Brush up on your foreign-language skills with these apps

Busuu (free): If you’re looking to learn Arabic, Polish, Turkish, Russian or German, Busuu is a free iOS and Android app available in 12 different languages. What is unique about this app is that it directly connects learners with native speakers online.

After you’ve spent time sifting through the 3,000 words and key phrases, you can interact with users to practice what you’ve learned via its video-chat feature and peer-to-peer text corrections. The app also uses audio-visual techniques, with high-quality stock photography that does a good job of creating a clear visual context for the words. The basic version is free, with options to upgrade to the full app.
KTdict+ C-E, Chinese-English dictionary with flashcard trainer (free): Whether you create the flashcards or rely on the expert information available through the iOS app, the KTdict is a comprehensive, easy to use Chinese-English dictionary.

Users can search words using English, Chinese characters (simplified and traditional) and Hanyu Pinyin. It includes the data of the renowned CC-CEDICT dictionary, based on HanDeDict, with over 70,000 entries.

The KTdict app is free with ads, with an option to upgrade to an ad-free version for a fee. One of the best parts about this app is that everything is stored on your iOS device, and Internet connection is not required to use it.
Mind Snacks (free): Hola, Campeones de Aplicación! Or, hey, app champs! If you’re looking for a fun and free way to learn a new language, the MindSnacks app uses games to help teach people of all ages. The app consists of different language levels, that are in fact mini-games designed to get you through each learning journey. Each game is designed with a personalized learning algorithm that helps users maximize memorization, retention a nd contextual usage at their own individualized pace.

Through its interactive play, MindSnacks will teach you essential vocabulary and conversation skills. The app is available in a 13 languages, including Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and German. The app is free to download, but you will need to upgrade to a paid account in order to access the entire set of features and lessons.
Sign 4 Me – A Signed English Translator ($9.99): This is not quite a foreign language, but it is a form of language after all. If you’ve ever thought of learning sign language then this iOS app is a good starting point, coming with a broad lexicon to help you along.

The app provides sign-language instruction in 3D, so you can type in sentences, phrases, words and the alphabet that you want the avatar to sign. The avatar then acts out each word for you with subtitles letting you know which one he’s doing. You can also change the speed and camera angle to get a better look at the gestures.

Using your iPhone Siri speech recognition, the Sign 4 Me app can also translate your spoken words into si gned English. The library includes more than 11,500 words.
Babbel (free): Whether you want to learn Polish, Indonesian, or Dutch, Babbel has 11 languages to choose from. The free iOS and Android app blends listening, reading, writing, and speaking.

You can choose the lessons you want to focus on and learn basic or advanced language skills to fit almost any conversation needs. The app even ensures that you’re saying the words correctly with its pronunciation evaluator.

The best thing about Babbel is that it remembers your progress so you can access it from different places with different devices. Users can try Babbel on a free trial and then upgrade varying subscription levels: $12.95 per month; $26.85 every three months; or $44.70 every six months.
Close calls:
VerbalizeIt (free): If you are going abroad, you might want to think twice about leaving home without a translator app. The Ver balizeIt app connects translators around the globe with people struggling with a language. Users choose the language they need translated and after touching a button on the app they are connected to a person on the other end of the phone.

Smartphone owners can download the iOS or Android applications for free, but the cost of the service ranges from $1 to $2 per minute. Non-smartphone users can register to receive a local access phone number.
Jibbigo (free): The iOS and Android app lets users speak a phrase and automatically translates it both in audio and on-screen text. While it does not offer as many languages as Google Translate, it works completely offline. This way you don’t have to worry about not having Internet access or paying for roaming charges while you are in the middle of an unfamiliar land.

Free Online Alternatives To Expensive Software

DOCUMENT EDITING

 

Google Docs/Drive

http://drive.google .com 

Google Drive provides a feature-rich interface for text, spreadsheets and presentations. You can open documents saved in your Gmail inbox or create a new one online. You can also collaborate real-time with colleagues on a document. All documents are automatically saved in your Google Drive cloud storage space.

 

Microsoft Office Web Apps

http://office.microsoft.com/web-apps/ 

Microsoft also offers a free online office suite for SkyDrive users — the interface will be familiar to users of MS Office. You get 7GB of free cloud storage to store your documents. You can create or upload Word, Excel, PowerPoint as well as OneNote files to SkyDrive and edit them. Documents can be shared and you can select which users can edit the document and if it is mandatory for users to sign into their Microsoft account to access the document or not. 

