there are several. You earn a fixed amount of sales from traffic that your blog sends to these programs. These are especially lucrative around the holidays or other gift-giving occasions.

Direct Ad Sales

Blogs have become the new newspaper in many ways, and advertisers that would have spent money with print media are changing their focus to online media. Be prepared to justify your rates based on the number of unique visitors and page views you average per week, month or year.

Sell an e-Book

Don’t give away all your content for free! Create some “premium” content that can be compiled in a useful e-book. You can then sell the book on your site. The more useful and niche specific your book, the higher your sales are likely to be. Just like with your blog, you have to think about what you have to offer that is unique when determining the topic and the focus for your e-book.

Paid Blogging

Once you have an established blog, there are many opportunities for finding paid blogging work – and these can often send links back to your blog, driving traffic. Sometimes, these assignments can be guest posts on other blogs, and sometimes, they can be sponsored posts on your own blog. Some popular paid blogging sites include:

• http://www.payu2blog.com/ – Pay U 2 Blog
• http://PayPerPost.com – Pay Per Post
• http:// Bloggerwave.com – Bloggerwave
• http:// Smorty.com – Smorty
• http:// ReviewMe.com – Review Me
• http:// LoudLaunch.com – Loud Launch
• http:// Blogitive.com – Blogitive
• http://BloggingAds.com – Blogging Ads

You can also browse the popular job boards at ProBlogger.

Blogs are the best way for budding entrepreneurs to start their own business. They are the perfect way to build either a side income or to generate a substantial primary source of income. These are just some of the more popular ways that many bloggers use their blogs to make money, but there are many, many more opportunities!

This guest post was written by Alexis Bonari who is currently a resident blogger at College Scholarships, where recently she’s been writing on how to consolidate student loans to save money as well as researching how adults can acquire continuing education loans. Whenever she gets some free time, she enjoys doing yoga, cooking for fun, and practicing the art of coupon clipping.

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Until recently, Linux/Unix was considered OS of the geeks. However, with GUI and more desktop Linux distributions, things have simplified on both Linux and Unix. Still you can geek out with Unix/Linux using its terminal. Just follow the steps below to master the terminal.

1. Never used Linux!

Get Ubuntu CD available for free download online or you can get it free with most Computer Magazines. Other *nix clones available for free are FreeBSD, OpenSolaris, CentOS, Fedora, Mint, Debian, Ubuntu’s flavors Kubuntu, ubuntu netbook edition, etc. Most run directly from CD and you may not need to install it.

2. Get the console mode on Linux

Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to F6 to go to console mode also known as terminal or command line mode as against GUI mode. Use this mode when you want to geek off. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 or F7 (default for most *nix) to revert to GUI mode. In GUI you can try ‘terminal’, ‘console’, ‘xterm’, etc till you are comfortable. If you are a Mac fan then you can use ‘terminal’ too on iPod, iPhone and Mac. It’s Unix underneath! Windows™ also has a command line mode too, but the commands are quite different and lack the effectiveness of *nix commands. Still it is worth learning windows commands, formerly known as DOS commands.

3. Understand directory structure

type – cd /
‘/’ is the top level directory also known as the root of filesystem or root directory. This is the most confused thing during Linux installation.
type – ls
You see
/bin – system binaries
/dev – Device files go in this directory
/home – similar to my documents of individual users in windows and has configurations specific to each user
/root – root user’s home directory. Adminstrator in *nix systems is known as root.
/usr – user accessible libraries, binaries, documentation
/mnt – mount points for devices are located here. Recent systems mount devices under /media.
/sbin – administration tools
/opt – user installed applications
/boot – files and configurations for booting linux
/var – files varing in size lie here. eg. log files, printer spool, etc.
/tmp – temporary files here
/lib – system library files reside here.
/etc – Most configuration files go here. Most of *nix strength lies within these configuration files.
/proc – this directory has running system information which is automatically generated by system
/usr/src – Source code of linux kernel & other packages
This is just a guide. But what goes in which directory changes from *nix to *nix and also sometimes vary in different version of same *nix.

type – cd ~
The ’tilde’ is a shortcut to your home directory.

