Tags: News / Review

Microsoft's Office for iPad, iPhone, and Android

- Thursday 6 November 2014 13 Comments

Microsoft's Office suite for iPad, iPhone, and Android is now free. In a surprise move, the software giant is shaking up its mobile Office strategy to keep consumers hooked to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. Starting today, you'll no longer need an Office 365 subscription to edit documents or store them in the cloud. The move comes just days after Microsoft announced a strategic partnership with Dropbox to integrate the cloud storage service into Office across desktop, mobile, and the web. You can now download Office for iPad and store all your documents on Dropbox without paying Microsoft anything at all. Microsoft is also releasing a brand new iPhone app today, alongside a preview of Office for Android tablets, all with Dropbox integration.

Microsoft's plans might sound crazy to most, and at first glance it's easy to come to that conclusion, but the company argues it's a matter of moving its free web apps to mobile. "It’s an extension of the strategy that we’ve got," explains Microsoft's head of Office marketing Michael Atalla. "It’s not a total strategic shift, as much of an extension of the existing strategy." Microsoft offers free Office apps online, and Atalla argues that recent development model changes inside Microsoft have allowed the company to open up editing functionality to mobile clients. "We’re taking that same user experience we provide online to the native apps of iOS and Android. We want to make sure that our customers can be productive across all the devices they have."

While consumers using Office mobile will be able to access the apps for free, Microsoft isn't extending this free functionality to businesses. An Office 365 subscription will be required to edit documents that are stored on OneDrive for Business or Dropbox for business, a clear sign of how Microsoft will continue to generate money from the thousands of businesses that rely on its productivity suite and cloud platform. "There’s still premium value that we’ll add on top of that," says Atalla. "There will still be subscription value, most clearly and easily identifiable in the commercial space, but also in the consumer space around advanced authoring, analysis, presentation, and unlimited storage with OneDrive." Microsoft is also restricting some chart element customization and track changes to paid customers, making them premium features.

The key here appears to be a strategic move by Microsoft to keep Office competition out of the mobile space. It's all too easy for competitors to build rival products and ship them for free on iPad, iPhone, and Android, offering premium features on top. Microsoft's Office suite is dominant, which also means it's ripe for disruption. If there's a rival Office iPad app that's free and easy to use, that could tempt consumers away from their preconceived reliance on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. CloudOn, a gesture-based app for editing Office documents, has seen some early success here. Apple also offers its own iWork apps on iPad at no extra cost, and several rivals, including the maker of the popular Paper iPad app, are emerging to threaten Office on mobile. The nightmare situation for Microsoft is that consumers realize soon that they don't need Office to create their resume or personal documents, so why should they pay for it on a smartphone or tablet where they're used to getting free apps.

While Microsoft will never admit it, it's that threat more than anything that has forced the company's mobile shift here. "By in large we want that core authoring experience in front of all the users that love Office on any device they choose," explains Atalla. That core authoring experience can help keep Office users hooked, and Microsoft doesn't want to face a future where consumers, and eventually businesses, are no longer obsessing over Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. There's also a play here to get consumers using OneDrive cloud storage and a Microsoft Account. Both of these can help Microsoft tempt consumers over to Office 365 for additional storage and the added benefit of Office for PC and Mac as part of a subscription. It's a bold move from Microsoft, but also a defensive one. Microsoft's competition will now have to look elsewhere to plot their Office attack.

Description

Microsoft Office Mobile is the official Office companion optimized for your Android phone. You can access, view and edit your Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere. Documents look like the originals, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes. When you make quick edits or add comments to a document, the formatting and content remain intact.*

KEY FEATURES:

Access documents from virtually anywhere: 

• Cloud – With your phone, you can access Office documents that are stored on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint.
• Recent Documents – Office Mobile is cloud-connected. The documents you’ve recently viewed on your computer are readily available on your phone in the recent documents panel. 
• Email Attachments – You can view and edit Office documents attached to email messages.*
• Office documents look stunning: 
• Great-Looking Documents - Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents look great on your phone, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt Graphics, and shapes.
• Optimized for phone - Word, Excel and PowerPoint have been optimized for the small screen of your phone. 
• Resume Reading - When opening a Word document from OneDrive or OneDrive for Business on your phone, it automatically resumes at the place where you left off reading, even if you last viewed the document on your PC or tablet.
• Presentation Views - The Slide Navigator view in PowerPoint lets you browse slides faster, while speaker notes help you practice your presentation.
• Make quick edits and share*: 
• Documents Remain Intact - Formatting and content remain intact when you edit Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents on your phone.
• Create – You can create new Word and Excel documents on your phone.
• Comments - You can review comments that have been made in Word and Excel documents on your phone and add your own comments.