Zoho Docs www.zoho.com

 

Zoho's office suite includes support for MS Word, spreadsheets, presentations as well as databases and reports. Like the other two office suites mentioned above, this one also supports real-time collaboration but in addition offers various other integrated services. With a single account, you get access to mail, chat, calendar/planner, invoice generation, as well as a CRM (customer relationship management) system.

 

VIDEO EDITING

 

Filelab www.filelab.com 

Filelab products work better with Google Chrome and you need to download a free plugin first. Once y ou start, you get support for multiple video formats and HD resolution. It offers all the basic editing controls to trim, cut and merge. You can also add creativity to your video with multiple effects. There are over 50 transition effects available along with the option to overlay one video on top of the other. You can define transparency, add audio tracks and then watch a live preview right in your browser window.

Video ToolBox

www.videotoolbox.com 

This editor supports editing of the most common file formats and also lets you convert from one format to another. You can add watermarks, merge videos, extract audio, take screenshots or remove unwanted parts of a video. It also gives you 1GB of free cloud storage. 

YouTube Editor

www.youtube.com/editor 

Youtube offers a powerful online editor that lets you trim videos, merge multiple videos into one, add transitions, stabilise video or add a soundtrack of your choice. It also automatically suggests corrections and effects if your videos are not up to the mark. 

PHOTO EDITING

 

Photoshop Express

http://photoshop.com/editor 

If you need to do just basic image adjustments and manipulation, Adobe's own online photo editor is great. You get basic editing (crop, resize, rotate) as well as a few adjustments (white balance, soft focus, highlight) options. Various effects to enhance the picture are also available. Once done, images can be saved to your computer or shared on Flickr, Facebook or Picasa. 

Pixlr http://pixlr.com/editor 

With this online editor, you can create a new image, upload one from your computer or open any image from a URL. The interface is similar to Adobe Photoshop and you get all the usual tools as well as support for layers. You also get various filter effects, levels, curves and exposure controls. Images can be saved to the computer or to online services like Flickr/Picasa. 

Splashup www.splashup.com 

Splashup has a similar interface to Photoshop. Apart from your PC and from a URL, it also supports importing images from Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket and can capture an image from a webcam. Like Pixlr, it lets you work with layers to add various filters. However, it does not have advanced editing options such as levels and exposure control.

 

VARIOUS OTHER FREE TOOLS

 

Music Creation

 

SOUNDATION STUDIO (www.soundation. com) offers advanced tools and effects that you would only get with professional music studio software. You launch the studio right inside your browser window and it also includes over 600 free audio loops and samples that you can start with. A free account lets you save and publish as many songs as you want, but if you want recording, you need one of the paid plans.

 

3D House Planner

 

HOMESTYLER (www.homestyler.com) is a free and easy-to-use house planner. You can use it if you are planning on building a new house or even just redecorating. Homestyler lets you easily create a layout, add furniture, landscaping and experiment with paints, textures and different lighting for your room. You can easily view in 3D and share with friends too. 

PDF Tools

 

A SUITE of no-nonsense PDF tools can be found at www.pdfunlock.com (to remove restrictions from PDFs), www.pdfmerge. com (to merge multiple files into one), www. splitpdf.com (split one file into multiple) and www.pdfprotect.net (add password protection). At www.pdfaid. com, you can choose from a variety of web tools for watermarking, image extraction, rotation, compression and conversion. Note that some of the tools imprint a small PDFAid logo on the final file.

 

Speech To Text

 

RATHER THAN use expensive dictation software, just head to www.talktyper.com. You need to download Google Chrome first because it doesn't work too w ell on other browsers. Make sure your microphone is working and click the green microphone button to start the dictation. It works pretty well if you speak clearly and the conversion to text is almost instantaneous. 

Optical Character Recognition

 

AT www.ocronline.com, you can convert a scanned document, PDF file or an image (JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PDF) to an editable text file. First, complete a quick sign-up. If you are scanning, make sure to do it in 300dpi. Upload your document, select your preferred output format and you're done.

