If you want to feel the globe at your finger tips, Google Earth is simply the best way to do it. It can be thought of as a virtual globe. It is a geographical program which maps locations of the earth by superposition of images from aerial photography and satellite imagery. It was introduced in 2004 by Keyhole Inc. with the name of EarthViewer 3D. This company was funded by the Central Intelligence Agency and was later purchased by Google in 2004. This product was initially available in three different packages, but later,one package was discontinued. The two versions of Google Earth are:

• Google Earth (Free version)
• Google Earth Pro (Paid version)

Google Earth Pro 6.1

This professional version of Google Earth was built exclusively for business oriented activities. It has an annual subscription fee which is fixed at $399 and comes with many more features than the free version. This is simple software, but at the same time, is one of the most valued in business circles, and professionals use this tool to make quick geographical location dependent business decisions. The recent release of Google Earth Pro 6.1 comes with new features and enhancements which make it extremely effective. Some of the cool features of this package are listed here:

Some New Features provided in Google Earth Pro 6.1

Enhanced Print Layout: Overlays and maps can be printed out in premium resolution in order to aid concrete discussions and collaborations. It comes with improved paper handling and output controls in order to give a professional look to documents. Directional arrows as well as scale bars can be included in the printouts to provide better understanding.
Combined Length and Elevation Measurement Tool: The elevation profile and path length can be viewed in a single window which can improve the chance of a better 3D understanding of any desired location.

Simplified Movie Maker: Google Earth Pro comes with an amazing feature called Simplified Movie Maker. It can generate professional video presentations which are surely able to improve presentations. Along with that, saved tours and 3D viewer live actions can also be recorded.

Expanded Data Styling: The previous version came with eight different style attributes for the imported dataset. In this new version, imported datasets can enjoy about 64 unique and amazing style attributes. This provides users with a greater flexibility to control the look of their data and the ways in which it can be represented.

Improved Networking Infrastructures: Comparatively, an improved level of support is offered for corporate networking environments. This is because SSL certificates and network proxies are provided optimal support by Google Earth Pro 6.1. This benefits businesses, because they can now make use of the package while keeping their network security guidelines intact.

==== About the Author ====

This Guest Post is by Crystal J. Briscoe from Self Test Engine. If you are looking for 70-680 exam help, take advantage of the self paced COG-635 training and pass your IT exams on first try.

GeoSurf is a powerful and unique service which allows you to visit any website virtually from more than 89 locations. This service is specially useful for online marketers who usually geo-target their campaigns. Today, most of the websites display geo-targeted ads on desktop as well as on mobile devices. In simple words, visitors from Spain, Germany and China will be able to see ads related to products and services available in their respective countries.

There are many websites which allow us to browse the web with different geographical location. However, most of them do not work as advertised and the rest are full of pop-ups and crappy ads. On the other hand, GeoSurf offers quick and easy access to a network of fast, secure and premium proxy servers in more than 89 locations around the world, including Australia, Japan, Russia, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, South Africa, Korea, Poland, UK, US, etc. Check out the complete list below.

You can easily use GeoSurf right inside your browser, with the help of a simple toolbar. The GeoSurf toolbar is currently available only for Firefox and Internet Explorer and can be installed within seconds. After installing the toolbar, you will need to click on the settings icon and type your username and password to access its features.

Once you have logged into the toolbar you can surf any website as a local user of the country or DMA (Designated Market Areas) you select. Once you have done that, you will be able to view the ads that are geo-targeted to those locations. The toolbar is fast and easy-to-use and allows you to switch between countries in seconds.

The mobile emulator feature in the toolbar is worth mentioning. The mobile emulator allows you to view how a site looks when it is viewed from smartphones and tablets such as iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy S, BlackBerry Torch, etc. This feature is extremely useful for online marketers who want to check whether their website or ads looks perfect on different mobile platforms or browsers. To test this feature, I selected Samsung Galaxy S from the options and tried to visit Techie Buzz. I was quite happy to see that, it greeted me with the mobile version of the website.

The GeoSurf toolbar also allows you to view how a website or ad campaign looks from different browsers such as Firefox 3.6, Firefox 4, Google Chrome 10, Google Chrome 11, MSIE 8, MSIE 9, Opera 11, Safari 5, etc. Additionally, the GeoSurf VPN offers solution for changing the entire machine’s IP address to gateways on their global network of premium proxy servers.

GeoSurf Plus is a new and unique feature which helps you to checkout the complete eco-system of any website with a single click. To view the report of any website, you will need to click the graph icon on the toolbar. It will display the number of mediators, advertisers, campaigns and unique creative. To get the complete report, you will need to click on the "More Insight" button and it will open a new window with a interactive report of the given site. Currently, the reports are available only for the last 7 days.

