Computer Wizard

Intel Core 2 Quad

2009-08-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

Clocked at 2.83 GHz, the Q9550 is the second most powerful after the Q9650 in the Core 2 Quad family. The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 made it to the top by defeating AMD’s most powerful quad-core processor, the Phenom X4 955, by a small margin on the time it was released. It scored higher in most 3D benchmark tests except the audio and video encoding tests. Since both Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 955 are priced almost the same, still the Q9550 is the better choice. Not because I’m a great fan of Intel processors that’s why I’ve chosen this one, but because of it’s performance and features. Still don’t underestimate AMD’s Phenom II X4 995, because it has features to unlocked multiplier which makes overclocking a breeze. However, the Q9550 can be overclocked much higher (more than 1 GHz) by increasing the FSB.

Samsung T260HD 25.5" Widescreen LCD Monitor

2009-08-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

Strengths: Large screen; 2 HDMI ports; QAM Tuner; features many media ports; Vibrant colors; Decent black levels; High-quality build; supports high resolutions as both an HDTV and a monitor.

Weaknesses: Superfluous features (SW Upgrade via USB, but unit has no USB port); missing USB; Limited color adjustment options in HDMI mode; Require additional accessories to mount unit; poor quality speakers.

Overall Evaluation: This is quite an impressive HDTV/monitor which deserves 5-stars, but is ultimately held back by critical flaws. First, it is a great 26-inch monitor which delivers vibrant colors and deep black levels. There are many input and output ports for a set this small which makes it very versatile.The issues start with the menu. There are many picture adjusting functions that become unavailable in HDMI mode which poses a problem if one is using the unit as an LCD monitor via HDMI. There is a solution thankfully--edit the graphical settings via the PC's video software. Also there is an option to upgrade the software via USB in the menu, but the unit does not include a USB port--this may be Samsung using a universal firmware for both the T260 (the LCD monitor version of this unit with USB ports) and the T260HD (the HDTV/LCD monitor version being reviewed here). Lastly, the set requires an additional accessory to be installed onto the unit because it can be mounted on the wall mount.Overall, 4 out of 5.

Nokia Surge to be connected stylishly

2009-08-05T02:35:00.000-07:00

The Nokia Surge comes with 400 hours of stand by time or 4, 7 hours of talk time. Its memory can be extended up to 8 GB via micro SD card with 128 MB of shared memory available. For perfect shooting experience, there is 2 mega pixel camera which take high quality images while recording video in QVGA quality. For those who like corresponding via such social networking sites as Twitter or Facebook, the cell phone sports JuiceCaster.

The Nokia Surge is already available in the USA for a modest sticker price tag of just 79, 99 USD. The smart phone is powered by the 3G network and has a fashionable design while still being slender. The Nokia Surge comes with Flash support so you can easily view most of the web sites in HTML or even watch your favorite YouTube clips. Designed in the USA, this charming cell phone allows 4X digital zoom while recording video.

AT&T Mobile Music feature makes it possible to listen to your favorite music and download it right from eMusic mobile, Napster Mobile, XM radio and so on. The Nokia Surge supports AT&T Video Share which seems to be an innovation for the USA and makes it possible whether to share live videos recorded by your smart phone or take part in a voice call all wirelessly. The Nokia Surge also has a media player and FM radio for those music lovers.

Another important feature includes AT&T Navigator that offers audible alerts in case of an incident or a slowdown. The Nokia Surge comes with polyphonic ring tones, 2.5 mm audio jack. This striking cell phone allows networking at HSDPA speed of 3, 6 Mbps. The Surge also features GPS, Bluetooth and USB connectivity.

The Nokia Surge appears to be a Symbian S60 smart phone which supports 850 and 1900 MHz WCDMA (3G). The Nokia Surge measures 98 x 58 x 15 mm and weighs 124 grams and is powered by 1500 mAh battery.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 come with HTML5, Death of Flash Players

2009-06-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

New Mozilla 3.5 (beta) will be releases soon with HTML5 feature which have the ability to embed videos without the help of flash players,
just like image <> < /video>

to embed videos with players (play, pause, stop and volume control buttons)

Featuring:
# no flash involved
# only the new HTML5 video tag
# + javascript/CSS3
# + some svg filters too
# + animated PNG
# easy to maintain
# easy to extend

You can see the demo here
(need mozilla 3.5 beta )
Download Here

This will never work on Internet Explorer

I think soon IE release a new version to come up with this .. otherwise a lot of users will moved from Internet explorer to Mozilla firefox

More Details about Web Graphic Multimedia

Find or Update Your computer Driver in a click with new uniblue driver scanner 2009

2009-06-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

We always think about updating our software's but forget about updating our computer hardware drivers, yes and it's a real hard job to find out Latest drivers for our old PC hardware parts and installing them ...

Same way after re-installing windows xp or vista only we start to search for drivers and from internet what we get is nothing .. still a lot waste of time ..

now all this task can be done using a single click .. with new uniblue driver scanner 2009 which is a microsoft gold certified partner .. i think itz better to give 29$ to get our driver in a click than searching for it in pool of internet - google ... purchase online now itself to get it for 29 $ (10$ discount)

the only thing which i found crappy is installing this software and running it for the first time .. i dont know how this software is installing .. it take a lot time to install it look like it is downloading from internet but it not warn us about that or it not check if user have internet or not .. what ever i found some installation files are made in windows temp directory .. rest everything is fine .. just search press download click Install .... your computer driver is up to date ... coool ...

Downlod Here ...

A less poisonous and more non-smoker friendly cigarette?.. the eCigarette

2009-04-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Being of the ‘aware’ and ‘caring’ sort, I know how harmful tar is and how non-smokers feel when surrounded by the smelly thing. More than that, we all know the specific smell of a smoker’s car or house, and it isn’t nice. No. Not even for smokers.

This is where this comes in: the eCigarette. Why the E? Well, it’s electronic. In fact, it’s a small nicotine inhaler, cleverly disguised as a working cigarette. It delivers the needed amounts of nicotine, but without the real poison, the tarry smoke. Its realism is also an excellent thing. It’s actually the only thing that made me consider this.

Nicotine and the activity of smoking are in a close race for the addictive and relieving effects: many people smoke a cigarette when they need to calm down, or are bored, or depressed. Compare this with chewing some nicotine gum or sticking a plaster onto your skin. Even people who are trying to give up smoking and are treating their addiction with gum or plasters feel the need to smoke, because they’ve become addicted to this activity and its effects.

In order to improve the realism, the eCigarette delivers the nicotine mixed with thick steam, so one has something ‘tangible’ to inhale and to exhale. It even has a LED on its tip, for that little glint.The cigarette has already achieved a high level of success in China and the other markets it has entered. In Hong Kong it costs about $210, a sum I’d be oh so happy to fork out if it could really replace my smokes.
via UberReview

Sony Ericsson C510 Cybershot mobile phone with Smile Shutter technology

2009-04-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

Sony brings its renowned camera features to the new Sony Ericsson Cybershot phone. Well, the Sony Ericsson C510 Cybershot phone now incorporates the Smile Shutter technology. With the Smile Shutter technology, the phone captures images as soon as you show those pearly whites (or Yellow), thus it captures all the smiling faces.

The Sony Ericsson C510 Cybershot phone claims to be the first ever to incorporate this technology. Well, we wonder if such innovative phones will eventually replace the digital cameras.

Mr. Sudhin Mathur, General Manager, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications India said, “We have been leaders and innovators in the camera phone segment since the inception of the company. The camera phone category has witnessed increased momentum in India with Sony Ericsson leading the wave. Today’s announcement is yet another initiative from our end to offer a breakthrough proposition to our consumers and inspire them to capture precious and spontaneous moments.”

Sony Ericsson has also announced the global Smile Hunter competition for all the photography enthusiasts in India as an extension to the launch of its new phone. With the unique feature, you can capture some spontaneous smiles, the phone’s camera also features remarkable photography tools such as auto focus, face-detection, 3.2 megapixel camera, active lens cover, photo light and illuminated imaging shortcut keys. It also bundles up landscape and portrait view and YouTube app.

The Cyber-shot C510 carries an attractive price tag worthy Rs.12,195 and will be available across all Sony Ericsson retail outlets.

Asus EAH4890 series graphic cards

2009-04-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

A few days back Asus unveiled the world’s first graphic cards that equip the powerful Voltage Tweak technology. Called as the Asus EAH4890, the new graphic cards series should excite gamers in particular as it is designed to boost GPU voltages along with nearly 15% improved performance.

Offering astounding graphical performances, the new Asus graphic cards series is incorporated with the SmartDoctor application. Delivering up to 15% in performance improvement, the application also offers the most powerful overclockability. The overclocking utility allows the series to provide high voltage boots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot along with performance upgrades.
With few simple clicks the utility eliminates the need of a separate overclocking button. It also removes the trouble of re-flashing the BIOS which could damage the cards. Another unique feature of this series is the inclusion of the ATI Stream technology that delivers enhanced balanced platforms that have the ability to run demanding computing tasks. Based on the AMD graphics processors, the series comes with a huge parallel processing power.

“Gaming has been the segment which has made the graphics card industry more challenging and has helped to raise the performance bar for graphics cards. At Asus we take pleasure in providing state of art technology that evolves with every new chipset.” explained Mr. Vinay Shetty – Country Head – Component Product, Asus (India) on the launch of this latest graphics card from Asus.

He further mentioned, “By launching the EAH 4890, Asus offers a unique Voltage Tweak technology which raises GPU voltages from 1.312V to 1.4V in Asus EAH4890/HTDI/1GD5, allowing GPU and memory clock performances to be boosted from 850MHz to 950MHz and 3900MHz to 4600MHz respectively

Offering gamers an adrenaline rush, the series provides real-life graphics performance. The Asus EAH4890 Top in particular enables a thrilling gaming experience as it is enabled to boost performance by nearly 8% while the EAH4890 Top with Voltage Tweak technology delivers 15% boost in performance. Allowing a sure-shot increase in GPU and memory clock performances, the series also boasts of raised 3D Mark Vantage Extreme Preset scores.

Some other features of the Asus EAH4890 series includes 1GB GDDR5 video memory, 256 bit memory interface, support for max resolution of 2560 x 1600, PCI Express 2.0 slot, DVI-I dual-link, HDCP compliant and support for outputs like HDTV, HDMI and D-Sub. The graphic card series is also packed with Asus utilities and drivers.

There is no word on the price or availability of the Asus EAH4890 graphic cards series.

Facebook keep in touch

2009-04-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

Mumbai: A recent study in the US has shown that people with 500 online friends on Facebook keep in touch with only 10-16 of them while people with 120 friends on the site keep in regular contact with four-six of them. Our question to the celebs was what does making so many diverse friends on social networking sites do for you?
Milind Soman, Actor
I'm not on any social networking site. I don't think it's possible to have the mental or emotional state to deal with more than four-five close friends in one's life.

Rakshanda Khan, Actor
I have 600 friends on my social networking site. Realistically it's impossible to be in close touch with so many of them. But that's precisely the function of a social networking site. I've connected to my school teachers from way back, one of whom is in Australia and with whom I would never have been able to keep in touch otherwise. So it's wonderful.
Arti Surendranath, line producer
I have over 700 friends online. It's a method of genuine connection with people from another era, whom one wouldn't have been in touch with otherwise. Also it's a super way of promoting a cause far and wide among one's circle of friends. However, what I don't like is that some networking sites can get away with using the confidential information you put on them, for their own purposes.

Shenaz Treasurywala, Actor
Facebook is a great way of being in touch with almost everyone I've ever met. While sometimes, after the initial 'hi', 'hello', 'how's life treating you', you realise you don't have much to say to each other, it's still nice to have the option of dropping a line to them anytime I feel like and to be able to share thoughts on films and books.

Tanuja Chandra, Director
While I'm quite into the internet and into e-mail, I'm not on any social networking site. They are addictive and can become an obsession. Since it's a virtual friendship and you're sitting alone with your computer I believe they isolate more than they connect.

Why Open Source Rocks ?

2009-03-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

Open source programs are very cool because:

❑ They are free. The greatest thing about open source software is that it is free and available to the
general public. Software developers and programmers volunteer their time to improve existing
software and create new programs. Open source software cannot, by definition, require any sort
of licensing or sales fees.

❑ They are cross-platform and “technology-neutral.” By requiring open source software to be
non–platform specific, the open source community has ensured that the programs are usable
by virtually everyone. According to the Open Source Definition provided by the Open Source
Initiative at http://opensource.org/docs/definition.php, open source programs must
not be dependent on any “individual technology or style of interface” and must be “technologyneutral.”
As long as the software can run on more than one operating system, it meets the
criterion.

❑ They must not restrict other software. This basically means that if an open source program is
distributed along with other programs, those other programs may be open source or commercial
in nature. This gives software developers maximum control and flexibility.

❑ They embrace diversity. Diversity of minds and cultures simply produces a better result. For
this reason, open source programs cannot, by definition, discriminate against any person or
group of persons, nor against any “field of endeavor.” For example, a program designed for use
in the medical profession cannot be limited to that field if someone in another field wants to
take the program and modify it to fit his or her needs.

For a complete list of the criteria a piece of software must meet before it can be considered “open
source,” or for more information about the OSI or the open source community, visit the OSI Web site
at www.opensource.org.

Tax Software 2008

2009-03-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

Given the state of the economy, the biggest news in tax preparation software this year is something many people believe is long overdue: The ability to prepare and file your federal tax forms electronically, completely free of charge--regardless of how much or how little you make.

If you prefer a more user-friendly tax preparation and filing experience, the usual suspects are back, led by Intuit's market-leading TurboTax and its archrival, H&R Block's TaxCut, both with renewed emphasis on the Web versions, which last year attracted more customers than their desktop software counterparts (watch for our forthcoming reviews of the top five tax prep sites).

For the freebies, thank the IRS and the Free File Alliance (the tax software industry group working with the IRS to reach government goals on electronic filing)--but be aware of their limitations. If your adjusted gross income exceeds $56,000, you won't be getting the kind of tax prep software you've known--so, no interview or context-sensitive help. And while the tax services that participate in the Free File program offer state tax preparation and filing, they don't do it for free.

Still, for the first time, anyone can fill out and electronically file (e-file) federal tax forms--electronic versions of the same government paperwork you can pick up at the post office, complete with IRS instructions--for free. The forms have been available online for some time, but previously you had to print them out and mail them in. It's the ability to e-file them that's new.

If your adjusted gross income is $56,000 or less (which, according David R. Williams, director of electronic tax administration for the IRS, applies to some 90 million people, or 70 percent of taxpayers), then you can simply go to the IRS Free File page for help in choosing from some 20-odd tax prep packages available free to those who meet the means and other tests. As usual, each tax software vendor gets to identify eligible segments of the population--some will limit their offers to college kids, seniors, or servicepeople, for example--so no single program is available to more than 50 percent of the population. That's to ensure that no single tax software company gets stuck with handling all Free File users.

Also, all participating programs must now offer, as a minimum, a core collection of 24 key tax forms. In the past, Williams explains, some would-be Free Filers dropped out because the program they'd chosen lacked a certain form. The 24 forms all programs must have should cover the vast majority of tax scenarios, Williams says.
Pushing Tax Filers Online

It's no secret that the six-year-old Free File program came into being to prevent the government from offering free tax prep and e-file software. The tax prep software industry has managed to preserve a fairly lucrative business (getting wealthier people to pay for software and electronic filing) by agreeing to provide free software and filing to lower-income customers in order to help the IRS reach its goal (set in a 1998 law) of getting 80 percent of all returns filed electronically. This would save the IRS money: The agency pegs the cost of processing a paper return at $2.87, compared with 87 cents for an electronically filed return. But Williams says e-filing doesn't just help the IRS. "It has always been faster, more accurate, and more convenient for taxpayers," he says.

Still, the 80 percent goal remains elusive, although progress has been made. A recent IRS report states that a record 60 percent of returns were filed electronically during last year's tax-filing season. But rates of adoption for electronic filing are slowing--and reaching the target level will be unlikely under current conditions, the report says.

The report describes research findings on who does and doesn't file electronically. For example, although 99 percent of third-party tax preparers (accountants and other professionals) use computers to prepare returns, just two-thirds of those returns are filed electronically. And only 5 million people used the Free File program last year, a small fraction of those eligible.

One of the most interesting parts of the IRS report is its list of possible strategies for upping e-file participation. These include increased marketing efforts (both for e-filing in general and for the Free File program); expansion of Free File to include more taxpayers (although the IRS worries that this might just draw people who now pay to file electronically rather than current paper filers); new incentives such as extending the tax payment deadline for e-filers beyond April 15; and even outright cash payments.

The lure of Free File is undeniable as tax prep and e-file fees creep up. For this year, Intuit initially announced that customers for its market-leading TurboTax desktop software would, for the first time, have to pay to print out additional returns (previously, you could create and print out as many returns as you wished with a single copy of the software). After much user complaining and an effective PR campaign by H&R Block, Intuit withdrew the additional printout fees.

E-filing fees are included in the cost of Web-based tax prep services, which tend to be slightly cheaper than desktop software for e-filers doing a single return. However, in figuring out the costs of tax prep, don't forget to check charges for a state return (assuming you file in one or more of the 40-plus states with income tax). In some cases, a service will throw in prep and e-filing for one state for free; others charge separately and sometimes steeply. Also, although you can keep copies and import data from a Web-based return for use the following year, import and export options tend to be limited, making it difficult to switch to a new service down the line. It's usually a lot easier to transition between desktop packages.

And as with all financial services, be sure to watch out for IRS-related phishing--e-mail that purports to come from the IRS or a tax software company demanding sensitive information. This has been a growing threat in recent years, especially at tax time.

Get some games for your IPhone - IHangman

2009-03-19T16:40:00.000-07:00

iHangman is a true heavyweight of iPhone and iPod Touch hangman games. It boasts 15 word categories and more than 39,000 words, not to mention a dictionary with far more depth than most such games offer.

In addition, iHangman includes an optional timer as part of a scoring system that awards players points based on the difficulty of the selected word category and whether the game is being played under a time limit. This scoring system adds a competitive component to the proceedings and, at the same time, makes each individual game part of a larger quest. When you win a game you get between 1 and 8 points, and the points keep adding up until you lose. So the goal is to win consecutive games at as difficult a level as possible. These options enable you to play a casual game--or a very challenging (and frustrating) one.

In other words, iHangman can be addictive.

In iHangman's straightforward settings screen, you can choose either to bypass a time limit option, or select a time limit of 30 seconds, 1 minute, or 2 minutes. (You score one extra point for winning within a 2-minute limit, two points for winning within 1 minute, and three points for winning within 30 seconds). You can select to play in single- or two-player mode. You can turn sounds on and off. You can also choose one of the 15 word categories, ranging from "Easy" (one point) to "Standard" (three points) to "Reverse" (the words are spelled backward, and solving the puzzle counts for five points). Among the other categories are SAT words, GRE words, Sports, and Celebrities.

I found the Hard word category to be as hard as expected and the Standard category to be a bit confounding at times. Some words presented in the Standard category aren't words that are used in the average adult's standard vocabulary; they're obscure to the extreme that I had never even heard of some of the words. This poses a unique--and unwelcome--difficulty, as the fun of the game is in plumbing the depths of your own vocabulary, not in being stumped by an obscurity. I argue this because in iHangman--especially in the catch-all Standard mode--the words are presented without context, which means that there's a limit to the educated guesswork you can do.

Others may disagree, but it seems to me that when you choose Standard, that's what you should get. Some difficult terms are arguably standard, but even a word I was able to guess--calcimine--struck me as belonging in the "GRE words" category. Some others that cropped up during my playing sessions included "deliquesce," "irresolutely," and "tenthly." (The latter made me cringe as I imagined the world's worst PowerPoint presentation ...)

