King of the Mobile OS - A Analysis

The Analysis looked at over 1000 parameters to compare Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone in terms of usability and features in order to arrive at a winner.

How do you determine what makes a good OS? What makes iOS vs. Android or Windows Phone vs. BB10, or any other such comparison not just about the fanboyism? Is it even possible to arrive at a scientific conclusion to this question? If we look at entire eco-systems, Android and iOS are obvious choices for buyers because of the sheer amount of apps they have available. However, what’s that got to do with an answer to the question, what’s the best designed OS out of the box? 

How they compared

So how do you go about “testing” or “comparing” OSes? For one, we couldn’t run benchmarks, because that’s a test of hardware running an OS and not really a test of the OS itself. What we really needed to do was to break down the functions of a mobile OS into components that highlight a particular use case and rate the ability of the OS on its ability to handle that task. 

So how do we use our phones the most these days?

· ●  Browsing to find content to read and research

· ●  Good old email to communicate for work and personal reasons

· ●  Messaging / texting people, obviously

· ●  Customising our phones to be exactly as we want them to be, and thus we gave importance to settings and not just what was possible but how easy it was to find what we wanted

· ●  Managing contacts and the dialler to call and keep in touch, link contacts, etc

· ●  Photography, obviously, as we now click more pictures with smartphones than dedicated cameras, but not just clicking, sharing, editing, etc.

· ●  Notifications, and being alerted and updated about what’s happening, and the control you get over what you're notified about

· ●  The lock screen of our phones (which some claim will be the most important screen going forwards) as it’s the real summary of what’s happening as soon as we look at our phones

· ●  Searching for things (on or off the phone), because we can't live without search these days, but more importance to on the phone searches. 

· ●  Videos that we capture, edit and then want to share with friends

Are these the only ways we use our phones? Of course not, some of us may find creative uses for phones, such as using them to read long Tolkien tales, or as a brick to throw at someone (shameless exaggeration), but we’re focusing on the rules here and not the exceptions. As those of you wondering about social media and “sharing”, don’t worry, absolutely every parameter or use case where you would want to “share” something, was looked at under each individual category. So, for example, you want to share a picture you just clicked on all your social media accounts, we’ve considered that under photography, etc.

Once we’d decided what we needed to look at (which basically covers over a thousand individual features or settings in each of the OSes), we then proceeded to segregate each and every setting / feature into one of the 10 categories mentioned above.

The Results

Android 4.4.4 (3rd Place)

In our minds, and, we’re quite sure, in most of your minds as well, Android was the winner even before we began testing. It seemed such a blindingly obvious winner, given that its plethora of apps and the thriving developer community. Unfortunately (for Android), this test is looking at the design of the OS rather than the popularity of the platform and in that regards, stock Android is surprisingly lacking. Perhaps it's a leave it to the apps philosophy, but out of the box it's a little underwhelming when compared to the competition.

Let’s consider universal search for example. One would expect an OS that’s being mentored by Google would have the best overall search experience of them all, but it’s just not as good as you would expect. Both iOS and BB10 do better than Android when it comes to search functionality (internal phone search) and beat it by a large margin. How large? Well, believe it or not, more than double Android’s score!

The default Android Search tool doesn’t search through SMS, calendar entries, E-mail and much more. Those who are used to Android probably won’t even notice it because you didn’t know that it was even possible, but for those migrating from other platforms, especially BlackBerry, this would be a glaring omission.

The same can be said for photography as well. The new “Android Camera” app is a huge disappointment and nowhere near as feature-rich, and in-effect, as functional, as the camera apps on other platforms, BlackBerry and Windows Phone included. Again, remember this is a comparison of the camera software, not hardware, so don't shoot off angry mails about how your camera clicks better photographs than any other platform.

What does it do right? For one thing, Android 4.4.4 features the most feature-rich mobile browser that we’ve had the pleasure of using. While it does lose out on something as convenient as Safari’s Reading List feature, it’s syncing features are incomparable; iOS does manage to come a close second though.

Something else that Android does well is customisability, which was to be expected, but there were issues here as well. Stock Android is simply not as customisable as one would expect. Simple things like customising your quick settings are just not present. You can, of course, just ignore stock Android and jump to CyanogenMod or some other such ROM, but the true customisability of ROMs such as that are something we’ll be looking into later.

Overall, Android manages a distant third, a full 8 points behind our winner and just barely 1.5 points ahead of Windows Phone in fourth.

iOS 7.1.2 (2nd Place)

To be completely honest, we’ve always respected Apple for what they’ve done with iOS as a platform, but the full extent of the work that they’ve put into the OS was largely ignored by many of us and we really didn’t expect the OS to fare as well as it did. The price for their phones in India kind of turns us off, truth be told.  

