Technology info, news and reviews
Our blog provides information on latest technology, gadgets, mobiles, robotics, hardware, software etc. Site is regularly updated with posts that you might find useful. d-Tech Plus focuses on various topics in the technology world to keep you updated with the latest happenings in the technology world.
Review on ProCurve Switch 2610 Series
By webmaster | April 1, 2008
ProCurve’s Switch 2610 Series is an advanced stackable edge switches suitable for Medium and Large scale Businesses, with improved features for a better network connectivity. The ProCurve Switch 2610 Series consists of five switches—the 2610-24 and 2610-48 provide 24 and 48 ports of 10/100Base-TX connectivity. The 2610-24 has no fan, which makes it operable in open spaces with quiet operation. The 2610-24/12PWR, 2610-24-PWR, and 2610-48-PWR are IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) 802.3af-compliant for Power over Ethernet (PoE) and provide up to 15.4 W for 12, 24, and 48 ports. The 2610-24/12PWR has 24 10/100 ports and provides 12 ports of PoE. All the 5 switches include two 10/100/1000Base-T ports and 2 mini-GBIC (Gigabit Interface Converter) slots for Gigabit uplink connectivity. An optional external power supply is also available which could be utilized at the time of power failures.
The 24 port models has the capability of achieving 9.5 million PPS (packets per second) performance, and the 48 port models are capable of achieving 13.0 million PPS, with a wire speed switching capacity at 12.8Gbps (24 port models) and 17.6Gbps (48 port models). The Switch can store upto 8000 MAC addresses.
The Switch is manageable thru 2 types of interfaces, one thru the CLI (Command Line Interface) and the other thru web browser (Java Supported).
The free software updates are available online and the product also comes with lifetime-warranty with replacements made Next-business Day in most countries. The 2610 - 24 Port Ethernet Switch is available in the price range of $479.00 - $486.00 and the 48 Port Ethernet Switch is available in the price range of $753.00 - $820.00 (price range source: shopping.com)
Topics: Networking | No Comments »
Adobe Photoshop Plugin
By webmaster | March 31, 2008
Photoshop Plugins are typically used to produce image effects or perform some other special tasks that are not feasible thru the (stand-alone) Photoshop Software. There are many types of Photoshop Plugin available online in form of free plugins and the commercial ones.
Some of the Common plugins are filter plugins, export and import plugins, file format plugins and automation plugins. Filter Plugins are useful for special image effects, Export and Import plugin help to transfer files from Photoshop program to another graphics program or vice-versa. File format plugins help to convert file formats (like .jpg, .gif, .psd etc.). Automation Plugins are usually helpful for automating certain pre-defined tasks.
Fluid Mask 3 is an image cut-out or photoshop masking tool useful for photographers, image editors and graphic designers. This is an easy to use and quick processing tool to work with complicated edges in an image and for blending images. Thru testings it is found that Fluid Mask is 3 times faster than compared to normal methods.
Fluid Mask is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Apple Mac 10.2.8 and above. And works with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3. Fluid Mask can also be installed as a stand-alone software. A free download is available at vertustech.com, along with Photoshop Tutorial.
Topics: Software | No Comments »
Conference Call
By webmaster | March 31, 2008
Conference call is one of the essential activities for a growing business to communicate with remote clients, hold meetings, conduct training and team huddles with employees in remote location. Conference calls are easy to use compared to other online conference-applications. Conference Calling also saves time and money wherein the employees or your business representative need not travel to a remote location which results in reduction of traveling conveyance, food expenditure and hotel expenditure etc.
There are several types of conference calls such as audio conference calling, video conference calling and web conference calling. An Audio conference call is the way of communicating with a group of persons/ participants thru voice, similar to a normal telephone. Video conference call is the communication of voice as well as visual motion. This is more convenient than audio conference as you could see the other parties. Web Conference calling has become more popular in todays Internet world, which allows sharing document online while you are conferencing.
There are many Conference Call Service Providers like Conference Genie who offer a quality service, competitive pricing along with the feature of downloading high quality digital recordings of your conference. Call Conferencing will definitely help your business in saving time as well as traveling & other expenses!
Topics: Mobiles & Telephony | No Comments »
For Webmasters: Tips on promoting your Website
By webmaster | March 28, 2008
Promoting a Website
Being a webmaster it is essential to know the various ways in promoting a website. Well, you just created a new website which is eye-catching and has an attractive look. How are you gonna get visitors for this website?
Various sources of Traffic
Webmasters can gain visitors thru search engines, directories, related websites, textual advertisements, social bookmarking sites, banner advertisements, newsletters, email marketing and other offline ads.