Otherwise, iHangman is a creative and well-executed offering that now tops my previous favorite, Hangman 1.7. It has a clean, intuitive, interface that's easy on the eyes. There are plenty of options. It even uses the accelerometer in a nifty fashion; when you're stumped by a word (and you will be), a shake of the iPod results in a pop-up dictionary definition.

Download here

iTunes Tweaks

2009-03-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

Enable Browser View for Easier Library Browsing

iTunes' Cover Flow gets all the attention, but let's be realistic: It's a pretty inconvenient way of selecting music. Suppose, for example, you want to play all the Brendan Benson in your library. Cover Flow is useless: It's designed expressly to play an album at a time. You can switch to Grid view, choose the Artists filter, and then hunt for Brendan, but I find that a somewhat cumbersome approach.

I prefer using iTunes' browser view, which isn't a new feature by any means, but it's one I think flies below most users' radar. You can access it by pressing Ctrl-B (Cmd-B on the Mac) or clicking View, Show Browser. The result is a multi-window grid you can use to drill down into your library by genre, artist, and/or album. Click a genre in the left window, for instance, and iTunes immediately filters the artists and albums accordingly. Or, to follow the previous example, I can just scroll down the Artist window until I find Brendan Benson, then double-click the entry to queue and play all his tracks.

Prefer to stick with album art? A tap of Ctrl-G (or Cmd-G) adds artwork to the lower column, the one that lists all your tracks.
Make Text Bigger

Now that you've learned how to tap iTunes' Browser View for easier navigation of your music library, let's look at another way to make iTunes easier: by making text larger. See, I find iTunes' default font size uncomfortably small. That's in part due to my wide-screen monitor, which runs at a fairly high resolution.

Fortunately, I'm no longer squinting at my music library thanks to this simple fix:

1. Click Edit, Preferences.
2. In the General tab, set Source Text to Large.
3. In the same tab, set List Text to Large.
4. Click OK to close the Prefs window and implement your changes.

Now the text in the left-hand menu bar should be easier on the eyes. The same goes for the text displaying your song list. Sometimes the best hacks are the simplest.
Hidden iTunes: Use Folders to Organize Playlists

Most iTunes users know how to create a new playlist: You click the little plus sign at the bottom of the screen or select File, New Playlist. You can also use features like Genius to crank out playlists at will. Of course, this kind of unfettered playlist freedom can lead to what I call Playlist Madness [cue disturbing organ music], which is what happens when your playlist list grows so large as to become unmanageable.

Fortunately, iTunes offers an easy way to tame an unruly batch of lists: folders. Here's how to tap that old standby:

1. Select File, New Playlist Folder.
2. Type a name for your newly created folder ("Alt-Rock Playlists," for example), then hit Enter.
3. Drag any playlist onto the folder and drop it there.
4. Wash, rinse, repeat as needed.

Presto! Folder-managed playlists. You can expand or collapse any folder by clicking the little arrow to the left of its name. You can also create subfolders by dragging one folder into another. This is definitely a handy way to keep your playlists bouncy and manageable.
Three Ways to Make iTunes Run Faster

I think I'm safe in saying that iTunes is the single slowest application on my PC. It not only takes a week or two just to start up, but also seems to pause indefinitely on simple tasks like switching between different sections of the iTunes Store.

Fortunately, there are a few ways to goose iTunes, to make it a little less pokey than usual. I'm not promising a dramatic speed increase, just somewhat more efficient operation.

1. Turn off Genius by selecting Store, Turn Off Genius. (Note that doing so will delete all collected Genius data.) It's a neat feature, but I've noticed that it seems awfully "busy" at times. Anything that's demanding iTunes' attention is also hurting its performance. I never thought it was that smart, anyway.
2. Select Edit, Preferences, Sharing, and then disable Look for shared libraries and Share my library on the local network. Whenever there's ongoing network activity, you can count on a performance hit. Of course, if you are sharing your iTunes library, skip this step.
3. Switch over to the Apple TV tab and disable Look for Apple TVs (unless you have one, of course). It's another case of superfluous network activity that can only hurt performance.

Customize Office 2007

2009-03-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

As a recent convert to Microsoft Office 2007, I'm still learning my way around the interface. Obviously the biggest change involves the Ribbon, which I found daunting at first but quickly came to appreciate. It's just a smarter way of organizing various features. This week I've got tips for customizing Office 2007 apps, like adding features to the Quick Access Toolbar, getting rid of the annoying Mini Toolbar, and setting up Outlook's spell checker.
Add Features to Office 2007's Quick Access Toolbar

There are certain icons I miss from the old Office 2003 toolbar, like Print and Open. These are features I use constantly, but Office 2007 forces me to click the big Office button to access them. That's one whole extra click!

Fortunately, it's easy to add just about any Office feature to the Quick Access Toolbar, which appears at the top of the screen right next to the Office button. By default, the toolbar sports Save, Undo, and Redo icons, but you can customize it as you see fit. (I'm thinking specifically of Word 2007, but the process is the same in Excel and PowerPoint.)

For starters, click the little down-arrow on the right edge of the toolbar. You'll see a list of popular commands like Open, Quick Print, and Spelling & Grammar. Click any of them to add the corresponding icon to Quick Access. (Likewise, click any already-checked item to remove it from the toolbar.)

What if you want to add a feature that's not on the list? Simple: You can right-click almost any icon on the Ribbon (or in the Office menu) and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar. To remove one of these custom jobs, right-click its icon and choose Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.
Kick Word 2007's Mini Toolbar to the Curb

As much as I like Office 2007 for the most part, a few features seem hell-bent on annoying me.

One of them is Word 2007's little on-the-spot editing toolbar, which is officially known as the Mini Toolbar. Perhaps you've encountered it: It appears when you highlight some text and then move your mouse up.

Admittedly, it's a handy addition, but as someone who's literally spent 20 years mousing his way to the top of the screen for font selection, highlighting tools, and the like, the Mini Toolbar strikes me as a Maxi Annoyance.

Fortunately, it's easy to turn off:

1. Click the Office button and then choose Word Options.
2. Clear the check box from the very first item: Show Mini Toolbar on selection.
3. Click OK and you're done.

Want the toolbar back? Ah, you don't really need me to explain that, do you?
Make Outlook Automatically Spell-Check Your E-mail

I'm kind of a spelling snob. I take pains to make sure I spell everything correctly, so it bugs me a little bit when I receive mail that contains spelling mistakes.

Well, okay, I cheat a little: I use Outlook 2007's spell-checker to give my outbound mail the once-over before sending. You can do likewise, without having to remember to click the Spelling button every time, by tweaking Outlook's checker. Here's how:

1. Click Tools, Options.
2. Click the Spelling tab.
3. Tick the box marked Always check spelling before sending.
4. Click OK.

That's it! Now, when you click Send, Outlook's spell-checker will immediately appear, giving you a chance to fix those "Hey, Rick, you are so stoopid" kinds of mistakes.

Of course, by default, Outlook uses squiggly red lines to indicate misspellings as you type, but I know many folks who prefer to just bang away at the keys and then fix the mistakes at the end.

Adobe CS4 Much Improved than any other version

2008-11-30T01:33:00.000-08:00

Adobe CS4 Much Improved than any other version, one main thing i found in cs4 is all all the creative software open in much less time when compared to older version ... photoshop cs4 open within 5 sec, it so amazing ... cause in this same system ...i tried cs 3 and it take more than 5 mins to open up completely but i just got bit confused with adobe In Design .. but not bad. photoshop cs4 now bring more importance and more tools for editing 3d object and lot more features are but only thing that made me wonder is the loading time ... though performace speed gone little down .... the loading time had improved really great ...

I think adobe reader 9 realeased with this adobe creative suits cs4 anyway that also had really improved it loading speed ...

T-Mobile G1

2008-11-03T19:51:00.000-08:00

Experience the Web just like on your computer, wherever you are with your T-Mobile G1. The browser makes your web experience fluid and natural by integrating it with other applications and features on your phone. Click on a phone number from a website, and your phone will dial it. Save images from the web as wallpaper. The list goes on and on.

Features

Touch Screen
T-Mobile G1 lets you touch, tap, swipe and scroll your way through all the coolest applications, your contacts, the Web and more. That means instant access to your information with a touch of the finger.

Tap the screen and go
Instant access to key information

QWERTY Keyboard
Together with the trackball and touch screen, the QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to get around the Web, type e-mail and respond to texts. Just flip the phone horizontally, slide open the keyboard and you’re ready to go.

Type messages easily

One-Touch Google Search
The quickest way to get results. We’ve put the Google search bar just one touch away so you’re never far from an answer when you have a question. You can even search within your applications using the related search function. Listening to music? Search your music files.

Search the Internet in one click

Real Web Browsing
The T-Mobile G1™ was built to browse the Web. Using the touch screen, QWERTY keyboard and trackball you can access your favorite pages and browse like you were sitting at your computer.

in one touch
Real Web, not mobile version

Easy Access to Google Apps
Gmail™, GoogleTalk, Google Calendar, YouTube™, and even Google Maps are all easy to access and move between on the T-Mobile G1.
One-touch access to:

Google Maps (My Location, satellite, traffic and Street View)
Gmail
YouTube
Google Calendar
Google Talk

3G Network and Wi-Fi Access
Not only can you navigate the real Web, you can do it at blazing speeds! Seamlessly moving between available 3G Network and Wi-Fi access, the T-Mobile G1 gives you the Web when you’re on the go.

High-speed 3G network
Connect to open Wi-Fi networks automatically
Also works on 2G and EDGE networks.Features Included in the T-Mobile G1™

IM/Text/E-mail
Sign in once with your Gmail password and your GoogleTalk, Gmail and Google Calendar are kept up to date. Add in texting and you’re ready to leave your computer without worrying about being out of touch with your contacts. Have more than just a Gmail account? No problem. You can access other e-mail accounts right from your T-Mobile G1.

Connect while you’re on the go
Access additional e-mail accounts (Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc.)

3.2 Megapixel Camera
With a capable digital camera built in, the T-Mobile G1 lets you capture high-quality photos of the moments that matter most and share them with friends. And with 1GB of memory (expandable to 8GB) you can afford to capture a lot of moments. It also features autofocus built in and a shortcut button to the camera on the side.

High-quality photos
Autofocus

YouTube
millions of videos from YouTube at your fingertips, you can find that funny video you were trying to tell your friend about and show it off from wherever you are.

Millions of videos
Access anywhere

Music Player
With the included 1GB memory card that you can expand to 8GB, you can listen to your music with the built in music player or on any computer. That means you’re never without your favorite tunes, no matter
where you go.

1GB memory card included
Expandable to 8GB

Android Market
Download the hottest applications from Android Market - just one touch away. With games, social networking, on-the-go shopping applications and more, you’ll get more done and get it done on your schedule. The possibilities are endless.

One-touch access
Games, social networking, on-the-go shopping and more
Download wirelessly

Customizable Home Screen
Shuffle around your applications. Create wallpaper from your photos. Whatever you access most, or want to see everyday can be put front and center so your T-Mobile G1 is as unique as you are. It’s all up to you.

Drag and drop your favorite applications, photos or folders

WOT - add Trust to your mozilla browsing

2008-09-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

WOT, Web of Trust, warns you about risky websites that try to scam visitors, deliver malware or send spam. Protect your computer against online threats by using WOT as your front-line layer of protection when browsing or searching in unfamiliar territory. WOT's color-coded icons show you ratings for 20 million websites - green to go, yellow for caution and red to stop – helping you avoid the dangerous sites. Surf safer and add WOT to your Firefox now.

Download Here

Revo Uninstaller Portable

2008-09-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

License Type: Free
Operating Systems: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000

What's better than the free Revo Uninstaller? The portable version, which doesnt need to be installed (and thus uninstalled) itself. Like Vistas Programs and Features, Revo offers a convenient interface for launching your installed programs own uninstallers. But after Revo does that job, it cleans up the mess that the uninstaller left behind.Revo Uninstaller includes: Junk Files Cleaner, Windows Tools, Auto Run Manager, Browsers Cleaner, MS Office Cleaner, Windows Cleaner, Evidence Remover and Unrecoverable Delete tools! You can reach all these tools from "Tools" tool bar button of Revo Uninstaller.

Download here

10 Tips to Stay Safe and Secure Online

2008-09-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

The Internet can be a dangerous place.

While you're enjoying the convenience of online shopping,
Internet banking and subscription websites, nasty people
lurk around every corner.

Hackers, fraudsters, identity thieves and many others would
love to get hold of your personal details.

And what stands between you and a security disaster?

Your password.

Just 8 little characters long, it's your last line of
defense online. Here are 10 tips for choosing and using
bullet-proof passwords that will protect you from harm:

Tip 1 - Avoid the obvious

Passwords based on personal details are too easy to guess.
Avoid using names, places, favorite sports teams, or
"password".

Tip 2 - Make it non-dictionary

One option a thief might try to crack your password is a
brute-force dictionary attack. Choose something that you
won't find in any dictionary.

Tip 3 - Use the full 8 characters

The more characters a password contains the more secure it
becomes, so fill that password field to the max.

Tip 4 - Mix the case

Deter thieves further by using a combination of upper and
lower-case letters. A mIXeD cAsE password adds another
layer of protection and is ever harder to guess.

Tip 5 - Include non-alphabetic characters

Adding numbers and non-alphabetic characters (like a hyphen)
to your password makes it less likely to be cracked than
something purely alphabetic.

Tip 6 - Don't write it down

This should be obvious but it's amazing how many scraps of
paper surround the world's PCs.

Tip 7 - Assign a different password to each login id

If thieves get hold of your password, they'll try it in
every online system available. Use a separate password at
each website and you won't have all your eggs in one basket.

Tip 8 - Employ a password manager

Remembering multiple secure passwords can be challenging.
Specialist software like http://www.robo-form.com manages
your passwords securely and automates the login process.

Tip 9 - Logout when you're done

Always hit the logout button when you've finished using a
secure site like online banking.

Tip 10 - Close that browser

Web pages and passwords can be cached in the browser, so
close down your browser window for added security.

Follow these simple common-sense tips and you'll enjoy
greater online security while benefiting from the many
advantages the Internet has brought

google chrome - web browser from google

2008-09-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

One box for everything
Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages.
Thumbnails of your top sites
Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab.
Shortcuts for your apps
Get desktop shortcuts to launch your favorite web applications.

Google Inc.'s new Web browser, called Chrome, does much of what a browser needs to do these days: It presents a sleek appearance, groups pages into easy-to-manage "tabs" and offers several ways for people to control their Internet privacy settings.
Yet my initial tests reveal that this "beta," or preliminary release, falls short of Google's goals, and is outdone in an important measure by the latest version of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer.
Chrome is a challenge to Microsoft's browser, used by about three-quarters of Web surfers. But it could equally be called a challenge to Microsoft's Office software suite, because what Google really wants to do is to make the browser a stable and flexible platform that can do practically everything we want to do with a computer, from word processing and e-mail to photo editing.
To strengthen that effort, Chrome was designed to improve on the way other browsers handle JavaScript, one of the technologies used to make Web pages more interactive and more like desktop software applications. Google's online word processing and spreadsheet programs use this technology, but it's also very widely deployed on Web pages to do less sophisticated things, like drop-down menus.
At first blush, Google's focus on JavaScript makes sense. JavaScript can eat up computer processor power, and if poorly used by a Web site, can bring down the browser. One of the things Chrome promises is that if one browser tab crashes, it won't take down the whole program.

Google Chrome EULA Claims Ownership of Everything You Create on Chrome, From Blog Posts to Emails

By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display
You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license

Now, that's not to say that Google has explicitly "stolen" anything from IE, Firefox, Opera or Safari. They have, as of now, acknowledged that they owe a great debt to some of the other large players in the browser market. After all, they're using Safari's WebKit engine, receive billions of revenue-pumping referrals from Firefox's Google search bar, and have open-sourced much of Chrome. For most users, though, these gestures and acknowledgments will go unnoticed, and features previously incorporated into other popular browsers will be seen first on Google's. I've put together a list of some of Chrome's most interesting features, including the mainstream browsers that "inspired" them.

5 Free Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic

2008-08-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but when I first entered the world of internet marketing I thought I could just submit my newly finished website to a few search engines, then sit back as the visitors flocked to my site.

I imagined that people would arrive on my website, as if by magic, purchase goods, and perhaps come back again for more.

A week or so later I came down to earth with a big bump.

I realised that it would take a bit of time and effort to see the results that I was dreaming about!

Since my reality check, I have learned all about the weird and wonderful ways of internet marketing.

In this article I will tell you about my top 5 free ways of increasing website traffic.

All these methods are completely free and if you spend some time on them you will find that they work consistently.

(1)Writing Articles

Writing an article on a subject related to your website and getting that article published has two major benefits:

- People who are interested in your article will read it and often click on the URL in your resource box find out more. This gets you another free targeted visitor. Targeted, because that reader wants to find out more on the subject of your article, which is hopefully related to the subject of your website.

- Every publisher of your article must also publish your "resource box". Adding a resource box with your URL to all of your articles will increase the number of links leading back to your website, which in turn helps to increase your search engine position

For a list of directories to submit your article to, see Article Submission Directories

(2)Forum Networking

There are many discussion forums on the internet, on every topic you could possibly imagine.

Most discussion boards allow posters to attach a "Signature" with their post containing additional information about themselves, such as their name, URL and sometimes even an advertisement.

By visiting a few forums regularly and participating in the discussions, asking and answering questions, you can build up trust with other forum members, whilst at the same time getting free exposure for your website.

Just try to make a useful contribution to the forum - be sure to read the forum rules and don't spam!

(3)Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal linking has two main benefits for you.

Firstly, the more links that you exchange, the more chance there is that someone will follow a link from another site and land on your website.

Secondly, your website will be perceived more importantly by search engines.

The more links you have from other sites, the greater your chance of getter ranked more highly by all the search engines.

Here are some Dos and Don'ts to help you get more out of your link exchanges.

- Do link with sites that will be of interest to your visitors.

- Don't link with pages that have unorganised link directories with hundreds of links on each page. This won't benefit you with increased traffic or search engine rankings.

- Do link with sites that have a clearly labelled "Link Directory" from their main page. You aren't likely to get much traffic from a hidden or hard to find link directory.

- Don't use link farms or FFA pages. You are unlikely to get extra traffic using these methods and the search engines may penalise you.

- Do use link directories to help you find link partners. You can find some Link Exchange Resources here

- Do stay organised. Use link exchange software, or a spreadsheet to keep track of the link exchanges you have requested and the contact details of the webmasters.

(4) Email Signatures

This is a very simple, but often forgotten way of increasing your website visitors.

Most of us are sending lots of emails a day, but many of us just sign them with just our name, or perhaps nothing at all.

Instead, why not end your emails with a short signature containing your name, a bit about your website along with the URL?

Keep the signature short (4 lines), to the point and avoid hype or SHOUTING.

You may be surprised at the extra visitors you receive through doing this. It's amazing how curiosity will lead the recipients of your email to click on your link!

(5)Using Traffic Exchanges

Finally, this is one easy way to guarantee instant hits to your website. You can build up credits for free by surfing or building up a downline to surf for you.

The downside of this method is that the visitors you receive from traffic exchanges are not as targeted as the visitors that you will receive via the other methods that I have described.

The reason for this is that people surf traffic exchanges for one reason - to earn as many credits as possible in as short a space of time as possible!

This gives you a challenge - how do you attract the attention of someone who is looking at your web page for 20 seconds or less?

Here are two tips -

- Know your market - spend some time surfing on the exchange that you are advertising on and pay attention to the types of web pages being advertised. Make sure that the pages you advertise are going to interest your target market.

