Friday, 29 April 2011

Facebook Ads - Stop them from accessing your photos and personal information from your profile page

Though facebook says that it will not sell your personal information to any third party advertisers, it is always better to be safe than sorry. Also, there is a small clue hiding in their words itself, which says "Even if we give your information, it is with your permission, like what you set up in your settings".

So, what am I talking about?

It is all about the Facebook Ads settings. Do you know that there is a setting in facebook, which allow advertisers to post ads depending upon your status messages or private messages or photo comments? This means, indirectly facebook lets the third party advertisers to have access to your personal information and profile page details, and to display ads depending on your taste.

For example, let us say you are living in London (which you had put in your location info) and if you have a message saying "Oh I prepared yummy chocolate cake" in your status, then you will see an ad on the side of your profile page like "The best place to buy yummy cakes in London is xyz". So, the advertisers pick all the details they wish from your profile, and put ads accordingly.

So, as I said in the first paragraph, though facebook says that it will not sell your personal information to any third party advertisers, it is always better to be safe than sorry. Also, there is a small clue hiding in their words itself, which says "Even if we give your information, it is with your permission, like what you set up in your settings". Funnily, the default setting is "You accepted" to give your details to the advertisers.

Won't it look bad, that the advertisers can access your photo, where you stand with your husband or wife and people wrote comments like "Gorgeous couple", and place some X-rated ads in your page, which will be visible to your friends too?

So, here is the easy steps to follow and stop this disaster access.

After logging into your facebook account, click on the Account --> Account Settings option (which can be seen on the top most of the right hand side). There you will see a serial of tabs as below

Settings Networks Notifications Mobile Language Payments Facebook Ads

1.Click on the last tab called "Facebook Ads".

2. Click on the link "Edit third party ad settings".

3. Select the option as "No one" instead of "Only Friends" and save the changes.

4. Click on "Facebook Ads" tab again.

5. Click on the link "Edit Social Ads Settings" and repeat the same as in step 3.

All done. Now no one has the access to your info for ad purpose.

I heard that this comes into effect from 29th April 2011, that is today. So act fast and change the settings. It hardly takes 2 minutes of your time. Save your personal informations and photos from the eagle eye of the advertisers.

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

How to Edit a audio / music / MP3 / Song file

Do you like to edit a portion of a music / audio file like MP3 or want to divide the file into two portions? Do you have a song which is too lengthy to be embedded in your video and want to have only a part of that in your video. Don’t worry, it is too easy to do.

Here is a very easy and quick way to do, with a free music editing software. Let me start with an example. I have an MP3 file below, which is more than 8 minutes in length. But I want only the saxophone music which plays for the first 2 minutes, to embed in one of my videos. So, here is what I did.



The software can be downloaded from the website of Audacity.

1. Go to the link - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

2. Click on the download audacity for windows option (select the version you wish)


Mythili Kannan_Audacity download

3. It takes you to the page, where the exe file is available to download. Click on it.

Mythili Kannan_Audacity Exe File download

4. Run the exe file.

Mythili Kannan_Audacity Run Exe file

5. The download starts and asks whether to Install. Click on Install and select the language and location to save the file as per your need.

Mythili Kannan_Audacity Installation Process

Mythili Kannan_Audacity Install

6. Once when the installation is done, you can start playing with your music files.

7. Open the application by going to the start up menu.

Mythili Kannan_Open Audacity Applicaiton

8. Open the music file you want to edit.

Mythili Kannan_Open MP3 file in Audacity

9. Now click on the starting point you want in the music. With the left click of your mouse, drag till the point you want to have in that music file. You can see in the below file that I have selected the first 2 minutes (shown in grey portion).

Mythili Kannan_Select Music Portion in MP3 Audacity file

10. Now copy the portion. You can either do Ctrl + C or go to the Top Edit menu, and select Copy.

Mythili Kannan_Audacity Copy MP3 file portion

11. Now open a new file, by going to the menu File à New

Mythili Kannan_Audacity New MP3 file

12. Go to Edit à Paste which will then paste the portion you have copied from your original MP3 file.
Mythili Kannan_Audacity Paste the MP3 file portion

13. Click on the Green button (Play) and check whether the portion copied is correct and which is the actual need of you.

