Branding takes on a whole new meaning when you have nothing to spend but have to compete with the long existing giants within your niche on blogosphere. This calls for smart moves when it comes to investing money and time to creating a lasting impression for your blog.

One of the important things bloggers can do is attaching their signature to everything they do, this includes videos that go viral or embedded on other sites. It’s important for bloggers to add a watermark to the videos because you never know which video might go viral. This article will discuss HOW-TO Add Logo to Video using free and popular software.

The software we will be working with today is called VirtualDUB and can be downloaded from here. You will also need a plugin that makes the logo background transparent when added to the video file. The plugin/filter can be downloaded from here.

Watch the following video to see how to add a logo or a watermark to the video

The name suitably describes the function. However ensure before you even start enabling this mode that you have an excellent firewall which is configured correctly. Still you might face some security problems.

First step you need to do is to install a VNC client on your system. Download and install TightVNC for Linux from here. After completing the installation, launch the TightVNC Viewer and  enter the IP address (or host name) of the remote system in the resulting Connection details dialog and press OK.

If a password is required then enter the same. The screen should load and display the remote desktop. Click on the System and then Preferences and then Remote Desktop on the Gnome top menu. This window will be displayed.

To enable the remote desktop mode you need to check the first two boxes under the sharing section.

Under the security section if you select the “Ask you for confirmation” code, then your presence in front of the computer is compulsory in order to allow another person to access your desktop.

If that is not what you want then un-check the box. This is usually done when one is trying to remotely access one of his own computers. For security reasons the second check box should always be checked, and ensure that you enter a secure password. Each time you try to log on you will be prompted for this password.

The following steps help to connect from an Ubuntu Machine:-

• Open your terminal. To do so navigate through Applications—>Accessories—>Terminal and then enter the following command: vncviewer full-screen 192.168.2.23:0.
• The following message will be displayed prompting for the password. Enter the password. When you see the VNC authentication succeeded message below, you know that everything has gone right.

VNC Viewer version 3.3.7 – built Jul 4 2006 10:04:48 Copyright (C) 2002-2003 RealVNC Ltd. Copyright (C) 1994-2000 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. See http://www.realvnc.com for information on VNC. VNC server supports protocol version 3.7 (viewer 3.3) Password: VNC authentication succeeded.

If you want to quit VNC Viewer, press ‘F8′ and select Quit viewer.

I hope the steps were easy to understand and follow. Ubuntu is not the tough is it!!

TNerd is hosted on Media Temple’s DV-Extreme with added RAM the server mostly holds up against the traffic it experiences, thanks to WP-Supercache. Once the server crashed I immediately rebooted the machine which usually solves the issue but it did not.

Logged into my SHELL (SSH) to see which process is eating away all the resources and I noticed MySQL shooting up to 600% of the CPU power. Called the Media Temple (MT) guys and they initially suggested me to upgrade RAM which should resolve the issue, I did add more RAM but no luck!

Called MT guys again and started working with Robert to solve the issue, we together zeroed down on the issue which was causing MySQL to consume all the resources. 

This query “SELECT c . * , p . * FROM wp_comments c INNER JOIN wp_posts p ON p.” with query status “Sending Data” was jamming the database by queuing up, up to 50 instances running for over 1500 seconds per instance.

So we figured out what the problem was but I simply had no idea what exactly was causing it or how to resolve it. I tried “Flush Tables”, etc in MySQL but no help.

I put up a new database and installed the latest backup and pointed the domain to the new database. So far things seem to be normal MySQL is consuming between 0-12% of CPU resources.

I still don’t know what really went wrong but one thing I realized is that it is extremely important to have a hosting service with good technical support and what’s even more important is backing up the database.

TNerd database is backedup every single day as new posts and comments are published on the site every day. I use WordPress Database Backup plugin to take schedule backups.

I would like to thank our readers for being patient, sending e-mails and try to reach me over to phone to let me know that the site is down or to know what is going on. Let’s hope this does not happen again!

UPDATE:

It happened again and continued to happen everytime I approved comments. The next logical thing to do was to check on the plugins and disable the ones causing trouble, and I did every other thing but that.

Eventually I got to the plugins and figured that a plugin in use, called "Comment Relish" is causing the problem. Removed the plugin and problem solved!!

Users can register with the service and start uploading the documents and decide if they want to share the uploaded documents with other members of the site.

