Create your personal favicon with favicon.cc

If you're not exactly a tech savvy teenager or a computer loving bloke, you are unlikely to know what a favicon is.
Well, a favicon is an integral part of a website, and is one of the many things that linger long in our minds, even when we leave a website. In essence, they are a major part of a website's 'face'.
To be exact, a favicon is the small little icon thingy that shows up on the left side of the tab when you open a website.
The favicon of this blog is "AGZ" written in black, diagonally.

If you own a blog or a website, it is imperative to create your own favicon. It adds to the amount of personalisation, and makes your blog/website unique.
But not all of us are great artists or Photoshop experts to create a proper favicon for your website. And using a favicon you take off the net is like permanently borrowing someone's hat. You just can't do it and feel right.

This is were www.favicon.cc, a very useful online tool comes in. This website immediately loads up a plain canvas divided into a 16X16 grid. Pick a color from the color picker on the right, and click on any position on the grid to add the color there.
A very simple, yet informative and useful interface allows you to pick the color of choice with ease. A preview below instantly shows how your favicon will look on a browser.
Moreover, if you have an image for your favicon in your device, simply upload it with the "import image" option and it is processed and converted into the favicon grid with remarkable accuracy.
When you're all done, you can download your favicon as a .icon file, and use it on your website/blog.

But perhaps the best part is that, you can animate your favicon in multiple frames, and download  and use an animated favicon!

As you might have guessed, the "AGZ" favicon of this blog is created using www.favicon.cc.

That's another piece of information that will really come in handy. Hope it helps!

No crossword is impossible with The Crossword Solver

Solving crosswords was one of the most popular time-killers years ago, and even today, despite the onslaught of casual gaming, crosswords remain one the best ways to spent your leisure hours. Besides keeping you occupied, it also expands your English vocabulary.

Most newspapers daily publish a crossword, and several online databases make thousands of them available at your disposal 24X7. Tempting crosswords on every topic under the sun (And some beyond it) can be easily found in such databases.

But, given that you are doing a good quality crossword that isn't made for 10 year olds, tempting as they may be, there are always questions that leave you stumped, and leave them white spaces empty, much to the frustration of true crossword lovers.

While the method I'm going to suggest to get around such issues may not appeal much to "true crossword lovers", I'm very sure there are many who would either do this, or just leave the white spaces blank.

Googling, of course , is the first thought that jumps to one's mind. But even with the efficiency of Google, you'll either get nothing, or a link to a crossword solving website, such as http://www.the-crossword-solver.com .

This website is the ultimate search engine to find the evasive final word from the mocking clues to fill the white spaces and your heart. While this can be considered as cheating, well, desperate times call for desperate measures, and there may not be a better alternative to solve a crossword if you are desperate.

The description at the homepage of the website says:

"Crossword Solver uses a database of over 350,000 words, 118,000 definitions, 2.5 million thesaurus entries and an ever expanding database of clues to provide you with the answers to your unsolved crossword puzzles and clues. Our universal search will check for definitions, synonyms, clues and missing letters giving you all of the help you could ever need to solve your puzzle."

Pretty good, huh?

Never stop the gaming with Flash Games

Admit it, everyone loves playing games on the computer. Even the most grumpy nerd will enjoy managing farms on Farmville, or destroying rival empires on AoE.

But as much as we hate it, there are times when we don't have professional-quality hardcore games to turn boring hours of being home-alone into a adrenaline pumping action filled roller coaster rides.

But, there are always alternatives available to make up for such times. And nothing covers up a lack of hardcore games than flash games. These low-size games may not exactly give you the same adrenaline shot you get when flinging fireballs at dragons while trying to dodge a hail of arrows in Skyrim, but hey, it's better than staring at an empty games folder....

These small games come in all sorts of types and sizes. You can play a professional assassin in Stealth Hunter 2, or crush gummy bears (literally) in Burrito Bison, defend your realm against dark forces in the super hit Kingdom Rush, build and manage your own shopping complex in Shop Empire, Join an international elite military unit in Strike Force Heroes, test your IQ, dazzle through puzzles, mutate creatures, and more, and more and more and more.......

From the the lighthearted balloon-enemies of Bloon Tower Defense to the bloodcurdling Zombies of 13 days in hell, these games suit to any need, any person, and any situation.

There are hundreds of websites that allow you to play and publish flash games on the web. But a few, like http://www.notdoppler.com/ and http://www.kongregate.com/ gives you the absolute cream of the crop.

Cheers, and Happy gaming!