Back/Neck Pain??? - Don't neglect it...

Spondylitis is becoming common nowadays mostly among people working in IT field (work most of the time in computers). Be aware of it

Ankylosing Spondylitis At A Glance

• Ankylosing spondylitis belongs to a group of arthritis conditions which tend to cause chronic inflammation of the spine (spondyloarthropathies).
• Ankylosing spondylitis affects males two to three times more commonly than females.
• Ankylosing spondylitis is a cause of back pain in adolescents and young adults.
• The tendency to develop ankylosing spondylitis is genetically inherited.
• The HLA-B27 gene can be detected in the blood of most patients with ankylosing spondylitis.
• Ankylosing spondylitis can also affect the eyes, heart, lungs, and occasionally the kidneys.
• The optimal treatment of ankylosing spondylitis involves medications that reduce inflammation or suppress immunity, physical therapy, and exercise.

Please spend few more minutes in reading this....

Spondylitis Overview

Ankylosing Spondylitis Overview
Ankylosing Spondylitis (pronounced ank-kih-low-sing spon-dill-eye-tiss), or AS, is a form of arthritis that primarily affects the spine, although other joints can become involved. It causes inflammation of the spinal joints (vertebrae) that can lead to severe, chronic pain and discomfort. In the most advanced cases (but not in all cases), this inflammation can lead to new bone formation on the spine, causing the spine to fuse in a fixed, immobile position, sometimes creating a forward-stooped posture.

Also this - What Is Ankylosing Spondylitis?

What causes Ankylosing Spondylitis?

Exercise Posture

Exercise

Exercise can be extremely helpful to people with ankylosing spondylitis. A regular exercise program is very important for maintaining strength of muscles and flexibility of joints.
The following exercises are recommended by the National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society in England. Do them once or twice a day, and try to make them part of your normal daily routine. Repeat each of them at least five times.
Floor exercises:

1. Lie on your back with both knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Lift your hips off the floor as high as possible, hold for five seconds, and lower slowly.
2. Then lift your arms towards the ceiling, with fingers linked together.
3. Keeping your chin tucked in toward your chest, reach both hands toward your knees, lifting your head and shoulders off the floor. Relax.
4. Keeping your chin tucked in, lift your head and shoulders off the floor, and reach both hands towards the outside of your right knee. Repeat to the opposite side.
5. Kneel on all fours. Keeping your elbows straight throughout, tuck your head between your arms and arch your back as high as possible. Then lift your head and round your back the other way as much as possible.
6. Keeping your head up, raise your right arm forward as you raise your left leg backward. Hold for five seconds. Return to all fours and change to raising your left arm and right leg.

Chair exercises:

1. Sit on a stable chair with your feet on the floor, hooked around the legs of the chair. Place your hands by your sides. Hold the chair with your left hand. Bend sideways toward the right as far as possible, without bending forwards, reaching your right hand toward the floor. Repeat to the opposite side.
2. With your hands clasped on your forearms at shoulder level, turn your upper body to the right as far as possible. Repeat to the opposite side.
3. Hold the sides of the chair site. Turn your head to the right as far as possible without letting your shoulders turn. Repeat to the opposite side.
4. Stand facing the chair (for comfort, use one with a padded seat). Place your right heel on the seat, keeping the knee straight, and reach forward as far as possible with both hands toward your foot. Hold for six seconds. Relax. Repeat twice, stretching a little further each time. Repeat with the opposite leg.
5. Face the side of the chair and hold the chair back with your right hand. Bend your right knee and place your right shin on the seat. Place your left foot forward as far as possible. Now place both hands behind your back. Bend your left knee as much as possible, keeping your head up and your back straight. Turn around to face the other side of the chair and repeat with the opposite leg.

Posture exercises:

1. Stand with your back to the wall, shoulders and buttocks against the wall and heels as close to the wall as you can. Tuck your chin in and push the back of your head toward the wall. Keep your shoulders down.
2. Stretch up as tall as possible without lifting your heels. Hold this position. Raise your right arm forward and upward while keeping your elbow straight, your upper arm close to your ear, and your thumb towards the wall. Lower and repeat with the opposite arm.

