Shopping online is becoming increasingly popular with consumers of all ages. With fast shipping and websites selling virtually everything, online shopping is an attractive alternative to the hassle of visiting multiple stores.

However, eCommerce safety is a huge issue, and many shoppers are unaware of how to ensure that their online transactions are safe, secure and private. Fortunately, there are a number of simple signs to look out for and changes you can implement to make purchasing items on the Web considerably safer.

The most common methods used by hackers to steal consumer information are phishing sites and emails. Hackers may set up websites that look similar to other branded sites and send emails to potential customers of those companies urging them to shop through special links. By gaining consumer trust through having a similar appearance to the original company’s website, hackers make consumers feel more comfortable about entering their details into such sites, including credit card information.

Avoiding phishing emails and websites is simple. Any time a shopper receives an email from a company asking them to shop or navigate to a website, they should carefully check the domain the email is being sent from or the URLs of the links they land on. All email addresses and URLs should contain the company’s official domain.

Having updated antivirus and firewall software is also necessary. Also, one must ensure that he or she is using the latest version of the web browser of their choice. Most modern web browsers have inbuilt mechanisms to detect spoofed websites.

A common trick to watch out for is a minor misspelling in the domain name that may be hard to pick up without careful attention. Additionally, some hackers may place the company’s name before the @ symbol in the email address, rather than after, which is where it should be.

All pages, including login pages, asking for consumer details, such as billing/shipping addresses and payment information, should have URLs that begin with “https://” rather than the more commonly used “http://.” The “s” denotes a secured connection and provides encrypted communication between a shopper’s computer and the receiving company’s servers.

Preferably, the site will also have a verifiable certification showing that the site can be trusted and that the installed security suites are up to date. Many sites display a security certification image link or privacy seal, making it easy to verify their status.

People who decide to shop on websites they’ve never heard of should ensure that these sites are legitimate. This can be done by searching for online reviews and confirming that the site is listed as a secure site with a trusted online security company.

One must be extra cautious while shopping on shared computers and always remember to not save login information in the web browser. Logging out and clearing cookies once you are done is also recommended.

Shopping with certain methods of payment and opting for tracked shipments can also provide enhanced protection. Payment services, such as Paypal, allow buyers to dispute charges and other issues they may have with sellers. Many credit cards offer similar protection, and since they aren’t linked directly to a bank account, hackers can’t drain a shopper’s finances. Finally, trackable shipping allows shoppers to find out exactly where their packages are, providing added confidence in the legitimacy of any seller's services. All tracking information should originate from the shipping service and be trackable within 24 hours of receiving the tracking number.

Have you ever deleted a file that you did not wish to and wanted to recover it but did not find it in the recycle bin? You probably deleted it permanently with Shift+Delete or emptied the Recycle Bin. Now what? Don't worry, you may still have a chance to get it back. This article lists some free software that can recover deleted files from your hard drive or any other storage device instantly.

But how do the software mentioned below undelete deleted files?

When files are deleted, Windows does not delete them from your hard disk. It marks the storage space as empty for new data to be written and deletes the index entry that tells the location of those files. Unless, new files are written on that space, the deleted files are still recoverable. That's what allows these software to recover deleted files. They just modify the data attached by Windows to deleted files to say these are 'regular' files.

There are many free software that allow users to do this. Some of them are given below:-

1) Pandora Recovery

Pandora Recovery is a free software that offers a wizard based interface for recovering files. It allows you to browse a drive's individual folders to look for deleted files. It also allows you search for a deleted file based on its name, file size, creation date and last access time. Its deep scan allows you to recover files that other software might have missed. Although deep scan does not return a file's original name and location, it still is effective to recover data from drives with corrupted file tables and drives that were recently formatted. It can even recover data from CD's and DVD's.

2) TOKIWA DataRecovery

At just over 200KB, TOKIWA DataRecovery is the smallest file recovery program in the market. It supports undeletion from FAT 12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS file systems. It also supports recovering NTFS compressed and EFS encrypted files. This software supports Windows and is portable as well. It also has a file shredder that allows you to wipe out files in a manner that they cannot be recovered again.