4. Simple commands to master console:

Note : All commands and filenames under *nix are case-sensitive.

i. ls : to get directory list. Use ls -l | more – detailed directory list one page at a time. try – ls -lA. Use ‘ls’ to check results of all commands mentioned below.
ii. touch <filename> : create empty file or changes access time of existing file. Try touch linuxGeek.txt
iii. echo : print a line on terminal. Use echo ‘How R U?’. Try echo ‘How R U’> linuxGeek.txt Also try echo ‘How R U’ >> linuxGeek.txt
iv. cat <filename> : to see contents of text files. use cat linuxGeek.txt – read one screen full at a time. Try cat linuxGeek.txt -n
v. rm <filename> : delete a file. try rm -v linuxGeek.txt
vi. pwd : know your present working directory
vii. cd <directory> : to go to directory (known as ‘folder’ in Gui parlance). use cd .. – previous directory. try cd ~
viii. mkdir <directory> : create new directory. try mkdir tmp1 tmp1. Use ls to see results.
ix. rmdir <directory> : delete a directory. Try rmdir tmp1 tmp2
x. su <username> : Switch User. While logged in as a user you can login as another user (We know it as fast user switching available in Windows since WinXp) and use the system as another user. Try su (does not work in Ubuntu by default. It prefers ‘sudo’ to ‘su’)
xi. mount <partition> <directory>: mount (map in Windows parlance) physical or virtual or network drive to existing directory. use umount <mounted directory> to unmount.
xii. sudo <command>: Run a command with root (administrative) privileges. sudo mount -a
xiii. exit : to logout of system

Q.What can you do with these simple commands?
A.These are the most powerful and useful tool you can have. Among other things, it can be used for
a. Recovering your windows/linux installation
b. Data backup/recovery
c. Deleting virus. Yes! Linux is immune to windows viruses and you can just delete it and its gone. Beware, though linux is itself immune to windows viruses, it can spread virus on connected devices and windows computer. There are known Linux viruses but they are very few and do not affect the system very easily.

5. Other interesting commands

i. cal : prints calendar. Try cal 2011
ii. date : shows current date and time. As root/admin can also use it to set date & time
iii. time <command> : Shows execution time of a command. try time cal 05 2011
iv. file <filename> : Tells you the type of file – binary, ascii, directory, etc among other details
v. type <command> : Shows location of a command. Use type date. Try type su. Also try type sudo
vi. bc : binary calculator. You can have all functions of a scientific calculator and it also has programming ability. Use quit to close the calculator.

6. Know you system

i. df : know disk space usage. try df -h
ii. ps : processes currently running. Gives process Id and process name. Try ps -A|more
iii. top : real-time view of current tasks. (task manager in Windows).
iv. uname : gives OS version, name, etc. Try uname -a
v. lsusb : list available usb devices. Try lspci
vi. fdisk -l : list available drives
vii. who : all users who have logged in to your computer.
viii. whoami : Username you used for login.
ix. chmod <permission> <filename>: modify file permissions. try chmod +ugo +rwx <filename> allow user, group and others read, write and execute permission to filename. try chmod 777 <filename> to get same result. But remember you are giving all permissions to everybody on that file!
x. chown <otheruser> <filename> : change ownership of a file/directory. The creator of a file is the owner of the file. Based on file permissions as above a user may or may not be able to access a file. Do not create/change any file as ‘root’ user under home directory.