- Use a short, simple attention grabbing page that can be read in a few seconds - there is no point advertising a huge page of text that takes 5 minutes to read. The chances are, your visitor will get bored and click on the "next" button without giving your page a fair chance.

Regularly invest some time in each of these 5 traffic generating methods and you will see your web statistics moving in the upwards direction before you know it.

simply floola - replace your itunes

2008-08-29T01:47:00.000-07:00

Floola is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model supporting iTunes). It's a standalone application that can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows (Windows Vista is supported).
Floola supports all common used iPod features including photos, artwork, podcasts and smart playlists!
It automatically converts any incompatible audio or video file so that you can copy almost any file to it. It even allows adding youtube and myspace videos with a single click!

Lightweight and full-featured, Floola is a comprehensive replacement for Apple's iTunes software, capable of performing virtually all of the functions of the official management utility. The program, with versions available for Windows, Linux, and the Mac OS, can even run from a thumbdrive or the iPod itself--it doesn't require any installation.

In addition to being able to move music, photos, and videos to the player, Floola can also manage podcast downloads; create and upload playlists; convert video files to an iPod-compatible format, and can upload Web videos from sites such as YouTube to the iPod just by entering the URL. The program supports both lyrics and album art, as well, and can also play back media stored on the iPod through the connected computer on which it's running. Floola can also manage media files on other devices that use iTunes, such as some models of Motorola cellphones and the iPhone.

Although Floola's not the only free alternative iPod manager application available, this open-source alternative to iTunes, with its Spartan user interface, provides an easy, installation-free way to handle virtually all common tasks that you'd need to do with iTunes.

Features

Cross plattform
Works on any Windows (98 and above), any Mac and any linux distribution with GTK installed.

Portable
Put the application on iPod and launch it on any PC, immediately.

Copy
add and extract songs to and from iPod.

Playlists
Easily manage, import and export (m3u, pls) playlists.

Last.fm
Join the social music revolution.

Podcasts
Join the social music revolution.

Web videos
add files to iPod just copying the page url

Localization
Available in different languages.

Lyrics
Lyric support even on older iPods (3G and above).

Search for duplicates
Easily find duplicated songs on iPod.

Search lost files
Easily find songs lost in your iPod.

Artwork
Add artwork to your songs easily.

Videos
Videos can be added to iPod.

Convert
Convert audio and video incompatible formats

Export to HTML
Create HTML files containing list of your iPod files

Fix iPod
Did a software mess up your iPod? Fix it!

Notes
Manage notes.

Growl support
(Mac version only) Get beautiful system notifications.

Snarl support
(Windows version only) Get beautiful system notifications.

Music
Play iPod's music.

Photos
Freedom to simply add photos to iPod.

Download Torrent

Direct Download

Be safer than NASA: Disable autorun

2008-08-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

NASA confirmed this week that a computer on the International Space Station is infected with a virus. (See "Houston, we have a virus" at The Register.)

The malicious software is called W32.TGammima.AG, and technically it's a worm. The interesting point, other than how NASA could let this happen, is the way the worm spreads--on USB flash drives.

Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET, alerted me about this. Touching on both interesting points, he said:

To start with, no computer going into space should have autorun enabled. Simply disabling autorun would have almost certainly rendered the worm inert. Given that age of the worm, and its low risk ranking, it is probable that current (antivirus) software was not being used either.

(Credit: NASA)

Malicious software spread by USB flash drives and other removable media takes advantage of a questionable design decision by Microsoft. Windows is very happy to run a program automatically when a USB flash drive is inserted into a PC. How convenient, both for end users and for bad guys.

Abrams blogged about this back in December, and I wrote about it in March. In that posting, I described how to disable autorun for Windows XP and Windows 2000 and I just revised it to include Vista.

In his December blog, Abrams writes, "Fundamentally, there are two types of readers here. The first type will disable autorun and be more secure. The second type will eventually be victims."

Don't be a victim, disable autorun (also known as autoplay) for all devices. It may be a bit inconvenient going forward, but to me, the added safety is well worthwhile.

Top 5 Powerfull Laptops which Can Replace Your PC

2008-08-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

These laptops are on the heavy side and have large screens (17-inches or higher) -- that makes these powerhouses ideal replacements for desktop PCs.

1. HP Pavilion dv7
CPU: 2.53-GHz Core 2 Duo T9400, Display Size (inches): 17, Wide Screen: Yes, Total HD Size (GB): 400, Min. Weight (lbs.): 5.48,

Price When Reviewed: $1900

2. Gateway P-172X FX
CPU: 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo T8300, Display Size (inches): 17, Wide Screen: Yes, Total HD Size (GB): 320, Min. Weight (lbs.): 9.3,
Price When Reviewed: $1938

4. Apple MacBook Pro
CPU: 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo T7700, Display Size (inches): 17, Wide Screen: Yes, Total HD Size (GB): 160, Min. Weight (lbs.): 6.6,

Bottom Line: Lightweight 17-incher does Mac or Windows OSes and comes loaded with useful multimedia and creative software.
Price When Reviewed: $2949

5. Toshiba Satellite X205-S9359
CPU: 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7300, Display Size (inches): 17, Wide Screen: Yes, Total HD Size (GB): 320, Min. Weight (lbs.): 8.7,

Bottom Line: Robust home portable offers great gaming with beautiful-sounding audio and a stylish striped lid.
Price When Reviewed: $2400

FotoTagger

2008-08-28T02:53:00.000-07:00

FotoTagger is a free tool for annotating JPEG images. Add easy-to-hide searchable notes pointing to individual elements on the image. Upload individual images, whole folders or selected photos to Flickr and download them back to FotoTagger. Publish to blogs. Create Web slide shows from folders with annotated images or manually selected images. Edit images in external editors without losing annotations. Organize images directly from FotoTagger.
It's easy to point out small features within a photo when you're standing next to someone, but what do you do when the other person isn't even in the same country, let alone the same room? Enter FotoTagger, a freeware utility that automates the task of adding small text boxes pointing to specific features on a photograph, then generates HTML based gallery pages which permit the viewer to toggle the tags on and off.

What FotoTagger does isn't impossible to accomplish using other programs. An experienced photo editor could easily add the kinds of callouts FotoTagger creates using Photoshop. The tags look like the kind of annotation you can add to a cell in an Excel spreadsheet, for example. FotoTagger simplifies the process of creating the "tagged" photograph, and generates a basic Web page.

The annotations also can contain live links to Web sites, and tags added to photographs are recorded to a database, which lets you later search for photos based on tag text or keywords. And if you use the online photo sharing site Flickr, FotoTagger automatically converts the tags to and/or from the Notes format used by Flickr, and can upload the images there automatically.

Download Here

40,000 new blogs are started daily - how your web hosting business can cash in

2008-08-27T02:59:00.000-07:00

The fact that an estimated 40,000 new blogs are being started daily should be of great interest to anybody already in the web hosting business or intending to go into it. Especially those planning to go into the business as affiliates or as resellers because this group of online entrepreneurs are in a very good position to cash in quickly on this amazing growth rate of blogs with hardly any investment necessary.

While it is true that a vast majority of blogs are hosted free, it is also true that many blogs are gaining high traffic so quickly that they are forced to quickly find paid web hosting as they exceed their allocated bandwidth.

The other fact to bear in mind is that virtually all successful bloggers own several blogs. This is significant because it is not easy to own several websites since lots of technical know-how and time are required to maintain a single website, let alone several. This is not the case with a blog that mainly requires content and very little technical knowledge to run very successfully. In terms of business volumes this simply means that a web hosting business that targets blogs is bound to grow a lot faster than the one that only seeks clients from the ranks of traditional websites.

The other significant factor in blogs that should be of great benefit to any web hosting business is the huge traffic that blogs seem to enjoy almost effortlessly.

All a web host entrepreneur needs to do, is to find a way to advertise their web hosting services to this blog traffic. There are several ways of doing this. You can for example look for acceptable ways of creating as many links from the blogs to your web hosting sites as possible. You can even start your very own blog on the subject.

VideoThang

2008-08-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

Version: 2.0.1
Downloads Count: 759
License Type: Free
Price: Free
Date Added: Jul 3, 2008
Operating Systems: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
File Size: 17055 KB
Author: VideoThang LLC

VideoThang, you make my art sang! You make everything Easy! Thats what the purveyors of this free video/multimedia editor hope it will do, and for the most part it succeeds. Every effort has been made to render the program unintimidating as well as visually appealing. The GUI has the more the aspect of a youth-oriented social Web site than a standalone program: Projects are called "mixes," you can import video from Facebook as well as a Webcam and computer, and "Do Your Thang!" is splashed playfully across the top of the main window.

VideoThang installs and leverages two free applications: the AviSynth 2.5 renderer/editor and the ffdshow filters/codecs for its basic media abilities. VideoThang sits on top, providing a friendly face to what are otherwise rather harsh, geeky programs. Friendly it is, but its also a bit limited. For instance, you can import .mp3 audio files, but not .wma or .ogg; jpeg and png images, but not bitmaps. Video import is more versatile with support for .mov, .avi, .wmv, .mp4, .3gp, .dv and even .flv. There are also the common fade transitions, color FX and zoom for photos, as well as a trim function for video. All in all, theres more than enough there to get the job done for most of us.

VideoThang may not be the most flexible multimedia editor in the world, but the trim/zoom basics are there, it's free, and it's so simple to use that just about anyone in the world should be able figure it out. If you're not looking for a whole lot of whiz-bang FX or options, it will produce the desired results with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of fun. VideoThang--I think I like you.

download

HP Pavilion dv7

2008-08-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

The dv7t, a heavy-duty desktop replacement, wows with its performance but falls a little short in multimedia--where you'd expect it to excel.The Pavilion dv7t is one of HP's "entertainment powerhouse" notebooks, just one step down from the ludicrously oversize 20-inch HDX. Beyond the 17-inch screen, and under the cool "liquid metal" exterior, lies Intel's new Centrino 2 processor. The result: high-octane performance in an extremely shiny package.

The dv7t, with its 2.53-GHz Core 2 Duo T9400 processor and 3GB of RAM, turned in a blazing score of 98 in our WorldBench 6 tests. Interestingly, MicroExpress's identically stacked all-purpose machine, the JFL9226, earned a mark of 103.

The dv7t's nVidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics card makes this laptop a better gaming rig than many other portables. It produced an impressive 152 frames per second in our Doom 3 and Far Cry tests (and a respectable 95.26 fps with antialiasing turned on).

Battery life was 3 hours, 1 minute, not bad for an 8.4-pound unit with a 17-inch screen. If only we could see the screen a little better. In a typical fluorescent-lit office, viewing the display is hard. Even when ratcheted all the way up, the huge screen was not very bright--not what you'd expect from a high-end machine. Compared with the display of a 15.4-inch HP Pavilion DV6000t, in fact, the dv7t's screen was grayish. That said, the dullness shouldn't impede enjoying a flick on the Blu-ray drive or getting work done, especially with the lights turned down low. The 1680-by-1050-pixel resolution makes mainstream applications plenty easy to work in. Be sure to keep headphones handy, though: Despite the unit's subwoofer, to me it sure didn't sound like a Blu-ray movie was playing.

On the bright side, if you like shiny things, you'll love the dv7t. The lid and lower casing are black, but inside it resembles a slab of highly polished steel topped off with a similarly finished keyboard and icy-white status lights. It's so reflective that you can see yourself in the wrist rest, quite handy for surreptitious spinach-stuck-in-teeth and makeup checks. The keys gleam like pricey flatware, and even feel cool to the touch. Maneuvering about the keyboard is just as smooth, thanks to the great layout, the wide mirrored touchpad, and the dedicated number pad. The fingerprint reader is completely and conveniently out of the way in its right-bottom-corner location.

I only wish that the rigid mouse buttons depressed a little farther into the case, and that HP's volume swipe were better behaved. Though it's always a pleasure to use HP's signature one-touch QuickPlay media button for directly launching a movie and music menu and its forward and backward controls, HP still hasn't ironed all of the kinks out of its touch-sensitive controls. Getting the mute control working took a hard punch. The cranky volume swipe would lower but not raise volume--which, unlike movie sound, is quite loud and pleasing with CDs and MP3s. (We've had the opposite problem--the volume swipe raising but not lowering sound--on other Pavilions.)

If you can overlook those little problems, the dv7t is a handsome, fast unit. For our review it was nicely configured with a 400GB hard drive, a Blu-ray drive, and Windows Vista Home Premium. And if you're looking to replace a desktop, it's a better candidate than most other big notebooks because of its proprietary left-side connection for HP's xb3000 expansion base. Though the base is an expensive add-on, it incorporates a screen stand, a third hard-drive bay, far better speakers, and a wireless keyboard and mouse for a complete desktop experience.

Forget the peripherals right now, though. Without the docking station, the dv7t slightly stumbles as an end-all, be-all entertainment unit. If you're looking for the whole package, consider Toshiba's Qosmio line of massive desktop replacement PCs. They're hardly portable, but the Qosmios (or is that Qosmii for plural?) have consistently incorporated terrific audio into their designs. That said, thanks to its beefy new CPU, HP's powerhouse sails through performance tests and whips the current competition. If speed is what matters to you, the Pavilion dv7 has it in spades.

Legally Download Music and MP3's

2008-08-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

Downloading music is one of the greatest things about owning a computer. However, the most popular way to do it is illegal. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is trying to stop anyone from downloading music illegally and have recently been passing out hefty fines to prevent downloading. In the wake of a Supreme Court ruling, companies can be sued for encouraging illegal downloading, most notably and recently Kazaa. With the recent shutdown of the top music downloading networks, one has to ask:
Can I Still Download Music?
Yes, at plenty of Web sites, some requiring payments and some free. Pay sites that have licensing agreements with the entertainment industry -- such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo Music and others -- are panting for your business. Sites battling the industry such as Grokster and Morpheus -- which were targeted in Monday's decision -- face a cloudier future. While the Supreme Court sent their case back to a federal appeals court for trial, they are almost sure to lose. They and other file-sharing services that allow for sharing of copyrighted files -- and make money off it, through advertising and other means -- may fold or have to change their sites drastically.
Unfortunately these top profile downloading sites often charge a hefty fee for their access. Basic membership fees often cost upwards of $30 a month, while tracks start at $1 a piece. Alternatives have arisen that promise to give you the same amount of content but at a cheaper price.
These alternatives include: MP3-share, mp3downloadhq, legal music access, and online download network. Reviews of these programs can be found at http://music.webreviews.ca managed by http://webreviews.ca

10 Great things NOT to do with Google AdSense

2008-08-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

There is no question that you can make some good money with Google AdSense, but you’re setting yourself up for disaster if you make any of these Top 10 mistakes!

1. Do not use fake information when opening your Google AdSense account.

Google says that’s a no-no and they will cut your account off and keep all the money you may have earned. Besides, trying to hide your true identity can cause serious problems with the I.R.S. or whoever your tax authority is.

2. Do not hack or modify Google AdSense code other than to change the parameters that Google authorizes you to change.

Any attempt to bypass Google’s built-in algorithms not only poses a danger to the integrity of the network, but it threatens the financial modle that Google operates under. You’re not dealing with some Mom-and-Pop company here, and Google has the legal muscle and deep enough pockets to drag you through every court in the land if you damage their business with your hacking antics.

3. Keep AdSense ads off of your registration, confirmation, and all "thank you" pages.

Don’t ask me why you can’t put your ads there. It makes sense to me that those would be wonderful locations. Google thinks otherwise, however, and doing so is a hanging offense according to their Terms of Service.

4. Do not display AdSense ads and a competitor's ads (like Overture's) on the same page at the same time.

That just makes plain good sense. Google doesn’t demand 100% SITE loyalty from you, but they do insist that their own ads not be cluttered up by offerings from their competitors.

5. Don't "beg for clicks" or provide any incentive for clicking on your Google AdSense ads.

This is a biggie and you see this rule violated all the time. Any of the “get paid to do stuff” sites that put Google ads in the member’s control panels are walking the plank and they don’t even realize it. Even those sites with the polite little messages asking you to “help keep my site running by clicking on our sponsor’s ads” are asking to be cut off if those happen to be Google ads.

6. Never click on the ads running on your own site, even if you are genuinely interested in the product or service and are thinking of buying it!

Nothing screams FRAUD louder than a webmaster running up his or her own click counts by happily clicking on ads fromtheir own site. The Google Gods can track this activity and it won’t be long until you find yourself getting a goodbye note from their fraud team.

7. No misleading labeling

Google is very specific about what text can be placed around their ads. Their Terms of Service state: “Publishers may not label the ads with text other than ‘sponsored links’ or ‘advertisements.’ This includes any text directly above our ads that could be confused with, or attempt to be associated with Google ads.”

This is to keep visitors from becoming confused and barking up Google’s tree when they clicked on an ad that led to a porn site instead of the recipe site they were expecting to visit.

8. Avoid keyword spamming and other divisive tricks

You may be tempted to buy one of those “generates thousands of key-word rich pages in seconds” programs that are so popular these days but I’ll tell you this: Their days are numbered. Google is wise to such shenanigans and they will be hot on your trail. Other prohibited gimmicks include:

• ”Sneaky” page redirects that send a visitor off to a different site then they were expecting to visit.

• Multiple sites, domains, pages, etc. which have substantially duplicate content.

• Hidden text or links of any type.

• Excessive outbound links on any page. Google recommends no more than 100. I’d keep it way below that.

• And here is a nugget of wisdom straight from Google’s mouth: “Do not participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your website may be affected adversely by those links.

9. Don’t advertise anything on Google’s prohibited items list.

It’s a lot shorter lists than PayPal’s or eBay’s, but it includes a lot of the same stuff like hacking/cracking content, porn, illegal drugs, gambling sites, beer or hard alcohol (I guess wine is OK), weapons, and the other usual stuff.

10. And the 10th dumbest thing NOT to do with Google AdSense is to let the other nine things stop you from running an honest site that’s designed to make the most out of this very profitable opportunity that Google offers!

SWITCHING FROM WINDOWS TO MAC OS X ( SOFTWARE)

2008-06-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

Knowing your workflow

The applications you normally use on a daily basis are probably totally different from those of, say, your next-door neighbor or the person possibly sitting in the cubicle next to you, or even mine. What matters is that you know your workflow, and this appendix will help you find the applications you’ll need to find on OS X to get your work done. To help you realize what applications you’ll need on your new Mac, make a list of the tasks you use your computer for.
Try and leave out the function of the software; instead, focus on tasks. For example, if you write your dear old grandmother often, think of that as writing grandma an e-mail. You don’t need to say that you open up Microsoft Outlook, click File ➤ New E-mail . . . you just write an e-mail.

The great hunt
So now you’ve got your list of tasks you use your computer for. All you have to do is go out and find the software for OS X that will allow you to accomplish your tasks—but where do you start?
Well, the good folks at Apple have already thought of that. If you’re new to OS X or even if you’re not, take a look at the third option on the Apple menu (in the top-left corner of your screen): Mac OS X Software (see Figure A-1).
When you click this option, OS X will automatically open up your default web browser and take you to www.apple.com/ downloads/macosx/.
What’s this? Apple has taken the lead and put together a fairly nice directory of OS X-specific software, sorted by category. Notice what I said: “sorted by category.” So if you’re looking for a great tax software program, you’ll know to look under the Business & Finance category.