The big shocker was notifications. iOS didn’t have real notifications a couple of iterations ago (iOS 5) and now all of a sudden we discover that it has the best implementation of a notification system across all platforms. It’s the subtle design decisions that make this possible, the indicator on the icons, location-specific reminders, the ability to allow repeated calls to notify you even when night-mode is enabled and so much more. None of the other OSes even came close to providing such a degree of information and customisability.

Interestingly, the default camera app in iOS is quite awful in terms of manual control. One might argue that the iPhone 5s has an amazing camera and that it probably doesn’t need as many fine-grained settings as the camera app on a rival, but as we've said before, this is about the OS and not the hardware. Plus, what happens when the same camera app is on a lower specced iPod Touch or older iPad? You might want some extra controls on those to tweak your pictures.

Search is another area where iOS shines and while it still isn’t as good as BlackBerry’s native search functionality, it was still more than enough to take the second place in our tests with a very healthy score of 75%. Way ahead of Android (35%) and just 10 points behind BB10 (85%).

iOS suffers badly in two departments – managing contacts and customisation. When it comes to contacts, the dialler is very basic and just seems to deal with contacts as an after-thought, unlike the more integrated approach used by just about every other mobile OS. Customisation is another sore point with this OS because it simply doesn’t let you change a lot of the default behaviour.

iOS manages to bag the second spot with its excellent notification system, good browser and excellent search functionality.

BlackBerry 10.2 (1st Place)

The underdog takes the crown. The BlackBerry 10.2 OS is undoubtedly the best designed mobile OS out of the box that’s currently available in the market. We were stunned by the result and to be honest, we delayed sending the magazine to print a day just to recheck everything. BlackBerry’s been behind the times for some time, if we're honest, and BB10 was supposed to be the game-changer. Quite frankly though, most people haven't given the OS much attention. While we’re not arguing the justification for that disdain, it’s quite clear that the OS deserves much more attention than it actually receives.

Now BlackBerry OS 10.2 (10.2.1.2977 for those who want specifics) has, by today’s standards, a very lacklustre browser – lacking even basic sync functionality, a messaging app (SMS) that’s also very basic, and that’s it. Those were the only real downsides to the OS. The browser itself is not terrible, and gets most things done, but with a whole range of other features being offered by the other platforms, somehow quick rendering and a reader mode don't make up the gap. 

BlackBerry OS 10.2 boasts of the most feature-rich search engine, an e-mail and contact management system that’s second to none, and is also surprisingly more customisable than we thought it would be, and also offers a good photography and video capture experience.

The sheer functionality offered by the OS, out-of-the-box, just cannot be ignored. Once you complete the initial setup, the device is perfectly capable of performing just about any and every task you would expect from a phone, and then some.

Take the search functionality, it truly is a universal search. A function that scans every bit of data on your phone, including browser history, e-mail and SMS conversations and much more. No other OS in our test was capable of performing these actions. In effect, the search is so effective that BlackBerry OS 10.2 walks away with scores that indicate it to be more than twice as good as Android’s implementation. Only iOS managed to come even close to BB10’s performance in this department.

E-mail was another area where BlackBerry OS 10.2 outshone every other OS (we expected this one). However it was the margin of victory (a score of 83.2, which is a full 30 points ahead of Android’s gmail app) that surprised us a little. The reason for this massive performance difference lies in the way the OS deals with e-mail. While the others are content to leave e-mail management to an app, BlackBerry OS 10.2 integrates e-mail into the OS, making it as native to the platform as a dialler is to a phone. This lends the OS some distinct advantages, particularly when it comes to managing multiple accounts and search, courtesy of the “Hub”.

Anyone who’s used a BlackBerry device knows that it’s a device that places communication first and entertainment second, and that comes across very clearly in our tests. Entertainment options, which would include the browser, photography, etc., are functional components and powerful enough to not give the average user cause for complaint. At the same time, the communication modules are so well designed and integrated into the OS that they far outstrip the competition and place this OS as the clear leader out of the box.

Windows Phone 8.1 (4th Place)

Windows Phone placed last on our test and it’s actually a little difficult to pin-point the problem. The OS is not bad really, it does perform all the actions you would expect an OS to perform in the sense you can send and receive calls and SMS, manage e-mail and even includes a notification drawer with quick access settings.

The real problem, as far as we can judge is that the OS does everything that you expect it to, but it just doesn’t do those things as well or as efficiently as other OSes. It does handle contacts and messaging better than almost every other OS (excluding BB10) courtesy of its People Hub, but that’s the only thing we can really say about it.

In essence, Windows Phone needs more exclusivity and focus than People Hub to outshine the other three.

