Google Images Tip: You may be downloading low resolution image

Google has recently made some changes in the way Google Image search returns their results. When you try to open any image you see a screen link the one below.

Now click on the "View Original Image" link. This link will take you to the link where image is actually located. There are chances that this image would be of larger size than the image that appears in the black box as above. So if you are looking for large images don't forget to check out original image.

Overcome the fear of public speaking

Public speaking in simple term is the art to talk with masses. There are people with various speech habits. Some people do not like to talk while some are really talkative. But when it comes to public speaking, even talkative ones keep mum. This is really ironic and yet common.

I have participated in various competitions and have given several presentations in my academic life. One thing I want to tell you is: There is nothing to fear about.

Why public speaking is important?

You will encounter events where you will have to communicate with masses many a times. Some times it would be possible to avert it but not always. Unable to communicate well will push you on back foot. Be it the academic projects or the meeting with board of directors of some company, public speaking is inevitable. So rather than trying to run away, it is far better idea to learn the skill.

Things that can help you feel confident:

You can do it! : Start believing that you can do it and you have won half of the battle. Biggest obstacle in public speaking is psychological one. If you can speak, you can communicate with masses well.

Prepare the subject well: If someone who ask me to talk about using Google for education I can talk endlessly for hour or even more. But if someone asks be to talk about the cure of cancer, I would not have much to speak. I would obviously fear because I don't know anything about it. 

Use presentation aids: If you are afraid of forgeting the points, you may use power point or similar tools so that you can capture audience attention and use it as a tool to recollect the ideas. You may simply use the chit of paper to jot down the ideas. Don't worry about what people would think. They can understand that. Had you been in the audience, would it really matter to you if the speaker is holding the chit of paper or not? I bet NO. What matters is the articulation and quality of speech.

Visit the venue at least half an hour before your speech. This helps you to get comfortable with the place.

Talk: Genuinely feel comfortable and give your speech as if you are talking with them. Involve your audience if possible. That keeps them active and gives them the sense of importance. Just imagine how would you talk with the group of your friends.

Speaker has an edge: Usually audience always believe that person who would be speaking from stage would be the one who is knowledgeable and smart. They have a positive impression about you even before you appear inform of them. Use it at your advantage.

Have you ever delivered a speech? Share your tips and experiences in comments.

ADVICE:Beware if you are using your daddy's laptop

Okay! I admit that title of my post does not look like an advice but rather a warning. Well whatever...

 

If you have ever used your father's laptop, there are sure shot chances that you found yourself in trouble later just because your father could not work well with the laptop. Especially if your father is not really a techy person, you are going to find yourself in steamy hot waters. There won't be any way to defend yourself even when you have done nothing wrong. You may listen arguments like...."why did you change my background. My word file isn't opening?". This sounds like a lame reasoning. (BTW I have exaggerated a little.) But still you may get to listen arguments that are abysmal and still there is no way to prove that you are right.

 

Recently I had such experience. Actually I have had it many times as far as desktop is concerned. But this time I tweaked with my father's office laptop. I did not do anything malicious. I just installed a simple downloader called Orbit Downloader. Now location of the downloaded files for IE was somewhere in C > USER > BLABLABLABLA> DOWNLOADS. As orbit was downloaded all the downloads were redirected to orbit and stored at different location. What more? He could not find his old download folder. This had put me in mess. I had no way to explain where that download folder had gone. Actually, it did not go anywhere. Just that its shortcut disappeared somehow.

 

I had also installed couple of freeware software which changed my default search engines and create some sneaky redirects. In short, I had tweaked the system.

 

Later, my father took his laptop to different city (Bhuj) where he has his job. He wanted to download something and it was not working the way he expected. Yes, you guessed it right - he yelled at me.

 

So here are the few tips that can save you:

 

1. Just write down the changes that you make in the system. And don't install freeware utilities. They tend to have scuzzy stuff that we fail to notice because we never read their agreements.
2. Know what you are doing. If you are not sure, avoid playing with your daddy's laptop.
3. Learn about system restore point.
4. Learn to format entire system. Don't forget to backup the data. Else you will be inviting more shouts.

Student, Teacher and Facebook

Did you ever have a teacher who was too friendly to be a teacher? Such teachers tend to mix up with students so well that sometimes students tend to forget that they are teacher. My personal opinion stands that there should be some limits. Else you are inviting problems for sure.

 

Over and above this, if such teacher is just being friendly to know your inside "talks" you can get into even hotter waters.

