how to find a file in linux command line ?

The easiest way is to use "locate" command for getting the path of a file of which you know the filename.

For example, Imagine that you need a file named as abcd.sh on your linux machine.
For this try the command.

locate abcd.sh

Output :

/home/geekybrains/abcd.sh

How to logout from Skype Android application ?

Here is the problem with Skype for Android. You logged into Skype. Then you signed out from skype selecting signout option. But when you again open the Skype application you will be confused to see your account still logged in.

Best Android launcher - Smart launcher

Android is my favorite mobile operating system for its power of customization. There are many launchers available to make your Android phone more beautiful. 
I have been using smart launcher from the past 1 year and so happy with it. The developers release time to time updates for the app to make the launcher more productive.

Along with installing smart launcher you need to tweak a little bit so that it looks even clean. I am going to explain there steps one by one.
The free version is enough to make your Android look cleaner and cool.

Best Gmail feature - forgotten Email attachment reminder

I do this all the time. I always forget the attachment but writes "Please find the attachment". I feel ashamed when I got the reply saying there is no attachment included in the mail.

Thanks to Gmail for the forgotten Email attachment reminder feature. This is a built in feature in Gmail. All you need to do is mention the word "attachment"or "attached" in the email body.

Gmail's forgotten Email attachment reminder 

Google may introduce compare feature in search soon

We love compare and buy while doing online shopping.
While searching for credit card information I got this recently.
Right now the compare option is available to credit cards only.

google compare feature

Set timer online with Google search trick

yet another cool feature from Google search. You may sometimes want to set timer using your computer.

Google provides this feature with the following command in its search field. An example to create a timer for 160 seconds is shown here.

set timer 160 seconds

You will see the following screen initially. At the end of the time you will also hear a continuous beep sound.

Set timer online with Google search trick

You can make it full screen for minimal distraction.

Timer in full screen

How to create alias in Linux terminal ?

An alias is a link between two commands. 
Creating an Alias will save you a lot of time.

How to create an alias in terminal ?

alias ls='ls -la'

With this whenever I try to execute ls command the terminal will execute ls -ls command.

Create alias in Terminal

How to remove the alias later ?

unalias ls

Unalias linux command

Basic SEO tips and tricks every Blogger must know

Till today I have written more than 100 blog posts for all my blogs. The bad thing about blogging is that how much ever effort you put in writing a good article, it will reach to the readers only if it is search engine optimized.

Basic SEO tips for blogs

Google Blogger : The best Blogging platform for beginners

Blogger

I have started blogging with Google Blogger as it is simple to create and manage many blogs with just one Google account. I have spent just 10 dollars on this website to buy domain name. Google Blogger gives free hosting service. Initially I was skeptical about Google Blogger platform but now I am fully satisfied user of it.

how to uninstall avg secure search toolbar

You will get a lot of browser toolbars while trying to install some crappy(may be useful sometimes ! rarely) softwares. You will try to uninstall the toolbar but somehow it doesn't work. In my case I have come across AVG secure searchbar which I dont like to call it as a secure search tool at all. It looks terrible and every search result opens in a new tab (its not my choice at all !). So I have tried uninstalling it through control panel which has given the following error.

10 Reasons to have a Quora account

1. My Facebook feed is boring. Why waste a lot of time when you can read some answers from Quora !
2. My Google search skills are not so good and I don't want to waste a lot of time in reading all the first 10 websites which are given in the first results page.
3. On Quora you will see a lot silly questions which are not so easy to answer like "Insects: If you injure a bug, should you kill it or let it live and not die?" After seeing these kind of questions you will think of asking some hypothetical questions ! Wow ! you are giving some creative work to your brain.

How to find MAC address of your computer ?

In this simple tutorial we will learn how to find the MAC address of a computer in Windows operating system. Many times you need the MAC address to validate a license or to enable networking related stuff.