Mythili Kannan_Audacity Play and Verify MP3 file

14. Are you satisfied? If no, then repeat the above step of selecting the required portion exactly and copying into a new file. If yes, then Click on the menu File à Export to save the file.
Mythili Kannan_Audacity Export MP3 file

15. Save the file in MP3 format as shown here.
Mythili Kannan_Save Audacity MP3 file format

16. Now it is all done. Here is the edited file.



17. See here, how I have embedded the music I cut from the whole file in my video file loaded in you tube :-)

Do you know, that I created the below video using photos? Are you eager to learn how to create a video using the photos that are piled up in your computer? The link below the video will help you.



http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-create-a-quick-video-using-your-photos-with-the-help-of-windows-Live-Movie-Maker-and-upload-in-Youtube

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

How to create a quick video using your photos with the help of windows Live Movie Maker and upload in Youtube?

Do you have lot of photos stored in your computer? Do you wish to create a video out of those photos, with background music, making the photos to flow in a sequence, making you nostalgic? Do you want to create some video with the photos you have and publish it in Youtube or anywhere in Internet? Do you want to create a video without really using your video camera?


It is very simple and easy indeed. It is going to take just a few minutes of your time. So, here is the step by step guidance for you on how to make a video.

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-create-a-quick-video-using-your-photos-with-the-help-of-windows-Live-Movie-Maker-and-upload-in-Youtube

Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Digita Bhoomi - A forum to write and earn

Digital Bhoomi - A forum that pays you for writing.


I have told about this forum to several friends and in several places of Internet. But when I didn't tell about it in details, in my own blog so far.

You all might know, what a forum is. It is a place where you can join and discuss (write) about anything of your interest, answer others questions or ask your own doubts. So, when I talk about this forum called Digital Bhoomi, first question that people used to ask is "What makes Digital Bhoomi unique?". So here I am giving you the details of the forum, which makes it unique from any other forums, all over Internet.

1. Monthly Contest

Three cash prizes are given (Rs. 1000, Rs. 600 and Rs. 400) every month for best three posts made in the month. For example, the posts that are made in the forum from Jan 1st 2011 to Jan 31st 2011 will be analyzed and best three posts will be selected on Feb 5th 2011. The prize amount will be deposited in the bank account or paid via Paypal, whichever you wish. In my past two years, I have own at least 10 times and I bet no other contest conducting websites will deposit money in your account so fast, as Digital Bhoomi team does. I used to get the prize money in my account, within two to three days after the results are announced.

Apart from this three best posts, a post from "Cinema / Movies" related topic will be selected and given a cash prize of Rs. 500 every month. This post could be a review about a movie or some general discussion related to the cine field, etc...

2. En-cash your Points

For every post (that are having more than 10 words), the Digital Bhoomi Forum gives you a point. Once when you make 400 points, it can be en-cashed. 400 points = Rs. 200. At the time of joining, you will be awarded 100 points, free.

3. Referral Points

When you refer someone, you will get 10 points. Once when that referred person start writing quality posts in the forum, you will get additional 40 points (which means, by a quality referral, you can earn 50 points). This points will get added to your total points (as mentioned in my above point number 2), which can be en-cashed later as said above.

4. Top Referrer Points

Every month, the person who made the highest number of referrals in that particular month will get 100 points. If no one achieves this in that month, the points will be carried out to next month. So, if you refer more people in the next month, you will get 200 points, instead of 100 points. Cool, right?

5. Clean Chit

Above all, the best thing about the forum is, it is spam free and any concerns will be addressed so quickly by the Admin and team. I bet, you will get wonderful friends and friendship there.

Wanna to join? Click HERE.

