Avangate's Top 20 Software Titles in April 2012

If you are Avangate affiliate members, here is some valuable information to help you get one of the prizes in the Avangate Spring Contest: a selection of best selling software products in the Avangate Affiliate Network listed according to the number of orders registered during April 2012:

Product Name	Merchant	1 month EPC
Advanced SystemCare v5 PRO (3PC)	Iobit	$1.49
AVS4YOU Unlimited Subscription	AVS4YOU	$3.69
ConvertXToDVD	VSO Software	$1.50
DVDFab DVD Copy	DVDFab	$48.79
DirectoryPress - VIP Version	Premium Press	$1.56
DVDFab Blu-ray Copy	DVDFab	$31.39
Bitdefender Total Security 2012	Bitdefender	$3.11
AVS4YOU One Year Subscription	AVS4YOU	$1.75
ShopperPress - VIP Version	Premium Press	$0.29
Q2ID v5.5 [Convert Quark to InDesign] Mac 1 User	Markzware	$4.67
BatchPhoto Home	Bits&Coffee	$6.70
BoostSpeed 5 - Annual Subscription	Auslogics Software	$1.40
MakeMKV	GuinpinSoft	$3.66
Mac DVDRipper Pro	Metakine	$0.66
Hide My IP	My Privacy Tools	$0.56
Movavi Video Suite Personal	Movavi	$1.02
Transcribe! for Windows	Seventh String	$0.31
Bitdefender Internet Security 2012	Bitdefender	$2.53
Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Suite (English)	Paragon	$0.31
WeBuilder 2011	Blumentals Solutions	$5.16

Google Penguin, cute name but maybe dangerous to your site.

After Panda become popular last year, new algorithm changes are now introduced by Google to decrease rankings for sites that Google believe violating their existing quality guidelines. It targeted to webspam, to be more specific black hat webspam which usually focus on keyword stuffing or linking schemes. This algorithm affects about 3.1% of quiries in English to a degree to that  a regular user may noticed, compared to 12% of queries when Panda is introduced.
One of make me surprise is SEO may not needed :). I am too lazy for this SEO, as well as writing long articles. As quoted from post by Matt Cutts at Official Google Webmaster Central Blog :

 We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites

So, if your site currently use articles which has been spun, your site maybe one of the target. Beware !

How to increase Dropbox free space to 50GB ?

As you may know, dropbox offers cloud storage 2GB for new sign up. Dropbox users can also increase the free space up to 50GB by         
-Sign Up using referral link (+0,25 GB) ... Sign up here you will get extra +0,25GB :)
-Complete "Getting Started" (+0,25 GB)
-Sharing in Twitter and Facebook (+0,75 GB)
-Get referrals (+8 GB)
-Duplicate referral space with .EDU email (+8 GB)
But now, there is another way to jump your free storage up to maximum 50GB. Quoted from Engadget blog, Dropbox partnerred with Samsung offers it to Samsung Galaxy SIII owner who has registered the newly handset. The free space is valid for 2 years.
So, is this promotion from Samsung and Dropbox more appeal you to buy Samsung Galaxy SIII ?

Japan’s Last Nuclear Reactor to Go Off-line

Nation faces electricity shortfalls if nuclear power is not restored

In the wake of last year’s massive 11 March earthquake and tsunami that damaged four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, the Japanese government took the dramatic step of taking most of the nation’s other reactors out of service over safety concerns. Now Japan’s last operating nuclear reactor, Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s No. 3 unit, at its Tomari plant in northern Japan, will shut down for a scheduled inspection on 5 May. This will leave Japan without any nuclear-generated power, something that hasn’t happened since the nation’s first commercial plant went on line in 1966.


Source : Read more this IEEE Spectrum special report here.

Nikon D3200 Specifications

Specifications for Nikon D3200, a follow-up of popular entry-level DSLR Camera, D3100.