* Sign in with a free Microsoft account to create, edit and save documents for home use. A qualifying Office 365 subscription is required to create, edit and save documents for business use. Qualifying plans include: Office 365 Small Business Premium, Office 365 Midsize Business, Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E4 (Enterprise and Government), Office 365 Education A3 and A4, and Office 365 ProPlus.

Requires a phone running Android OS 4.0 or later.

For more information, please visit http://www.office.com/mobile.

Tags: Bengali Post / Tutorials / Web Development

HTML Color Codes

- Wednesday 5 November 2014 2 Comments

FFF  FFF

CCC  CCC

999  999

666  666

333  333

000  000

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FF9  900

FF6  600

FF3  300

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CC9  900

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FFC  C66

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FF6  633

CC3  300

CC0  033

CCF  F00

CCF  F33

333  300

666  600

999  900

CCC  C00

FFF  F00

CC9  933

CC6  633

330  000

660  000

990  000

CC0  000

FF0  000

FF3  366

FF0  033

99F  F00

CCF  F66

99C  C33

666  633

999  933

CCC  C33

FFF  F33

996  600

993  300

663  333

993  333

CC3  333

FF3  333

CC3  366

FF6  699

FF0  066

66F  F00

99F  F66

66C  C33

669  900

999  966

CCC  C66

FFF  F66

996  633

663  300

996  666

CC6  666

FF6  666

990  033

CC3  399

FF6  6CC

FF0  099

33F  F00

66F  F33

339  900

66C  C00

99F  F33

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FFF  F99

CC9  966

CC6  600

CC9  999

FF9  999

FF3  399

CC0  066

990  066

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00C  C00

33C  C00

336  600

669  933

99C  C66

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FFF  FCC

FFC  C99

FF9  933

FFC  CCC

FF9  9CC

CC6  699

993  366

660  033

CC0  099

330  033

33C  C33

66C  C66

00F  F00

33F  F33

66F  F66

99F  F99

CCF  FCC

CC9  9CC

996  699

993  399

990  099

663  366

660  066

006  600

336  633

009  900

339  933

669  966

99C  C99

FFC  CFF

FF9  9FF

FF6  6FF

FF3  3FF

FF0  0FF

CC6  6CC

CC3  3CC

003  300

00C  C33

006  633

339  966

66C  C99

99F  FCC

CCF  FFF

339  9FF

99C  CFF

CCC  CFF

CC9  9FF

996  6CC

663  399

330  066

990  0CC

CC0  0CC

00F  F33

33F  F66

009  933

00C  C66

33F  F99

99F  FFF

99C  CCC

006  6CC

669  9CC

999  9FF

999  9CC

993  3FF

660  0CC

660  099

CC3  3FF

CC0  0FF

00F  F66

66F  F99

33C  C66

009  966

66F  FFF

66C  CCC

669  999

003  366

336  699

666  6FF

666  6CC

666  699

330  099

993  3CC

CC6  6FF

990  0FF

00F  F99

66F  FCC

33C  C99

33F  FFF

33C  CCC

339  999

336  666

006  699

003  399

333  3FF

333  3CC

333  399

333  366

663  3CC

996  6FF

660  0FF

00F  FCC

33F  FCC

00F  FFF

00C  CCC

009  999

006  666

003  333

339  9CC

336  6CC

000  0FF

000  0CC

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000  066

000  033

663  3FF

330  0FF

00C  C99

009  9CC

33C  CFF

66C  CFF

669  9FF

336  6FF

003  3CC

330  0CC

00C  CFF

009  9FF

006  6FF

003  3FF

Tags: Tutorials

Difference Between HTTP and HTTPS

- 1 Comment

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a protocol used in networking. When you type any web address in your web browser, your browser acts as a client, and the computer having the requested information acts as a server. When client requests for any information from the server, it uses HTTP protocol to do so. The server responds back to the client after the request completes. The response comes in the form of web page which you see just after typing the web address and press “Enter”.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a combination of two different protocols. It is more secure way to access the web. It is combination of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) and SSL/TLS protocol. It is more secure way to sending request to server from a client, also the communication is purely encrypted which means no one can know what you are looking for. This kind of communication is used for accessing those websites where security is required. Banking websites, payment gateway, emails (Gmail offers HTTPS by default in Chrome browser), and corporate sector websites are some great examples where HTTPS protocols are used.

For HTTPS connection, public key trusted and signed certificate is required for the server. These certificate comes either free or it costs few dollars depends on the signing authority. There is one other method for distributing certificates. Site admin creates certificates and loads in the browser of users. Now when user requests information to the web server, his identity can be verified easily.