Traffic thru Search Engines
Organic traffic thru Search Engines is the most effective traffic and also available for free. But you really need to work hard to get your website in the top 10 list or atleast top 20 sites, for a competitive keyword. Your website needs to be optimized for Search Engines to get top rankings in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Page).
The website should be written in a valid html/xhtml format. Site content should be unique and should be in human readable format. Stuffing of too many keywords, doorway pages, content specially created for search engines and no use for humans, and also duplicate content will make your website banned from search engines. The website should have relevant and quality backlinks from other websites.
Google tops the number 1. position in driving traffic to your website. Yahoo and MSN (Live search) also are known for driving traffic, but comparatively less than Google.
Submission to Web Directories
Submitting to web directories has recently come down as most of the web directories do not drive enough traffic, except few. Directories with higher pagerank used to sell links based on their pagerank. Those were also recently slashed by Google by reducing their pagerank and SERP positions. However if you find a quality directory you might be able to get a considerable amount of traffic.
Building backlinks from relevant website
Building relevant backlinks should be one of the important tasks in web promotion. You should promote your website thru link exchanges (reciprocal link), although it is said that acquiring one-way link exchange yields good results. One should avoid acquiring links from link farms, sites which have numerous outbound links with no content.
Text ads and banner advertisements
Instead of waiting till your site gets organic traffic from search engines, you could drive traffic to your sites by placing textual ads/ banner ads. You can directly place your link in a high traffic website by way of sponsorships or participate in advertisement programs such as Google’s Adwords, Yahoo Ads, Adbrite etc. where you’ll have to pay per click.
Social Bookmarking Traffic
Believe it or not, your site will get enormous traffic from the moment you submit your articles in social bookmarking sites such as stumbleupon, digg, delicious, technorati, faves, furl etc. However it gradually decreases if you dont get the attention of users or your content is not of much use to others. This type of websites often rank your website according to the popularity or votes received by other users. If your website/ article receives a decent amount of votes chances are more that your traffic will increase. But you really need to have a quality and useful content to retain such traffic.
Promoting thru Newsletters & Email advertisement
You can promote your website by purchasing ad in newsletters relevant to your site’s niche. Again care should be taken in choosing a quality newsletter. Some high traffic websites have opt-in email wherein users could select this option to receive updates and latest information by email on a periodical basis, based on their interests. But if the service provider is sending out unsolicited emails, it would also deface your website. Advertising in newsletters is time-specific and you might lose your money by not getting a ROI (Return of Investment) if there is no good response.
Offline Ads
This type of ads include advertising in newspapers, television, radio, magazines etc. An effective and clever advertisement will result in a higher response.
Managing the Traffic
Once you start receiving a decent amount of traffic, you should analyze your site visitor’s behavior, get feedbacks from visitors, update content regularly, retain visitors (returning visits) and strive for driving more traffic, which I am sure would popularize your site and help you make money.
Topics: Internet | No Comments »
Effective Project Management
By webmaster | March 27, 2008
Get to a New Level with Effective Project Management
If you are a freelance software developer with ambition and are planning to take your business to a new professional level you must look out for ways of developing strong project management skills. Effective project management will help structure and optimize your development time and establish new quality benchmark for your work. There’s plenty of information on project management available in a variety of forms - articles, books, audio tutorials, video guides, courses, workshops. The opportunities for self education are vast enough and if your learning is backed by immediate practice - your chances of becoming a self-bred PM guru are almost 100%.
Before you strat any learning and dive into the ocean of information here are a few tips on improving your current project management process (you have it already … even if you think you have none):
1. Get a simple industry specific project management software. How to find one? You can google for it or turn to the best PM software for a freelance developer I have ever come across - Easy Projects .NET.
2. Facilitate communication with your client and co-developers (if there are any) by using web conferencing like MegaMeeting.com - this means staying on the edge of modern internet communication technologies.
3. Network with other developers and fellow service-providers (like SEOs for instance) to build strong professional community and further use it for working on larger projects. This is the model some of the best web development companies and internet marketing companies were using in their early days.
As you read more on project management you will see many new ways of getting your work organized and your success predictable and recurrent.
Topics: Software | No Comments »
Facebook patches Security Loophole
By webmaster | March 25, 2008
Facebook is one of the leading social community site which allows users to connect with others, share their favorites and photos.
Recently a Vancouver based computer programmer - Byron Ng, found a loophole in facebook website which allows others to view pictures that have been posted recently for private use. The AP (Associated Press) confirmed the existence of loophole after a reporter was able to view random pictures posted in private profiles, thru Ng’s template.