Office suites

Microsoft Office: www.microsoft.com/mac/

NeoOffice: www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php Apple iWork: www.apple.com/iwork/

E-mail clients

Apple Mail: Bundled with Mac OS X Microsoft Entourage:www.microsoft.com/mac/

MailSmith: www.barebones.com/products/mailsmith/ Thunderbird: www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/ CTM PowerMail: www.ctmdev.com/p0wermail5.html Eudora: www.eudora.com/email/features/mac/

Web browsers

Safari: Bundled with Mac OS X

Firefox: www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Camino: www.caminobrowser.org

Opera: www.opera.com/

OmniWeb: www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/

Instant messaging

iChat: Bundled with Mac OS X

Adium: www.adiumx.com

Yahoo! Messenger: http://messenger.yahoo.com/

MSN Messenger: www.microsoft.com/mac/

Proteus: www.proteusx.org/

Peer-to-peer/BitTorrent

Acquisition: www.acquisitionx.com/ Transmission: http://transmission.mOk.org/ Xtorrent: www.xtorrentp2p.com/

Azureus: http://azureus.sourceforge.net/

Burning CDs

Finder: Bundled with Mac OS X

Disk Utility: Bundled with Mac OS X

iTunes: Bundled with Mac OS X

Roxio Toast: www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html

Disco: www.discoapp.com/

Organizing photos

iPhoto: www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/

Aperture: www.apple.com/aperture/

iView MediaPro: www.iview-multimedia.com/mediapro/

Editing photos

Adobe Photoshop: www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/

Adobe Photoshop Elements: www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/

iPhoto: www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/

ImageWell: www.xtralean.com/IWOverview.html

GraphicConverter: www.lemkesoft.com/

Viewing PDFs

Preview: Bundled with Mac OS X

Adobe Acrobat: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/

Adobe Reader: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/

Making movies

iMovie: www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

Final Cut Pro: www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/

Final Cut Express: www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/

DVD Studio Pro: www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/dvdstudiopro/

iDVD: www.apple.com/ilife/idvd/

Watching movies

DVD Player: Bundled with Mac OS X

iTunes: Bundled with Mac OS X

QuickTime Player: Bundled with Mac OS X

VLC www.videolan.org/

Flip4Mac: www.flip4mac.com/

RSS aggregators

Safari: Bundled with Mac OS X

NetNewsWire: www.ranchero.com/

Cyndicate: www.cynicalpeak.com/cyndicate/

NewsFire: www.newsfirerss.com/

NewsLife: http://thinkmac.co.uk/newslife/

Vienna: www.opencommunity.co.uk/vienna2.html

Building web sites

Dreamweaver: www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/

Sandvox: www.karelia.com/

iWeb: www.apple.com/ilife/iweb/

RapidWeaver: www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/

TextMate: www.macromates.com/

BBEditwww.barebones.com/products/bbedit/

CSSEdit: http://macrabbit.com/cssedit/

FTP clients

Transmit: www.panic.com/transmit/ Fetch: http://fetchsoftworks.com/ Interarchy: www.interarchy.com/main/ Cyberduck: http://cyberduck.ch/

Scripting languages

AppleScript www.apple.com/applescript/ RubyOSA: http://rubyosa.rubyforge.org

Telnet/SSH clients

Terminal: Bundled with Mac OS X

iTerm: http://iterm.sourceforge.net

Managing your PDA

The Missing Sync for Palm OS: www.markspace.com/missingsync_palmos.php

The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile: www.markspace.com/missingsync_ windowsmobile.php

PocketMac: www.pocketmac.net

Virus scanning

VirusScan: www.mcafee.com/us/enterprise/products/anti_virus/file_servers_ desktops/virex.html

ClamXav: www.clamxav.com/

Top Ten Signs You Are Addicted to Google

2008-06-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

10. Your kids still believe the Googlebot is bringing the Christmas presents.

9. When someone asks “How are you?” you mouse-click in mid-air at them and say “I'm feeling lucky.”

8. You shout at the librarian when she takes more than a tenth of a second to find your book.

7. You just lost a case in court to name your newborn son “Google.”

6. Google is your second-best friend... and you're thinking maybe it should be first.

5. Your Google shirt is losing color.

4. When people talk to you, you try to optimize their keywords.

3. Your last three Sunday family trips have been to the Googleplex.

2. You are convinced “What’s your PageRank?” is a good pick-up line.

And the number one sign you are addicted to Google:

1. You are completely clueless without a computer.

Flat become real flat

2008-06-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

REDUCED production costs, higher sales volume. And a bunch of new models have lowered prices on many big HDTVs. The PC World Test Center evaluated eight 50- and 52-inch HDTVs and found that one of the least expensive sets in the group, the Vizio GV52LE. Performs nearly as well as much higher-priced sets like the top-performing Sony Bravia KDL-52XBR4. The Vizio's solid performance and low price (nearly AC percent less than die Sony's) vaulted it into second place on our chart. In the top spot, the Samsung FP-T5084 did not perform quite as well as the Vizio, but it comes with a better array of features and doesn't cost much more. Three models we tested— the Pioneer Kuro PDP-5C1CFD. The Samsung LN-T5281F. And the Sharp LC-52D92U—fell just short of making the chart. For reviews of these models and expanded reviews of the TVs ranked in our chart, visit Samsung FP-T5084 the Samsung FP-T5084 offers pleasing colors and sharp picture detail in a sleekly designed cabinet. Moreover, this 5C-inch plasma HDTV has an extremely affordable price (S24C0), which helped it capture the Best Buy in our chart of 50-and 52-inch HDTV sets. Colors in high-definition scenes were luxuriously rich. An HD scene of TlicGcoi-gc Lopez Show revealed bright. Natural colors and realistic skin tones. We judged the set's standard-def quality to be slightly above average. The FP-T5C84 offers a slew of adjustments, including

RGB gain and offset controls in the White Balance pan of die on-screen display menu. The television also has Sam-sung's DNlc (Digital Natural Image engine), which is supposed to reduce noise, enhance color, and improve motion processing 10 make pictures look sharper.

The screen could use a better antircflcclivc treatment. As reflections were distracting during some dark scenes. The speakers, located on either side of the TV, arc far from the best. In Phantom of the Optra, audio sounded brassy yci muddled. It's not the most advanced or full-featured HDTV, but Samsung's FP-T5084 scored very well overall because it's inexpensive, well designed, and a solid performer.

VizioGV52LF

The Vizio GV52LF HDTV, a 52-inch LCD model, earned impressive scores on many of our PC World Test Center TV tests. The set carries an affordable price (S2200). High-deft and siandard-dcf video looked sharp and natural on the GV52LF. And no other TV in the group earned an overall score of Very Good for screen brightness. In a segment of 17itGtoi%tLopez Show% it showed truce-to-life skin tones and few digital artifacts in the background. The CV52LFs four HDMI ports let high-defy aficionados connect several devices. A glossy black bezel borders the set. Which sits atop a silver stand and silver built-in speakers that have plenty of volume but sounded flat? Though the blue on-screen display menu looks less sophisticated than most competing models, it offers clear, easy-to-navigate picture options. The Color Temperature menu provides controls for red. Green, and blue output. You must activate picture-in-picture or picture-by-picture by going through the menu. The Vizio GV52LF delivers competitive performance, attractive options, and a killer price. Budget-conscious HDTV shoppers should give this set serious attention.

LG Electronics 50PY3DF

LG's 5GPY3DF is inexpensive and well-designed. This 50-inch plasma HDTV turned in performance marks near the average in our tests. With an overall score of Good. Color quality on standard-and high-definition scenes was strong: brightness and contrast results were okay. Skin tones in a George Lopez Show segment and in a talk show seemed fairly realistic. Though jurors noticed some distracting pixilation. A standard-definition presentation of a San Francisco Giants baseball game produced balanced, nicely saturated oranges and greens. Among the many connections that the LG 50PY3DF offers arc three HDMI inputs. A USB port on left side of the 50PY3DF lets you attach a flash-card reader or a thumb drive and display photos. The TV swivels after you loosen a tiny boll in the back of the unit. The model's display settings buttons arc invisible until you lightly press a touch-sensitive pad on the set's lower right-hand side, beneath the bezel. A fairly well-organized onscreen display menu lets you adjust the TV's many settings. Which include red? Green, and blue controls. Presets for Dynamic. Standard. And Mild adjusts contrast and brightness. The built-in speakers installed on the sides of the TV produced rich audio in scenes from Phantom of the Opera. Despite its middle-of-the-road performance, the LG 5CPY3DF has many strengths and features, including good speakers, a two-year warranty, and a reasonable price. Sony Bravia KDL-52XBR4 Sony's Bravia KDL-52XBR-1 HDTV has a distinctive and attractive cabinet design to match its impressive performance. This 52-inch LCD set posted the highest overall image-quality score in its size category, and its price (S35C0) is average among the sets in our test group.

In testing, the set delivered unrivaled brightness and contrast quality, including easily discernible detail in dark areas of a segment from Lord of the Rings: Ret tint of the King. Its black bezel is surrounded by a glass frame with a metal border for a unique and pleasing "floating glass" effect. (Replacement bezels arc available, as well.) The on-screen display menu looks just like the ones on the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable. You use smoothly sliding animated icons to navigate myriad options for adjusting the TV's display settings. Built-in speakers on the TV provided rich, full sound. Playing a Blue-ray version of Phantom of the Opera, we heard a good range of audio. From background noises to the main singers' voices. Vidcophilcs will appreciate the Bravia KDL-52XBR-l's natural-looking colors and fine reproduction of image detail. But less-exacting viewers will probably be just as happy with one of the lower-priced models on our

AMD misses the emerging subpar market

2008-06-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

The AMD-Intel battle isn't what it used to be; people actually cared about their processors during a time when processors' performance could be quantified. But those days are over.
Now, the two companies are more or less making the same product with vague performance characteristics, since the basic architecture of the chips is underutilized. The multicore designs look good on paper, but the operating systems and applications still need to find ways to optimize the available power.
Because of this seeming dead end, various subpar mobility trends have emerged. By subpar, I mean trending away from performance and toward more mobility.
I admit that I did not imagine that things would ever get this retro. Apparently, AMD did not see it either.
The initial thrust into subpar computing began with the slow change from the desktop computer to "desktop replacement" computing -- using a notebook instead of a regular PC for actual desktop computing.
Offices all over the world now have employees working with a notebook on their desks. They take the things home. They drop them, wreck them and have them stolen. It's a pain for IT departments. It seems as if nobody but us old-timers wants to use a desktop machine at work and a notebook on the road. It's one size fits all.
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AMD 7.53, -0.25, -3.2%) let this market get away and only just now has released a chip appropriate for the laptop business, the Puma. It took too many years for this chip to appear, and Intel Corp.'s (INTC:
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INTC 23.05, -0.82, -3.4%) Centrino 2, if they can ever get it to work, should replace it immediately.
Meanwhile, subpar computing continues to evolve. The newest trend is the UMPC, or ultramobile PC. It is sometimes called a "netbook," although there is an unresolved terminology debate about this.
Whatever you call the things, they were triggered by the success of the $400 EeePC from ASUS. These are smallish machines with 7- to 10-inch screens and look like they were mostly influenced by the cheap $200 OLPC (One Laptop per Child) machines, designed for the Third World.
Acer just released one too, called the Aspire. Dell Inc. (DELL:
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DELL 23.96, -0.06, -0.2%) , Gateway and almost everyone else has announced one of these coming soon.
They sell like hotcakes. They are designed to be "laptop replacements," which makes me laugh.
Intel has a chip coming out especially for these units, called the Atom chip. As far as I can tell, AMD is out of this subpar trend altogether.
I have no idea how long it will take AMD to once again play catch-up in an emerging market. It's as if nobody at the company is doing strategic analysis.
How this can happen after its slow start in the booming notebook market? Mobile computing is just about all the entire industry has been talking about for the last 15 years! Is AMD deaf?
While the UMPC market explodes, I don't even want to think about where any of these companies are regarding hypermobile devices, such as the iPhone, which itself is becoming a computing platform. The upcoming version of this device will be getting lavish attention from the drooling media, like 3-year-olds seeing chrome for the first time.
There are chips in that platform too. They won't be from AMD.

The Google Snake Game

2008-06-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

Here’s a party game which needs nothing but a working internet connection (say, a notebook or cell phone), and Google.com’s web search. The goal is to create the longest phrase that Google can find by alternately adding one word to the end of the other player’s search phrase. Say, the first person starts with “Feelings”. Now the second person adds a word, “are”, so we get “Feelings are”... (Note the use of quotation marks in the search query.)
Now every time a word is added, the phrase is searched for in Google, and the resulting page count is announced to the group. The one person who creates a sentence with zero results in Google loses and has to do something silly (or if you want to play with points, he loses a point, and the last person who created a sentence with results in Google will win a point). To prevent cheating, the one whose turn is next is not allowed to look at any search result snippet.
Let’s take our sample, and see what we get:
Peter: “Feelings” (53,200,000 results in Google) Mary: “Feelings are” (2,100,000 results) Jake: “Feelings are nothing” (1,090 results) Susan: “Feelings are nothing and” (19 results) Peter: “Feelings are nothing and we” (0 results)
Susan gets 1 point, and Peter gets minus 1 points (or has to do something silly).
If you create too obscure a sentence there won’t be any results and you will lose, but if your sentence gets too many results, your opponent will also be able to create a sentence with results. The basic strategy is to try to create sentences so silly that there are only a few results, but not so silly there are no results…

Egogoogling: Susan Is…

2008-06-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

Have you ever searched for your own name on Google, curious what the world has to say about you? Almost everyone of us did, one time or another. In fact, you should – maybe others search for you all the same, and you want to know what they will find.
The act of searching for yourself is also known as “egogoogling.” Here’s a variant of it which can be a fun game. Enter your first name followed by the word “is” into Google, and put the search in quotes. For example, if your name is Susan, the search would look like this:
“susan is”
Now in the search result snippets, you will learn a lot of things about you that you didn’t even know! For the name “Susan,” we get the following:
Susan is an amazing person to work with!
Susan is an ethical woman and is refusing to cooperate
Susan is a very attractive young lady (with a boyfriend) who for some reason is always late.
Susan is a top Florida residential real estate agent.
Susan is a top producer specializing in the ski resort town of Breckenridge, as well as the surrounding area.
Not only can you apply this approach to find out more about yourself (or just have a good laugh, actually, as the results are likely to be about another person), you can also use this to find out about celebrities. To do so, enter the full celebrity name followed by the word “is” into Google, and put it in quotes again:
“arnold schwarzenegger is”
For action movie star Arnie, we get these results:
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a very talented man who would
make an excellent governor.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is falling into a similar spiral.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking out for voters’ best
interests.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a man more familiar with the red carpets of a movie premiere than a white collar business seminar. Arnold Schwarzenegger is terrifying as the “killer cyborg” who “looks like Death rendered in steel.” Arnold Schwarzenegger is The Terminator (T-800). Arnold Schwarzenegger is quickly discovering that life in politics doesn’t always produce the happy endings so common in many of his Hollywood blockbusters.
Note that you can use “stars in,” “was born in” and similar glue words instead of “is” to find out almost anything about a celebrity. You can even expand the idea to include things, not people… try searching for “Nikon cameras are” and similar queries.
If you don’t have Google near you, here are some popular male and female names with their “egogoogled” results.
Male Names
Aaron is a monotonic anchor. Adam is a deeply disturbing and depressing film. Alan is AI’s pattern-matching chatbot. Albert is so cute!
Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland. Anthony is probably the best male vocal out there. Arthur is kind of in a category by itself. Brandon is for the birds.
Brian is embarrassed that he needs the extra help in school. Carl is just sitting there in Nashville!
Charles is also a coach of AYSO youth soccer, an officer in the PTA of the local elementary school.
Christopher is of mixed heritage (Asian-American). Daniel is a natural talent . David is not allowed computer access. Dennis is one of Britain’s best known entrepreneurs.
Donald is rarely easy to understand, and people have supposedly heard him say all sorts of risque things. Donald is a Professor in the Department of Psychology.
Douglas is “King of California.” Edward is a biological human (not a robot). Edward is coming BACK to television.
Eric is featured on guitar and mandolin on the songs Viargra and Gypsy woman.
Frank is hilariously funny on what makes us red-staters different from blue-staters (not). Fred is leading the Franklin Templeton Shootout after 2 rounds!

Gary is the editor and compiler of ResourceShelf.
George is, quite simply, the worst helpdesk technician ever.
Gerald is frightened and doesn’t understand why the woman wants to assist
him.
Gregory is recognized as one of the very foremost orators.
Harold is an original.
Henry is currently in jail.
Jack is looking for a house with about half an acre of land to buy in California.
James is as forthright as an Old Testament prophet.
Jason is who the JASON Project is named after.
Jeffrey is helping to clear up this cosmic murkiness.
Jeremy is a conscientious worker who can usually be relied upon.
Jerry is a master at understanding your goals for the photograph and then
creating the perfect lighting.
Joe is “LIVE” daily.
John is succeeding marvelously in journalism’s highest calling: to encourage
people .
Jonathan is writing a magical fable of his grandfather’s village in Ukraine.
Joseph is the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director.
Joshua is home now.
Juan is similar to the one at the top of this page.
Justin is practicing walking on his hands.
Keith is a true character who comes across as being very sincere.
Kenneth is a strong advocate for community building and social change.
Kevin is creative director and co-founder at Lightroom.
Larry is also a political planner.
Lawrence is a New York Real Estate Broker specializing in Putnam.
Mark is coauthor of Inside Windows 2000, Third Edition (Microsoft Press).
Matthew is believed to have used Mark and the theoretical source.
Michael is abandoning the music business to release his songs online for free
instead.
Patrick is one of the nation’s best young auto racers.
Paul is backwards in line and taller than everyone else, again.
Peter is a consultant with a distinguished academic track record.
Ralph is not beyond fishing around for a philosophical explanation.
Raymond is an observer-participant anthropologist in the Internet
Richard is often accused of being overly concerned with himself.
Robert is an elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Roger is approached by a gangling, spotty computer scientist.
Ronald is known in more than 100 countries wherever you find McDonald’s
restaurants.
Ryan is clearly good at her job.
Samuel is irresistible.
Scott is arguably the most well-known and influential unknown composer.
Shawn is now 26 years old, lives in San Diego, enjoys snowboarding, taking
trips to Lake.
Stephen is working with Marvel to produce a series of comic books.
11
Steve is a DJ in Boston

Apollo Portable HD from Imation Next Month

2008-05-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Imation plans to introduce its sleek new Apollo portable hard drive sometime next month.
The Apollo portable hard drive is based on 2.5-inches hard drive technology. The high-capacity, USB-powered portable hard drive is stylish and lightweight, and extremely durable, the company claims. It offers up to 320GB for consumers' storage and backup needs. That the drive is USB-powered makes for added convenience while traveling, with neither batteries nor an external power supply required. A blue LED light indicates when data transfer is in progress so you know when backup is complete.
Imation says the Apollo 2.5-inches portable hard drive will appeal to tech-savvy consumers and business professionals alike. It will be available in 160GB, 250GB, and 320GB capacities through Imation's channel partners. Watch this space for pricing!

HP launches ultra-slim PC

2008-04-24T02:29:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: Hewlett Packard (HP) has launched ‘Compaq dc7800’, an ultra-slim desktop personal computer, in the Indian market. The company claims that the ultra-thin ‘Compaq dc7800’ is the industry’s first PC to feature a solid-state hard drive (SSD) which is considered more reliable than SATA and SCSI drives.

Powered by 80 Plus power supply, Compaq dc7800 consumes nearly 15 per cent less energy compared to standard models. The model also offers dual display ports or supporting multiple monitors.

Designed for business purposes, the PC comes with 8 USB ports.

“The new energy-efficient business desktop PC is the industry’s first to feature a solid-state hard drive (SSD) that offers improved reliability,” HP India Country Manager (Business Desktop PCs, Personal Systems Group) Arun Rao said.

