The Symbiosis Curse
#TrueStory
I dread telling people in Pune I’m a Symbiosis student. It takes a huge amount of courage. One needs to take a deep breath and say it as casually as possible and wait for the interviewer to roll his eyes and slowly contort his face in disgust like a jumbled Rubiks cube. In nine cases out of ten, he will proceed to put you in the category one associates with Mexican drug peddlers. In the tenth case, the candidate will turn out to be a fellow Symbian, who will make a mental note to bitch about the worthlessness of your particular institute at some point later in his life.
I would love to tackle some FAQs at this stage. Firstly, we aren’t all rich, spoilt brats. Just because we happen to wear a uniform involving the amalgamation of a shirt and trousers and speak the English language with above average…
View original post 665 more words
Interstellar Movie Explained!!
Confusion!! Confusion!! Confusion!!
So we need to think!! “Did we pay less attention in Physics during our college days??”..
No!! Let’s not take it this way, So do we curse “Christopher Nolan” to waste money and time (I mean I liked the movie other than some confusion in the end).
Let’s leave that all this behind and try to understand what was the movie about(Obviously as we spent our time and money).
Note: People who are planning to watch this movie and don’t want spoilers “Don’t Read/watch this”
Here is what I understood from climax:
Matthew McConaughey, sacrifices himself so that Anne Hathaway could use the sparse resources herself and execute Plan B (human colonies in the habitable planet) soon after which Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is sucked inside the horizon and he finds himself in a bookshelf in which he believes that rather than being a naturally occurring phenomenon, the structure he finds himself in was built by “them.”
Cooper is in a world where time is visualized as a fourth dimension. Similar to how we walk through the three dimensions, Cooper inside the tesseract is able to glide through the 4th dimension, which is time. Since there is no established communication links between earth and Cooper, he is using gravity (e.g., dust sprinkles aligning themselves in certain pattern) Cooper is sending out the quantum data (which is available inside the black hole) to finish off the equations (carried out by Murph after the death of Michael Caine) so that, current generation humans would know how to manipulate time as the fourth dimension, which would allow them to transcend time and space allowing them to leave earth and reach a habitable planet, Cooper uses TARS to translate the message in morse code and sends message to the watch he gave Murph (when he leaves Earth) by ticking its longer hand. Using the data Murph finishes off the equation, thereby saving humans from extinction.
Who are “them”?
Them, are the future humans who created the tesseract in specific black hole, so that cooper could communicate with his daughter to transfer the quantum data.
And once the job is done, the tesseract self-destructs. With the available knowledge on time manipulation, humans rescue cooper (remember he is in the proximity of the black hole where the gravity is exponentially greater than earth, which means seconds for him would be years together in Earth). That is why, when he returns back he finds his daughter to be very aged.
Coming to Anne Hathaway:
There is no way to return to earth since the Endurance is damaged beyond extent, using the available gravitational force Anne Hathaway is slingshot to the planet where the third beacon arrived from (sent from previously left astronauts indicating presence of life) to execute plan B, so that human colonies would be brought up there, thereby saving our race from extinction.
At the end of the movie, Matthew McConaughey meets his daughter during which she tells him that he need not worry about his old daughter anymore and asks him to go find Anne Hathaway following which Matthew McConaughey leaves with a space ship to find her.
After all the ghost is not a ghost as assumed by Murph, it’s her father sending messages from future.
P.S. I have written this based on my understanding of the movie and very little knowledge about Astrophysics, if there is any mistake please correct me.
Here are some links which will clear the confusion that caused in the end.
Video(Who has the time to read..): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhW1HfSuPVQ
Something to read(I know we hate it, but let’s make some effort) http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/interstellar/241065/explaining-the-interstellar-ending
Timeline of Interstellar Explained(This is interesting): http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/11/interstellar-explained-in-one-timeline-warning-spoilers/
Still didn’t understand?? Google “Interstellar Explained ”.
