Block Websites on Windows 7 & XP without installing anything

Many people think that blocking websites is a hard task, it can be very easy.

You don't need to install anything and it takes 1 or 2 minutes.

All you have to do is go to this directory:

\windows\system32\drivers\etc

Open the file hosts file with notepad

(if you are in windows 7 right click the hosts file and click Run as administrator)

add this line to the hosts file:

127.0.0.1 site-you-plan-to-block.com

and you are done!

If it doesn't work try adding the www. Preffix.

Web alternatives to desktop software

It is incredible how web based applications have evolved, web based applications are in a stage that they can certainly be complete alternatives to desktop software.

Web based applications have several advantages over desktop software, some of these advantages are:

*Most of them are free to use.
*You do not need to install nothing.
*You can use them anywhere.
*They are safer than desktop applications
*etc.

you would be amazed to see all the smooth applications web developers have managed to create using technologies such as: Flash, Javascript, Java, Perl/PHP/Python/Ruby.

Since I'm a huge fan of web based applications I have decided to make a list of the best web applications that can completely replace desktop software.

http://www.picnik.com/
Picnik is an amazing photo editor you can use for free, it is a web based alternative to Photoshop and paint.

http://www.mediaconverter.org/
Media converter will help you convert your media formats.
Most desktop media converters are shareware, Mediaconverter.org is totally free so go nuts!

http://snipshot.com/
Snipshot is another great alternative to Photoshop.

http://pastebin.com/
Some times is necessary to send snips of information, but it could be very annoying if you have to mail it to some one or send them a txt file, that is why pastebin is the perfect alternative to notepad, you can paste anything and pass the randomly generated link!

http://bubbl.us/
Bubbl.us is the best brainstorming application I have come across, it is extremely easy to use.

http://www.meebo.com/
You might have already heard about Meebo, Meebo is an online alternative to many chat clients, including yahoo chat, MSN messenger ,etc.

http://docs.google.com/
Google docs is the best web alternative to Microsoft Office and Open Office, I feel extremely comfortable using it and it is ten times easier to share your docs.
web alternatives to desktop software

Should I learn perl in 2010/2011?

Should I?
I asked myself the same thing before I started to learn Perl,
Perl is a high-level programming language which has influenced other programming languages like python, ruby, Javascript and most notably PHP.

Perl counts with a huge (literally HUGE)  community and with an unbelievable amount of modules that will help you get things done in matter of seconds.

So why people doubt before they decide to “dive into perl”

well usually new programmers feel insecure about learning Perl because it is an old-school language, some people think it might be hard to learn while others think it is outdated.

Well from my honest point of view, Perl is one of the best programming languages out there, it is extremely fun to program in perl, it might by a little harder to learn than PHP, but it's worth it, I have totally stopped coding in PHP and python. Now every general programming or web-development task I have to do I do it with Perl.

Will HTML5 Replace Flash?

With all the features HTML5 promises it seems Flash's long run might be coming to and end.
HTML5 will be able to do many things that webmasters have been achieving with flash for example:
video playback
game embedding
etc.

Personally I have tried HTML5 for about three weeks now and it is very comfortable and considering you don't have to install any robust software such as flash CS5 to develop web apps it looks like flash is in a pickle.

I'm not much of a flash enthusiastic and I would love to see HTML5 literally kill Flash but honestly this might take many years to come, so if you are interested in learning flash go ahead I'm pretty sure it will be useful for the next 10 years.

Nokia N97 Mini Review

Recently I bought a Nokia N97 Mini cellphone, I have been using it for about a month and I decided to write a review about it.

Cons:

Constantly Freezes.

Some Applications are very buggy.

Touch screen not as smooth as iphone's one.

Camera unprotected (unlike the original Nokia N97).

Keyguard switch randomly stops working.

Pros:

Nice design.

Big collection of apps.

I like the camera .

The mini keyboard is very comfortable.

It has a secondary camera incorporated .

Symbian OS is sweet.

Bottom line:

Nokia N97 mini is a really good phone, personally I think it is better than the original version, It could easily improve and you can personalize it in all the ways you can think about. Nevertheless I wouldn't pay more than $350 for it.