7. Working with files

i. sort <filename> : sort a file alphabetically. It does not change the contents of a file. Try sort -r <filename>.
ii. split <filename>: splits file in size of 1000 lines. Keeps original file intact. Split files are named xaa, xab, xac and so on. Try split -n 10 <filename>. Use cat x* > <filename> to join them back.
iii. locate <filename>: find a file from database created using ‘updatedb’.
iv. updatedb : creates/updates database to find files using locate.
v. cat <file1> <file2> > <file3>: concatnate file1 and file2 to create file3.
vi. grep ‘<searchword>’ <filename> : list lines matching a search-word in a file.
vii. vi <filename> (viSUAL editor not roman six) : A powerful text editor and available on all flavors of *nix. It has 2 modes command (using ‘esc’ key) and editing [using i (insert), a (append), r (replace characters)]. Use vi <filename> esc + :wq to save and quit. Refer basic vi commands to learn more.

8. Networks

i. ifconfig : shows list of network InterFaces with IP addresses and other details.
ii. route : shows routing table
iii. ping <IP address> : check whether a IP is alive and can be connected. try – ping 127.0.0.1
iv. telnet / ssh/ ftp <IP address> : connect to remote computer using respective protocols.
v. netstat : network statistic info.
vi. tracert <IP address> : Shows names of routers on each hop to destination.

9. HELP!!!

You are on a console and don’t know what a command does or how to use it. Don’t worry there’s help at hand.

• <command> –help : Shows how to use a command and its available options. Very useful tool. try it with all commands above.
• man <command>: gives detailed help (manual).
• info <command> : gives hyperlinked detailed information of the command if available.
• apropos <word> : gives list of commands with short info related to the <word> specified. try this if you don’t know/remember a command.
• cd /usr/share/local/docs: It is not separate command but the location of documentation for most packages/software available on *nix.

10. *nix Basics

So now you are a geek too. But wait! There are some important things a *nix geek must know.
i. What is kernel? What is shell?
Unix/Linux is an Operating System. A part of this OS, which interacts with the hardware and manages various functions of OS is called kernel. The other part is the shell, which interacts with this kernel and is available to users to work on. Most applications run on top of this shell. To summarize: Hardware <–> Kernel <–> shell <–> applications

ii. What is Unix? What is Linux?
Now that we now what is kernel and what is shell, we must also know how Unix and Linux are different. Simply speaking Unix is a Specification and Linux is the kernel. Not clear, right?
OS which matches POSIX specifications (now a part of SUS – Single Unix Specification) is considered Unix. It comprises both the kernel and its shell. Those that do not comply with this specification are termed Unix-like OSes.
All unix like OSes running Linux kernel are considered Linux. Unix is proprietary (exceptions include FreeBSD, OpenSolaris) and Linux is Open Source.

Some more things you must know to be a *nix geek:

iii. What is file? What is process?
iv. What are commands? What are command options?
v. What are the different types of shell available?
vi. What is shell scripting?
vii. What is a Window Manager? How is it different from GUI?

This guest post is written by Milind Lokde. Milind is a co-author of the online book ‘Attaining Nirvana’, which can be read at http://attainingnirvana.com. It is available for free download and distribution for non-commercial purposes under creative commons license. He also likes to delve into mysteries of the world and mind, which you can read on his blog at http://mindcanmatter.wordpress.com

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Trying to decide between the many Android VOIP apps that are available can leave you with more questions than answers.

• How do I know which one is right?
• Do I have to pay a monthly fee?
• What are the features of the best apps on the market?

All of these questions are valid ones and should be answered before you choose the app to use. When you make calls over VOIP you will either pay per call or sign up for a monthly plan. It is best if you know that you are using the service that is most cost effective for you.

Skype

Skype is one of the original VOIP services and is still widely used today. Since it has become available for the Android market, many people have opted to go with Skype because of name recognition. But there are other benefits to the service as well. You will receive low rates whether you choose to pay for a plan or pay as you go. You can also text anyone at any destination for less than five cents a message. Skype offers caller ID and voicemail with its service and has free instant messaging and mobile video calling.

