Listen up guys, sitting here and writing this for you…is killing me a little…so please read it standing up!

(above image courtesy the MedicalBillingandCoding.org)

Exercising in itself is a virtue for health. Everybody knows that, no matter how lazy!

But sitting down, is what actually makes all our exercise earned bonus points just go back to zero.

Contrary to popular belief, in-spite of an active lifestyle, you cannot reverse the negative aspects of sitting!

As per this elaborate article on The New York Times, sitting jobs actually lead to a heart disease, obesity, diabetes, certain cancers and early death, independently of whether you exercise regularly.

Sitting impacts your health in more ways than you know. Present day research has proof that sitting alters our natural body functions, actively leads to obesity, heart related disorders, and is a 100% contributor to decreasing both our health as well as lifespan.

So do yourself (and me) a favour, stand-up, move and herd around, every 20 minutes. Go for that tea-break now, but for God sakes, no fag breaks! As it is now known that Even light smoking may double your risk of sudden death.

Refer the (excellent) links below for further reference -

• The The New York Times article referenced above.
• Sitting and Standing at Work – Discusses the perils of over-sitting and standing.
• An excellent info-graphic at MedicalBillingandCoding.org (from which the above thumbnail is taken) will surely be an eye-opener for my chair loving brethren.
• The OSHA factsheet (PDF) which is useful for anyone who has a sedentary (sitting) job.

Technorati Tags: sitting,killing,move,stand,exercise,obesity,sedentary,lifestyle

Awesomely charged up! Learn all about Batteries!

“Batteries: The Absolute Definitive Guide” is a fresh and charged-up article on the author Andrew Tarantola's insight in the Battery world!

Very well done and thoroughly researched too, if I may add!

One word of advice though, charge your TABs Mobiles and iBoxes before you start reading up ; it’s a looong one!

For the more technically inclined, may I refer you to the excellent Batteryuniversity.com!

Technorati Tags: Battery,comparison,Gizmodo

Do you have Slow loading Windows 7 folders? If yes, then try this!

 

Does your Windows 7 (or 8) box suffer from Slow loading folders?

And, do these folders contain content like Word documents, MP3 files, or maybe loads of pictures/photos etc.?

If yes, then try this solution -

• Right Click that suffering folder;
• Click properties;
• Select the Customize tab (commonly, the last tab) in the properties window;
• Change the ‘Optimize this folder for:’ option to General Items.
• Select the ‘Also apply…’ checkbox to have the same folder properties applied recursively;

• Click OK.

• Done!

Try checking that folder for sluggish opening in explorer. Should be gone now…

The Cause: Windows 7 (and maybe Windows 8 too) uses something called ‘smart folder optimization’ which changes folder customization as per the contents of those folders, there-by applying certain content friendly settings in the process.

An example would be optimizing a photo-filled folder for thumbnails WRT the view settings.

Follow-up – A Caveat to the above solution is that sometimes, if you try to do any modifications or changes in the folder contents, the settings may be lost, as the optimizations may be re-applied.

This can be set permanently via a registry edit.

WARNING: If you are not familiar with the registry or its purpose and functions, do not mess with it! Any acts of stupidity WRT the Windows registry can and will lead to the entire computer not booting up at all!

 

With that out of the way, fire-up regedit.exe (Via windows start-menu –> run –> regedit.exe)

Navigate to the location -

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell\

Now, in the side right panel -

1. Right click;
2. Choose ‘New’ –> String Value as "FolderType";
3. Double click and set the Data as "NotSpecified";
4. Re-start your explorer / Windows OS.

Now every folder (new and old) will be optimized for type as ‘General’. Problem solved!
NOTE: Although I haven’t tried this on Windows 8 as of yet, but it *should* work! YMMV though!

Technorati Tags: Windows 7,Windows 8,slow folder,optimization,registry hacks

Warp drive….now being developed at warp speed…!!!

Ahh.. warp drive… Even the term brings back fond memories of Star Trek!

For the un-initiated, or people still living under rocks,

Warp drive is a hypothetical faster-than-light (FTL) propulsion system in the setting of many science fiction works, most notably Star Trek. A spacecraft equipped with a warp drive may travel at apparent speeds greater than that of light by many orders of magnitude, while circumventing the relativistic problem of time dilation. In contrast to many other fictional FTL technologies, such as a "jump drive" or the Infinite Improbability Drive, the warp drive does not permit instantaneous travel between two points; instead, warp drive technology creates an artificial "bubble" of normal space-time that surrounds the spacecraft (as opposed to entering a separate realm or dimension like hyperspace, as is used in the Star Wars, Stargate franchise, Warhammer 40,000, Babylon 5 and Andromeda universes). Consequently, spacecraft at warp velocity can continue to interact with objects in "normal space". Some of the other fictions in which warp drive technology is featured include: Stars!, Freelancer, EVE Online, Earth and Beyond, StarCraft, Mass Effect, DarkSpace, Starship Troopers, Doctor Who, Halo and Star Ocean.

(*Above courtesy Wikipedia)

Although hypothetical is a pretty speculative term in itself (considering that a 100 years back, majority of current innovations were hypothetical), NASA physicist Harold White has boldly stated that he and his fellow NASA members are developing a faster-than-light warp drive!