3) Recuva

Another great freeware, Recuva offers a wizard based interface to unerase files. Recuva offers scanning deleted files based on their type (music, pictures, videos etc.). It also allows deep scanning in case a file you deleted is unrecoverable via normal search. Like TOKIWA DataRecovery, Recuva also offers securely deleting files. Recuva also has a portable version that you can keep in your flash drive.

All of these recovery software support recovery from memory sticks, digital camera cards and MP3 players. They support undeleting all types of pictures, software, movies and documents from both FAT and NTFS formatted drives . They work on Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Some important tips to increase the chances of getting your deleted files back:-

1) When a file is deleted accidentally on a storage device, make sure that you don't do anything on it as doing that would increase the chances of new data being written over your deleted files; which would make file recovery impossible.

2) If you have deleted files on your main computer (the one you are using right now), do not browse the internet, download new software or shut it down. Keep it running and go to another computer, download one of the software mentioned above that is portable and save it on a flash drive. Then plugin the flash drive in your current system and perform file recovery. Regardless of whether you accidentally delete files a lot or not, make sure to always have that software in your flash drive in case you accidentally delete important files.

3) If one software fails to recover your deleted file, it does not mean that another one wouldn't recover it too.

Suppose you wish to watch a movie or share a slide-show of pictures with your family on your PC but have a screen that leaves much to be desired. In such a situation, you can connect your computer to a television screen to allow your entire family to enjoy comfortably.


There are many ways in which you can connect your laptop/ computer to a television. However, the overall video quality will be different for different methods. You can choose which one to use based on the quality or the availability of hardware. The first step is to know what type of ports and connections your TV and computer have. If you already know the type of ports and connections available on your hardware, you can directly jump to Step 2. If not, then the different types of ports are explained in detail below:-

1) RCA/Composite: The oldest and the lowest quality connection available. They are the Yellow, Red and White connections most of us are familiar with. Yellow is used for composite video, white for left analog audio and red for right analog audio.

2) S-Video: S-Video or Super Video offers slightly better quality than Composite connections. As it is one of the oldest type of connections available, most televisions and computers have it. There are two types of S-Video ports, one containing 4 pins and the other containing 7 pins. This type of connection is used only for video. So you will need to connect an audio cable from your computer's headphone jack to the red and white audio inputs on your TV if you want audio to work.

3) VGA(Video Graphics Array): Most computers and televisions have a VGA port. It offers much better quality than S-Video and should be preferred if you have a HDTV. Older CRT TVs however, will not have a VGA port and will require a PC to Television converter. Just like S-Video, VGA also does not support audio and will require an additional audio cable.

4) DVI: Digital Video Interface offers much better quality than VGA connections. Most laptop computers and HD TVs will have these connections. Just as the name suggest, this type of connection can be used only with digital TVs. Also like the previous two, DVI connections also require the use of an audio cable for audio to work.

5) HDMI: The highest quality connections available. Most HD TVs will have this connection, however, chances are that your computer would not. If your computer happens to have a HDMI connection port, this should be preferably used. If your computer doesn't, you can use an HDMI to DVI adapter to convert HDMI to DVI.

Step 2: Once a common type of port between the two devices is recognized, you will need the right connector cable to physically connect them. The different types of connector cables are pictured above. If you do not find two matching types of connection ports, you will need an adapter to make the connections type match.

Step 3: After connecting the two devices, on your TV, select the external input with which your TV is connected to the computer. It may be HDMI1 or AV1 depending on how you have made the connection. This is much similar to how you select input from your DVD player.

If you have followed the steps correctly, your TV should now be displaying your computer's screen.

Important: If your computer is not recognizing the external display, you must connect the TV before starting your computer. If the picture appears distorted, you will need to change the screen resolution of your TV by altering the display settings from your computer. Most older TVs will support only one display resolution while newer TVs will support plenty of them.

