Instead of buying a plan for making the International calls which is really costly affair, we are having many alternatives now a days which are providing free International calls.
List of Websites to make free International calls: These websites will offer you free PC-Phone calling services.
Eva Phone : EvaPhone provides Internet telephone calls for free. It offers free VoIP call solutions(free VoIP service lets you make PC-to-phone free international calls). All you need is a computer to start making free VoIP calls using Internet to phone.
Globe 7 : Globe7 is a tiny application integrated with Soft Phone, IM, Videos, Games, News and many more opt-in widgets for your complete entertainment, information and communication. You can also do many other things like Watch Free Videos, Play Free Games, Free Live TV, Free Live Radio, Send SMS, Upload & Share Files, Breaking News and many more.
Jaxtr : Jaxtr is a social communications company that melds together global calling, SMS, and social networking. You should signup for free account initially. Enter your number to get local jaxtr number than Call the jaxtr number on your phone and Dial your destination number after the prompt and talk.
Flash2VOIP : Flash2VoIP is conventional SIP based video telephone written in Adobe Flash technology. It can be used to connect to almost any existing SIP service provider to make VoIP and Video calls through it. Flash2VoIP is paid-for service provided by GTalk2VoIP Inc. You need to pay 5$/month. Here is the list of rates they charge for every Destination.
iCall : iCall uses Voice Over IP (VoIP) technology which uses your existing Internet connection (cable, DSL, wireless, or dial-up) and your PC to plug you directly in to the regular telephone network. lets you make and receive free or low cost phone calls on your Windows computer, iPhone, or iPod Touch.
Ad Phone : ADPHONE works wherever you are, and you can call any phone in the world. It provides you 30mins free-calling everyday to anywhere in the world. But beyond that you need to pay(low rates).
Talkonaut is free mobile calling, VoIP enabled, Google Talk like application for your mobile phone. Talkonaut is available for many different mobile platforms: Symbian S60, Windows Mobile 5/6, J2ME with MIDP-2.0 and now for Google Android. Talkonaut supports Jabber, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, AIM and Yahoo networks both for chatting and voice calling. Talkonaut allows to make free VoIP over GPRS/EDGE calls, as well as calls over 3G, or WIFI.
How To Download Web Pages for Offline Viewing?
How To Download Web Pages for Offline Viewing?
Now you can copy a website’s article and save it so you can read the content in your home.
This is OK if you only have to save and read a single webpage. But what about if you want to copy several pages? Are you going to save hundreds of webpages one at a time? Of course not. This could take time.
You can do this task with easy way by using HTTrack Website Copier. This software is an offline web browser application that can save multiple webpages in just a few clicks. After copying the pages, you can read online contents even without accessing the internet.
You can download HTTrack Website Copier for free athttp://www.httrack.com/page/2 .
useful chrome addons for designers
Get Useful Google Chrome Extensions or Addons which can be useful for Designers
- Webpage screen shot:
Webpage Screenshot extension helps you to capture the web page quickly. It can save the whole webpage even if it is long with just a click. You can also use the tools to edit screenshots like resize, crop, using arrows etc.
- Eye Dropper:
With Eye Dropper you can select the option “pick the color from the webpage”. Next click the button and move the mouse to select the color on webpage with left click. Now you have to click on Eye Dropper Extension again to check the results.
- Color Picker:
If you are not happy with Eye Dropper Extension, you can go for Color Picker. It provides the Hex and RGB color codes of any clicked color. You can also adjust Hue, Saturation or Balance and copy the color into Hex box to preview it.
- Image Cropper:
Image Cropper helps you to crop any image in HTML element. It also crop CSS background images and save it in PNG format. You just need to select the area and with “Right Click” you can easily save the cropped image.
- Resolution Test:
Resolution test extension helps you to change the size of the browser window to preview the websites in different screen resolutions. You can easily customize the options according to your needs.
off- line browsing
Off-line browsing:
You do not have to connect to the Internet to revisit a page. You can access it from the cache. This is done via Tools » Internet Options » Temporary Internet Folders » Settings » Check newer versions of stored pages: » Never.
After setting up IE like this, you can browse offline by, click on the History button.
This will open up the History folder in a left pane. Browse through this to access the pages that you have visited earlier.
You check the latest version on the net however by clicking on the Refresh button.
You do not have to connect to the Internet to revisit a page. You can access it from the cache. This is done via Tools » Internet Options » Temporary Internet Folders » Settings » Check newer versions of stored pages: » Never.
After setting up IE like this, you can browse offline by, click on the History button.
This will open up the History folder in a left pane. Browse through this to access the pages that you have visited earlier.
You check the latest version on the net however by clicking on the Refresh button.
lock folder, increase virtual ram, change startup screen
To Lock a folder in windows XP without any software. Follow the steps Below.
To boost performance of your PC or to increase RAM virtually,
Right click on My Computer Icon on Desktop
>> Go to Properties
>> Go to Advanced
>> Go to Performance - Settings
>> Go to Advanced
>> Go to Virtual Memory - Change
Keep the initial size same as recommended and maximum size double of it then restart your system.
It will improve speed of windows and you can play some games which require higher RAM.
To Minimise all the application and running windows press the "Windows + M " key together.
To change windows startup and logoff screen
Startup Screen
- Make a Folder in C drive rename it as "abc" without quotes.
- Now open Command Prompt from Start Menu.
- Type "attrib +s +h C:\abc" without quotes and press enter.
- This command will Make your folder invisble and it can not be seen even in hidden files and folders
- To make it visible again type "attrib -s -h C:\abc"
- You can lock any other folder also by changing the location C:\abc to address of your folder.
To boost performance of your PC or to increase RAM virtually,
Right click on My Computer Icon on Desktop
>> Go to Properties
>> Go to Advanced
>> Go to Performance - Settings
>> Go to Advanced
>> Go to Virtual Memory - Change
Keep the initial size same as recommended and maximum size double of it then restart your system.
It will improve speed of windows and you can play some games which require higher RAM.
To Minimise all the application and running windows press the "Windows + M " key together.
To change windows startup and logoff screen
Startup Screen
- Create a 320x400 bitmap in the root directory and name it LOGO.SYS
- You can use LOGOW.SYS file in the Windows directory as a starter
- There are many system file that constitutes Lofoff screen.
- They are actually bitmaps 320x400 that just have a different extension
- The hidden file in the root directory LOGO.SYS is the startup logo.
- There are two files in the Windows directory.
- LOGOW.SYS is the Wait while Shutting down ... screen.
- LOGOS.SYS is the You may now shut-off or Reboot screen.
- Make two new image files of your chice in Paint and name it as LOGOW.SYS and LOGOS.SYS and replce the actual windows file by this two.
- But make sure they should be of the same size
GSM secrets
All the tips and tricks provided by Hidden Tricks is free and its not necessary to sign up also.
Type *#61# and press call - Check call redirection status.
Cancel all redirections: ##002#
*43# to activate call waiting, to deactivate #43#.
If your phone doesn't have incoming call barring and outgoing call barring, you can try this. For outgoing call barring dial *33*barcode*# and pres OK. To deactivate it dial #33#barcode*#.