However Facebook was successfully able to apply a patch to this security breach thru the help of a company based in Palo Alto (California) according to Facebook’s spokeswoman “Brandee Barker”. She also said that Facebook cares for its user’s privacy and they would take every possible step to ensure the security of users.
Despite the risks, the facebook community seems to be growing as well as the posting of pictures as social community sites are getting popular day by day in the teenage world.
Topics: Web 2.0 | No Comments »
The Battle of Robots!
By webmaster | March 24, 2008
Well, the heading may sound weird, but it did happened at the Korakuen stadium hall in Tokyo, Japan. A bi-annual competition for humanoid robots known as “Robo-One Championships”. Its not only a showcase for the contending robots but also a matter of pride for the robot-developers.
The Japanese robots come in various shapes, from medieval princes to cubic robots, 112 of them entered the two-day tournament. By Sunday, the final day, 45 remained standing among the heavyweights and featherweights (under 3 kgs).
In the heavyweight division, a robot named “Teakwon-V” which belongs to a South Korean bagged the prize of $10,000.
It was “King Kizer” who won the “Robot one - 13th Championship” after defeating Teakwon-V in an all-class division match typically played between the heavyweights and the lightweights. This robot was controlled by his two sons aged 12 and 9 years respectively. Its really an honor for this family and I guess their hard-work deserves the victory!
Topics: Robotics | No Comments »
Sanyo Xacti CG9 camcorder
By webmaster | March 21, 2008
Sanyo has released a follow up to its Sanyo Xacti CG65 camcorder, the Sanyo Xacti CG9. It still sports the same compact design though a bit bulkier. Improvements include a 9.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, 5x optical zoom, face recognition, and 60fps video recording capability.
The Sanyo Xacti CCG9 uses MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video codec which can compress videos and fit around 1 hour of video recording on a 1GB SDHC card.
US release is in April and price is expected at $279.99
Via: Gadget Reviews and How-Tos
Topics: Gadgets and Gizmos | No Comments »
Sony Camcorder - HDR-SR11 60GB
By webmaster | March 21, 2008
HDR-SR11 is a new camcorder from Sony Electronics, Inc. The camcorder is packed with modern technology for an advanced and best digital experience. It allows one to shoot photos/ videos like a professional photographer.
The HDR-SR11 is capable of displaying High Definition resolution of 1920 x 1080 for a quality and clear video. Still Pictures can be captured in a 10.2 megapixels. The camcorder features Face Detection Technology which recognizes 8 faces anywhere in the frame and automatically controls focus, exposure, and color to capture brightly and clearly. It also helps make skin tones look natural without affecting other colors in the image.
The advanced Sony BIONZ Image Processor uses hardware-based Large Scale Integrated (LSI) circuitry that improves camera response time, screens out noise before RAW data conversion, handles Dynamic Range Optimization processing, and prolongs battery life.
Sony’s newly designed CMOS image sensor delivers bright, vivid, and a clear 5 megapixel (effective) video footage.
The camcorder supports HDMI connectivity through which the user can transfer high definition video and 5.1 channel audio to compatible HDTVs via single cable. One can also control both the HDTV and the camcorder by using a BRAVIA TV remote.
The HDR-SR11 has a built in microphone which enables Dolby Digital 5.1 recording.
The camcorder enables storage of 60GB data in hard drive or storing the data in a removable Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick PRO Duo media.
The HDR-SR11 weighs about 650gms (battery included) with a dimension of 3 3/8 x 3 x 5 1/2 inch (83×76x138mm) and is compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Windows Vista. The product comes with a limited warranty of 1 year and can be purchased for $1,199.99
Topics: Gadgets and Gizmos | No Comments »
Safari 3.1 released
By webmaster | March 18, 2008
Apple has released a brand new version of its web browser - the Safari. The browser is compatible with Mac OS as well as Windows. It is claimed to be the fastest browser compared to its competitor. Has support for HTML 5 (audio and video tags) and CSS3 (selectors, animations and web fonts). Really a good news for web developers, isn’t it?
Apple claims that Safari 3.1 will also render javascript much faster than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla’s Firefox.
Other Features in Safari 3.1
- Organize bookmarks similar to organizing music in iTunes.
- Pop-up Blocker
- Convenient Tabbed Browsing
- Textual Search on any Website thru Inline Find
- More Secured
- Built-in RSS to stay up to date with your favorite sites
- Snapback to search results
- Resizing of text fields on any website
Topics: Software | No Comments »
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