Identify file types easily

     Identifying file types is usually not on the agenda of a typical computer user. But it sure is useful in multiple situations, especially in things like online forensic analysis challenges. Receiving a file with an unknown or suspicious extension from an e-mail or a torrent download is also a fairly common occurrence. In such cases, you will want to find out the actual file extension to check for potential malicious content or to get the right software to open it.

     Either way, a reliable and free file extension software is hard to come by on the vast internet. So here, I'm directing you to a really great, really accurate online tool (with a standalone offline version) that does just this.

     The tool is called TrID file identifier, and can be found here : http://mark0.net/onlinetrid.aspx

     The process is as simple as uploading the file to be checked, and clicking the 'Analyze!' button.
If you have to analyse large files or is not comfortable with uploading personal files to the internet, the offline version can be downloaded and used instead. (Small heads-up: It is command line based, and lacks a GUI. Might be uncomfortable for some users.)

     This project has been active since 2003, and recognizes over 6315 file types, and is surprisingly well maintained and updated for it's age. It also support multiple platforms, and gives you just about anything you can ask for from such a tool.

Learn to Google the correct way!

     Everyone knows how to use the world's most popular search engine (And the most visited website, for that matter), right? No!

     Most of us, statistically about 90% of all Googlers, don't know how to use the search engine to it's fullest extent. We enter a general phrase we want to search for, and hope Google will turn up things we are looking for. There are, however, much better ways to use Google to ensure that you will get just what you want, every time you search.

     Google's advanced search options can add several modification parameters, but the best kind of modifications are done as you type in Google's search bar. Here are a few important ones:

" " →  Double quotes: Searches for an exact word or phrase. Doesn't bother for near-matches.

-<query>    →  Minus sign: Excludes a term from a search

~<query>   →  Tilde sign: Searches for related terms as well

<year>..<year> →: Searches for a time range

site: →:Searches for hits in a particular website.

     This infographic below sums up all such Google tricks and a few useful keyboard shortcuts for browsing. Totally worth checking out!

Youtube-Mp3 for fast, quick and efficient conversion

     Long ago, AGZuniverse  informed you about video2mp3, a great online tool for converting youtube videos to mp3 and downloading them on the fly. But many has since experienced problems with that site, probably due to overloaded servers unable to process to many requests. Here comes in another converter tool, which has been around for longer than video2mp3 : www.youtube-mp3.org/

     Why anyone would want to use such a tool requires no description, as nearly every internet user has those moments when he comes across a great song, speech, quote or background track in a video on Youtube, but decides not to grab due to the hassle of having to download the video first, trim it, and then convert it to mp3 using local/online converters. It's a waste of data, considering you have such services available.

     It's fast, with videos being converted and made available in a matter of seconds. The site being impaired due to server load is unlikely, as shown by it's longevity. The only downside is that the maximum quality is 128kbps, which may not be enough for some. But it's surely something to try out!

AdBlock may not always be your friend

     Installing a good quality Ad-Blocker is now one of the first things to do once you're done setting up your new browser. With stores of vast plugins supporting Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, the world's two most popular browers, this process is now as easy as it could ever get. 

     But what many don't realize is that Ad Block can block more than those annoying flashy ads that seem to clog up every other website. Sure, these softwares are up there with the most useful and most downloaded in their respective stores for a reason: They are damn useful, and they get their calls right 99% of the time.

     An advertisement or two may slip through every now and then. Hardly a problem. But the real issue is when ad-blockers block components of a website that stop it from functioning properly.

     The good news is, getting rid of this is as easy as turning off your ad-blocker. But first, you have to confirm if it is really the source of your issue.

     So you have ventured into a site that seems to work improperly. Go ahead, right click anywhere on the page and choose 'Inspect Element'. (Or just hit Ctrl+Shift+I). If you are running ad-blocker, chances are you will see errors (Specifically, the error: "ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT") on nearly every website that has ads blocked. But if you are on a trusted page that you know for a fact does not show ads, (Like a form submission page in most websites or a governmental website) and the errors are still present, turning off adblock will get the site running normally most of the time.