Thanks,
Sajeel Irkal
Dropdown menu using Jquery and CSS
<a class=”account” >My Account</a><div class=”submenu”>
<ul class=”root”>
<li ><a href=”#Dashboard” >Dashboard</a></li>
<li ><a href=”#Profile” >Profile</a></li>
<li ><a href=”#settings”>Settings</a></li>
<li ><a href=”#feedback”>Send Feedback</a></li>
</ul>
</div></div>
Contains javascipt code. $(“.account”).click(function(){}– account is the class name of the My Account anchor tag. Using $(this).attr(‘id’) calling id value of the anchor tag and based on condition showing .submenu div box and the same time $(this).attr(‘id’, ‘1’) adding id value too.
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js
"></script>;
<script type="text/javascript" >
$(document).ready(function()
{$(".account").click(function()
{
var X=$(this).attr('id');
if(X==1)
{
$(".submenu").hide();
$(this).attr('id', '0');
}
else
{
$(".submenu").show();
$(this).attr('id', '1');
}});//Mouse click on sub menu
$(".submenu").mouseup(function()
{
return false
});//Mouse click on my account link
$(".account").mouseup(function()
{
return false
});//Document Click
$(document).mouseup(function()
{
$(".submenu").hide();
$(".account").attr('id', '');
});
});
</script>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CSS Code
{
color: #555;
margin: 3px -22px 0 0;
width: 143px;
position: relative;
height: 17px;
text-align:left;
}
.submenu
{
background: #fff;
position: absolute;
top: -12px;
left: -20px;
z-index: 100;
width: 135px;
display: none;
margin-left: 10px;
padding: 40px 0 5px;
border-radius: 6px;
box-shadow: 0 2px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.45);
}
.dropdown li a
{
color: #555555;
display: block;
font-family: arial;
font-weight: bold;
padding: 6px 15px;
cursor: pointer;
text-decoration:none;
}.dropdown li a:hover
{
background:#155FB0;
color: #FFFFFF;
text-decoration: none;
}
a.account
{
font-size: 11px;
line-height: 16px;
color: #555;
position: absolute;
z-index: 110;
display: block;
padding: 11px 0 0 20px;
height: 28px;
width: 121px;
margin: -11px 0 0 -10px;
text-decoration: none;
background: url(icons/arrow.png) 116px 17px no-repeat;
cursor:pointer;
}
.root
{
list-style:none;
margin:0px;
padding:0px;
font-size: 11px;
padding: 11px 0 0 0px;
border-top:1px solid #dedede;
}
This may be helpful to you for creating the Dropdown menu using Jquery.
The Best Google Features You’re Probably Not Using
Google is a vast machine with all types of apps, programs, and tools. A lot of these—like Gmail and Google Docs—are clearly useful and beloved by many. But hidden inside Google’s network are some awesome, lesser-known gems that can make your life easier.
Over the last couple of years Google has experimented with a lot of products. Hidden beneath popular apps like Gmail, Google Search, and Chrome are a lot of cool features that most people don’t mess around with. Here are some of our favorite unsung Google features, from Google Drive apps to Google+ to everything in between.
Use Google Drive Apps for Added Functionality and Features
For most of us, Google Drive is just a fancy rebranding of Google Docs. However, the recent integration of web based apps into Google Drive is starting to get interesting. These apps utilize your Google Drive folder directly either by storing new files there, or integrating with the files you already have. Here are a few of the Drive apps we find useful.
Send and Receive Faxes for Free with Hellofax
HelloFaxisn’t the only service to send faxes online, but its tight integration with Google Drive makes it incredibly easy to use.
With HelloFax installed, every fax you send with the service is linked directly into Drive. Need to fax some forms? Send them from Drive. Waiting on a fax? HelloFax will stuff it right into your Drive folder so you can access it from anywhere. Most of us only need a fax machine on rare occasions and HelloFax is a handy alternative to a big clunky machine.
