Daily Life

Little Rock Star

2010-01-08T22:35:00.001+08:00

Cant get enough of this cute lil kid. Hihi (n_n)..

Obladi Oblada! Little Beatle! Watch This

2010-01-08T22:29:00.000+08:00

Hahaha... Another cute Video form that asian kid. Kid got talent! He's 3 years old by the way.

This is the Cutest Thing You'll Ever See! Dont Miss Out! Little Jason Mraz

2010-01-08T22:27:00.001+08:00

A 3 years old asian kid playing Im Yours by Jason Mraz on Ukulele. Soooooo cute!

True To Like Horror Movie: Paranormal - Download Here

2010-01-08T22:14:00.003+08:00

After a young, middle class couple moves into a suburban 'starter' tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be somehow demonic but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially when they sleep. Or try to.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Website for 'beautiful people' throws out 5,000 members for gaining weight

2010-01-05T21:59:00.001+08:00

A social networking site for 'beautiful people' has axed 5,000 of it's members for piling on the pounds over Christmas.

BeautifulPeople.com, which boasts 550,000 users worldwide and has a strict ban on 'ugly people', said it acted after vigilant members noticed 'fatties roaming the site'.

Most of those expelled came from the UK, US and Canada, and had somewhat foolishly uploaded photos revealing they had 'let themselves go' over Christmas and the New Year.

Skin deep: Lets members accept or veto new applicants based on their photo

Robert Hintze, the site's founder, said: 'We mourn the loss of any member. But our users demand the high standard of beauty be upheld.

'Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business.'
Almost 900 members from the UK were thrown out and told to re-apply once they had lost weight.

Managing director Greg Hodge said: 'We responded to complaints by moving the newly chubby members back to the rating stage. This is the same as having them re-apply.

'Their re-applications were reviewed by existing members and only a few hundred were voted back in. Over 5,000 were rejected.'

The social networking site allows its members to decide on who should be allowed to join.

Admission to the site is only allowed after accepted members vote on a photograph of the applicant and a brief profile.

No way: The website excluded people for being overweight and told them to re-apply after shedding some pounds

Members of the opposite sex vote 'Yes definitely', 'Hmm yes, O.K', 'Hmm no, not really' and 'NO Definitely NOT' to decide who is allowed into the site.

Mr Hodge said the 'festive fatties' have become an annual problem: 'Every year we see that some of our members from western cultures eat and drink to excess over the holidays and clearly their looks suffer.

'In the UK and Canada, Christmas and the New Year are all about over-eating, over-drinking and watching TV on the sofa.

'It's no wonder that so many members have been expell
ed from the network. We hope they will be back after shedding the festive pounds.'

In an attempt to soften the blow to those given the boot the website sent details of fitness centres where they can lose weight.

Mr Hodge said they had already received many new applications to join the site, with the majority of applicants from Brazil.

Free Traffic Exchange System

2010-01-04T23:08:00.018+08:00

Free Traffic Exchange System! Join in to increase your traffic.

Nintendo shuts down fan-made Zelda movie

2010-01-03T21:35:00.017+08:00

It took four years for The Hero of Time, a fan-made Zelda movie, to be made. Last month, it finally became available for viewing on Dailymotion. Before you drop everything and rush over there, though, be aware that it's no longer there. Nintendo has pulled the plug on the whole thing.

Here's the explanation from the people behind The Hero of Time:

Hey, everyone. We just wanted to let you know that Dec. 31 was the last day that The Hero of Time was available for viewing. We came to an agreement with Nintendo earlier this month to stop distributing the film. In the spirit of the holiday season they were good enough to let us keep the movie up for you to watch and enjoy through the end of 2009, but not past 2009. We understand Nintendo’s right to protect its characters and trademarks and understand how in order to keep their property unspoiled by fan’s interpretation of the franchise, Nintendo needs to protect itself — even from fan-works with good intentions.

Google phone debut expected this week

2010-01-03T20:03:00.007+08:00

The G1, the first mobile phone running the Google-backed Android operating system. The new phone could be unveiled this week.

GOOGLE is expected to ring in the new year by unveiling its own smartphone, the Nexus One, in a bid to expand its powerful web brand in the booming mobile arena.

The internet search and advertising giant has already gained a foothold in the market with its Android mobile operating system, featured in a number of phones starting with T-Mobile's G1 in October 2008 and more recently with the Droid from Motorola.

But the Nexus One, designed by Taiwanese handset maker HTC, represents a significant departure in that Google is expected to sell the Google-branded phone directly to consumers who will not be tied to any one telecom carrier.

Apple's popular iPhone, for example, is available exclusively in the United States through AT&T, but buyers of the "Google phone" will reportedly have their choice of wireless carriers.

Technology blog Gizmodo, citing leaked documents, said the Nexus One would cost $US530 ($A5947)"unlocked" - meaning it isn't tied to a specific carrier - or $US180 ($A202) with a two-year service agreement with T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG.

Google has been coy about any plans to jump headfirst into the fast-growing smartphone market, dropping hints but not confirming its intentions outright.

Agence France-Presse and other media outlets have been invited to a press event on Tuesday at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, billed only as an "Android press gathering".

"With the launch of the first Android-powered device just over a year ago, we've seen how a powerful, open platform can spur mobile product innovation," the invitation said. "And this is just the beginning of what's possible."

Google provided no further details about the event, whose timing appears to be an attempt to upstage the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual technology extravaganza which opens in Las Vegas on January 7.

Among the hints dropped by Google was a blog post last month in which the company said employees were testing a mobile product internally in an exercise known in the industry as "dogfooding".

Google's plunge into the smartphone market has drawn a mixed reaction.

"It looks like Google is moving to see if they can do the Apple thing," said analyst Rob Enderle, of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley, in a reference to the iPhone, which has enjoyed phenomenal success since it was introduced in 2007.

Pointing to Google's $US750 million ($A840 million) acquisition of mobile advertising company AdMob in November, a number of analysts said Google hopes to replicate its web advertising success in the mobile space.

Not all are convinced by the wisdom of the move.

"For Google to go into the business of selling phones just doesn't make a whole lot of sense," Gartner analyst Van Baker said.

"Just coming out with a high-end phone really doesn't buy you much," Baker said.

"You'd be hard pressed to come up with enough revenue from pushing ads to pay for the phone service."

Ovum research fellow Jonathan Yarmis said Google will have to walk a fine line between marketing its own smartphone and being a supportive partner for the growing number of firms making their own handsets based on Android.

Although Android's share of the US smartphone market is relatively small, it has doubled in the past year to 3.5 per cent in October, according to comScore, and Gartner predicts Android-based smartphones will capture 14 per cent of the global market by the year 2012.

The world's most dangerous job?

2010-01-03T19:26:00.001+08:00

The daily grind at the office may not seem so bad after viewing these startling images.

For, no matter how grumpy your boss may be this morning, at least you aren't actually risking life and limb by sticking your head in his jaws.

But that is exactly what the crocodile wrestlers at a Thai zoo do on a daily basis.

Staring into the abyss: Crocodile wrestler Somphop, 22, risks not seeing his 23rd birthday as he puts his head into the crocodile's mouth at Samphran Elephant Ground and Zoo.

Let's not get snappy here: Somphop gives the camera a little smirk as he puts his head in between the jaws of death

This astonishing series of photographs shows the men at the Samphran Elephant Ground and Zoo performing what may well be the world'smost dangerous job.