     If you find that adblock is blocking an essential plugin that websites normally use, such as jQuery and BootStrap, it can cause completely abnormal behavior, and turning it off should fix the issue once again.

     You cannot fully capitalize on the services of such technical gizmos unless you know when to and when not to use it. This awareness is imperative for happy and safe networking. Hope you enjoyed!

=)

PicoCTF: Hacking challenge

     All the ones among us who show a keen interest in computers and programming, at some point or the other, is bound to have marveled at hackers navigating green falling matrices in Hollywood films, or wondered how hackers go through the most secure firewalls on the planet after reading news reports of hacker strikes or after finishing Dan Brown's novel 'The Digital Fortress'. 

     While using one's ability to steal sensitive data and turn lives of several innocent users into misery is a highly condemned practice, ethical hacking, or white-hat hacking, is an important skill that must be possessed by anyone looking to get into the field of system securities. Unfortunately, the majority of the present generation, while being well versed and quick to adapt to cutting-edge technological innovations, knows little about the underlying layers of security and their possible exploits.

     Whether you are just a tech junkie trying to learn more, or someone looking for new challenges in cryptography and programming, or someone genuinely interested in learning more about the field of security and encryption, Capture The Flag competitions or CTFs are just the right place to swing by. However, many such competitions are aimed at experts and sets the bar of standard very high, almost too high for newcomers to take up. This is where PicoCTF, a CTF challenge set up primarily for students, becomes just the perfect place for you. While the original PicoCTF 2014 competition is long done, all the challenges is still open for everyone around the world, to try out totally for free.

     While classic Vigenere Ciphers and simple substitution ones to modern-day XOR ciphers serve the main course in cryptography, brilliantly crafted codes in languages ranging from Java to assembly language provide plenty of reverse engineering fun. Add web exploitation and other interesting challenges to the mix, and what you have is an entertaining, non-boring, and educational series of challenges sure to thrill anyone willing to spent some time on it.

     Totally worth taking a look at!

Online Java IDE

     If you are a programmer, or even if you just code as a hobby, you will know how important having a well equipped IDE is for the creation and debugging of code.

     While web development can be handled easily using the built-in tools that come with popular browsers such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, certain other languages such as C++ or Java requires an IDE hundreds of megabytes in size. While it is strongly recommended that you go for a full IDE (Especially considering how most of them are free) if you are working on something serious, having to download and install a large file just for the execution of a few lines of code you picked up on the way can be a tedious process.

    In such cases, online IDE's are the way to go. These are websites that allow you to write, compile, debug, and execute code while using minimal data as the IDE is located in the website's server.

     I made a post about an online C++ shell a while ago, and now it's time to look at a Java IDE.

http://www.compilejava.net/ does the job beautifully well, no questions asked. 

It claims to be a Java compiler created in PHP, and allows you to key in code or paste source and see the compiler as well as the program output as the program runs. You can even enter command line arguments if necessary, and the whole thing comes with a number of delightful markup formats.

     Oh, the compiler is fully online, completely free to use, and no annoying registrations are required. Truly a great service!

Grab your free copy of The Byzantium now!

     The Byzantium, the novel published by Aswin G, the author of this blog, is FREE on Amazon on October 25, 2015. Make sure you grab it!

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015NE5M46?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Original post describing the book : http://agzuniverse.blogspot.in/2015/09/the-byzantium-aswin-gs-debut-novel.html

Want to count words in an article?

     The first and foremost thing we look for when we start off writing an essay or article is the word limit. Whether it is an official limit set by others or just a personal limit to control the size of your work, knowing how much words are in your document is always a pain to find out.

     While it's not difficult to know exactly how much words are there in a text, thanks to Microsoft Word's handy feature that displays the word count on the status bar, knowing how much words that actually count towards the word limit is the real trouble, as a usual word count excludes all common words such as 'the', 'and', 'is' etc. 

     The website www.wordcounttools.com is a perfect solution to this, giving you a complete analysis of any piece of text. You can upload text in a wide variety of file formats or paste it into the given box, and you get quite a bit of details regarding the text. These include, word and character count, unique words count, difficult words count, readability level and much more.