Best Software to install in Linux

After Installing Linux , You must have the following  list of Softwares in you Linux box to enjoy the freedom of Opensource.

Best Android applications for productivity

Android is the best mobile operating system(almost 80% of mobiles uses Android) because of ease of usage, ease of customization.
After installing many Android applications on my Samsung Galaxy S4, I am writing this post on Best Android apps for productivity.

Get these useful apps if you are a business person or student or even an employee.

10 best ways to save and improve your laptop’s battery life

1. You can use your laptop with removing battery from it too. Yes! your laptop can work directly from AC supply. When you are going to use your laptop for a long time at home try this method. This will helps a lot to save your battery life as removing battery from laptop won’t heat your battery anymore. But be careful if you have regular power cuts in your area.

Using Google for smart definitions

Seven years back I have met Google for first time. From that point Google has become a part of my life. If nothing strikes to my mind for a typical question, I quickly type it in the magical search box to get an answer.
Using Google operators is a smart way to find many sources. Recently Google has improved it's built in Dictionary service which can now be used without a colon symbol [:]

What is an iFrame ? How to add it in your website ?

Inline frames are generally called as an iFrame in HTML language. A webmaster can insert a document inside another document using the iFrame tag. Usually, most of the Youtube videos are embedded using this technique. Not only for videos, but iFrame can also be used to embed a webpage inside another webpage too.

Gmail tabbed inbox browsing- Making your Inbox simple and productive

Gmail got a new feature, say hello to Tabbed interface for your inbox.
Tabbed interface is an awesome and useful feature from Gmail.  Previously I  used to organize my mails with labels. I also used to apply a  star if the mail is of high importance. Now with the latest Gmail interface there is no need of starring or labeling my emails. The new tabbed interface automatically separates your mails into categories such as notifications,Social (like facebook and Twitter) updates etc. All your important mails will come to your primary inbox tab.

Gmail's new tabbed interface

Try Facebook messenger for Mozilla Firefox

Facebook Messenger for Firefox

 Here is some good news for Facebook lovers. Mozilla Firefox has integrated Facebook Messenger in the browser itself.

Messenger for Firefox lets you use Facebook right from your Firefox browser so you can continue your conversations wherever you go on the web even without opening Facebook website.

You can also view your notifications, friend requests and messages by clicking the icons in the upper-right corner of Firefox.

Why I am using FireFox

FireFox is the leading Open source web browser and is my all time favorite browser. Previously I have used Google Chrome but as a blogger nowadays using the Mozilla Firefox web browser than any other software. Firefox gives you freedom and more options to configure your privacy settings. So today I will tell some useful features of Firefox because of which I am using it.

5 Websites to change your way of thinking and habits

I love books. They can(and they will) change the way we think.
Now a days most of the books are available in e-book formats. Thanks to smart phones and tablets ! You can carry them anywhere with the help of smartphones.

Now lets come to blogs and websites. As blogging is much simpler than publishing a book, Most of the writers considering writing their own blog. As a blogger I have come across many websites and blogs to read some quality blog posts and to know about design issues. In the search of good websites I have found some useful self-help websites and blogs. Most of these blogs are written by experienced writers and speakers.

Top 10 YouTube Features you might not know

 Here is the list of some best Youtube features you might have missed.Enjoy these tips and tricks and enhance your video watching experience on Youtube.

• Watch Videos blocked in your country : If you’re unable to watch any video, as it’s not available in your country. You can access it by replacing the Url youtube.com/watch?v={video-id} as youtube.com/v/{video-id}.

Make your Linux OS beautiful with Cairo dock

Give your Linux OS MAC touch with Cairo dock

Without looking at the title of this post you might have thought that the above screen shot is from a MAC !!

Many people still think that Linux is hard to use, ugly and not user friendly. But the truth is 'Linux gives you the chance to configure what ever you want'.

If you are a beginner in Linux I would like you to suggest Linux Mint (or Ubuntu) as your first Linux trail.It is simple and easy to use for everyone. Know more about Linux Mint OS here.

