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Saikat Basu-

Saikat Basu

Page 45

About Saikat Basu

Saikat Basu is the Deputy Editor for Internet, Windows, Productivity, and Work & Career. After removing the grime of an MBA and a ten year long marketing career, he dabbled in web development, networking, and SAP. After joining MakeUseOf in 2008, he rose from the ranks and now manages four high-growth sections while stealing time to write. You will also find his contributions in web publications like GuidingTech, GoSkills, OnlineTechTips, and Lifewire. 

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Don't Throw It Out Just Yet: 6 DIY Upcycling Websites That Show How to Repurpose Waste

I am sure if you saw the Great Pacific garbage patch, you would get an idea of the waste we throw out as a species. It is just one of the concentrations of plastic and waste debris out there. We always talk about recycling or reusing old stuff to protect the environment. It's probably easier to send away stuff so that it gets recycled. It's slightly more difficult to adapt a DIY approach and reuse old throwaways in a newer way.

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8 Google Mashups To Have Fun With And Learn Something New About Our World

Let's just say, that Google developers are a thriving lot thanks to open APIs of many of its products from Google Maps mashups to YouTube. One of their online meeting places is the Google Developers site. Google Developers houses all resources like the Google Developer products and toolkits for building cutting edge applications. Quite a few of them – 424 at last count – are organized in the Showcase.

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5 Tools For Outlining Ideas For Writers And Artists

An outline is nothing but a hierarchical breakdown of what you plan to write or create. Arranged according to levels of importance and flow, and marked by numbers, roman numerals, headings-subheadings, indentations, or any other format. Think of them as breadcrumbs for creative inspiration.

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Stretching A Circle: 5 Ways To Use Google+ Circles For Personal Productivity

Google+ Circles are just that – a circle of friends organized around the way you want to share with them. Think of them as special and specific "drop zones" for stuff. The great thing about Circles is that you can use them in a variety of flexible ways. The ideas for using Google+ Circles for personal productivity aren't new by any means. Here are five.

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Photo Finish With The Best: 8 Photography Contests You Can Win With Your Best Snap

Contest. That word has a charm of its own. Ever since the days of the cavemen right till today's Olympics, the brave and the meek have gone up against each other. Photographers aren't in any way left out. In fact, they seem to be the most proactive lot when it comes to contests. So, let's launch into some more popular photo contests and pit ourselves against the best of the rest.

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You Too Can Benefit From The Power Of Email Signatures

A signature tells you something about a personality. Just as two people hardly write alike, they also sign differently. That's how the "science" of Graphology came into being. But the digital age and the email signature have reduced the way you sign-off on a mail to a footnote. Just a typed name, and maybe a phone number or a Twitter handle – how utterly dull. Just as there is a way to write and format proper emails, there are also ways to end them well.

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Forecast.io: The Elegant Weather App For The Globe That Shows The Merits Of Good Design

A weather forecast website should be designed to make gloomy weather a bit palatable. The appropriately named Forecast.io ticks most of the boxes; including the one that says – elegance. Take the first look at its interface, and I am sure you will agree with me that good design matters. By the time we end this article, I hope you will agree that good design and easy-to-grasp weather data without dumbing it down, matters more.

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Looking For A Good Markdown Editor On Chrome? Try Your Writing On Textdown

If you do any form of writing on the web – as a developer, or as an author – it's about time you became familiar with one of the more lightweight languages out there. Markdown is a simple markup language that's easier than HTML. In fact, you can think of it as a big brother to plain text writing. Developers know all about it. It's time, we simple writers became familiar with it.

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Lights, Camera, Action! Learn From 7 Digital Filmmaking Schools On YouTube

Now, I presume it is easier to train yourself for a career in the movie arts. You could take the indie route and make documentaries for a start. The next Steven Spielberg is probably doing it right now. If you are as enthusiastic, what's holding you back? You just have to tap into YouTube and join a digital filmmaking school for the price of a "free admission".

