Future world of Virtual Currency – called as BITCOIN

Imagine the world with full of technologies of not having no banks, no ATM’s, no in person transactions. That is how the world is going to be in couple of decades.

Welcome to the world of “Virtual Currencies” where you do not need banks, no ATM cards, and no fees to third party vendors. This virtual currency is called as “Bitcoin”. The currency is not physically present, no banks and everything is run through a secured algorithm where the transactions will happens peer to peer without any middle vendor. These transactions are highly encrypted and it takes years to break this algorithm.

Bitcoin

Now days I have seen these virtual currencies are being accepted in most of the online payments/shopping like: Paypal, ebay, Overstock.com, Namecheap.com, Zynga etc…

It is not to my surprise that even the car companies are accepting Bitcoins and delivered the car for bitcoins payment like TESLA.

There is a risk for public to purchase these kinds of virtual currencies and keep it for a while. Because, it is kind of gambling that person can play with his extra money if you seriously want to take risk at this investment.

In Nov 2011, the conversion price of 1 bitcoin was USD $3, then the conversion rate surge more than USD $1000 for 1 bitcoin due to different online retailers started accepting this virtual currencies to cut down the middle vendors.

Dell is accepting bitcoin

What are bitcoins?

Bitcoins are a type of decentralized virtual currency, meaning they are not issued or backed by the United States or any other government. They are also unregulated and uninsured, which means that consumers and businesses alike have limited recourse if they have a problem. Unlike the dollar, which is legal tender, no one is required to accept bitcoins as a form of payment.

While not tangible currency, bitcoins are bought by transferring real money through an exchange or to an individual, and are stored on computers or held by the purchaser or a third party in a so-called virtual wallet. Once the bitcoins are in your virtual wallet, you can use them to purchase items from any merchant willing to accept them or sell them to someone willing to buy them.

How are bitcoins made?

Bitcoins are created through a sophisticated computer algorithm that requires extensive computer power. Creating new bitcoins is called “mining” and is something that is not available to the average consumer.

Basic Facts on Bitcoin:

It’s a high-risk currency because of the volatility in its price.

It’s not backed by any central banks worldwide and has no tangible value.

It’s an experimental concept.

It’s unregulated and does not provide protection for consumers.

Consumer disclosure rules and regulations are limited or nonexistent.

It is not insured or backed by any government or regulatory structure.

No company is required to accept bitcoins as a form of payment.

Source from: http://www.mass.gov/ocabr/media/advisories/bitcoin-advisory.html

Primo PDF – Best offline printer

I have been using this Primo PDF for years and it is working well for me when I want to take any offline printouts. This is mainly useful when you want to take a print out of the online form, then you notice that real printer is not available nearby, and then you can print the documents to Primo PDF, where it will convert all your documents to PDF and save it ready for you in the local computer. So that you can take prints outs of this document actually when you connect to the real printer when it is available.

Advantages of using Primo PDF:

• Print the documents in PDF format.
• Fill any online forms, and then select your default printer as “Primo PDF” and document will save as PDF.
• You purchase anything, but do not have printer to print the confirmation, and then select your default printer as “Primo PDF” and document will save as PDF.
• Email this PDF document to anyone you wish that they could take the printout for you.
• You do not want to take screen shots, just take a printout like a real printer.
• Print multiple images into one PDF

Download the software from here: http://www.primopdf.com/

Once you download the software, run the EXE file and you will find the below screen one after the other. The installation procedure is self-explanatory:

Step1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Once the installation is completed, then go to you Printers section in your computer, where you can find a "PrimoPDF" as your default printer.

Default Printer

 In case if you want to print any document offline if you real printer is not available, then select "PrimoPDF", then it will print the document and save it in PDF format for you in the specified path. So that you can refer that PDF at a later point of time to take printout.

Print Options

Save the print document as PDF

Screen Capture Utility

FastStone Capture is a more powerful tool and interactive Screen capture utility. Newer versions of FastStone has been made premium but version 5.3 is a free version and can be used by any single user.

Various features of FastStone Capture are:

• Capture Active Window
• Capture Window/Object
• Capture Rectangular area
• Capture Full Screen
• Capture Scrolling screen
• Capture Freehand region
• Edit the Captured image
• Text annotation in the captured image
• Highlight the specified area in the captured image
• Cropping
• Re-sizing
• Screen Magnifier
• Printing
• Emailing

Below is the snapshot of the FastStone Capture, if you need, kindly download here

In the download page, Click on File -> Download

FastStone 5.3

Smart Watch or Smart Phone?