Most of us find ourselves in situations where a website we wish to visit is blocked by a software or by our ISP (Internet Service Provider). So the question arises, how can we access blocked websites? The answer to this is simple: Proxy websites. Before going into details, let us know a bit about these proxy websites. 

Proxy Websites

A proxy website acts as an intermediate source between the user and server the site being contacted is hosted on. Users send requests to proxy websites which conveys them to the site's server. The reply received by the proxy website is then forwarded to the user's computer. This gives an impression to ISP's and blocking software that the user is visiting the proxy website but in reality, s/he is visiting the site which was blocked. Thus, proxy servers also provide extra security to users by hiding their online activities from their ISP's.

 

Commonly Blocked Web Sites

The sites which are most commonly blocked at workplaces, schools and offices include websites like Facebook, Orkut, Blogger (blogspot), Google News, Typepad, eBay, MySpace, YouTube, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, Bebo, Google Talk, Gmail, Photobucket, AOL AIM, Flickr, Twitter etc. In some countries, social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit are also blocked. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China have even blocked access to mainstream media websites like The New York times. A proxy website can be used to easily access these blocked websites. As proxy websites hide a user's location, they can also be used to access popular websites which are restricted to particular countries and block users from other countries from visiting them.

Types of Proxies

There are two types of proxies. First, there are web proxies which have an interactive interface; and second, the proxy servers which work on the basis of IP Addresses and port numbers. Proxies can also be segregated on the basis of anonymity into Anonymous, Transparent and High Anonymous depending upon the amount of privacy they provide.

How to Find Proxy Websites and Proxy Servers

A simple Google search containing the word "proxy websites" is likely to return a lot of useful results. However, most of them are likely to be lists containing proxy servers which you can setup using their IP Address and Port Number. So, in order to find interactive proxy websites, you will have to search for something like "Facebook Proxy Server" or "Orkut Proxy Server". A search like this is most likely to return interactive proxy websites with which you can access your blocked website by simply entering the URL in URL field. If you want additional security and anonymity, you can opt for a paid proxy server.

If you do not want to search, here are few popular free proxy websites you can use:-

1. http://www.hidemyass.com


2. http://www.spysurfing.com/


3. http://proxify.us/p/

 

 

How to Setup Proxy Servers using their IP Address

If you wish to visit your blocked website using a web proxy, you do not need any setup. However, if you wish to use a proxy server that can only be accessed by using its IP address and port number, you must configure your browser to use it. Follow the instructions given below to setup this type of proxy in your browser:-

Google Chrome and Internet Explorer Users

Google Chrome uses the same network settings as Internet Explorer. So, in order to configure Google Chrome to use a proxy server, you have to configure Internet Explorer. You can configure a proxy server in Internet Explorer by following the instructions given below:-

1. Start Internet Explorer.


2. Click on Tools, Internet Options.


3. Click on Connections Tab, select your Network Connection and click on Settings.


4. Check on Use a Proxy Server for this Connection.


5. In the Address field, add the IP Address of your Proxy server. In the Port field, enter the Port Number.


6. Click on OK and OK again.

 

Mozilla Firefox Users

Mozilla Firefox users can configure their browser to use a proxy by following the instructions given below:-

1. Start Mozilla Firefox.


2. Click on Tools, Options.


3. Click on Advanced Tab.


4. Click on Network tab.


5. Click on Settings.


6. Encircle Manual Proxy Configuration.


7. Enter the IP Address and Port Number at the appropriate place. In most cases, it will be a HTTP server.  

After you have successfully configured your browser to use the proxy server, you will be able to access blocked websites whenever you browse the internet with your browser.

There’s a pretty interesting thread on Hacker News where people have shared links to their favorite technical talks. The thread includes dozens of links pointing to YouTube, Vimeo and other video websites.

