Send Documents To Mobile Phones through SMS: Cloud Print

HP CloudPrint is a web service for sending documents via cellphones as SMS codes instead of the standard email route. You don't have to manually convert documents to PDF, upload them anywhere or send email attachments - CloudPrint takes care of everything.

You send the document(s) to your friends, colleagues or mobile workforce from your desktop as an SMS message and they can download or print the file as PDF on any computer worldwide. Sounds confusing?

Update: HP Cloud Print is no longer available but you can use Google Cloud Print or even the free Dropbox service to print documents from mobile phones.

Step 1: I opened this Google Alerts Tutorial page in IE and printed it using CloudPrint. The software asked asked my cell number and also the phone numbers of intended recipients.

Step 2: HP CloudPrint converted the web page to a PDF file in the background and automatically uploaded it to some HP server - the conversion and upload part is totally transparent to the end user. All you get is a message with the secret document code that was sent as an SMS to the recipients.

Step 3: Your friends and team members will receive the document code as an SMS. They can type their mobile phone number and the document code on HP website and can immediately download the file as PDF.

Google Image Search Now Has Contextual Adsense Ads

Google now has contextual advertising embedded in Google Image Search results - each page has two horizontal sponsored link sections. See screen capture below.

The other popular Google properties that are yet to be monetized include Google News and Google Blog Search.

Related: Batch Download Pictures from Google Images

Check Your Text for Common Misspellings Online

Spelljax, as the name suggests, is an online tool that lets you check for spelling errors in English and some other popular languages. The tool check only the spelling mistakes, not the grammar of your text.

You can either directly type the text in the web browser or copy-paste from another application that doesn't inbuilt spell checking capabilities like notepad or internet clipboards.

The spell checker is available at SpellJax.com.

SpellJax spelling checker functionality is pretty similar to what you have seen in GMail or even Firefox. The feature I liked most is that you cannot edit or type text while you are in the spell checking mode. Thanks Jan.

Related: Remove Incorrect Spellings from Firefox Dictionary

Stop Web pages from Auto-playing Music and Videos

Some websites, like MySpace, embed music (and sometimes video clips) in web pages that auto-play as soon as you open the site in your web browser - there's no confirmation.

Music and Videos that autoplay in the browser is not that big an issue if you keep your speakers muted or use the headphones, but it can be very embarrassing in all other cases - you don't want your cubicle neighbours to know that you just visited an amateur website.

Here's how to block autoplay of music and videos that's embedded in web pages:

Internet Explorer - Got Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced. Scroll down in Settings, and then under the Multimedia heading, uncheck Play sounds in web pages and Play videos in web pages.

Mozilla Firefox - Install the Stop Play extension available at Mozilla.org. Stop Play plugin disables autoplay of embedded media but you can play it later when you want. Alternatively, you can completely block the audio-videos files from auto-downloading that also speeds up web browsing.

Related: How to Stop GIF Animations in Browsers

Switch Your Laptop Between Home and Office Network Easily

We recently shared a network connections profile manager called NetSetMan for people who frequently travel with their laptops. Each time they get to a new location, they have to manually change settings of their network card and browser proxy server before connecting to the internet.

Though NetSetMan has a free full version, some comments have pointed out that the license prohibits use of the software at work or any commercial purpose.

If you need to shuttle your notebook computer between home and various office locations, the other good alternative is Net Profiles that again helps you effortlessly change your network connection settings .

With Net Profiles, you create various profiles for each of your network settings and you can easily switch from one to another. Can also be used for managing network printers, mapped drives and multiple Wi-Fi wireless networks.

Which Version of Adobe Flash Player Is Running On My Machine

If you are not sure whether Adobe Flash Player is installed in your web browser and if installed, what version of the Flash Player are your running - here's a simple trick.

Visit this page on Adobe.com. If you have the Adobe Flash Player plugin, the page will display the exact version of the Flash Player. If Flash is missing on your machine, you won't see the line the says "Adobe Flash Player is Installed."

Make sure you perform this check separately for IE and Firefox / Opera.

What's new in Flash Player 9 that's on Adobe Labs

While the latest version of Adobe Flash Player is 9.0.47.0, Adobe have recently released an updated version of Macromedia Flash Player 9 (9.0.60.184) that supports H.264 in addition to the original On2 VP6 codec (but not Sorenson Video).

Why upgrade to Flash Player 9 with H.264 support

What that means in simple jargon is that you can now use the same Flash Player 9 to play Quicktime .mov and the iPod .mp4, m4v videos in your web browser without installing the Apple Quicktime plugin. Video encoded in Quicktime or MPEG-4 formats (not divx or xvid) will play in the Flash Player just like other Flash Video files (e.g. YouTube) and SWF movies.

Before you download Flash Player 9 H.264 version, make sure you clean up you existing installation of Flash Player 9 / 8 else the upgrade will fail.

Adobe Labs, Tinic Uro and Dan Rayburn have more indepth information about the new Flash Player 9 and how it compares with Quicktime and the existing On2 VP6 codec.

Unresolved Questions on Message Board - Can You Please Help?

These are some questions on the message board that are awaiting solutions. Can you please assist here? You can either add your replies to the message board or just leave a comment here. Thanks.

Cannot Run Windows Software on MacBook
Louise Normandin bought a MacBook with BootCamp and VMware-Fusion but he's not able to run any Windows software except Firefox.

Show Sales Data for Cities on a Google Map
Pavanaji is looking for a simple solution to put his sales data on a Google Map. Managers can click the city pins on Google Maps to see the sale figure for that region.

Google Apps EMail Bouces
A reader is using Google Apps + GMail for his personal domain. He cannot send or receives emails via AOL but it works perfect with Yahoo! and Hotmail. His Google Apps MX records look correct.

YouTube and Orkut Banned in Browser by Virus
"YouTube is banned" - Aarohi got this strange error in his browser while trying to access YouTube.com. Turned out that problem was a virus/worm called heap41a. [Resolved after system restore]

Google Adsense Income and Service Tax
There's some confusion if service tax is to be paid in India on online income made through selling Google Ads on your blog. My CA is pretty sure that Adsense income does not fall under the Service Tax net but there's definitely some confusion. What's your take?

Printing Business Cards in India
Vaibhav Pandey is looking for an online service in India that can print and design business cards for him. Do you know of any service here?