On any phone on any network type in **43# to enable conference calls. You can make up to 7 calls at once
If you need to block SMS reception (if you are spammed by someone) just press this code: *35*xxxx*16# xxxx is your Call Barring code (default is 0000). To remove this barring type: #35*xxxx#
If you want to hide/show your phone number when calling, put one of these codes below in front of the number that you are going to call. (*#30# / *#31# or *31# / #31# ) Works on some networks.
Typing *0# or *nm# on the beginning of a txt message gives you detailed delivery report on some networks.. But turn off reports in message settings before.
When the sim card-pin blocked type **042*pin2 old*newpin2*newpin2*
Important:
If you know any other tips & tricks & secrets about GSM mobile or any other mobile which is not listed here then you can post in Guestbook and it will be updated soon with your name.
Warning:
You can try these codes at your own responsibility ! We are not responsible for any malfunction and we don't accept any complaints.
bluejacking
Bluejacking is not mobile hacking or hijacking its totaly different. Bluejacking is a harmless prank played on people who have switched Bluetooth on their phones.
blue is taken from Bluetooth, the technology bluejacking uses.
jacking is derived from both "ajack" and "hijacking"
Even thought bluejacking does not resemble hijacking There is no accessing or taking private data from your victim's device.
Bluejacking is totally limited to Bluetooth enabled devices.Bluetooth has a very limited range, usually around 10 metres on mobile phones, but laptops and other instrument with high power transmitters can reach up to 100 meters.
“Bluejacking” is define as sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, Laptops, sending a contact which typically contains a message in the name field to another bluetooth enabled device via the OBEX protocol.
Few prople say the term “Bluejacking” originated with a user named ajack on esato.com. Some people say that the term bluejacking comes from Bluetooth and hijacking. While that certainly sounds logical, a bluejacker doesn't hijack anything, he just send a contact to the recipient's device. Both parties have absolute control over their devices, and a bluejacker will not be able to take control of your phone or steal your personal information.
You can create a phonebook contact and write a message, eg. 'Hello, you've been bluejacked', in the 'Name' field. Then you can search for other phones with Bluetooth and send that phonebook contact to them. On their phone, a message will popup saying "'Hello, you've been bluejacked' has just been received by Bluetooth" or something along those lines. For most 'victims' they will have no idea as to how the message appeared on their phone. So, personalised messages like 'I like your pink top' and the startled expressions that result is where the fun really starts.
Bluejacking is quite harmless, but because bluejacked people don't know what is happening, they think their phone is malfunctioning. Usually, a bluejacker will only send a text message, but with modern phones it's possible to send images or sounds as well.
But with the increase in the availability of bluetooth enabled devices, these devices have become vulnarable to virus attacks and even complete take over of devices through a trojan horse program
Note:
It is not that interesting after 2 or 3 trials. Its just a prank. Do NOT harass anyone with this. Be careful at some places and with some peoples, especially in airports where the tolerance level is very low. Also don't send threatening messages. Technically you cannot be traced, but if the victim notices you behaving in a suspicious way with your mobile phone in your hand, you better run for your life.
blue is taken from Bluetooth, the technology bluejacking uses.
jacking is derived from both "ajack" and "hijacking"
Even thought bluejacking does not resemble hijacking There is no accessing or taking private data from your victim's device.
Bluejacking is totally limited to Bluetooth enabled devices.Bluetooth has a very limited range, usually around 10 metres on mobile phones, but laptops and other instrument with high power transmitters can reach up to 100 meters.
“Bluejacking” is define as sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, Laptops, sending a contact which typically contains a message in the name field to another bluetooth enabled device via the OBEX protocol.
Few prople say the term “Bluejacking” originated with a user named ajack on esato.com. Some people say that the term bluejacking comes from Bluetooth and hijacking. While that certainly sounds logical, a bluejacker doesn't hijack anything, he just send a contact to the recipient's device. Both parties have absolute control over their devices, and a bluejacker will not be able to take control of your phone or steal your personal information.
You can create a phonebook contact and write a message, eg. 'Hello, you've been bluejacked', in the 'Name' field. Then you can search for other phones with Bluetooth and send that phonebook contact to them. On their phone, a message will popup saying "'Hello, you've been bluejacked' has just been received by Bluetooth" or something along those lines. For most 'victims' they will have no idea as to how the message appeared on their phone. So, personalised messages like 'I like your pink top' and the startled expressions that result is where the fun really starts.
Bluejacking is quite harmless, but because bluejacked people don't know what is happening, they think their phone is malfunctioning. Usually, a bluejacker will only send a text message, but with modern phones it's possible to send images or sounds as well.
But with the increase in the availability of bluetooth enabled devices, these devices have become vulnarable to virus attacks and even complete take over of devices through a trojan horse program
- Go to Contacts.
- Create a new contact.
- Write the short message you want to send on the line next to 'Last name'
- Save this contact.
- Select this contact and send via Bluetooth.
- Your phone will search for devices
- All the Bluetooth devices near you will be displayed.
- Select any one you like and send.
- You have bluejacked someone.
Note:
It is not that interesting after 2 or 3 trials. Its just a prank. Do NOT harass anyone with this. Be careful at some places and with some peoples, especially in airports where the tolerance level is very low. Also don't send threatening messages. Technically you cannot be traced, but if the victim notices you behaving in a suspicious way with your mobile phone in your hand, you better run for your life.
benQ siemens
On the main screen type *#06#
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your BenQ siemens Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your BenQ siemens Phone
SP = Spare Language Menu for BenQ-Siemens mobile
English menu:
*#0001#
Deutsch menu:
*#0049#
Secret Code for BenQ
*#0606# remove sim card before
Unlock Sim:
*#0003*(secret code)#
Bonus Screen:
*12022243121
Factory settings:
Type *#9999# to reset factory settings.
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your BenQ siemens Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your BenQ siemens Phone
SP = Spare Language Menu for BenQ-Siemens mobile
English menu:
*#0001#
Deutsch menu:
*#0049#
Secret Code for BenQ
*#0606# remove sim card before
Unlock Sim:
*#0003*(secret code)#
Bonus Screen:
*12022243121
Factory settings:
Type *#9999# to reset factory settings.
sony ericsson
On the main screen type *#06#
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your sony ericsson Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your sony ericsson Phone
SP = Spare
Sony Ericsson Secret Menu: > * < < * < *
> means press joystick or arrow keys to right
< means press joystick or arrow keys to left
1. push joy stick to RIGHT once
2. press *
3. push joy stick to LEFT twice
4. press *
5. push joy stick to LEFT once
6. press *
The Service Menu will appears containing following information !
1. Service Info
a. Software Version
b. SIMlock
c. Configuration
2. Service Setting
a. Contrast
3. Service Test
a. Display
b. LED/Illumination - *This test is very cool
c. Keyboard
d. Buzzer
e. Vibrator
f. Earphone
g. Microphone
h. Real Time Clock
i. Joystick Counter*
Lockstatus: < * * <
Shortcut to last dialed numbers: 0#
Shortcut to sim numbers: On main menu type a number and press #
If you change the language from default to any other language, then it may be difficult to switch to default language.
The shortcut is very simple. Just press < 0000 >
< stands for left arrow button or joystick and > stands for right arrow button or joystick.
Secret Games: Snake on the T68
Go to Erix and then on the main screen press 123 and you will be taken to the game.
Secret Message:
On Tetris on the main screen when the blocks are falling press 397 and a message will appear.