 

We have a group on Facebook for my class. Now one of the teacher (I won't take his name for obvious reasons) who was too friendly with students was added into the group by one of my classmates. We did not even realize that one of the faculty members are there in the group. Actually, I failed to keep track on my notifications.

 

Later, on day we are discussing the quantity of work some other teacher had given us. Some were making fun of this "work giving" teacher while some were hurling abuses on the wall of our Facebook group. Everyone was comfortable doing so because it was a closed group. Then we realized that our talks were getting leaked. And of course it was no one but that teacher who as present in our group.

 

So moral of the story is:

1. Don't make fun of your teachers. I know this isn't possible.
2. Even if you make fun, don't do it on Facebook.
3. Maintain distance from all the teacher, no matter how friendly they seem.

Microsoft Office 2013 has inbuilt feature to add screenshot

Some day back I posted a tutorial about snipping tool of windows 8 that can help you take screenshot quickly. MS office makes it even easier if you want to add text to your Office documents.

Go to Insert ribbon and select screenshot.

Once you click on screenshot, select screen clipping. Just select the area you want to shot. Office will add that snap to your picture. However, if you want to annotate the snapshot, you may want to use windows snipping tool.

3 Useful English Vocabulary building sites

Vocabulary is all about knowing more words and their different usage. Research has shown that IQ test and vocabulary test resemble similar results. That apart words represents your ideas. If you don't use right words to describe your ideas, you really lose effectiveness in speech and writing.

 

Here are the few resources that can help you build and reinforce your vocabulary.

 

Vocabulary.com

 

This website is the really the only thing you need to improve your vocabulary. All you have to do is create an account with them. If you spend 20 to 30 minutes a day with this site, you would see that your word treasury is growing. The best part about this site is its ability to remember. If you give wrong answer to any question, that word is stored in the memory and site would put that word before you every now and then until that word is all yours.

 

That apart site has number of already made list that you can use to learn words. Also you can create your own list of words as per your need. Site has a very well statistical representation of your progress. Also, site serves as one of the finest dictionary. Meanings are explained in an awesome way so that you can remember it. Here is an example: 

 

 

Wordsmith.org

 

If you are looking for "a word a day" service, this website is for you. Wordsmith is founded by Anu Garg who is one of the well known personalities in linguistic arena. Website emails you a word a day. Each week is dedicated to some specific theme of words. Anu Garg has also authored a books like A word a day and Another word a day which is collection of few of the most intriguing words in English language.

 

Merriam-Webster.com

 

Merria-Webster is one of the most popular dictionary resource in offline world. However, if you love words or want to learn words because you need to, its wordlist can be the great way to learn. All the words are described along with images that helps you enjoy the learning process. Site also have many games like Spell it and visual vocabulary building test.

 

 

Tips to get information on a topic quickly.

If you are taking up some new project or you are writing an article, you may want to create sound knowledge base about the topic you are working with. Here are the few tips that can help you work effectively.

 

Google Search: I know that you all know that Google search is the first tool to use. but if you really know how to use it effectively, it can make your task quick and easy.

 

Wikipedia: Most probably, when you hit the Google search, Wikipedia pages will stand on the first few page of search results. So you are using it any way. But other wise, it would really be a great idea to search the topic directly on that website

 

Wikipedia also points out few valuable web based resources on the net at the end of each article.

Wikipedia: Resources at end of the article.

 

 

Google alerts: Google search and Wikipedia are great resources but they fail to provide you the latest updates. Google Alerts is the great too that can deliver the updates straight into your email inbox so that you can stay updated.

 

Yahoo answers: There are real chances that people had the same question bugging them that you have at this moment. Yahoo answers is the great resource in the Question and Answer format that can help you find things in concise manner. 

 

Here is the quick video to help you work with Yahoo answers

 

Blogs: Any web search like Google or Bing will search everything on the web. But when you are searching for some information, blogs can be great resource. Google Blog search can be really handy to hunt variety of blogs on that topic. If you know some authority in the field you are dealing with, do see their blog. You may find links to additional resource from that blogs.

 

Official websites: If your research topic has some related authority/official websites do have a look at that. It can provide great deal of valuable information.

 

Social profiles of authorities: If there are some eminent people in that field, they may be posting updates about important information on their pages. Do look at twitter and Facebook profiles of these personalities.

 

YouTube / Google video search: If you are searching for videos about your topic, YouTube can be the great resource for you. However, downloading YouTube videos is violation of their TOS. But there are work around and (un)fortunately everyone downloads them.