The wranglers have been performing the stunts at the zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, since it was set up in 1985.

During the hour-long shows they stick their head between the jaws of some of the zoo's biggest crocs, in the style of Krai Thong, a legendary Thaicrocodile hunter.

Playtime's not over yet! Somphop wrestles with the crocodile

Photographer Bronek Kaminski, who witnessed the feat on a trip to the attraction, said: 'They are quite lively crocodiles. They are not lying around half asleep all the time.

'They are chomping at a bamboo stick and snapping their jaws and then they guys put them into some sort of trance and put their head into the croc's mouth.

Smile for the camera: Another wrestler grips a surprisingly docile beast and hoists him into the air

'He keeps it in there for a long time, and puts his arm in, right up to his shoulder.

'Then the crocodile goes back to being a wild animal. It's very impressive.

'I was not sure if they were actually going to do it so when they do you are really taken back by it.'

The centre also doubles up as a breeding zoo, and has more than 10,000 crocodiles.

German scientist cracks secret mobile phone code

2009-12-31T22:47:00.003+08:00

Karsten Nohl worked with a team for the last five months and finally cracked the code used to encrypt calls using GSM technology.

The findings can allow anyone to listen to private phone conversations.

Speaking at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin he said his conclusions proved that security of GSM, the most used mobile technology in the world, was "inadequate".

"We are trying to inform people about this widespread vulnerability," the BBC quoted Nohl as saying.

The expert added: "We hope to create some additional pressure and demand from customers for better encryption."

However, the GSM Association (GSMA), which created the code, said Nohl's work would be "highly illegal" in Britain and many other countries.

A spokesperson said: "This isn't something that we take lightly at all."

But Nohl insists that he spoke to lawyers before releasing his work publicly and said it was "legal".

Talking about his study Nohl said: "Any cryptographic function is a one way street...You should not be able to decrypt without the secret key".

To break the code Nohl and others computer networks to look through "every possible combination" of inputs and outputs. Nohl pointed out there were "trillions" of possibilities.

All the outputs are now listed in a vast table.

Nohl explained: "It's like a telephone book - if someone tells you a name you can look up their number."

The codebook, a "beefy gaming computer and 3,000 dollars worth of radio equipment" would enable anyone to decipher signals from billions of people around the world usingGSM technology, he stated.

The GSMA says the technology would remain unaffected by the new research, since there had been "a number" of such studies describing how A5/1 algorithm could be broken but "none to date have led to a practical attack".

The spokesperson added: "All in all, we consider this research, which appears to be motivated in part by commercial considerations, to be a long way from being a practical attack on GSM."

A Better Browsing Experience

2009-12-31T19:04:00.002+08:00

A Better Browsing Experience

This simple tip which some I am sure would say is useless and also that that's why the Favorites are for, I guarantee you this would make accessing your truly favorite sites or those that you must mandatorily check (such as your banking sites), much easier and quicker.

Now, I have noticed that many people do not use the Links folder in their Favorites, as I previously didn't either. This folder comes with IE (Internet Explorer), and with some links already in there. Well, this folder can also be used as a toolbar in IE. To verify it, go to View > Toolbars > Links. Now, more than likely, the sites that are in there are of no interest to you. Why not put files and folders in there of your "truly" favorite sites. If you are like me, you have added hundreds of things to your Favorites list because you would like to access them in a few days, weeks, or even years. However, of those hundreds, there are probably about 5 to 15 that you access regularly--2 to 3 times a day, week, or month, such as news sites, banking sites, credit card sites, email, blogs, etc. You can organize related sites into folders to make things easier and to be able to fit more on the toolbar at an instant glance.

O.k. Hopefully you get how cool this is and not only how much time can be saved accessing websites that you visit frequently, but more importantly, how easy and pleasurable it is to access those sites, so here are the exact instructions, which you most likely already know how to do, but I will explain it anyway.

1) Go to Start or to your Desktop and Open up my computer and navigate to the Favorites folder, which will most likely be in this location:

C:\Documents and Settings\your_name\Favorites\

2) Locate the folder called Links. Now, if you are like me, you like to keep everything, so if this is the case and you are not interested in any of the items in the folder but don't want to delete it, simply rename the folder and create a new folder called Links. If you do want some of the things in that folder, delete what you don't want to keep or move them to some other folder.

3) Go to several sites and add them to favorites and inside that folder. For demonstration purposes, you can do the following. Go the cnn's website (CNN), click favorites, then add to favorites. Click on the Links Folder, then click on New Folder, give that folder a name such as News, and then click ok. Now go to the abc news website (ABC News), and add it to this same News folder. After this go to several other sites and add them to the Links folder. Arrange the items in this folder in the order that you would want to access them, though it may not stay in that order and you will need to arrange them in IE so that they then stay in order. Tip #1: To try to keep Name of the sites you add very short, so that you can have more websites at a glance available to you in the toolbar. For example, instead of having the name World Wrestling Entertainment, simply put WWE. Tip #2: To force the items you placed in the folders in the Links folder to stay in order, for example as we did with the news websites of CNN and ABC News, place a number in front of the name. So, if you wanted CNN to be listed first, you would name it 1-CNN, and for ABC News you would have 2-ABC News. If you would like to rename anything, right click on the site you added in the Links folder and choose rename, or go to the Links folder in the Favorites folder-- C:\Documents and Settings\your_name\Favorites\Links\ , whichever you find easier and faster.

4) Make certain that you have the Links toolbar enabled. Go to View>Toolbars>Links. There should be a checkmark in front of the word Links. Please do have only one browser window open as you are working on doing this. Now, arrange the items in the toolbar in the order you want by simply dragging them left or right on the toolbar before or after other links you have there. For those in folders, drag them up or down or out of the folder. Note: Extra links/sites will be to the right hand side of the toolbar, which you will be able to access by clicking on the double arrows that would appear if you have exceeded the toolbar space.

5) After you have the sites arranged in the exact order you want, press CTRL and N to open up two or three more browsers and observe the order of the sites in the toolbar. If the links/sites are not still in the same order that you arranged them, close all browsers, including the one you were working with, and try arranging them in order again and then press CTRL and N. This order will get messed up sometimes when you play around with other toolbars and in other rare cases, which will be annoying to you after you have setup your perfect order and used it that way for such a long time, but nonetheless, this rarely occurs.

6) Enjoy a better browsing experience.

The Second Best TIP Ever, Make No Mistake!

2009-12-30T22:12:00.001+08:00

One thing I've noticed since getting my new "Windows XP" security bolted down. Is that my modem syncs faster and consequently my Up-Load & Down-Load lights merrily flash away even before I've managed to log into my account, therefore my firewall is not up and running.

My Second Best Tip Ever

Is never turn on your means of connecting to the Internet, until your PC is up and running complete with all your security in place first... Then turn on your modem and wait for it to sync.

2009-12-30T21:56:00.003+08:00

LittleBigPlanet, commonly abbreviated LBP, is a puzzle platformer video game (with user-generated content) for the PlayStation 3 first announced on 7 March 2007, by Phil Harrison at the 2007 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California. Developed under the title The Next Big Thing by Media Molecule and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. A PlayStation Portable version of the game was released in November 2009 which features new levels and content.

Many saw the game as an important title for Sony's PlayStation 3. The game received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from critics and has been praised for its presentation, including its graphics, physics and audio, along with its gameplay and large array of customisable and online features. Additional praise was given to its scope and future potential based on user-created content; minor criticism was reserved for specific elements of the gameplay mechanics and level creation facilities. LittleBigPlanet won the AIAS Interactive Achievement Award for Overall Game of the Year, in addition to several others. Little Big Planet is also available in PSP.

