What are the next terms of this series?

You have some term of a sequence and need more terms or a the general formula or the history about it. This is really useful if you are doing any online coding competitions such as Codejam , Topcorders  ...
 If you are participating in online coding competitions  or solving mathematical problems (Project Euler) involving sequences you may need this site. The site is
I found it useful when solving both online competitions as well as Project Euler problems. This can be used to generate more terms of a sequence which has few terms or the standard formula. It can also be used to generate audio files of the given sequence if you are analysing sound waves. Even though it says it is an Encyclopedia of Integers it can be used to other sequences as well. Use this link for more TIPS

Read more

Tips on making Prezi Presentation more interactive

 If you are using Prezi to create presentation, here are some of the tips and tricks to improve and to extend the limitations.
I assume that you have used Prezi before and have created couple of presentation using Prezi. If you are new to Prezi or have not used before, refer to my previous post on Prezi.
I have been using Prezi to create no of presentations and found out different methods to address some of the limitations on Prezi. If you are new to Prezi, just create couple of presentations before you continue this tutorial. So here are some of the limitations i found on Prezi and how to work around them. 
When a picture are zoomed in, it flicker or disappear  

There are two approaches, the most intuitive approach is to have a high resolution picture. but if you have tried this, you may have found that it is not a good approach.
My suggestion is to make the picture a SWF and import it as a SWF. SWF stands for Shockwave Flash and you can simply export your photo or image using Adove Illustrator or any other leading photo editing softwares.

How to add animations 

Again there are two approaches, either you can use a import as a Video or you can import as a SWF. There are pros and cons to both of them. If you add a video, it will start playing when it got the focus and it will remain still when you are viewing the background but if you use a SWF, it will animate even in the background. Of cause you need one of the Adobe softwares to convert between them or you can use online converters available on the internet.

What will be shown on the screen when I project this? How far it will show? 

This is vary critical if you are planing paths in between frames. If you have done a presentation on Prezi and presented using a projector, you might have noticed that the exact screen you saw on the screen is not what you see on the projector. (Most of the time right and left edges are different). This makes a presentation poor as what you planed to show ahead will be shown in this frame.
This is mainly because of the resolution problem. Most of the Projectors works on 4:3 ratio and the laptops and desktops screen aspect ration will be different to each other.
To overcome this issue, You can use standard frames when building your presentation. You can simply press SHIFT key and draw the frame, and Prezi will make the frame in to the ratio 4:3. So what will be shown on the projector is everything you put in to this frame. Most of the times, when you view this in your laptop it may show some excess things on top and bottom of the frames, but believe me it will not be shown on the projector. The other approach is simply to change the resolution of the laptop to 4:3 ratio resolution. This will make life more easier as what you see on the screen is exactly what you see in the Projector. Suggested resolution schemes is 1024x768.

When i focus on images, and text it will zoom more or does not zoom to the required level

This is where the frames comes in to play. I strongly recommend not to focus in to pictures or images. The best practice is to add a frame and focus on the frame, It makes more flexible and you easily change focus of different elements. Common practice is to build the story board and add frames accordingly. This will make sure every frame is on top of the story board and makes it more easy to manage.

How to rotate the camera?

This is a simple task. Add a frame and rotate it to the angle you want. Then add a path to it. Prezi will automatically rotate the camara and focus the frame up right in the meantime giving a nice spin effect. Beware: Do not spin so many times as it make distract the audience.

How to remove the Prezi logo on the bottom of the screen?

Prezi removes this logo or you can replace it with your own logo when you have a professional version. But if your are a student of a reputed University, you can ask for a Prezi EDU account which will allow you to remove this logo. All you need to do is sign up using the institutional email address with Prezi. I use my University of Moratuwa email to get away with this.

Can I use custom colours on my presentations?

Of cause you can use custom colours on the presentation. But you need to create a theme first. But using the new Prezi CSS editor, you can easily edit CSS of the presentation, which makes it more flexible to an advanced user.

Can I use Prezi on Powerpoint?

You can integrate both Powerpoint and Prezi. I will discuss this in a separate post

When I add a video, it will crop. Can I avoid this?

This is one of the critical problems I found on Prezi. There are couple of ways to work around but it may take considerable amount of time to archive this. One way is to change the background to suite the player. You can use background on the video. The second method makes it more attractive but you need a good knowledge in video editing to exactly match the background to the video itself.

Update - Prezi has added a lots of new features You can check them out from http://prezi.com/learn/new-features/
Here is a nice presentation I found on the internet, created by an intern in Prezi. There are no of suggestion to improve your presentation overall. I hope you enjoyed reading my article and if you have any questions regarding Prezi, add a comment and I will try my best to answer it.

Read more

Temporarily disable Flash Debugger Errors

Annoyed with the flash debugging errors comes up when you are browsing?Why do i keep getting a flash error in win 7? Want to temporary disable them? It is just a line you need to add to the configuration file.
These errors are showing because you have installed a flash player debugger version instead of the normal flash player. You can check your current player version from Adobe.