A particularly useful feature is the keyword density indicator, which shows how often you use unique words. This becomes really useful in removing excessive repetitions of the same word in an essay, article or story, instantly making it better.

Timezone conversion

We've all been at that point of frustration because we just cannot find out the timing of that football match in our own timezone. Sure, the official site says CET 7pm, but that means nothing to me. In the end we've always had to hunt down timezone conversion sites to do the work for us.

Thankfully, there are quite a few, like:

5) EveryTimeZone
www.everytimezone.com
What I love about this site is it's simple description: "Never warp your brain with timezone math again"

Unfortunately, it just allows you to see your local time and the equivalent times in 14 evenly spread timezones across 3 days. Still, pretty handy, and dead easy to understand.

4) WorldTimeBuddy

http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/
World Time Buddy is a tool that allows you to calculate the time on any day, across any amount of time zones of your choice from all the timezones in the world.

Really useful, but reading time zones will take more than just a glance, as the interface is not exactly simplified.

3) TimeZoneConverter

http://www.timezoneconverter.com/
Time Zone Converter is much tidier and simple to use: You set the date, key in the time, and choose the from and to conversion options for timezones.

Quite a step forward from the previous two, and really nice to use.

2) TheTimeZoneConverter
http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/

This website's URL may have only a 'The' extra, but it is massively different from all usual timezone converters. This one follows a simple and stripped-down design. Like, really, really, stripped-down design.

That's pretty much all it has.

The flip side to this simplicity is, you can't convert timezones for days other than the current one. But really, it's all you need.

1) TimeAndDate

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Time and Date is perhaps the best of the bunch. An elegant user interface easily allows you to convert between every relevant timezone including compensation for things like daylight saving, and also has a catalog of national time zones and other extras.

So next time you decide to find out whether you would have to stay up all night to watch your fav band's live show on TV, you know which site to hop on!

The Byzantium - Aswin G's debut novel

     Hello readers,

     I'm extremely happy to announce that my debut novel, The Byzantium, has been published and is available for purchase as an e-book on Amazon. I've been working on what is a relatively short novel (at 117 pages on Kindle) over the last few months, and now it's live and ready to be read.

(Link to purchase the book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015NE5M46?*Version*=1&*entries*=0 )

     The history and geography specialists (or Age of Empires specialists, it depends.) among us will know that Byzantium was the capital of the Byzantine empire and the old name of Constantinople, which in turn is the old name of Istanbul. However, The Byzantium has nothing to do with this city, and is in fact, set in a parallel world in an unnamed planet orbiting the star Procyon.

     This book is crafted to be a mystery suspense thriller with all the elements of a detective novel, but it also branches out to capture raw human emotions and questions the fundamental aspects of life, and our notions regarding them.

     Here's a sneak peak at the prologue of the book. An extended preview can be viewed on Amazon.

     The Byzantium is avaiable for purchase on www.amazon.com at 2.99$, and at comparable prices in other Amazon marketplaces as well. Please do stop by and take a look.

     Hoping you'll enjoy,

     Aswin G.

Achieve 'True Randomness' with random.org

    It's fairly easy to make a random number generator. Nearly all programming languages have a function build in just for random number generation. Randomization is a very important aspect in several things, ranging from the probability of a player taking a good touch factoring in their ball control and angle of ball reception in FIFA to daily lotto draws.

      While the generic random() function might get you acceptable results, none of them are 'truly' random, according to www.random.org  . Those functions are pseudo-random, that is, their number generation is predictable to an extent. And if it's predictable, it's not random. Right?

     So random.org offers us 'true' random number generation, based on atmospheric noise. This enduring service has existed since 1998, and is being used for many things, such as lotto draws and online games.

     The site offers many services, free as well as paid. It's worth checking out if you are searching for something that's truly random, no questions asked.

How to make images transparent in PowerPoint

     PowerPoint, the massively popular presentation software from Microsoft that comes as part of MS Office has been around for over a decade and has become synonymous with 'presentation making'. PowerPoint, or PPt in short, is now actively being used for everything ranging from school projects to business seminars.