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your sony ericsson Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your sony ericsson Phone
SP = Spare
Sony Ericsson Secret Menu: > * < < * < *
> means press joystick or arrow keys to right
< means press joystick or arrow keys to left
1. push joy stick to RIGHT once
2. press *
3. push joy stick to LEFT twice
4. press *
5. push joy stick to LEFT once
6. press *
The Service Menu will appears containing following information !
1. Service Info
a. Software Version
b. SIMlock
c. Configuration
2. Service Setting
a. Contrast
3. Service Test
a. Display
b. LED/Illumination - *This test is very cool
c. Keyboard
d. Buzzer
e. Vibrator
f. Earphone
g. Microphone
h. Real Time Clock
i. Joystick Counter*
Lockstatus: < * * <
Shortcut to last dialed numbers: 0#
Shortcut to sim numbers: On main menu type a number and press #
If you change the language from default to any other language, then it may be difficult to switch to default language.
The shortcut is very simple. Just press < 0000 >
< stands for left arrow button or joystick and > stands for right arrow button or joystick.
Secret Games: Snake on the T68
Go to Erix and then on the main screen press 123 and you will be taken to the game.
Secret Message:
On Tetris on the main screen when the blocks are falling press 397 and a message will appear.
motorola
On the main screen type *#06#
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your motorola Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your motorola Phone
SP = Spare Code to lock keys. Press together *7
Note: [] (pause) means the * key held in until box appears.
Select phone line - (use this to write things below the provider name):
[] [] [] 0 0 8 [] 1 []
Add phonebook to main menu:
[] [] [] 1 0 5 [] 1 []
Add messages to main menu:
[] [] [] 1 0 7 [] 1 []
Copy SIM memory (phonebook menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 8 [] 1 []
Eng Field options (main menu):
[] [] [] 1 1 3 [] 1 []
Slow (Frequency of search menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 1 [] 1 []
Medium (Frequency of search menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 2 [] 1 []
Fast (Frequency of search menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 3 [] 1 []
Enable EFR:
[] [] [] 1 1 9 [] 1 []
Function :
[] [] [] # # # [] 1 []
Change pin:
[] [] [] 0 0 4 [] 1 []
Unblocking using the "puk" number:
[] [] [] 0 0 5 [] 1 []
You can change GSM frequencies to 900/1800 by entering the enginnering model.
Following the below steps:
enter menu and press 048263* quickly,
then you will enter the secret engineering menu under "Opcode"
input 10*0*3 for GSM 900
10*0*4 for GSM 1800
10*0*5 for GSM 1900
10*0*6 for dual band GSM 900/1800
10*0*7 for dual band GSM 850/1900
To add extra message space 4 your Motorola C350 C450 C550 or C650,
press menu button, press 048263* quickly, then on the popup menu enter 47 press ok.
press 50 and ok.press 1 ok.press 64 ok.press 1 ok.press 186 and ok.
You will receive an extra 50 msgs memory space.Switch phone off and back on.
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your motorola Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your motorola Phone
SP = Spare Code to lock keys. Press together *7
Note: [] (pause) means the * key held in until box appears.
Select phone line - (use this to write things below the provider name):
[] [] [] 0 0 8 [] 1 []
Add phonebook to main menu:
[] [] [] 1 0 5 [] 1 []
Add messages to main menu:
[] [] [] 1 0 7 [] 1 []
Copy SIM memory (phonebook menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 8 [] 1 []
Eng Field options (main menu):
[] [] [] 1 1 3 [] 1 []
Slow (Frequency of search menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 1 [] 1 []
Medium (Frequency of search menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 2 [] 1 []
Fast (Frequency of search menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 3 [] 1 []
Enable EFR:
[] [] [] 1 1 9 [] 1 []
Function :
[] [] [] # # # [] 1 []
Change pin:
[] [] [] 0 0 4 [] 1 []
Unblocking using the "puk" number:
[] [] [] 0 0 5 [] 1 []
You can change GSM frequencies to 900/1800 by entering the enginnering model.
Following the below steps:
enter menu and press 048263* quickly,
then you will enter the secret engineering menu under "Opcode"
input 10*0*3 for GSM 900
10*0*4 for GSM 1800
10*0*5 for GSM 1900
10*0*6 for dual band GSM 900/1800
10*0*7 for dual band GSM 850/1900
To add extra message space 4 your Motorola C350 C450 C550 or C650,
press menu button, press 048263* quickly, then on the popup menu enter 47 press ok.
press 50 and ok.press 1 ok.press 64 ok.press 1 ok.press 186 and ok.
You will receive an extra 50 msgs memory space.Switch phone off and back on.
samsung
On the main screen type *#06#
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your samsung Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your samsung Phone
SP = Spare
If you have downloaded corrupted or incompatible Java midlets or other media, which are causing problems with the phone, try this
*2767*JAVA# Java Reset and (Deletes all Java Midlets)
*2767*MEDIA# Reset Media (Deletes All Sounds and Pics)
*2767*WAP# Wap Reset
*2767*CUST# Reset Custom EEPR0M
*2767*FULL# Reset Full EEPR0M (Caution)
For example : *2767*JAVA# would be keyed in as *2767*5282#
Note : Not all codes will work with SGH-C100.
The master reset code is:
#*7728#
This will not delete anything from your
mobile phone, but set each and eveything to its
default/standard setting as it was on the time of purchase.
To unlock your phone put a sim from another company,
now type *#9998*3323# it will reset your phone. Push exit and then push 7,
it will reset again. Put your other sim in and it will say sim lock,
type in 00000000 then it should be unlocked. Type in *0141# then
the green call batton and it's unlocked to all networks.
This code may not work on the older phones and some of the newer phones.
If it doesn't work you will have to reset your phone without a sim in it
by typing *#2767*2878# or *#9998*3855# (not tested)
Other Samsung Codes
*#9998*4357# Help Menu
*#9998*5282# Java menu (GRPS/CSD settings for JAVA server)
*#9999#0# Monitor Mode
*#9999# or *#9998*9999# Software Version
*#8888# or *#9998*8888# Hardware Version
*#9998*746# or *#9998*0746# or *#0746# Sim Infos
*#9998*523# or *#9998*0523# or *#0523# Display Contrast
*#9998*842# or *#9998*0842# or *#0842# Vibration On (until you push OK)
*#9998*289# or *#9998*0289# or *#0289# Buzzer On (until you push OK)
*#9998*288# or *#9998*0288# or *#0288# Battery & Field Infos
*#9998*377# or *#9998*0377# Error log
*#9998*778# or *#9998*0778# or *#0778# Sim Service table
*#9998*782# show date and alarm clock
*#8999*638# show network information
*#9998*5646# change operator logo at startup
*#9998*76# production number
*#9998*968# view melody for alarm
*#9998*585# Non-Volatile Memory (NVM)
*#3243948# Digital Audio Interference Off
*#32436837# Digital Audio Interference On
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your samsung Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your samsung Phone
SP = Spare
If you have downloaded corrupted or incompatible Java midlets or other media, which are causing problems with the phone, try this
*2767*JAVA# Java Reset and (Deletes all Java Midlets)
*2767*MEDIA# Reset Media (Deletes All Sounds and Pics)
*2767*WAP# Wap Reset
*2767*CUST# Reset Custom EEPR0M
*2767*FULL# Reset Full EEPR0M (Caution)
For example : *2767*JAVA# would be keyed in as *2767*5282#
Note : Not all codes will work with SGH-C100.