Sign Any Document Easily with DocuSign
Just like sending faxes, another thing you probably don’t do often is sign and return documents. DocuSign is a Drive app that does just that. You can share documents that need signatures, or add your own directly from your Google Drive. You only get 15 free signatures with the service, but honestly, how often do you need physically sign something?
Edit Photos Right in Your Browser with Pixlr Editor and Aviary
Both Pixlr Editor and Aviaryare simple, but useful photo editing tools for Google Drive that work right in your browser.
If you’re looking for a photo editing app similar in function to Photoshop, Pixlr Editor feature set makes it a pretty good choice. Pixlr Editor doesn’t have the abundance of tools as Photoshop, but as a free cloud photo editing tool it works great.
If light touch-ups to photos are more your thing, then Aviary is all you need. Upload your photos into your Google Drive and you can make simple edits like color balance, and blemish correction right inside Drive.
Get Details About Your Google Docs Usage with Spanning Stats
Ever wondered what you actually spend your time doing in Google Docs? Spanning Statsis an app that breaks it down for you in a graph. For most people this means you’ll see a breakdown of what’s taking up space in your Drive. Advanced users will benefit from graphs that show you the volume of documents created by week, month breakdowns, and more. You also get a nice visualization of the times you typically create new documents.
If you’re a fan of the idea of the quantified self, then Spanning Stats is a nice app to keep around in your Google Drive. With Spanning Stats you can see how you’re using Drive and hopefully use that information to use your time better.
Google+’s Handy Hidden Features
Google+ hasn’t taken off as a social network, but as an open platform for social-type things it works really well.
Use Local to Find and Share Your Favorite Places
Google+’s local tabdoesn’t really seem that interesting from the description alone: type in an address and Google+ shows you restaurants with a Zagat score. More interesting is the fact your Google+ peers can also write reviews and they’ll show as recommendations. Done right, you can get restaurant recommendations from people you know every time you search for restaurants.
Even without the social features, Google Local is handy for finding a good place to eat quickly. Sure, millions of different restaurant recommendation services exist, but Google Local is integrated into where you probably already start most restaurant searches: Google Search.
Organize Your Parties with Events for Open Access and Invitations
Facebook has an Events system, but the problem with it is that you need a Facebook account to use it. Google’s brand new Events is a lot easier to use. Create an event, share it with your Google+ friends, or anyone in your email list, and you’re done. They don’t have to sign up for Google+ just to see the invite.
After the event is going, people can share photos live as they happen directly on the event page by enabling Party Mode in the Google+ app, take a look at photos afterwards, and download all the pictures with one click. As a way to invite and document an event, Google Events is pretty strong.
Store Your Photos in the Google+ Cloud Automatically
Even if you’re not using Google+ for much of anything, it’s a good place to store photos. Again, you already have the account, so you might as well make use of the space it offers. You can enable the Automatic Uploadfeature on your iPhone or Android and every picture you take will automatically be stored in the cloud. As a free, easy-to-use backup service, it’s not a bad option.
As far as sharing is concerned, you can set up photos so they’re visible by certain people in your Google+ circles, or make them private and share them directly through email. The recipient doesn’t even need a Google+ account to look at the gallery. If you prefer a desktop client, all the Google+ photo settings integrate seamlessly with Google’s free photo management tool, Picasa.
Run Any Meeting Online with Google Hangouts (and Its Apps)
Google+ Hangoutsis a simple video chat room that allows up to ten people to participate in a conversation together. It simple to use, and we here at Lifehacker use it for our weekly meetings. More interesting is the abundance of specialized apps developed for Hangouts that add all sorts of functions ranging from whiteboards to video poker. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Cacoo: Cacoo is a full suite of nerdy extras for Hangouts. Inside your Hangouts you can create mind maps, collaborate on diagrams, and even work on office layouts. Cacoo probably isn’t something most of us will use every day, but it’ll certainly come in handy on occasion.