     This popularity of PPt is no gimmick. The software has gained trust and credibility by coming loaded with posh features and options that keep getting better and more diverse with every update.

     But one of the few 'limitations' of the PowerPoint is the lack of the ability to make images transparent, preventing you from adding in cool 'faded' effects or simply having semi-transparency whenever required. Thankfully, there is a workaround for this, and it's a fairly simple one.

1)Launch PowerPoint, and open the presentation where you want a transparent image.

2)Now go to Insert → Shapes and choose a shape, and draw it on the presentation.

NOTE: You don't have to worry about the size of the shape, as you can always re size it later, but choosing a shape corresponding to the image you intent to make transparent helps. (For example, choosing the circle shape if your image is circular will make managing it easier later on.)

3) Right click on the shape and choose 'Format Shape'. The Format shape pane will open up.

4)Under the 'Shape Options' tab, click 'Fill' and choose 'Picture or Texture fill'. Now, from the options that show up, choose 'Insert picture from file', and proceed to browse and open the image you wish to make transparent. (Format shape changes to Format picture as you do this.)

5)And just like that, you're done! Now you can use the transparency slider to adjust the transparency of your shape, which is now an image.

Hope that helped!

How phrases change with time

You may have heard of 'Bastardization', the process by which the use or meaning of a phrase or a word change with time. In this image, there are some great examples of bastardization in English, with the phrases even ending up having the exact opposite of their original meanings. It's a totally cool read to check out.

All credits go to www.facebook.com/pages/Tumblr-is-life/1420819151499426 for finding out this gem.

Command Prompt tricks - Writing file names to a text file

 That's right, the mysterious black window that most new users of windows steer clear of has more utility than you thought it did. (Missed my post on how to remove viruses just by using Command Prompt? Read it here : http://agzuniverse.blogspot.com/2016/05/remove-viruses-and-malware-using.html)

     The Command Prompt, hereby referred to as CMD, can do a lot of things that would otherwise require a user to download fancy programs stuffed with adware and additional installations. If the reason why you shy away from CMD is because it is too complicated - you're wrong. Although the higher-level functions require a respectable level of computer knowledge, basic commands in CMD that can carry out tons of useful functions are no-brainers.

     And through this post, I'm pointing out such a useful CMD utility : Writing all the names of files in a folder to a text file. This can be incredibly useful for making a quick list of all the files relevant to a project or something else you have on your computer. Making a list of all the files in your movies folder or all the songs in your songs folder can be a great way to back them up or use them to put up a reminder to collect or share some movies or songs.

     So, let's get on to the method. First step, of course, is to locate the folder that requires it's filenames written to a text file, and open up command prompt by either typing in 'cmd' in the search box in the start menu (Users of Windows 8 just needs to type in 'cmd' from their home screen), or launching Run, typing in 'cmd' and pressing enter.

     Then, change to the local disk drive your folder is located in by typing 'z:' and pressing enter. (Replace z with the local disk drive in your computer.) In my case, I want to change to local disk 'e'.

     Then, go to the folder you want to use for this, and copy it's path.

     Type in "cd" followed by the path you copied, and press enter. (cd here stands for Change Directory)

     NOTE: Ctrl +V doesn't work in command prompt. In order to paste, you have to right click in the window and choose paste.

     Now it's time for the command to generate the text file : type in "dir /b > filename.txt" and press enter. You can replace 'filename' with any name you want, but don't forget the '.txt' extension.

     And with that, a text file should be generated in the same folder, with the names of all the files in that folder.

     Useful, isn't it?

How predictable are you?

     Ever had that feeling of having your mind read? Ever wondered how some people can see right through your skull and all your mental shields? (I'm not talking about magicians, duh.) Well this post......will not be telling you the science behind it(=P) but instead will direct you to a video, that proves that a random guy with sticky notes and some math behind him can make your jaw drop in wonder.

Once again, a great pick by ScienceDump.