There’s more to come

What we’ve given you so far is just part one of this quest of comparing OSes and their variants. With refreshes of all of these OSes coming soon, new OSes such as Ubuntu Phone, and even newer Android variants such as on the Amazon Fire Phone, the OnePlus One, Xiaomi Mi 4 and so on there’s still loads of work to be done.

Score Sheet
OS	Android 4.4.4	iOS 7.1.2	BlackBerry 10.2	Windows Phone 8.1
Browser	66.28	61.8	40	50.47
E-mail	53.07	46.6	83.2	44.93
Messaging	36.6	43.2	34.2	60.2
Settings and Customisation	55.48	40.09	53.21	45.13
Contacts and dialler	51.25	40.33	62.33	58.28
Photography	43.9	47.24	55.13	54.05
Notifications	29.4	69	36.7	29.2
Lock Screen	55.8	51.2	48.78	37.2
Search	35	75.3	85.3	54.7
Video	32.72	38.6	46.76	22.56
Final Overall Score	48.44	52.1	56.91	46.68

You may also give your suggestions in comment section regarding this analysis taken by Digit.

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Less known facts of Mahabharatham - A great Indian epic story

Interesting Facts of Mahabharata

Mahabharata is such a vast treasure house of facts and knowledge that it is impossible for anyone to know everything! Many of the facts are missed out or unknown. These are some of the facts that I collected from various sites and through my own research. (Although there may be some facts that have collected from folktales and such.) 

1. Sahadeva knew everything about the future. He knew that a war was going to occur but he kept silent because he was under a curse that if he revealed anything to anybody he would die.

2. Krishna had a sister named Ekanaga born from Nanda and Yashoda. (Known as Ekanamsa in Harivansha) 

3. Bhishma knew that Shikhandi was the woman Amba from his past. This was why he lowered his arrows whenever Arjuna used her as a shield. 

4. Bhanumati (Duryodhana's wife) was a devotee of Lord Krishna.

5. Balarama was Abhimanyu's father-in-law. His daughter Vatsala was Abhimanyu's wife. Actually Balarama wanted to marry Vatsala to Laxman (Duryodhana's son) but Abhimanyu did not like this because he loved Vatsala. He asked his brother Ghatotkacha to intervene. Ghatotkacha went to Laxman's marriage ceremony and frightened the groom. He brought Vatsala for Abhimanyu by magic. Laxman, traumatized from the fright vowed never to marry. Duryodhana's anger was further fueled when he learned about Vatsala's marriage to Abhimanyu. 

6. Lakshmana the sister of Laxman was married to Samba(Krishna's son).

7. Balarama had originally planned to marry Subhadra to Duryodhana. But Subhadra wanted to marry Arjuna so she ran away with him. 

8. Arjuna's 'pilgrimage' for breaking his marital laws with Draupadi earned him three more wives. They were: Chitrangada (Manipura), Ulupi (Naga) and Subhadra.

9. Abhimanyu was actually the soul of a daitya named Kalyavana. Krishna after burning Kalyavana to death had captured his soul (tied him in a knot of his upper cloth) and taken him to Dwaraka only to stuff him into a cupboard. Ghatotkacha(who had been sent by Hidimba to take care of Subhadra in Dwarka as Pandavas were in the forest.) saw Krishna and got a scolding from him. He went and reported the matter to Subhadra who went downstairs to check. She opened the cupboard and a light entered her womb which caused her to fall unconscious. This was the main reason why Krishna divulged only half the secret of Chakravyuha to Abhimanyu when he was in the womb. 

10. Ekalavya was actually Krishna's cousin. He was the son of Devashrava (brother of Vasudeva) who got lost in the forest and was found by a Nishada Hiranyadhanu. Ekalavya died protecting his father during Rukmini Swayamvar. He was killed by Krishna.

11. Yudhistira had another wife named Devika. She was the daughter of Govasana of the Saivya tribe. Her son was Yaudheya. 

12. Shikhandi had a son named Kshatradeva. Shikhandi was married to a Dasrana princess. 

13. Karna lost his first son Sudaman(16 year old) in Draupadi Swayamvar. He also lost his foster brother Shatruntapa(Shon) in Virat war. Both were killed cruelly by Arjuna.

14. Krishna took charge of Vrishaketu, Karna's youngest son after Mahabharata war. Krishna taught him all the divya astras but told him not to teach them to anybody else as the people of Kaliyuga would take advantage of it. 

15. Lakshmana went sati on Samba's pyre. 

16. Arjuna was unable to defend the wives of Krishna from common robbers after Krishna's departure to Vaikuntha. His bow became heavy and he forgot all his mantras. The 8 main wives committed suicide. The others were kidnapped by robbers. 

