[Review] Build Your Own Website Easily With uCoz

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I have always wanted to create a website of my own for quite a while now. However, I don’t know much about web designing or developing so I wasn’t sure where to start. But nowadays there are plenty of free website maker out there to help you and the only skill you need to open a website is to know how to use a computer.

What is uCoz?

uCoz is a free website builder that allows you to create your own website with beautiful templates for free. This free website building service offers 250 default templates, data backup, modern CMS, attractive domain names and thousands of gadgets and widgets for creating free websites. This free service offers integration with popular web-services like YouTube and PayPal. Let’s see how to create a website using uCoz Site Builder.

How does uCoz Work?

Creating a website using uCoz is a very simple and easy process. Once you are done signing up on uCoz and the Email verification process, you will be redirected to your Webtop/Admin Panel Setup page.

You have to choose a new (not the same uCoz account password), strong password first before you get access to your Webtop. If you are feeling bored, you can try the games and apps available inside the Webtop like Sudoku and Pixlr Image Editor.

Once you are done setting your new password, you get to choose your website’s domain name with 20 subdomain options including ucoz.com and ucoz.net.

After completing the domain setup, you will be redirected to your new website’s control panel. You can choose your preferred design, site’s name and language from that page.

You can add modules for your website in the next page. This list of modules includes Page Editor, Forum, Photo Albums, Guest Book, Site News, etc. Click on “Continue” and you are done. You will see your website’s detail and 14 services to configure in the page editor module.

You can see my finished website with a sample entry in the picture posted above. It took me only 6 minutes to setup my own website. Now let’s take a look at the pros and cons of this free website builder.

Pros and Cons of uCoz

Some of the pros:

  • Unlimited hosting for free with initial hosting space of 400MB that increases every second
  • 250 default templates, thousands of widgets and gadgets, 22 modules
  • Domain name like site.com
  • Modern CMS and easy to use interface

Some of the cons:

  • No “Preview Mode” in the page editor
  • Not completely open source and offers shared hosting

Verdict

uCoz is a really easy to use website builder that is highly recommended for starters. It is also a good site for advanced users who want to get more freedom when arranging their websites. Click here to try uCoz.

[Review] World of Music: Iomoio Music Downloading Website

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iomoio logo mp3 downloadDo you consider life complete without songs? Certainly not, because songs are the feast of soul and relaxation of mind. Songs can make you feel occupied even when you are alone and feeling bored. However, purchasing the songs CD is relatively expensive and people are inclined towards free or minimum price downloads from mp3 download sites. Enjoy your leisure hours and freaking hang outs with friends, listening to your favorite best melody any time any where.–all with Iomoio Music Downloads.

User’s Feasibility:

iomoio.com interfaceIomoio is a cheap and legal music downloading site, where you can get a wide range of songs. There are numerous songs, waiting for you and good news is that these songs can be played on any music player and any playing device — iPods. The quality of music is also better than others. The price offered by Iomoio is fairly cheaper than other music downloading sites. One track downloading costs just 16¢. Seriously!
Well it is relatively lower than many other sites, and if you want to download a whole music album with about ten tracks, it would cost just $1.60. Iomoio also offers free tracks –but I prefer to choose the paid format so that quality of songs is not compromised.

Music Downloading:

Music downloading from Iomoio site is very easy and risk free as there is no need of any software installation and music can be downloaded directly to your computer or Smartphone. The music searching is very easy as well and file is downloaded in no time. No matter how long is the track, it would just cost 16¢.

Statistics of Iomoio:

There are songs of about sixty two thousands of artists, one million of albums, twenty million of tracks and storage capacity of fifteen thousand gaga bites.

Amazing Offers:

Some deals are obviously offered by Iomoio free of cost. But if you add slightly more money than the minimum amount ($16), then you can get some exciting offers such as: adding $32 can get you $16 free, $48 can get you free$32 and $96 can get you $48.00 for free.

Isn’t it an amazing offer? Iomoio is relatively the cheapest and fastest music downloading sites among various prevailing music downloads now-a-days. If you looking for mp3 song download, give Iomoio a try.

[Review] Check for Grammatical Errors Online With GrammarBase

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Most of the word editing or text editing programs out there come with a built-in grammar or spell-check tool that is just not good enough to find all the mistakes in your writing. Some word processors can easily find spelling errors but ignores context.

GrammarBase Grammar Checker online tool

There are plenty of grammar check websites out there to help you but most of them require payment. It is not possible for all the students and regular writers out there to use a paid grammar checker service. That’s where GrammarBase comes in.

