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Saikat Basu-

Saikat Basu

Page 56

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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5 Web Apps Which Show Us How To Make Use Of QR Codes Differently

You must have spotted at least one QR code by now. If not, then you are a certifiable alien from Mars. QR codes are quite the rage. We have them on everything from food labels to car bumpers. And yes, tattoos too! QR codes are definitely mainstream now, given a boost up the use of smartphones and intelligent scanning apps that reside in them. So, here are five more web apps which show us how QR codes have gone conventional.

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4 Simple Motivational Web Apps That Can Spur You Into Action in Seconds

How to motivate yourself isn’t taught in schools. It is something each of us must learn to do on one’s own…or take the help of the web for some pointers. One of the pointers that will serve you well is to keep motivation triggers simple. So, here are four really simple ways you can motivate yourself.

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Stifle The Yawns & Get Rid Of Boredom With A Little Alchemy

What sort of games do you like - The massively popular server based multiplayer skirmishes, or the ones which are uncomplicated and rarely need a help file before play? The web gives us quite a few little games which are boredom killers in their own right. That perhaps explains the success of games like Angry Birds. Little Alchemy is a little gem tucked away in the Chrome Web Store.

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4 Funny & Odd Search Engines That Work Off The Beaten Track

Search engines that are off the beaten track form a legion of their own. We saw a few when we listed 10 Offbeat & Alternative Search Engines You Might Not Have Heard Of. The search engine pile is far from dry; let’s check out a few funny and odd search engines that define the word – offbeat.

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5 Wikipedia Games You Can Try Your Hand On

Wikipedia will continue to get knocked down for credibility and accuracy but it is the best open source project we know of. And one we still depend on for a quick reference. Wikipedia is the last place you would expect to play a few serious games, but dig deep and a few intrepid web applications have been built around the knowledge rich online encyclopedia. Wikipedia games just give you another way to kill a few of those dull hours and gain a bit of grey matter in the process.

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Play The Game Of Life & Get To Your Goals With Mindbloom

What exactly is Mindbloom? Is it a mind mapping application? Is it a goal-setting motivational tool? Is it a social network? Or is it a game? Mindbloom is actually a bit of all these, but primarily the concept of Mindbloom seems to follow the old adage that a giant oak grows from a tiny acorn. Mindbloom believes that the journey of life or at least its planning should be fun. Mindbloom says it’s a fun, simple and effective way to improve the quality of your life.

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5 Interesting But Useful Ways Of Using Wikipedia For Information Junkies

There are many ways to look at and browse through Wikipedia. From browser extensions and plugins to web apps that make browsing Wikipedia more than a scholarly exercise. The vast bank of human knowledge stored within Wikipedia pages also makes for some interesting uses – some which you might not even consider seriously. But checking out these five useful ways of using Wikipedia could be worth your reading time.

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Quickly Research, Organize, & Automatically Cite Information Using Citelighter

There are web highlighter tools and then there are citation tools. Both are different types of study aids. A new Firefox plug-in, or let’s accurately describe it as a Firefox toolbar combines the two and gives us a personal research organizer and citation recorder called Citelighter. Citelighter is not merely for students, because with its information gathering features, it could be handy across the board.

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Test Your New Year Resolutions With These 5 Email In The Future Services

There’s always a tragic story behind our New Year resolutions and goal setting endeavors. Reams have been written on how to stick to resolutions. So, let me try to add a few pages here with a slightly different take on email in the future services. Emailing yourself in the future could serve as reminders to alert you about sticking to the path and make a fresh start if you stray.

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7 Offbeat & Almost Useless Chrome Extensions That Are Still Worth An Installation

In the world of web apps, the “offbeat” swings between the ‘interesting’ and the ‘almost useless’. It just boils down to the way we perceive it. For the time they exist, offbeat apps give us a few moments of fun and take us away from the humdrum. I tried to have the same outlook while searching for a few good offbeat (but almost useless) Chrome extensions inside the Chrome Web Store.

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5 Reasons for Using Anonymous Email Services to Get Your Message Across

Anonymous emails allow you to send emails without revealing your ID or detectable fingerprints like your IP. A layman cannot begin to take the anonymous digital route that easily; he has to depend on hosted services like disposable email IDs to anonymous remailing tools to remain a John Doe (or Jane Doe). Sending an email without letting the recipient know can be used for a variety of non-malicious causes which make them really useful. Here are five for your consideration.

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10 Inspirational Websites For Creating Your Own Customized Logo Designs

Designing the perfect logo requires an in-depth understanding of the company, the product, the consumers, and the culture in which all these operate. But what if you are starting out with your own small business and need a logo? Costs come in the way of hiring the best logo designers. The makeshift answer could be to look for some creative logo inspiration and design a logo yourself.

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Relax While Working On The Computer With These 6 Google Chrome Extensions

Nothing has us beat as a hard day’s work at the office. Taking the evening off to relax and release all that stress is not an option for those with a bits and bytes lifestyle. When Friday seems a long way off and the computer screen the only companion, where do you go for a bit of relaxation? The online world of course! Play with these six relaxing Chrome extensions and let the stress ebb away.

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Select Specific Cookies & Keep Them In A Whitelist While Deleting Others In Chrome

All browsers have cookie management functions. You can easily delete all cookies or specific cookies. You can even configure certain cookies to be blocked while allowing others. But sometimes I like to retain a few cookies – for e.g. those from social forums, banking sites, extension preferences – while deleting the rest across browsing sessions. So, let’s look at a quick way to create a whitelist to save specific cookies in Chrome and a more global solution using a great freeware.

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8 Solutions To Loop YouTube Videos & Watch Them Again

It might be a Photoshop tutorial on one hand and Rebecca Black on the other, but you shouldn’t be shy to admit that there have been times you have looped a YouTube video and watched it umpteen times. That Replay button sure took a beating and all because YouTube does not provide a natural, human-friendly way to loop a streaming video. Here are a few tools which help.

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10 Cool Uses Of Wolfram Alpha If You Read And Write In The English Language

It took me some time to wrap my head around Wolfram Alpha and the queries it uses to spout out those results. You have to dive deep into Wolfram Alpha to really exploit it to the hilt.So, if you read and write in English, come with me as we try to align a language and some computational logic to come up with data that could help us in our reading and writing.

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Track Your Goals Daily & Focus On Your Life With RoutineTap

It’s time to turn the calendar again. As soon as the 2012 rolls in, out will come those lists of goals and resolutions. I guess that’s as common a human trait as any. If changing habits and reaching for goals, a matter of routine, then RoutineTap is the personal tracking tool you can turn to.

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How To Encrypt And Password Protect Your Bookmarks In Firefox And Chrome To Keep Them Secure

We all have some sensitive bookmarks that should be kept away from snooping eyes. Protecting the passwords you use to access sites can be protected with a master password on Firefox. What I was looking for was a way to securely encrypt and password protect my bookmarks. I found two.

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Find Cool Interactive Games That Create A Social Impact On 'Games For Change'

From education to politics…from business to the environment, games are being tailored to promote awareness of social issues. Social games serve to remind us of the potential that exists beyond the blood-spills and Martian colonization’s of games meant solely for fun. A website that’s doing some work on highlighting the link between social impact and games is Games For Change.

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5 Cool Chrome Browser Extensions That Help You Visualize Your Browsing History

You need your browsing history to go back to an important website and retrieve some information. Sometimes, your browsing history also tells you a lot about the quantity and quality of time you spend on the internet. Try out the following Chrome extensions that give you a visual picture of your browsing habits via your browser’s history.

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