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