Fring

You will instantly like the buddy list available with Fring. Not only will it sync with your address book, it will also show you who is available from services such as GoogleTalk and Yahoo. With Fring you can use WiFi, 3G and 4G to make your calls. Some calls are free of charge through their service while the rest are extremely low cost. You may even find yourself paying as low as penny per minute. Video calling and live chatting capabilities also appeal to many people who use Fring.

Truphone

With Truphone you have the option to pay as you go or take advantage of their unlimited calling plan. If you call outside of the US frequently, the unlimited plan offers you calls to 35 destinations at no charge. The monthly cost is low and you receive many other benefits as well. Low cost text messages, free calls to GoogleTalk and Skype and free IM are some of the additional features that you may like. You can even get free voicemail in case you miss an important incoming call.

Line2

You can take advantage of three different calling options when you use Line2. There is the ability to use WiFi or 3G and 4G like every other VOIP application. However, with this one you also have the choice of using the standard cellular service. In addition to this unique benefit you can make unlimited calls to the US and Canada with no charge. SMS messaging is available as well while the company offers you 24 hour support for the service. Caller ID, call waiting and even call forwarding come standard with the service. When you opt for a paid plan you will find yourself with benefits like visual voicemail and conference calling.

JaJah

JaJah is an internet based VOIP application that is available for the Android phone. With a simple download you can have access to a service that will integrate with your phone book easily. Whenever you need to make a call you will simply log in and select who you wish to call. Calling JaJah users is never charged and there is a new feature that allows you to call your Facebook friends for free as well. All of the other calls are subject to the low rates charged by JaJah regardless of the destination. There is no cost to download or use the app until you make your first call.

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Even the best bloggers out there have periods of time when they can’t quite get their blogging done, and they need to reboot. Given the nature of blogging and how it’s very fast-paced these days, even a relatively short case of blogger’s block can negatively affect the health of your blog. I’m sure everyone out there has their own set of coping strategies, so I don’t mean to prescribe a set of strategies for defeating blogger’s block. Instead, I just want to share some things that help me overcome my block; hopefully they can help you as well. And please feel free to share your own coping methods in the comments, as your methods might be even more useful than my own!

Do Administrative Tasks

The first thing you can try to do if you’re unable to blog is to turn your attention to the administrative tasks of running a blog. This way you can step away from the writing and get down to some other activity that is still useful to keeping your blog healthy. Send out emails to authors for guest posts.  Follow up with potential advertisers. Respond to comments. Check your analytics program. Redesign the template to be more user-friendly. Anything that addresses the health of your blog is still a positive activity, and it just might work to inspire you to write a new post.

Seek Unusual Sources of Inspiration

If you’re blocked, then maybe you should consider finding new and unusual sources of inspiration. In other words, maybe your block happened because you tend to write from the same sources every time you blog. If you write for a particular niche, then try to look outside of that niche for inspiration. For example, if you blog about gadgets, then look at a blog about architecture to see if you can learn any neat tricks from those bloggers regarding how they approach their subjects. Really, you’ll be surprised how well this works to recharge your brain.

Keep a Blogging Journal

Another way to avoid a block is to keep a blogging journal with you at all times. In this blogging journal you can write down ideas for your posts. You can take notes on others blogger’s posts. You can write down long-term goals or ideas you have about your blog. You can also keep this journal in other forms: you could record voice memos into your phone or video record yourself. The point is that whatever form your journal takes will allow it to be easily accessible and portable. You’ll want to always be able to record your moments of inspiration, because the constant habit of this will make it much easier for you to do your blogging seriously when you finally sit down at the computer.

Take a Break

Some of our worst blocks are the result of our putting too much pressure on ourselves. This is especially true of myself as a blogger. When I force myself to do too much work, or when I take on too many projects, or when I feel overwhelmed, sometimes the best thing I can do is step back from the computer, take a walk outside, or take a quick nap. Sure, it might eat up some of my deadline, but I’ve found that I feel doubly refreshed after a short break and can immediately throw myself into the work.

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about accredited online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.

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