Playing around with HTML

In this day and age, there are quite a few people who have their own blogs, if not a personal website. While making a blog, the blog hosting service offers its own collection of templates, from which one can choose any style that seems suitable. These templates are quite diverse in terms of layout and colour scheme and take away the whole hassle of ‘designing’ from the blogger.

However, they sometimes do seem incomplete. A blogger or a website owner can always think of changing one colour, or one font type to suit him or herself. But without adequate knowledge of HTML, this task is not possible.However, there is one website which can make things easier for you, and that is ‘HTML Playground’ where any novice blogger can generate the required HTML code. This code can then be inserted into the blog to achieve the desired effect.

It works in a simple way. As soon as you enter the website, it gives you a short demo of how you need to use the tool. Once you hit close, you are ready to go.

First and foremost, you select the HTML tag — this basically means you choose whatever you want to alter, for instance, do you want to alter the heading on your website/blog or insert a table?

Once you select the tag, you choose its attributes — what font type and size do you want your heading to be; what colour should the heading be when someone places the mouse over it? You choose your own attributes for the tag, and the code generates itself in another box. All the while, there is a description box to help along the way. Once you get your code, you can simply insert it into your blog.

While this website is definitely very handy and very convenient, there are a few things which need to be looked into. Firstly, there is no way to bring back the demo window once you hit close. One idea can be to open this website itself in two different tabs or windows, and keep the demo window open at all times for reference. This way, even if you get stuck at some point, you can refer to the demo of this website. Having said that, the layout and colour scheme of this website is definitely very appealing and well-chosen. Those who wish to explore deeper can visit the blog and forums available here.

To tweak the HTML of any of your websites or blogs, use the handy tool available at http://htmlplayground.com/

Risks, risks everywhere!

Another year means yet another Earth Day. Like the previous years, this year’s Earth Day will also see more and more appeals by environmentalists to pay heed to the state of our planet. There will be yet another call to ‘go green’. More and more people will join the cause, albeit virtually, to do something about global warming at an individual level.

However, as proven by current scientific research, all that is being done to improve the state of the planet is clearly not enough. Every single slip has huge repercussions, whether those slips occur on an individual or on national level. The bigger culprits are, of course, the corporations to whom ‘going green’ also means a decline in profits.

So what does research say anyway? What is the current state of our environment? What is this planet going to be like for the generations to come? Following are some of alarming news stories, based on the latest scientific research, which have been collect from Science Daily (http://www.sciencedaily.com)

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/sci-tech-world/earth-matters-risks-risks-everywhere

Spell Well

It goes without saying that the ability to spell words correctly is definitely as much of a skill, as are reading and writing. At first glance, it does seem as if learning to spell and becoming a wiz at spelling is a piece of cake, at least when compared to writing. However, in this day and age, spelling is an art in itself.

This is mainly because of two reasons — firstly, more and more young people are exposed to both British and American spellings, and it has become ever more important to learn to distinguish between the two. And, secondly, the age of the internet and cell phones means that the correct spelling of words is one of the major casualties, as young people resort to shorthand as much in their SMSs as in their examination paper.

And yet, it is the internet which comes to the rescue when it comes to improving one’s spelling skills. There are a myriad of websites out there that can do wonders for you. Whether you are a beginner, looking to start improving your spellings, or an expert, who just wants to revise, there is something for you in the form of a whole collection of websites out there and they can easily be categorised under the following sections.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/young-world/spell-well-become-a-spelling-wiz

Making Technology Work for You

When someone starts talking about the internet or computers in general, how do you join in? What are the first few phrases which pop up in your mind? Can you spot your likely response among the following?

“Ooh, are you going to tell me about a new game?”
“Do you know of a website from where I can download free essays?”
“I need a really unique poem for my elocution. Can you search it for me?”
“My teacher makes me write all my assignments — we can’t submit a typed one.”

Complains, grumbles and requests — when it comes to technology, don’t you all just love to complain that your teachers cannot keep up with you, or that your friend took the elocution poem from the website which you wanted for yourself? Or maybe, your parents don’t give you enough time for gaming, and you are always itching to go and play at every odd time.
Interestingly, while games definitely top the list of things which you love to do over the internet, there are a lot of other things which you can do in order to benefit from technology. After all, there is a lot more to the internet, or any communications technology for that matter, than just games.

Here are some of the ways you can use the technologies available to you, and improve your skills in the classroom.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/young-world/cover+story+making+technology+work

What a Joke

Those of you who have read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, will fondly recall the scene where Cho Chang chances upon Harry in the Hogwarts Express when he is covered with Stink-sap. What does Harry think at that point? He wants Cho to run into him at a time when he is surrounded by cool people laughing at a joke he just cracked.