The master reset code is:
#*7728#
This will not delete anything from your
mobile phone, but set each and eveything to its
default/standard setting as it was on the time of purchase.
To unlock your phone put a sim from another company,
now type *#9998*3323# it will reset your phone. Push exit and then push 7,
it will reset again. Put your other sim in and it will say sim lock,
type in 00000000 then it should be unlocked. Type in *0141# then
the green call batton and it's unlocked to all networks.
This code may not work on the older phones and some of the newer phones.
If it doesn't work you will have to reset your phone without a sim in it
by typing *#2767*2878# or *#9998*3855# (not tested)
Other Samsung Codes
*#9998*4357# Help Menu
*#9998*5282# Java menu (GRPS/CSD settings for JAVA server)
*#9999#0# Monitor Mode
*#9999# or *#9998*9999# Software Version
*#8888# or *#9998*8888# Hardware Version
*#9998*746# or *#9998*0746# or *#0746# Sim Infos
*#9998*523# or *#9998*0523# or *#0523# Display Contrast
*#9998*842# or *#9998*0842# or *#0842# Vibration On (until you push OK)
*#9998*289# or *#9998*0289# or *#0289# Buzzer On (until you push OK)
*#9998*288# or *#9998*0288# or *#0288# Battery & Field Infos
*#9998*377# or *#9998*0377# Error log
*#9998*778# or *#9998*0778# or *#0778# Sim Service table
*#9998*782# show date and alarm clock
*#8999*638# show network information
*#9998*5646# change operator logo at startup
*#9998*76# production number
*#9998*968# view melody for alarm
*#9998*585# Non-Volatile Memory (NVM)
*#3243948# Digital Audio Interference Off
*#32436837# Digital Audio Interference On
nokia
On the main screen type *#06#
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your nokia Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your nokia Phone
SP = Spare To check the phones Software revision for Nokia Mobile. On the main screen type *#0000#
To enter in the secret menu in Nokia Phone.
On the main screen type *#92702689# [*#war0anty#]
It will take you to a secret menu where you may find some of the information below:
1. Displays Serial Number.
2. Displays the Month and Year of Manufacture
3. Displays (if there) the date where the phone was purchased (MMYY)
4. Displays the date of the last repair - if found (0000)
5. Shows life timer of phone (time passes since last start)
To restore Factory Settings for Nokia mobile
*#7780# reset to factory settings.
Taking picture without getting noticed.
Turn on/off the "click" sound made by the camera by selecting the 'Silent' profile or by turning warning tones on/off.
Hiding your Mobile/ Cellphone Number
Go to: Menu > Tools > Settings > Call > Send My Caller ID >
'Yes', 'No' or 'Set By Network' to follow the default settings of your home network.
It works only with very few network who provide you facility of “Private Number”
Speed Dialing From Simcard contact (not stored in mobile phonebook)
Type number followed by # then call.
Example: 1# or 2# or 21#
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your nokia Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your nokia Phone
SP = Spare To check the phones Software revision for Nokia Mobile. On the main screen type *#0000#
To enter in the secret menu in Nokia Phone.
On the main screen type *#92702689# [*#war0anty#]
It will take you to a secret menu where you may find some of the information below:
1. Displays Serial Number.
2. Displays the Month and Year of Manufacture
3. Displays (if there) the date where the phone was purchased (MMYY)
4. Displays the date of the last repair - if found (0000)
5. Shows life timer of phone (time passes since last start)
To restore Factory Settings for Nokia mobile
*#7780# reset to factory settings.
Taking picture without getting noticed.
Turn on/off the "click" sound made by the camera by selecting the 'Silent' profile or by turning warning tones on/off.
Hiding your Mobile/ Cellphone Number
Go to: Menu > Tools > Settings > Call > Send My Caller ID >
'Yes', 'No' or 'Set By Network' to follow the default settings of your home network.
It works only with very few network who provide you facility of “Private Number”
Speed Dialing From Simcard contact (not stored in mobile phonebook)
Type number followed by # then call.
Example: 1# or 2# or 21#
LG
On the main screen type *#06#
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your LG Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your LG Phone
SP = Spare
LG all models test mode:
Type 2945#*# on the main screen.
2945*#01*# Secret menu for LG
IMEI and SW (LG 510): *#07#
Software version (LG B1200): *8375#
Recount cheksum (LG B1200): *6861#
Factory test (B1200): #PWR 668
Simlock menu (LG B1200): 1945#*5101#
Simlock menu (LG 510W, 5200): 2945#*5101#
Simlock menu (LG 7020, 7010): 2945#*70001#
Simlock menu (LG 500, 600): 2947#*
LG-U81XX SPECIAL CODES
Code to read phone version :
- Phone without SIM
- Enter 277634#*# or 47328545454#
- Select 'SW Ver.info'
Code to reset phone :
- Phone without SIM
- Enter 277634#*# or 47328545454#
- Select 'Factory Reset'
Code to enter UNLOCK MENU :
- Phone wit SIM inside
- Enter 2945#*88110#
Test Menu 8330 : 637664#*#
Test Menu 8180 V10a: 49857465454#
Test Menu 8180 V11a: 492662464663#
Test Menu 8130-8138: 47328545454#
Test Menu 8110-8120: 277634#*
Information you get from the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
XXXXXX XX XXXXXX X
TAC FAC SNR SP
TAC = Type approval code of your LG Mobile
FAC = Final assembly code of your cellphone
SNR = Serial number of your LG Phone
SP = Spare
LG all models test mode:
Type 2945#*# on the main screen.
2945*#01*# Secret menu for LG
IMEI and SW (LG 510): *#07#
Software version (LG B1200): *8375#
Recount cheksum (LG B1200): *6861#
Factory test (B1200): #PWR 668
Simlock menu (LG B1200): 1945#*5101#
Simlock menu (LG 510W, 5200): 2945#*5101#
Simlock menu (LG 7020, 7010): 2945#*70001#
Simlock menu (LG 500, 600): 2947#*
LG-U81XX SPECIAL CODES
Code to read phone version :
- Phone without SIM
- Enter 277634#*# or 47328545454#
- Select 'SW Ver.info'
Code to reset phone :
- Phone without SIM
- Enter 277634#*# or 47328545454#
- Select 'Factory Reset'
Code to enter UNLOCK MENU :
- Phone wit SIM inside
- Enter 2945#*88110#
Test Menu 8330 : 637664#*#
Test Menu 8180 V10a: 49857465454#
Test Menu 8180 V11a: 492662464663#
Test Menu 8130-8138: 47328545454#
Test Menu 8110-8120: 277634#*
RSS Basics
RSS Basics
RSS is a feed format that is used to distribute frequently-published content. The feed format is a standardized subset up the mark-up language known as XML. The resulting feeds can be pushed to RSS readers and Web pages.The initials RSS can stand for different things, including Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. RSS content is often referred to as syndicated content because of its wide distribution. Users can subscribe to the RSS feeds of their choice, and then have access to the updated information as it comes in.
The presence of an RSS feed is often signaled by an orange icon of some type. Two examples are shown here. RSS is an important part of the participatory Web. It has been said that RSS is the "glue" that holds the social Web together. You will encounter RSS in all sorts of places and used for all kinds of purposes. Wherever content is frequently added, you will probably find an RSS feed. This is because many sites on the social Web automatically create RSS feeds and add to the feed as you add content. If you want to keep up with the latest contributions by people on the social Web, reading RSS feeds is one of the best ways to do it.