Watch the said video here:

http://www.sciencedump.com/content/how-predictable-are-you

Another tool to check if a website is down

     Hi,
     Few weeks back I made a post regarding www.isup.me, a simple tool that allows you to check if a particular website is down or not. This time it's yet another website that basically does the same thing: www.isitdownrightnow.com (Quite the self-explanatory name, huh?)

     What makes this website different is that it does the checking for you perfectly, and gives you access to additional actions. You can post comments regarding a down website to let other visitors know, and you get to see a recent history of comments posted by other visitors for each website, which can be invaluable in confirming if a website is down or not beyond all doubt.

     An info graphic regarding the server status history is displayed for fairly popular websites. Ratings for websites are also an additional bonus.

     If you want to check if a server is down, and want more than a plain text 'yes' or 'no' as the response, www.isitdownrightnow.com is the way to go.

Cut and convert Youtube videos with ClipConverter

     One of the most common problem that an average user experiences while using Youtube, Google's immensly popular video hosting service, is the inability to directly download videos. I mean, if you like a video so much so that you want to see it again, you should be able to do it without wasting more data and waiting out even more buffer-time, right? But the closest we have come to realizing this via Youtube itself is the 'Save for offline' option, which does not allow you to share the video to other sources.

     But of course, this is the internet, where anything is possible. There is a large host of web services where you simple paste the URL of the video of your choice, and saving that video to your device in a format of your preference is just a click away.

     However, not many of such websites offer something www.clipconverter.cc does: It allows you to cut videos before converting them. This is especially useful when you just want to grab a few seconds from a huge video for a project or compilation you are working on, or if just one portion from a video is good enough to make it worth keeping.

     ClipConverter is pretty much self-explanatory. You enter the video URL, click on the format you wish to convert it to, enter the beginning and ending points of the portion you want to download, click 'continue', and choose the video quality of your choice. Then, the download is just a click away. Just in case you want to keep the whole video, ClipConverter also has a handy download without conversion button.

     Useful, ain't it?

Check if a website is down or not with 'isup'

   Some of us must have had that mini-heart attack experience when the website of your favorite cozy little internet community crashes for a while, making many of us realize how much we miss our online life as much as our real life.

   But the internet has evolved, and now we can check out if a website is actually down or not at the touch of a button. This can go a long way in helping us access certain websites as data router issues, firewall problems and adware as well as adblocker programmes can make a server locked out for a single user, who might think the website is down for everyone else as well.

Here is where www.isup.me, a really simple and efficient website comes in.

All you need to do is enter the URL of the website you wish to check, and within seconds the website is pinged from multiple locations around the world, conclusively checking if it is actually down or not.

Check out this interesting infographic

     We all have a natural tendency to compare things and find out what's best when we get interested in any topic. Whether it's a statistical crunch to find out if the Bugatti Veyron is faster than the Koenisegg Regera or a debate with a friend on which Pokemon generation is the best, comparisons have been always a part of our daily life.

     Then there is perhaps no better way to get entire fandoms all fired up than a cross-topic mega comparison on a point common to all the involved parties. And here you have a brilliant infographic comparing all the famous intergalactic starships from numerous franchises ranging from movies, sitcoms, video games and even books. Here, take a look:

Source: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/infographic-whats-the-fastest-ship-in-sci-fi-history-1718171303

What is your personality?

     Personality quizzes has one always been one among the most popular things to try out for a casual internet user. From a hundred different quizzes that play the role of Hogwart's sorting hat to even more that tell you into everything ranging from your olympian parent from the Percy Jackson series to your Family in the Song of Ice and Fire (a.k.a Game of Thrones), these quizzes keep us interested and amused for a long time.

    Thing is, barely any of these quizzes are actually scientific. Not that any of us have a problem with these quiz-makers not being qualified psychiatrists(They're plenty of fun!) , but it's nice to go for a quiz designed to give the correct results once in a while.

     And that's were www.clearthinking.org 's personality test comes in.

     It asks you 21 interesting and scientifically designed questions, and gives you an even more interesting result. It picks a suitable personality for you from the following:

     Think that's it? Hell no! If you're patient enough to read through, it gives you 3 whole pages of reports backed up by statistical data that shows your strengths, weaknesses, and how you did against the rest of the world.

