Yatrachef.com – hot food at your train seat in India

Presenting Yatrachef.com a resource that guarantees delivery of food of your choice right at your seat. 

India is growing up at a good pace now. If you thought that meals served on the train are rich sources of viruses and bacteria and must be avoided at all costs, you are lagging behind. Yes... there is a tempting alternative the next time you feel hungry in a train journey in India. Yatrachef.com – hot food at your train seat in India.

Yatrachef has come into existence, to add spice and comfort to these 3 million travellers every day.
YatraChef helps you have your favorite food in train from the best and most popular restaurants and fast food chains near railway stations across India.

How it works: 

You type in your train details and they will tell you the Restaurants that deliver fresh food at your seat in train throughout your journey. You can choose from the vast menu according to your date and time of travel, so that you can find what you're looking for and also get it delivered in train.

You can place your order online or by phone (0 8137 8137 00) or through WhatsApp (that is very neat), free of charge.

In a world, where people are fast moving to comfortable ways of living in their everyday lives, getting a simple desired meal on train still remains a problem.

I am sure you have experienced something similar to this if you are an Indian:

• Waking up early to prepare meals for your journey (that too which lasts only for a few hours?
• Spending a whole day on forced diet.
• Receiving inferior quality food from Station vendors which is fit for animals (some not even for them).
• Being worried about leaving your luggage in the train while going out to buy food at a platform.
• Or worried that the train may leave before you get your order packed at the stations.

If your answer to any of the questions is yes, then yatrachef.com is the solution for you.

Piping hot food for all travelers via easy ordering apps or hotline numbers is their endeavor.
Yatrachef.com has spread its reach across 170 stations and in over 3500 + trains. It seems to have a phenomenal response... and why not? It requires some courage and determination to start something as big as this. The very planning would be a nightmare, forget the implementation. The people involved are to be applauded for this tremendous effort.
I hope they overcome all hiccups and establish themselves as a great avenue for travelers who seek quality food.

Indian rail passengers need this service for sure.

A train delivery is a very important logistical operation as the food needs to be delivered in a fresh and hot condition within a five minute window when the train stops at a station.

This gives customers peace of mind as they can rely on us to get their meals delivered without fail. This is just one of the many improvements/innovations that they want to bring to this space.”

They even serve custom prepared food when you are traveling in groups.

Just enter your PNR status and order through YatraChef.com and enjoy fresh quality food across India while you travel in train.

Delete your Search History from Google and YouTube

How to delete your Search History from Google and YouTube - and reclaim your back.

I am not talking about your local records that are stored in your PC or laptop which you can clear easily.

Google maintains a record of every search you’ve ever made till date, if you have been logged in either Gmail or any other related Google services - in any browser - not just Chrome. And they’ll keep it forever unless you tell them to delete it.

Wait. My intention was not to scare you out, but to inform you that you have the option to remove all your records from Google and also tell Google not to store any thing in future!

 

This article will show you how to accomplish both of these, all in a few simple steps. Luckily, it is quite easy to delete your entire Google search history in one fell swoop. Here’s how: 

Step 1: Visit the history.google.com/history/ page on the Google website, and sign in if you are not yet already signed or are prompted to do so.

Click the Menu icon (it looks like 3 vertical dots in the top right).

Step 2: Click the Menu icon (those 3 vertical dots on the top right).

Step 3: Click Delete options.

Step 4: Select Advanced > All time from the drop-down menu.

Step 5: Click on Remove.

Step 6: Click Delete.

Step 7: And now to remove any chances of storing your search history go to settings and explore all the options under Manage Activity and Show More Settings

Step 8: Uncheck/Remove those options that are there for saving your history.

Step 9: You will also have the option to remove your YouTube activity and YouTube search history in there.

That’s all there is to it. Your Google search history has now been deleted.

Hope you enjoyed this article! As usual I value your comments and feedback! And if you find it useful please share in Facebook or Google plus to help others!

 

 

 

Print from your Smart Phone or Tablet

How to Print from your Smart Phone or Tablet

All of us agree that smartphones and tablets have invaded our lives in a big way. Nowadays smartphones have become faster and equally efficient as laptops and PC and tablets are slowly replacing the PCs and Laptops in a world where form factor and speed is essential.