Reading RSS feeds
To experience RSS, you first need to subscribe to the feed using an rss reader, or aggregator. This is software that displays new items posted to your feed subscriptions and stores the old updates. It is similar to e-mail software, except that the incoming items are derived from RSS feeds.There are all kinds of RSS readers. Popular Web browsers offer integrated RSS readers. You can also download a reader to your computer or mobile device. Or, you can use an RSS reader on the Web, for example the Google Reader. The advantage here is that you can access your RSS feeds from any computer that is connected to the Web.
Subscribing to an RSS feed is as simple as adding its address to your reader's subscription list. Below is an example from the Google Reader.
tip! RSS feeds can be imported into Web pages. You might be looking at a "typical" Web page without realizing that the content is coming from an RSS feed. There are various programming techniques that make this possible. Or, you can use one of the many user-friendly services on the Web such as RSS2HTML.
Sources of RSS feeds
As noted earlier, RSS is especially popular for distributing news updates and for announcing new content added to the social Web. Various media types can also be updated via RSS feed, including podcasts. A few examples are shown below.If you click on any of the feed links below, you will be taking the first step toward subscribing to the feed. After clicking, you will be prompted to save the feed to your browser's feed reader, if you have one. Otherwise, you can click on the feed link with your right mouse button and select the option to Copy Link Location. You can then paste the location into the feed reader of your choice.
News updates: Environment news from The New York Times
Blogs: postings and comments from the blog Librarians Matter
Documents on social bookmarking sites: Google-related bookmarks on CiteULike
Tagged items on photo sharing sites: "nature" tag on Flickr
Twitter updates: Al Gore
Environment news from The New York Times Blogs:
postings and comments from the blog Librarians Matter Documents on social bookmarking sites:
Google-related bookmarks on CiteULike Tagged items on photo sharing sites:
"nature" tag on Flickr Twitter updates:
Al Gore Creating RSS feeds
How do you create an RSS feed? Well, usually you don't have to lift a finger. As noted above, creating RSS feeds is an automatic feature of many sites on the social Web. For example, if you maintain a blog, the blog software will create the feed.If you want to create an RSS feed on your own, it isn't too difficult. Some people manually create feeds to distribute their podcasts. Below is a snippet from an RSS template for creating a podcast suitable for uploading to iTunes. Notice how much metadata the feed includes - data about the data included in the feed.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/DTDs/Podcast-1.0.dtd"
version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Put title of podcast series here</title>
<itunes:author>Author's name here</itunes:author>
<link>URL of supporting web page here</link>
<description>Description paragraph here</description>
<itunes:subtitle>Channel subtitle here</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>Description paragraph here</itunes:summary>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright attribution here</copyright>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name>Author's name here</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>Email contact here</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<image>
<url>URL to cover art jpg here</url>
<title>Channel Title here</title>
<link>URL of supporting web page here</link>
</image>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/DTDs/Podcast-1.0.dtd"
version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Put title of podcast series here</title>
<itunes:author>Author's name here</itunes:author>
<link>URL of supporting web page here</link>
<description>Description paragraph here</description>
<itunes:subtitle>Channel subtitle here</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>Description paragraph here</itunes:summary>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright attribution here</copyright>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name>Author's name here</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>Email contact here</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<image>
<url>URL to cover art jpg here</url>
<title>Channel Title here</title>
<link>URL of supporting web page here</link>
</image>
The Web and You: A Guide to Participation
The Web and You: A Guide to Participation
In 2006, Time magazine named You as the Person of the Year with the comment: "Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world."This tutorial will explain how you - yes, you - can participate in and therefore control your experience of the Web. The Web allows anyone with an Internet connection to join in. (Unfortunately, some of this capability is blocked in certain countries.) With the proper tools, you can create content either alone or collaboratively, share your content, and comment on the content of others. There are various terms used to describe this phenomenon, including web 2.0, the social web, the read-write web. The topic is huge. This tutorial is intended as a brief introduction to the lay of the land.
It's interesting to watch as the content of the social Web is entering the mainstream of the Web experience. For example, blog posts can be found in search engine results. The search engine Bing indexes Twitter content in order to provide up-to-the-minute results, and Facebook status updates are in the works. This brings up the importance of the social Web to the real-time web. It is becoming increasingly important to the development of the Web to present real-time, or near real-time, content.
A large factor in interacting with the Web is having access to the Web at any time and any place. The Web and its functionalities are becoming increasingly mobile. While laptop computers have been around for years, the focus now is on cell phones and other portable devices connected to the Web. The iPhone is just one example of a device that allows people to take the Web with them wherever they go to access Web sites, social networks, search engines, and location-based information. Mobile devices can keep us connected to the networked world with ever-expanding capabilities.
tip! To keep up with the latest developments, check out the suggested sources on Keeping Current.
First, a word about security and safety
The Web has sometimes been referred to as the Wild Wild Web. As the Web becomes more open to user interaction, dangers can be lurking. Computer viruses of various types, identity theft, bogus e-mail messsages and Web sites, and predators, are just a few of the dangers you might encounter.When you interact with strangers on the Web, proceed with caution. Don't automatically trust what you see or who you encounter. There are many sites on the Web that can help you become aware of potential dangers and provide guidelines for dealing with them. For an example, check out the useful Internet Safety Project.
Social networking sites
social networking sites are online communities in which members interact. In fact, everything covered in this tutorial involves social networking of some sort. A site that specializes in social networking is focused on making connections among its users. The activities may be limited to one activity or interest, such as sharing videos, to multiple activities such as creating a personal profile, posting your current activity or state of mind, making "friends", engaging in discussions, joining groups, sending messages, sharing photos, and so on. Social networking can involve individuals or institutions, and can be used for recreational, informational, academic, and professional purposes. Examples: Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, LibraryThing, LinkedIn, Digg
Interactivity among social networking sites is evolving. This means that you can share content, friends, and activities among many sites. Streamy is an example of a site that gathers the activities and shared items of you and your friends from numerous social networking sites.
It is becoming easier to share content from around the Web. Let's say you have read an article that you want to share on your Facebook account. Web sites, especially blog and news sites, sometimes offer an easy way to post this content to the social networking site of which you are a member. Here is an example of the many sharing options featured on a technology blog. If you have an account on any of these services, you can share the posting there with just a few clicks. The ShareThis application is shown in the example below.
Blogs, tweets and the phenomenon of comments
A blog is a journal entry system organized around postings about which readers can comment. Entries are usually organized with the most recent postings first. The word "blog" comes from "Weblog" because a blog consists of a Web-based signed and dated log of individual postings. Blogs often focus on personal narratives or opinion and are usually maintained by single individuals. However, there are also plenty of blogs maintained by groups of people who share the same interests or expertise.Examples: TechCrunch, The New Old Age, Climate411
The social nature of blogs comes from reader responses to the blog author's postings. These are known as comments. Readers can respond not only to postings, but also to their comments, resulting in a lively conversation. Most comments are written in text. However, video comments are also possible. For example, the TechCrunch blog uses Seesmic for this purpose.