     Added bonus: giving your email, which is one of the most annoying things associated with online tests and surveys, is just optional.

Try it out :)

Can you solve this puzzle?

Nothing big this weekend, just a link for some good ol' brainstormin'.

This puzzle is great for putting out challenges to your friends and seeing who gets to the answer first, but try to crack it yourself before you do that!

http://www.sciencedump.com/content/are-you-smart-enough-solve-famously-difficult-puzzle

Have fun :)

Start Windows 8 in safe mode

     Starting windows in safe mode is an extremely important step in troubleshooting bugs and problems in the operating system. Thing is, not many people know how to do that. Solving bugs and fixing issues in a computer can go a long way beyond a simple virus scan. So read on, and find out more.

What is safe mode?

      No use in learning to boot into safe mode if you don't know what it is, right?

     Safe mode is essentially a secure 'shell' where the operating system disables most drivers and programs except the core components of Windows. This allows you to identify whether the problems that prompted you to try safe mode came from the operating system, or another program driver.

     Some programs that integrate themselves into the very core of your system, such as antivirus programs, require booting into safe mode to uninstall completely. Most viruses fail to run in safe mode, so it can be used as a last-ditch effort to save and backup the data in a heavily infected computer.

How can I enter safe mode?

     There are multiple ways to enter safe mode, we shall look one below.

     Go to the start screen and search for 'run'.

In the windows that comes up, type in 'msconfig' and press enter.

This will open the System Configuration window. Go to the boot tab, check 'Safe Boot' and click OK.

A prompt shows up, giving the following message:

Now you can either click 'Restart' to go into safe mode, or choose 'Restart later', finish all your work, and restart the computer like you normally do.

Hope this helped :)

ConvertPad on android

     In this article I'm showcasing yet another popular android app that is a must-have for any user. One of the many reasons why smartphones are so popular is that it can do so much more than what one would expect it to. When handheld phones became globally popular over a decade ago, it's built in calculator was praised widely for allowing calculations and conversions in daily life to be done with relative ease.
     Now, smartphones have taken it to the next level, featuring dedicated conversion apps that allows for conversion between more units than you probably knew that actually existed in the world.

     One of the best free conversion apps available on Google Play Store is Sunny Moon's ConvertPad.
It's many features include multiple language support, currency exchange conversion and of course, a plethora of units ranging from length, area and weight to typography, sound and and even shoe size.

     In short, this app offers any and all units you can ever hope to actually find useful, and it allows for seamless, accurate and quick conversions between these units in a clean and resourceful user interface. The 10 million plus downloads and the 4.4 rating is testimony to the app's popularity and effectiveness.

Oh, and it's just a 5mb download.
Totally a must-have!

Pokemon teambuilder

  This is again a post for the many Pokemon trainers out there, especially for the ones who prefer competitive battling.
 
  Making a team is the first step in competitive Pokemon battling. No time spent wading through grass and visiting Pokemon centers and no money wasted on repels and escape ropes. It's just pick a team, make it, and go.

  While starting out on online battling is really easy, becoming a player good enough so you can go into any match with confidence and expecting nothing short of victory is a process that takes time, patience and skill.

  And once again, a really good team is the secret to the best player's mind-boggling winstreaks. Most teambuilder offer nothing more than basic information. Sometime you might end up mounting weaknesses while lacking coverage in certain types while teambuilding. The result will be a disastrous team that crashes down like a pack of cards against a prepared opponent.
 

  But once again, the internet comes to the rescue. The peeps at teammagma has made an exellent online teambuilder that illustrates your team's weaknesses and coverage in easy-to-read graphs so you can test 'em team cores and figure out deadly combos without even playing a single match.

  It's definitely worth a try if you're a Pokemon player.

Extract album art with ID3 Album Art Extractor

   It's a given fact that there is no human being (Or animals, for that matter) alive who doesn't enjoy listening to songs. Whether it be rock, pop, folk or EDM from the 80's 90's or the 'naughts, everyone who owns a phone is guaranteed to have a playlist loaded and ready to roll.