There are umpteen improvements in day-to-day work in the form of enhanced software and intelligent software that decides what you really need. However one thing that I found missing was the ability to print from a laptop or smartphone and it took some time for technology to catch up.

The usual way to connect to a printer is via a USB cable connection after installing the drivers and using software that came pre-installed on the device.
If it is not possible, or if you prefer to print wirelessly, you’ll probably need to download an app written just for that purpose. That is advancement for you!

Note: Some wireless printer manufacturers include an app for printing wirelessly from a mobile device on their printers’ installation CDs. If that is missing you can try to download the app available as a free download directly from the printer manufacturer's website (your printer’s user manual should give you the Website URL).

The big question is - what to do if your Printer is not Wireless enabled?

You are in luck! What you need is a PC with Google Chrome installed with your user account and an Android Phone (from where you need to print something) with a free app for your Android device.

This method involves a free service from Google called 'Cloud Print'. 

First, configure the PC that has a printer attached.

1. In your Chrome Browser, sign in to your Google account (by clicking the menu button in the top-right corner).
2. Go to Chrome Settings.
3. At the bottom of the Settings page, click on 'Show advanced settings'.
4. Scroll to the section labelled 'Google Cloud Print' and click the button 'Add printers'.
5. A confirmation page will open. Click 'Add printer(s)'.
6. A Cloud Print web page will open where you can configure many options in your printer settings.
7. After you have installed a printer you can now use the 'manage printer' option that you will see here.

Next, set up the Android device that you want to print from.

1. Download and install one of the free Cloud Print apps. I tried the newly released Google Cloud Print app such as CloudPrint Plus or CloudPrint
2. Open the Cloud Print app and it should show the printer(s) that you set up on your PC.

You should now be able to print from any apps that allow sharing. Open a web page or document you want to print in any app, then click the Share button. Share the document to the Cloud Print app.

You’ll be able to send the file to the printer.  Because Cloud Print works over the Internet, you can use this feature to connect to a printer at your home or office or anywhere!

Note that you must be using the same Google account in Chrome and with the Cloud Print app after which your printer will be seen in the app. In case you did not know, the PC and/or the printer do not have to be switched on when you send the print command. The print job will be queued at Google Cloud Print until you turn the PC and printer on.

You can check what print jobs are waiting by clicking the Chrome “Manage printers” button mentioned above in step 7. If you do not want your printer to always be connected to the Internet, simply click the "Disconnect printers" button mentioned in step 8 above.

That is it! I hope you liked this nifty tip. Let me know if it worked for you or if you have a better suggestion. If this article helped you - please share it around socially!

How to make your sluggish computer run a lot faster

How to make your slow computer run a lot faster

Do you ever rake up your brains wondering how to make your sluggish computer run a lot faster
? Have you noticed that, of late it is running a lot slower than it did when you first started using it? Computers tend to slow down over time due to clutter on the hard drive and other software-related issues. This is especially true with Windows-based machines.

And of course older computers that you  bought a few years ago, simply don’t have the state-of-the-art faster hardware components that newer models are blessed with.



So how to make your sluggish computer run a lot faster? There are three possibilities:

1. You will have to exchange it at a lower price than you would have wished it or 
2. Tweaked a few software settings and made it more efficient.
3.  Added a few hardware components to suit the latest OS.

The first option can be avoided if your computer is not too old.
The second one is possible and that too without spending too much.
The third one only if your OS demands it.

Here are the software tweaks:

1. Install a good AV (Anti-Virus) software that will not slow down your computer at the same time.
2. Next, use a cute little free utility called 'Autoruns'* to remove any non-essential programs and utilities from the Windows Startup process.
3. Use the amazing and free Windows tuning utility CCleaner to clean up your system’s obsolete and temp files and eliminate errors in the Windows Registry.
4. Finally update your windows OS and install the latest updates without fail. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista you’ll find the Windows Update utility on the Start Menu. In Windows 8 or 8.1, simply search for Windows Update in your start menu search box.

In case you do not have the search box you can use this trick to install one, in Windows 8 (or 8.1)

Coming to adding some necessary hardware components -

The first most important tip is to add up more RAM. 

