According to me, Thesis is the best wordpress theme for any blogger. It is highly customizable yet user friendly and handles SEO perfectly… it’s simply the perfect solution for any blog administrator.
Here on TechZee… Online, update and smile you can find simple customization tips to your Thesis theme on the basis of my experience. They are simple yet creates great results.

• Tip 1 Customizing Header section and adding a banner image to it
• Tip 2 Change background color of your sidebar

Note: This post is regularly updated…

In his second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts of Reclaiming the American Dream, President Barack Obama wrote about making an investment in research to have an innovative economy for future…
In an era, where attracting the high level and diverse intellectuals from around the world is the most important competitive advantage a growing and forward looking economy can have, annual cap on H-1B visas and now restriction on US companies receiving the federal bailout package from hiring H-1B visa holders is predicted to bring long term impact on economic growth of the country.

What you loose, is a matter of vision?

This arrangement is forcing US companies to make a compromise, as they are not allowed to hire better-qualified non-American personnel where as other non-American companies like Infosys and others are not bounded under this scheme. They are free to hire the best person suited for the job irrespective of his domicile status. This will further deepen the problem as the affected project outcomes and deliveries will incline clients and future projects towards these non-American corporations; leading outsourcing of projects and jobs, resulting into money flowing out of US in large amounts.

Why do companies look for H-1B visa holders?

Currently maximum intake allowed under H1B visa program is 65000+20000 and despite of all the difficulties and government mandate, technology companies in the US asks for an increase in the quota of H1B visas every year due to several reasons -

1. An H1B visa worker brings an advantage that a permanent resident does not have: mobility. Permanent residents are usually more settled in their habitats, and are thus often unwilling to uproot themselves.
2. Most of the IT projects last for about six to eight months and then it becomes to expensive for these companies to consume and retrain person on new technology, once the project is over.
3. Companies say that US has not invested enough in engineering education. The US produces at the most 100,000 engineering graduates a year compared to India’s 400,000. An earlier study done by US Chamber of Commerce had predicted that there would be a severe shortage of engineers in the country by 2012.

Microsoft and other technology companies have also noted that main problem is shortage of talent and not issue of foreigners depriving Americans of employment.
To bridge the gap and boost economic growth, immigration of qualified professionals is required in large number and on priority basis.

Think global

Several Critics note the provision as “antithetical to innovation and domestic prosperity, turns away talent that US needs”.
Jagdish Bhagwati, Indian-born Professor of Economics at the Columbia University, has argued that “the provision to restrict hiring of H1-B visa holders would deprive the US of the best global talent which comes in the form of highly trained and talented people.” New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman called it a “Bad signal.”
Also a study by William R. Kerr of Harvard Business School and William F. Lincoln of the University of Michigan found that in periods when H-1B USA visa numbers went down, so did patent applications filed by immigrants [in the US]. And when H-1B USA visa numbers went up, patent applications followed suit. According to Vivek Wadhwa, a senior research associate at the Labor and Work life Program at Harvard Law School, “Cutting visas for high-skilled immigrants is not the answer to the country’s rising unemployment rate and may undermine efforts to spur technological innovation.”

In nutshell…

Towards end, I can say “this arrangement might bring short-term solution to struggling economy but will bring a big hole in the system and large impact will be felt in near future.”

Wireless communication is undergoing one of the greatest development and with the outcome; Bluetooth might become an outdated network technology of yesterday.
Starting 2010, gadgets will start interacting each other via Wi Fi Direct, without being connected to the wireless network.
The Wi Fi Alliance, an industry group, is working in that direction and putting together a Wi Fi Direct specification, a set of technical “rules” that guide consumer electronics companies that plan to add the new capability.
According to Kelly Davis-Felner, the Wi Fi Alliance’s marketing director, said “Wi Fi Direct will make it easier to liberate the mounting gigabytes of digital family photos that are trapped in cameras, smart phones or PCs. Now those gadgets will be able to connect directly to digital photo frames, TVs or printers.”

Wi Fi Direct?

Wi Fi Direct will allow Wi Fi enabled devices such as mobiles, phones, cameras, printers, computers, keyboards, headphones and several similar gadgets to connect to other Wi Fi devices individually or to multiple devices at once.