Now assuming you are reading this post through Linux OS, I will write some tips to make the Linux OS beautiful with Cairo dock.

How to browse the internet when your Internet connection is slow ?

Consider you are using an internet connection where data usage is limited, or take the situation where you are paying for the ISP based on your data usage, or If you are using an internet connection which is very slow.
In these situations you can not load all the website elements in your browser which consumes a lot of data. So it is ideal to use what you need and leave unnecessary content like advertisements.
 Here are some tips to save your precious data which will be useful while browsing the internet in slower connection speeds

What is DNS ? Things you should know about DNS server settings

Recently World Wide Web has finished 2 decades.DNS is one of the main component of WWW. Many of us don't know about DNS. Recently I got to know some details of it.So If you got some doubts regarding DNS , then read this How to article to set DNS server settings in your computer. 

Domain Name Service is shortly known as DNS.
This system is in place to organize and identify domains. To make a simple analogy, DNS is the phone book of the Web. While a phone book translates a name like “My Friend” into the right phone number to call, the DNS translates a URL or web address (such as “www.google.com”) into the correct IP address to contact (for example “74.125.19.147”) in order to get the information that you want.

You Type in Browser                        where the browser actually looks

www.google.com               ----------->              74.125.19.147

Which Linux Flavour is best for you

Linux is a free and open source Operating system with powerful features.
There are many Linux distributions to choose, Choose a best one as per your requirements.This article will help you to choose a best Linux distribution for your computer.

welcome to Linux

1.Linux Mint: If you want to use a Simple Linux distribution with pre-installed softwares which are useful for your daily computing needs then go for Linux Mint.

Linux mint is the beautiful Operating system I have ever used. With the hot corner effect you can easily switch between different workspaces and multiple windows. This is why I use Linux mint over other operating systems.
Read More about Linux Mint operating system here 

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2.Ubuntu: Rich at graphical interface and makes your computer look lite with very less clutter. Ubuntu gives me a tablet like interface on my laptop too. I love the color combinations and simple user interface in Ubuntu
You can experience Ubuntu on your computer without installing it. How ? Ubuntu Website gives you an option to feel the Ubuntu OS on you browser itself.
Try this at Ubuntu Website
You can install Ubuntu along with Windows OS using WUBI installer

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  3.Zorin Os : Based on Ubuntu, Zorin OS is a multi-functional operating system designed specifically for Windows users who want to switch to Linux.

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4.Puppy Linux:Do you have an old computer with really bad specifications ?? Linux will save you . Here is puppy Linux which can sit on your computer without taking a big room on it.With this you can use your old computer to run basic applications like multimedia, web browsing etc.

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5.Arch Linux: If you want to learn completely about Linux go for this. This gives you complete freedom to choose whatever components you want to install on your Linux OS.
Go for this if you are seriously interested in computers and operating systems.

 If you are still in a confusion to choose an appropriate Linux distribution then choose your preferences and select a linux distribution easily.  This is a best place to solve your question "How to choose a best Linux Operating system ?"

Print what you like-best way to save your favorite web-pages for offline reading

There will be some situations where you want to access a web-page in offline mode. Say for example you are preparing for your university end exams and you have some important reading material available in a website. In this situation you may prefer to take printouts or save them in PDF format so that you can access them in your computer(offline mode) or on your tablet.

Printing a web-page as it is may waste a lot of paper and also it wont look good as websites display advertisements which are useless and distracting. So now  our aim is to remove the advertisements and save a webpage as PDF file so that we can read it offline or take a printout of it.

Make your Facebook SPAM free

I am fed up with all the unwanted Facebook page suggestions and even with the ridiculous advertisements on the right sidebar which are useless and annoying me.

sponsored page of blackberry on facebook

So I Googled for this topic and found some solution. The solution came not only for Facebook but for blocking advertisements on other websites too.