- SlideShare: SlideShare is all about presentations. You can create slideshow presentations with SlideShare and share them with others in a hangout. Simple, easy, and doesn’t require a bit of technical knowledge to use.
- ConceptBoard: Want to collaborate on a big project and let everyone just dump ideas into one simple image? ConceptBoard is a giant whiteboard for your hangouts. It might seem a little silly at first, but it works pretty well if you collaborating on something that needs visuals.
- Screen Sharing: Screen sharing is one of the built-in features of Hangouts that makes it great to use when you need to do tech support for friends or family. In a Hangout, simply click “Screenshare” at the top of your screen and you’re done. You can’t remotely control someon’s computer, but you can share exactly what you’re doing (and they can do the same with you) to make troubleshooting easy.
Google Drive and Google+ are certainly where Google is concentrating a lot of its momentum right now. Still, a few of its other minor services are just as interesting.
Everything Else: Apps, Products, and Automated Scripts
As we mentioned from the start, Google has a ton of different services, apps, and features. It’s hard to really pay attention to them all, let alone care about most of them. Hidden inside their product list are a few smaller apps that have grown on us over time. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.
Google Schemer as a Planning Tool and Project Idea Generator
At its core, Google Schemer is a great way to find new things to do in your city. You can type in your address into Schemer and see what types of things people are doing around you. We’ve also talked about using to help achieve your goals because you can set public goals that your friends can track.
Essentially, Schemer is a means to not just find something interesting to do, but to share it with locals and friends. Schemer can help you find new things to do if you’re popping into a new city for a night, or just want to explore your own town.
Custom Google Maps for Personalized Navigation
Custom maps in Google Maps are very simple to make and what you end up with is a completely personalized map of a city. We walked you through using custom maps with Yelp to create a personalized, shareable restaurant list, but that’s just one of the many options.
You can, for instance, keep a running map of your life in general. Toss in your home address, your work, and places you like to go. As you discover new places, add them to the map, share them with family, and create a list of all your favorite places. Your list is integrated right into Google Maps on your computer so you’ll always have an idea of where you are in relation to your favorite hangouts.
Activity Reports to Track Your Google Use
Ever wanted to know what you spend your Gmail time on? Activity Reportsbreaks it down for you. Activity Reports look at your Google activity and show you what you’re looking for the most, how many searches you do, how you use Gmail, and more.
What you do with all this data is up to you, and its usefulness is going to vary depending on how much time you spend on Google. Still, as a look back at how you spend your computer time, Activity Reports are a valuable resource that may help you figure out where you’re going wrong (or right) with your computer usage each month.
Google Bookmarks as an Integrated Read-it-Later Service and Browsing History
Before read-it-later services like Pocket and Instapaper, there was Google Bookmarks: a service that allows you to save web pages for later viewing without clogging up your browser’s bookmarks bar.
You can sort these bookmarks into labels so they’re easy to find, and you can add any page to the list with a simple bookmarklet. Google Bookmarks doesn’t have the flash of a service like Instapaper, but as a place to save links for research, or just to read later, it’s nice to have around.
Google Apps Scripts to Automate Everything You Do in Google Apps
Google Apps Scripts are essentially little Automator-style workflows you can create and share that automate tasks between your Google apps. The learning curve for making your own isn’t high, but the best part is that you can easily download and utilize other people’s scripts directly in your documents (open a new spreadsheet in Google Drive and click Tools > Script Gallery). Recently scripts have been integrated into the Chrome Web Storeso using them is going to get that much easier. They come in a wide variety of flavors, but here are a few of our current favorites:
- Gmail Meter: The Gmail Meter script works a lot like the above-mentioned Activity Monitor, but with more data. Each month you get an email with a full list of all your Gmail-related activity. Gmail Meter breaks down your usage in crazy ways, including average word counts, email times, response times, and thread lengths.