New Wireless Packet Trace Format in NS2

New Wireless Packet Trace Format can be activated by adding following TCL statement in the simulation script :

$ns_ use-newtrace

The new wireless trace format is as follows:

<tag> <tag_value> [-<subtag> <subtag_value>]

where <tag> is a one-letter or two-letter option tag, indicating the meaning of the following <tag_value>. Optionally, <subtag> is the subtag whose value is specified in <subtag_value>. The list of option tags and sub-tags as well as their meaning is given bellow :


General Information :

-t  Time

Node Information(-N?) :

-Ni  Node ID
-Nl  Trace level : AGT/RTR/MAC 

-Ne  Energy Level
-Nx,-Ny,-Nz,-Nw  Node Cordinates

IP Information(-I?):

-Is  Source Port
-It  Packet Type
-If  Flow ID
-Iv  Time to live
-Id  Destination Port
-Il  Packet size
-Ii  Unique ID

Next Hop (-H?):

-Hs  ID of this node

MAC Level Information(-M?):

-Ms  Source Ethernet Address
-Md  Destination Ethernet Address
-Mt  Ethernet Type
-Ma  Packet Transmission Time

Application information-ARP (-P arp -P?):

 -Ps   Source address
 -Pm  Source MAC address
 -Po   Either "REQUEST" or "REPLY"
 -Pd   Destination IP Address
 -Pa   Destination MAC address

 Application information-CBR (-P cbr -P?):

 -Pi    Sequence number
 -Pf          The number of time this picket has been forwarded
 -Po   Min. number of hops to reach the destination as indicated by GOD. The default value when GOD is not in use is -1

 Application information - TCP(-P tcp -P?):

 -Ps   Sequence number
 -Pf    same as that of CBR
 -Pa   Acknowledge number acknowledgement number
 -Po   same as that of CBR

Consider Following Example for explanation of this Format :

 s -t 31.000000000 -Hs 0 -Hd -2 
-Ni 0 -Nx 19.36 -Ny 17.32 -Nz 0.00 -Ne -1.000000 
-Nl AGT -Nw --- -Ma 0 -Md 0 -Ms 0 -Mt 0
-Is 0.0 -Id 1.0 -It tcp -Il 40 -If 2 -Ii 3 -Iv 32 
-Pn tcp -Ps 0 -Pa 0 -Pf 0 -Po 0

• At 31 second, this record traces Node 0 at the agent AGT level. 
• Node 0 is located at the coordinate (19.36,17.32,0). 
• The reasons string (i.e., -Nw) is empty. 
• The record does not trace the node energy level (-Ne -1). 
• The packet is sent from the address 0 port 0 to the node with the address 1 port 0. 
• The packet type is “tcp” whose size is 40 bytes (i.e., this is the SYN packet). 
• The flow ID is 2. The packet unique ID is 3. 
• The time to live is 32.
• This packet has never been forwarded before. The number of hops to destination as indicated by GOD is zero (i.e., GOD is not active).

Difference Between Virus,Worms,Trojan and Spyware

We all have heard the terms Virus,Worms,trojans and spyware but only a few of us know the difference between them.We genreally consider everything that is detected by an antivirus as virus but this is not the case.The antivirus not only provides protection against viruses but it also protects us from trojans,worms and spywares.All these can be harmful to your computer hardware and software.Today I will differentiate all these terms from each other .

Ok lets start from the introduction of viruses

Virus :- A virus is a self replicating program that attaches itself to an executable file.When the file is executed the virus automatically gets executed and enters into system memory .Once it enters into system memory it either searches for other files that can be infected or stays in the background and infect the files that are uses the virus infected program.

Worms : Worms are very similar to viruses but differ in way that they donot bind themselves to executable files instead to replicate themselves they uses the network.If you find excessive use of your network bandwidth then you may be infected by a worm.So,a worm donot require a user to execute any file for its execution it can work without user intervention.

Trojan Horse :- A trojan horse is harmful program which may seem harmless to the user before its installation but instead it is programmed or reverse engineered to facilitate unauthorised remote access to the computer.Trojan’s donot replicate themselves.

Spyware :- A spyware is a program that secretly monitor and collects pieces of information.They usually run in stealth mode and cannot be detected easily.Keyloggers is a great example of spyware software.These are not limited to just spying but can also send data to remote computers .

Apache Hadoop

Hadoop, an Apache open-source project, is a framework written in Java for running applications on large clusters of commodity hardware and incorportates features to manage unstructured, semi-structured, and structured data.It is a collection of open-source components built on top of a distributed file system that was designed specifically for very large-scale data operations.

Apache Hadoop detailed Presentation . Download it here. if you want more material then post comments...