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Facebook New Privacy Setting - Instant Personalization - Third party websites going to access your personal information, without your knowledge

One of the latest privacy settings handled by facebook is "Instant Personalization". This setting gives access to your personal information to other third party websites. The facebook page says like below

"Our goal is to give you a great social and personalized experience with every app and website you use. We've worked with a select set of partners to personalize your experience as soon as you arrive on their sites.



These partner sites (currently limited to Bing, TripAdvisor, Clicker, Rotten Tomatoes, Docs, Pandora, Yelp, and Scribd), can only access the information and content you've already made available to everyone. All our partners are required to respect your information and we've worked closely with them to make sure they do."

The main thing you have to know here is, the default setting is set as "Enabled", which means, default the third party websites has permission to access your information, without you knowing it exclusively. So, one should explicitly go and remove the "Enable" power given to the third parties, if they don't like to share their personal information with others.

Here I am giving you detailed step by step guidance on how to un-check the permission given to this instant personalization privacy settings.

1. Login to your facebook account and click on  the "Account" link seen in the top of the right hand side and click on "Account Settings" option shown there.


Mythili Kannan_Facebook Account Settings

2. Scroll below and you will find the "Apps and Websites" link. Click on it.


Mythili Kannan_Facebook Apps and Websites settings

3. You will be taken to a page as shown below. Scroll below and you will see the "Instant Personalization". Click on "Edit Settings" of this option.


Mythili Kannan_Facebook Edit Settings of Instant Personalization

4. Sometimes it will open a page, which try to teach you about this Instant personalization settings and purpose. Click on Close button.


Mythili Kannan_Close Facebook Option

5. Now you can see a tick mark (check) on the side of "Enable Instant personalization". Remove that (Disabling Instant Personalization). There is no "Save" option. Just un-check it and wait till the process gets over (which will be shown by a sign). They you can continue with your browsing, as usual.


Mythili Kannan_Disable Instant Personalization in Facebook Privacy Settings

Thursday, 23 December 2010

How to remove the header from your blogger and blogspot posts?

After a short break, I am back now. Few days before, I got a mail from one of my friend asking how to remove header from her blogspot. Though I have replied her already, thought of putting that in my blog as it may help few others too, who are in search of that option of removing the header from their blogger home page and other posts too.

So, let us start here.

What is a header?

Header is the portion, which will be seen on top of your blogger page, with details like search button, Follow button, Share button, Signout Option, Next Blog link are all available.


Mythili Kannan_Header in Blogger

Though these options helps us in few ways, some people don't like to have this header looking odd in their blog and wish to remove it. So let me tell you in my step by step method on how to remove the header by a simple code.

Step 1

Go to http://www.blogger.com/ and login into your blogger account with your username and password.

Step 2

Go to the Dashboard --> Design --> Edit HTML option.



Mythili Kannan_Edit Html in blogger
 Step 3

Search for /* Header in the HTML code and add the below given code, just below the /* Header as shown in the image.

#navbar-iframe { height:0px; visibility:hidden; display:none }


Mythili Kannan_Add code

Step 4

Save the template after adding the code.


Mythili Kannan_#navbar code to remove header

Step 5

All done. Check your blogspot now and the header is disappeared.



Mythili Kannan_No Header in the blogger

Friday, 10 December 2010

How to Publicize your Blog Posts using Google Feedburner?

Michael Dadona a.k.a Mike asked me to publicize my blog using Feedburner. But I didn't have any clear idea about what Feed means and how to burn it. I just know to burn my fingers when I try to feed my son with his angry or eager bites. But what is this Feedburner all about? Later I went to Michael Dadona's blog itself, where he had given an awesome clean instruction that helped me to understand about Feedburner and easily do the publicize job.

Now I thought of putting that in my own ways, reiterating step by step guide to publicize the blog using google Feedburner. Let us start.

What is Feedburner?

Before saying about feedburner, it is a must to tell about RSS. RSS means  Really Simple Syndication. It is an easy and effective way to gather data from various other websites (which are your favorites and from where you would love to get updates). When you visit some website and found it interesting, you can subscribe to their RSS, by which you will get the latest update from that website / blog without the need to visit it individually. After seeing the update, you can either neglect if you are not interested or go that site to get more details. I just put it in as simple as possible words. RSS has more benefits than what I said. But as a blogger I guess this is sufficient for time being.