Anyone can start a blog for free. Take a look at Wordpress and Blogger for a couple of examples. If you rent space on a Web server, you can download blog software and run your own customized blog. Some excellent blog software is available at no cost, including WordPress and MovableType. Technorati and Google Blog Search are two useful search engines for locating content posted to blogs.
microblogging is also popular. This is exemplified by Twitter. With Twitter, you can create an account and blog in spurts of up to 140 characters. Also, excerpted postings or headlines from "regular" blogs can be sent automatically to your Twitter account. For an example, visit the TechCrunch page on Twitter. With a Twitter account, you can choose to "follow" other members and receive their "tweets" on your own page. Twitter is used by the famous and non-famous alike for recreational, professional, commercial, and informational purposes. If you want to know what's happening right now, check out Twitter. Twitter search is one of many sites that provides a searchable real-time look at up-to-the-minute tweets. Below is an example of a few tweets.
The phenomenon of blogs has helped to advance the practice of commenting across the Web. In fact, one hallmark of the social Web is the option for public comment. For example, you can comment on YouTube videos and Flickr photos. Many news sites offer their readers the option to comment on stories. Commenting is showing up in all kinds of Web sites and in all kinds of contexts, so be on the lookout for opportunities.
The nature of any comment you make is up to you. Comments can range from polite to insulting and anything in between. Below is an example of comments from the news sharing site iReport.
Wikis
A wiki is a publishing platform on which many people can contribute new content and revise existing content. The content benefits from the collective knowledge of the contributors, so wikis can be very beneficial for group projects. Some businesses and organizations use wikis to maintain documents. Wikis allow visitors to view the history of page edits. For this reason, wikis are an excellent option for hosting documents that need ongoing edits or updates. Entire books can be publised on a wiki; for examples, visit Wikibooks. As with blogs, anyone can start a wiki for free. Two options are PBwiki and Wikidot.
tip! Some people get confused about the differences between blogs and wikis. For a useful discussion, see the Blogs and Wikis page at the University at Albany Libraries.
Social bookmarking sites
social bookmarking allows you to save articles, news stories, blog postings, etc. from the Web and organize them into folders and/or tags. (See below for a discussion about tags.) The addition of new bookmarks can often be followed with an RSS feed; see the tutorial RSS Basics for more information.
A benefit of social bookmarking is the fact that your bookmarks are online, rather than on your local computer. With Web-based bookmarking, you can access your bookmarks from anywhere. The aspect of public sharing is also important.
Examples: Delicious, CiteULike, Connotea, StumbleUpon, Faves.com
Multimedia
Multimedia is a prominent part of the social Web. Users create audio and video files and share them with the public. Photo sharing is also a popular activity on the social Web. There are also TV broadcasts, radio stations, and Web cams set up by users. On many multimedia sharing sites, users are invited to post comments. For more details about this phenomenon, see the tutorial on Multimedia. Examples: Flickr, YouTube, Blip.tv, iReport
Real-time chat, texting and phone calls
Real-time communication on the social Web is big. Here we'll briefly cover chat/instant messaging and Web-based phone calls.The terms chat and instant messaging (im) are sometimes used interchangeably, and refer to the real-time communication between people through typing and other means. With chat and instant messaging, a user on the Web can contact another user currently logged in to the same service and start a conversation. Multiple people can join a chat, and everyone can see each new message as it comes in. Chat is sometimes included as a feature of a Web site, where users can log into the chat room to exchange comments and information about the topic in the particular room.
You can download IM software onto your computer, or use the chat function sometimes offered on the software creator's Web site. Most famous is America Online's (AOL) Instant Messenger, but there are many others. Pidgin and Meebo are examples of chat programs that integrate the chat functionality of several individual services. Some chat software can be embedded on your Web page so that your visitors can easily chat with you. To the right is a screen shot of the embedded Meebo widget. Chat has evolved into texting. The formal name for this is Short Message Service, or SMS. With texting, you use a mobile device to send short text messages to another device. The rise in popularity of texting has followed the trajectory of the rise in popularity of mobile phones. Nowadays many people use texting rather than make a phone call or send an e-mail.
video chat is also a popular communication option. Why settle for audio or text when you can see the person you're communicating with? All you need is a webcam and video chat software. For example, people who use Google's GMail can engage in voice and video chat. Skype is such popular video chat software that the name has become a verb: "Do you want to Skype today?" Enhanced programs offer a combination of text chat, voice, and video communication. This capability allows people to conference and collaborate in real time. Such features as whiteboarding, document sharing, and collaborative browsing can also be available. This is often referred to as conferencing software.
Examples: Skype, Meebo and Meebo Rooms, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo! Messenger, Pidgin
Finally, you can also make phone calls on the Web. Besides video chat, Skype allows you to make calls to regular and mobile phones. Google offers free phone calls.
Tags
How can you organize your content on the social Web? One way is with tags. People who create or share content on social networking sites often have the option of assigning topic words to their content. These are known as tags. Tags can help organize content into concepts or categories. With so much information on the Web, topical labeling can be useful. Once tags have been assigned, users can then click on a tag of interest and see all the content assigned to that tag.The choice of tag words is up to the creator. This is one of the drawbacks of tags: different people use different tags to describe similar content. However, it is possible for people to get together and agree on common tags to describe similar content.
The use of tags is showing up in many contexts, as many social networking sites offer its members the option to assign tags to their content. You, too, can be a part of the tagging phenomenon! Tags are especially popular on blogs and social bookmarking sites. The online reference management tool Zotero allows users to organize citations with tags. Also check out the display of popular tags on Flickr. This type of display is known as a tag cloud. The larger the font assigned to the tag, the more often the tag has been assigned. The tag cloud below is derived from a technology blog.
Multimedia on the Web
Multimedia on the Web
Today's Web presents a diversified multimedia experience. In fact, the Web has become a broadcast medium, offering live TV and radio, pre-recorded video, photos, images, and animations. Expect to encounter multimedia just about anywhere on the Web. This tutorial presents a brief overview.Plugins, media players, and multimedia types
plugins and media players are software programs that allow you to experience multimedia on the Web. These terms are sometimes used interchangeably. File formats requiring this software are known as MIME types. MIME stands for Multimedia Internet Mail Extension, and was originally developed to help e-mail software handle a variety of binary (non-textual) file attachments. The use of MIME has expanded to the Web. For example, the basic MIME type handled by Web browsers is text/html associated with the file extention .html. MIME types area also used to process multimedia on the Web. A few examples:- Jpeg photo: image/jpeg
- MPEG video: video/mpeg
- Quicktime movie: video/quicktime
- MP3 audio: audio/x-mpeg-3
- Flash presentation: application/x-shockwave-flash
plugins are software programs that work with your Web browser to display multimedia. When your browser encounters a multimedia file, it hands off the data to the plugin to play or display the file. Working in conjunction with plugins, browsers can offer a seamless multimedia experience. The plugins needed to experience Web multimedia are available for free.