How to create a website easily (for a cheap price) with Blogger ?

Two of my friends asked me how I bought GeekyBrains.com website . They asked me whether it is very costly to own a website.

Actually it is very simple and cheap to buy a website on your name. Owning a website gives you unique on-line presence .You can also show your own website in your resume which gives more professional look. 
If you want to start your new website and if you ever got a doubt "how to start a website ?", Then read this simple guide to create a new website on your name.

Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide

People who are interested in web design must realize that building a website is a learning process. You have to learn it by making your hands dirty. Web designing is one of the art where you will learn from your mistakes.

Here is a checklist for getting started with Web Designing.

How can you learn from facebook pages

Facebook is built for a cause , not just to share photos and funny status updates but to share knowledge around the web.
Facebook not just a social media network. It is a smart network with curious people who shares awesome ideas around the world.
The Facebook pages are very resourceful which helps the users to improve their knowledge.
Just for example here is a story of a scientist cum professor Brian. Watch how he succeeded in his research using facebook pages and photo tagging.

  

Here is a list of some useful Facebook pages which can help you to increase your knowledge. Be productive while spending your time on social networking sites.

Try Facebook's redesigned Newsfeed

After Graph search Facebook has introduced it's newly redesigned News-feed which is simple and clutter free when compared to the old interface.
If you are a frequent user of Facebook then follow this article to know how to activate new redesign of Facebook NewsFeed in your account.

Best websites to boost your productivity

Productivity is nothing but making things simple for yourself.Whether it is office work or your personal task, there exists a best way to do it.
we are listing five best websites for making your things easy and simple. All of these websites are web services for improving your productivity.
You can bookmark these website to use them frequently to boost your day to day productivity.

5 websites to bookmark for improving your English

Learning is always fun. Building vocabulary is easy nowadays with the help of lot of online resources. We are giving you a list of 5 websites which will help you to build your English vocabulary.
These websites will help you to improve your day to day vocabulary as well as for preparing competitive exams like SAT, GRE,GMAT,TOEFL etc. 

Youtube tips

Youtube is the best place for watching on-line videos. Most of us spend some time on Youtube to enjoy some good videos.
But Do you know that you can watch Youtube in Fullscreen? or do you know that you can turn Youtube into a Disco mode with playing top 100 songs as a play list ?
Here I am adding a list of 5 useful tips(if you feel so!) which will help you to enjoy the Youtube videos. If there is a better tip known to you , then add a comment so that I can update it on this blog along with your name.

Best of Geeky Brains Blog

Today Geeky Brains Blog has finished 100 days.
In these 100 days we wrote 50 articles on various topics like computers, web,productivity tips,Digital freedom,best online resources etc.

If you have missed any of the articles you can find them here.

So what this blog is doing from the past 100 days ?

Finding the best on-line resources for learning and knowledge sharing : Internet has petabytes of information. Finding useful information where our readers can improve their knowledge base is our one of this blog's aim.

• Learn online courses from world's leading universities like Oxford, Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Yale university etc. You can download the video classes on various topics.
• Learn coding online with best websites which teach you basics and in-depth concepts of all programming languages.
• Find your favorite ebooks and download them to read offline on your computer, mobile or tablet.

Helping our readers to discover the beauty of web : Some times you may miss a part of best web using the conventional browsing. We shared some tips to find the best web.

• How to improve your Google search results and get the most of knowledge on the web.
• Help your friends who can't search the web properly using LMGTFY. Also know how others are searching the Internet for typical queries.
• we are trying to explain the bad effects of web filtering. See how to avoid online filtering

Sharing our ideas on how to browse the web in a right way : Privacy and security is the most important issue in web browsing which is ignored by many people. We are trying to instruct our readers on the topics privacy and security while browsing Internet.

• Know Why people prefer Firefox for secure browsing
• What is a cookie ?
• Some tips to improve your browsing experience
• How to choose a secured password and remember it easily
• Read a webpage like an ebook

Spreading the joy of freedom through Linux and Open source : We love 'free'dom and open culture. 

