This service, known as sketch swap and well, by now, if you haven’t figured out what that is, you shouldn’t be reading this.

It is a flash based site. There are no complex tools to draw or sketch. All you get is a simple, marginally thick brown color sketch pen like thingy. All you can do is draw something, as normally as you draw with a pencil or a paintbrush. No coloring or anything else can be done.

When you complete drawing, you click on “Submit Drawing”. Now your drawing is swapped for another drawing by somebody else. Not only that, you get to see exactly how the other user came up with the drawing. The way all the lines were drawn, where he/she started and how he arrived at the end product. Meaning, it is something like a video capture of the drawing done by the person. The same applies to your drawing as well.

For the hideous drawing I submitted, I received a surprisingly good reproduction of Edvard Munch’s Scream. Wonder how surprised another user will be when he sees mine!

Do tell me how much swaps you’ve done by leaving your comments and opinions. Thanks for reading!

Firefox has a built in password manager that helps you store usernames and passwords for the sites you need to login and use. Once the username/passwords are saved by the password manager, you can visit these sites and login without having to remember the login details.

Recently I came across an issue with my computer causing it not to start properly. I was afraid that Firefox would crash due to the repeated restarts and sure it enough it did. But before it did crash, I made a backup of the passwords list so that I can use it when I reinstall Firefox.

Backing up the passwords:

• First, download the Password Exporter Firefox Extension.
• Install the add-on the usual way.
• Go to Tools ->Options -> Security and click on Import/Export Passwords to get the window below.

• Now click on the Export Passwords button. Select a location and name for the file to be saved.

• You can save the passwords in the XML (eXtended Markup Language) or the CSV (Comma Separated Values) format
• You can also choose to encrypt the passwords and usernames in the exported file. But the encryption is crackable if somebody else accesses the file and imports the passwords.
• Thus, you have successfully backed up your passwords

Restoring the passwords:

• Ensure that the the computer to where you are exporting the passwords has Firefox with the Password Exporter extension installed.
• Go to Tools ->Options -> Security and click on Import/Export Passwords

• Click on the Import Passwords button
• Choose the file (xml or csv) where you have stored the passwords and click OK
• Your passwords will automatically be imported into Firefox
• Not only that, it will automatically be entered into login forms into the websites without you having to prompt it.

You can also import and export the password lists for sites that do not save your passwords the same way as above. The only bit of caution I would like to add is to move and store the xml or csv file in a secure manner. However, if you were too worried about security you would not be saving passwords in the password manager.

I hope you enjoyed the post and please do leave your opinions and comments. Do share the post if you find it useful and thanks for reading!

Cameroid is an online service that uses the webcam on your computer to take photos. It would of course be easier to use your webcam and capture photos and video without using Cameroid, but the service offers you facilities to modify, edit and morph the photos you take.

All you have to do is visit the site and click on “Ready? Click here” button to get started. Before that make it a point to switch on your webcam. After this you are all set to go.

How it works?

The service automatically detects if there is a webcam attached to your system and if it is functional. If it does detect a webcam, the feed from the camera is displayed on the screen. There are two buttons available for you take photos. The first one automatically takes the photo as soon as you click it. The second one is the timer, which counts down to 3 before taking the snap.

Once the photo is snapped, you are again provided with a few more options. You can save the photo to the public gallery of cameroid if you choose to. Else you can download the photo as a .jpeg file or even print it without downloading. You can also trash or delete the image if you want to try again.

Special Effects:

After your picture or image is ready, you are able to apply a variety of special effects to it. There is a possibility to choose from 9 different color modes for your picture to give it a makeover.

You can also (more…)

PayPerPost is one among the various paid-to-review networks in existence. The principle behind this is to write about services, products or events on your blog and get paid for doing so. It does look pretty easy on the outside, but is it really that simple?

How it works?

In a service such as PPP, your blog and its ratings are of utmost importance. The greater the Alexa rank and the Pagerank of your blog determine the reviews that can be taken up for it. PPP allows the advertisers to put their services up for review for a particular price. The advertisers can specify definite criterion such as the maximum Alexa rank and minimum Pagerank needed by a blog. Only those blogs fulfilling the criterion can take up these reviewing opportunities.

Can I earn money too?

As I said, your blog’s popularity is what determines how much you earn. Also, there will exist a number of opps that are not related to your blog’s niche. In that case, taking up those opps may simply tarnish your blog’s reputation. So, be wise in picking up good opps even if they don’t offer too much. By picking up related opps, you can make the post seem like a normal post(though a disclosure is needed) and not make it stand out like a sore thumb.

My Opinion:

Siteguide is completely free from CPC and CPM advertising of any kind. The only monetisation I use is that of Paid Reviews from services like PayPerPost. For young blogs like this, there are a few opps available ranging from $5 -$10. However, unless your blog commands a reputation, this is something that you have to settle for. I heard about PPP from various friends on the web and signed up soon after. Your blog needs to be atleast 90 days old for approval. I am yet to earn much from PPP, but however I hope that will change once I get a better PR soon.

I would certainly advise any blogger to sign up to the service as I feel it may boost the revenues without the usage of intrusive ads. For all those who are using this blog network already, I would like you to leave your opinions on if this really has worked for you and to what extent you have been successful in using this as a good monetization tool.

Thanks for reading!

Introduction to Gliffy:

Gliffy is a service that helps you to create and share diagrams, flowcharts and more. Using this service, you are able to create diagrams and share them with friends or with the public, in general. Gliffy is not simply a drawing tool, but has a wide range of tools and necessary items for creating professional flowcharts for presentation purposes.

Interface:

Gliffy runs completely on your web browser. It uses the Adobe Flash Player for all operations and hence you need it to run the site. The main site has a neat, simple and informative interface and thus makes it very easy to find what you are looking for.The site runs pretty fast even on a moderately paced internet connection, such as mine.

Signing Up:

Gliffy can be used free of charge for upto five diagrams which can be saved and edited whenever you want to. You need an email to signup in case you are interested in sharing the diagrams. Otherwise, you can simply try the service without submitting any data about yourself. The professional version costs upto $50 for a year. However, the free version has immense features as well.

Features:

There are quite a lot of features in Gliffy to discuss about, but I’ll outline a few important ones here. (more…)