What is GrammarBase?

GrammarBase is a free, instant grammar checker that promises to identify all types of grammatical errors and give you a detailed report. You can get this report instantly and correct them with a single click. You just have to copy paste your text in to the check-area and then click “Start checking”. This free instant grammar checker can check a big 500-words article in less than 10 seconds. This free service also claims to provide secure service and can check the originality of your content so let’s see if this free service really works or not.

GrammarBase Free online Grammar checker tool-2

Does GrammarBase Really Work?

At first I checked some of my old articles to see if this service really works or not. As you can see in the screenshot, the free grammar checker didn’t find any mistake in my article. Then I tested some common grammar mistakes that almost everyone makes to make sure this grammar checker is ready to handle them or not.

GrammarBase Free online Grammar checker tool-4

As you can see in the screenshot, I wrote “Whom love you more than me? I lie the pencil on the table” on the box and then asked the grammar checker to check for mistakes. To my surprise, the grammar checker failed to identify the grammatical errors here.  The correct sentence will be “Who love you more than me? I lay the pencil on the table” Microsoft Word 2010 managed to find this grammatical error.

GrammarBase Free online Grammar checker tool-5

Same thing happened when I wrote “are you feeling alright? Do I have to call a doctor?” The grammar checker failed to understand that alright isn’t even a real word.

GrammarBase Free online Grammar checker tool-6

The service also claims to offer protection from plagiarism, similar to PlagTracker, by checking for originality of your pasted contents. However, when we tried to use this feature, the service failed to identify plagiarized contents.

Pros and Cons of GrammarBase:

Some of the pros:

  • Completely free, no hidden fees
  • Identifies simple grammatical mistakes instantly
  • Simple, user-friendly interface
  • Doesn’t require any registration or software download

Some of the cons:

  • Not good enough to identify all the grammatical errors in a content
  • Failed to check contents for plagiarism
  • Results could be better

Verdict

If you are just looking for a not-so-bad spelling checker to improve or learn English, you can check out this free grammar checker. This free grammar checker service can identify small spelling mistakes and typical grammar mistakes. However, if you are a professional writer, journalist, author, job applicant or a student, using this service won’t be a good idea.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: grammar, grammar checker, grammarbase, plagiarism,

Review: Panda Global Protection 2013

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Panda Cloud Antivirus LogoPanda Cloud Antivirus is an antivirus software by Panda Security; available in both free and paid version. It is cloud-based in the sense that files are scanned on a remote server without using the processing power of the user’s machine. The cloud technology is based on Panda’s Collective Intelligence. The upcoming product is Panda Global Protection 2013 and now it is available in its beta version.

Panda Global protection offer all in one protection for your PC, it has Antivirus, Internet security, Parental protection, PC tune up and many other features. We can use this beta version for 4-6 month and it will expire in  2013 february.  So, you get about 4-6 month for testing. Panda also offers a prize of 200$ for testers. So if you are lucky, you have a chance to get 200 bucks with the free antivirus.

Installation :

You can download Panda Global protection from here. Installation is done online, it will download the data and start installation automatically, make sure you have an internet connection. It won’t take long for a faster connection it will only take 6-8 minute or less. Give your Email and country and follow the instructions for remaining steps.

Interface:

The interface got a face-lift in the new version. You can refer the image below. You can see many beautiful square buttons. Setting button is placed on the right top of the windows just below the close button. You can reach Licence, Update wizard, preference pages. PC tune up, USB vaccine, Safe browser, Network management. The icons are placed on right bottom side.

Panda Global protection 2013

Features:

Panda Global protection 2013 has features like Parental Protection, PC tune up, USB vaccine, Safe browser and Password manager which is a new feature in Panda Global protection 2013. Password manager can store your account information in an encrypted manner.

Panda antivirus window

Quick scan took only a few minutes but the full system scan took around 3-4 hrs to complete, I don’t like to wait for a long time so stopped it after 78%. If you want a fast scan we prefer F-secure for you, which is faster and somewhat better than Panda in terms of scan speed.

Parental control offers five different type of filters, Kids filter which will filter all pornographic, crime, gambling, games etc. Teen filter is also similar to Kid filter. Third one is the Employee filter, which can be used to block Facebook, Google plus and other social networking sites to prevent employees from wasting time of social networks. Fourth and fifth are Personalised and No filter respectively. You can customize which categories are to be blocked.

Anti Spam is used to filter out spam emails. You can create a list of trusted friends or other people so that panda won’t scan those mails and all other mails will be scanned.