Some Image of Sackboy (the name of the character in Little Big Planet) and Merchandise. They also do customized Sackboy. Wish I have one =)

DOMO MANIA!!!

2009-12-30T20:56:00.004+08:00

Domo, the main character, is described as "a strange creature that hatched from an egg," with a large, sawtoothed mouth that is locked wide open. Domo's favorite food is Japanese-style meat and potato stew, and he has a strong dislike for apples, because of an unexplained mystery in his DNA. Domo can only communicate via producing a low-pitched noise which sounds somewhat like his own name, but other characters appear to understand him. Domo is known to pass gas repeatedly when nervous or upset.

Here's Domo for those who doesnt know him

Poor Domo hihi

A rare blue Smurf Domo Rawr!

uh???...

Curious Domo

DJ Domo

Poor Domo Chased by a cat hihi

Domo to young to sit in front lol

A Domo Merchandise. There's also a Domo shirt but I prefer the hat

Shiny sparkly teeth. Domo done with toothbrush haha

Lucha Domo! Nachooooooooo DooooMooooooO! xoxoxoXoxoXoxXOXox hahaha

Great Domo lol

Here's a cute one weeee

Poor Kitty.. Domo nuuuuuuuhhh!

Spider Man 4: Domo Clash haha

WEeeeeeee!

Cool Shades!

Domo Taking a Picture of Him in fron of Mirror

Domo In Grade 2 (n_n)

Domo Girl Retro

Domo On Vacation

Instantly Download Any YouTube Video!

2009-12-27T21:58:00.002+08:00

Instantly Download Any YouTube Video!

See a video you want? Type "kick" (without quotations) in front of youtube.com in the address bar and be taken to KickYouTube's site. Select your download format and click download. That's it! No software or account required.

10+ Shortcuts For Formatting Word Text

2009-12-27T21:57:00.000+08:00

10+ Shortcuts For Formatting Word Text

Keystroke Function
Ctrl + Shift + D Double underline the selected text
Ctrl + ] Increase the size of selected text by 1 point
Ctrl + [ Decrease the size of selected text by 1 point
Ctrl + Shift + A Make selected text all caps
Ctrl + = Toggle subscripting for selected text
Ctrl + + Toggle superscripting for selected text
Ctrl + Shift + Q Apply Symbol font to selected text
Ctrl + Shift + N Apply Normal style to current paragraph
Ctrl + Alt + 1 Apply Heading 1 style to current paragraph
Ctrl + Alt + 2 Apply Heading 2 style to current paragraph
Ctrl + Alt + 3 Apply Heading 3 style to current paragraph
Ctrl + Shift + L Apply List Bullet style
Ctrl + 0 (zero) Apply or remove space above current paragraph

Shortcut To Bypass XP Startup Programs, Boot Faster

2009-12-27T21:53:00.002+08:00

Shortcut To Bypass XP Startup Programs, Boot Faster

Hold down the SHIFT key during the logon process to prevent the operating system from running startup programs or shortcuts in the following folders:

systemdrive\Documents and Settings\Username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

systemdrive\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

windir\Profiles\Username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

windir\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

The windir folders exist only on computers that are upgraded from Windows NT 4.0.

To disable the programs or shortcuts in the preceding folders, you must hold down the SHIFT key until the desktop icons appear. Holding down the SHIFT key is a better alternative than temporarily deleting or moving programs and shortcuts because this procedure affects only the current user session.

To use the SHIFT key to disable programs and shortcuts in startup folders
Log off the computer.

In the Welcome to Windows dialog box, press Ctrl+Alt+Del.

In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type your user name and password and then click OK.

Immediately hold down the SHIFT key. The mouse cursor changes shape from a plain pointer to a pointer with an hourglass. (It might do this several times.)

Continue to hold down the SHIFT key until the Windows XP Professional desktop icons appear and the mouse cursor stops changing shape.

Turn Your Photos Or Images Into A Huge Poster

2009-12-27T21:50:00.002+08:00

Create any size wall posters from any size images.
Totally Free To Use!
Upload an image from your computer and choose how many sheets wide
you would like your poster to be once printed.
Once you're happy with your selection, you can download the PDF file containing your newly created images and print each one massively blown up, resulting in a huge pixel poster to stick on your wall.

http://www.blockposters.com/

25 Great Facebook Tips and Tricks

2009-12-27T20:29:00.002+08:00

25 Great Facebook Tips and Tricks

1. Hide Your Online Status From Selected Friends:

So you want to use Facebook chat but don’t want some people to see your online status? Simply open up the Facebook Chat and click on Friends List. Start creating a new list called BlockList.

Once the list is created, add those friends to the list that you want to appear offline to. When the list is complete, hover your mouse to the little green icon adjacent to the list and click Go Offline. Bingo! You will now appear offline to everybody in the BlockList.

2. View a Friend’s Profile Without Messy Applications:

If you are like me, you often get annoyed by the dozens of silly applications that people have added to their profile. Here’s a Grease Monkey script that allows you to view any profile without all those applications. Remember: the Mozilla Firefox web browser is a prerequisite for running Greasemonkey.

3. Display Your Facebook Status On Your Wordpress Blog:

Want to display your Facebook status updates on your Wordpress blog? There is a plugin that does exactly that. StatusPress lets you display your status updates to a widget on your Wordpress blog.

4. Access Facebook Chat Through Your Desktop:

No need to go to Facebook.com if all you want to do is use Facebook chat. You can do it right from your desktop using clients like social.im , Adium or ChitChat.

5. Update Facebook Status From Firefox:

If you are a firefox addict you don’t need to use any other software to update your Facebook status. Simply install the FireStatus add-on and update your status right from your browser. You can also use the Facebook Toolbar to completely manage Facebook from your Firefox browser.

6. Create A Photo Collage From Pictures Of Your Facebook Friends:

Easily create a photo collage from profile pictures of all your Facebook friends using a simple Facebook app called Photo Collage.

7. Add A New friend But Hide It From Your Status Update:

A great tutorial by Tim Watson walks you through the process of hiding specific actions from your status updates.

8. Schedule Facebook Messages To Be Send Later:

If you want to schedule your Facebook messages to be send sometime in the future, Sendible is a great tool to do that. You can also use Sendible to schedule your status updates.

9. How To Share Flickr Photos On Facebook:

My Flickr is a Facebook application that lets you display your Flickr photos and photo sets on Facebook so your friends can view and comment on them without leaving Facebook.

10. How To Download Facebook Photo Albums:

Ever felt the need to download complete photo albums from Facebook. You can easily do it with either a Windows desktop application named FotoBounce or a great Firefox add-on FacePad.

11. Upload Photos On Facebook From Your Phone:

All the smart phones like iPhone and Blackberry make it simple to upload photos to your Facebook account but how would you do it if you have a regular phone? Here is a great tutorial to walk you through that.

12. Magic Circles On Facebook:

You might have heard about the Konami code that makes red blurry circles on your Facebook page. This might be one of the most popular Facebook hidden tricks. Here's how to do it:

Press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Enter key then press up & down & Magic circles will appear!

To stop them simply reload your page.

13. Use Your Facebook Like A Pirate:

Do you love talking like a pirate? You can set your Facebook to appear like a pirate page by going into Current Language Settings and setting it to English (Pirate).