Need To Know: Swimming is particularly recommended because it does not jar the spine. The buoyancy of the water also makes it easier to move all of the affected joints and muscles.

Yoga Treatment for Ankylosing Spondylitis

Yoga is very effective in treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis. This mind-body exercise involves meditation, breathing Asanas and some physical postures.

There are many Yoga poses that help in relieving people from stiffness-related pains such as

Dhanura Asana (Bow posture),

The Bow

Makara Asana (Dolphin/Fish pose),

Bhujanga Asana (Snake Pose),

The Cobra

Ardha Matsyendra Asana (Half Spinal Twist),

Half Spinal Twist

Neti Kriya and Vajra Asana (Diamond pose).

These poses remove rigidity and enhance flexibility of the joints. They also correct human body postures. For muscle relaxation, Pranayama (Breathing exercises) is very effective.

Yoga Postures

Also read this

Myths and Facts About Back Pain

http://www.arthritis.org

Download Media content from web (Youtube, Facebook, Google Videos)

At times when my internet speed is slow, and if I want to watch a Youtube video or any online video streaming, I used to get irritated due to buffered streaming or interrupted video streaming (not continuous one). But, I found out these tools/addons for Firefox browser which made my video watching easier and simpler.

What will it do or How to download any youtube or other video contents to Harddrive for later viewing?
Just open the site containing the video and click on play button. Once the streaming starts, pause it. The moment the video starts streaming, you can see the DownloadHelper icon in the toolbar getting animated... On clicking on the icon, it will ask you the destination to save... Thats it. You are done...

Few Video downloaders available for Firefox

Video DownloadHelper

The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites.
This works also for audio and picture galleries.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

1-Click YouTube Video

YouTube download in a single click.
Download YouTube videos in FLV, 3GP and MP4 (both High Definition and iPod compatible High-Quality).
The simplest YouTube Video Downloader for all YouTube Flash sites
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1-click-youtube-video-download/

Download Flash and Video

Download Flash and Video is a great download helper tool that let you download Flash games and Flash videos (YouTube, Facebook, Dailymotion, Google Videos and more) with a single click.
The downloader is very easy to use.

How to play the downloaded Youtube content?
Everything well said, you have downloaded the video from Youtube, but how to play it?
Generally the video file downloaded from Youtube will have the file extension as ".FLV".
You can also download these videos as MP4 files with video converters (another addon).
There are standalone FLV players available in the web..
One of the best players is Wimpy Player which you can get it in the following link.
http://www.wimpyplayer.com/products/wimpy_standalone_flv_player.html

Or the other better option is Windows Media Player Classic which plays almost all Video and Audio formats... You can download K-Lite Codec from the following location which has inbuilt Media Player available... You can download the full version for free..
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_lite_codec_pack.htm


Are you not using Firefox?
Are you an Internet Explorer (IE) user? No problems, there is a tricky solution to it too...
Open the video content in the browser; click on play, once the video starts streaming, pause it. you can see the video getting streamed (the red stream liner) and once it reaches the end, it means it got fully streamed and you can watch it online without any interruptions... But how to download it? Simple, goto the "Temporary Internet Files" folder in your Windows directory. Or to goto that directly, click Tools ->Internet Options. Click on "Settings" (in the browsing history section).


Click on "View Files" to goto "Temporary Internet Files" folder.


There you will find the FLV file along with other files... Copy and paste in your desired hard disk...

Viola!!

Flash Installation

At times, people who are new to computing doesn't know what is flash content, how to view it, what is flash player, where to download etc...

Now, its the web world and people used to market their product or send funny stuffs with colorful presentations with moving images and sound. This is used to called the flash content and it requires compatible flash player to view.

Flash is product of Adobe incorportaion.
Silverlight, a Microsoft product is yet a competitor for Adobe flash content.

When a webpage containing flash/silverlight content is viewed, it will check whether the browser (Internet Explorer / Firefox...) has the flash player installed. If not, it will prompt the user to download the flash player. The same holds good for Silverlight also.

You can get the flash player in the following location.
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
Download the player (save in your local disk) and run the setup. once the setup is run, it may prompt you to restart the browser or reload/refresh the page containing the flash content.

