Why use a parabolic reflector ?

Most of the Routers come with an Omni directional Antenna, which means the signal is broadcasted on all the directions (just like a sound wave). If the router is placed near an outside wall, half of the signal gets wasted for nothing.

A parabolic reflector is placed behind your router so that the signals are not wasted and directed back to the direction of your computer:

The parabolic reflector is a simple workaround which can be used to direct the lost signals into your home area. A home made parabolic reflector looks like the following:

The following video illustrates how to create a parabolic reflector and place it behind the router for some signal boost:

How to Create the Reflector

1. Grab some aluminium foil from a nearby departmental store and cut the foil in the shape of a rectangle.

2. Bend all the four corners of your foil to create a frame, this adds to the stability of the reflector.

3. Then curve the foil just like a semi circular arc, giving it the shape of a parabola. You can also pierce a soft stick or a pencil between the foil such that the shape of the deflector does not changes overtime. The end result will look like the following:

4. Now place the reflector behind the antenna of your wireless device such that it faces the direction where your laptop or wireless hub is placed.

Now adjust the reflector such that you see maximum increase in the signal strength. That’s it, you have just created a simple home made wireless signal booster.

Tip:  Secure your Wireless network from bandwidth theft

image credit

Boost Your Router’s Wifi Signal By Using a Homemade Parabolic Reflector originally published on Ampercent

Overtime the desktop becomes extremely cluttered and full of program shortcuts, which might affect your daily productivity. You start the computer and see a “junk screen” as shown below:

Cluttered desktop

To solve this you can use NimiPlaces – a freeware utility for Windows which lets you organize desktop items into “Places”. You can create a place and store files, folders and program shortcuts, without cluttering your desktop.

To get started, run the program, right click the system tray icon and click “Add a place” to create a place:

Create a place

This will create a stack containing the contents of the specified folder. You can resize the stack, move it freely on the desktop and launch the folders or files with a single click. Here is how the folder stack looks:

Folder stack

The best thing about the program is that it does not require any installation and thus can be used from a USB stick. You can create as many folder places as you want which includes network locations as well.

Tip: Add multiple panes in Windows desktop.

NimiPlaces: Organize Desktop Folders and Shortcuts into Separate Stacks originally published on Ampercent

Why you should not use the same Username password combination in all the online accounts?

The reason is simple. If someone get’s access to any one of your email accounts or social sites, he will use the same password and username combination to gain access to all other sites. Eventually, you will lose control and your online identity is lost in no time.

But the question arises – How do I remember a difficult to remember password ? And since I would use a different combination of passwords for all those sites, how do I remember a bunch of complex passwords ?

Here are some creative techniques to remember complex passwords:

1. Use a Shortened URL service to Remember a Complex password

The idea here is to remember a small string instead of remembering the whole password. When you want to reveal the actual password, you can use the shortened URL service as described below:

1. Go to Google.com and type your password in the search box. For example, let’s use “mycomplexpassword”

2. Go to any URL shortening service such as bit.ly and shorten the URL of the search result page. You will get a shortened like like http://bit.ly/9oda4V

Remember Complex passwords using shortened URL services

3. That’s it. Just remember the 6 digit string of the shortened URL to remember the “difficult to remember” password. Whenever you forget the complex password, just open the shortened URL from the browser and you would know the actual password.

Reveal the original password from a shortened URL

You can use an even creative strategy – write down all the passwords one by one on the search box and then shorten the URL of the search result page.

2. Use Keepass – Save Complex passwords in a Database

Using a password manager is the best option to manage complex passwords. Keepass is one of the best password manager programs available till date. It’s portable, requires no installation and can be used on multiple computers from a USB drive.

The best thing about Keepass is the ability to recognize the browser window and perform auto typing of username and passwords via a Global hotkey.

3. Use a Password Card

A password card is a piece of paper which can be used to pick strong passwords for your online accounts. You don’t have to remember them and nobody can guess the password, if the card gets stolen. Your password card has a unique grid of random letters and digits on it. The rows have different colors, and the columns different symbols. All you do is remember a combination of a symbol and a color, and then read the letters and digits from there.