Here are some major differences between HTTP and HTTPS:

HTTP	HTTPS
URL begins with “http://”	URL begins with “https://”
It uses port 80 for communication	It uses port 443 for communication
Unsecured	Secured
Operates at Application Layer	Operates at Transport Layer
No encryption	Encryption is present
No certificates required	Certificates required

Tags: Video

Comparing bitcoin to other currencies

- Tuesday 4 November 2014 No Comments

Now that you know how Bitcoin works, let's talk about how it compares with other forms of value. We'll start with the ones you're probably familiar with. We'll look at them in terms of the forms they take, whether they work well online, the authority that guarantees their value, and what your recourse is if spend it and then you want to take it back without getting lawyers involved. And we'll also look at the overall cost of use to you taking the risks into account. We'll start with Bitcoin. In form, it's a purely digital currency. It doesn't exist in any other place.

As such, it's completely online ready. As described earlier, it uses an online network rather than a central authority in order to oversee it. When you spend Bitcoin, it is absolutely spent. There is no way to get it back except to go to the courts and demand it back that way. Finally, the cost of use for Bitcoin is very low compared to other forms of value. Now let's look at cash. It's form is purely physical and as such it is not in any way online ready. The authority is whatever government backs the cash, whether it's the United States or Britain or anywhere else.

When you spend it, you have no recourse except, again, go to the courts and it's cost of use is actually very low. Moving on to checks, these are mostly physical, although that is moving around somewhat, in that you can now take pictures of checks and deposit them that way. As such, they're a little bit online-ready, but mostly they're a physical form. The authority comes from the bank that issues them, and you do have recourse by going to that bank. The cost of use is moderate, that is, you have to spend a certain amount in fees and overdraft protection and so forth in order to make the checking system work.

Then we come to credit cards. At this point, credit cards are mostly digital, and you can use them online quite well. The authority, once again, is the bank that issues them, and if you want to get your money back, you do still have recourse through the bank. The cost of use, however, is very high, because the bank is guaranteeing the value until the transaction closes, which can be weeks or months later. So, those are the common forms of money, but there are actually many other forms of value that people use everyday. First is the oldest form of money in the world, trading one valuable thing for another, or as it's properly called, barter.

Gold falls into this category because you have to physically exchange it for whatever it is you're getting. It's a purely physical form, much like cash, and as such, it is not in any way online ready. The only authority you have is physical proof. You can see the object and check to make sure that it is actually what you think it is, but there's no central authority that's going to guarantee its value. Once you've made the exchange, there is no recourse to you and the cost of use is actually very high. You have to bring the object to the other person and get that person's object into your hands.

Finally, we come to something called Scrip, which is a category that encompasses all forms of private tokens of value. For example, gift cards, Linden Dollars on Second Life, babysitting certificates, and so on. The form varies quite a bit and as such, it's not always online-ready, although it can be, for example, gift cards for online sites. The authority guaranteeing the value of the scrip is the company or organization that issued it. If there's any sort of dispute over the transaction, there's often some form of recourse through the company or organization, but it depends on that company or organization.

And the cost of use varies depending on the organization that issues the script. That covers most common forms of value. But there's one other kind we should discuss. After Bitcoin appeared, people tweaked the details in Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin paper and created hundreds of other cryptocurrencies, only about a half dozen are widely traded at any given time. And here's some criteria for comparing them with Bitcoin. First, is their ease of use. Second, is the value of each coin, along with the number of coins in circulation.

When you multiply the two together, you get the market capitalization, which is the sign of how strong the coin is in the world. Third, are the technical details. For example, what kind of cryptography is protecting it, and what procedures are used to spend it or mine it? The real reason to compare all these things is to help decide which form of money is right for a particular purpose. You already do this when you decide whether to use cash or a credit card at the grocery store.

Tags: Video

How Bitcoin works

- 13 Comments

A lot of what makes Bitcoin new and interesting is that, for the first time, it lets two people securely exchange value online without a bank, government, company, or any other central authority between them. Here's a very high level example of how it works. Let's say that I want to send you one Bitcoin. This wallet includes my own Bitcoin address. Which is a compressed version of something known in cryptography as a public key. It also contains data needed to sign transactions, known as my private key.

The private key data must be kept hidden because anyone who gets my private key can access and spend my Bitcoins. So, I tap Send Coins, type in your address, and the amount to pay and then tap Send. The wallet uses my private key to sign the transaction, then it publishes a signed copy of it to the entire Internet. The balance in my wallet immediately goes down by one Bitcoin and the balance in yours goes up by the same amount. Out on the Bitcoin network our transaction gets bundled into a block with other transactions.