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Local Reader - 6 Excellent RSS Extensions For Chrome

The RSS game is wide open. RSS aggregators are back in the feeding frenzy. But then, the tribe of feed readers was already there…we mostly had time for the king. Google Reader will be dead in a couple of months. Long live the King! Now, it's time to look at the princelings. Reading the feeds we subscribe to is a pretty basic day-to-day activity, and you can bet there are enough Chrome extensions for that.

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It's Fine To Rhyme - 7 Online Tools For Rhyming Words & Writing Terrible Poems

I am sure you know that creating rhyming poems – though high on the cheesy scale – has its uses. From birthday cards to classroom assignments, from Valentine endearments to Facebook status updates, rhyming words to make a poem is an "in-demand" art form. I reckon that if aspiring poets can have their poetry apps and poetry get-togethers on the web, we amateurs can do with a bit of rhyming help.

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Not Just For Coders: Top Version Control Systems For Writers

The mention of version control or revision control makes it seem like something for geeks. You will be surprised to know that version control systems have their place not only in academic writing but in anything that has to do with typing an alphabet on a document. As writers, we know the word draft. But draft is a mere rough sketch and it doesn't actually take us back in time to the incremental changes we make.

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Start Forking: Open Source Inspiration Comes To Cooking & Recipes With Fork The Cookbook

Fork the Cookbook is an unusual take on the idea of a cooking application. It is the Github for recipes with “version control”. With Fork the Cookbook, it is all about the evolution of food – how you can adapt, change, modify, or tweak every time to come up with interesting variations. It makes the cooking (and sharing) experience a bit easier.

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Missing Google Instant Preview: 3 Chrome Extensions That Show Previews Of Google Search Results

Instant Previews was a search enhancement launched three years back that gave you a sneak peek into Google search results with tiny thumbnails. The visual page snapshot helped us to get a glimpse of what the page was about before we decided to click on the address and go to the page. Let's deal with fact that Google Instant Preview has been dropped from Google’s scheme of things.

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Don't Get Hacked on Twitter: What to Do to Stay Safe

Sites like Twitter are not soft targets. Twitter has even implemented security protocols like DMARC for stronger phishing protection. But even as I write this, news has come in of a hijacked Associated Press Twitter account being used to broadcast false update of an attack on the White House. The Stock Market nosedived. Twitter will beef up its defenses. We, the users are part of those fortifications. Usually, we are its weakest link too.

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8 Excellent Instagram Mashups You Should Have Already Checked Out

Probably, photos come second to maps when it comes to mashups. Unlike a map, a photo tells a story. When you combine it with something else and create a “mashup”, it is often interactive. Mashups are uniquely Web 2.0 in their origins and spread. If you look at all popular mashups, you will often see it is a reflection of a web application’s popularity and the way we use it in our daily lives.

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Learn How To Take Notes While Watching An Online Video With VideoNot.es

Some ideas are so simple that you are left wondering why anyone didn’t think of it before; especially Google which has YouTube under its large umbrella. The idea I am talking about here relates to taking down notes while you are watching a video. Anyone who has done an online educational course with video lectures, or let’s say, has taken the help of a video tutorial will vouch for the value of note taking while watching a video.

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What Is The Best Way To Remove Timestamps From Photos?

Timestamps don’t really serve a purpose and are a distraction. So, here are some simple techniques to remove them from your old (or new) photos.

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8 Ways To Identify Unknown File Types

The problem with unknown file types is not their obscurity. The concern is that they may be dangerous. Identification before action should be the way to go for the nimble witted. Identifying unknown file types is always a recommended security precaution. A word to the wise – always go back to the basics when you come across a file type which is new to you. Find out more about it.

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10 Amazing Ways For Teachers & Tutors To Use Twitter In Education

Twitter like all other social media is a virtual Aladdin’s cave. It is a gateway to riches. But just like in the story, this Aladdin’s cave is also booby-trapped. Use it right and you will come away the genie of knowledge ready to do your bidding. Use it wrong and you will be a casualty of wasted time. So, ‘rub’ it just right.

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