HTML and CSS : Blur background for div tags

This effect began being popular amongst blogger. In order to apply it, you don't need any kind of advanced photoshop knowledge or CSS, instead, all you need is patience

We will require a background image and another one with blur applied to it. You will need a picture editing program ( i personally prefer Gimp - its freewere and you find it right away after googlin it ). aside gimp, all we require is pure HTML and some css settings :=)

We will apply the CSS style so that the background will overlap perfectly with the blur even when the page gets bigger or it requires scroll. The purpose of this tutorial is to obtain an effect as following :

In order to keep the image in its place and avoid it overlapping over the blur when you scroll down the page, you have to apply "background-attachment:fixed". This feature enables the whold blur effect.

We will also apply "float:left" in order to avoid the divs flying out the frame if the resolution is smaller then expected.

The following code will be applied :

* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
body { font: 15px "Times New Roman", Times, serif ;
background: url(images/background.jpg) no-repeat fixed; }

.blur-class {

width: 450px;
margin:15px 15px 15px 15px;
background: url(images/background-blur.jpg) no-repeat fixed;
border: 2px #ffffff solid;
padding: 25px 0 0 0;
min-height: 159px;
float:left;

}

how to add subtitles to youtube videos

this guide shows you how to add subtitles to streamed videos (youtube, google video, metacafe, dailymotion etc), and how to translate video to another language with captions.

adding subtitles to a video can be a cumbersome task, but thanks to this new website – dotsub.com – it’s free and easy:

1) download the original video and convert it to avi format [how to download / convert videos from youtube to your iPod]

2) go to dotsub.com website and start a free account:

- click on “my film” tab / “post a new film”
- fill out the fields (title, file, etc)
note: “primary language” is the language the video is currently in (eg. German) – later on, you’ll be able to submit other languages (eg. English translation) subtitles / captions.
- once the video is uploaded, you’ll have to transcribe it in the original language first (link box, on the very right portion of the screen)

| use the slider under the video to play/stop/move the video timeline
| chose the start minute/second and finish time from drop the drop down in the middle of the screen
| type in the subtitles/caption in the gray box on the right side of the screen
- after you done with transcribing, you’ll be able to “translate this film” (same box) to any language you wish (eg. from English to German)
note: although this is not automatic, one of the great options of this website is allowing other users to translate this film for you!

although time consuming, this is the only free option available at the moment without having to save, write up the subtitles in a particular file format and the encoding in via virtualdub.

How to open ports ( utorrent or any p2p programm )

1. Firstly, you have to understand that the download speed depends on the seeders and peers connections
2. In order to see if the port you require is already opened, you go to: Options > Speed Guide > Test if the port is forwarded properly
3. In case it's not working, you can also try this : Options > Preferences> Connection >"Enable UPnP Port Mapping".
4. Test again if it works ( repeat step 2.)
5. In case it's still not working, you should revise your router settings, or any device that blocks your ports

Utility to make an USB Drive bootable

If you are an fairly advanced computer user, at times you may need to boot from devices other then the default hard-disk, mainly to troubleshoot virus infections and other critical operating-system related issues, I had shared tips on how to make bootable cd for performing advance system tasks on windows. Today I will share few utilities enabling you to create bootable USB pen drives with ease, you need to have Motherboard/BIOS with USB boot support for this to work.

MakeBootable is an free and simple-to-use utility to make your Pen Drive act as a boot-up disk without erasing any data on the device. It consists of a single executable file and requires no installation, However the utility will only work on USB device's using Phison’s chip solution and FAT file-system only (you can re-format your drives to FAT easily).

If the above utility fails to recognize your USB drive you can download and use the HP USB Format Utility and HP USB Boot utility, They work with other brands of flash drives as well, The best software for creating bootable flash drives with the most extensive support of drives and advance options would be "FlashBoot" from PrimeExpert but its not free and costs around $31, you can download and try the demo version.

There are quite a few other manual methods to make usb devices bootable as discussed here, once you succeed in making your USB drive bootable using any of the method discussed above, You need to change the boot-up setting in the system BIOS as described below to boot using your portable device:

1. With your device inserted, restart the machine.
2. Enter the BIOS setup menu to change the boot device setting.
3. If the boot-up files are created in the USB drive, select USB-HDD or USB-ZIP (preferred). If the boot-up files are created in the floppy drive of your device, select USB-FDD (for Pen Drive that supports security mode).

4. Save and exit the BIOS setup. You should be able to boot up with you USB device.

ipod secret menu

This will not work on all the models, expecially on the ipod touch or on the iphone

What you have to do is reset your ipod ( by holding home + ok button down for 5 seconds) and when the reboot screen appears, you have to press ( and keep pressed ) the home button and the rewind button, until the secret menu appears

Here you will be able to test the functionality of your buttons, hold button and so on.

Its not much, but it will scare the hell out of your friend when u do this to his ipod

cheers

Google adsense good or bad ?

As many of you know, google became the greatest marketing tool in the internet. Why ? Because it offeres each and every one of us the opportunity to start an online business. Its that simple. Just start a website with good content and in time, your ads will pay back. The ads google generate are based on the content of your website, for instance if your website is about fishing, the ads will show offers on fishing trips or bait tips

The flaw in this system is that the ads sometimes go crazy ( really crazy ) and display ads that sometimes make you laugh very hard.

For instance :

The website was about programing in c++ and I got and ad in german about "killing", and also written in bad german.

That's marketing !

How to add/modify background in your blog

Now this is maybe one of the easy stuff. Just follow the following steps:

1. You can upload the background file to free host site like http://photobucket.com/ or http://imageshack.us
2. Log in to Blogger
3. Go to Template then Edit HTML
4. Locate the ‘body’ CSS.
5. After the open parenthesis {, click enter to open a new line
6. add the background code like the line below in bold:

body {
background: url(”http:xxx.jpg”) repeat;
margin:0;
text-align:center;
line-height: 1.5em;
font: x-small Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Sans-serif;
color:$mainTextColor; font-size/* */:/**/small; font-size: /**/small;
}

7. Save the template and view your blog.

The ‘repeat’ function tells blogger to repeat the background patten horizontally and vertically.

To repeat only horizontally, put ‘repeat-x’ or ‘repeat-y’ for only vertically.