- Gmail Attachments to Google Drive: This script sends every attachment sent to your Gmail account directly to your Google Drive. It’s simple, but handy if you do a lot of editing in Drive.
- Gmail Snooze: Gmail Snooze does one thing: gives your Gmail Account a snooze button so you can rest and not worry about getting email for a little while.
- Gmail Filter to SMS(This ones in the Scripts Gallery): You can set up this script and you get a notification you through a text message when an email is labeled a certain way. It could come in handy when you want to shut your email down, but need to keep in touch with one person.
In the past, Google Apps Scripts have been geeky endeavors. With the addition of Google Drive support and the ability to upload scripts to the Chrome Web Store, they’ll likely get a lot more user-friendly.
Want to check out a few more of the features tucked into your Google products? Here are a few of our favorite experimental features you add to your favorite Google apps.
Top 10 Gmail Labs You Should Enable
As if Gmail wasn’t powerful enough, you can find all sorts of goodies and extra features in Gmail Labs. The list is pretty massive, so we’ve narrowed down our 10 favorite labs to help increase your email productivity.
Title image by Ben Krebs.
We’ve actually gone through our 10 favorite labs… More »
10 More Experimental Features You Should Enable from the Gmail Laboratory
We’ve highlighted top 10 Gmail Labs you should enable before, but you’ll find more than ten useful features hidden inside Gmail’s Laboratory, and Google’s releasing new ones all the time. More »
8 Great Experimental Features to Enable in Google Calendar’s Labs
We’ve highlighted plenty of Labs features for Gmail, but Calendar has some pretty great Labs offerings, too. Since it’s been nearly two years since Labs were added to Calendar, we thought it was about time they got a bit more attention. More »
5 Great Experimental Features You Should Enable from the Google Maps Laboratory
Today we’re taking a look at five great experimental features you can enable in Google Maps that solve a few annoying problems and make using the service easier.
More »
Six Great Experimental Features to Enable in Google Chrome’s Labs
Google Chrome is a favorite among power users in no small part due to its innovative experimental features (many of which are eventually integrated into the stable browser). More »
Even Google power users can’t keep track of everything Google introduces. As Google integrates its services into a more cohesive whole, tying those services together with apps and scripts is going to become more powerful and more important. Hopefully, getting used to some of the above features and apps now means you’ll be better prepared in the future.
Google’s Nexus Q Is a Hassle-Free Streaming Media Player for Your Living Room
Google’s new Nexus Q may be the last stereo appliance you buy for your home entertainment system. It streams music from your Android phone to your speakers and video to your television, supports built-in streaming from YouTube or your Google account and any music you may have stored at Google Music, and can even let your friends in on the action by connecting to their devices and streaming their music and movies to your entertainment system.
The Nexus Q connects to your speakers and your television via HDMI (or Micro HDMI), and to your speakers through standard banana jack connectors (or Optical audio), and connects to your home network via Wi-Fi or 10/100 Ethernet. Once it’s all hooked up and connected, you can use your Android device as a remote control to stream media on your Android device or stored in the cloud to your entertainment center.
If you’re thinking this sounds a lot like a set-top box, you’re close. The Nexus Q is less of a set-top box and more a bridge between your Android phone or tablet (or both) and your home entertainment system. The wireless streaming features are a bit like Apple’s Airplay. You even control the volume and playback of your media from your Android device.
If you’re eager to get your hands on the little black sphere, the Nexus Q will set you back $299, ships in mid-July, and is available for pre-order now.
- Nexus Q | Google Play
ref: Alan Henry
Hound Lets You Search for Music with Your Voice -A Competitor for Shazam
iOS/Android: From the same team that brought you SoundHound, Hound is a music search app that lets you speak the name of a song or artist aloud to search for it in the SoundHound database. Once it’s found, you can read more about it, listen to a preview, or watch the video.