OK, now where comes the Feedburner here? I said, you can subscribe to some others website. But if you own a website or blog and want others to know about your update, you should have the RSS for others to subscribe. According to Google definition, "Feedburner is a product acquired by Google, which helps publishers analyze, optimize, publicize, and earn advertising revenue from their RSS feeds". Feedburner is an enhancer to RSS, adding more cool functionalities without you to do much modifications or jobs.

The main and popular use of Feedburner is using it for publicize of your blogs. Let us say, you have more than one blog and you want to tell the visitors of your Blog-1 about the updates in Blog-2. So, what would you do? Sit and write a page giving links to your Blog-2? How much time and effort is required to do it?

Most of my visitors to this blog may be thinking me as a serious person with a goal of earning high through Internet tactics. 99% of them would not be aware of my other blog, where I write about Love and Romance, my other face of life. So, I now used Feedburner and now my Romance blogs update is shared here in this writing blog. A break in mid of serious works.
Feedburner made it all simple. By using that, it is all done in just a matter of minutes. Here we go with a step by step guidance of how to achieve it.

Step 1

Go to http://feedburner.google.com/ and login with your google user name and password (ahh ya, the very same Gmail id and password).

Step 2

You will be taken to the page where you need to add the blog URL. The image I have given below has already two of my blogs added for Feedburner. Give your blog URL as shown and click on Next button.


Mythili Kannan_Google Feedburner_Add Blog



Step 3

On click of next button, you will be taken to a page, where you will be asked to select the option of having Atom or RSS. I have selected RSS as my Feed Source. Click on next button after selecting the required option.

Mythili Kannan_RSS

Step 4

The next page will show you other options of customization, which are really not important for me. So, I selected the "Skip and go to feed management directly" option.


Mythili Kannan_Google feedburner
 Step 5

This takes to a page, where you can see 5 tabs namely analyze, optimize, publicize, montionize and troubleshootize. Click on the Publicize tab.

Mythili Kannan_google feedburner publicize

Step 6

You would be able to see a list of services provided on the left side tab. Click on the BuzzBoost link.

Mythili Kannan_BuzzBoost in Feedburner
Step 7

The next step takes you to a page where you need to fill / select the options like how many posts you want to be shown by the Feedburner and so on. I select a minimum of 5 posts and a maximum of 10 posts, as something more than that will look like a non ending list in the blog, with a long way to drag. You can see rest of my options in the below image. After all settings done, click on the "Activate" button.

Mythili Kannan_Activate BuzzBoost
Step 8

The next page gives you a piece of script to be embedded in the blog, where you want the Feedburner list ot be displayed. Let us say, you created the Feedburner for your Blog-1 (in my case, let me say I created a one for my http://mythilishiju.blogspot.com/, then I want to place this code in my http://write-and-earn.blogspot.com/)
Mythili Kannan_Feedburner code
Step 9

Go to www.blogger.com/home and go to the design --> Page Element of the blog and click on Add Gadget, where you want to place the Feedburner code.



Mythili Kannan_Blogger Page Element

Step 10

A page opens with various list of options to add as gadget. In that select HTML/Javascript (you need to click on the + symbol corresponding to this option) as shown in image.

Mythili Kannan_Add HTML/Javascript Gadget
Step 11

You will get a box, where you need to place the Feedburner code, copied from the feedburner site for your blog. Place the code there, give a title and save it.

Mythili Kannan_Add Javascript code
Step 12

Now you can see the Gadget added to the Page Element. Save the Page Element.

Mythili Kannan_Save Page Element
Step 13

Now, go to your blog and view the Feedburner displaying the updates from the other blog, attracting your visitors to visit your other blog too. I have shown it by an yellow color rectangle in the below image.

Mythili Kannan_Feedburner added to the blog