These documents can be downloaded, rated, reviewed and embedded on webpages by other members of the site.

DocStoc has now come up with new strategy (DocCash) to encourage its user base to upload more documents which now has monetary benefits for the users as well.

This will certainly help the service attract more content but it also invites unwanted spam in terms of copyright and low quality content and the fact that they have mentioned about removing copyright content and blocking the accounts which upload such content shows that the company is already taking measures to keep that from happening.

So, how do you make money by uploading your documents?

All you got to have is a Adsense account, if you don’t already have one, don’t worry DocStoc will help you create one easily. Once you are approved Adsense publisher, the ads you see around the documents you’ve uploaded will start earning you revenue every month.

The following image shows the Ad blocks DocStoc places around the documents, every time someone clicks on one of those ads, you get half the money DocStoc makes from it.

Watch the following Video which answers quite a few questions.. What Documents can I upload?, What If I Don’t have an Adsense Account?, etc.. also visit this page to know more about DocCash

So, if you are looking to make some money or looking for some useful and informational documents DocStoc is your answer!

This feature will be rolled out to all Gmail users in the next couple of weeks but the ones how have been waiting for something like this to show up which makes their transition easy, now is the time.

Here is how you can import contacts and e-mails to Gmail..

Go to Gmail Settings and Click on “Accounts and Import”

Click on “Import mail and Contacts”

Enter the e-mail address you want to import information from..

Enter the password…

Select what Information you want to import from the other account..

Once you click on

In case you change y our mind and want to stop the transfer just go to “Accounts and Import” and stop the import.

Ain’t that simple?

The wait is over; you can now install extensions on Chrome’s latest dev built. The feature is still not included in the browser; users have to add a command line parameter to enable extensions on the latest built.  It’s simple, worry not!

Currently there are 3 sample extensions available for installation,

1. Gmail Checker: Displays a toolstrip that shows how many messages are in your Gmail inbox.
2. Subscribe in Google Reader: Provides easy access to subscribe to a webpage’s feed in Google Reader.
3. BuildBot Monitor: Shows the current status of the Chromium Build Bot.

I installed all three of them and they come in pretty handy, at least the first two certainly do!

The following image shows the installed extensions

All set to install the extensions? Alright!

1. First make sure you have the latest dev built on your machine, get it here.
2. Next, rightclick on the chrome icon, click on properties and add “–enable-extensions” at the end of the target field and click “Apply”.

Once the parameter is added, start the browser and visit the Sample extension page, here.

I found two more extensions other than the official ones

1. GreaseMetal Script: This is a GreasMonkey-like script for Firefox which works with Chrome [link]
2. AdSweep: A popular ad-removing plugin for Chrome [link]

Have fun installing chrome plugins and leave a comment if you find new plugins!

This post will specifically talk about bloggers and how they can create a blog which reflects their personality online.

The following badges, widgets or gadgets as you might call it will help you share more information with your readers without you writing about it.

Let’s start with the hottest in Town..

Twitter Badge: These are available in all shapes, sizes, colors, etc. There are so many variations of this badge that I am sure you will surely something you like. These badges show your latest Tweets on the blog.(Follow @tnerd on Twitter)

Official:

• http://twitter.com/badges/blogger

WP-Plugins:

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-for-wordpress/
• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/

Customized:

• http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/04/add-customized-twitter-widget-to- your.html

Flickr Badge: This badge shows all your publically available pictures on Flickr. Just signin to your account and configure this badge to get the code.

This is what the badge looks like..

Get your Flickr Widget from here…

Wakoopa Widget: This is not for the faint of hearts. Wakoopa tracks all activities on your computer and reports back to the site to update your profile of all the softwares that are being used on the computer. This list can be shared with your friends and contacts based on your preferences.  Click here to read more about Wakoopa.

This is what a Wakoopa badge looks like..

MyBlogLog: MyBlogLog maintains information about you and visitors on your blog. This information is then displayed in a attractive format which also encourages social traffic from blog to another.

SIGAMP Badge: SIGAMP shows the song you are currently listening to on your computer. This badge can be installed on any blog or site and the moment you start listening to music it starts sharing information on the badge. With the paid version of this service you can customize the widget according to your needs or even upload your own image.

Here is what the (free) badge looks like..