It’s a treasure trove and I want to click on every single video that’s mentioned on that page but the problem is that I will then end up having at least two dozen new tabs in the browser. And this isn’t just about Hacker News, you can open any popular thread on sites like Quora or Reddit and you’ll be overwhelmed with links pointing to interesting stuff.

How do you deal with such a large collection of raw links? I have written an app called Video Slides that some may find handy here. The app will scan the text for video URLs and put them all in a single sideshow without cluttering your browser.

 

ou copy the text of the entire thread and paste it into Video Slides. The app will then extract all the Youtube and Vimeo URLs from your text and will create a slideshow putting one video per slide. You can use the arrow keys to navigate through the slides.

You may paste text from comment threads, HTML source of a web page or even email messages and there’s no need to use any special formats. You can even use the short youtu.be URLs. The app currently extracts Vimeo and YouTube URLs only but going forward, we should be able to use any web service that supports oEmbed.

Internally, Video Slides uses the Embed.ly API to extract the embed code for the video URLs while the presentations are generated through the awesome reveal.js library. Give it a try and your feedback will help shape up the next version.

 


Hiring a photographer is getting old fashioned now because of the emergence of stock photo agencies. If you are working with a photographer then you have access to only a limited number of images while if you are going with a stock photo agency, where many photographers come together to share their work, you get access to literally thousands of images.

Our recommendation is that you go for Depositphotos.

Depositphotos was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Florida, USA. Their customers belong to varied parts of the world spreading to 192 countries. Depositphotos provides support in 14 different languages and allows people to buy and sell stock photos, vector images and videos.

As of writing of this article it had more than 13 million files, more than 900 thousand satisfied customers and a rating of 4.7 stars based upon the feedback of nearly 400 thousand people!
All the files stored on Depositphotos are “stock files” and “royalty free.”

By stock files I mean the photography and videos that are meant for the purpose of commercial or editorial usage such as advertisements, brochures, articles, and product packaging. Such files are most commonly used by graphic designers and artists.

By royalty free I mean that once you buy a file, you can use it lifelong for any purpose you choose as long as you abide by the terms and conditions imposed on you by the seller. You will have to pay only once and there will be no hidden monthly or annual fees.

Talking of payments there are two methods to buy files. One is to choose a subscription plan out of the four plans available and the other one is to purchase credits and use the pay-as-you-go offer. Click this link for details on the subscription plans and prices.

The main difference between the subscription plans and pay-as-you-go credits is that the former allows you to download only a limited amount of images per day and your subscription ends after your prescribed months are over while the latter allows you to download any number of images at any time for a period of one year.
Depending upon your chosen plan the price of an image can go as low as 0.36$.

See the screenshot below for details on plans and pricing.

Go and check out the website, they offer a free signup, and let me know what do you think in the comments below.

Most of us do not have access to photoshop or don't know how to use it for photo editing. I have made their life easy by this tutorial showing how to edit your photographs online.

I was a big fan of Picnik image editor until Google merged it with Google+ and the standalone editor was shut down. Since then I have switched to PicMonkey which is an equally awesome online photo editing tool though some of the image effects and photo touching tools are only available to premium customers.



An impressive web-based image editing tool

Today I chanced upon another interesting web-based image editor that’s fast, the UI is beautiful with several useful features. It’s called Picozu.

While Picnik and PicMonkey are purely photo editing apps meaning you can use them to edit your existing images, Picozu lets you both edit and create new images from scratch. Picozu is written in pure HTML5 and CSS3 and requires no Flash or other plugins.

To get started, you can upload load images from your computer or you can directly import photos from your other cloud-based accounts like SkyDrive, Google Drive, Facebook or Dropbox. Alternatively, you may fire your webcam and capture images direclty inside Picozu.

The app offers a layer-based editing workflow seen in editing software like Photoshop or GIMP. There are dozens of filters and image-effects to give your photos a distinct look. Or you can use the regular tools and brushes to manually touch your photos.

Their Firefox add-on takes screen captures and imports them into Picozu for editing. There are also built-in tools for creating photo collages and posters.