Priced at Rs 40,000, the PC is scheduled to hit market on 1st May 2008.

NRI developing infrared super computers

2008-04-16T03:55:00.001-07:00

A computer that is a thousand-fold faster than the fastest current super computers is being developed by an Indian American scientist.The machine of the future being developed by Ashok Nahata of the University of Utah relies on infrared wavelengths rather than electrical wires.Nahata and his team made the equivalent of wires that carried and bent this form of infrared light, or terahertz radiation, the least exploited segment of electromagnetic spectrum.

Scientists want to harness this spectrum, since vast loads of communication clog the existing spectrum. It would not only make for much faster computing but also help in designing scanners and sensors able to detect biological, chemical or
other weapons.
Nahata said the long-term goal is to develop capabilities to create circuits that run faster than modern-day electronic circuits "so we can have faster computers and faster data transfer via the Internet".but only after 10 years. "We have taken a first step to making circuits that can harness or guide terahertz or infrared radiation," said Nahata. "Eventually - in a minimum of 10 years - this will allow the development of superfast circuits, computers and communications."

Yahoo turns to Google for help

2008-04-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Yahoo on Wednesday moved another chess piece in its bid to fend off a hostile takeover by Microsoft, announcing a deal to give advertising space to Google as part of a short-term deal that could lead to a bigger partnership.

As part of a two-week trial, Google-generated ads will appear next to some U.S. search results on Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500).

Yahoo's move - clearly an attempt to show its unwanted suitor that it has other options - was quickly met with resistance. Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith suggested that a formal Yahoo-Google alliance would be anticompetitive, and a powerful Congressman warned that he would be watching the partnership "closely."

The discussions with Microsoft's biggest rival come less than a week after Yahoo was given a 3-week deadline by Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) to come to the table and negotiate a proposed $42 billion buyout.

The test with Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) attempts to show that Yahoo has some bargaining power as it looks to Microsoft to raise its $31-a-share bid. It also addresses one of Yahoo's biggest challenges: containing costs as the economy slows and revenue growth slips. If Yahoo can find a partner to help carry the expense of the necessary network operations, it may succeed in its plan to expand its own higher-margin banner ad business.

AOL and Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) are now in advanced discussions to combine their Internet operations. Google also powers search results for AOL, a Time Warner unit and Fortune.com affiliate. In addition, the New York Times reported Wednesday that Microsoft is talking with News Corp (NWS, Fortune 500). about a joint bid for Yahoo.

The limited scope of the Yahoo-Google test and the potential antitrust issues raised by a collaboration between the two largest search players suggests the move will not necessarily be a deal killer for the Microsoft-Yahoo takeover.

Microsoft fired back Wednesday with a warning that a formal Yahoo-Google alliance would give Google too much control over the the search advertising market. "Any definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google's hands," Smith said in a statement. "This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo!"

Meanwhile, Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, said Wednesday he would be "following closely" the Yahoo-Google trial.

"Following closely on the heels of Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, this Google-Yahoo alliance would represent even further consolidation in the Internet advertising market," Kohl said in a statement issued shortly after Yahoo made the announcement. "Should there be moves to make this agreement permanent, we will examine it closely in the Antitrust Subcommittee to ensure that it does not harm competition.

While the experiment suggests a potential partnership between the two search engine giants, Yahoo was quick to de-emphasize the significance of the move.

"The testing does not necessarily mean that Yahoo will join [Google's] AdSense for Search program or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result," Yahoo said in a statement.

Yahoo, along with a new effort by large stakeholder Legg Mason, is attempting to show that the company can thrive on its own. The risk here is that Yahoo may see Microsoft pull its offer leaving Yahoo to actually go it alone.

Collection of mobile secret codes

2008-03-30T04:25:00.000-07:00

LG all models

test mode: Type 2945#*# on the main screen.
2945*#01*# Secret menu for LG

IMEI (ALL): *#06#
IMEI and SW (LG 510): *#07#
Software version (LG B1200): *8375#
Recount cheksum (LG B1200): *6861#
Factory test (B1200): #PWR 668
Simlock menu (LG B1200): 1945#*5101#
Simlock menu (LG 510W, 5200): 2945#*5101#
Simlock menu (LG 7020, 7010): 2945#*70001#
Simlock menu (LG 500, 600): 2947#*

LG-U81XX SPECIAL CODES
Code to read phone version :
- Phone without SIM
- Enter 277634#*# or 47328545454#
- Select 'SW Ver.info'
Code to reset phone :
- Phone without SIM
- Enter 277634#*# or 47328545454#
- Select 'Factory Reset'
Code to enter UNLOCK MENU :
- Phone wit SIM inside
- Enter 2945#*88110#
Test Menu 8330 : 637664#*#
Test Menu 8180 V10a: 49857465454#
Test Menu 8180 V11a: 492662464663#
Test Menu 8130-8138: 47328545454#
Test Menu 8110-8120: 277634#*#

MOTOROLA SECRET CODES

On the main screen type

IMEI number:
*#06#
Code to lock keys. Press together *7
Note: [] (pause) means the * key held in until box appears.

Select phone line - (use this to write things below the provider name):
[] [] [] 0 0 8 [] 1 []
Add phonebook to main menu:
[] [] [] 1 0 5 [] 1 []
Add messages to main menu:
[] [] [] 1 0 7 [] 1 []
Copy SIM memory (phonebook menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 8 [] 1 []
Eng Field options (main menu):
[] [] [] 1 1 3 [] 1 []
Slow (Frequency of search menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 1 [] 1 []
Medium (Frequency of search menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 2 [] 1 []
Fast (Frequency of search menu):
[] [] [] 1 0 3 [] 1 []
Enable EFR:
[] [] [] 1 1 9 [] 1 []
Function :
[] [] [] # # # [] 1 []

Change pin:
[] [] [] 0 0 4 [] 1 []
Unblocking using the "puk" number:
[] [] [] 0 0 5 [] 1 []

There are lots of similar codes exist. If you change the last number to 0 you can deactive that code. The 3 digit number at the middle are from 0 to 999. I put the most interesting codes. (EFR):Enhanced Full Rate Codec.

You can change GSM frequencies to 900/1800 by entering the enginnering model. Following the below steps:
enter menu and press 048263* quickly, then you will enter the secret engineering menu
under "Opcode"
input 10*0*3 for GSM 900
10*0*4 for GSM 1800
10*0*5 for GSM 1900
10*0*6 for dual band GSM 900/1800
10*0*7 for dual band GSM 850/1900

To add extra message space 4 your Motorola C350 C450 C550 or C650, press menu button, press 048263* quickly, then on the popup menu enter 47 press ok.press 50 and ok.press 1 ok.press 64 ok.press 1 ok.press 186 and ok.You will receive an extra 50 msgs memory space.Switch phone off and back on.(not tested)

NOKIA SECRET CODES:

On the main screen type

*#06# for checking the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity).
*#7780# reset to factory settings.
*#67705646# This will clear the LCD display
*#0000# To view software version.
*#2820# Bluetooth device address.
*#746025625# Sim clock allowed status.
*#62209526# - Display the MAC address of the WLAN adapter. This is available only in the newer devices that supports WLAN like N80
#pw+1234567890+1# Shows if sim have restrictions.

*#92702689# - takes you to a secret menu where you may find some of the information below:
1. Displays Serial Number.
2. Displays the Month and Year of Manufacture
3. Displays (if there) the date where the phone was purchased (MMYY)
4. Displays the date of the last repair - if found (0000)
5. Shows life timer of phone (time passes since last start)

*#3370# - Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR) activation. Increase signal strength, better signal reception. It also help if u want to use GPRS and the service is not responding or too slow. Phone battery will drain faster though.
*#3370* - (EFR) deactivation. Phone will automatically restart. Increase battery life by 30% because phone receives less signal from network.
*#4720# - Half Rate Codec activation.
*#4720* - Half Rate Codec deactivation. The phone will automatically restart

If you forgot wallet code for Nokia S60 phone, use this code reset: *#7370925538#
Note, your data in the wallet will be erased. Phone will ask you the lock code. Default lock code is: 12345

Press *#3925538# to delete the contents and code of wallet.

*#7328748263373738# resets security code.
Default security code is 12345

Unlock service provider: Insert sim, turn phone on and press vol up(arrow keys) for 3 seconds, should say pin code. Press C,then press * message should flash, press * again and 04*pin*pin*pin#

Change closed caller group (settings >security settings>user groups) to 00000 and ure phone will sound the message tone when you are near a radar speed trap. Setting it to 500 will cause your phone 2 set off security alarms at shop exits, gr8 for practical jokes! (works with some of the Nokia phones.)

Press and hold "0" on the main screen to open wap browser.

SAMSUNG SECRET CODES:

Software version: *#9999#
IMEI number: *#06#
Serial number: *#0001#
Battery status- Memory capacity : *#9998*246#
Debug screen: *#9998*324# - *#8999*324#
LCD kontrast: *#9998*523#
Vibration test: *#9998*842# - *#8999*842#
Alarm beeper - Ringtone test : *#9998*289# - *#8999*289#
Smiley: *#9125#
Software version: *#0837#
Display contrast: *#0523# - *#8999*523#
Battery info: *#0228# or *#8999*228#
Display storage capacity: *#8999*636#
Display SIM card information: *#8999*778#
Show date and alarm clock: *#8999*782#
The display during warning: *#8999*786#
Samsung hardware version: *#8999*837#
Show network information: *#8999*638#
Display received channel number and received intensity: *#8999*9266#

*#1111# S/W Version
*#1234# Firmware Version
*#2222# H/W Version
*#8999*8376263# All Versions Together
*#8999*8378# Test Menu
*#4777*8665# GPSR Tool
*#8999*523# LCD Brightness
*#8999*377# Error LOG Menu
*#8999*327# EEP Menu
*#8999*667# Debug Mode
*#92782# PhoneModel (Wap)
#*5737425# JAVA Mode
*#2255# Call List
*#232337# Bluetooth MAC Adress
*#5282837# Java Version

Type in *#0000# on a Samsung A300 to reset the language
Master reset(unlock) #*7337# (for the new samsungs E700 x600 but not E710)
Samsung E700 type *#2255# to show secret call log (not tested)
Samsung A300, A800 phone unlock enter this *2767*637#
Samsung V200, S100, S300 phone unlock : *2767*782257378#

On the main screen type

#*4773# Incremental Redundancy
#*7785# Reset wakeup & RTK timer cariables/variables
#*7200# Tone Generator Mute
#*3888# BLUETOOTH Test mode
#*7828# Task screen
#*#8377466# S/W Version & H/W Version
#*2562# Restarts Phone
#*2565# No Blocking? General Defense.
#*3353# General Defense, Code Erased.
#*3837# Phone Hangs on White screen.
#*3849# Restarts Phone
#*7337# Restarts Phone (Resets Wap Settings)
#*2886# AutoAnswer ON/OFF
#*7288# GPRS Detached/Attached
#*7287# GPRS Attached
#*7666# White Screen
#*7693# Sleep Deactivate/Activate
#*2286# Databattery
#*2527# GPRS switching set to (Class 4, 8, 9, 10)
#*2679# Copycat feature Activa/Deactivate
#*3940# External looptest 9600 bps
#*4263# Handsfree mode Activate/Deactivate
#*2558# Time ON
#*3941# External looptest 115200 bps
#*5176# L1 Sleep
#*7462# SIM Phase
#*7983# Voltage/Freq
#*7986# Voltage
#*8466# Old Time
#*2255# Call Failed
#*5376# DELETE ALL SMS!!!!
#*6837# Official Software Version: (0003000016000702)
#*2337# Permanent Registration Beep
#*2474# Charging Duration
#*2834# Audio Path (Handsfree)
#*3270# DCS Support Activate/Deactivate
#*3282# Data Activate/Deactivate
#*3476# EGSM Activate/Deactivate
#*3676# FORMAT FLASH VOLUME!!!
#*4760# GSM Activate/Deactivate
#*4864# White Screen
#*7326# Accessory
#*7683# Sleep variable
#*3797# Blinks 3D030300 in RED
#*7372# Resetting the time to DPB variables
#*3273# EGPRS multislot (Class 4, 8, 9, 10)
#*7722# RLC bitmap compression Activate/Deactivate
#*2351# Blinks 1347E201 in RED
#*2775# Switch to 2 inner speaker
#*7878# FirstStartup (0=NO, 1=YES)
#*3838# Blinks 3D030300 in RED
#*2077# GPRS Switch
#*2027# GPRS Switch
#*0227# GPRS Switch
#*0277# GPRS Switch
#*22671# AMR REC START
#*22672# Stop AMR REC (File name: /a/multimedia/sounds/voice list/ENGMODE.amr)
#*22673# Pause REC
#*22674# Resume REC
#*22675# AMR Playback
#*22676# AMR Stop Play
#*22677# Pause Play
#*22678# Resume Play
#*77261# PCM Rec Req
#*77262# Stop PCM Rec
#*77263# PCM Playback
#*77264# PCM Stop Play
#*22679# AMR Get Time
*#8999*364# Watchdog ON/OFF
*#8999*427# WATCHDOG signal route setup
*2767*3855# = Full Reset (Caution every stored data will be deleted.)
*2767*2878# = Custom Reset
*2767*927# = Wap Reset
*2767*226372# = Camera Reset (deletes photos)
*2767*688# Reset Mobile TV
#7263867# = RAM Dump (On or Off)

On the main screen type

*2767*49927# = Germany WAP Settings
*2767*44927# = UK WAP Settings
*2767*31927# = Netherlands WAP Settings
*2767*420927# = Czech WAP Settings
*2767*43927# = Austria WAP Settings
*2767*39927# = Italy WAP Settings
*2767*33927# = France WAP Settings
*2767*351927# = Portugal WAP Settings
*2767*34927# = Spain WAP Settings
*2767*46927# = Sweden WAP Settings
*2767*380927# = Ukraine WAP Settings
*2767*7927# = Russia WAP Settings
*2767*30927# = GREECE WAP Settings
*2767*73738927# = WAP Settings Reset
*2767*49667# = Germany MMS Settings
*2767*44667# = UK MMS Settings
*2767*31667# = Netherlands MMS Settings
*2767*420667# = Czech MMS Settings
*2767*43667# = Austria MMS Settings
*2767*39667# = Italy MMS Settings
*2767*33667# = France MMS Settings
*2767*351667# = Portugal MMS Settings
*2767*34667# = Spain MMS Settings
*2767*46667# = Sweden MMS Settings
*2767*380667# = Ukraine MMS Settings
*2767*7667#. = Russia MMS Settings
*2767*30667# = GREECE MMS Settings

*#7465625# = Check the phone lock status
*7465625*638*Code# = Enables Network lock
#7465625*638*Code# = Disables Network lock
*7465625*782*Code# = Enables Subset lock
#7465625*782*Code# = Disables Subset lock
*7465625*77*Code# = Enables SP lock
#7465625*77*Code# = Disables SP lock
*7465625*27*Code# = Enables CP lock
#7465625*27*Code# = Disables CP lock
*7465625*746*Code# = Enables SIM lock
#7465625*746*Code# = Disables SIM lock
*7465625*228# = Activa lock ON
#7465625*228# = Activa lock OFF
*7465625*28638# = Auto Network lock ON
#7465625*28638# = Auto Network lock OFF
*7465625*28782# = Auto subset lock ON
#7465625*28782# = Auto subset lock OFF
*7465625*2877# = Auto SP lock ON
#7465625*2877# = Auto SP lock OFF
*7465625*2827# = Auto CP lock ON
#7465625*2827# = Auto CP lock OFF
*7465625*28746# = Auto SIM lock ON
#7465625*28746# = Auto SIM lock OFF

Type *#9998*627837793# Go to the 'my parameters' and there you will find new menu where you can unlock phone.(not tested-for samsung C100)
To unlock a Samsung turn the phone off take the sim card and type the following code *#pw+15853649247w# .
Java status code: #*53696# (Samsung X600)

If you want to unlock your phone put a sim from another company then type *#9998*3323# it will reset your phone. Push exit and then push 7, it will reset again. Put your other sim in and it will say sim lock, type in 00000000 then it should be unlocked. Type in *0141# then the green call batton and it's unlocked to all networks. This code may not work on the older phones and some of the newer phones. If it doesn't work you will have to reset your phone without a sim in it by typing *#2767*2878# or *#9998*3855# (not tested)

SONY ERICCSON SECRET CODES:

On the main screen type

Sony Ericsson Secret Menu: -> * <- <- * <- * (-> means press joystick, arrow keys or jogdial to the right and <- means left.) You'll see phone model, software info, IMEI, configuration info, sim lock status, REAL time clock, total call time and text labels. You can also test your phones services and hardware from this menu (main display, camera, LED/illumination, Flash LED, keyboard, earphone, speaker, microphone, radio and vibrator tests)

IMEI Number: *#06#
Lockstatus: <- * * <- Shortcut to last dialed numbers: 0# Shortcut to sim numbers: On main menu type a number and press #

If you change the language from default to any other language, then it may be difficult to switch to default language. The shortcut is very simple. Just press <> . <> stands for right arrow button or joystick.

CCIeaner

2008-03-27T06:31:00.000-07:00

CCIeaner lacks WinUtilities' "jack of all trades' philosophy, opting only for cleaning all the "crud" (torn your system and clearing out the Registry. Its long history of not messing up systems and its low, low price (of tree)
Make it very popular among the tech-set.
By default, CCIeaner is fairly conservative, but there are significant gains to be had by telling it to be more aggressive. By default, the general "crud cleaner' found literally hundreds of files to delete.
Such as browser histories, cookies, and temp files; Windows log files and temporary files; and the temp files from many popular applications such as Acrobat. Office. Nero. WinZip. And Google Toolbar. The Registry cleaner found just 33 items to clean. When set more aggressively, CCIeaner removes old Prefetch data. Tray and Start menu cache. User Assist history, and any Windows Hotfix uninstallers. These new settings removed 233MB of files from what we generally consider to be a fairly lean system.
CCIeaner also has a very basic uninstaller and startup program remover, but both are primitive compared to Windows' own tools.
Boot times decreased from 31 seconds to 29 seconds after running CCIeaner on its aggressive settings, meaning

It did a slightly better job than WinUtilities at making our system run faster. But this too was a fairly trivial improvement. It does excel at removing personal traces of your browsing history

What's New

[25th March 2008]
CCleaner v2.06
- Added Google Firefox Toolbar history cleaning.
- Winapp.ini is now embedded in the main EXE.
- Added ability to override default embedded INI files with:
winsys1.ini, winreg1.ini and winapp1.ini.
- Updated ability to append to default embedded INI files with:
winsys2.ini, winreg2.ini and winapp2.ini.
- Updated system info code to support Win2k8.
- Improved IE History cleaning with .DAT files.
- Improved accessibility features of treeview control.
- Removal of version history from About screen.
- Options section checkboxes resized to fit caption text.
- GUI tweaks including Piriform logo change.
- Minor performance improvements.

Windows vista speed tweaks

2008-03-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

Windows vista speed tweaks

1, Increase external USB hard drive performance.

By default, USB storage devices have write caching totally disabled primarily so you can unplug them without bothering with the Safety Remove Software icon in the Tray. Although this is handy for flash drives, it significantly slows down external USB hard drives. First, plug in your external USB drive, right-click Computer in the Start menu, and choose Properties. Then, click the Device Manager link, expand the Disk Drives entry by clicking the plus (+) sign, and double-click your external USB hard drive. Click the Policies tab and then click Optimize for Performance. This makes two more options appear: Enable Write Caching on the Disk and Enabled Advance Performance. Enable both options and click OK. Rebooting enables the change.

2, Increase SATA drive performance.