Google Latitude for Blogs: Google Latitude badge shows your current location to all your blog readers, not everyone is comfortable sharing such information.  Click here to read more about Google Latitude..

Here is what the badge will look like on your blog..

Click here to get your badge..

Google Talk for Blog: Connecting with your readers is one of the most important part of the personal blogging. Google Talk lets you connect with your readers without giving away any personal information such as your ID or any other information.

Once any of the users click on the following badge you will instantly receive an alert on your Gtalk client and you can start chatting.

Here is what the blog looks like..

Get your badge here..

Geekchart : This is a new one. Once you register with the service you can add the userID’s of services like, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg, Blog, etc.. and it generates a chart based on your last 30days activity on these services.

Here is what it typically looks like..

Syedabbas’s Geek Chart

Click here to get your own Geekchart!

Other Badges: (Leave a comment and let us know about a badge you’d like to see on the list, we’ll add it)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/editbadge.php

FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/embed/widget

TweetBook.in is a simple service which lets you download and backup all your tweets in a PDF or an XML format.

The backup optionally includes all the replies made to the account which is being backed-up. Twitter API has a limitation which restricts TweetBook.in to backup up to 6400 latest updates only.

The service is simple and straightforward; enter your twitter ID or any twitter ID for that matter.

Here is what the simple TweetBook looks like..

Just clcik on "Make me my PDF and download the PDF file with your tweets and replies.

This is what the document looks like.. it organizes the tweets according to the date and also has a time stamp next to each update.

TNerd Twitter Backup –

Though the site says "Include Replies" for some reason don’t see any replies for this account. How about you guys?

Experts talk about a lot of techniques which help in becoming a great presenter and one of them is being “interactive”. The word interactive take a whole new meaning when a bit of technology is used to make the audience feel that they are a part of the presentation and are very much involved.

SendSteps is a company which helps you do just that! Involve your audience. SMS2Vote is one of the products offered by SendSteps which helps you conduct live polls by letting you audience vote using their mobile phones during a presentation and show the results on a PowerPoint slide immediately. Ain’t it cool?

The process is very simple. Download and install a Plugin, open PowerPoint, create a Poll using the newly installed plugin and you are all set! Users will be presented with a number where they can send their votes and express their opinion.

Following images will run you through the process of creating a poll for the presentation.

Once installed you will see a TXT2vote toolbar in your PowerPoint application, Click on “Add a vote” button to create a poll

You will see the following pop-up where you can enter a Poll-question and answers

The “Options” lets you decide if the results should be shown in numbers or percentage, or, if the audience can vote more than once, etc..

Once you click on “OK” 3 slides are created, 1) Instructions to vote, 2) Poll Question & Answers and 3) Poll results slide.

Following is one of the three slides with polling instructions for the audience

TXT2vote is not a free product but you can try it out for free which offers up to 5 votes for free. Click on the “Start a free session” button on the toolbar.

Once the free session is setup, you will see the following screen with the information for conducting polls.

Once the audience start texting and voting during the presentation here is what the polling-result slide will looking like..

So make use of this tool and impress your audience and capture the mood of the audience before starting the presentation or some meaningful feedback at the end of an interactive presentation.

Click here to visit SendSteps and here to download the PowerPoint plug-in.

How about a simple gadget that doubles up as a Wi-Fi detector and doesn’t even look like one. Here is a regular ball pen which detects Wi-Fi signals on the go. It detects and displays the signal strength with 4 LEDs indicating the signal strength which meets the requirement of IEEE802.11B/G.

I think it’s a useful gadget to have if it works the way it claims to work, a must have for people who are travel a lot.

Features:

• Plug and detect, and result is available in few seconds
• Convenient, as a pen, you don’t need to bring another one with you.
• 4 LEDs to indicate the signal strength (from 0 to 4)
• Operated by 2 cell batteries (included)

Specifications:

• Frequency: 2.400—2.483ghz
• Regulation: IEEE 802.11B / IEEE 802.11G
• Valid range: indoor 10–30M outdoors: 30–50M may vary according to surrounding environment and the power of batteries.
• Operating voltage: DC2.6-3.3v
• Power Source: 2* AG13
• Operating electric current : Maximum 35mA
• Sleeping electric current : Maximum 10uA
• Weight: 35g
• Dimension: diameter 14 x L138mm

The pen costs US $13.99 and ships worldwide for an additional $2.99. Click here to buy.