Did you hear? Faster than light!

Yeah right! But what about this guy?

Well, Harold has no intention of angering the Relativity Gods as all development and implementation of this Warp speed would be without violating Einstein's law of relativity. So there! Now, all should be well!

Read here the full Sci-Fi inspired real world implementation of the Warp drive!

Technorati Tags: warp drive,NASA,Einstein,Star Trek

What I am reading - John Dies at the End

I am currently creating highly excited neurons in my head with stuff out of…

“John Dies at the End”

From the W’pedia -

John Dies at the End is a comedic horror novel written by Jason Pargin (published under the pseudonym David Wong) that was first published online as a webserial beginning in 2001, then as an edited manuscript in 2004 and printed paperback in 2007 via Permuted Press. An estimated 70,000 people read the free online versions before they were removed in September 2008. Thomas Dunne Books published the story with additional material as a hardcover on September 29, 2009.^[1]

Personally, I genuinely feel that this book kicks some serious ass!

A sample quote…

“Scientists talk about dark matter, the invisible, mysterious substance that occupies the space between stars. Dark matter makes up 99.99 percent of the universe, and they don't know what it is. Well I do. It's apathy. That's the truth of it; pile together everything we know and care about in the universe and it will still be nothing more than a tiny speck in the middle of a vast black ocean of Who Gives a F*ck.”

About the author -

David Wong is the pseudonym of Jason Pargin, online humorist, National Lampoon contributor, and editor in chief of Cracked.com. He is the author of John Dies at the End.

Get this, you won’t regret it one bit… I promise. You can scourge the web if you want a copy of the same in epub or .mobi version.

Technorati Tags: John Dies at the end,David,Wong,reading,novel,mobi

This is just plain awesome! 25 Years Of Cell Phones In A Single Image

A Single Image!

Can you imagine!?!

Don’t stress, just check this out!

…

Courtesy NTT docomo, who is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an exhibition showcasing the evolution of mobile phone handset technology. Check it out…NOW!

UPDATE: Check the video too – (direct link for Vimeo non-lovers)

evolution of the mobile phone by docomo from designboom on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: Cell,Phones,25 years,Single,Image,docomo,anniversary,mobile,handset,technology

Need your (official) windows laptop/desktop to stay awake? Try Caffeine!

 

       +  

If your company’s group policy has necessitated “system in-activity auto lock”, and you need to do otherwise, caffeine will keep it awake.

The application is having a very small footprint, and works by simulating a key-press once every 59 seconds. So, your diligent machine thinks that you're still working at the keyboard. Hence, no locking the screen!

Just download and add the executable to the (Windows 7 –> Start Menu –> All Programs –> StartUp). You are done!

Get it now (caffeine.zip (14k)), and thank me later!

Technorati Tags: laptop,Caffeine,policy,system,auto,Windows,Start,Menu,Programs,StartUp

We are in JSMAG! The JavaScript Magazine!

After having ourselves in our own 2-megawatt spotlight in October’s GroovyMag, we are now having a nice reflowing write-up in JSMag…

Below excerpt From the JSMag site -

JavaScript & DOM Reflows - Why Reflow Is Expensive And How To Minimize It - Chetan Khurana & Chandan Luthra

If you use JavaScript for your web development, you need to know about DOM reflows. Here we discuss what reflows are and why they happen. We also go through ways to minimize reflow issues in order to improve java-script performance.

I suggest all my JS inclined friends to go ahead and check it out!

Technorati Tags: java,JS,groovymag,jsmag,JavaScript

JAVA ALERT! - A Busy Developer's Guide to RESTful Services in Java

 

I came across this good DZone article today (A Busy Developer's Guide to RESTful Services in Java)

A very good read describing the important aspects of Restful basics; for people who want to know the nuances of REST based Web Services; also provides a great comparison with the traditional Web Services (SOAP/WSDL)!

Nicely done and should be helpful!

Technorati Tags: JAVA,RESTful,Services,SOAP,WSDL

How to get rid of the uninstalled Antivirus product completely (for re-installation)?

I have recently upped an article on Experts Exchange titled as ‘How to get rid of the uninstalled Antivirus product completely’

This is something I faced personally and had a really fun (read hard) time resolving. Hope it helps out someone out there!

Technorati Tags: Antivirus,product,installation,article,Experts,Exchange

“Please Don't Learn to Code!“ says Jeff Atwood, and I think he is right!

For someone who has been in the industry for 30 strong years, a statement like “Please Don't Learn to Code” would sound absolutely far-fetched, right?

Nevertheless, when you do go through the logic behind the statement, you will understand.

Though an old one, but this article does it nicely and tells you why people “those-who-don’t-know-how-to-code-and-don’t-need-to-know-it-either” should, yes, stay away from coding.

Moreover, experience and maturity in this industry will teach you the absolute fact "The Best Code is No Code At All"!

I have been a fan of Jeff Attwood for long, and he has done his lot by bringing the websites Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange Network in conception, for the code community.

Follow Jeff @ http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/

Out.

Technorati Tags: do,not,Learn,Code,Jeff,Atwood,Stack,Exchange,Network