Unlike the previously mentioned SoundHound, which uses a song’s audio pattern to identify the track playing, Hound allows you to just speak the title or the artist to see songs that match your search. When the app finds the song you’re looking for, you can listen to an audio preview of the track, read more about the song or the artist, or hop over to YouTube to watch the music video.
If your voice search doesn’t work, you can always use the keyword search. Hound is meant to be a song search tool, not so much a music-on-demand app. It does, however, give you an easy way to learn more about any artist you hear about, and preview their music. Hound is free, and available in the iTunes App Store and the Android App Market.
Ref: Alan Henry
Monstro Helps You Find New Tunes Based on What Your Friends are Sharing
If you’re tired of algorithms helping you find music and you’re curious what other people you actually know are listening to, Monstro is a new service that uses your Twitter account to pull together mini-mixes based on the songs your friends enjoy enough to share with the world. You can “tune in” to mixes created by friends and other avid music-sharers, check out the service’s music charts to discover new bands, and fall in love with music all over again.
Monstro uses your Twitter account to see what music you’ve been sharing recently, and then builds a mix based on those songs. You can click on any of them to listen, download them from Amazon or iTunes, stream on Spotify, or check out a music video at YouTube. The “Friends Mix” page shows you songs that your friends have shared on various social networks so you can listen in and hopefully discover something new. You can even see which other Twitter users have shared the same song.
If you’re looking for something completely new, check out the Monstro Charts, which are a combination of popular artists overall, popular on Monstro, or popular on the social network or music service you prefer. With one click, you can see the songs and artists that users share the most at The Hype Machine, Spotify, Last.fm, Pandora, Soundtracking, and more.
Monstro isn’t really a music player or streaming radio service, although you could use it that way. What it really does—and does very well—is introduce you to new bands that your friends are listening to, and lets you explore new music you may not have otherwise found on your own. It’s completely free, and all you need is a Twitter account to sign up.
Ref:Alan Henry
TorChat Is an Easy to Use Anonymous and Encrypted Chat Client
Windows/Mac: TorChat is an instant messenger client that makes encrypted, anonymous chat and file sharing with your friends incredibly easy. Built on Tor’slocation hiding services nobody will be able to see what you’re doing or who you’re contacting.
While most of us won’t need TorChat too often, it’s bound to come in handy at some point when you need to transmit data or if you’d like to have a conversation with a friend without worrying about anyone sniffing your internet connection. When you sign into TorChat you’ll get an random .onion address that serves as your ID. Exchange this with your friends and you’ll be chatting privately right away. On top of the Windows version linked below you can get an OS X client, Pidgin plugin, and a Portable Java version.
- TorChat | via One Thing Well
Compare SkyDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox
Get A Free Google Website For Your Business & Get Your Business Online
You have your files, photos and documents on your home computer that you would like to access from other locations on different devices. Dropbox has been the de-facto choice for long but that could potentially change as Microsoft and Google have just entered the arena with the launch of Windows Live SkyDrive and Google Drive respectively.
The three services are very similar – you get online storage (you can access your files anywhere) and file synchronization – edit a document on one computer and the changes are propagated to all your other computers almost instantly.
Let’s see how these online drives stack up against each other:
SkyDrive vs Google Drive vs Dropbox
Supported Platforms
Dropbox is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, BlackBerry and Android devices. Windows Live SkyDrive is available for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Windows Phone devices while Google Drive is currently available for PC, Mac and Android phones /tablets. All services do offer a web mobile version that can help you access your files from the web browser of any mobile phone.
The other important difference is that Dropbox is also available for Windows XP and Linux while SkyDrive is not.
Storage Limits
Dropbox offers 2-3 GB of free online storage storage, Google Drive offers 5 GB while SkyDrive, if you are new, offers 7 GB of storage space.
You can upload files of any size to Dropbox through the desktop client while that limit is 2 GB in the case of SkyDrive. Both SkyDrive and Dropbox let you upload files up to 300 MB from the web browser while that limit is 10 GB in the case of Google Drive.