You can get the silverlight player from the following location.
http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get-Started/Install/Default.aspx

Please note that you may need to enable browser Pop-ups to download the player and start the installation process. If asked for a warning information, accept it to proceed.

A Work of Art

As the last rays of the sun took a plunge in the deep orange sea, Solomon put the lid back on the pen and kept the folded drawing book back into his bag. He was not satisfied with any of the sketches today as he felt that everyone around had some façade on and no one was really genuine in their expressions anymore. Slowly he started walking towards his bike kept at a distance, his head hung in deep thought. There was a familiar tea stall where he normally used to have tea on his way back. He sat down and called out for his preferred cup of tea.


Solomon was an artist by choice, not by profession. His sketching skill was a god’s gift and he utilized it to its full potential. He would normally go to some crowded place and sit down quietly somewhere. From there, he would keenly observe people and their expressions and whenever he would like a particular expression he would capture that in his book by making a sketch of it. It was a self-satisfying experience for him. Generally he didn’t share this passion with anyone else and very few of his friends actually knew about this facet of his personality. His best work of art till date had been a young woman in her early twenties sitting at a coffee table with a steaming mug of coffee and her face delicately nestled in the cup of her right palm. Whether she was in some deep thought or just waiting for some one was unknown to him but her expressions in their vibrant best had surely caught his fancy.


That was around five years back. As he flipped through the pages of his book, the different facial images of his subjects came alive. There was this young bride in an animated discussion with her husband. While she talked non-stop, the expression in the husband’s eyes was nothing less than that of a dedicated affection. Then there was this sketch of a kid looking wonderstruck looking at a crab running across the sand. Another sketch had an old man sitting with his grandson on the bench beside the sea, together watching the sun go down. The little hand of the child kept so carelessly in the big, freckled arms of the old man had so much meaning to it. One depicted an end of an era and the other, the genesis.


Solomon shut the book and looked around him. The joyous faces around, the laughter and the gaiety all seemed so hollow. In this world of rat race, people seemed to have lost the pleasure of just being happy. Even during the time when they are apparently spending the time with their loved ones, at the back of their mind somewhere they are closing business deals. Even the children are not spared, mounting loads of pressure and work at the schools and colleges have snatched away their smiles too. He yearned to get a look at one genuinely happy face. He couldn’t get any.


He paid the tea vendor and left. The beach was lit up with different stalls selling their wares. There were some people crowded around game stalls and having fun. There seemed to be mirth everywhere around him but not what he was looking for. He stood near his bike and lit a cigarette.


Just beside his bike, there was an orange seller and he noticed an old couple buying. There was nothing unusual in that. But he found something interesting in their body language, which he was unable to fathom. Since he had to finish the cigarette before he could leave, Solomon decided to wait and watch. The couple were in their mid sixties probably. Their faces were partly hid in the dark, due to the way the bulb was positioned. They seemed to feel the orange and then decide by saying something to each other and then give it to the shopkeeper. This way they selected five or six oranges. They reached out for the purse, which the husband was carrying and gave the money to the vendor. The vendor, who seemed to know the couple well, took the change and carefully put the money into the gentleman’s shirt pocket. After a polite thank you, the couple stepped out of that light. That’s when Solomon suddenly noticed that their hands were interlocked like that in a chain and they wore a satisfied smile on their face. He was amused to see such show of affection in public and a sheepish grin escaped his lips. He continued watching them.


The couple walked another four or five steps together and then stood under a streetlight. The husband reached into the bag for something, while looking at his wife smilingly. She reciprocated the smile. The hands were still locked. When the man took his hand out, there was a little white stick in his hand. With a deft movement of the wrist the stick expanded and the shocking realization came to our artist’s mind.


The couple was blind. They couldn’t do without each other so they had their hands locked with each other and the smile was because they were the world to each other. So what if they couldn’t see the world as we do, their other senses acted as their eyes and had led them to believe them that life indeed was beautiful. They didn’t need any help or support to lead their life, they just needed the love to carry on. Perhaps the light from the street lamp couldn’t take away the darkness from their life they still had discovered real pleasure of life in the company of each other. Slowly they started walking and soon disappeared in the darkness. Solomon felt a burning sensation in his eyes. They had become moist.