A common plugin used on the Web is the Adobe Reader. This software allows you to view documents created in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). These documents are the MIME type "application/pdf" and are associated with the file extension .pdf. A PDF is a type of image file. When the Adobe Reader has been downloaded to your computer, the software will open and display the file when you click on its link on a Web page. Try viewing this PDF document from the U. S. Census Bureau. Sometimes a Web page will display the official PDF icon to alert you that the file is in PDF format.
media players are software programs that can play audio and video files, both on and off the Web. The concept of streaming media is important to understanding how media can be delivered on the Web. With streaming technology, audio or video files are played as they are downloading, or streaming, into your computer. Sometimes a small wait, called buffering, is necessary before the file begins to play. Extensive pre-recorded files such as interviews, lectures, televised video clips, podcasts, and music work very well with these players. They can also be used for real-time radio and TV, including Web-only TV. Popular media players include the Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, QuickTime Player, and Flash Player. Audio
Audio files, including music, are an important part of the Web experience. Listening to music on the Web is a popular pastime. Audio files of many types are supported by the Web with the appropriate players. The MP3 file format probably the most popular option for audio files.MP3 files are also the source of podcasts. These are audio files distributed through RSS feeds, though the term is sometimes also used to describe video programming (or vodcast). You can subscribe to a podcast's RSS feed, and listen to the podcast series, with a special type of player called a podcatcher. A podcatcher can be either available on the Web or downloaded to your computer like any other plugin. iTunes can serve as a podcatcher. Keep in mind that you can often listen to a podcast on the originating site. For an example, visit NYTimes.com Podcasts.
Want to create your own podcast? Fondren Library at Rice University offers useful instructions in their tutorial Podcasting Howtos.
tip! Podcast series are available via RSS feed. To learn about RSS, visit the tutorial RSS Basics.
Thousands of radio stations broadcast live on the Web. Just use a search engine to locate a station's Web site, and follow the links to the live broadcast. Visit this page for an example of one radio station's live broadcasts.
Video
Streaming video is the backbone of live and pre-recorded broadcasting on the Web. YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the Web for pre-recorded video. Real-time professional or personal broadcasts are also very popular. The Web is a medium for exchanging information among professionals. A live professional broadcast from a conference, company, or institution is sometimes referred to as a webcast. A variation on this is a webinar, a seminar broadcast on the Web.
To watch video discussions by experts in their fields, take a look at:
- Academic Earth, a collection of free video lectures by top scholars
- BigThink, where experts discuss current events
- Bloggingheads.tv, where academics, journalists, and others have two-way conversations, or diavlogs, on substantive topics
- iTunes U, which offers free lectures from a handful of universities
- WebMedia: Special Events at Princeton University, offering archived speeches and conferences
Live TV broadcasts abound on the Web. As with radio stations mentioned above, use a search engine to locate a station's Web site and follow the links to the live broadcast. There are also plenty of pre-recorded network TV shows available on the Web. Check out Hulu for an example of a site that hosts this type of content. Embedded media
As you browse the Web, you can experience multimedia on the sites of the people who sponsor or create the broadcasts. There are also aggregator sites you can visit, including Flickr and YouTube.It's also possible to embed multimedia on your own Web pages. The capacity for unlimited distribution is a major reason why multimedia on the Web has become so popular. Also, it's quite easy to do. In most cases, embedding a media file is just a matter of copying code and pasting it onto your Web page. The two examples below took only a few minutes to complete. Both require the Flash player (MIME type of application/x-shockwave-flash).
Here is an embedded video from YouTube.
Here is a Picasa slideshow from my 2008 high school reunion. You might enjoy looking at my photos of the historic Emma Willard School in Troy, NY.
tip! The phenomenon of embedded media is related to the concept of widgets. A widget is a snippet of a program running on another site that can be embedded on your own Web page. Check out Widgetbox to get an idea of some widgets you might want to try.
Understanding the World Wide Web
Understanding the World Wide Web
This tutorial covers the basics of the World Wide Web, focusing on its technical aspects. After all, the Web is a technological phenomenon. Therefore it's useful to understand some of the fundamentals of how it works.The world wide web is a system of Internet servers that supports hypertext and multimedia to access several Internet protocols on a single interface. The World Wide Web is often abbreviated as the web or www.
The World Wide Web was developed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee of the European Particle Physics Lab (CERN) in Switzerland. The initial purpose of the Web was to use networked hypertext to facilitate communication among its members, who were located in several countries. Word was soon spread beyond CERN, and a rapid growth in the number of both developers and users ensued. In addition to hypertext, the Web began to incorporate graphics, video, and sound. The use of the Web has reached global proportions and has become a defining element of human culture in an amazingly short period of time.
In order for the Web to be accessible to anyone, certain agreed-upon standards must be followed in the creation and delivery of its content. An organization leading the efforts to standardize the Web is the World Wide Web (W3C) Consortium. Take a look at the W3C Consortium Web site to get an idea of its activities. A lot of the material is technical because, after all, the Web is a technical phenomenon.
Protocols of the Web
The surface simplicity of the Web comes from the fact that many individual protocols can be contained within a single Web site. internet protocols are sets of rules that allow for intermachine communication on the Internet. These are a few of the protocols you can experience on the Web:HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): transmits hyptertext over networks. This is the protocol of the Web.
E-mail (Simple Mail Transport Protocol or SMTP): distributes e-mail messages and attached files to one or more electronic mailboxes.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol): transfers files between an FTP server and a computer, for example, to download software.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol): allows delivery of voice communications over IP networks, for example, phone calls.
The Web provides a single, graphical interface for accessing these and other protocols. This creates a convenient and user-friendly environment. Once upon a time, it was necessary to know how to use protocols within separate, command-level environments. This meant you needed to know the text commands and type them out to make things happen. The Web is much easier, since it gathers these protocols together into a unified graphical system. Because of this feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with multimedia and advanced programming languages, the Web is by far the most popular component of the Internet.
Hypertext and links: the motion of the Web
The operation of the Web relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information retrieval. HyperText is a document containing words that connect to other documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user. A single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context of the Web, words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images, video, and sound. Links may or may not follow a logical path, as each connection is created by the author of the source document. Overall, the Web contains a complex virtual web of connections among a vast number of documents, images, videos, and sounds.Producing hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called hypertext markup language, or html. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size, italics and bold, and the creation of hypertext links.
<p> This is a paragraph that shows the underlying HTML code. <strong>This sentence is rendered in bold text</strong>. <em>This sentence is rendered in italic text.</em> </p>
HTML is an evolving language, with new tags being added as each upgrade of the language is developed and released. Nowadays, design features are often separated from the content of the HTML page and placed into cascading style sheets (css). This practice has several advantages, including the fact that an external style sheet can centrally control the design of multiple pages. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML. The W3C now calls the language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language standard. Pages on the Web
The backbone of the World Wide Web are its files, called pages or Web pages, containing information and links to resources - both text and multimedia - throughout the Internet.Web pages can be created by user activity. For example, if you visit a Web search engine and enter keywords on the topic of your choice, a page will be created containing the results of your search. In fact, a growing amount of information found on the Web today is served from databases, creating temporary Web pages "on the fly" in response to user searches. You can see an example of such a page below, taken from the search engine Hakia. This page only exists as a result of a search.