17. The 16,000 wives of Krishna were actually incarnations of Apsaras. 

18. Yuyutsu was the half-brother of Duryodhana. He was the son of Dhritrashtra's Vaishya wife. Duryodhana had appointed him as the finance minister. Later on he was appointed as Parikshit's caretaker and the regent of Hastinapura. He looked after the throne until Parikshit was old enough to rule. Yuyutsu committed suicide when he couldn't save Parikshit from Takshaka.

19. Dhritarashtra and Gandhari retired to the forest 15 years after Yudhisthira's coronation. The main reason for this was Bhima's taunts which depressed them.

20. Parikshit's wife Madravati was a frog!

21. Draupadi laughed at Bhishma in his last moments while he was giving them knowledge he possessed. 

22. Duryodhana had gone to Dwaita forest to humiliate the Pandavas with all the servants from Indraprastha. There the Gandharava Chitrasena and his apsaras were enjoying in the pond. Duryodhana asked Chitrasena to abandon the pool but as he refused, a heated argument broke out between them. Chitrasena attacked Duryodhana. The Pandavas who were nearby asked Chitrasena to let him alone. Chitrasena who was a friend of Arjuna spared Duryodhana but not before tying him with vines and setting him on his horse. Duryodhana though humiliated, thanked Arjuna and asked him what he wanted for the turn he had done to him. Arjuna said that he would ask from him some other time. 

23. During the war, Duryodhana accused Bhishma of not using his full power because he favoured the Pandavas. Bhishma in his anger took 5 gold arrows and infused them with mantras. He vowed that the Pandavas would die before sunset the next day through these arrows. Duryodhana suspected that Bhishma would never use those arrows so he kept them with him and decided to give them to Bhishma the next day on the brink of the war. Krishna on the other hand reminded Arjuna of the boon Duryodhana had promised him. He told Arjuna to ask for 5 gold arrows from Duryodhana. Arjuna did so. Duryodhana was surprised but did not grudge Arjuna and gave the arrows away. Duryodhana asked Arjuna. "Who told you that I have such arrows?" Arjuna replied. "Krishna, who else?"

24. Karna was the first person in attempting to kill Jarasandha. He did this in Bhanumati Swayamvar when Duryodhana ran away with the princess. He grabbed Jarasandha's knees in wrestling and started pulling them apart. Jarasandha immediately apologized and made Karna his friend.

25. Draupadi was asked 3 times by Duryodhana to come to the court after her husbands lost her in dicing. Draupadi kept denying and asked Duryodhana to question Yudhistira whether he staked himself first or her first. Duryodhana asked Draupadi to question her husband in court directly. Yet Draupadi refused to come and sent the attendant back. Duryodhana lost his temper and ordered Dusshasana to bring her there at any cost. 

26. The disrobing of Draupadi was instigated by Karna not Duryodhana. Duryodhana has been remarkably quiet during the entire episode except while asking Draupadi to come in court.

27. The Akshaya Patra was obtained by Yudhistira from the Sun God for Draupadi and the Brahmanas.

28. Arjuna skipped his 5 years of exile by visiting Indra for the Divya Astras. During this time the others performed a pilgrimage with the Brahmins and had their first encounter with Babreeka (Bhima's grandson). 

29. Balarama's wife Revati was from the 1st Manavantara. She was so tall that Balarama used his plough to pull her down to the right size.

30. The Upapandavas (Pandavas's sons) all died unmarried. 

31. Duryodhana expressed deep regret when Ashwatthama killed the Upapandavas in a fit of rage in their sleep on the 18th day.

32. Flowers rained on Duryodhana when he was felled on the 18th day by Bhima.

33. Bhima had one surviving son named Sarvaga by Balandhara who was not given the throne despite being much elder to Parikshit. He became the ruler of Kashi(his mother's land) instead. 

34. Bhanumati and Balandhara were cousins who were married to the two fierce rivals in Mahabharata.

35. Drupada had 10 more sons in addition to Dhristadyumna. 

36. Satyaki's real name was Yuyudhana. 

37. Draupadi asked for Ashwatthama's Chintamani when Arjuna and Bhima catch him on the last day of the war. She says that she shall not eat or sleep until her wishes are fulfilled. The mani is then fixed onto Yudhistira's crown.

38. Yudhistira learnt to play dice from the Sage Vrihadaswa who narrated the story of Nala and Damayanti in their exile. 

39. Raja Janaka the ruler of Mithila(Videha) was still alive when Balarama visited him while chasing Satadhwana for the Syamantaka jewel.