Geosurf Plans and Pricing

GeoSurf currently offers 4 different price plans – Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. The basic Silver plan starts at $29 per month and it goes up to $199 per month for the Diamond plan. Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond plans offers 1 location + 100MB usage, 5 locations + 500MB usage, 9 locations + 700MB usage and 12 locations + 1GB usage respectively. GeoSurf also offers an Enterprise plan, which lets you to select 89 locations from the available locations. If you want to try their services, then you can also sign up for a 5-day trial account.

GeoSurf is definitely the best service which allows to to visit any website from more than 60+ countries and 20+ US locations. Most of the proxy servers offers slow and pathetic service, however, GeoSurf offers super-fast and premium proxy servers. If you are an online marketer dealing with geo-targeting, then you should definitely go ahead and sign up for a GeoSurf account.

You can view a demo of GeoSurf in action in the embedded video above and sign up for a free trial account to start using their features.

Disclaimer: The following is a sponsored review of GeoSurf. All opinions presented in this post are unbiased and true to our knowledge.

Having an online business is amazing. Having the freedom to choose your own hours, whilst often being paid much more than you would in general employment is a truly liberating experience. However working online has it’s disadvantages too. Working online is very different from working in a normal office, and staying productive, organized and efficient can sometimes be a challenge.

Fortunately thanks to some very useful online tools, running a business from home has become a whole lot easier. Here are some of the tools that we wouldn’t be without.

Remember The Milk

Remembering everything you are supposed to be doing is vital if you’re to enjoy any success and Remember The Milk makes this a breeze. It’s a task management application that allows you to plan your whole working week in advance and makes sure you stay on schedule.

It will give you email reminders when tasks are due and staying bang up to date with modern technology. It’s now android compatible, so even if you’re out and about, you’ll never forget to do something important.

It comes with a free and paid version, but those who are really serious about getting the most from their time would be advised to give the full version a look.

Google Docs

Google has brought out a few stinkers, but the Docs tool is a winner. An alternative to Office, this application doesn’t just let you create documents but also allows you to share them with other Google users.

Now your whole team can access documents together, and you can give people permission to edit documents and presentations as you go along. Google documents is ideal for anyone involved in writing or any other business where document sharing is an everyday occurrence.

Skype

If you are based in the UK and do a large amount of business with people in America you can spend all day on Skype chatting to them and not spend a dime. Imagine how much you’d be paying if you spent a few hours with them on a plain old telephone.

Skype makes communication so much easier, and with online business people based all over the world, this brings everyone much closer together.

Producteev

The best thing about Producteev is that it’s compatible with most other tools you’ll use day to day online. For example Twitter, Yahoo, MSN, Email, and Gmail all work on the Producteev platform so you never again be out of touch with contacts. In fact, Producteev really allows you to be in several places at once. A task that cannot really be achieved any other way.

Free Conference

Free Conference lets you gather at least 30 people into an online meeting room by giving them a free 1-800 number to ring into. Once you’re all together you can discuss your important business without any interruptions or complications. This is vital for businesses where team members are based in various parts of the world.

==== About the Author ====

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for a psd to xhtml service  company, and who also consults at the Tel Aviv University’s Political communication graduate programs

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WiFi is a wireless internet connection that has been around for several years now. For most individuals, it is the only form of wireless internet connection they have ever used, let alone heard of. However, there are other wireless internet options available to you. This includes WiMax. However, the two wireless internet connections are different in many different ways, so it is important to be able to identify the two different internet connections when using one or the other.

Each option listed is completely different from what WiMax offers. To start, WiFi used in conjunction with LAN. This helps WiFi create a wireless network capable of sharing large amounts of information, including software. On the opposite end of the spectrum, WiMax is a newer wireless internet connection. This is also known as a wireless broadband internet connection. With this internet connection you are able to transfer not only large amounts of data, but also voice and video information at fast rates of speed. This makes having a wireless broadband connection vital when sharing and streaming large amounts of video files. It is also helpful while using a VoIP to make phone calls all over the world.

WiFi has a signal of a few hundred feet from the housing wireless router. This allows any wireless based device access to the wireless signal created by the router. On the other hand, WiMax is programmed to provide wireless Internet connections at an extremely long distance. This is helpful for large businesses, where a large amount of space must be covered in order to access the internet on all company computers and it isn’t very practical to have multiple wireless routers on hand. WiMax has many different uses, and because of this there are many different connection options. This means, WiMax may connect to to a wired internet connection in several different ways. The several different access points allows you to create a wireless connection for mobile devices.

WiMax is a technology that helps a user’s connection between wireless base stations. This means you are able to move between wireless stations without losing your wireless internet connection. This is not the case with WiFi. When you move between wireless routers you need to reconnect to each router, enter in a new password and select the new wireless internet connection from the list of wireless networks. This slows you down if you are moving around an office complex and always need an Internet connection. If you are downloading content to your computer or mobile device this is disastrous.