Effective Pixels	24.2MP
Image Size (Pixels)	6016 x 4000
Image Sensor	23.2 x 15.4mm CMOS sensor
Viewfinder	Eye-level pentamirror single-lens reflex viewfinder
Frame Coverage	Approx. 95% horizontal and 95% vertical
Magnification	Approx. 0.8x (50mm f/1.4 lens at infinity, -1.0 m-1)
Eyepoint	18 mm (-1.0 m-1; from center surface of viewfinder eyepiece lens)
Focusing screen	Type B BriteView Clear Matte Mark VII screen
Shutter Type	Electronically controlled vertical travel focal-plane shutter
Shutter Speeds	1/4,000 to 30 s in steps of 1/3 EV; Bulb; Time (requires optional ML-L3 Remote Control)
Flash Sync Speed	X=1/200 s; synchronizes with shutter at 1/200 s or slower
Frame Advance Rate	Up to 4 fps (manual focus, mode M or S, shutter speed 1/250 s or faster,
Self-Timer	2 s, 5 s, 10 s, 20 s; 1 to 9 exposures
Metering	TTL exposure metering using 420-pixel RGB sensor
Metering Methods	Matrix metering: 3D color matrix metering II (type G and D lenses); color matrix metering II (other CPU lenses); Center-weighted metering; Spot metering
Range (ISO 100, f/1.4 lens, 68°F/20°C)	Matrix or center-weighted metering: 0 to 20 EV; Spot metering: 2 to 20 EV
Exposure Compensation	-5 to +5 EV in increments of 1/3 EV
Focus Modes	Single-servo AF; continuous-servo AF; auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A matrix metering II (other CPU lenses); predictive focus tracking; manual focus
Autofocus	Nikon Multi-CAM 1000 autofocus sensor module with TTL phase detection, 11 focus points (including one cross-type sensor) and AF-assist illuminator (range approx. 1 ft 8 in. to 9 ft 10 in./0.5 to 3 m)
Detection Range	-1 to +19 EV (ISO 100, 68°F/20°C)
Focus Point	Can be selected from 11 focus points
AF-area mode	Single-point AF, dynamic-area AF, auto-area AF, 3D-tracking (11 points)
Flash Guide Number	Approx. 39/12, 43/13 with manual flash (ft/m, ISO 100, 68°F/20°C)
Flash Control	TTL: i-TTL flash control using 420-pixel RGB sensor is available with built-in flash and SB-910, SB-900, SB-800, SB-700, SB-600 or SB-400; i-TTL balanced fill-flash for digital SLR is used with matrix and center-weighted metering, standard i-TTL flash for digital SLR with spot metering
Flash Modes	Auto, auto with red-eye reduction, auto slow sync, auto slow sync with red-eye reduction, fill-flash, red-eye reduction, slow sync, slow sync with red-eye reduction, rear-curtain with slow sync, rear-curtain sync, off
Flash Compensation	-3 to +1 EV in increments of 1/3 EV
Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS)	Advanced Wireless Lighting supported with SB-910, SB-900, SB-800 or SB-700 as a master flash and SB-600 or SB-R200 as remotes, or SU-800 as commander; Flash Color Information Communication supported with all CLS-compatible flash units
White Balance	Auto, incandescent, fluorescent (7 types), direct sunlight, flash, cloudy, shade, preset manual, all except preset manual with fine-tuning
Live View Lens Servo	Autofocus (AF): Single-servo AF (AF-S); full-time-servo AF (AF-F); Manual focus (MF)
Live View AF-area mode	Face-priority AF, wide-area AF, normal-area AF, subject-tracking AF
Live View Autofocus	Contrast-detect AF anywhere in frame (camera selects focus point automatically when face-priority AF or subject-tracking AF is selected)
LCD Monitor	3" TFT LCD
LCD Resolution	921,000-dot (VGA)
LCD Viewing Angle	160 degrees
LCD Coverage	Approx. 100%
Video Resolution	1920 x 1080 @ 30p/25p/24 High/Normal; 1280 x 720 @ 60p/50p High/Normal; 640 x 424 @ 30p/25p High/Normal
Photo File Format	NEF (RAW): 12 bit, compressed; JPEG: JPEG-Baseline compliant with fine (approx. 1:4), normal (approx. 1:8) or basic (approx. 1:16) compression; NEF (RAW) + JPEG: Single photograph recorded in both NEF (RAW) and JPEG formats
Movie Metering	TTL exposure metering using main image sensor
Metering Method	Matrix
Frame Size (Pixels) and Frame Rate	1,920 × 1,080, 30p (progressive)/25p/24p, High/Normal; 1,280 × 720, 60p/50p, High/Normal; 640 × 424, 30p/25p, High/Normal; Frame rates of 30p (actual frame rate 29.97 fps) and 60p (actual frame rate 59.94 fps) are available when NTSC is selected for video mode; 25p and 50p are available when PAL is selected for video mode; Actual frame rate when 24p is selected is 23.976 fps
D-Movie File Format	MOV
Audio Recording Format	Linear PCM
Audio Recording Device	Built-in monaural or external stereo microphone; sensitivity adjustable
Video Compression	H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding
ISO Sensitivity	ISO 200 to 6400; can also be set to approx. 1 EV above ISO 6400 (ISO 12800 equivalent)
Light Meters	Matrix: 3D color matrix metering II (type G and D lenses); color matrix metering II (other CPU lenses); Center-weighted: Weight of 75% given to 8-mm circle in center of frame; Spot: Meters 3.5-mm circle (about 2.5% of frame) centered on selected focus point
Interface	Hi-Speed USB; NTSC, PAL video output; Type C mini-pin HDMI connector; Stereo mini-pin jack (3.5-mm diameter) audio input
Supported Languages	Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian
Power Source	One EN-EL14 Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
AC Adapter	EH-5b AC Adapter; requires EP-5A Power Connector (available separately)
Tripod Socket	1/4"-20 (ISO 1222)
Storage Media	SD, SDHC, SDXC
File System	DCF (Design Rule for Camera File System) 2.0, DPOF (Digital Print Order Format), Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format for Digital Still Cameras) 2.3, PictBridge
Operating Environment	Temperature: 32 to 104°F (0 to 40°C); Humidity: Less than 85% (no condensation)
Dimensions	Approx. 5.0 × 3.8 × 3.1" (125 × 96 × 76.5mm)
Weight	Approx.  1 lb (455 g) (camera body only)