Here is how a password card looks:

Getting the password card: Go to Passwordcard.org and the site will generate a unique password card for you. Next, print the password card on paper and keep it in your wallet. Keep a copy of the password card in your shelf because you may lose the card if your wallet gets stolen or the card gets damaged due to water or tampering.

Using the password card: Using the password card is simple.You have to remember 3 things – the row number, letter and the length of the string.

Example: I choose the last row in green and remember the letter “q”. Then i choose 8 as the length of my password. Hence my password becomes “qhTtUPPY”.

My Algorithm to remember passwords

Thanks to Arpit Kumar for the tip.

4. Remember a Complex Password By Remembering an Easy Name

This one is the easiest of the lot. Go to Online functions website and type in a string which you can remember. You can use anything as a string – it can be a domain name, the name of your pet or your favorite movie star. Just don’t use something which is too common e.g your phone number, your name or your date of birth.

MD5 hash for strings

Hit the “Calculate MD5″ button and the site will generate an MD5 hash key. Now you can use the first 8 or 10 characters of the Hash key as a complex password.

Later on, if you forget the complex password – you can reveal it by typing the same name in the input field. Prior to using a password manager, I used this service to remember difficult passwords for all my social accounts.

5. Write your Passwords Safely on Paper

No, I am not advising you to write all the passwords in paper and carry it with you wherever you go. Instead, you can use secret strings and letters to create a password card and remember a bunch of passwords for your online accounts and systems.

password card made up of unique strings

Digital Inspiration has a very unique idea. Say you want to remember the password for your Amazon account. Acording to the above card, your password can be formulated as follows:

1st letter is a –> a (Column 2, Row 1)
2nd letter is m –> jv (Column 7, Row 2)
3rd letter is a -> AN6
4th letter is z -> xs7
5th letter is o –> enb

Hence the password for the Amazon website becomes ajvAN6xs7enb. Neat!

Tip: Find a forgotten username and password in Firefox

5 Tools to Remember Complex Passwords originally published on Ampercent

Printer.com recently put this notion to the test using two popular printers. The Canon Pixma MP 210 was picked to simulate the printing of private users while the Brother HL-2140 laser printer was used to test business use. Both printers were left at their default settings (600 by 600 dpi). Changing only the font resulted in saving between $20 and $80 per year.

Here is a quick comparison between the different fonts and their business cost per year:

Example: The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has switched the default font for its emails from Arial to Century Gothic. The institution reported that the new font requires about 30% less ink, which costs up to $10,000 per gallon. (source)

The logic is simple enough. Different fonts requires different amounts of ink to print and you can save money on buying costly printer cartridges by making a simple change in the font type used to print the documents. In the above example, the university authority changed the font from Arial to Century Gothic and the yearly savings is expected to be somewhere around $5000 to $10,000.

Serif vs Sans Serif: Among the cost effective fonts, Century Gothic and Times New Roman are  the most economical followed by Calibri, Verdana, Arial and Sans Serif. Serif fonts have short horizontal lines at the top and bottom of characters and the characters are thinner. This is the reason why they consume less ink than “Sans Serif” fonts.

The Microsoft Philosophy: Microsoft has a good reason to prefer Calibri and Cambria over Times new Roman and Arial in their software applications such as Office 2007. According to Simon Daniels, program manager at Microsoft Corp – The more pleasing a font looks at the screen, the less tempted someone will be to print it. This will save both ink and paper.

What a thought !

Want to Reduce Printing Costs? Choose The Font Type Carefully originally published on Ampercent

We have discussed some exercises to reduce eye strain in the past. Eye care exercises are good but you should also take frequent breaks followed by mild workouts during your work session.

This is where EyeLoveU comes in. This program runs in the background and freezes the screen after every 40 minutes, thus reminding you to take a break and relax your eyes.

You can adjust the interval between the break periods and choose regular break periods during your Work session. The program monitors your keyboard and mouse activity and alerts a pop up when you use the keyboard for a long time.