40. Kichaka was 30 years old when he proposed Draupadi. Draupadi herself was 50!

41. Duryodhana was born on Ashwin Krishna Dashmi. His Nakshatra was Bharani.

42. Yudhistira was born on Kartik Shukla Panchami. He was two years elder to Duryodhana. His Nakshatra was Jyeshtha.

43. Akrura (Kansa's charioteer) enjoyed the power of the Syamantaka Mani for 52 years before Krishna caught him out. Still, he was allowed to keep the jewel as it was proving to be beneficial to all.

44. Draupadi was carried off to be burnt on Kichaka’s pyre by his 100 brothers after his gruesome death. Bhima saved her and killed all the 100 brothers. The only other time this kind of an act was attempted was in Draupadi Swayamvara when the Kshatriyas declare that Draupadi should be burnt to death for insulting all of them. 

45. Draupadi sends Bhima to pick out the Saugandhika flowers when they are staying with sages near Badrikashrama during their exile. She does not want the flowers for herself but for Yudhistira. 

46. Bhima drank 8 pots of amrita in Naagloka (after Duryodhana poisoned him and threw him in the river) and this gave him the strength of 10,000 elephants.

47. Bhima killed all the 100 sons of Dhritrashtra. He felt intense remorse on killing Vikarna. (Vikarna was the one that defended Draupadi during the dice game.) 

48. Arjuna was beaten up by Lord Shiva who was disguised as a Kirata when he was performing tapasya to gain the Pashupata astra. 

49. Arjuna bestowed the epithet “Parthasarthy” on Krishna. 

50. Nakula could direct his chariot in rainfall without getting wet. 

51. Kalyavana was the son of Sage Garga. Sage Garga had specially produced Kalyavana due to his anger against the Yadavas who had laughed at him because he (Garga) was proclaimed as a eunuch.

52. After the War, the Pandavas come to Dhritrashtra and Gandhari to seek their blessings. The old couple was filled with grief and hence Dhritrashtra attempts to kill Bhima by crushing him. Lord Krishna substitutes the real Bhima with an iron statue of Bhima that Duryodhana used to practice with. Dhritrashtra apologizes for his behaviour. Gandhari’s fiery gaze chars Yudhistira’s toes black and the Pandavas cower behind Krishna. Krishna appeals to Gandhari to forgive her nephews. 

53. Gandhari gains a spiritual eye when she visits the battlefield to mourn the dead, which enables her to see everything. She describes the lamentation of the Kuru women.  The most heart-breaking description is of her daughter Dusshala who is wandering like a mad woman searching for her husband’s missing head. 

54. Lord Krishna loses his sleep over Arjuna’s vow of killing Jayadratha before the sunset. He gets up in the middle of the night and summons Daruka (his charioteer) telling him that if Arjuna fails in accomplishing his task, he (Krishna) would have to break his vow of not fighting. Daruka is instructed to keep Krishna’s chariot ready loaded with weapons and if he hears the Panchajanya conch, he should come on the battlefield with the chariot. 

55. Bhanumati was the daughter of King Chitrangad of Kalinga. She was abducted by Duryodhana from her Swayamvar. She was the mother of Laxman and Lakshmana.

Note: This list will be updated every time I discover newer information. :) So please keep checking back! 

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Campus Interview - Gurukshetra in Engineer's life

Campus Interview 

Campus Interview what we looks forward to with enthusiasm, fear and excitement towards the beginning of the final year .For some it's a make or break, at least that's the way it's looked at and for some it's a matter of pride. The constant thought in one's mind is - what shall make this click! What is it that the interviewer is looking in me!.Here's what we look for when we referred the various HR's regarding campus interview.

1. Know Thyself 

Not everyone is good in each and every field. Each one of us has our fortes and weaknesses too. But that's not a stumbling block! What we look for are people who know their area of specialization and are an expert in it. Therefore, it pays to be a master in some fields if not the jack of all.

The most common mistakes many make is to profess knowing a field of which they know little about. Remember that huge and bulky resumes are as tough to read as they are to make. So, identify your skill set, and keep your resumes simple and straight. Know your limits and polish on your strengths.

2. Testing What You Know and NOT What You Don't. 

Many interviewers may ask the student the subjects that she/he wishes to be interviewed upon. Eureka !! Here's a golden opportunity. Answer this wisely! Never end up choosing a difficult subject that you know only little about, rather choose the one you are most confident of.

3. Rack Your Brain - Analyze 
The interview is not just limited to testing your knowledge base, but we are also interested in knowing your ability to apply it. Often questions that need to be solved then and there are asked. Now keep in mind - the right answer is not the only thing being looked at. The focus area is also the way in which you attack the problem i.e. approach to problem solving is equally important.

So, remember to put your thinking caps on!

4. Ask for Help!

Murphy chooses to strike at the appropriate time! In spite of the fact that you may know something very well, it might just slip your mind. After all, heavy preparation does takes its toll. Who better to ask for help than the poser of the question (of course, don't try this too often!)!