Wi Fi Direct… is it really a Bluetooth plus?

Using the latest technology –
Communication will be much faster and will support standard Wi Fi data rates
Devices will be able to connect to one another within about 100 meters of each other, while Bluetooth is good only for a much shorter distance.
This would allow just about any device that has Wi Fi built into it to use wireless broadband instead of Bluetooth.

Technology behind…

With new specification in place, gadgets will turn into mini Wi Fi access point, which means that it could eliminate the need for home network Wi Fi router.

Future of the Wi Fi will remain under wraps until it reaches in the hands of real consumer, till that time I am enjoying listening music on my Bluetooth headset…

In my earlier article, I discussed how to Add Banner images to Header on Thesis theme. Today, I will share how to change background color of your sidebar this will add glamour to the web page and improve upon visual appeal. To get a feel just look my sidebar here on TechZee and on one of my other blog PickTheCherry.net, I am confident you will like it.
Please remember once again, I am no expert and my procedure may be different from expert opinions available on topic, still for one thing you can remain assured, I have followed these steps and results match my expectations.
I am using Thesis Wordpress Theme (version 1.5) and my tips will only be based on that.

Change color of your sidebar

Open Custom Stylesheet -

custom.css

by clicking Thesis Custom Styling below Thesis OpenHook under Appearance on left of dashboard and add below given snippet at the bottom of available code on page-

a) If you are using single sidebar add this code –

/*Code to add color to background of sidebar and content*/
.custom #sidebars {background-color:#f8f8f8;}
/*Code to add color to background of sidebar and content*/

b) If you are using two sidebars use this code –

/*Code to add color to background of sidebar and content*/
.custom #sidebar_1 {background-color:#ABCDEF;}
.custom #sidebar_2 {background-color:#FAE2EF;}
/*Code to add color to background of sidebar and content*/

In the above code change the color as per your requirement by inserting hex code, for that purpose I found HyperGUrl.com to be the best site.

Look for the color that suits your topic and theme, save your changes and you are ready to show your style to world.

Isn’t it simple?

Global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, LG recently unveiled its latest Touch screen mobile phone LG GD510 or LG Pop, what they call it.
According to LG this mobile pop’s up on usability as it includes key features required by consumers, leaving behind features that are just for sake of specification sheet and never being used.
“We gave the LG GD510 an optimized feature set which allowed us to concentrate on making the phone more compact and simpler to use,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Our high-end phones like the Black Label Series New LG Chocolate (LG BL40) may be getting all the attention but there’s a gap in the market for affordable touch screen phones that we want to fill. The LG GD510 delivers all the essentials in communication, multimedia and entertainment and comes in a compact form factor as well.”
LG calls POP as the most compact 3-inch full touch screen phone ever made. Mobile Phone integrates a single home key that glows green to call or red to hang-up / cancel.

Slym - Adding features, which are really used by the consumer is an innovative and out of box thinking, with this LG will be able to control costs and will be able to pass on benefit to the consumer in form of right pricing along with faster processing speed compared to rivals.

New mobile phone; LG GD510… at glance

• 3-inch WQVGA touch screen that extends almost to the edges with a narrow 4.8 mm bezel giving the illusion of an uninterrupted sheet of glass.
• 3 mega pixel powerful camera
• 8GB internal memory
• 3G ready with EDGE/ GPRS
• Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0 (micro)
• FM radio
• Fully fluent in multimedia, plays music and movies in several popular file formats
• An easy-to-use browser
• Style is an area that can’t be ignored and LG phone understands it very well… evident from its earlier launched LG Chocolate phone, new mobile phone LG GD510 is crafted from brushed aluminum, which gives it that high-end sort of look.

What else…

Although there’s nothing officially mentioned, it’s rumored that the Mobile Phones will be available with an option of Solar Panel battery cover… Isn’t that great!

Availability

LG Pop GD510 will be first launched in Europe by mid of October this year and later spread to other parts of the world.
Price of these mobile phones is still under wrap and will vary in different markets and will be announced at launch time.
Ready to get a real power of this new touch screen mobile phone or interested in mobile phone loaded with features, never being used?