Access to Web pages can be accomplished in all sorts of ways, including:
- Entering a Web address into your browser and retrieving a page directly
- Browsing through sites and selecting links to move from one page to another both within and beyond the site
- Doing a search on a search engine to retrieve pages on the topic of your choice (See: The World of Search Engines)
- Searching through directories containing links to organized collections of Web pages (See: The World of Subject Directories)
- Clicking on links within e-mail messages
- Using apps on social networking sites or your mobile phone to access Web and other online content
- Retrieving updates via RSS feeds and clicking on links within these feeds (See: RSS Basics)
Retrieving doucuments on the Web: the URL and Domain Name System
url stands for uniform resource locator. The URL specifies the Internet address of a file stored on a host computer, or server, connected to the Internet. Web browsers use the URL to retrieve the file from the server. This file is downloaded to the user's computer, or client, and displayed on the monitor connected to the machine. Because of this relationship between clients and servers, the Web is a client-server network.Every file on the Internet, no matter what its protocol, has a unique URL. URLs are translated into numeric addresses using the domain name system (dns). The DNS is a worldwide system of servers that stores location pointers to Web sites. The numeric address, called the ip (internet protocol) address, is actually the "real" URL. Since numeric strings are difficult for humans to use, alphneumeric addresses are employed by end users. Once the translation is made by the DNS, the browser can contact the Web server and ask for a specific file located on its site.
For example, 207.46.192.254 is also www.microsoft.com.
Anatomy of a URL
This is the format of the URL:
protocol://host/path/filename
For example, this is a URL from the site of the U.S. Senate of a live video stream sent by a camera pointed at the U.S. Capitol: http://www.senate.gov/general/capcam.htm
This URL is typical of addresses hosted in domains in the United States. The structure of this URL is shown below. - Protocol: http
- Host computer name: www
- Second-level domain name: senate
- Top-level domain name: gov
- Directory name: general
- File name: capcam.htm
Note how much information about the content of the file is present in this well-constructed URL.
Several generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are common in the United States:
| com | commercial enterprise |
| edu | educational institution |
| gov | U.S. government entity |
| mil | U.S. military entity |
| net | network access provder |
| org | usually nonprofit organizations |
| ch | Switzerland |
| de | Germany |
| jp | Japan |
| uk | United Kingdom |
As the technology of the Web evolves, URLs have become more complex. This is especially the case when content is retrieved from databases and served onto Web pages. The resulting URLs can have a variety of elaborate structures, for example,
http://spills.incidentnews.gov/incidentnews/FMPro?-db=images&-Format=maps.htm
&SpillLink=8&Subject=Waterway%20Closure%20Map&-SortField=EntryDate&
-SortOrder=descend&-SortField=EntryTime&-SortOrder=descend&-Token=8&
-Max=20&-Find
The first part of this URL looks familiar. What follows are search elements that query the database and determine the order of the results. As a growing number of databases serve content to the Web, these types of URLs are appearing more commonly in your browser's address window. &SpillLink=8&Subject=Waterway%20Closure%20Map&-SortField=EntryDate&
-SortOrder=descend&-SortField=EntryTime&-SortOrder=descend&-Token=8&
-Max=20&-Find
Programming languages and environments
The use of programming languages beyond HTML extend the capabilities of the Web. They are used to write software, process Web forms, fetch and display data, and perform all kinds of advanced functions. It is difficult to talk about these languages without getting into too much technical jargon, but here is an attempt. What follows is a brief guide to some of the more common languages in use on the Web today.CGI (Common Gateway Interface) refers to a specification by which programs can communicate with a Web server. A CGI program, or script, is any program designed to process data that conforms to the CGI specification. The program can be written in any programming language, including C, Perl, and Visual Basic Script (VBScript). In the early days of the Web, CGI scripts were commonly used to process a form on a Web page. Perl is popular with Google, and is also the language of the Movable Type blog platform.
Active Server Pages (ASP): Developed by Microsoft, ASP is a programming environment that processes scripts on a Web server. The programming language VBScript is often used for the scripting. Lightweight programs can be written with this language. Active Server Pages end in the file extension .asp. For an example, check out Databases and Indexes at the University at Albany Libraries.
.NET framework: Also developed by Microsoft, this development framework is a more powerful one than ASP for writing applications for the Web. Programming languages include C+ and VB.Net. ASP.Net is a related environment, producing pages with the file extensions .aspx. The Microsoft site is a good example of a site created with the .NET framework.
PHP: This is another server-based language. It is frequently the language used to write open source (e.g., nonprofit, community-created) programs found on the Web, including MediaWiki (the software that runs the Wikipedia), and the popular blog software WordPress. While PHP functionality can be installed on Windows servers, it is native to the Linux server environment and commonly used there.
Java/Java Applets: Java is a programming language similar to C++. Developed by Sun Microsystems, the aim of Java is to create programs that will be platform independent. The Java motto is, "Write once, run anywhere." A perfect Java program should work equally well on a Windows, Apple, Unix, or Linux server, and so on, without any additional programming. This goal has yet to be realized. Java can be used to write applications for both Web and non-Web use.
Web-based Java applications are usually in the form of Java servlets. These are small Java programs fetched from within a Web page that can be downloaded from a server and run on a Java-compatible Web browser. A Web page that links to a Java servlet has the file extension .jsp.
JavaScript is a very popular programming language created by Netscape Communications. Small programs written in this language are embedded within a Web page, or fetched externally from within the page, to enhance the page's functionality. Examples of JavaScript include drop-down menus, image displays, and mouse-over interactions. The drop-down menus on the site of the UCLA Library shown below are a good example: when you hover your mouse over the menu item, a set of sub-menus opens up below.
XML: XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a mark-up language that enables Web designers to create customized tags to provide functionality not available with HTML alone. XML is a language of data structure and exchange, and allows developers to separate form from content. With XML, the same content can be formatted for multiple applications. In May 1999, the W3 Consortium announced that HTML 4.0 has been recast as an XML application called XHTML.
AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. This langauge is used to create interactive Web applications. Its premise is that it sends data to the browser behind the scenes, so that when it is time to view the information, it is already "there." Google Maps is a well-known example of AJAX. A different kind of example can be found with SurfWax LookAhead, an RSS search tool that retrieves feeds as you type your search.
SQL (Structured Query Language): This is a language that focuses on extracting data from databases. Programmers write statements called queries that retrieve data from the tables in the database. Some Web sites are created extensively or entirely from data stored in database tables. You can often tell that a SQL query has produced data on a page by the presence of a question mark (?) and a record number in the URL, as the example below illustrates.
Mashups
Programs on the Web can be flexible. Sometimes they are combined with each other to form ehanced presentations. These are known as mashups.A mashup is a Web application or Web page that combines data from two or more external sources. Mashups give you access in one place to information available in multiple places.
There are all kinds of mashups on the Web. One example is Earthquakes In The Last week, a mashup derived from data from the U.S. Geological Survey along with Google Maps. Another is Mashpedia, a mashup of the Wikipedia encylopedia along with current information gathered from the social Web.
Last but not least: Applications (apps)
Applications, commonly called apps, are small programs that run within various online environments. These programs allow you to enjoy functionalities that enhance your experience within that environment.Social networking sites often make use of apps. For example, Facebook is well-known for featuring thousands of apps created by Facebook or outside developers. These apps allow you to play games, shop, form issues-based communities, find family or classmates, etc.
Mobile phones are another environment within which apps are both popular and useful. In fact, no decent mobile phone these days comes without the option to add apps. A good example is the iPhone, which offers hundreds of thousands of apps in all sorts of areas, from work and education to travel, lifestyle, entertainment, and so on. Also take a look at the Android Market site to browse the apps available for the Droid phone. It is safe to say that apps make the mobile phone what it is today.
Apps are a very fast-growing area of the networked experience. Some observers believe that apps will be a focus of developments in the online world in the coming years.
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