14. How To Insert Cool Symbols In Your Status Updates:

Make your status updates interesting by inserting cool symbols. Simply copying them from this list and pasting in your status updates.

15. Automatically Poke Friends That Poke You:

Don’t have enough time to poke back friends who poke you on Facebook? Automate it with a Grease Monkey script called Facebook Autopoke.

16. Upload Photos From PicasaTo Facebook:

Upload photos to your Facebook account directly from Picasa using the Picasa app for Facebook. You can also upload the Picasa captions and resize your photos before uploading them to Facebook.

17. Search Facebook Like A Pro:

Not everybody knows how powerful Facebook search is. Similar to any large search engine, Facebook search has a lot of advanced options to help you search like a pro. For example if you are looking for a person named John Marsh and filter your results down to only people who are married, you can try name: John Marsh status:married. A complete list of search tips for Facebook can be found here.

18. How To Update Facebook Status From Gmail:

Facebook gadget for Gmail allows you to update your Facebook status right from your Gmail.

19. How To Access Gmail From Facebook:

If you seldom have to leave Facebook just to go check your Gmail inbox, check out Fmail. It is a great application that lets you check your Gmail from within your Facebook inbox.

20. See Facebook Twitter style:

If you love Twitter more than Facebook, you can view your Facebook just like you view your Twitter using this grease monkey script.

21. Import Facebook Friends To Twitter:

FB140 is a simple tool that lets you find all your Facebook friends that are using Twitter so you can easily follow them.

22. Access Facebook From Microsoft Outlook:

This is a great tip for people attending colleges or working in places that block Facebook, but allow you access to Microsoft Outlook. Simple install the FBlook plugin and access Facebook from Outlook.

23. Display Your Facebook Status Upside Down:

This is a cool and fun trick. To display upside down status updates, simply head over to FlipText and type in your status. Then simply click on Flip Text and copy-paste the upside down text into your Facebook status box.

24. Update Facebook Status Using Twitter:

Wouldn’t you love to update your status on both Facebook and Twitter at the same time. Just install the Twitter application for Facebook. Once synced, your tweets including the #fb tag would automatically be posted as status updates on your Facebook.

25. Download Videos From Facebook:

Facebook has one of the largest collection of user uploaded videos.You can download most of the videos from Facebook by using a client like SpeedBit or DownFacbook.

How to make Vista's taskbar look and act like Win 7's

2009-12-26T19:39:00.004+08:00

How to make Vista's taskbar look and act like Win 7's

This does not include or add "Pin To Taskbar Function" which is not really needed due to the "Quick Launch Feature"

1. Open "Regedit" and navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop(Expand) and click on "Window Metrics"

2. Right click on empty space and create a new "String" and name it "MinWidth" and give it a value of "-285"

3. Close Regedit.

4. Right click "Taskbar" and unlock

5. Right click "Taskbar" again, hover over "Toolbars" and enable "Quick Launch" if it isn't already.

6. Using your mouse, expand the Quick Launch area to show all Icons.

7. Right click an area in the Quick Launch and hover over "View" and select "Large Icons"

8. Right click "Taskbar" again and select "Properties", click the "Taskbar Tab" and select all except "Auto-Hide The Taskbar"

9. Done.

To add an item/program, just right click the program and "Add To Quick Launch"

This method also works for Windows XP and since XP does not have the "Add To Quick Launch" in the right click context you can easily add it to the "Quick Launch" by simply dragging the program Icon to the taskbar.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PREVIEW

Mobile Phone Terms Glossary

2009-12-25T20:57:00.001+08:00

Mobile Phone Terms Glossary

Many technical Terms and their meanings can be found here. Kindly don't copy this to another sites.

3G Stands for 3rd-generation. Analog cellular phones were the first generation. Digital marked the second generation.

3G is loosely defined, but generally includes high data speeds, always-on data access, and greater voice capacity. The high data speeds are possibly the most prominent feature, and certainly the most hyped. They enable such advanced features as live, streaming video.

There are several different 3G technology standards. The most prevalent is UMTS, which is based on WCDMA. (WCDMA and UMTS are often used interchangeably.)

What is my 3G Phone capable of?

Ans: When you get your phone 3G Internet activated, you may get Wireless Internet giving Broadband Speeds (384 kbps).

You may use your set's Front Camera (if there) for Video Calling another person with such setup.

Bluetooth

A wireless personal area network (PAN) specification that connects phones, computers, appliances, etc. over short distances without wires by using low power radio frequencies.

Bluetooth allows you to leave your phone in your pocket, while talking on your phone with a Bluetooth headset - with no wires. You can also exchange contact or scheduling information with other Bluetooth-enabled phones nearby, or send such information to a nearby Bluetooth-enabled printer. Also, you can send a Computer file also over Bluetooth.

For playing Wireless Stereo Music, the headset must be Stereo Bluetooth and the mobile must support A2DP Profile.

Remember, Bluetooth has various profiles that determine it's useability. Always Check supported profiles before buying a phone. For example, Apple iPhone has Bluetooth but "File Transfer Profile" is NOT there, so you can't send a file via bluetooth from iPhone.

Bluetooth 3.0 is coming soon, which will have upto 8 times the speed of version 2.0. It can be expected within 2010 or so.

Capacitive Touchscreen.

A capacitive touchscreen panel consists of an insulator such as glass, coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide (ITO). As the human body is also a conductor, touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the local electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance. Different technologies may be used to determine the location of the touch. The location can be passed to a computer running a software application which will calculate how the user's touch relates to the computer software.

CDMA

Code Division Multiple Access. A type of digital wireless technology that allows large amounts of voice and data to be transmitted on the same frequency. CDMA is second-generation cellular technology (or 2G) and is available in Canada, the United States, Pacific Asia, and Latin America. Most CDMA service providers will migrate to a high-speed data technology called 1xRTT.

Remember, There is NO Replaceable SIM Card Slot in CDMA Phones. Indian CDMA Examples: Tata Indicom, Reliance, etc. Types are:->

CDMAone: The first commercial CDMA cellular system; deployed in North America and Korea; also known as IS-95

CDMA2000: A member of the IMT-2000 3G family; backwardly compatible with cdmaOne

CDMA 1X: The first generation of cdma2000. The standardisation process indicated that there would be CDMA 2X and CDMA 3X but this no longer appears likely.

CDMA 1X EV-DO: A variant of CDMA 1X which delivers data only

Contacts/ Phone book

A list of personal names and numbers stored in a mobile phone’s internal memory or in the SIM card. These numbers can be called by accessing the appropriate memory and making a single key stroke, of the appropriate first alphabet.

The modern phones support more info to be added to a contact like multiple numbers, birthday, anniversary, fax, address, text note, etc.

Dual-band

Phones that can switch between two different bands of frequencies.

In Europe Dual-band usually means GSM900/GSM1800 capable phone, while in USA it might mean GSM850/GSM1900 or combination of two other bands.

GSM 850 band is used mostly in North America.

Dual Band standard is quite old. Even Nokia 6670/ 7610 was tri-band.

Latest Phones including Nokia N96, etc. are Quad Band (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) which means they can be used in all the 5 continents.

EDGE

Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution. A technology being promoted by the TDMA and GSM communities that is capable of both voice and 3G data rates up to 384 Kbps. The standard is based on GSM standard and uses TDMA multiplexing technology.

Most phones support upto 177.16 kbps of EDGE Speed. EDGE has different classes with varying speeds.