In one of my previous article, Is Microsoft’s new Zune, ready to fight iPod? , I discussed about preparations in the house of Microsoft to take on its natural rival Apple in iPod market… isn’t it foolish to assume, Apple will let Microsoft eat away with its profits and market position, without any resistance…
In its fifth generation, iPod nano is equipped with a camera, speaker and microphone to record live video, really a big addition.
Its not just the camera, it has 15 real-time special effects: Sepia, Black and White, X-Ray, Film Grain, Thermal, Security Cam, Cyborg, Bulge, Kaleido, Motion Blur, Mirror, Light Tunnel, Dent, Stretch, and Twirl built with in, to add glamour to your videos.
Additionally you will find a built in FM tuner with Live Pause and a large display in this little gadget that weighs just 36.4 grams.

New iPod nano at a glance…

• New iPod nano measures 38.7 X 90.7 X 6.2 mm
• Available with 8 GB and 16 GB flash drive, capacity to hold upto 8 hours or 16 hours video.
• Spoken menus allow listeners to hear many of the names of menus, song titles, and artists without viewing the screen.

Display

• 2.2-inch (diagonal) TFT display
• 240-by-376-pixel resolution at 204 pixels per inch
• A high-resolution LCD display with adjustable contrast and backlight settings makes it easier to read in low light.

Battery

• Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• Playback time

- Music playback time: Up to 24 hours when fully charged
- Video playback time: Up to 5 hours when fully charged

• Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter

Availability

This new iPod nano is already available in stores beginning at $149 for 8 GB edition in rainbow colors (nine colors), though red and yellow are Macintosh Store exclusive.

What’s next in the series… with this development, I can comfortably assume iPhone to be equipped with Live video recorder… very soon! What do you think?

Here at TechZee, I update you with latest mobile phones; great on style, power packed with features and wallet friendly… but what’s the use, if you are bound with existing mobile contract for next 18 months, whatever mobile phone may come in market, you have to act blind.
Why to enter such a mobile contract, when you have great options available?
The answer is Sim Only Offers, buy Sim card at a cheap price and use it with latest mobile phones, which matches your style or with the existing one and save money… simply a steal deal.
As the name suggests, Sim Only offer involves getting only a new sim card and you have to use your own phone.
Experts believe, Sim Only Offers to be a promising business model, data from IMS Research show’s that, “SIM card market continues to defy the economic downturn”, forcing service providers to align their business model to the market shift.

Advantages of Sim Only

1. No mobile handset involved, thus zero phone cost and provider passes on cost saving to the user, reduces your mobile phones expenditure.
2. Sim Only Contract are of much shorter time duration (30 days), where in mobile contract it normally ranges over 12 to 18 months, to recover mobile handset costs.
3. It allows you to easily transport your contact list to a new phone by removing the card and inserting it into another one.
4. You can purchase a new Sim card for as cheap as 9,79£ from http://www.simonlyoffers.com/

Switching to a Sim Only deal does not mean you need a new phone number; you can very well use your existing one.

Sim Only Offers

Sim Only Offers is an independent agency offering great services, they research across Sim Only deals from major network providers in UK, be it Vodafone, Orange mobile, T Mobile, 3 phone or O2 mobile; so that you get the best of deal at best of price…
Their website is always updated … so you can safely trust them and avoid hassle of researching for best deal yourself.
With Sim Only Offers you can choose among Sim Only Contracts offered by major network providers.

• Pay as you go - Customers are required to ‘top-up’ their prepaid sim card with vouchers instead of receiving a bill.
• Pay monthly - You receive a bill as per your usage

… in any case, you save great money.

Sim Only deals are great for…

• If you want the latest mobile phones as soon as it comes out, rather than wait for your mobile contract to expire.
• Anyone who wants to save money and reduce phone bills.

Are you in? Who all remain uncovered… Oops! None.

Sometimes, don’t you feel our lives have become so mechanical and full of worries, we don’t have time for ourselves and for our near-dear ones, we are always in a hurrry and chasing something.
Don’t you miss your childhood days… far away from worries, living life, kingsize.
Wanna add some fun to your boring life… make our own cartoon, share it with friends and be a child once again… it’s not that tough, find out your digital photo and transform it into a computer animation using picture editor tools.