PC tune or Optimization provides two type of optimization options. One is Defragmenation, which defragments your files and make your system is fast. Clean up utility cleans your temporary files and make your system free from unwanted files. Temporary files can be created in many ways, one is during software installation, which create many files but these files become useless after the installation. Google chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet explorer like web browsers create web temporary files which is also unwanted. Clean Up will clean temporary files, junk files, broken shortcuts etc..so you will get more free space.

Safe browser, which is not included in this package can be download – it is free. The installer file is 2.5mb in size but you need to download 77 mb during installation. We don’t prefer it for you.

Highs :

  • Good interface
  • Password manager
  • Parental control
  • Safe browser

Lows :

  • It takes more time for a full scan
  • We didn’t find any ‘update settings’ option to disable updates

Verdict:

Panda Global protection 2013 is a beta version , final version will take 4-6 month. We can test this software for 4-6 month. Beta testers will get 50% reduction in price apart from a chance to win $200.

[Review] PlagTracker: Easily check for Plagiarism in academic papers

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If you have completed all your homework, essays, and project reports without help of Internet, Google and Wikipedia, you are either a born genius or were born in or before 1970s. All of people are habitual to look for references on internet and most of the time use those magical short cuts “Ctrl C and Ctrl V”.

But using plagiarized stuff in your work could be troublesome as some Universities, Schools are very strict on plagiarism and thus they may result in heavy penalty. To avoid such situation one must check for plagiarized content.

What is PlagTracker?

PlagTracker is an online tool that lets you check for plagiarized content in a paper for free (for basic checks). All you have to do is to copy paste your content in to the check-area on the tool. After running the check, it tells the “suspicious content” with the link of the “original sources” where the content has been copied from. PlagTracker claims that it has unique checking algorithm. It checks the content in less than two minutes, pretty fine.

Does PlagTracker really work?

I ran few tests to see how effective PlagTracker actually is. I used my masters thesis to find out if there are any plagiarized content in it. I used certain sections of the thesis to run the check for which I was sure of whether it has been written by me or by someone else.

The one below did not give any plagiarized content. That seemed fine to me:

Then I tested for some content which I have used (almost) directly in my thesis. It did tell me about the presence of copied content BUT it was not what I expected. That was the only original line in the whole text shown as plagiarized content. Boo!

In the next test, I checked again for some random text of my thesis, only to be caught by PlagTracker for multiple occurrences of copied material.

Highs and Lows of PlagTracker:

Some of the high points:

  • Free (basic)
  • Easy to use
  • Online, no download required
  • No need to register to the online tool for free usage
  • Pretty decent result (better results claimed for premium users)
Some of the low points:
  • You cannot upload a whole document (at least in basic version). You have to copy paste it in the tool.
  • There is a limit of 5000 characters for basic users.
  • Results could be better
  • Too expensive ($14 per month) for premium version. Not suitable for individual needs.

Verdict:

It is a pretty decent tool that comes handy in checking your essays and other small academic papers. But it might be a bit cocky when it comes to check for a whole thesis, for free users. But no one can be blamed here as any company needs to generate revenue. And for one time home users, it provides enough basic facilities.
If you are responsible for evaluating the students’ work, you might be very well aware of the plagiarism issue in student’s work. You can push for your university or school for a subscription of PlagTracker. Students, feel free to use the free version, no need to go for a premium membership.

10 Reasons Why Raspberry Pi Sucks. Think before buying!

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Raspberry Pi has been in news for quite a time and is seen as some sort of computing revolution that comes in a price tag of $25. For an average technology enthusiast, it generates quite a bit of curiosity. If you pondering over the question “Should I buy Raspberry Pi”, the answer is a big NO. I’ll give you not one but ten reasons why Raspberry Pi sucks.

It’s all hype that is created around Raspberry Pi and the manufacturers are cashing on the hype. There are limited availability of the stock and I had to wait for 3 months after registering. And when I finally got it, I was highly disappointed with whatever I was given in the name of a micro computer. There are several additional things you need to get your Raspberry Pi working.