EMS

Enhanced Message Service. An extension of SMS that enables the sending of a combination of simple melodies, images, sounds, animations and formatted text as a message to another EMS-compatible phone.

Picture Messaging, Polyphonic Tone messaging are included under this. One picture sms (Black ands White) alongwith some text, takes up network charge of upto 3 SMS's.

GPRS

General Packet Radio Service. A packet-switched technology that enables high-speed wireless Internet and other data communications. GPRS offers a tenfold increase in data speed over previous technologies, up to 115kbit/s (in theory). Typical real-world speeds are around 30-40 Kbps. Using a packet switching, subscribers are always connected and always on-line.

GPRS is considered a 2.5G technology. EDGE is an extension to GPRS, which increases speed quite a bit.

GPS

Global Positioning System. A system of satellites, computers, and receivers that is able to determine the latitude and longitude of a receiver on Earth by calculating the time difference for signals from different satellites to reach the receiver.

Our Earth has 31 GPS Satellites surrounding it. A GPS Device connects with any (or nearest) 3 or 4 of them, to determine the Global position of the device.

GPS is used :- to measure speeds (in straight lines), to safeguard against car thefts, touring & navigation, etc..

GSM

Global System for Mobile communications. The international digital radio standard created by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. GSM is currently the dominant 2G digital mobile phone standard for most of the world.

GSM Phones have a SIM Card Slot usually, unless purchased by contract. Example: Nokia N70, N95, etc..

Phones may have both GSM & CDMA capabilities, but most phones can run only 1 connection at a time.

GSM-R

GSM-Railway, A variant of GSM designed to meet the special communications needs of international train operators

Handoff

The transfer of control of a cellular phone call in progress from one cell to another, without any discontinuity

Hands-free

The operation of a cellular phone without using the handset. A Hands-free system usually includes a Call Accept Key, Microphone, and an earphone/ speaker.

The latest standard is Bluetooth Hands-free, whereby a hands-free becomes wireless, using the bluetooth technology to transfer data from handset to hands-free and vice versa.

One can also use such an Hands-free to listen to Music. For stereo music however, the hands-free must support stereo music playback, and the Mobile handset must support Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP Profile.

HSCSD

High Speed Circuit Switched Data. An enhancement to GSM networks that enables data speeds to be boosted from 9.6 kbps in multiples up to 57.6 kbps.

By co-catenating a number of timeslots, each delivering 14.4kbit/s, much higher data speeds can be achieved.

HSPSD

High Speed Packet Switched DataIub. The interface between the Node B and the RNC in a UMTS network

IMEI

International Mobile Equipment Identity. A unique serial number used on digital mobile phones.

Press *#06# to see your Mobile's IMEI ... It's unique to your mobile only.

Infared port (IrDA)

Allows cell phones, PDAs, and other devices to connect to each other for various purposes. Infrared is a wireless technology that uses a beam of invisible light to transmit information.

It's the same technology used in TV & DVD Player Remotes, just a bit better implemented in mobiles.

In fact, Most Symbian OS mobiles support an Infrared Software to handle TVs, VCD Players, etc.

Java (J2ME)

Java 2 Micro Edition. A feature that allows the device to run specially-written applications. J2ME applications can provide specific functions such as a tip calulator, they can be games, or they can be custom-written corporate applications. Some phones allow you to download new applications directly from Internet while others require a data cable to transfer the applications from a PC.

This programming language developed by Sun Microsystems Java is characterised by the fact that programs written in Java do NOT rely on an operating system. SO, Java has the largest support of Mobile Phones. Phones from Nokia, SE, Samsung, etc. usually support Java, if not anything else.

LCD

Liquid Crystal Display. LCD displays utilize two sheets of polarizing material with a liquid crystal solution between them. An electric current passed through the liquid causes the crystals to align so that light cannot pass through them.

Monochrome LCDs in phones usually have both a backlight and a reflective backing, allowing them to be equally usable in both bright light and complete darkness.

Color LCDs come in many types. STN, TFT, and TFD are several common technologies used.

Li-Ion battery

Lithium-Ion type of battery, often used to power wireless communication devices. Considered superior to NiCd and NiMH batteries - they are lighter weight, have a relatively long cycle life and generally do not suffer from "memory" effect.

Li-Po battery

Lithium Polymer type of battery. Similar to Li-Ion batteries, but slightely lighter and the batteries can be molded to any shape.

Lock

A function on a cellular phone which, when activated, prevents use of the phone until the user enters a security code. Default Codes are usually 12345 or 00000. They can be changed by Users later on.

They are required at times of changing such lock codes, enabling factory settings, unlocking phones, etc.

MMS

Multimedia Messaging Service. A further extension of SMS and EMS. MMS is designed to make use of newer and quicker mobile transmission methods such as GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE and UMTS, involving the attachment of multimedia extensions to messages, such as video and sound.

All Networks & Sets support 100KB of data in one MMS. Some Sets and networks may support upto 300KB too. The feature packed sets like N95, N91, N73 etc. support 300 KB of MMS.

OLED

Organic Light-Emitting Diode. A next-generation display technology that consists of small dots of organic polymer that emit light when charged with electricity. OLED displays are thinner, lighter, brighter, cheaper to manufacture and consume less power than the current LCD displays.

An AMOLED Display is used on the latest Nokia N85. Everything improved, except for Direct Sunlight visibility, which is a small issue.

Another big problem is Usage life. LED's & TFT's may operate for 60,000+ hours. OLED's work for 14,000 hour only, which is some 1 year & 4 months of continuous use...

Optical Touchpad

It is like a virtual Mouse in mobiles. It is touch sensitive pad, built into the Navigation Key. One can move his thumb over the navigation pad to move the cursor. It helps to navigate in Web Pages smoothly.

Samsung INNOV8 has this feature, taken from an earlier Samsung set itself.

PDA

Personal Digital Assistant; a sophisticated handheld device with advanced display facilities and a range of business-oriented software programs.

PIN

Personal Identity Number; a number, usually four digits, that must be keyed into a mobile phone to make it work. A security measure to prevent unauthorised usage.

Polyphonic Ringtones

Polyphonic ringtones can create multiple tones simultaneously. This produces a more natural and realistic sound for melodies.

Predictive Text Input

A technology which allows you to enter text by pressing only one key per letter. The phone will automatically compare all of the possible letter combinations against a built-in dictionary of words. The current Predictive Text Input implementations are T9, iTAP and eZiText.

So, if you want to type "Hello", you will type 43356, with Dictionary On. The dictionary will autodetect it.

All S60 v7.0+ have this dictionary, including N & E Series. While typing text, press # 2-3 times ...

RAM

Random Access Memory. It is working memory of any active computer/ operating system. All the processes/ tasks running at a point of time, are stored in the RAM.

If RAM is less, programs might work slow or not function at all. Moreover, less RAM also limits the number of programs and tasks that can run together.

128 MB RAM is found in Top end sets like N95, N96, Samsung INNOV8, etc. which seems quite enough to most users.

Resistive Touchscreen

A resistive touchscreen panel is composed of several layers, the most important of which are two thin, metallic, electrically conductive layers separated by a narrow gap. When an object, such as a finger, presses down on a point on the panel's outer surface the two metallic layers become connected at that point: the panel then behaves as a pair of voltage dividers with connected outputs. This causes a change in the electrical current which is registered as a touch event and sent to the controller for processing. Resistive touchscreens can also support Multitouch.