Samsung gear is the one kind of technology that is launched as a wearable gadget like watch. There are different variations launched already like Gear 2 neo, Gear 2, Galaxy Gear and Gear fit. Each gear as it's own purpose. Gear 2 neo does not have camera, but it can connect to your smartphones bluetooth and help you to take the calls, message or listen to music through your smart gear. Also it has a feature to record your hear rate all the time as there is a device backside of the watch which will take care of this.

Samsung Gear 2 (With Camera)

Samsung Gear 2 Neo (No Camera)

How it works?

This watch is like other smart phones, swipe to your left/right to navigate between the apps and it has one home button. In case if you want to go to the previous screen, then swipe from top to bottom to go back to your previous screen.

This gadget has various other features that can be used without smartphones, to keep track of your heart rate, stop watch, listen to music, TV remote control, Camera, Voice memos etc...

Watch more about this in these videos:

Private Browsing/Ad Block

Browsers are the only way that can connect us to the external world. There are different types of browsers out there like Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera etc… What browsers are doing while you are visiting web pages? Does it give the smooth experience? If you set your browser to the right settings, it will enrich your browser experience while you visit the web pages.

Always use the Private browsing mode (In particular when using public computers), which will ensure that your existing cookies are not used by any websites that you are visiting. By doing this, the website that you are visiting will not be able to track you and show the customized web pages. This is advantage if you do not want to be tracked with existing cookies, but downside is, if there are any ads shown in the page, then it will be irrelevant to your browsing history as your cookies are not being read.

Private Browsing

There are multiple agencies (like Bluekai, quantcast, etc…) in the market which will be used in most of the websites to read the demographics for the user and understand them, so that it can track down you with relevant information when you are visiting web pages.

What this means to you?  Those agencies will be tracking all your browsing activities like cookies, to collect all the demographic information to read the person’s browsing pattern and activity, which could be used to sell your data for the online advertisers.

What you can do to escape from all these tracking? Always use the private browsing mode which will be safe browsing and does not remember any of your history, cookies and cache what you do after you close your browser.

Also there are different types of free plug-ins that can be installed in your browser which will detect and disable the advertisements displayed in your page. Example:

Chrome AdBlock Addon

Firefox AdBlock Addon

Internet Explorer AdBlock Addon

No Advertisements

How to turn on private browsing mode in different browsers that will not store any of your history, cookies and cache.

Internet Explorer – Ctrl + Shift + P

Firefox - Ctrl + Shift + P 

Chrome – Ctrl + Shift + N

Health benefits of drinking alcohol

What people think about you if you drink beer?

Do they say that you are drunk always?

Then throw all their thoughts to somewhere and show all these health benefits to them. Moderate consumption of alcohol may have some considerable health assistance.

Here are some of the benefits:

Beer Mug

It Can Lengthen Your Life

Drinking occasionally could add a few years to your life. A study by the Catholic University of Campobasso reported that drinking less than four or two drinks per day for men. "Little amounts, preferably during meals, this appears to be the right way (to drink alcohol)," said Dr. Giovanni de Gaetano of Catholic University, another author on the study. "This is another feature of the Mediterranean diet, where alcohol, wine above all, is the ideal partner of a dinner or lunch, but that's all: the rest of the day must be absolutely alcohol-free." 

Reduces Risk of Heart Disease

All alcohol, whether it is beer, wine, or liquor, is known to help reduce heart disease. According to a 2008 article in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, moderate consumption of alcohol makes blood less sticky, and so it is less likely to clot. Alcohol can also increase good cholesterol and lower the bad, as well as lower your blood pressure. A Harvard study of 70,000 women found that those who consumed beer had a lower blood pressure than those who consumed wine or hard alcohol.

Reduces Risk of Diabetes

In 2011, Harvard did a study of 38,000 middle-aged men, which showed that, when they upped their intake of beer to two a day, they dropped their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 25 percent. There was, however, no noted benefit from drinking more than two beers a day.

Reduces Risk of Cancer

Just putting your meat in a marinade of beer can eliminate almost 70 percent of carcinogens from the meat, a Portuguese study found. That might not transfer to drinking the beer, but who doesn’t love a good beer marinade? If you do just drink it, though, it does contain loads of helpful antioxidants that can keep you healthy.

Helps the Kidneys

Alcohol gets a bad wrap for being hard on your kidneys, but beer can actually help in that department. According to the 2011 ADA Times, beer can actually reduce your risk of kidney stones. The hops not only help slow the release of calcium from the bones — too much calcium can cause kidney stones — but beer also has a high water content, which helps clear out those kidneys.

To learn more about the benefits, check here