The easiest way to not get these error dialogues at all is to install the normal "release" version of the player. If you never debug SWFs in the browser, you can install the plugin/AX control there and not have to worry about it again, though this can be inconvenient if you do actually debug in the browser (which is more than likely the case for Flex users).
Once I was looking for this. I did not find a better tutorial on the internet. I found out the answer after reading several forums. So here is how you can do it.
Locate the configuration file of your adobe flash debugger. Check the path from the below table and the file name is mm.cfg Operating systemCreate file in ???/Library/Application Support/Macromedia C:\Documents and Settings\username
Open the configuration file in notepad and add the following line

SuppressDebuggerExceptionDialogs=1

Restart the browserRemember to restore those lines when you are debugging. :D Cheers!!

Read more

Custom Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

 A quick tutorial you can use to add custom shotcuts to applications and actions you prefer. This is another step of making you a Keyboard Ninja. 

If you are interested in normal windows key strokes, you may want to look at my earlier post Windows Shortcut Keys. This is a quick tutorial on a application you can use to assign new keyboard shortcuts. The application is named "WinHotKey". You can download it from directedge.us.
WinHotKey allows you to assign "hot keys" that do various things. Actions that can be done with a hotkey are:
Launch a ProgramOpen a documentOpen a folderAutomatically type somethingControl other windows on the screen

Read more

Keep Google From Tracking Your Every Move Online

Google offers many helpful web tools that make our lives easier, but it also collects an enormous amount of data about its users. Here’s how you can opt-out of some automatic data collection and preserve a bit more privacy.

Privacy has been a big issue online lately, and many people have been trying to cut back on the amount of information they share about themselves online.  But 2 popular Google services, Analytics and AdSense, both collect data about you from many sites you visit across the internet.  With these quick tricks, though, you can opt-out of some of Google’s data collection.
Opt out of Google Analytics Tracking
Google Analytics is a popular service that web publishers use to find out information about the visitors to their site and their number of page views over time.  This information can be very helpful for optimizing websites.  However, it does mean that Google is collecting information about your visits to many sites across the web.
If you’d like to opt-out of this data collection, Google has a simple browser add-in you can install to prevent Analytics from collecting information about your visit.  Head over to the Google Analytics Opt-out site (link below), and click the Get Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on button.  The site will detect the browser you’re using, and offer you the correct add-on.

Visit the site in your favorite browser, and follow the steps below to install on each browser
Google Chrome
When you click the button above in Google Chrome, it will redirect you to the addon’s page in the Extension directory.  Click Install.

Now click Install again in the popup to verify that you want to install the extension.  Now your browser will not send any information to Google Analytics.

By default, extensions do not run when you’re using Google Chrome in Incognito mode.   You’d likely want to keep Analytics from tracking your private browsing, too, so open the Extensions page in Chrome and check the Allow this extension to run in incognito box.

Internet Explorer
When you click the button to install the add-on in Internet Explorer, you’ll be asked to accept a license agreement.  Click Accept and Install.

The add-on will then automatically download and install.  If you’re using Vista or Windows 7, you may have to approve a UAC prompt to complete the installation.  Then click Restart Browser Now to run the add-on and keep your data away from Google Analytics.

Unfortunately, the Internet Explorer add-on installs as a normal Windows application.  If you choose to remove it in the future, open Control Panel, select Uninstall a Program, and then select the Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to uninstall it.

Firefox
You’ll see a similar license agreement when installing the Add-on in Firefox as you do in Internet Explorer.  Click Accept and Install.  Firefox may warn you that it blocked a site from installing software on your computer; click Allow to let it install.

Click Install Now in the popup window to confirm that you want to install it.

Once the extension is downloaded and installed, restart Firefox as usual for it to take effect.

Opt out of Personalized AdSense Ads
Google’s AdSense is one of the most popular ad networks on the internet.  It appears on Google services, such as Search and Gmail, but is also commonly used on many sites across the net.  AdSense ads are generally based on the content of the page you’re reading, but they will also personalize to your interests that Google learns from the sites you visit over time.
If you’d like to opt-out of this personalization, visit the Google Ads Preference Manager (link below).  Here you’ll see a list of your interests that Google has stored in cookies on your computer.  You can click the Remove link beside any of them to remove that category from your personalization.

Or, you can simply opt-out of personalized ads by clicking the Opt out button near the bottom of the page.  This will disable the tracking cookie, and now your ads will either be purely random or based only on the content of the page you’re visiting.

Please note that this setting is actually stored in a cookie, so if you delete your cookies you’ll actually need to go back and opt out again.  Also, if you use multiple browsers, you’ll need to opt out in each browser you use.
Conclusion
With these two simple tricks, you can reduce the amount of information that you automatically give Google every day.  If you are a tin foil hat type, this may make you feel more secure online.
Links
Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on
Opt out of Personalized Ads with Google Ads Preference Manager
Please note this is directly taken from a How to Geek tutorial and I though it would be useful sharing

Read more