If your computer has good RAM volume then it will be more efficient than a lesser RAM configuration PC. So to find out if your RAM is lesser or not head over to Crucial Website and download their free Crucial System Scanner diagnostic tool.

The Crucial System Scanner utility will take stock of your PC’s RAM configuration and will give insights on how much RAM is already installed, what type of RAM it uses, and exactly which RAM modules you need to buy (and how many to say increase the total system RAM to either 4 GB or 8 GB).

Write down the information and buy your new RAM elsewhere.

The second important tip is to use a SSD. Now, lets talk about a steroid shot that will truly press the nitro on your PC! Simply replace your computer’s existing hard drive with a relatively inexpensive solid state drive (SSD).

It will make a huge difference in how quickly your computer boots up, shuts down, and runs programs. While it performs the same function as a regular hard drive, an SSD stores your OS programs and files on super-fast memory chips instead of the much slower spinning platters of a regular hard disk.

And trust me, the difference in speed and performance is amazing sometimes by a margin of almost 50% !!!

But a word of caution - this will require you to hire a professional help as it may be a bit technical. However I will post the steps in a later article and try to make this easy for you.

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* Here are the steps for downloading and running Autoruns:

1 – Visit the CNET download page for Autoruns and click the “Download Now” button. Click “Save As” in the box that pops up at the bottom of the screen and save the folder Autoruns.zip onto the Desktop.
2 – Open the Autoruns.zip folder and click “Extract all files”.
3 – To run Autoruns simply click on autoruns.exe.

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MI4i - Budget friendly warhorse of a smartphone!

MI4i - Budget friendly warhorse of a smartphone. The phone that delivers value for money. If you are looking for an affordable phone with high-end specs then you need to stop looking any further.

First thing it is a very affordable for the specs that it is powered with. In fact more than a bang for the moolah. It comes with awesome features that usually are reserved for the 20+K segment.


Coincidentally I was about to order a high-end phone but thought to wait for a day to check in just in case. And I was pleasantly surprised to see this coming out!

I will be adding more details later in the days to come. Lets see some cool pics first:

Resolution = Full HD, 1920 x 1080 Pixels 'JDI Display', All New Sunlight Display, 441 PPI Size = 5 Inches

RAM Memory  =   2 GB RAM,
Device Memory =  16 GB ROM  (User available Memory - 12.77 GB)

User Interface = MIUI 6
Graphics   =  Adreno 405
OS  =   Android v5.0.2 (Lollipop)
Processor   =  1.7 GHz + 2nd-gen Snapdragon 615 64-bit Octa core


Register at Flipkart for your phone and get set to go!

Note: the links in this post are affiliate links.

Fing - Find out who is connected to your Wi-Fi network

Fing - Find out who is connected to your Wi-Fi network. That too n the blink of an eye using 'Fing'. It is a wonderful android and iPhone App for analyzing your Wi-Fi network. 

A simple and intuitive GUI (Graphic User Interface) that helps you judge your security levels, detect unknown intruders and also resolve network issues.  

And most importantly it is free!

For me personally I am drooling over this nifty feature which states - Wake On LAN: Switch on your devices from your mobile or tablet! 

Upon installing and first run, almost immediately you’ll be presented with a list of all those devices that are connected to your network at that time.

The Fing app will display the name of the network as well as the IP and MAC address of every device that’s currently connected to it. See the screen shot.


Fing is available on several other platforms, including Windows, OS X and Linux and Available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch with retina and standard displays.Check them out!

There’s a whole lot of useful info that can be seen in Fing as well.

You’ll find the free Fing Network Tools app in the Google Play Store.

Best OTG pendrives for smartphones and Tablets 2015

What if I told you that you could use an USB device on a mobile without a mini-USB adapter cable? Chances are you may say no. However all that is set to change with the entry of OTG USB pendrives. Best OTG pendrives for smartphones and Tablets 2015.

What is OTG?

OTG stand for 'On the Go'. It means that basically you need not waste time waiting to connect some cables to make it compatible to connect some devices. In other words just plug 'n' play.


There are quite a few devices in the online market and I will be listing them here. I regularly buy stuff and am a heavy user but when I see a good product I get an inclination to recommend it to my readers. Not many of you may have the time to choose a device, like these small but useful pen-drives, and that is where I feel this blog comes in.