     Whether you download your songs from the internet or buy original album CD's, album art is a thing that has been part of music ever since the digital era. Simply put, album art is an image file embedded within the song that shows up as a thumbnail while the song is being played or previewed.

     While the album art of most songs is just a quick Google Images search away, you may come across custom album art or certain unique pieces that are just not so easily available on the net. And there is nothing so much frustrating as the inability find something on the internet.

     If you've been the victim of such a situation, you should know that you can save your bandwidth as well as your time by using a simple software to extract album art as image files.

     ID3 Album Art Extractor by Preston media is a free, lightweight and efficient software that does the job with absolute gusto.

     You can download the 356KB (!) software from here. Once you're done, you can run the program and follow simple steps to pick the folder that contains your songs, choose the kind of images you need to extract, and even define user access to the art folder before hitting finish and watching this brilliant piece of software do it's job perfectly.

Hope that helped!

Compass apps on android

This article is about the marvelous device that is literally with everyone on the planet: smartphones.

Chosen as #1 on multiple lists of 'greatest inventions of the 21st century', smartphones are a computer, watch, alarm clock, sticky note, calculator, telephone, messager, gaming console and newspaper all in one. In fact, in can be a whole lot more than that with the right apps. An android device, having access to the largest app store of all the popular operating systems, have a massive potential to go from a fancy phone to a device you just cannot live without.

I hope to introduce many of these insanely practical apps over the weeks, but let's start with something simple: A compass.

If you didn't know it already, the sensors in your device most probably includes a magnetic sensor, which can be used to make efficient and accurate compass apps. Smart app developers out there required no invitation when this sensor become commonplace, resulting the availability of multiple compass apps on the Google Play Store.

Some of the best include:

Compass, by gabenative
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gn.android.compass

Smart Compass, by Smart Tools co.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.sira.compass

Both are up-to date, have a small download size (Less than 5 mb), totally free and absolutely reliable.
If you don't have one installed by now, go ahead and pick one. Right now. You never know when you're gonna get marooned.

Best of Tumblr

Tumblr, the micro blogging site owned by Yahoo, is known for it's constant flow of thought-provoking articles and hilarious jokes contributed by a massive international user base. But finding the absolutely best over-the-top blogs that will have you rolling on the floor laughing (Literally ROFL) will take some work. Thankfully, some guys have made it their mission to compile the best of Tumblr into one roller coaster ride of a website: http://best-of-tumblr.tumblr.com/

Cheers!

Fancy the world ending?

No? Too bad. There are people all over the world believing in and preparing for everything from zombie apocalypses to alien invasions. While hardly any of these may make sense from a logical viewpoint, all such events have garnered cult followers around the world who firmly believe in doomsday.

Regardless of whether you want the world to end or want to save the world when it ends (Or simply read stuff, whatever.), these guys have some interesting info:

http://www.disastercountdown.com/

What is a Supernova?

These massive explosions in the sky that radiates more energy than entire galaxies and lead to the formation of black holes are a fascinating astronomical phenomenon.
Interested? Read about it here : http://www.space.com/6638-supernova.html

Just FIFA stuff

No, I'm not talking about the organisation. Certain websites around the internet are heaven for EA's FIFA franchise fanatics. Like me :)

Might wanna visit these, if you like playing the smash hit video game series:

http://www.fifplay.com/

http://www.fifatutorial.com/

HTML entity codes

What are HTML entity codes?

Well, they are 'encrypted' forms of every character that can be displayed on the web, recognizable only by HTML. They are commonly used to bypass the browser botching up special characters when reading the HTML code, as HTML entity codes are converted to special characters and are not recognized as part of the webpage code.

They come in extremely handy not only for developers, but also common users when trying to print certain characters in blogs, forums etc that allow the WYSWYG(What You See Is What You Get) editor to be turned off.

Every character also has an ASCII code, which has it's own uses in programming and markup languages.