Storage Plans
If you are running out of storage space on SkyDrive, you can buy an additional 20 GB for about $10 per year or 50 GB for $25 per year. Dropbox Pro offers 50 GB of storage space for $99 per year while Google Drive offers an extra 20 GB for $2.49 per month.
See detailed comparison of pricing plans.
Built-in File Viewers
Both SkyDrive and Dropbox web apps have built-in file viewers for most common file formats including Office documents, PDFs, videos and images. Google Docs supports even more formats – including Photoshop mockups and AutoCAD drawings – and no wonder that you can also view these files in Google Drive without additional software.
Unfortunately, maybe because of licensing issues, none of these drives will stream MP3 songs in the browser – you will to have download the MP3 file locally to play the audio.
File History
Your free Dropbox account will save any file’s history for 30 days meaning if you accidentally delete or change a file, you can easily restore the previous working version for the next 30 days. SkyDrive and Google Drive also store the previous versions of all files though they have not exactly specified how many reversions are preserved.
If you delete a file or folder inside SkyDrive web app, it’s gone forever whereas in the case of Dropbox and Google Drive, the files are moved to the Trash from where they can be easily restored.
Account Security
Since your Google Drive is connected to your Google Account, you can apply 2-step protection and non-authorized user won’t be able to access your online file even if they are aware of your Google username and password. This extra layer of protection is not available to Dropbox and SkyDrive users.
Google Drive and Dropbox also maintain a detailed log of every single change that was made to your files (or account) but this seems to be missing in SkyDrive.
File Search
This is one area where Google Drive has a definite upper hand.
When you search for a file on Dropbox.com, it returns results where the file names matche your search keywords. SkyDrive lets you search the content of documents that are in common Microsoft Office formats. Google Drive goes a step further as it can even read the text content of scanned documents and photographs using OCR. That is, if you have saved a photograph of the whiteboard to your Google Drive account, you should be able find that image by text without having to remember the filename.
Offline Access
The mobile apps of Dropbox and Google Drive let you save any document or file on your mobile for offline use. Such a facility is not available in the iOS apps of Windows SkyDrive though you can always export the document to another app (like iBooks or Good Reader) from SkyDrive and access it offline.
Selective Sync
If you have multiple computers, all these “online drives” will copy your files across all your machines. Sometimes, you don’t want this to happen and both Dropbox and Google Drive offer you an option to selectively synchronize folders per computer. For instance, you can tell Dropbox not to download your family photographs folder on the work computer. This saves bandwidth and your hard disk stays light too.
Selective Sync is however missing in SkyDrive.
What I like about Windows SkyDrive
SkyDrive offers plenty of storage space but the best part is that the SkyDrive web app lets you access files and folders of all your other computer right from within your browser. You just need to have SkyDrive on these machines and you can then easily access any of their files from any other computer, anywhere simply using your Windows Live ID.
SkyDrive is an absolute must-have service for Microsoft Office users because it gives you the ability to edit documents in the web browser while preserving all the formatting.
What I like about Google Drive
Google Drive offers the most pleasing interface, the search feature is brilliant and the new grid view lets you quickly browse your stored files visually. You can email any file from your Google Drive account to another user as an email attachment, a useful feature that’s missing in all the other online drives.
If you live in the Google ecosystem and do not have Microsoft Office on your computer, skip SkyDrive and go with Google Drive.
What I like about Dropbox
The basic Dropbox account offers a mere 2 GB of storage space but you can easily increase your account space to 16 GB by referring a couple of friends to Dropbox. Also, you can find tons of apps that make the Dropbox service even more powerful and useful.
Google Drive and Windows Live SkyDrive are extremely promising services but none of them support as many platforms as Dropbox does. The best part about Dropbox is that it just works and it won’t be easy even for Google and Microsoft to build the kind of developer ecosystem that currently exists around Dropbox.
Ref:Digital Inspiration.