A WiFi connection connects to a fixed Ethernet connection, so it allows you to constantly send the same amount of data over the internet connection. This is not always true with WiMax, as the power of the internet connection varies, so the amount of data capable of transferring over the internet connection also varies.

WiFi is a much more developed method of connecting to the internet. This means it is more cost effective as the equipment does not cost as much to purchase as WiMax hardware. It is also easier to install and set up for home users, so if you’re looking for a standard wireless internet connection without a lot of hassle, WiFi is perfect for you. WiMax is more designed and geared towards large businesses. These internet connections allow an individual to roam more in their large building and still stay connected to the Internet, which is helpful when downloading large files and programs, or when a phone is connected to a VoIP service.

When selecting a wireless Internet service, both WiFi and WiMax have its own list of pros and cons. Most of the decision comes down to what kind of facility you are looking to equip with an internet connection and what hardware you want to use with the wireless Internet service (are you using standard computers and mobile devices, or do you need access with larger video hardware). Once you think over these questions, it is possible to come up with the best possible Internet connection.

==== About the Author ====
Peter Tarkington is a computer technician and content contributor for WirelessInternet.org, a site which tracks advances in wireless internet access and lists its current providers.

With the rise of Internet use and advances in new technologies, more and more companies are starting to use web based applications. Distributed teams and a heavy focus on outsourcing are two other major reasons why web based apps are becoming popular. When it comes to distributed teams, software engineers are some of the most affected. Below are five web based apps that are not very popular, but can be used to make your software engineering easier.

Rescuetime – Rescuetime is a productivity tool which helps you become more efficient. Although some companies have already adopted this, it is also extremely useful for software engineers involved in freelance work or consulting work. Since software engineers are knowledge workers, productivity is very important to them. Rescuetime helps track which website you spend time on, lets you specify a time limit for specific websites. According to Rescuetime, it helps save an average of three hours per week that can be used for more productive tasks. I could sure use three more hours every week.

Creately – Creately is on online diagramming tool with support for many diagram types. Because it’s web based, you can access your diagrams anywhere in the world. It has a free version with some limitations, but I think that the single user license for $5 is a bargain. Try comparing it to software like Visio, which costs 300-900$ depending on the license. For a single user this is definitely a must have diagramming tool. An added advantage is the collaboration built into the tool. So even if you aren’t in the same location, you can work on diagrams as a group. It supports almost every type of diagram needed by software engineers, including the ability to come up with simple Gantt charts.

Confluence – Confluence is software for wiki page creation. It’s useful to distributed software teams, especially in large organizations. It encourages knowledge sharing and saves a lot of time when looking for expertise in specific areas. The ability to quickly find experts and information is critical for the success of any organization, and Confluence supports this in an efficient way. As an added bonus, it has social networking built in.

Basecamp – Basecamp is a project management software. Although it’s not fair to categorize Basecamp as not very popular, but I couldn’t think of better project management software. Jira, PivotalTracker and others, also provide some great tracking features, but I still don’t think they offer as much as Basecamp. The ability to collaborate on your projects is the critical element of Basecamp .

Escrow – Escrow is service that acts as a middle man in a payment. If you’re a software engineer who works for a company, then you won’t have any need for this. But if you are doing freelance work as a part time job without using websites like Freelancer or ODesk, then this is a very useful service.

There are hundreds more web apps that I could list here, but these are my favorites, and I’ve personally used each to some extent. If you know of similar web services that make your software engineering work easier, feel free to share them in the comments section, below.

==== About the Author ====
Nishadha Silva is a Software Engineer specializing in Oracle. He does SEO work in Sri Lanka and manages his own blogs in his spare time. He’s passionate about social media and always looking for ways to increase Twitter followers without following back everyone.

Learning programming through books has never been an easy task and it’s quite frustrating to learn it when you don’t tend to understand the logic. At least for a beginner it’s a heck of a job. Although having gone through several resources like, video tutorials, bookmarking online tutorials, and so on, but for some reason, you still don’t get a hang of it.

It was the same case with Zach and Ryan who were frustrated with learning how to program, and ultimately came up with an interactive way to learn programming by actually coding. They teamed up to create Codecademy, a web-based interactive programming tutorial that enables you to learn, and walks you through the basics of JavaScript.

Codecademy launched back in August 2011 and drew a whopping 250,000 visitors in its first four days and a total number of 2.1 million exercises were completed. The site teaches coding from the very basics, like declaring variables, and go as far as ‘While’ loops.

When you visit Codecademy.com you will be prompted to complete the first lesson, which involves printing your name and finding the length (number of letters) of your name. However, as you progress, you will have to set up an account in order to save your progress and continue with the tutorials.