Here are 10 reasons why Raspberry Pi sucks:

  1. The price tag $25 is a deception. It is simply not available. While another model is available for $35, it is much more than $35 if you are not lucky enough to be an US resident. Raspberry Pi, a UK-based company, selling a $35 device in 32.7 GBP. And since I used my French Credit Card, additional blow for using foreign currency. So this so-called $35 device cost me around $55. Talk of being cheap, huh!
  2. Second blow, Raspberry Pi does not comes with a power lead. I know that Raspberry Pi FAQs clearly tell that it doesn’t provide power lead and it can be bought separately but imagine your self buying a cellphone and they tell you dude, we sell phones not chargers, buy it separately.
  3. No memory what-so-ever. You just bought a computer without a memory.
  4. No OS pre-loaded. Obviously there is no question of OS without memory.
  5. It has a Micro USB power port but official website advises not to use your computer to power it up. Great! Another option gone. Now you don’t have any option other than buying a power lead.
  6. The basis concept behind the birth of Raspberry Pi is “a tiny and cheap computer for kids” that can be used school computer labs. Now the Raspberry Pi is a naked device that doesn’t come in a box. How long will it last before breaking apart? Despite of promises of a default case included by as early as 2012, it still does not have one.
  7. There are only two USB ports. One goes for your keyboard and the other for your mouse, hdmi port for the monitor. Now you can have no more connectivity. Enjoy!
  8. No Wi Fi here. Go back to stone age and use wired Ethernet connection. By the way Raspberry Pi A doesn’t even have the option for Ethernet.
  9. You have to boot from the SD card. You cannot use a USB device as storage.
  10. You pre-order it and wait for months before you could get your hands on it. And then you realize that you have to spend more money buying its case, SD card, power lead etc.

Before some one start pouncing at me with “value for the money” and “this is the best you can get in this price” stuff, I definitely am not looking to Raspberry Pi as a replacement of regular laptops but there are better alternatives to it available in market for e.g., . Considering the additional price you have to pay for SD card, power lead etc. it comes almost in the same range. Only you get better configuration for a few dollars more.

While Raspberry Pi is a great concept in itself, it’s not the best out there. What you think of it? Does Raspberry Pi sucks or you have reasons enough to love it? Do express your views.

Review: Cloud System Booster Cleans and Optimizes your PC with Cloud Power

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Anvisoft’s cleans and optimizes your PC. It is designed to boost your computer performance by freeing up valuable hard disk space, at the same time, well protect your privacy by erasing your online activities traces and help you maintain a high-performance PC through fixing and repairing PC errors.

The program is designed simple and easy to use. The installation doesn’t take long, you don’t have to restart your computer, instead you can use the software right away after installation completes. The user interface is simple, yet attractive. The big button Boost that offers one-click solution to clean and optimize your computer is easy to catch. Its Chameleon skin-changing function is interesting and amazing, which enables you to create a splendid and personalized look of this program.

Cloud System Booster is a powerful all-in-one PC repair and system maintenance program which has four basic features: Cleaner, Optimizer, Repair, Application cleaner and optimizer. You can change the default settings according to your needs by enabling or disabling the check box of the Settings. It is designed for both PC novices and professional users (Home mode or Expert mode).

The software is no doubt user-based, despite its powerful functions, and easy-to use design, you can also schedule an automatic scan, so your computer will be cleaned and cared regularly even if you forget to do so. It has already won over thousands of users since Anvisoft launched it in May, 2012. It surly will rank among the highly-recommended system optimizers in the future judging from its present status.

Cloud System Booster does a great job in cleaning out junk files, emptying caches, fixing PC errors and doing other regular maintenance tasks that slowdown a PC over time. It is highly recommended to take this software as an eye to care your PC for factors that might clutter your computer, and a helper to eliminate them all so that your computer will live longer and service you longer.

Blisscontrol lets you control all your social network at one place

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What if you have a place from where you can control all of your Social Networks settings? Sounds good, eh? Blisscontrol is the one stop where you can change settings for most of the popular social networks.

It is a simple site where at left you can select the setting for e.g. Profile Picture, Username, Password change etc, you want to change and on the right you can select the social network  for which you want to change the settings.

Its a wonderful idea. Definitely worth a try.

Review: Smart way of managing your Personal data with Personal

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In daily life we need to remember a huge number of things in almost every aspect from credit card number to house insurance number, from kids’ baby sitter’s detail to passcode of the alarm system. You buy an electronic product, you have to remember its details for e.g, manufacturer, serial number, purchase date, warranty expire date etc. You have a party scheduled, now you need to worry about the food items, guest list and if more than one person are hosting or collaborating then share the status with them. You have 22 characters long wi-f- password, your kids’, wife’s or friends’ allergies.

The list grows endless. As human mind has its limits in remembering things (unless you have something like a Beautiful Mind of course), it seems technology advancements are hell bent on solving the issues faced in keeping the details of your “personal data”. Personal is one such new product, in public beta, that tries to help you keeping the track of your personal details in a way that can ease your life big times. [Read more…]