Middleman Syncs Virtually Any Device with iTunes on a Mac
Mac only: iPods are great, but if you want to sync your music with another device—like a Sansa Clip or an Android phone—iTunes doesn’t exactly have your back. Middleman is a free service for iTunes that syncs a playlist of your choice with any USB mass storage device.
Android now have apps like previously mentioned iSyncr to sync their devices with iTunes, but those of us using plain ol’ USB drives or other USB-based MP3 players are still left out in the cold. We just want something simple and free to copy our music. Middleman hopes to fill this void. It isn’t the prettiest or the most feature-filled, but it’ll sync your music to nearly any device with little hassle.
Middleman: Sync Any USB Mass-Storage Device with iTunes
Version: 0.2
Released: March 31, 2010
Updated: May 9, 2012
Creator: Whitson Gordon, Updated for Lion by Max Czarnecki
You can still download the old, Snow Leopard-compatible version here.
License: GNU Public License
What it does: Lets you select any playlist from iTunes and sync the tracks contained within to any desired folder on your USB mass-storage device.
Installation: Middleman is a Service that can be launched straight from iTunes. To install it, just mount the DMG, drag the Middleman_temp file to the Library folder in “Macintosh HD”, and double-click on the “Sync selected playlist” file.
As always, we recommend you make sure all your data is backed up before using a new program that moves your files around. We’ve tested this pretty thoroughly, but you never know what could go wrong.
Usage: Middleman requires a bit of initial setup. Due to the nature of iTunes and Middleman, you can only sync one playlist to your device. If you try to sync a second playlist, it’ll delete tracks from the first playlist. So, if you aren’t syncing your entire library, create one master “Sync” playlist with all the tracks you want on your device. My preferred way of creating the master playlist is to create a smart playlist that includes all the playlists I want to sync, but you can do this any way you want.
To sync, mount your device and select your master playlist in iTunes (or, if you’re syncing your whole library, just select “Music”). In the menu bar, go to iTunes -> Services -> Sync Selected Playlist with Middleman. Middleman will prompt you for the folder on your device in which you want to sync your music. You can select any folder you want, including the root folder of your device—it will not delete the contents of the folder you choose; it will put the music in another folder named “Middleman” inside of it. It will use your existing directory structure for artists and albums, so I highly recommend you have the “Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized” box checked under Preferences > Advanced in iTunes.
Middleman will show a dialog that says it is gathering information, which may take a few minutes depending on the size of the playlist you’re syncing (the spinning gear in the menu bar shows that it’s working). When it’s done, your device will begin syncing (you’ll see it all happening in a Terminal window), showing you the progress track-by-track. As always, the first sync takes a while, but subsequent syncs will only transfer new or changed songs (and will remove from the device songs no longer on the master playlist). When it finishes syncing, you may close or quit Terminal and unmount your device.
Note that Middleman doesn’t sync any playlists, just the tracks listed on the playlist you sync. I couldn’t find an easy way, with my knowledge and skill set, to sync the playlists themselves too. For now, you’re best off using something like iTunes Export, which will convert any number of playlists from iTunes to .M3U format and put them on your device if you so choose. Keep in mind you’ll need the tracks on those playlists synced to your device for them to work.
Middleman is a free download for Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard and 10.7 Lion only. Middleman was made in Automator, using a number of Applescripts, and relies heavily on rsync, which is built into OS X. If you would like to view or edit the workflow in Automator, just navigate to ~/Library/Services and double click on the Sync Selected Playlist with Middleman workflow.
Bug reports and feature requests: I’ve thoroughly tested Middleman on my machine and a few others, but it’s had little exercise outside of that. If you find a bug, have a good idea for a new feature, or know a little about Applescript and Automator and have a suggestion/improvement to offer, leave a comment below.
Download Middleman for Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
Download Middleman for Mac OS 10.7 Lion
Ref:LifeHacker
Sajeel Irkal 