The incident is indeed very close to real life and J. K. Rowling has aptly captured the mindset of most highschool students of today in that chapter.

These days, it is considered highly cool to be able to crack jokes every minute and make people laugh. Students, who have witty one-liners at the tip of their tongue, are usually the centre of attention and the object of much awe and admiration from those who lack that kind of confidence.

The question, however, is that whether “cracking jokes every minute” and “making people laugh” are synonymous with one another other. The answer is both yes and no. While on the one hand, well-timed and well-placed jokes can make people laugh, on the other, they can irritate, annoy, disappoint or even offend a person.

So where does one draw the line? How do you decide which joke to narrate and which witty remark to keep to yourself? Here are a few questions you need to ask yourself before you make your final decision.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/young-world/cover+story+what++a++joke

Cook what you have

There are some people for whom cooking brings sheer pleasure. They are ever ready to meticulously plan their grocery purchases, set out the monthly menu and cook with an enthusiasm which reflects in the taste of the dishes that they prepare. For others, however, cooking is a tedious chore. They would rather spend as little time as possible on it.

Yet there is one characteristic similar to both, which is their expertise in cooking up something from the leftovers, especially now that food prices have taken their toll on the budget of many households. But those confused about how to make the most f the veggies or anything in the fridge, Cooking by Numbers is a site that will prove to be an aid.

Just select the food items which are in your refrigerator — and pick the same on the website, there is quite a long list to choose from, like butter, chicken, cheese, salad, beef, steak, etc. The next step is to select the items which are in your kitchen cupboard. You can select from flour, lentils, noodles, pasta, bread, coffee and loads more. Once you are done, you can point and click to find out which recipes you can try out.

The recipes are ranked in a unique way, like the recipe containing the most number of items that you are looking for is ranked first — with the percentage showing next to it. The percentage will tell you the extent to which the recipe contains the ingredients that you have specified.

While you are here, you can also try a tomato game available for free. There is also a segment on general cooking tips. If you are a beginner in the kitchen, this section will fill you in on the correct way to chop an onion, make bread crumbs, how to peel citrus fruits and how to get many other basic things done.

However, the most irritating thing is its blue background which hits you in the face — and yes, this background is there on every single page. Moreover, it is again apparent that the basic layout design has not been considered closely, and lacks the pictorial aspect as well. There are many web pages which are titled “Untitled Document” — which does look highly unprofessional. Moreover, the steps in the recipe are not numbered — they appear as one paragraph.

But as far as the functionality goes, this is definitely a very handy website. If you are blessed with a cable or DSL connection, you can log onto this website whenever you are stuck anywhere in the kitchen.

To find out how you can convert leftovers into exotic dishes, log onto http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/

Sharing Made Easy

Hafsa Ahsan recommends Upload.sc, a website that is handy when trying to send heavy attachments in emails

How many times have you gritted your teeth in sheer frustration because the email service you use refused to send your attachment?

How hard do you have to work to zip your documents and compress your photographs just because you know your email server will not let heavy files get through easily?

If the above accurately spells out your predicament, then you definitely need to access a website which can easily send your attachments, and Upload.sc is one of the options you can avail.

This website is extremely handy and the best part is that there is no hassle here. All you have to do is log on to this website, select the file from your computer, specify the email address of the individual for whom the file is intended and hit Send. It is actually as simple as that. You need not reveal your email address or describe the file. But yes, you can enter a personalised message for your intended recipient lest s/he discards your email, believing it to be spam.

And if you are wondering what the catch might be in this whole procedure, then do remember that the file size has a limit. Unfortunately, you cannot use this website to email files which are more than 100 MB in size. This does eliminate heavy videos – but no worries, 100 MB is quite a lot and does indicate that you can send large files without much hassle.

Apart from the file sending facility, this website has an extensive help section which will guide you through the process, and help you in case you run into any glitches. You can also discover new things about using the website here. For instance, there is no such thing as the maximum number of files you can upload in one day. You can upload and send as many files as you like in just one sitting. There is also the facility of sending one file to multiple recipients.

As far as the layout of the website is concerned, it is done very simply with bright colours on a white background. There is absolutely no clutter here – no intruding advertisements on pop-ups. However, there are a few things that do not work, like the “Report Abuse” link on the sidebar – with a facility like this, there is always the chance of abuse as people might send pirated files to others; or some people might use this facility to spam a large number of people. In such a scenario, it is vitally important for the Report Abuse option to work properly.

Secondly, the website does not mention the kind of policy that it follows. People have to enter the email addresses of their intended recipients and even though most of them would not care, it is important that it is stated somewhere that the webmasters will not sell these email addresses to a third-party.

But, apart from these minor glitches, this website is definitely a useful one and come in handy when the email server fails to deliver. To upload and email heavy files, log onto http://www.upload.sc/