For a moment he grimaced, as he couldn’t draw them, but the next moment he smiled. These were the faces he was looking for and he could draw them even without them being in front. The time had come to replace the young woman at the coffee shop as his best work of art with this old couple.

அந்த ஏழு நாட்கள்

நான் அவளை கண்டதும் வெளி வந்தது ஒரு ஞாயிறு

திங்கள் ஒருமுறை அவளை கண்டேன்

செவ்வாய் கிரகம் வரை சென்றேன் அவளை காண்பதற்கு

புதன் வந்தது என்னை சோகத்தில் ஆழ்த்த

வியாழனன்று சென்றாள் அவனிடம்

வெள்ளியன்று வேண்டினேன் இறைவா என் சனி ஒழியுமாயென்று

என் ஞாயிறை நான் திரும்பப் பார்ப்பேனா

என் எண்ணங்களின் எண்ணிக்கை

ஒரு முறை உன்னை பார்த்ததும் என் உயிர் ஒன்றை பறிகொடுத்தேன்

உன் இரு விழி சொல்கிறது நம் இரு இதயம் ஒன்று சேருமென்று

மூன்று வார்த்தைகளுக்காக காத்திருக்கிறேன் வேறு மூன்று வார்த்தையால் என்னை கொன்று விடாதே

இவை வெறும் நான்கு வார்த்தைகள் என்று எண்ணாதே
நான்கு முறை சிந்தித்துப்பார்

ஐந்து நிமிடங்கள் ஆனதடி என் ஐம்புலனும் துடிக்குதடி

ஆறு மாதம் காத்திருந்த என்னை ஆறு வினாடியில் ஏமாற்றிவிடாதே

ஏழேழு ஜென்மம் எடுத்தாலும் கிடைக்காது இந்த ஏழையின் வேண்டுகோளை ஏற்றுக்கொள்

எட்டி நின்று எதிர்பார்க்கும் இது எட்டு போடும் பரிட்சை அல்ல

ஒன்பது வரை எண்ணுகிறேன்

பத்து எண்பதுற்குள் என் உயிரை எனக்குத் தந்துவிடு

ஓட வாழ்வு

ஓ என்று ஓசைவிட்டு ஓடிச்சென்ற ஓடம்
ஓசையின்றி ஓட்டமின்றி ஒதுங்கி நிற்குதே

கள்வன் அந்த பாறை மீது மோதியதாலோ
அல்ல பயணம் செய்த பயணிகளின் பாரத்தினாலோ
இந்த வேக வாழ்க்கை சோகமாகி முடங்கிவிட்டதே

பயணம் செய்த பயணிகளோ அதை எண்ணவுமில்லை
இந்த ஓடத்தின் பாரம் கூட குறையவுமில்லை

சில மனிதர்களும் இவ்வோடவாழ்க்கை வாழ்கிறார்களே
தன் பிள்ளைகளும் இப்பயணிகள் போல எண்ணுகிறார்களே

பழுதடைந்த ஓடம் சேற பலக்கரைகளும் உண்டு
இப்பாசமுள்ள பெரியோர் வாழ முதியோர் இல்லங்களும் உண்டு

பெற்றோர் பலரின் பாரம் படிய
சிறியோர் சிலரின் சிந்தனை சிறக்கட்டும்.

வந்து வந்து போகும்

இரவும் பகலும் வந்து வந்து போகும்
மழையும் வெயிலும் வந்து வந்து போகும்
அம்மாவசையும் பௌர்ணமியும் வந்து வந்து போகும்

இன்பமும் துன்பமும் வந்து வந்து போகும்
மெய்யும் பொய்யும் வந்து வந்து போகும்
புதுமையும் பழமையும் வந்து வந்து போகும்

புகழ்ச்சியும் இகழ்ச்சியும் வந்து வந்து போகும்
வெற்றியும் தோல்வியும் வந்து வந்து போகும்
வரவும் செலவும் வந்து வந்து போகும்

இது போல் பலவும் வந்து வந்து போகும்....