Generally, phones are Resistive Touchscreen like Nokia 5800/ N97 is.

Roaming

The ability to make and receive calls on the same mobile phone when travelling outside the area of the home network operator.

So, if a State#1 mobile user takes his mobile phone to State#2, he has to activate Roaming to use it there, provided that network is available. Roaming Usage may invite a rental, or high call rate on calls, including incoming calls too.

SIM

Subscriber Identity Module. The smart card used in digital phones. It carries the user's identity for accessing the network and receiving calls and also stores personal infromation, such as phone directory and received SMS messages.

Smartphone

A combination of mobile phone and personal digital assistant. Such phones can run multiple softwares at once, in background too. Every smartphone has an Operating System for sure. They have calenders, assistants, organizers, etc.

These OS's include Microsoft Windows Mobile, Symbian, Linux, Android, Blackberry, etc. Symbian is the most popular, usually used by Nokia.

SMS

Short Message Service. A service that enables subscribers to send short text messages (usually about 160 characters) to and from mobile phones. A very popular service, particularly amongst young people, with 400 billion SMS messages sent worldwide in 2002.

-->Picture Message is an extension of SMS, where at cost of 3 SMS, a user can send a Black & White Image (small) as picture message. It is supported on almost all phones including the Puny Nokia 1100.

Also see EMS above in the list.

Speed Dialing

It is a feature found mostly in Symbian Handsets, that enables dialing a particular number from contacts, by long pressing or dialing one specific key from 2-9. Key #1 is fixed for voice Mailbox, but you can add any number to it.

So, if I long press "3" on my 6670/ 7610/ N73/ N96, it dials a particular contact's number given earlier.

Standby time

The length of time a battery can power a mobile phone when it is switched on, receiving network, but left completely idle, (without using any of its features).

Stereo

If a music player/ Mobile is said to support Stereo, then it can give an output of two different audio sounds at the same time, one meant for the left ear/ speaker and other for the right.

The first set by Nokia to support Stereo Sound was Nokia 6630, but only in its' Earphones.

Nowadays, it is a very common feature, and a must for listening music. The common MP3 file available nowadays also supports stereo data.

Some stereo sets: Nokia 5130, 5220, 3110 Classic, Sony Ericcson W305, etc.

STN

Super Twisted Nematic. A type of LCD display technology. STN uses less power and is less costly than TFT technology, but at the expense of image quality and response time.

Symbian

A company created by Psion, Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola in 1998 with the aim of developing and standardising an operating system which enable mobile phones from different manufacturers to exchange information.

Later, Samsung also joined it.

Symbian OS

It is a very famous open source Operating System, used primarily by Nokia. It is found on almost all of Nokia's Smartphones.

Sony Ericsson also used it, but the UIQ version, which is now officially abandoned by SE due to less popularity.

As Symbian evoluted, some of it's features came as standard, like Office Document Reader, Notes, T9 Dictionary, etc.

It's latest iteration is S60 5th Edition, which supports new display resolutions, touch screen support, etc. found in Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

It has mostly 4 Standards:

1st Edition :--> Old SmartPhones like 3650, 3660, N-Gage, etc. Runs 1st Edition apps only. Symbian OS 6.0.

2nd Edition :--> Mid aged smartphones like 6600, 6630, 6670, etc. upto N70, N72 & N90. Runs 1st & 2nd Edition apps. Symbian OS 7.0 & 8.0+.

3rd Edition :--> Latest & famous N-Series Phones like N71, N91, N95, N96, etc. Runs 3rd Edition apps only. Symbian OS 9.0+, 9.1, 9.2 & 9.3.

5th Edition :--> Currently only in 5800 XpressMusic. Does Run 3rd Edition apps, more details unavailable at the moment. Symbian OS 9.4+.

Look at Predictive Text Input above. Basically, it's called a T9 Dictionary.

Talk-time

The length of time a battery can power a mobile phone during continuous talking over calls.

TFD

Thin Film Diode. A type of LCD display technology. TFD technology combines the excellent image quality and fast response times of TFT, with the low power consumption and low cost of STN.

TFT

Thin Film Transistor. A type of LCD display technology. Compared to other types of LCD technology, TFT features excellent image quality and response time, but uses more power, and is more expensive.

Touchscreen

A touchscreen is a display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touch or contact to the display of the device by a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus. However, if the object sensed is active, as with a light pen, the term touchscreen is generally not applicable. The ability to interact directly with a display typically indicates the presence of a touchscreen.

It's main types are Resistive Touchscreen, and Capacitive Touchscreen.

Tri-band

Refers to a mobile phone able to operate on the three internationally designated GSM frequencies- 900, 1800 and 1900MHz.

Very common standard, supported even by Nokia 6670, 7610, etc. Also see Dual Band in this page.

TV Out

It is a feature found in high end phones now-a-days like Nokia N96, N85, Samsung INNOV8, etc. It lets the user connect the mobile to a TV, so that anything on mobile's display and sound system, will be played on TV.

It can be used for watching Movies, listening Music, etc. on TV. It uses the Audio-Video IN slot, from where the TV receives Video & Audio from VCR, DVD Players, etc.

UMTS

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. A third-generation (3G) wireless communications technology and the next generation of GSM. UMTS is a wireless standard approved by the International Telecommunications Union and is intended for advanced wireless communications.

UMTS uses WCDMA technology, and the two terms are often used interchangeably with each other.

Voice dial

A feature that allows a user to dial a phone number by spoken commands.

N & E Series phones have automatic voice detection. One doesn't need to record every command to use it (as with older Symbian Sets like 6670, etc.).

To use press & hold your Right Soft key for 5 seconds, and then speak "Bluetooth" (example) into the Mic, to open it. Even Contact names can be spoken to dial their number.

Voice Mail

A service offered by network operators whereby calls received when the mobile is in use, switched off or out of coverage can be diverted to an answering service which can be personalised by the user.

Later, the user can hear the recorded message from the answering message service of the network.

WAP

Wireless Application Protocol; a common standard for enabling mobile phones to access the Internet and advanced services.

Users can access websites and pages which have been converted by the use of WML into stripped-down versions of the original more suitable for the limited display capabilities of mobile phones.

WCDMA

Wideband Code Division Multiple Access. An approved third-generation (3G) wireless standard which utilizes one 5 MHz channel for both voice and data, offering data speeds of 144 Kbps to 2 Mbps.

WLAN/ Wi-Fi

Wireless Local Area Network; a short range radio network normally deployed in traffic hotspots such as airport lounges, hotels and restaurants.

WLAN enables suitably equipped users to access the fixed network wirelessly, providing high speed access (up to 11Mbit/s download) to distant servers. The key WLAN technologies are the IEEE 802.11 family and ETSI HIPERLAN/2

An extension of WLAN is Wi-Max which will provide more speeds, but both equipment and the server must be equipped with it, for full performance. In India, Wi-Max was first installed in Bangalore City's Airports.

Widgets

Currently found in only high end sets like Samsung Omnia, this feature is the other manufacturers' reply to Nokia's Active Standby (used on S60 3rd Edition)

This feature allows you to configure your desktop any way you like. You can move signal bars, battery bars, time clock, wallpaper, Apps shortcuts, etc. to any point on the display. This allows more flexibility to setup the desktop.

Windows Mobile OS

It is an Operating System created by Microsoft, previously used in Cars, but it was implemented in phones quite later.

It is more known for it's business minded-ness, professional appeal & business features & support.