Thanks Phaloo.

EyeLoveu: An Eye Care Tool That Reminds you To Take Frequent Breaks originally published on Ampercent

Why Gmail for task management ? I hear you say. Well, the problem with other “To do list managers” is that you have to install and manage a separate application to keep track of tasks. Either you have to install a desktop application or a browser extension and note everything there.

Desktop task management applications are machine specific and thus you can not use them on multiple computers. There are web based tools like Remember the Milk but why increase an extra overhead when you can use Gmail to remember the things that needs to be done.

The only reason of choosing Gmail over other To – do list managers is  to manage tasks from a central place and keep things simple and precise.

How to use Gmail as a To do List Manager

Here is a step by step guide to use Gmail as a To do list manager by using a custom label and filter:

1. Log in to your Gmail account and go to “Settings”. Choose the “Filter” tab and click on “Create Filter”.

2. Create a new filter and enter your email address in From and To fields. Enter a custom subject line such as “Tasks” and click “Next step”.

3. Select the checkbox “Apply the label” and create a new label from the label drop down. Name the label as “Tasks” or “To – do’s”.

4. Go to your Inbox and you will see a new label listed in the sidebar. Whenever you want to add a new task, just send yourself an email about the task description and you will see a new email landing in the label you created in step 2. Remember to include the same subject that you entered in step 2 while creating the filter.

At the end of the day, you can simply check this label for pending tasks and things that needs your attention. There is no need to use any desktop tool or web application for task management if you want only your email to do the job.

Case study: Soumen, the co author of this blog is lazy and keeps on forgetting things. I have to personally call him and remind him of tasks that needs to be done. This becomes unmanageable with time. Hence to tell you the truth, I have created a custom filter to remind him of tasks that needs his attention. Whenever I find something important, I just forward him the reminder. (Tip: How to read emails as RSS feeds and save time)

Do you use Gmail for task management like I do? Or do you prefer using other web applications to manage tasks? Let us know your ideas in the comments.

How to use Gmail As a To Do List Manager for Remembering Important Tasks originally published on Ampercent

Do you use computers for more than 2 Hours a day ? You may be a Victim of CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome) . Long hours infront of computer can cause eye fatigue, blurred vision, headaches, dry or irritated eyes.Check out Some Effective Eye Exercises and the Reasons of Eye fatigue caused Due to Computers.

Reasons Of Eye fatigue caused Due to Computers

There are  plenty of reasons for Eye fatigue caused due to Overuse of computers. Here  goes some serious reasons :

1. Computer Users have a fixed posture which keeps The upper Body Fixed for a long Period of time.

2. Continuously Gazing to a Nearby object (the computer Monitor ) leads to convergence Fatigue.

3. The Eye Muscles Do not Get Much opportunity to Move.The Shoulders are kept at a Fixed place which Affects the eyes as well.

4. Overhead office lights and other light Sources Falling on the Computer Screen causes Glares.These glares have an Adverse Effect on your Eye pupils.

5. In general a person blinks 15-20 Times a Minute.But when you are Working in the computer the Blink rate reduces to 5-10 times Per minute due to Continuous staring and Concentration.In the Absence of Adequate Blinking Eyes become Dry and Irritated.

6. Working Too much on computers at night Might affect your Sleep as well.

Check your Workstation for Eye Constraints

Eye stress can be considerably reduced if we adopt to the correct environment at our workplace. Also Sticking to a Schedule and Being more disciplined at work is by far the Most necessary constraint to reduce any kind of Physical stress and strains. Here are some Exercises that Helps to reduce Eye fatigue while you are working for long hours infront of the computer.

Ensure Adequate Light : When we do not provide enough light for the eyes to do their job, we are adding additional and unnecessary strain on the eyes. Be sure to use light bulbs with enough wattage (min 40 Watt for a Moderate room )

Keep your monitors Below Eye level : The monitor should be Ideally placed 5 to 9 inches below Eye level.This causes your Eyelids downward thus maintaining a healthier Blink rate.Adjust The Height of your Seat : For Best Results adjust The seat of the Computer Chair so that the Middle of the computer Screen Is 20 Degrees Below Eye level.