This block is tied shut with a cryptographic puzzle, which specialized computers called Miners compete to solve. Whichever computer solves the block puzzle first is entitled to claim any transaction fees that were included in that block, along with a block reward of some Bitcoins. This is actually how new Bitcoins are introduced to the world. The Miner publishes the soft block and it becomes part of the public ledger known as the block chain. This block solving process takes about ten minutes but we're not done yet, your wallet shows that you've been paid 1 Bitcoin but its not spendable yet.

You see, several Miners might have solved a block at essentially the same time and they're all competing to have their block be the next official one on the block chain. The passage of time solves all these conflicts. Without getting into the details, every additional block that gets solved confirms the ones that come before it. So, it's best to wait for confirmation of a few more blocks, after the one containing your transaction, before you treat it as irreversible and you treat the Bitcoins as spendable. This all happens in about an hour. Now, at first, you might think that, that's a lot slower than credit card transactions, which only seem to take a few seconds.

But in reality, those credit card settlements can take days and they can be disputed for weeks or months. They only seem to be fast because the credit card company is guaranteeing the transaction in exchange for some pretty high fees. The same is true for checks, which really take a few days to be cleared by the bank. By comparison, 60 minutes for Bitcoin isn't so long. Earlier, I said that Bitcoin works without a central authority between the sender and the recipient. What's replaced it, is this worldwide network of Miners where nobody is powerful enough to disrupt the entire network.

Now it's not a foolproof system and I'll talk about its potential problems in another video, but so far it's proven remarkably resilient. I skimmed over a lot of details on how Bitcoin works. Really explaining it fully requires sophisticated references to computer networking, to automated conflict settlement, cryptography and a host of other specialties. Fortunately, the source material is all easy to find if you want to find that stuff out. First and foremost is the original Bitcoin paper, available at bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf.

Then there's the Bitcoin Wiki at bitcoin.it. Finally, there's lots to explore on the Bitcoin Foundation's official site at bitcoin.org or bitcoin.com.bd

Tags: Video

What is bitcoin?

- 2 Comments

You've probably heard Bitcoin called money, or a commodity or a store of value. The truth is, it can function as all of those things. But at it's base, it's something quite different. Let's start from the beginning. Bitcoin was first described in a paper that was announced in several places online on Halloween, 2008, written under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It describes a way to use a cryptographically strengthened public ledger to record and protect transactions. Now, Bitcoin was only an idea then, but after two months of planning and software development, the first block of 50 coins was released.

This was known as the genesis block. A small development community turned that idea into a working system. One important part of that system, is a way to release Bitcoins over time, to reward those people who dedicate their computer power to making the system's infrastructure work. If things had stopped there, it would have just been an interesting experiment. And if fact, it remained just a curious toy of cryptography geeks for about a year and a half. During which time, someone paid 10,000 Bitcoins for a couple of pizzas. If that transaction were to take place as I record this, though, those pizzas would cost over $5 million.

A few things eventually brought Bitcoin wider attention and caused its value to rise. First, people started accepting it in exchange for real-world goods and services. It was mostly criminals in the early days, drawn by Bitcoin's ease of transfer and semi-anonymous nature. But soon, legitimate organizations such as WordPress and the Internet Archive accepted Bitcoin for donations and payments. Second, services appeared to give people ways to buy, sell, store, learn about and protect their Bitcoins. Although the quality of these companies varied and many failed, some were backed by experienced entrepreneurs with substantial capital.

And third, people in financially unstable countries started using Bitcoin as a way to store their wealth. When the government of Cyprus announced the plan to seize certain bank deposits in April 2013 for example, the price of Bitcoin soared to over $250 before dropping again to settle around 120. Now, as I'm saying these words, its value is several times that. As the value of Bitcoin rose, it attracted the attention of government regulators. Although there is no way they can effectively block Bitcoin per say, that hasn't stopped some of them from trying.

And they can crack down on important parts of its economy, such as exchanges that convert Bitcoin to dollars. It also attracted the attention of thieves. But although about a half a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin have been misappropriated or misplaced, nearly all of that has been because of common business fraud, or incompetence, or bad technical implementations. Besides a small bump or two early in Bitcoin's life, none has revealed a basic flaw of Bitcoin itself. And through all of these things, the hacking attacks, failed Bitcoin businesses, government threats, market changes, Bitcoin has always bounced back.

Tags: Video

Up and Running with Bitcoin

- 7 Comments

Understand the basics of bitcoin, the popular virtual currency, and then learn the nuances of bitcoin transactions and security issues that can be difficult to navigate on your own. Tom Geller addresses both the big and small issues swirling around bitcoin right now, and prepares you to use or accept bitcoin as a currency for your transactions. Discover how bitcoin compares to US dollars and other forms of money; how to send, receive, and "mine" it; and how to protect and track your bitcoin transactions. Tom will even show you how to connect with the Bitcoin development community, in case you're interested in contributing to the spread of this modern cryptocurrency.