Here's a complete list of HTML entity codes and ASCII decimal and hex numbers of all characters:

http://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm

Make programming your hobby this summer

Learning a programming language is one of the things that is must-do these days. Even if you are not into computers and techy stuff, basic understanding of programming languages and the way they work is a must.

While standard school courses may fulfill this requirement, what is taught in such courses is not nearly enough to bring out the full potential in the aspiring programmers among us.

Programming is a great hobby to take up during this summer that allows you to unleash your creativity and sharpen your mental capability to a razor sharp point. For all you know, you could end up publishing a game that goes viral on the internet, earning you money and fame.

But the problem most young coders face is the lack of a starting point for their dreams. Many believe it is necessary to take a coaching course to get a real grasp of programming. While such a course will definitely help, it is perfectly possible to learn programming online, thanks to the sheer number of free tutorials floating around, at your own pace and time while not wasting any resources on a summer course. 

If learning programming appeals to you, few websites offer a good starting point as www.javatpoint.com , which has tutorials on nearly every major programming language in an easy and simple to understand format filled with ready-to-run examples and online shells for executing your code.

www.w3schools.com is the ultimate website to learn everything (and by that, I mean EVERYTHING.) regarding all aspects of web development.

Many such websites can be easily found online, and is just a google search away. 

In the coming weeks, I hope to introduce more such websites and a give a few simple tutorials myself! 

The science of standing in queues..

Interesting infographic indeed...thanks to ScienceDump for creating such informative as well as inquisitive articles on science in our everyday lives.

http://www.sciencedump.com/content/science-standing-around-lines-infographic

Want a typing race? Look no further than TypeRacer!

A few weeks back, an I introduced you to NitroType, a high quality website that literally allows you to race online by speed typing. Now I shall introduce you to another popular website that allows you to do the exact same thing, but with a touch of more casualness: TypeRacer.

http://play.typeracer.com/

I would like to describe TypeRacer as a more low-key NitroType. It lacks the polish, sound effects and the huge options that make it NitroType more of an online game than a typing trainer. But it gives you want you essentially want from typing races : Race with random users from all over the world and out-type them to cross the finish line first. This website also allows you to make an account to save your high scores and unlock more options like competing for a spot in the leaderboard and customizing your car.

A practice mode that takes off the pressure of competition and the option to race with your own speed comes in really handy.

All in all, this website is a must for those who like speed typing!

Take look at these (fictional) rides!

The Saints Row series is an often under appreciated game series labelled as a 'GTA clone' by many. But the release Saints Row 4 gave GTA a run for it's money, and caused the series to explode in popularity all over the world.

This is because most games give you the coolest powers after you've finished all the missions you could probably use it for, while Saints Row 4 gives you everything you could ever ask for (except Dragons and FusRoDah of course, but that won't be necessary...) and puts you in the shoes of a gangster-turned US President-turned badass alien zapper.

What's the excuse for all these powers?
You're trapped in a computer simulation. And your friend and fellow gangster is hacking the simulation, constantly upgrading your powers. The result?
Jump higher than buildings, run faster than cars, just save any car you like and teleport it near you whenever you feel like it, instead of taking the long ride to the garage, pilot Alien UFO's packing insane firepower, and much, much more.

Seriously, just take a look them vehicles :

http://saintsrow.wikia.com/Vehicles_in_Saints_Row_IV

Have your daily fill of LOL's with XKCD

It's the 21st century. In fact, it's 2015.If you still haven't read webcomics, you really haven't used the internet.

Anyways, this post introduces one of the most famous webcomics out there, with thousands of worldwide readers : XKCD comics. Updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, this webcomic founded and run by Randall Munroe since 2005 laughs at you, politics, science, maths, and the world in general. The sarcasm filled lines uttered by it's cast of stickman characters is guaranteed to leave you grinning, while rewiring your perspective of life behind your head.

And if you feel like getting maximum LOL's out in the shortest time, take a look at one of the many best of XKCD collections strewn across the internet:

http://www.attendly.com/38-of-the-best-xkcd-comics-about-the-internet-computers-and-programming/

http://www.bitrebels.com/entertainment/best-of-xkcd-the-greatest-nerd-webcomic/