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The first in the list is : Kingston Data Traveler MicroDuo 16 GB GB On-The-Go Pendrive

Pros:

• Small compact size.
• Good read/write speed
• Budget friendly.
• Compatible with OTG supported phones.
• 5 Years warranty.

Cons:

• Slight Heating problem when used in certain devices.
• Not as fast as USB 3 Pendrive.
•  

 Get it here: Kingston Data Traveler MicroDuo 16 GB GB On-The-Go Pendrive



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The second in the list is  : Sandisk Ultra Dual 16 GB 3.0 On-The-Go Pendrive (Black)

This one is a USB 3 Device. Which means it will read/write faster but comes with a small price difference which in this case is not that big. This device will pay itself in the long run.
Pros: Good speed in read/write
Compact and saves time.
Compatible with OTG smartphones and all Computers and Laptops that have USB 3 ports. In case you do not have an USB 3 port it will reduce speed to USB 2 levels (backward compatible)

Click here to see the product : Sandisk Ultra Dual 16 GB 3.0 On-The-Go Pendrive (Black)



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The third in the list is:  Sandisk Ultra Dual USB Drive 32 GB Pendrive (Black)


The third in the list is what I bought first: An USB-2.0  32 GB version of this device and I must say that it is wallet-friendly and a wallet-partner as I have loaded all the necessary stuff that I need and accompanies me 24/7 - things that are universal for my work. So I would recommend you to go for it without any further hesitation. It is a must for its sheer capacity and sturdy performance.
Pros: Compact size, Decent Speeds, Enough space to cover almost everything you may need.
Cons: USB 2. But that too is negligible unless you are transferring a very large file.

Get it here - Sandisk Ultra Dual USB Drive 32 GB Pendrive (Black)

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The Author Kishore Kumar is a gadget freak and loves to communicate. Also deeply spiritual he yearns for peace and friendship. Connect with him in fb or G+ and say "Hi!"
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Note all links in this post are affiliate links.

Be healthy... stop watching TV

Be healthy... stop watching TV for your sake! OK before you get confused let me explain. I have been subjected to an experiment by destiny where I was not allowed to switch on the TV (aptly named as the idiot box) due to the Public Exams of my children.

And that was an eye-opener.

I never knew that I had so much free time to spare (of course after the exams were over and my set-top box was disabled due to a long break). What else did I stand to gain? Read on...


This article is not about any tech device or advice on technicalities. It is a post on human expenses. What is meant by human-expenditure? Let me explain in detail. 

Warning! This may be a lengthy article so please bear with me.

I believe we are all living a life that needs to be anchored to some loft ideals and overall direction in a positive learning process and we do have a tendency to do that, by nature; it is inbuilt in all of us. What we do not do properly, is in identifying those things that lift us in a positive direction. 

We tend to get so involved with the senses that all signals that appeal to our sense organs tend to create a veil clouding our intellect. What is that veil? It takes time to realize that there is a 'veil of dust' clouding our intellect, and that too with great difficulty, as we are going against our body's pull to get to the source of that pull. That veil is the craving of the sense organs to satiate themselves. It is that veil that makes us NOT to go for a walk or stop doing something productive. It is that veil that causes addiction to that self-gratification of the senses.
It is that mindless addiction that happens in a state of unconscious living.  A life without awareness of what is good. Nowadays schools do not teach morals. They teach facts and knowledge that is of use in the physical world. Back in those days when I studied my classes had a moral-science class that was usually on the last day of the week (Friday). And in those days we discussed many things that would propel us in a positive direction.

When a man understands something as bad and unhealthy for the spirit, then he will not do it again. For eg., in the body level we understand that flame is a bad thing to touch as we may have got burnt once in our life (as toddlers) and that experience was so deep that we never felt the need to take an oath to NOT touch it. We just don't do it because we know deep down...
However when we go from the gross to the subtle the intellect does not have that depth of analysis in everyday life as we do not have the skill to listen to it and push the information to that same depth atleast not at all times of the day. In other words we need to be yanked out of our comfort zones to understand what is happening in our life in its true light and color. More like as though we are living a life of self-hypnosis and self-imposed conditioning layers.