Vista's write caching is fairly conservative by default in order to prevent data loss in the event of a power failure. It your desktop PC is connected to a UPS (uninterruptable power supply), or if you're using a notebook computer with a reliable battery, you can set the write caching to be more aggressive. Right-click Computer in the Start menu, choose Properties, and then click the Device Manager link. Expand the Disk Drives entry by clicking on the plus (+) symbol and then double-click your SATA hard drive. Click the Policies tab, check Enable Advanced Performance, and click OK. Rebooting Vista will enable this change.

3, Disable Network Printer Search.

Vista normally searches for new network printers when you browse your LAN. But if you aren't regularly adding printers to your network, this searching slows things down. To disable this feature, click Network from the Start menu, which opens the Network window. Press ALT to make the Menu Bar visible if it isn't already and then choose Polder Options from the Tools menu. Finally, click the View tab. uncheck Automatically Search for Network Printers, and then click OK.

4, Turn unneeded Vista features off.

Windows Vista adds hundreds of features when it is installed. Not all of them arc enabled by default, but you probably don't need many that arc, anyway. Disabling those you don't need saves resources and speeds your system up. To find these and disable them, open the Windows Control Panel and switch to Classic View. Next, double click the Programs and Features icon and then click the Turn Windows Features on or off link on the left side or the window. After a moment, a large list appears with checkboxes. Those that are checked are enabled and those that aren't arc disabled. Different versions of Vista have different features enabled, so expand any collapsible entries by clicking the plus (+) sign to see what's turned on and disable what you don't need. For example, if you don't have a Tablet PC, you can safely disable Tablet PC Options Components. Click OK when you're done, and your computer will restart if necessary.

Yahoo Joins Google's OpenSocial Platform

2008-03-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yahoo Inc. said Tuesday that it was joining rival Google Inc.'s initiative for creating photo-sharing and other social tools that work across the Web.

News Corp.'s MySpace earlier pledged support, and the three companies announced Tuesday that they were forming a nonprofit organization, the OpenSocial Foundation, to ensure that the platform remains neutral and viable.

The idea behind the Google-initiated OpenSocial platform is to create a common coding standard for the applications so they work on hundreds of Web sites. The applications could permit chats, games, media sharing and more.

By contrast, sites that haven't joined OpenSocial typically rely on unique coding that has prevented widgets developed for its sites from working at other places on the Web.

The addition of Yahoo could put pressure on Facebook, the No. 2 social-networking site behind MySpace, to pledge support as well, though Facebook has had tremendous success encouraging developers to write tools specifically for it.

Other participants in OpenSocial include Friendster, hi5, LinkedIn, Ning, the Google-owned Orkut and Bebo, which Time Warner Inc.'s AOL is planning to buy for $850 million.

In a company blog entry, Yahoo Vice President Wade Chambers said the company was joining OpenSocial now because ''it's no longer a trial balloon - it's for real.''

Chambers said Yahoo wanted to make developers feel confident about using OpenSocial as a building block for future social applications.

By creating a nonprofit to oversee OpenSocial, effective July 1, the companies want to ensure that intellectual property assets remain available to everyone. The companies said the foundation also would provide transparency and guidelines around technical and legal issues as the platform evolves.

Online TV Player

2008-03-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

Online TV Player lets you watch 850+ free Internet TV and listen 1500+ free online radio stations on your PC. It allows watcher to watch directly into TV without having to experience the annoyances of a Web site (like slow-loading pages and pop-up ads). No additional equipment required. Online TV Player support both Windows Media and Real Video. You can play most of stream formats in one program. It can set the screen window to any size that you want. It supports full-screen mode too

Download here :- http://www.onlinetvplayer.com/download/

google will help you to find your missing keys

2008-03-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

LONDON: Soon, you won’t have to go through the painstaking and irritating task of searching for your missing car keys, thanks to “Smart Goggle”, which can track down any misplaced item.

A team of Japanese scientists, led by Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Tokyo University School of Information Science and Technology, has come up with a secretive artificial intelligence project codenamed Smart Goggle, which they claim can help search anything from a remote control, to mobile phone or iPod.
According to the scientists, one just needs to tell the glasses what he or she is searching for. Following the voice command, the Smart Goggle plays into their eye a video of the last few seconds they saw that missing item. A small camera rests on the glasses making constant record of everything the wearer sees.

The tiny display inside the glasses spots what is being checked and a small readout immediately announces what the computer thinks the object most likely is.

Professor Kuniyoshi said that the extraordinary property of the glasses doesn’t lie in its hardware, but the computer algorithm that allows the goggles to know instantly what they are seeing.

He said that if the wearer roams around the house for about an hour telling the goggles the name of everything from a coathanger to the kitchen sink, they would retain the information.

And if at some point in the future, the wearer asks them where they last saw a particular item, they will play the suitable footage, reports Times Online .

Kuniyoshi describes his goggles as the ultimate link between the real world and the cyber world and maintains that his invention could finally be loaded with vast quantities of data from the internet.

With the huge database installed, the glasses might actually know much more about what the wearer is seeing than the wearer himself - species of animal, technical specifications of vehicles and electronics, or even the identity of people.

In a demonstration, the professor showed how the user might, for example, gaze at a selection of unknown flowers and the glasses would say which were begonias, which were ferns and which were pansies.

Although the experimental model is still too bulky for daily use, the team at the Tokyo University School of Information Science and Technology are confident that it can soon be miniaturised. It could even, they suggest, be small enough to look little different from a normal pair of glasses.

But unfortunately, of course, there is one irritating question they would not be able to answer: “Now where did I put my glasses?”

Transparent Touch Screen

2008-03-09T00:43:00.000-08:00

While touch screen devices are increasing in popularity, the small screen sizes are proving to be a problem because users’ fingers block the graphical elements he wishes to work with. Now, a US researcher at Microsoft has created an interface that gives the user a semi-transparent view of the device, thus providing easier navigation.

Researcher Patrick Baudisch demonstrated his ‘LucidTouch’ technology at TechFest, Microsoft’s annual display of experimental technology in Redmond on Tuesday.

LucidTouch allows users of touch-screen devices, such as GPS units or mobile phones, to perform operations from behind the device, so their actions do not block their view of the display.

The device currently uses a camera mounted behind the unit; but the researcher is planning to integrate the necessary sensors into the back panel.

“The key to making this usable is what we call pseudo-transparency,” said Baudisch. “By overlaying an image of the user’s hands onto the screen, we create the illusion of the mobile device itself being semi-transparent. This pseudo-transparency allows users to accurately acquire targets while not occluding the screen with their fingers and hand.

LucidTouch also supports multi-touch input, allowing users to operate the device simultaneously with all 10 fingers.

Baudisch envisions myriad uses for the device, from navigation tools and personal computing to graphic design and video games. For instance, gamers can control multiple units in a strategy game. Two gamers may put the tablet between them and each play one side in a sports game.

At this year’s Techfest, forty new technologies were displayed, showing how computing enables new experiences and how the basic tools of computer science are evolving to help all sciences advance more rapidly.

Ubuntu 7.10 compiz fusion

2008-02-09T23:27:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu 7.10(linux) + compiz fusion

eye candy

how much hardisk can i connect to a motherboard

2008-02-06T06:09:00.000-08:00

Mirko

2 harddrives per IDE port. Most mainboards have two IDE ports, so you can attach at most 4 IDE drives directly to the MB. However you can attach additional IDE/EIDE controller cards to the ISA or PCI slots, which gives you 2 (IDE) or 4 (EIDE) more drives per controller. In principle you can attach as many (E)IDE cards as you have ISA/PCI sockets, but you will most probably run into some IRQ resource battle.

How many RAM your MB supports is noted in the manual. If you don't have the manual you can try to google for it.

stessel

sorry i mean how much hardisk memory can a mother board support is it infinte

Mirko

The MB is not the problem here, but the BIOS and the OS. Older BIOSes often have a limit at 512MB, 2GB, 4GB. 8GB. 32GB, ... more modern BIOSes sometimes have a 137GB limit,... other limits are also reported.

You need to look into your MBs manual for details.

Windows usually has similar limits as the BIOS has, where older Windows versions may not support all sizes your BIOS may support.

Linux does not suffer from this as it ignores the BIOS and controls the drives directly.

Note that (except for very old boards) you can write a new BIOS version into the BIOS chip (flashing the BIOS). The newer versions often do not have the limits from the previous versions.

However, I strongly suggest to give the computer to a service shop if you want to flash the BIOS as you can damage the BIOS is such a way that you cannot repair it yourself at home.

running windows *.exe files in linux

2008-02-06T05:58:00.000-08:00

can i use windows *.exe files in linux... if possible how ?..

linux programs are made in such a way that they can be used in windows and linux.

But windows programs cannot be used in linux.That is a trick used by microsoft

haven't you seen special software folders for both of them.From the linux folders you can install them to anywhere but it can't be done in vice versa

That's possible with Wine [http://www.winehq.com/].

Howwver, it depends on the programs you want to use.

right..not eac and every exe file can be run under linux...only some of them...and they might show u the installation screen but after installation may be they wont run...coz they need some windows files *.dll to run...which will not be there in linux...but yes standalone exe's can run linke of flash player through WINE

PayPal Buys Fraud Sciences for $169 Million

2008-01-30T07:07:00.000-08:00

EBay's online payments division, PayPal, will pay US$169 million for an Israeli security company specializing in detecting online fraud, the companies said Monday. The deal should close within 30 days.Fraud Sciences, a private company, has developed technology designed to differentiate between real and fraudulent transactions. That technology will be folded into PayPal's antifraud systems, which will be "significantly" improved this year, eBay said.

Fraud Sciences' Chief Operating Officer, Yossi Barak, and founders Shvat Shaked and Saar Wilf will move to PayPal's technology and fraud management teams.

PayPal lets two users exchange money online via e-mail addresses. The ease at which people can transfer money has also made it one of the most highly targeted brands for phishing scams, where fraudulent Web sites mimicking real sites are set up in order to steal people's log-in details.

PayPal has taken other steps to shore up its defenses. Early last year, it began offering a keychain with a one-time numeric passcode that users enter in addition to their log-in and password. The passcode expires after 30-seconds, which greatly reduces a hacker's window of opportunity to get access to someone's account.

PayPal has also pushed for free e-mail providers to block e-mail sent without digital signatures. That would potentially mean fewer scam e-mails would land in people's inboxes, reducing the chance of fraud, although providers have yet to make a unified commitment.

AMD Launches Two-Chip Graphics Card For Gamers

2008-01-30T07:01:00.001-08:00

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) on Monday launched for PC gamers a two-chip graphics card that it hopes will give it a lead in price and performance over rival Nvidia.

The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 combines two graphics processors on a single board, giving it nearly double the performance of the single-chip Radeon HD 3870 introduced in November 2007, according to AMD. The latest graphics card tops a Teraflop, or 1 trillion floating point operations per second, which is the equivalent of a trillion mathematical calculations per second.

High-end graphics cards target hardcore gamers looking for realism in 3-D effects used in many videogames today. To get peak performance, game enthusiasts will use multiple graphics cards and use software tools to boost the clock speed of CPUs.

AMD's latest product would compete with Nvidia's GeForce 8800 Ultra that starts at $630. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 has a suggested retail price of $449.

AMD's new graphics card will also support the company's CrossFire X technology, which makes it possible to use up to four cards on a single computer to further boost performance. CrossFire X competes with Nvidia's scalable link interface, or SLI. AMD plans to release software to enable CrossFire X support for the HD 3870 X2 late in the current quarter.

Market researcher Jon Peddie, head of Jon Peddie Research, said AMD's new card is 70% faster than the single-chip HD 3870, making the new product faster than having two separate cards on a motherboard, which only increases performance by 50%.

With the card comparable in performance to Nvidia's highest end product, but selling for substantially less, the new card places AMD ahead of its rival, Peddie said. Nvidia, however, is likely to respond quickly to the competition.

"Now that they know what AMD has accomplished, Nvidia will go crazy trying to beat them," Peddie said. "AMD is king of the hill in price and performance for now, but the question is how long will they stay there."

Graphics performance is becoming increasingly important in entertainment PCs offered by manufacturers as consumers store and manage a growing number of video, audio, and picture files. To boost the performance of low- to mid-priced PCs, AMD and Nvidia are offering inexpensive graphics cards that work in conjunction with the companies' integrated graphics circuits embedded in motherboards. In the past, the integrated circuits would shut down and let the graphics card do the processing.

AMD's ATI Radeon HD 3400 series graphics card, for example, can complement the company's integrated chipset. The card has a suggested retail price of $49 to $65.

Nvidia introduced similar technology for its own integrated chipset. Called Hybrid SLI, the technology was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month, and will be available in all graphics cards starting with the GeForce 8200.

Microsoft Warns of Office 2003 SP3 Auto-Update

2008-01-30T06:59:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Corp. Monday gave users of its Office 2003 application suite a 30-day warning that it will begin pushing the software's Service Pack 3 via Microsoft Update next month.

The notice followed a dustup earlier this month over new security settings in Office 2003 SP3 that blocked access to a swath of older file formats. After users complained on the company's support forums, and a software rival asked why its files were being barred, Microsoft apologized and posted work-arounds to make it easier for users to unblock the formats.

Monday, Microsoft announced that it would add Office 2003 SP3 to its Microsoft Update listings beginning Feb. 27. Microsoft Update, a companion service to Windows Update, downloads patches and other fixes for the operating system as well as a number of the company's applications, notably Office.

"Those customers who have not already installed SP3 and that have chosen to receive updates automatically will start to receive the service pack as early as February 27," a Microsoft spokeswoman said today in an e-mail. "[But] the distribution through [Microsoft Update] is a gradual process and so not every customer will see the service pack on February 27."

Microsoft Update and Windows Update take their instructions from the client PC's Automatic Updates settings; those let users specify whether updates will be automatically downloaded and installed, downloaded but not installed, or not downloaded.

Users who do not wish to automatically upgrade their copies of Office 2003 must set Automatic Updates to the second or third option above.

Microsoft's Office and Update teams said that the warning is in keeping with a policy that debuted with Office 2007 SP1, when the company promised that it would give users a 30-day warning before turning on an automatic service-pack update. In December, Reed Shaffner, worldwide product manager for Office, promised that Microsoft would not use Microsoft Update to deliver Office 2007's SP1 for at least three months, perhaps longer.

"This policy seems to have worked really well with SP3 because it gave the market plenty of time to evaluate the service pack, gave us time to address concerns, and now we can push it to the hundreds of millions of users who depend on us to keep them secure," said the two teams in a combined posting to a company blog.

Office 2003 SP3 was unveiled by Microsoft last September and has been available for downloading from the company's Web site since then.

Gaze into Screen

2008-01-14T05:54:00.000-08:00

Gaze into Screen

Ever wish you could control things just by looking at them? Researchers at Stanford University have developed a gaze-based user interface so you can do just that—at least on a computer. You can point and click switch between windows. Scroll, and input a password simply by looking at an object on the screen arid pressing a hot key. Eye tracking technology has been in use for a while to assist those with motor impairments, but IL of Len lids been incompatible with standard Software’s. The Stanford team’s interface eliminates this limitation. There system uses infrared eye trackers to trace the eye’s gaze and focus points to maintain accuracy. Manu Kumar, the projects lead researcher, says although gaze-based interaction makes Web surf in and checking email easier, it is not meant to replace traditional devices. “If your task requires high precision, then you may still prefer to use the mouse for that.” he says. An affordable system may be available in two to three years

Gmail Accounts Disabled by Mistake

2007-12-13T03:16:00.000-08:00

In a very recent incident, Google had accidentally disabled some Gmail accounts in an attempt to deal with spammers.
Some users posted their grievance on the Gmail Help Discussion Forum about their accounts being locked.However, a Google staffer, who monitors and posts messages on Gmail Help forum, acknowledged the existence of the occurrence on behalf of the company.
Identifying the problem, Google said that their efforts to prevent breach of the Terms of Use (policy) caused a number of users to be incorrectly identified as spammers or other abusive users.
Several hours later, Google Guide declared that things were back to normal and the accounts that were disabled have regained access with no data loss.
Meanwhile, the messages that were sent to the displaced account during the problem period will not reach the inbox, but bounce back to the sender, Google said.

Nokia N82 Launched in India

2007-12-13T02:55:00.000-08:00

Now, the latest Nokia Nseries handset N82, optimized for photography, navigation, and internet connectivity, is available in the country.
Featuring 5 mega pixels camera, Xenon flash, Carl Zeiss optics, and Internet connectivity, the Nokia N82 incorporates all the multimedia computer features common to Nseries handsets.The camera features autofocus with a dedicated autofocus assist lamp and promises fast consecutive shots, and DVD-quality video capture.
With the high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity and one-click upload, you can upload images and videos even while continuing to use the device for other purposes.
The N82 features a powerful Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) and pre-installed Nokia Maps, which enables you to explore and locate new places across the globe. The standard sales kit of Nokia N82 includes a free voice guided navigation trial for 3 months: you'd have to purchase additional features such as city guides and extended navigation subscription.
The N82 comes with a new content driven 3D multimedia menu and includes a convenient orientation sensor, which rotates the user interface automatically between horizontal and portrait modes. (This feature is also available on Apple iPhone and Sony Ericsson W910i.)
The N82 is bundled with a 2GB microSD card that can store up to 900 high-resolution photos or up to 84 minutes of high quality video.
The Nokia Nseries N82 is available for Rs 28,379

Electronic Arts offers SimCity for OLPC project

2007-11-11T22:03:00.000-08:00

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project has received first major support from some other corporate house after Electronic Arts announced that the company will donate its 1989 classic SimCity for the project. OLPC project aims to offer cheap laptops to children in developing countries. The project started offering robust laptops to children with a price tag of just $100.

Game developer, Electronic Arts (EA) has offered SimCity to OLPC project and the game will be pre-installed on OLPC laptops. SimCity can be played online free of cost on website of Electronic Arts.

OLPC project also joined hands with Reliance Comm. recently to start a test project in some remote villages in India. OLPC project started with offering laptops for $100. The cost of the laptop has however increased to $200 recently.

Steve Seabolt, VP for Global Brand development at EA said that SimCity is an “unintentionally creative” game and it will be very interesting for children to play. SimCity will develop their decision making skills and will a great fun for them at the same time.

OLPC is offering laptops under various programs in India, Cambodia, Uruguay and many African countries.

Intel to Unveil Chips for Improving Video Quality on the Web

2007-11-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 11 — Intel plans to announce a family of microprocessor chips on Monday that it says will speed the availability of high-definition video via the Internet.

Sean Maloney, Intel’s chief sales and marketing officer, said last week that the chips’ increased computing power would begin the transformation of today’s stuttering and blurry videos, the staple of YouTube and other video streaming sites, into high-resolution, full-screen quality that will begin to compete with the living room HDTV.

“It’s biggest impact is high-definition video,” he said. “It will be highly addictive.”

As consumers clamor for more Internet video, a huge computing burden is placed on companies like Google, Microsoft and providers of digital video, who must compress the video files so they can be streamed to desktop and portable computers.

Intel’s new family, made up of 16 processors, would first be used in servers and high-end desktops that compress the video. They are the first chips based on a new manufacturing process that Intel says will give it a significant competitive advantage by increasing computing performance while reducing power consumption.

The chips, which were developed under the code name Penryn, use a re-engineered transistor that is about half the size of its predecessor. It switches more quickly, requires less switching power and leaks less current than that previous transistor.

The chip industry measures its progress by the width of one of the smallest features of a transistor. Much of the industry is now building chips in what is known as 90-nanometer technology (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter). At that scale, about 1,000 transistors would fit in the width of a human hair. Intel began making chips at 65 nanometers in 2005, about nine months before its closest competitors.