Manufacturers using WM majorly in their phones include HTC, O2, etc.

The Giant Panda who did a roly-poly in his sleep

2009-12-25T20:12:00.002+08:00

It was a perfectly executed forward roll - even better for the fact that this panda managed it in his sleep.

The animal, called Tai Shan, was sitting in his zoo enclosure when he began to doze off, his eyes flickering open and shut before he succumbed to sleep and slumped forward.

The sleepy panda could have fallen flat on his face.

But instead he popped his head between his legs and turned head-over-heels before landing on his back.

It's been a long day! Giant Panda Tai Chan takes a doze in the midday sun

If pandas can look surprised, then four-year-old Tai Shan certainly did at that moment.

Tourists at the National Zoo in Washington DC, who saw the four-and-a-half-year-old panda roll off the kerb only to recline in the grass, were delighted by his impromptu gymnastic skills.

Easy does it! Tai Shan leans his head on the ground and then performs a perfect roly-poly

The classic moments were caught on camera by visitor Judy Young, 61.

Judy said: ‘A lot of people were watching him when he just suddenly fell forward and performed this forward roll.’

British tourist Mary Taylor, 36, said: ‘He kept closing his eyes to the point where he nodded off.

Eye opener: The Giant Panda wakes up to a slightly different view

Tai Shan is the only panda born at the zoo that has survived.

His parents Mei Xiang and Tian Tian were donated to the zoo by the China Research and Conservation Centre for the Giant Panda in Sichuan Province.

Surrender? Tai Chun looks literally bowled over - but pleased to give in

His mother was artificially inseminated in 2005 after natural mating between her and Tian Tian failed.

After Tai Shan, whose name means Peaceful Mountain, was born in July 2005, the conservation centre issued 13,000 free entry tickets for people to see him.

The tickets were all snapped up within two hours and some sold on eBay for as much as £300 each.

Unperturbed: Tai Chan reclines against the kerb

JDownloader Tutorial. How to install and use JDownloader

2009-12-24T21:28:00.002+08:00

JDownloader Tutorial. How to install and use JDownloader

This is a basic tutorial on how to install and use JDownloader. Jdownloader is a automated downloader for sites like Rapidshare and Megaupload. It actually works! You put your links in and let it download them all for you. Additionally, many "link encryption" sites are supported - so you just paste the "encrypted" links and JDownloader does the rest.

Download the setup from www.jdownloader.org

Once you have the set up run it and select your install directory.

Once the install is complete run JDownloader and select your download directory and language settings.

You should then be asked if you want to install Flashgot. Flashgot becomes part of Firefox and tunnels all of your downloads towards a download manager of your choice rather then using your default Firefox downloader. Although it is not needed for JDownloader to work, it is good if you plan to use JDownloader to download all files not just files from upload sites.

Once JDownloader has started you might be prompted to download updates, this is recomended. If you do not see this window hit the Webupdate button just to be sure. JDownloader will restart once the updates are complete.

Make sure you install 'click and load' which is in the settings tab/ General. Majority of the time this installs fine during installation but click it anyway just to be sure. 'Click and load' auto gets your download links from your clipboard. This means rather then having to put links into JDownloader manually it auto picks them up when you copy links. You have to be admin rights to install 'Click and Load'. Say yes to any windows prompts.

If you want to add premium accounts to JDownloader that you have for any upload sites then click on the Premium button and find your site in the list. Click on your site and put your information in.

To put links in (if you have 'Click and Load' installed) it is as easy as highlighting the links that you want to download and copying them, there is no need to paste them anywhere as JDownloader automatically realises they are in your clipboard. Once you have the links you want and have copied them go to the Linkgrabber section of JDownloader and it should look like this.

It will then check if they are online and what the file is called, they should then look something like this.

To package them into groups then highlight then ones you want into a group and then right click and hit 'Move to New package'. Type in the package name you want. To then put the links into the Download section highlight all the links that you want and right click and hit 'Continue with with selected packages' or if you want all the links just hit 'Continue with all'.

You should get a message saying that the TOS is not signed for the sites that are included in the links that you added. Click accept.

You only have to do this once per site. Now you are ready to download! Hit the play button and leave JDownloader to do it all!

Way To Exceed Megaupload Download Limits!!!!!

2009-12-23T18:47:00.002+08:00

Way To Exceed Megaupload Download Limits!!!!!

I know that I'm not supposed to post stuff like this, but I know that this area catches the most attention, and this is important from what I know.

Do you want to download several links, but cant because the MU download limit is exceeded?

Well unless this has already been discovered, there is a way to download an unlimited amount of things from megaupload. It may not be a premium account bypass or hack, but its very useful and gets the job done when you need a lot of megaupload downloads; here's how its done:

1.) Copy the Megaupload link that you want to download (looks like like this: http://www.megaupload.com/your file ID

2.) Go to scoobidoo.net (a proxy site) and paste the link in the Cgi Proxy box and click "begin browsing"

3.) It will take you to megaupload, but make sure in the beginning of the link it says scoobidoo.net. Enter the security letters, and wait for the timer to go down.

4.) This step is the most important, because if you mess up, you will need to start over again from the top. Once you get the button that says "begin downloading" click on it, but you will need to quickly stop the link from finishing by clicking the stop button on your toolbar, so you will need to be quick.

5.) If you did it right, you should not have been redirected to the screen that says "download limit exceeded" but rather a blank white screen. Copy the new link in the browser (should look like this:

http://www52.megaupload.com/files/1946e7bd2bb011ff114e91fd3f415d5c/prince%20of%20persia%20rival%20swords.cso

{only with your file info}) and paste it in the proxys browser (says via location proxy I believe) and search it (hit enter)

6.) Your download should immediately begin!!!!!

AUTOMATIC LOGON

2009-12-23T18:34:00.001+08:00

AUTOMATIC LOGON

I was having an trouble when I create 2 account in my PC.At the first it's no problem,the trouble come when I delete other account,Dialog logon screen still appear!

It make me angry and try all the trick,but not solve this problem,but with this trick now my PC didn't show Dialog logon again.

Click START>RUN>fill with "Control Userpassword2" enter,and u will show dialog box that only titled User Accounts.

Then select user name at 'Users For This Computer' list then remove check mark in top left dialog box,then click OK.

now u will see dialog box 'Automatically Log On' then fill the password then click OK,

now restart u PC to take the effect!

IRON MAN 2

2009-12-22T22:34:00.000+08:00

Here's something that you have to watch out for. War Machine (the silver one), played as Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury, Awesome! He's also the voice of the guy in Afro Samurai (you can download it here, search it on my category of anime)

Anyway just watch the preview. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE PREVIEW

THERE ARE NO PERFECT PROTECTION IN THIS WORLD!

2009-12-22T21:10:00.002+08:00

THERE ARE NO PERFECT PROTECTION IN THIS WORLD!

I think the expert,know this trick,this topic will lead u explore the protected folder,that protect by software that can protect the folder.(have tested at most folder protection)

-using mozzila firefox&internet explore:

to explore the protected folder just cl*ck FILE>OPEN FILE>(select the folder that you wish to explore)

-using winrar & 7 zip:

to explore the protected folder just open winrar & 7 zip then select the folder that you wish to explore

it's 100% working!!!

Is your Antivirus Secure? Check if your Antivirus is Secure or Not

2009-12-22T21:08:00.000+08:00

Is your Antivirus Secure? Check if your Antivirus is Secure or Not!!!