Our attachment to all sensual (as in coming from the sense organs) signals is derived from our body. And what we do with those signals is the job of our mind. Take it or discard it. But when you see a carbonated drink being gulped by a action super star (who BTW makes millions by that advertisement) we will see that it creates a chaotic scenario in our interpretation corner of the brain.

And most of the time we see these ads in a state of stress-busting zero-analysis time of the day. The mind is triggered to work in the office or outside the home but at home we are half-aware. So these ads get impregnated as positive signal in the minds of the watchers.

Imagine if a TV ad of 1 minute duration can pummel your mind to a state of zombie-like acceptance then what could a mindless serial (especially those that continue to drag and drag for years without having a shred of sense in the storyline) do to your psyche?

I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist but I can say what happened personally is that initially there was a sense of deprivation and withdrawal symptom but then the higher cause of my children's examination sunk in. More than me it was my better half who felt the impact of this abstinence as she was well entrenched in most of the going-ons in the serials of the idiot-box while I was only hooked to one. Later we took it in our stride, and now, we have that master-switch to switch it off if it borders on the insane. 

Now I know why the serial actresses always were thick make-up and gorgeous sarees and outfits - to keep all of us occupied. The women look at the glorious costumes that the actresses wear while the men look at the ladies. Sometimes wondering why the heck is that female having mascara while asleep or just waking up. And all that is so loudly seen in the HD TV!!!

Even now as the TV is blaring in all its glory, I am writing this article, as I know that it is a waste of time, especially in watching a program that exposes the wrong-doings of a reality dance show for kids, and the very first ad that I heard was an ad for upcoming reality show auditions in the various metros in India! What an ironic way to prove that these channels are dumb asses!

So if you are addicted to watching TV serials or senseless reality shows, take a time out. Learn gardening or start writing a blog. You will never know how well you can write unless you write!
Not that all channels are bad but to choose one that will fit your goals, requires discretion... and to not watch the negative ones requires a lot of will-power and retrospection.

More later!

Say Goodbye to Electronic Leeches - Save power!

Say Goodbye to Electronic Leeches - Save power!

You may be surprised to know that your power consumption bill is home to many unsuspecting sources of power wastage that can be removed if you just knew this simple fact about 'Electronic Leeches' (that's right you heard it first here). There is a tendency to ignore switching off small devices like adapters and chargers that are permanently switched on and also the UPS that is almost always 'on'.

We think that these devices do not consume much power. But let me tell you that our electrical supplies are actually being sucked by these electronic leeches. They are slowly draining the power lines and we would be blissfully paying more since these days we are being charged on a slab rate by rhe electricity department... atleast till now.

A list of 'Electronic leeches':

The most common leech is the small charger or power adapter that is plugged 24/7 in the wall socket sipping current, even when there is no device connected or is not switched on. 

If your house has a many of them plugged in 24 hours everyday, that would add up to kilowatts being added to your power bill every month!

Other “leeches” include TVs, high speed broadband modems/routers, laptops, computers, printers, speakers, kitchen/bathroom appliances and a plethora of household electronic devices.

As long as these devices/appliances remain plugged in to a power outlet they will continue draining electricity even when switched off.

Solution:

The best way to prevent this wastage from our houses it to unplug the devices from their electrical outlets when not in use. Period.

If they are far away from reach or hidden buy a power strip (or even better, a surge suppressor strip) makes it easy to “unplug” several devices at once simply by unplugging the power plug from the wall socket or switching off the power strip

As far as possible avoid charging the devices in the night. This will allow you to save on wastage when the devices reach full charge within 2-3 hours but you will be asleep to switch off the adapter. 
There is another advantage to this system. That is safety from thunder and lightning charge entering your homes and destroying gadgets worth thousands of bucks. Better to be safe than sorry!

Bottom-line: 

While there is an activity involved with regular unplugging and re-plugging, trust me it isn’t all that big a deal when you consider the benefits. If saving money on your power bill and protecting your expensive gadgets from lightning strikes is important to you, then you need to walk this path and enlighten others via social media.

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If you liked this article pass it on to other via clicking the social sharing buttons. It will help them to preserve a valuable energy resource and save money too.