List of tools available for the job can go on and on and on… but I have included only best applications which are available as freeware software.

Best freeware software to animate your life

BeFunky – It provides you with online tool to create a animation of you… from your own digital photo. Just upload your images from your computer or url and animate your life, without any technical know how and the best part it is, you don’t need any registration… isn’t it interesting?

BeFunky’s online tool’s Uvatar and Cartoonizer makes it ridiculously easy for you to turn yourself into an avatar, cartoon, digital painting or comic. So upload, animate and use it across the Internet.
BeFunky is undoubtedly a great tool and had been ranked among top 40 finalist at TechCrunch Conference 2007

Simpsonizeme - Simpson family is a real sweetheart… do you think the same, just log on and turn your photo into a Simpson like character.

Monjee - Convert your photo into funny cartoon, add effects, a facemask or just play prank on your friends … Monjee will do everything for you.

You can also download your own copy of Monjee’s iPhone application called Face moulder directly from the App store on your iPhone or from iTunes, click here

FotoSketcher - Fotosketcher turn’s your photo into beautiful paintings, sketches or drawings in seconds, just download it and use it for free.
With FotoSketcher different styles are available: pencil sketch, pen and ink drawing, various painting renderings. You can also improve your original photo with simple tools (enhance contrast, sharpen, simplify images, increase luminosity, color saturation etc).
It runs on any version of Microsoft Windows (…sorry to Mac users)

Kusocartoon - With this you can make your own comic; show your friends your life stories and funny ideas…
Just select your style and upload your picture, that’s it… kusocartoon will take care of the rest.

Cartoon Photo - Change facial expressions in your photo with one click! Make a sad person smile, or make a most cool-headed one wear a surprised expression. Good thing is - all kinds of faces are welcomed!

Additionally you can access some of the great photo editing and photo enhancement tools available.

Do you liked the idea… once you are done, don’t forget top send me a copy.

Recently, I have started receiving mail requests, regarding website designs and templates customization tips, whatever I have experimented here on TechZee.
For some mails, I replied back personally but now I think, its better to include small article, not a lengthy one but one tip at a time covering customizations I have already done and whenever it happens in future… what do you think?
I will start with Customizing Header section and adding a banner image (look for area holding my logo, tagline and short description about me, at the top of the page) to it.
To begin with, I must share… I am using Thesis Wordpress Theme (version 1.5). My tips will only be based on that (I may include one more theme in near future, which I am experimenting with, for one of my upcoming blog).
Please remember, I am no expert and my procedure may be different from expert opinions available on topic, still for one thing you can remain assured, I have followed these steps and results match my expectations.

Add banner image to Thesis Theme Header

• To get best results on Thesis theme, you must download Thesis OpenHook plugin, highly recommended.



• Open your dashboards, locate the area, which says, Quickpress, upload your image via this option and insert image into post.
• Now you have got an HTML code for your image along with the link, where you want viewer to be redirected once the image is clicked, cut and paste this HTML code to notebook editor.
• See on left of your dashboard, under the heading, Appearance, click on Thesis Openhook.
• Locate OpenHook for Header; add HTML code (from step 2) here.
• Click on Remove Thesis default header and save; with this you are done.

Wait a bit, I don’t prefer last step… as for Search Engines your site name and tagline plays important role while your site got indexed, so why to remove them… instead I have followed next step and ignored the last one…

• Open Custom Stylesheet

  custom.css

  by clicking Thesis Custom Styling below Thesis OpenHook under Appearance on left of dashboard and add below given snippet at the bottom of available code on page-

/*CODE TO HIDE DEFAULT HEADER AND SHOW CUSTOM HEADER */
.custom #header #logo { display: none; }
.custom #header #tagline { display: none; }
/* Optional to remove space around header image so image sits on divider line */
.custom #header { padding: 0; }

• Save your changes and you are ready to show your style to world with this clickable personalized Header image.

Isn’t it simple?

If you are benefited, add your website below and I will make a visit to your site.