Screen distance and Monitor Positions : The Screen Should Be placed at a Minimum distance of 16-20 Inches from the Eye.There should not Be any light Source behind or in front of your Monitors.So Position the Monitors such that the Room Windows falls in the Side rather Than Back or front.

Use an Anti Glare Screen: The Monitor Emits Harmful radiations that always Affects Your eyes. The Computer Monitors refreshes Every Millisecond and Continuous gazing to the refreshing monitor Makes the Eye pupil think Its day time.This Indirectly Affects your Sleep.

For Laptop and Notebook Users : Rest Your Backbone against a  wall if you are Using Your laptop from Your Bed.Otherwise overtime you will lean towards The Computer Which is Harmful both For your Eyes and Spine.

Exercises that reduce Eye Strain While Working At the Computer

And here are a few useful exercises that  help in reducing eye strain During long hours infront of the Computer. The 20-20-20 rule and rotating eyeballs  work like Magic. Try them and you will feel the difference

20-20-20 Rule of Blinking : Blinking creates an even Film of tears on the Eye Surface that keeps the eye Moist.So You should Blink Very often.Follow the following 20-20-20 Rule of Blinking:

After every 20 minutes of looking into the computer screen,look at any object placed at least 20 feet away. Try and blink your eyes for 20 times in succession, to moisten them.If Possible,Walk 20 paces after every 20 minutes of sitting in one particular posture. Helps blood circulation for the entire body.[Thanks Ramanathan]

Rotate the Eyeballs : While you keep your eyes closed, roll your eyeballs both clockwise and anticlockwise and take a deep breath. Gradually open your eyes while releasing your breath. Continue this Exercise for a Minute or two.You can repeat it three times before getting back to work.” It serves as a good workout for the eyes.[Thanks Digital Inspiration]

Use Tea Bags, Potato and Cucumber Slices For refreshment : When You return From Work cut two thin Slices of fresh potato Slices and Place them Just Over Your eyes.Lie Down and keep these Potato Slices for 10 Minutes.After that Wash your Face with Cold Water.

Before going to Work Keep two used tea Bags in the refrigerator.When you return,Place the tea Bags on your Eyes for few Minutes- this Will relax your tired Eyes.

Press cold cucumber slices gently against eyes 10 minutes before going to sleep at night to prevent puffiness.

Look At Distant Objects : Look at Distant Objects for every 5 minutes in an Hour.This changes the Focal length of your eyes. If you are Inside Your office a better option Would be to go out in the lobby or Balcony.[ P.S : Don’t Lose Your Job :) ].

Sleep Is important : A good Night Sleep is the best possible Exercise for your Eyes.Without proper Sleep (especially at Nights) your eyes Will Always feel tired.So try to Sleep Early ,At least Before Midnights.Never miss the opportunity of Short naps In the Afternoon.

An Ancient Technique

When you feel tired Take a Clean Eye dropper and a Glass Of  Cold Water.Lie Down and using the dropper pour 5 drops of cold Water into each of your Eyes.Take Deep breaths while keeping your Eyes closed for 2 Minutes.After that open your Eyes but Do not Wipe Out your Wet Eye.Let the Water Evaporate Naturally.Repeat This exercise twice a day.

Nutrition For your Eyes

It is also crucial to Include foods that are beneficial for your Eyes health.Some of them Include :Cauliflower,Sunflower seeds,raw cabbage,Watercress,cantaloupes broccoli. Carrot Juice is Excellent in preventing common Eye problems

Use Eye Drops : Keep a prescribed Eye Drop available in your office desk.Whenever You feel your Eyes are irritating and causing you pain use lubricating Eye Drops.This Removes Strain and redness.

Do you Work For long hours in front Of the computer ?  Have you a Better Tip ? Share with us in comments

10 Exercises to Remove Eye strain While Working Infront of Computer originally published on Ampercent