உயிர் ஒன்று தான் கண்ணே வரும்.. ஆனால் போனால் வராது
ஆகையால் என் உயிரே, நீ இருக்கும் வரை
நம் வாழ்வின் ஒவ்வொரு நொடியையும் ரசிப்போம்
துன்பங்களை அகற்றி இன்பங்களை பெருகுவிப்போம்....

இன்ப நேரங்களில் துன்பம் தரும்
துன்ப நேரங்களில் இன்பம் தரும்
ஒரு வரி "இத்தருணம் நிரந்தரமில்லை" என்பதுதான்....

Software - no more trial versions....

At times people will be thinking whether there is any software available to do the required tasks like ripping mp3 from an audio cd, burning a cd using a cd burning software, photo editing and re-touching, nice utilities etc....

They also try googling it and find a product which satisfies their need, but most of the softwares available in the net are either a shareware or feature limited freeware. But you see, a full featured, fully functional software is always better than the trial versions... But the question is how to get it?

Though it is slightly tricky, it is easy to get one... Again, here google comes into picture, but the thing is people don't know how to get a fully functional application without paying for it...

I used to try googling with a keyword crack along with the software for which I am looking for the full version. (Don't forget to use the plus(+) sign)... It will list lot of crack websites, most of them would take you to sites containing explicit contents, but you have to be careful in choosing the website...

Did I forget to say this? Try pressing the CTRL key in the keyboard while clicking any link; it will open in a new window so that your search window remains there... I used to open multiple windows like this and close the unwanted ones which will make the work easier rather than click the back button and choosing other link(s)..

Tip1: Before doing this, get to know the real usefulness of the software/games you are looking for.. Don't keep downloading softwares which are really not useful for you..

Tip2: Try searching with any of the keyword(s) like rapidshare / megaupload / mediafire / hotfile. These are the file uploading sites . People used to post the cracks in these websites.

When you google it, look for a blog where they mention about the software/game you are looking for. Most of the blogs contain links to these file uploading sites...

You can also use torrent sites to search for a crack. Beware, most of the cracked softwares contain malwares / spywares which may create even serious damage to your computer. So it's your luck and professionalism which makes you pioneer in getting goog cracked fully working apps/games..

P.S: Do install a good antivirus in your system before downloading cracked apps... You know, the best part is, you can get even the pro version of Antivirus as crack :-)

Searching for MP3s and Movies?

People wonder where to download latest/old mp3s or video songs or movies.
Its simple, use the favorite all time google for searching the content you require.

For example if you want to download the MP3s of a film, say film1 or you just know only the song name, then google it. Google provide you with excellent keyword search options. One good example of best search is as follows
Type the name of the movie followed by keyword mp3 followed by keyword 320kbps
example movie1 +song1 +320kbps -> type the same replacing with your movie and song name. The plus (+) symbol is used to refine or narrow down your search. YOu can also use double quotes (") to further refine your search...

Everything well said, there are few popularly known sites for downloading media contents.
www.tamilmp3world.com,
http://vellithiramusic.net,
www.tamilmoviemp3.com,

www.uyirvani.com,
www.getindianstuff.com/latestreleases

and lot more...

If you want to hear music online, the best shot would be www.raaga.com

How to download using torrent

What is a Torrent?

Torrenting is a highly popular peer-to-peer file-sharing activity that allows participants to send and receive files from other computers. It has widespread legitimate use in many programs and systems in the world.

There are lot of sites available for downloading torrent file. A torrent file will have the file extension ".torrent" which contains the details about the Seeds/Peers and the torrent file description. Few known torrent sites are www.Torrentz.com, www.Demonoid.com, www.Toorgle.com or simply google it with the following text "filetype:torrent"

Once you have downloaded the torrent file, you need a torrent client for downloading the content and µTorrent is one of the best and simple torrent client. µTorrent is a freeware ,which can be downloaded from the www.utorrent.com website.

Step 1 : Open µTorrent Click Tools -> Options

Step 2. Choose destination path -> Check what you need to download
Step 3. Voila! It is downloading

P.S: Some torrent sites will require parental control (contains nudity) and spywares which may harm the computer. So be careful while choosing the torrent site and the torrent file.