The Penryn chips are at the next stage of refinement, just 45 nanometers. The company said it would be able to squeeze up to 820 million transistors onto a single silicon die. The company is making the chips at two factories, in Oregon and Arizona. Next year, it will add two plants, in Israel and New Mexico.

The first products based on the new manufacturing technology will be Intel Core 2 and Xeon microprocessors. Chips for notebook PCs, marketed as the Intel Core 2 Extreme and Intel Core 2 Duo, will be available in the first quarter of next year.

To get better video compression, Intel has added a set of 46 instructions it calls SSE4 to the new microprocessors.

The leading designer of the new processor, Steve Fischer, said the new instructions would make possible a new generation of servers that enhance the compression of digital video.

“Video is becoming ubiquitous on the Web,” he said.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering, “and it’s probably the best use for this 45-nanometer technology over the next couple of years.”

Go 4 thrill - New easiest way to international calls

2007-11-07T23:12:00.000-08:00

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samsung new touch screen mobile

2007-11-05T01:17:00.001-08:00

Korean-based Samsung has unveiled its first touch-screen mobile device, called the M4650.

With full Internet-browsing function, the phone also features a 2.8-inch LCD screen which doubles as a keypad and it can be used with a stylus pen.

According to Samsung, “The smartphone market is getting bigger in other countries thanks to the development of the wireless Internet infrastructure. We hope that the Multi-Touch phone will stimulate the smartphone market in Korea as well.”

The stylish phone claims to perform more powerfully than most others. It also has the ability to play terrestrial DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) TV broadcasting. The hidden screen vibrator helps the phone to gently shake whenever the screen is touched for certain key input.

Samsung plan to sell the M4650 Multi-touch Phone for 500,000 won (approx. Rs. 22,000) through LG Telecom in Korean market.

Eye-Fi Goes Wi-Fi with New SD Memory Card

2007-11-03T05:05:00.000-07:00

Eye-Fi Inc. today unveiled the Eye-Fi Card – the world’s first wireless SD memory card for digital cameras. It uses home Wi-Fi networks to create a convenient way for users to send photographs directly from digicams to computers and online photo and social networking sites.

All you need to do is simply turn on your digital camera and your pictures are wirelessly uploaded. The Eye-Fi Card works with existing and new SD-compatible digital cameras, and stores photos just like a conventional SD memory card.
During the simple setup process, users can select from among 17 popular online photo-sharing, printing, social networking, or blogging sites to publish and share their photographs, and select where on their PC or Mac they want to archive their images.

Once the setup is complete, users can focus on taking pictures and sharing memories – and not on the process of uploading photos from the camera. Eye-Fi’s free upload service allows users to transfer an unlimited number of photos. It handles full-resolution JPEG pictures and intelligently resizes images if required by the selected destination.

The 2GB wireless SD memory card is available now at major online retailers including Amazon.com for $99.99 (Rs 3,940).

New Yahoo Messenger Brings More Facilities

2007-11-03T04:28:00.000-07:00

Along with launching the latest version of its messenger service – Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta, Yahoo Inc has now added six new Asian languages to the service. While the move enables the users to watch inline video, it has, at the same time, brought 25 international languages under the purview of its messaging services. Now the messenger can be set to support local languages from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India and Vietnam.

The search engine’s Messenger 9.0 includes an "in-line player" that allows users to send URLs to each other and then watch video and turn over photographs together, while communicating over IM or an Internet phone connection! The new Yahoo Messenger 9 functions on both Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems. The interface of the version too is friendship-enhancing.

Besides these facilities, the "friends list" on the new Yahoo Messenger version has also been created to provide more space making it simpler to see a contact's photo and status as well as to connect with each other through instant messages, voice over IP or text messaging to a mobile phone.

The improved version also provides call forwarding facilities enabling users to send Internet telephony calls to the Messenger to a mobile phone or land line as a voice mail. To top it all, users can henceforth send unrestricted of attachments with file size limits of up to 2 GB. Also, photograph sets from Yahoo's Flickr picture service can be shared in real time. It is also compatible with YouTube. The new messenger also has an automatic anti-virus scanning protecting it from the threats of virus writers and hackers!

Launching the new version, Yahoo Messenger Vice-President Sabrina Ellis said that the company has spiced up Yahoo Messenger to help and keeping in touch with friends and family more fun than before. It may be mentioned here that the company claims to have Yahoo Messenger has 94.3 million users worldwide.

Download here:- http://beta.messenger.yahoo.com/download.php

Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 launched in India

2007-11-03T03:38:00.000-07:00

Software giant Microsoft has announced the launch of their Silverlight 1.0 technology product in the Indian market.

This software technology is part of their strategy to deliver great user experiences across the web, PC and mobile devices.

Experts put this technology in direct competition to Adobe Flash which has been delivering interactive media on the web since years now.

Microsoft said in a statement that using Silverlight, businesses in the country can offer web applications that are far richer and more interactive than ever before.

Microsoft is already providing integrated solutions for popular web browsers including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.

Seagate offering 5% refund on hard disks

2007-10-29T21:12:00.000-07:00

Seagate Technology, the world's largest hard-drive maker, is offering customers a five percent refund on drives bought during the last six years following a lawsuit over the definition of a "gigabyte". As an alternative, customers can choose to receive free backup software.

Four people sued the company, saying they expected its drives to offer greater capacity than that actually provided. Seagate manufactures its drives based on powers of ten, with 1KB equalling 1,000 bytes. The claimants argued that 1KB of storage should compromise 1,024 bytes.

On a 1GB drive, this would make the difference between one billion bytes of storage, and 1,073,741,824 bytes. Other manufacturers, such as Samsung and Hitachi, also measure hard-drive capacity with 1KB equalling 1,000 bytes, whereas all operating systems are based on 1KB equalling 1,024 bytes.

Because the lawsuit is a "class action", the settlement is available to all Seagate customers.

Seagate denies any fault, but it has offered to pay the refund for any drive which was bought between 22 March, 2001 and 26 September, 2007. The offer is awaiting approval by the presiding judge.

To claim a refund, buyers have to fill in a form quoting their product's serial number. If they wish to claim the software, they have to use a different online form.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of similar cases involving the definition of a gigabyte. In 2003, Apple, Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba were sued over hard-disk sizes by a group of users. That case has not yet been resolved.

A suit against Amazon.com over the capacity of an MP3 player bought on the site was also filed in 2003, but was dismissed in 2005.

All the major flash memory card makers, including SanDisk and Kingston, were sued in 2004, but there has been no result in that case yet.
Another hard-disk giant, Western Digital, settled a similar suit in 2005, but it escaped having to pay refunds. The company offered a free download of backup software valued at US$30 and paid half a million dollars in legal fees, while denying liability.

links:
Home page: http://www.harddrive-settlement.com/index.htm
Online Claim Form: http://www.harddrive-settlement.com/submitClaim.aspx
Mail In Claim Form: http://www.harddrive-settlement.com/doc-MailIn.htm

Mozilla's Prism to bring Web apps to desktop

2007-10-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

Even the Mozilla Foundation, makers of the popular Firefox Web browser, thinks it's time to break out of the browser.

On Thursday, developers from Mozilla announced a project called Prism that will, along with other "experiments," make Web applications better resemble desktop programs.

The idea with Prism is that people can integrate their favorite Web applications with their desktop operating systems.

For example, a person could access Web-based programs Gmail or Facebook from the applications menu of Mac OS or Windows. Or they could create an icon for Facebook on their desktop that launches in its own window.

Prism is an open-source alternative to AIR, or Adobe Integrated Runtime, software for making desktop applications with Web technologies. AIR is set for a 1.0 release in the first half of next year; there are already a number of early applications that use AIR.

Mozilla Labs is trying to merge the worlds of Web applications with desktop operating systems because people are relying more on Web applications yet they are poorly integrated with desktop applications.

"While traditionally users have interacted mostly with desktop applications, more and more of them are using Web applications. But the latter often fit awkwardly into the document-centric interface of Web browsers," according to the announcement on Mozilla Labs' blog posted on Thursday.

Mozilla now has prototypes of Prism running on Windows with early versions on Mac and Linux under way.

Future versions include offline access to information with Firefox 3 and three-dimensional graphics.

Adobe tries to beat "proprietary" rap
The goal is to let developers use existing Web development technologies to write applications that take advantage of Prism. Adobe AIR, too, lets developers use standard Web development tools to create programs that run on AIR.

"Prism will allow new innovative applications on the Web to integrate into the user's desktop experience without any additional development effort for the applications' creators," wrote Alex Faaborg, the user experience designer who is working on Firefox 3.

Mozilla Labs is touting the fact that Prism is open-source software whereas Adobe's AIR is proprietary and closed source.

Mike Chambers, senior manager of developer relations at Adobe, took issue with Mozilla's characterization of AIR and wondered how Prism would differ from AIR.

"I guess the thing I found odd was Mozilla appears to be building something very similar to Adobe AIR (which is fine and cool), but somehow it is inherently good when Mozilla does it, and inherently evil when Adobe does it," Chambers wrote in his blog.

During Adobe's Max conference earlier this month, Adobe Chief Software Architect Kevin Lynch said that he expected that somebody else would create something similar to AIR. "I think that AIR is positioned early to really be a leader...kind of like Flash was positioned early as the interactive multimedia leader," Lynch said last month.

BenQ India Launches EF71 Mobile Phone with FM Transmitter

2007-10-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

BenQ has launched the BenQ-Siemens EF71 mobile phone in India, which boasts of dazzling looks and advanced sound features. The phone has received the iF Design Award, Red Dot Design Award and the 2006 G-Mark Award.

The compact phone has a 2.2" TFT screen with 262,144 colors that provides crystal clear view even in sunlight. The EF71's FM receiver is paired with a built-in FM transmitter that lets users broadcast the phone's MP3 music to their home or car stereo without the hassle of cables or connection kits. The FM transmitter transmits the music being played on the phone's MP3 player to a close by radio, so that users can hear the music through the radio's speakers, which would be louder.

The EF71's music player is loaded with features like multiple audio playback support (MP3/AAC/AAC+/WMA), 10-band equalizer and 3D-surround sound. Users can perform all playback functions like play, skip, pause or stop, without having to flip open the phone. Users can even view the relevant details about the song playing on the external OLED screen.

Switching between functions like music player to camcorder and back is very simple with the EF71. The phone has a 2 MP camera that allows for unlimited video recording. With 30 frames per second and a 3x liner digital zoom, it provides quality footage. The night-mode option lets users capture scenes even after the sun has set.

This feature-rich phone has full expandability and provides easy connectivity to a laptop or computer via a USB cable. Once connected, this phone can be used as a Webcam. With a laptop and the new BenQ EF71, BenQ said users will always ready for an online videoconference even while on the move.

Ish Bawa, Marcom Head, BenQ India, said, "There is a huge demand in the market for stylish and feature-rich phones. People want their mobile phones to do everything - play music, video clips, games, click pictures, record videos, support latest mobile softwares and also look stunning. Therefore, the new BenQ EF71 fits the bill perfectly."

The BenQ EF71 mobile phone is available in India for Rs. 12,995/-.

i-mate Rolls Out Ultimate Series of High-End Mobile Phones

2007-10-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, i-mate launched the Ultimate series of mobile phones. The new series includes four phones namely Ultimate 6150, 8150, 8502, and 9502. The new range offers high-end device specifications such as video out, which can drive video onto a plasma screen and the fastest radio connection of any Windows Mobile device. All the devices are powered by Windows Mobile 6 operating system.

“This is the official launch of our Ultimate range in the Americas and a huge milestone for i-mate that further solidifies our leadership position in the global smartphone market,” stated Jim Morrison, i-mate’s CEO and founder.

“The Ultimate range of devices combines unbeatable performance with sleek design that will appeal to both business users and gadget-lovers who want to choose a device based on their business and personal requirements-we offer unlocked freedom and flexibility so they are not restricted to operator available options. In addition, our devices ship with our i-Q Services platform, which delivers individual device customization, personal device management with enhanced security, and provides an out of the box experience that is unmatched in the industry.”

The Ultimate 6150 is a PDA with a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen. Even the Ultimate 8150 incorporates a VGA touchscreen and it also has a dial keypad. While the Ultimate 8502 and the Ultimate 9502 are equipped with a 2.6-inch touchscreen and 2.8-inch sliding VGA touchscreen with a full QWERTY keypad respectively.

All the new mobile phones feature microSD card slot, 256MB ROM, 128MB RAM, FM Stereo Radio, Microsoft Direct Push Technology and WiFi 802.11b/g/e/I, while the Ultimate 8502 and 9502 offer Integrated GPS also.

The Ultimate 6150 and 8150 will be available in the US market from early November at the price of $695 (approx Rs. 27,520) and $725 (around Rs. 28,710) respectively. While the Ultimate 8502 and 9502 will be available later this year.

Supercomputer from NEC

2007-10-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

The world's most powerful supercomputer on the market has been announced by Japan-based NEC Corp.
The SX-9, as it is named, is capable of calculating 839 teraflops or 839 trillion floating point operations per second.
According to Yoshikazu Maruyama, senior vice president of NEC Corp, the SX-9 has been developed to meet the need for ultra-fast simulations of complex, large capacity scientific computing.
SX-9 is slated to go on display at an upcoming supercomputing convention to be held at Reno, Nevada.
Meanwhile, NEC claims it has already sold over 1,000 supercomputers in the SX series.

Kodak new M-Series Digicams

2007-10-26T22:35:00.001-07:00

Kodak India yesterday launched its Easy Share M-Series range of zoom digital cameras for style-conscious customers.
Bollywood actor, Katrina Kaif, unveiled the Kodak Easy Share M-Series comprising the M753, M853, M873, and M883.
"M-Series cameras are not only packed with easy-to-use features but also add that instant style quotient to your personality," said Warren Wisnewski, managing director (Consumer Digital Imaging Group) of Eastman Kodak Company.
Both M873 and M883 offer 8 mega pixels resolution and high ISO settings. The sleek M883 has built-in face detection technology, allowing consumers view pictures and videos on a huge, 3-inches LCD screen. M873 and M883 come in Midnight Black all-metal bodies.
Whereas M753 and M853 come equipped with 3x optical zoom lenses; with 7- and 8- mega pixels resolution respectively, allowing consumers print crisp images up to 30- to 40-inches in size. Both cameras sport a 2.5-inches LCD screen for sharing pictures and videos. M753 and M853 come in Black and Silver.

In general, all M-Series cameras feature: high ISO settings for producing clearer pictures in low-light conditions; digital image stabilization; and Kodak Perfect Touch technology.

The M753, M853, M873, and M883 are available for Rs 10,999; Rs 11,999; Rs 12,999; and Rs 13,999 respectively.

Spice Spruces Handset

2007-10-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Spice Mobile is sprucing up its handset portfolio with new and improved versions of S-808 and S-600; namely S-808N, and S-600N.

The S-808N sports a savvy metallic look, and features a 65K TFT vibrant color display, one-touch FM and MP3 player, built-in 128MB memory, 1.3 mega pixels camera with zoom, among others. With the S-808N, users can get options like video recording and video player, and video caller ID.
Meanwhile, the S-600N is an improvement over S-600. It features 256MB of internal memory, one-touch MP3 player, speaker phones, 65,000 TFT color screen, polyphonic/MP3 ring tones, games, and Java applications.

The S-600N also comes with unique features like Health Care - BMI, which gives the body mass index by entering weight and height; melody composer wherein the keypad can be used to generate different musical notes, and scheduled auto power on/off which gives control over daily schedules.

The S-600N is available for Rs 4,599, and the S-808N for Rs 6,299.

Nokia N81 and N81 8GB for Shipping

2007-10-25T04:44:00.000-07:00

Multimedia computers, Nokia N81 and Nokia N81 8GB are now available globally.

The phones come with dedicated music and gaming keys, and more memory for more storing and playing.
Bringing a new user interface (UI) to the Nokia Nseries is the 3D Multimedia Menu introduced in these devices. The menu makes it easier to discover and enjoy digital content as well as the Internet, and share experiences with others.
The N81 and the N81 8GB also offer millions of music tracks through the Nokia Music Store. With their integrated Nokia Music Players, creating play lists and managing music collections on the move is a breeze. Compatible, high quality headphones or speakers can be used along with the standard 3.5mm headphone connector for enhanced sound quality.
Besides, the devices afford a preview of the N-Gage games service, which includes playable demos of EA Sports FIFA 07, Asphalt 3: Street Rules, and Space Impact Light.
When N-Gage actually launches later this year, the full application will be available for download on these devices.
The Nokia N81 is shipping for about 360 Euros/$512/Rs 20,300 before subsidies or taxes, while the Nokia N81 8GB is available for around 430 Euros/$612/Rs 24,300 before subsidies or taxes.

Honour for Abdul Kalam

2007-10-25T03:37:00.000-07:00

Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam receiving King Charles II Medal from Lord Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, in London

LONDON: The former President, Dr. Abdul Kalam, became only the second world leader to receive the British Royal Society’s prestigious King Charles II medal on Monday for his contribution to the practice and promotion of science.
Emperor Akihito of Japan was the first. He received it in 1998, a year after the award was instituted by Britain’s premier science academy to recognise excellence in science.
The award, comprising a medal and a scroll, was presented to Dr. Kalam by Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, at a ceremony attended, among others, by industrialist Swraj Paul, economist Meghnad Desai and India’s Acting High Commissioner in London Asoke Mukerjee.
Lord Rees hailed Dr. Kalam as an “ideal recipient,” saying that he had been “tireless” in promoting science and technology in India.
Dr. Kalam said he deemed it an honour to receive the award from the world’s “pioneering scientific academy studded with eminent scientists of the world since its inception in 1660.”
In an address titled “Missions for societal transformation,” Dr. Kalam, who has resumed scientific work after laying down office earlier this year, disclosed that he was working on two areas that had a ``mission potential to have a positive effect on societal development.”
These were “energy independence” and “world knowledge platform.”
Dr. Kalam also received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Wolverhampton’s School of Applied Sciences in recognition of his achievements.
Lord Paul, Chancellor of the University, said: “Dr Kalam’s accomplishments are an inspiration to all and we are very pleased that he has chosen to accept an honorary award from the University.”
University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Caroline Gipps, said: “Dr Kalam has achieved eminence in his own academic studies and he has also educated and inspired others.
“We are delighted to be welcoming Dr. Kalam to the University and to have this opportunity to honour his significant contribution to science and education.”

The Ubuntu Promise

2007-10-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates.

Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies around the world.

Ubuntu includes the very best translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer.

Ubuntu CDs contain only free software applications; we encourage you to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.

Ubuntu 7.10 released Get it now !

2007-10-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) was released a few minutes ago, and it’s my deepest pleasure to introduce you guys to the new features to be found in this version of Ubuntu (which is based on the GNOME desktop environment) and also to the features from Kubuntu (same as Ubuntu, but based on the popular KDE desktop environment).

The latest and greatest GNOME 2.20 which contains many new features and improvements.

Compiz Fusion will be activated by default, immediately after you install the video drivers for your graphics card.

Ubuntu (7.04 Feisty Fawn) introduced a new fantastic function, that immediately tried to find all the necessary video and audio codecs when you wanted to view a video file with Totem; today however, you will get all the necessary codecs with a single mouse click. How? With the Ubuntu restricted extras package that can be found in the Add/Remove Programs application.

Even for the AMD64/EMT64 architecture, it is now very easy to install the Adobe Flash Player 9 with a single mouse click!

Fast user switching is a brand new function, implemented in Ubuntu 7.10, and which will help you easily switch between user sessions without the inconvenience of entering your username or password numerous times.