Arduino's Playmate

The Arduino, a low-cost, open-source microcontroller board that lets novices program electronic devices, has spawned an international do-it-yourself revolution. Lightning is about to strike a second time with the release of Raspberry Pi. For US $25, you get the guts of an entire computer—a microprocessor and inputs for video, USB, and an SD card—on a single board. Interest has been so intense that would-be purchasers briefly crashed the eponymous company’s website on the day it launched in February. “Techwise Conversations” host Steven Cherry talks with Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton, whose day job is at Broadcom as a chip architect. Upton discusses what inspired the board’s creation and his excitement over creative uses that he and his cohorts never envisioned.

Read the  IEEE Spectrum’s “Techwise Conversations.”

Google Drive - A New Dropbox and Other Cloud Service Killer ?

Today, Google is introducing new service of Cloud Storage : google Drive. From google's official blog : googleblog.blogspot.com states as follow :

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond. 

With 5GB of free storage, it could be a killer for popular dropbox.com and other cloud storage service, such as CX.com. If you compared to Dropbox, dropbox offer 2GB free space and $9.99/month for their 50GB of storage but Google offer twice of space for the half of the dropbox's cost. Not to mentioned Google's name, their extensive integration with Google account, Google+ apps of Chromes, and possibly the Android device. They now provide apps for PC, Mac, and Android Devices. iPhone and iPad is coming soon.

Please checkout their new service at drive.google.com/start
When this post is written, it is mentioned that my drive is not ready yet. google will notify me once it ready :( Your Google Drive is not ready yet

Features :

1. Create & collaborate.

In Google Drive, you can create new documents, spreadsheets and presentations instantly. Work together at the same time, on the same doc, and see changes as they appear.

2. Work better with the products you use everyday.

Gmail
Say goodbye to bulky email attachments. Send a link from Google Drive in Gmail and everyone has the same file, same version—automatically.

Google+
Your videos and pictures in Google Drive are instantly available in Google+, so you’re never more than one click away from sharing with your circles.

3. Powerful search.

Google Drive helps you get to your files faster. Search for content by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Google Drive can even recognize objects in your images and text in scanned documents.

4. View anything.

Open over 30 file types right in your browser—including HD video, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop—even if you don’t have the program installed on your computer.

5. Google Drive with your favorite apps.

Create, open and share files from a variety of apps directly in Google Drive.

6. Share the way you want.

You can share files or folders with anyone, and choose whether they can view, edit or comment on your stuff.

7. Start a discussion.

Create and reply to comments to get feedback and make files more collaborative.

8. Go back in time.

Google Drive tracks every change you make—so when you hit the save button, a new revision is saved. You can look back as far as 30 days automatically, or choose a revision to save forever.

Anyway, their tagline is too much ... as in the fact, impossible to keep everything :)

Google Drive. Keep everything. Share anything.

Here is the comparison of Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, CX.com and other cloud storage 

[coming soon]