Remember the interviewer is not there to grill the confidence out of you, but to bring forth the best in. Just in case you are stuck, ask for a hint. Things might just click. Also, stay alert for clues.

5. What are your biggest accomplishments 

You may like to begin your reply with: "Although I feel my biggest achievements are still ahead of me, I am proud of my involvement with……I made my contribution as part of that team and learnt a lot in the process".

It will be a good idea to close your answer with also specifying what attributes and circumstances made you succeed.

6. Be Calm, have Clear Verbal and Sound Non-Verbal Communication 

Calmness shows emotional maturity. True, being calm in a job interview is a difficult proposition, but then that is where it is required! Calmness does not imply being unenthusiastic or apathetic during the interview, but knowing that you are nervous and not letting it come in the way. A clear verbal communication implies clarity of the thought process.

One should also watch out for the impressions made in non-verbal communication. Body language and facial expressions can assist you in establishing a good rapport with the interviewer. Pauses, silences and gestures may all indicate what you mean, understand, or would like to emphasize.

7. Two-Way Exchange Process

The interview process is a two-way exchange of information. Make sure you also understand about the company, its activities, job requirements. The company is in need for good candidates and you need a good company to launch your career.

Interview is an opportunity to present yourself and your skills to your best advantage. Make sure you make the most out of it. And YOU are the best one to do it!!

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Miserable things by a blogger

Here are virtually so many SEO myths that it has become very difficult to know what’s 100% true, but I can advise you on which SEO mistakes you should not make:

1. Buying Links

You might get a short term boost by buying links if your website is already popular, but you’re still taking a risk here. Paid links are sometimes flagged by Google’s search engine experts. You may wonder, how will they ever catch me? Well, Google’s bots and a special team at the company search for questionable linking patterns every single day!

For example, if you pay for a few hundred links to be pointed to your website in the very same day, some links will probably be flagged as a sort of ‘irregular linking activity’. Links from totally unrelated categories will seem suspicious as well.

I would recommend the old fashioned method of comment linking, manually — your blog will still be able to grow, albeit at a steady pace. Over time, the end results will be worthwhile. If you are however settled on purchasing links, do not use the same anchor text for all of them; mix it up a bit.

2. Duplicate Content

Many bloggers I know try to target the same topic with a variation of essentially very similar keywords. For instance, ‘make money on facebook’ and ‘making money with your facebook’ are quite similar, and creating a completely different page for each keyword won’t add much value to your site.

How much can you really play with topics or keywords that are essentially identical? If you can’t, then you’ll probably end up writing the same content for both keywords, which poses a risk of a search engine penalty. Instead, you should try to penetrate one original topic or keyword in detail and make an effort to strengthen each post.

3. Chasing PageRank

Don’t get me wrong, PageRank is important for any website’s success. The higher the PageRank you have, the better you rank in search engines, and the more visitors you’ll get. However, it’s definitely not the only metric that’ll help you improve your blog’s success. Furthermore, Google has mentioned previously that PageRank is just one of two hundred (wow!) indicators used to crawl and rank a website. Instead, you should focus on your analytics, ROI, and relevancy as recommended by Google itself.

4. Leaving Title Tags Automated

The title tag is undeniably one of the most important aspects when it comes to search engine rankings. Beginner bloggers usually write a post with a long title that describes the topic in too many words. First, you want to keep the title rather short, (not more than 60 characters) but more importantly, you should aim your focus at optimizing the title tags.

For example, if you write a post titled ‘What Is A Niche Blog And How Do I Create It?’ your title tag should be more targeted towards a keyword, perhaps something like ‘What Is A Niche Blog?’ with ‘a niche blog’ being a possible keyword. You would surely want to check the popularity of the respective keyword with a keyword tool such as Google Adwords before optimizing for it. Consider changing it and you may enjoy a better placement in the search engines and as a result, more visitors.

5. Sacrificing Looks For Content

While many bloggers depend on content to grow their blog, there are some who had become obsessed with the design of their blog. Don’t get me wrong, if you don’t have an appealing design, some visitors won’t be attracted to your website. However, using too many graphics or images will overcrowd your page and slow it down.

I see many sites using Flash and sacrificing page speed for motion and sounds. Definitely an attractive setting, but not a worthy enough tradeoff. This will also prevent search engine bots from being able to crawl your pages at a desirable faster rate.

6. Using Free Hosting Blogs

Blog services that offer free hosting such as Blogger, TypePad, and many others, can offer a decent platform and an excellent value. However, they are not flexible enough to be able to install the Plugins, themes, and other extensions you truly desire for superior SEO results.