• Linux MINT, The best operating system I have ever used
• How to install Linux easily with dual boot : many people don't try Linux just because they feel 'Linux is not for the regular users'. Try Linux once and you will fall in love with it.
• People think that Windows has best softwares for it. But there are some best alternatives in Linux for all Windows applications
• Some basic Linux commands for making things simple in Linux
• Know about Ubuntu Mobile OS and Try Firefox OS on your browser which are Free and Open source.

Some Useful How to guides :

• How to shut down your PC automatically
• Play youtube videos in VLC media player without any ADs
• How to increase your dropbox storage for free
• Know how many time you visited a website
• How to create an ebook form wikipedia articles
• Install your favorite fonts on Linux and Windows PC
• Create a GIF image easily

Some more interesting articles :

• Do you know that your Facebook account has 2 passwords ?
• best websites you must bookmark
• 10 creative and funny cartoon websites for relaxing
• How Youtube videos become viral

We are not listing each and every post here. You can find the full list of articles on our site-map

Finally we thank each and every one who helped us to build this informative blog. We will keep developing this blog for making things simple.
Support us by joining our Facebook fan page

Best media players for Windows and Linux : Download these free and Opensource music players

Music is really good for health. While working on my Laptop I always prefer to run a play-list. I have used these media players and I want to share them with you.

best media players for free

 Clementine Music Player :  Simply superb ! Nice interface. You can easily add media libraries. It is very easy to create playlists here. I love the "fading duration" feature in this music player.

VLC : All of my friends use this as it is very simple. In fact they learned all keyboard shortcuts for VLC and even tried them on other players and failed.
My favorite features of VLC include subtitle integration, 'always on top' and 'effects & filters'.  With Always on top feature you can watch a video while working with other windows.Nice feature for multi-tasking.
Do you know that you can watch YouTube videos in VLC media player without any advertisements ? 

VLC works fine on Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android .VLC plays most of the file types which makes it number one media player.Even if you already have VLC in your Computer, try to get a latest VLC download.

Banshee Media Player : Banshee is my best companion.It plays all of my favorite songs for me while i blog.It perfectly fits on my Mint tray making the menu panel beautiful.
Banshee comes for  Linux, Mac and Windows.

XBMC Media Center : Don't miss this ! XBMC is a good alternative for Windows media center. Read about XBMC media center features here

Try FIREFOX mobile OS in your browser

Firefox OS running on Firefox web browser

The mobile operating system competition is at its peak. Currently iOS,Android, Windows are ruling the market. Where as Ubuntu is on its way to join the race in this October.In between Firefox has made a simple OS which is built on web technologies[HTML5].
With Firefox Users and developers aren’t locked in to one platform, so they can access their info and use applications across multiple devices.
With FireFox OS, Mozilla is trying to bring the Open web into mobile devices too.
Most importantly the Firefox OS will reduce the price of mobile device as it is an open source OS.

you can now try FIREFOX mobile OS right inside your FireFox browser.
Watch this video to install and use Firefox OS simulator in your web browser.



I have tried this OS on my browser. It is not a revolutionary interface but still the point is its usability with minimum hardware requirements. As a web based platform it will be much easier for developers to make apps. Also Firefox OS doesn't take much memory.

So lets hope for a good mobile OS from the maker of best web browser :)

Turn your computer into a best media center with XBMC

     I don't know how I have missed this software till last month..(some times we will stick to old softwares as we used to them.....!!) 

XBMC will turn your computer into a stunning media center. It is free and open source software available on Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS, android (....almost on every platform)

turn on XMBC and it will go full screen mode to show weather,music,videos,TV shows, RSS feeds from your favorite website.With some plug-ins you can browse the web also.You can see the details of your computer like hardware details,network details etc.