Dynamic screen configuration including dynamic monitor detection, and resizing and rotating of the video output is included in this Beta release.
Graphical configuration tool for X that allows you to set up dual monitors, change the default resolution for all users or change your monitor’s refresh rate without having to turn to the terminal;

Universe and Multiverse repositories are enabled by default now, so you don’t have to go and enable them when you follow a guide to install something, or to install your favorite applications.

There’s a new search known as Desktop Search , and it’s called Tracker. It allows quick access to your common actions, including opening web bookmarks and searches, sending messages to your contacts, and more. Tracker makes your life easier, as it provides faster search for your documents, music, videos, photos, chat logs, and many other files.

This new version of Ubuntu, expect improved NTFS writing to be enabled by default, power consumption to be very kind with your laptop (more battery life and burn-free laps), encrypted hard disks and AppArmor security framework, the new kernel technology that limits the resources an application is allowed to access.

Download: Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
Ship it : Order Ubuntu 7.10 Now! फ्री

Mozilla fixes 10 Firefox flaws

2007-10-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

Mozilla Corp. late yesterday updated its open-source Firefox browser to patch 10 bugs in Firefox, including three rated as critical, and released the refreshed versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

The new Firefox 2.0.0.8 is also compatible with Mac OS X 10.5, a.k.a. Leopard, Mozilla said. However, some issues remain under the new operating system, which is set to go on sale next Friday, including problems with some media player plug-ins. Mozilla also revisited a July patch to prop up Firefox against attacks that leverage the Universal Resource Identifier (URI) flaw in Windows that Microsoft finally acknowledged last week.

"That [July patch] did not prevent the incorrect file-handling programs from launching, which left some risk," Mozilla said in a mea culpa advisory pinned to the new repair. "An additional fix has been applied to Firefox 2.0.0.8 that detects when Windows would mishandle these URIs so that the wrong program does not get launched."

Microsoft shows off leaner kernel for Windows 7

2007-10-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has 200 programmers working on slimming down the Windows kernel for the next version of the operating system, a company engineer revealed in a presentation last weekend at the University of Illinois.

"A lot of people think of Windows as this really large, bloated operating system, and that may be a fair characterization, I have to admit," said Eric Traut, who holds the title of distinguished engineer at Microsoft. "[So] we created what we call MinWin. It's still bigger than I'd like it to be, but we've taken a shot at really stripping out all of the layers above and making sure that we had a clean architectural layer there."

Traut talked about MinWin last Saturday at a conference on computing sponsored by the university's student-led Association for Computing Machinery. Much of the hourlong presentation was taken up with a discussion of Microsoft's virtualization efforts -- Traut's specialty.

Traut showed off MinWin and bragged about how much leaner the microkernel is than the current core of Windows. While Vista uses 5,000 files for its 4GB core, MinWin weighs in at just 100 files and 25MB.

MinWin is so small that it lacks a graphical subsystem. When Traut booted MinWin, for example, its start-up screen showed the standard Windows flag logo, but the design was built from ASCII characters, a technique discarded decades ago by everyone except spammers.

The microkernel will be used only internally and won't, as Traut put it, be "productized." Instead, it will be the basis of all upcoming versions of Windows, including the next-generation edition now saddled with the code name Windows 7. Microsoft has given out almost no information about that operating system other than a delivery timeline that puts its final release in 2010.

"We'll be using [MinWin] to build all the products based on Windows," said Traut. "It's not just the OS that's running on many laptops in this room, it's also the OS used for media centers, for servers, for small embedded devices."

Microsoft has been knocked in the past for Windows' poor performance and its large size, two criticisms that have been leveled against Vista since its release earlier this year. By stripping the current kernel to the bare minimum -- Traut's MinWin -- and then using that as the code base for Windows 7, Microsoft is trying to reduce the operating system's memory footprint and boost its speed at the same time.

It's probably doing so for good reason, said Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a Kirkland, Wash.-based research company. "This sounds like it's for the new hypervisor Microsoft's been talking about," said Cherry. "It really looks like [in the future] we'll be running some thin hypervisor layer first and then the OS on top of that. So anything Microsoft can do to make that first layer as small as they can is good."

New Yahoo mail - Send free text message to mobile phone

2007-08-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

yahoo finished testing itz beta vertion of new yahoo mail ..and will roll it out to its 254 million users over the next six weeks...
yahoo had added some new features to the yahoo mail service that is not included in beta testing ..

New Features

users can send free text messages in real time from yahoo to cell phones in India, us,Canada and the Philippines.
can send instant messages from Yahoo Mail to Yahoo messenger and Windows Live Messenger 2 users.
Shortcuts - that lets the system automatically recognize things such as dates and addresses, giving users the option of adding the information to their Yahoo Calendar or Contacts lists.
A web search and a map incorporated in yahoomail.

yahoo will continue to offer the classic style of yahoo mail to users who might not want to switch to the new service.

how to earn more from adsense by placing ads in right place

2007-07-26T04:18:00.000-07:00

You know that adsense is the most popular and easiest way to make money from internet. for obtaining more revenue from your site you should consider lot of points in adsense ... like type of ads, place where ads placed, color and theme of ads, etc etc.... any way am writing here about the right place where ads should be placed....

The top space just below your title is the perfect hot portion to place your most important ads.. when ever a site load, this place load first and mostly viewed by the traffic . mostly the right side of the site is not considered as a lucky space. placing your ads on left side will give more clicks than right side. the picture below will show correct position to place ad.
Blending your ads with your site also very important. i know there is lot of other points also considered to make your site into a money making machine.

patience is the main thing you needed while starting an adsense account...

Recover grub menu after installing windows

2007-07-20T02:33:00.000-07:00

if you use Linux you know that after the installation of windows you want to recover grub menu . there is lot of way to recover grub. but the most easiest and fastest way that i use is stated here. i know this is an old method and most of people know this. but am giving this here for newbies

" " = commands

boot into live session.
start terminal.
type these commands.
"sudo grub" now u will get a grub prompt like this way. grub>
then type " find /boot/grub/stage1" .
as result u will get something like. hd0,5
"root (hd?,?)" type the result what u get from the above commands inside the brackets.
"setup (hd0)"
"quit"
now restart. grub menu recovered.

Unlocker

2007-07-12T01:39:00.000-07:00

Get rid of error message like Eerror deleting file or folder, cannot delete folder: it's being used by another person or program
Unlocker is a very useful Windows Explorer extension allowing users with a simple right-click on a file or folder to easily get rid of error message
such as error deleting file or folder, cannot delete folder: it's being used by another person or program.

Helps delete locked files with error messages like:

Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

How to make Unlocker work on Windows Vista?

You need to deactivate UAC globally for the whole system or locally just for Unlocker. Globally, go to "Control Panel" then "User Accounts" then again "User Accounts" then "Turn User Account Control" and set it to Off, then restart your computer. Locally go to the Unlocker install directory (usually C:/Program Files/Unlocker), right-click Unlocker.exe, select Properties, and on the "Compatibility" tab, under "Priviledge Level" enable "Run this program as administrator". Click "allow" everytime you will get the UAC prompt to ask if you want to run Unlocker

Download here

Sony PlayStation 3

2007-07-06T06:28:00.000-07:00

Sony has ruled the console landscape with its previous PlayStation home consoles, and the company is hoping that it has another blockbuster on tap. The PlayStation 3 is a graphical powerhouse, with a cutting-edge Cell processor and a customized Nvidia graphics chip that could melt most gaming PCs. But the console goes beyond gaming, doubling as a Blu-ray and DVD movie player. It's facing some tough competition with the cheaper but almost as powerful Xbox 360

it was initially available in two configurations, 20 GB Basic model and the 60 GB Premium model. The 20 GB model is still on sale in Japan, however it was discontinued in the United States and Canada on April 11, 2007, due to lack of consumer demand. it was not released in PAL territories. On May 21, 2007 Sony announced that it would be releasing the PS3 in Korea in only one configuration, featuring an 80 GB hard drive and IPTV compatibility. Sony has stated that a release of the 20 GB model in PAL territories is "highly unlikely"

Sony has included an option in the XMB menu to install other operating systems. Among other Linux distributions, Ubuntu, Fedora Core 5, Gentoo, Debian, and Yellow Dog have been run on the PS3.

Sony currently implements a hypervisor restricting RSX access, though the graphics are fast enough for emulation of some old systems. Linux has access to 6 of the 7 SPEs, and IBM provides an introduction to programming parallel applications on the PlayStation 3

Price: $539.99 to $599.99 US price

Norton 360

2007-07-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

Norton 360 is a comprehensive consumer security solution that offers a full circle of protection and eliminates the need to purchase and manage multiple products.

Defends your PC against a broad range of threats
Safeguards against online identity theft
Protects important files from loss
Keeps your PC tuned up for peak performance
Provides a hassle-free user experience
Protects against the latest online threats

Top Features

Removes viruses from email and instant messages
Blocks Internet worms at point of entry
Stops spyware from tracking you online
Authenticates popular shopping and banking Web sites
Protects you from phishing sites designed to steal your confidential information
Discovers new files and backs up that data automatically
Automatically back up important files to a secure online service
Local backup to CD, DVD or external drive
Automatically removes unwanted Internet clutter and temporary files that can slow down your PC's performance

Norton 360 System Requirements

Operating System: Windows® XP Home/XP Pro/XP Media 2005 +, Vista Home Basic/Home Premium/Business/Ultimate Build 6000 and later (Not compatible with Vista RC1/RC2)
Phishing Protection feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer v6.0 or higher
Online backup feature requires high-speed Internet connection
Email scanning supported for POP3-compatible email clients

Minimum Hardware Requirements

300MHz or higher processor
256MB of RAM minimum
300MB of free hard disk space

REQUIRED FOR ALL INSTALLATIONS

Standard Web browser
Internet connection (high-speed connection required for Online Backup)

Future Data storage medias

2007-06-30T03:05:00.001-07:00

DVD ram

DVD-RAM is a disc specification presented in1996. which specifies rewritable DVD-RAM media and the appropriate DVD writers. DVD-RAM media have been used in computers as well as camcorders since 1998. The direct successor of this format will be HD dvd-ram.

HD DVD-RAM

hd dvd-ram is the proposed successor to DVD-RAM for random access on optical media using phase-change principals. HD DVD-RAM will hold 20 gigabytes per layer instead of 15 gigabytes for HD DVD-RAM-r because of differences in recording methods used, yielding a higher density disc.

HD DVD-R

is the writable disc variant of HD-DVD and is available with a single-layer capacity of 15GB or dual-layer capacity of 30GB. Currently, HD DVD-R has slower write speeds than the competing BD-Rformat (1–2x vs 1–4x) and lower storage capacity.

Pricing of HD DVD devices and blank media is yet to be released (September, 2006), but it is expected that devices will be available at a lower price-point than the competing Blu-ray Disc format.

Blue-ray disk

A Blu-ray Disc (also called BD) is a high-density optical disk format for the storage of digital media, including high definition video.

About 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video can be stored on a 50 GB disc.
About 23 hours of standard-definition (SD) video can be stored on a 50 GB disc.
On average, a single-layer disc can hold a High Definition feature of 135 minutes using MPEG-2, with additional room for 2 hours of bonus material in standard definition quality. A dual layer disc will extend this number up to 3 hours in HD quality and 9 hours of SD bonus material.

Total Video Converter & Player

2007-06-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

you have searched net for a real converter tht can convert all medias including flv and 3gp. here it is Total video Converter is total solution for video conversion. it support lot of media type and user friendly too... Total Video Converter converts all video files to 3GP, MP4, PSP, iPod, SWF, FLV, DVD, VCD, AVI. it comes with a player tht can play a wide variety of media. Total Video Converter includes a powerful media conversion engine internally so that you can convert media files with very fast speed.

Main features

Convert all kinds of videos to mobile videos or audios (mp4, 3gp, xvid, divx mpeg4 avi, amr audio) which are used by cell-phone, PDA, PSP, iPod
Importing lots of subtitle file formats, including .srt . sub .ssa .ass .smi .psb .tex .idx
Photos slide show combines multi-photos and musics with more than 300 photos fantasy transition effect
High compatibility and high efficiency for Importing RMVB or RM video/audio
Convert various videos to MPEG videos compatible with standard DVD/SVCD/VCD
Burn the converted videos to DVD/SVCD/VCD
Importing WINAMP plugins audio
Rip DVD to popular videos of all sorts
Extract audio from various of videos and convert which to all kinds of audios (mp3, ac3, ogg, wav, aac)
RIP CD to audios of all sorts directly
Support using with command line
Combine several video and audio files to one video file
Demultiplex or extract video and audio
Multiplex video and audio to one file
Flv Nelly Mosser audio extract and decode
Supports generating Sony Ericsson mobile video formats

Total video converter can read following media types

Video Formats

Rmvb(.rm,.rmvb)
MPEG4(.mp4)
3gp(.3gp, 3g2)
MPEG1(.mpg, mpeg)
MPEG2 PS (.mpg, mpeg, vob)
MPEG2 TS (DVB Transport Stream)
Ms ASF(.asf, .wmv)
Ms AVI(.avi)
Macromedia Flash video FLV (.flv)
Real Video (rm)
Apple Quicktime(.mov)
FLIC format(.fli, .flc)
Gif Animation(.gif)
DV (.dv)
Matroska (.mkv)
ogm (.ogm)
Video Formats Dx9 Directshow can open

Audio Formats

CD audio(.cda)
MPEG audio(.mp3, mp2)
Ms WAV(.wav)
Ms WMA(.wma)
Real Audio (.ra)
OGG(.ogg)
Amr audio(.amr)
AC3(.ac3)
SUN AU format (.au)
Macromedia Flash embedded audio(.swf)
Audio Formats Dx9 Directshow can open

Game Video Formats

Technologies format, used in some games(.4xm)
Playstation STR
Id RoQ used in Quake III, Jedi Knight 2, other computer games
format used in various Interplay computer games,Interplay MVE
multimedia format used in Origin's Wing Commander III computer game,WC3 Movie
used in many Sega Saturn console games, Sega FILM/CPK
Multimedia formats used in Westwood Studios games, Westwood Studios VQA/AUD
Used in Quake II, Id Cinematic (.cin)
used in Sierra CD-ROM games, Sierra VMD
used in Sierra Online games, .sol files
Electronic Arts Multimedia, Matroska
used in various EA games; files have extensions like WVE and UV2
Nullsoft Video (NSV) formatTotal Video

Total video Converter supports generating the following file formats

Video Formats

MPEG4(.mp4)
3gp(.3gp, 3g2)
Game Psp(.psp)
MPEG1(.mpg, mpeg)
NTSC, PAL DVD mpeg
NTSC, PAL SVCD mpeg
NTSC, PAL VCD mpeg
Ms Mpeg4 AVI(.avi)
Divx AVI(.avi)
Xvid AVI(.avi)
H264 AVI(.avi)
Mjpeg AVI(.avi)
HuffYUV AVI(.avi)
Swf Video(.swf)
Flv Video (.flv)
Gif Animation(.gif)
Mpeg4 Mov(.mov)
Apple Quicktime(.mov)
FLIC format(.fli, .flc)
Gif Animation(.gif)
DV (.dv)
WMV (.wmv)
ASF(.asf)

Audio Formats

MPEG audio(.mp3, mp2)
Ms WAV(.wav)
Ms WMA(.wma)
OGG(.ogg)
Amr audio(.amr)
AC3(.ac3)
SUN AU format (.au)
m4a(mp4 audio)
aac(aac audio)
mmf(mmf audio)
Flac(flac audio)

It include a player which look similar to winamp but performance is much better thn winamp. it can play wide wariety of media including .swf and .flv ,

Download here

Score 10/10

Porn sites attacking with Mpack

2007-06-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

Several hundred pornography sites are surprising unwitting users with Mpack, the already notorious hacker tool kit that launched massive attack earlier this week from a network of more than 10,000 compromised domains.

Trend Micro Inc. has spotted nearly 200 porn domains -- most dealing in incestuous content -- that have either been hacked or are purposefully redirecting users to servers hosting Mpack, a professional, Russian-made collection of exploits that comes complete with a management console.

Mpack kit consists of commercial-grade software components written in the PHP Web programming language and apparently sold by a group of Russian programmers. The software, which comes with a year of support, was first mentioned in an analysis penned by antivirus firm Panda Software. In mid-May, Panda stated that the software had compromised at least 160,000 computers.

The Mpack kit sells for anywhere between $700 and $1,000.

The kit uses techniques similar to previous attacks that leverage legitimate Web sites that have been compromised to redirect visitors to malicious download sites. The software uses HTTP header information to send exploits that target the victim's specific browser

Hitachi Introduces Mind Control Device

2007-06-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

Hitachi has developed a technology to allow users to control devices by thinking. The system is currently being used to move a toy train back and forth, but the company and other manufacturers see a future for it in TV remote controls, cars and artificial limbs. A key advantage to Hitachi's technology is that sensors don't have to physically enter the brain.

The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals.

A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and motor during one recent demonstration at Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, just outside Tokyo

Hitachi's scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote controller letting users turn a TV on and off or switch channels by only thinking.

Size is one issue, though Hitachi has developed a prototype compact headband and mapping machine that together weigh only about two pounds.
Another would be to tweak the interface to more accurately pick up on the correct signals while ignoring background brain activity.
Any brain-machine interface device for widespread use would be "a little further down the road," Koizumi said.
He added, however, that the technology is entertaining in itself and could easily be applied to toys.

Gom player

2007-06-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

GOM Player is a free multimedia player with popular video and audio codecs built-in. GOM Player supports file formats such as AVI, DAT, MPEG, DivX, XviD, WMV, ASF. Users don't have to install codecs separately.

GOM Player is capable of playing incomplete or damaged AVI files by skipping the damaged frames. It can also play locked or partially downloaded files. Its other features include drag-and-drop support, HTTP streaming, editable skins, subtitling, overlay mixer, key remapping, enhanced filter rendering, real-time index rebuilding for AVI files and Unicode support among others.

Gom player playing film 300 MP4 (good quality)

Features

play divx, dat, mpeg, xvid, flv, mp4, avi, DVD with menu etc
10 band equalizer
video brightness color etc can be easily adjusted using GOM control panel
pan scan (a great feature)
got an inbuilt capture ( picture and video)
time jump, playback speed adjustment
good interface

while using i found these drawbacks

MP4 need additional codec (coreaac 252 kb)
DVD menu selection using keyboard only (need mouse support)
DVD sound amplification is poor ( less sound for some DVD)

SCORE (9/10)

Pentagon e-mail system hacked

2007-06-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

june 21 2007 : about 1500 of e-mail user's in pentagon had there service disrupted due to a hacker infiltrated the e-mail system.
In a briefing today with reporters in Washington at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates confirmed the incident and said that the users were disconnected from the system after the intrusion was discovered.
"The reality is that the Defense Department is constantly under attack," Gates said during the briefing. "Elements of the unclassified e-mail system were taken offline yesterday afternoon, due to a detected penetration. A variety of precautionary measures are being taken. We expect the system to be online again very soon."

iphone - technical deatails

2007-06-21T00:49:00.000-07:00

technical details about Apple Inc.'s iPhone, leaked to the Web by a University of Washington technology group

the device will not support Adobe Inc.'s Flash, will rely on quick time to display audio and video, and can keep only eight Safari-displayed Web pages in memory at one time

No support for Flash, Adobe's multimedia Web content format.
No Java.
JavaScript runtime limited to five seconds.
QuickTime used for audio and video.
A maximum of eight documents loaded in Safari on the iPhone.
Links to video on a Web page take users directly to full-screen playback.
Support for PDF through Apple's own DisplayPDF code, not Adobe.
Multiple gestures automatically available to Web sites viewed through iPhone without any additional coding, and include pinching content to shrink, double-tapping to zoom and two-fingered scrolling