All it will take is to register your own domain, and to purchase an inexpensive hosting plan. If you do enough shopping around, you shouldn’t spend more than $50 for both for the year. It’s worth a few bucks per month to have total control over your website. The power of independence can reap great rewards when your blogging operation grows.

7. Keyword Stuffing

Probably one of the most common SEO mistakes is common stuffing. It’s not only unethical, but also will hurt your search rankings. If you really want to rank for a bunch of keywords, create a separate page for each keyword and optimize for it accordingly. Instead of using hidden or duplicate text, focus on creating useful pages that have your keywords implemented in them as part of the content. Trying to manipulate a search engine like Google is a big no-no.

8. Writing Little Content

Many websites, especially blogs, suffer from posts that are too short. I personally get at least a few guest post submissions per day, and more than often, I have to reject them on the basis that they are too short to publish. How great can a piece be if it’s written at just 400 words? Writing extremely short posts hurts reader loyalty plus your page could be considered as low quality when it comes to SEO rankings.

9. Not Doing SEO Correctly

There’s not only one right way to optimize your posts for the search engine, but there are general proven methods you can use. For example, in regards to link building, several bloggers I know make the mistake of only linking to the front page of their website. Instead, you should build links that also point to your top, most popular posts. There’s always something new to learn about SEO, so make sure your optimization knowledge is up to date by reading articles or guides from qualified authors such as Google’s Matt Cutts.

10. Forgetting The ALT Tag

While Google reportedly (WebCEO software) doesn’t place a big emphasis on ALT tags, other search engines such as AOL, Bing, and Yahoo do. The truth is that a picture is just an image file if it’s not optimized for a keyword. To optimize it, use the ALT tag when inserting your image in a post; you’ll definitely see better results. Also, consider naming the file of the image as your keyword or at least to a defining term. If you’re blogging about copyright laws, name your image as ‘copyright-laws.jpg’, not something like ‘picture10.jpg’ — that simply won’t do you any good.
Conclusion

I see additional SEO mistakes regularly, such as the use of generic descriptions for posts, not updating the sitemap, broken 404 pages, and grammatical errors in various site contents. Most of all, I see posts that lack organization and simply contain too much text without separation of any sort, such as spacing or headings. That’s simply unattractive to your valued readers. It takes away from the overall experience, and the quality of your website will take a beating. These SEO mistakes may seem basic to some but shouldn’t be overlooked or ignored. Better yet, consider evaluating your blog right away to ensure that your overall SEO is in check.

Editor’s note: This post is written by Issac Atia for Hongkiat.com.

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Create Simple Web Service in Visual Studio 2008 / 2010

This tutorial explains how we can create simple Web Services using Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2010

1. Create the Web Service

First create new project and select "New ASP.NET Web Service Application" and I'm giving the name "MyFirstWebService" to it, you can give any name to your project.

Now you can see auto generated code that you can add methods to create your web service. You can see simple method "HelloWorld" and in this sample code I have removed it.

I'm going to add simple method called "simpleMethod" which takes a string as an input and add "Hello" to beginning of that string. Now the code will appear like bellow.

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Web; using System.Web.Services; namespace MyFirstWebService {     /// <summary>     /// Summary description for Service1     /// </summary>     [WebService(Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")]     [WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]     [System.ComponentModel.ToolboxItem(false)]     // To allow this Web Service to be called from script, using ASP.NET AJAX, uncomment the following line.     // [System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptService]     public class Service1 : System.Web.Services.WebService     {         [WebMethod]         public string simpleMethod(String srt)         {             return "Hello "+srt;         }         [WebMethod]         public int anotherSimpleMethod(int firstNum, int secondNum)         {             return firstNum + secondNum;         }     } }

Then you can run your code and you can see the resulting page as bellow.

2. Create the Client Program

We have created our simple web service and we have to create small
client program to use this web service. There you can open another
instant of Visual Studio and create new "Console Application" project.

Then you have to add Service Reference so that you can access your web service. Here are the screen-shots.

Here you have to give the URL of the web service we created earlier.
As I said before previously created web service application should be
running on another instant of Visual Studio.

Note that I have set the "Web reference name" as "TestWeb".

Now you can update your client program using following code. Note the line 5 "using WebServiceTest.TestWeb;".

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using WebServiceTest.TestWeb; namespace WebServiceTest {     class Program     {         static void Main(string[] args)         {             Service1 webservice = new Service1();             string srt = webservice.simpleMethod("Baranidharan");             Console.WriteLine(srt);             Console.WriteLine(webservice .anotherSimpleMethod(4,3));         }     } }

Now you can run the client program to see the result.

3. Publish Our Web Service in Internet Information Service (IIS)

Let's see how we can publish our web service in IIS. Otherwise you always need to run your web service application in separate VS instant. There first stop the web service application and go to the Solution Explore and Right Click on the project. Then select "Publish...".