The lessons are pretty straightforward and can be easily understood. It has a sidebar on the left hand of the screen, which will instruct you to perform a task. On the right, you will have a terminal where you need to enter the code and execute the same. The site interactively responds to whatever you code, be it correct or incorrect, or may prompt you to reuse something you have learned in a previous lesson, thus making you feel interested in learning and accomplishing the task.

Another interesting catch is that as you progress through the lessons, you will start to earn some points, badges and trophies. This is something which will motivate you to perform more operations and mostly without any mistakes.

Go ahead, give it a try. I’m sure you’ll love it!

I just gave it a try and completed a few lessons in no time. It’s that easy -

Codecademy does have some pretty good investors, including Union Square Ventures, O’Reilly, SV Angel, Yuri Milner, Social+Capital Partnership, Thrive Capital, Crunch Fund, Collaborative Fund, Founder Collective, Joshua Schacter, Vivi Nevo, Naval Ravikant, and several others. Few days back, the company announced that it has managed to raise $2.5 million in funds, led by Union Square Ventures, which has allowed Codecademy to expand its operations to more countries with more manpower.

They have also launched  their  first user generated course, created by – Albert Wenger, a partner at Union Square Ventures, who is the author of “Functions in JavaScript,”.

You know what’s the biggest frustration of sharing large files with an online friend?

It’s not the technology you use but the technology used by the other person who needs your files and has never heard of services like DropBox, Windows Live Skydrive, YouSendIt and so on. There have been times when this friend of mine calls up in the middle of night saying Hey I need all those project files right this instant.

I asked him whether he has a DropBox or a Skydrive account, and he replies What’s that? I mean why don’t you email me all those files(he is not aware of the 25 MB email attachment limit and wants me to upload all files one by one, while I am dying to sleep).

Winzip is trying to solve this situation with its brand new social file sharing feature ZipSend and ZipShare (nice names).

WinZip’s ZipSend Send Files Up to 2GB Via Email

Here is how it works.

ZipSend lets you compress multiple files and folders into a single archive, which you can email to anyone. It is basically an email plugin that marries your desktop or online email client (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo). When your files have finished uploading, ZipSend will email the recipient a download link of all the files as a new email message.

You will need a ZipSend account (Free) and have to install the WinZip Courier application on your system. The free plan of ZipSend lets you upload up to 50 MB of archived files for free, while the Pro option allows 2GB of file uploads via your ZipSend account.

So what makes ZipSend stand out from DropBox and other competing file sharing products? Nothing, except the fact that some people are over obsessed with email attachments and they are really skeptical on using third party sites for file downloads.

Send them a thousand email attachments and they feel secured and happy.

That’s where ZipSend fits in, when your target users are really basic and they want those files right in their email inbox. Otherwise, the features of ZipSend are still in its developing stages. For example; the free account of ZipSend gives you only 50 MB per file upload while the maximum number of files sent per month is restricted to 100. The Pro account sounds a little liberal at 2GB per file but then it costs $9.99 a month. Compared to Dropbox, which allows file uploads of up to 300 MB in size for free accounts, ZipSend is simply a waste of time.

ZipShare: A File Upload Container For Your Facebook Profile

Unlike ZipSend, ZipShare is completely free and lets you quickly share files with Facebook friends and groups. Not more than 20MB per file though.

Go to Zipshare.com, login with your Facebook account, upload all the files and share the download link on your wall or a Facebook group. The maximum disk space of your ZipShare account is 100 MB while the maximum file size per upload is 20 MB. Not bad!

A word of caution here. Once the download link is posted on your Facebook wall, any of your Facebook friends can click through to see what you have just shared. ZipShare does not support Facebook friend lists yet, so there is no way to share files with only specific Facebook friends. A little awkward but if that’s fine on your half, ZipShare is the ideal choice for sharing random files with Facebook friends. Pretty quick actually!

For the curious, I don’t use Winzip. $29.95 > 7Zip

Since Google started out with Google Docs, they have been adding a lot of new interesting features to the service to compete with the likes of Microsoft Office. Of late, the competition is really steaming up and Microsoft is battling to win back the online documents supremacy. However, Google’s integration of Google Docs with Gmail and their other services offers users an option to open and view documents, images and PSD files in their email without having to download them locally.

I have been using the option to open documents and PDF files in Google Docs for quite sometime now. However, one feature I found missing was the ability to open password protected PDF files in Google Docs.

Also Read: Remove Password from PDF Files | Unlock Password Protected PDF Files

It looks like that the Google Docs viewer just got smarter (or that it was already but I noticed it now) and allows you to open password protected PDF files without having to download them to your local computer.

The new feature is currently available for PDF files only and I wasn’t able to test it with a regular Office 2010 word document which was password protected. Hopefully, Google should add a feature for other password documents soon.