See this video to get an idea about XBMC

I am using this on my Linux Mint OS. I feel that this is a best answer to Windows Media Center available on  Windows OS. As an open source project XBMC is getting a lot of support from volunteers who always try to make this more beautiful.
There are beautiful skins(themes!!) available to download for different look.
Try this awesome Open source software for free here

Actually this works as a Desktop Environment for Linux systems. That means you can directly run this media center software without logging into your OS too. Try this If you want to turn your Laptop into a Party music device :) 

Useful browsing tips you might missed

Browsing the Internet is what we do most of the time with our computers.Some times we forget some silly things and follow a long process to do a small task. So I am just reminding some tips for improving your productivity while browsing the Internet.

• Don't go back by clicking 'back arrow' several times. Just right click on back button and choose which page you want to navigate

Right click on back arrow to get browsing history of the tab

• Are you watching a long video on Youtube ? Are you reading a webpage for long time. Then why don't you go full screen ? hit F11 to concentrate on the content. This gives good browsing experience if you are using a small monitor.With full screen you can save some chunk of space in the browser.

• Use Ctrl+shift+T to re-open closed(may be accidentally) window.

reopen an accidentally closed window

• Got a link to open in new window. What you do usually ? right click and select 'open link in new window'. But why taking two steps? I suggest you use Ctrl + single [left] click on the link to open in new tab.

• Put a master password for your FireFox browser[read this] and relax. You just need to enter you master password for every browsing session, Firefox will not ask for user name and password for individual on-line accounts again. I save a lot of time by skipping the need to enter user name and password forms[without losing my security].

 

• If you are browsing on public(not your own) computer then don't forget to use 'Start Private browsing' option in Firefox. Same can be done in Chrome using 'Incognito window'. This will not store any data or history of your browsing session.This option is best for doing bank transactions and logging into your on-line accounts.

Let us know If you got some tips to share with us. You can always drop a comment or join the conversation on our Facebook page

    

Best websites for free ebooks

 Technology is making things simple. Now a days most of the books are available on electronic formats like PDF, epub etc. 
But finding free and open e-books is still an issue. So Geeky Brains is giving a list of websites where you can download free E-books

1.project Gutenberg : it is the number one open e-book resource available on the web.Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and still working in this project to make e-books open. More than 40,000 e-books are available for free download. there are many options to download the e-books like e-pub, kindle,html formats.
You can also download your e-book into dropbox directly(need more dropbox space for free ?)
You may also try ManyBooks which is basically working from the database of Gutenberg. It gives more options for downloading the e-books in different formats

2.OpenLibrary : One web page for every book ever published. This site is especially for classic book lovers. The user interface is good with a digital reader feel in the browser itself. It can read the text aloud for you.


3.BookYards : Try searching for your book here. you will get some good downloads and resources here.

4. Daily Lit : Choose a book here and read it directly in your mailbox. The Daily Lit team will send your book in parts to your mail so that you can read it on your workstation or mobile.
good idea. Isn't it ?

5.Get Free eBooks : scroll down and see right side panel for categories. You will find some latest collection here.

6.e-book directory is a good website which gives download links to various e-books for free.This is not an illegal website as it provides homepage link for each book to download.

7.The Online Books page : over 1 million books are listed here for free. Some of the banned books are also included in this site.
8.Questia : you can browse for some free books here.

9.ObookO : Sign in and download your favorite e-book in epub format.Scroll down and see on the left panel to choose your desired category.

10.FeedBooks : Although all the books are not free here, still there are thousands of books which we can download for free. 
11.Bartleby : You can get fiction, non-fiction and reference e-books for free.

Let us know if you have some good resources for  free e-books. We will update here, along with your name.

[Update]: As commented by one of the reader I am adding 2 more website for free e-books .

• eBook Cafe 
• eBook Junkie 

Thanks to Liz for suggesting these eBook resources to our readers :) 
AS A BOOK LOVER YOU MAY TRY : making an e-book from Wikipedia articles
or Read a webpage like an e-book