Then the following window will appear and there you can directly publish to the IIS by selecting "Web Deploy" as the publishing method. But here I'm going to use the "File System as the publishing method. There you have to provide the target location. I have created new folder called "MyApp" in my D drive and selected it.

Now click "Publish" and check the "MyApp" folder. There you will be able to see Service1.asmx file, Web.config file and bin folder which contains the DLL file has been generated. Then copy this "MyApp" folder to "wwwroot" folder. You may find it in "C:\inetpub\wwwroot".

Now enable IIS in your computer and open IIS Manager. I'm going to add my service to Default Web Site. There Right Click on the "Default Web Site" and click "Add Application...".

There you will get following window. Now you can provide appropriate Alias (I have given testservice) and select the physical path of your application. There you can provide the path to the folder we copied previously as following figure and click Ok.

You have to make sure that the application pool identity has Read access to the physical path. So it is better if you copy your files to the "wwwroot" folder other than keep it in separate partition. Please check the following screen-shot

Now restart the IIS and goto http://localhost/testservice/Service1.asmx. You will be able to see the Web Service running.

Now you have published your web service in IIS and you can update the Client Program by giving the new Web Reference URL using Properties Window.

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My Experience in "Capacity Building for Industrial Needs Program"

Hi friends

I am sharing my experience with all you regarding Science and Technology Capacity Building for Industrial Needs Program held at University college of Engineering Pattukottai, Rajamadam-614701 from (07/07/2014) to(09/07/2014).

Schedule for the Program

S.No	Date	Session	Resource Person	Designation	Organization	Topics
1	July 7	FN	V.Sivakumar	HRD Trainer	Junior chamber,Chidambaram	Language fluency & enhancement
2	July 7	AN	M.G. Thiyagharajan	HRD Trainer	Junior chamber,Chidambaram	Personality Development skills
3	July 8	FN	N.Veerapandiyan	Sub divisional, Engineer	BSNL, Pattukottai	Decision making & memory techniques
4	July 8	AN	R.Giridharan	Manager	Canara Bank, Pattukottai	Time & Team Management
5	July 9	FN	M.Ramalingam	General Manager	District Industries Centre, Thanjavur	Entrepreneurship
6	July 9	AN	S.Kalaivanan	Coordinator	EDP training,Thanjavur	Entrepreneurship

After a long travel of more than 3 & half hours , 13 members from our college reached Pattukottai campus. In July 7, around 10.45 the programme starts with our national anthem.
Session 1 & 2

Session 1 & 2 has been taken in the first day by M.G Thiyagharajan and K.Sivakumar from Junior Chamber, Chidambaram. Session started by respected Thiyagharajan sir with a wonderful quote that "Youths are not Useless, Youths are Used less", it inspired many of us. He gave us a wonderful lecture to us regarding how to ignite us to travel towards our destination.Mr k.Sivakumar followed his lecture with some beautifull stories of Abraham Lincoln, Gandhiji etc. They stated some steps for an ensured secure life with happiness such as,

• Set Goal
• Start your Journey
• Have some thirst
• Manage Time
• Have love in full stock
• Not a Bed of Roses
• Think Broad
• Drive away fear of failure
• Accept anything as happens

He also stated how to behave in interviews and and to prepare your resume.Mainly to enhance your carrier objective. You should always be prepared,be clear, be simple, be vivid, be natural.
I will revive other tips & techniques soon along details of day 2 & day3 .

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Content Management System - Introduction

What Content Management System (CMS) Should You Use?  

Content Management System (CMS) is a product installed on a web server that allows managing pages, blogs and articles online, without storing them on a desktop computer and uploading each time when you need to make changes. You simply login to your website, write or modify content, and your website is instantly updated, unless you set a specific schedule for your content to be visible to website visitors. CMS products also allow multiple administrators or editors to maintain online content without conflicting with each other. And most importantly, CMS products provide separation between articles and web design, thus allowing you to focus on writing content and not worry about copying the web design from page to page. CMS products can also automatically update menus and links between pages based on the list of articles you create, therefore you don't need to worry about your website becoming broken when you rename pages.

Many CMS products have emerged over the last few years and sometimes it is difficult to choose the right one for your needs. In this article we’re going to talk about what you need to keep in mind when choosing a CMS. We will cover a few of the more popular CMS products used today.
Please note that some of the topics, pros and cons provided here are based on personal opinion and experiences of our staff. Other people may have a different opinion about CMS products based on their prior experience and comfort level with specific technologies. Therefore this guide is provided only as a general overview of popular CMS choices for those unfamiliar with CMS products or concepts.

 

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