To test if your antivirus is in good shape you should do as in continuing:
Open Notepad and copy this text:

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

the text should be in one horizontal line

Then save file as "eicar.com" including quotation-marks

After some seconds saving this file your antivirus should come with the message that this file is infected virus asking permision for its deletetion/clean.
This file is secure and its not gonna infect your computer in whatever way.It is a standart text developed by the European Institute for Computer Anti-virus Research (EICAR).Every antivirus is programed to load this file as a virus.

If your antivirus is not going to hack this file as a virus ,in your screen will appear DOS window with this text EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE".If this happens then you should probably find some other Antivirus up to date,meaning your PC might already being infected from viruses and your curent antivirus do not recognize them.

How to fix the error "This Device Cannot Start. (Code 10)" When working with a USB device in Windows XP

2009-12-22T21:05:00.003+08:00

How to fix the error

"This Device Cannot Start. (Code 10)"

When working with a USB device in Windows XP

If you have plugged in a USB device (usually a mass storage device) into a computer and it doesnt work, here are some basic troubleshooting steps to resolve the problem.

First, you want to rule out any problems with the device itself. A good way to do this is to plug the USB device into a different computer to see if it works there. If it does not work in a different computer, then the problem is with the device itself. USB devices, although very handy and portable can fail just like any other device.

However, if the USB device works in another computer system, then the problem lies with the configuration of the computer where the device did not work.

Follow the steps below to troubleshoot this scenario and make your USB device work again.

1) If you are using a USB cable with your device, check the cable to make sure it matches the speed of the device. Use USB 2.0 cables with USB 2.0 devices and USB 1.1 cables with USB 1.1 devices. Swap cables and check the device, if this does not work, proceed to Step 2.

2) Next, open Device Manager and look under the heading for USB Serial Bus Controllers. If there is a device with a yellow exclamation mark next to it such as USB Mass Storage Device. Double-click on the entry and check the Device Status. If the status shows something like

"This device cannot start. (Code 10)"

proceed to Step 3.

3) The easiest way to solve a USB error code 10 in Windows XP is to follow the steps below to remove and reinstall all USB controllers.

A. Click on Start

B. Right Click on My Computer, click on Properties

C.Click on the Hardware tab

D. Click the Device Manager button.

E. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers section.

F. Right-click every device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers node, and then click Uninstall to remove them one at a time.

G. Restart the computer, and allow the computer to reinstall the USB controllers.

H. Plug in the removable USB storage device, and then test to make sure that the issue is resolved.

Private Character Editor of Windows XP

2009-12-22T21:00:00.003+08:00

Private Character Editor of Windows XP (hidden menu explored)

Private Character Editor of xp(hidden menu explored) and other Confused Confused Confused don't know why these all menus are hidden and normal public cannot access. There is a saying "the more u hide , the more curious I will be to explore" so here is the description Laughing Crying or Very sad Arrow Arrow Idea.

Yet another utility included with Windows XP that is hidden from GUI view. Private Character Editor. The description follows copied from the help files:

Using Private Character Editor (PCE), you can create up to 6,400 unique characters (such as special letters and logos) for use in your font library. PCE contains basic tools for creating and editing characters, along with more advanced options.

The utility has an embedded help file, so you can go through it to figure out how to use it. To access the program, type "eudcedit" at the

Creating a Video Avatar

2009-12-21T21:06:00.001+08:00

Creating a Video Avatar

To make a video avatar you will need to download the following programs:

-irfanview

-bsplayer

Program

-unfreez

-microsoft image resizer

Open up the video you want to use in bsplayer, then find the part in the video that you'd like to use. Hold down 'Shift and P' when it shows you the part you want, let go when you've got what you want.

This records the video frame by frame, so you end up with around 50 still images (depending on how long the video is)

These pictures can be found in the program file - bs player pro.

Take these images and go into irfan view, select the first picture then press 'B' then 'add all'. Make sure that it is set for them to convert to GIF, then click start.

Once this is done, close irfanview select all of the images you converted and right click on them and click on 'resize image' (this is now here because of the microsoft add-on)

When they are the size you want them to be, open up 'Unfreez' and select all of the images, making sure that they are in the order you want them to appear in. Click, 'create GIF', and you're done!

If you want to add your name onto it, open up the gif into adobe image ready (you get free with photoshop CS2) . This shows you your animation Frame by Frame, then insert text onto the FIRST frame in your animation tool bar.

Click FILE>Export>Animation frames as files.

then save the frames somewhere on your computer. Make them back into one GIF image again using Unfreez, again making sure that they're in the right order, and you're done!

This is just one way of doing it which is the way i do it, i'm sure that there are many different programs you can use, and there may be an easyier way of doing it, but this is the way i do it and it works for me!

How To Forward Emails

2009-12-21T21:04:00.001+08:00

How To Forward Emails

IMPORTANT!!!

HOW TO FORWARD E-MAIL APPROPRIATELY

A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. Please read the short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures..

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?

Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!

How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:

1. When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second You MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.

2. Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients" in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.

3. Remove any "FW :" in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.

4. ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.

5. Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition. (Actually, if you think about it, who's supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don 't believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just aint so!)

6. One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that something like, "Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen." Or, sometimes they'll just tease you by saying something really cute will happen IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I'm still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could be why I haven't won the lottery??)

7. Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward d them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS! Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to:

http://www.snopes. com/

Its really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on.

So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.

Don't trust your PC! Create a backup

2009-12-21T21:00:00.001+08:00

Don't trust your PC! Create a backup

Let's see if you can put a figure to this one. How much is the information on your computer worth to you?

What if you lost it all?

There's a good chance that every piece of information that enables you to conduct business -- is stored within a small chip -- on your hard drive.

The problem is that you usually get no warning before it's too late. Puff! And all your data is gone.

According to a survey conducted by Protect Data, the foremost reasons for data loss are:

Human error: 32 per cent

Hardware Failure: 44 per cent

Corrupt Software: 14 per cent

Deadly Virus: Seven per cent

Hackers, thefts and natural disaster: Three per cent

The only way out: Keep a backup.

Knowing that your data is absolutely secure, safe and always available will give you the much needed peace of mind and confidence.

Here we tell you how to create a backup for your computer and cell phone.

How often one must do so is a very personal choice. If you use your computer occasionally, a weekly backup might be sufficient. If you use your computer on a daily basis or your work is primarily dependent on the use of a computer, then a daily backup or a biweekly back up is a must.

Offline methods

Pen drive

As the name suggests, this is a portable storage device that can store up-to 8GB disk space which, by the way, is about 5,600 times more than what you can store in a floppy disk.

"I travel a lot because of work and Pen drives act as my lifelines. I can just use any computer and access all my data," says Chennai based Ramesh Kulandaivelu, an HR Manager with Aster Gate solutions.

One can't blame his enthusiasm. Take a look at some of the benefits:

You can carry it around because it is so compact -- just the size of your thumb.

It does not require any battery or software to operate.

Just plug it into the USB drive of a computer and you can access your data.

You can read, write, copy, delete and move data from your hard disk drive to the Pen Drive or vice versa.

You can even play Mp3 files, run applications, view videos or even take high quality digital photos directly from the Pen Drive

Pen drives are available for as little as Rs 1,000 and go up to Rs 10,000 depending on the storage capacity. They are available at all leading stores that sell computer peripherals.

Updating your Pen drive once every two days is a good idea. If you also have a computer at home and can transfer data, then you can even consider updating the Pen drive twice a week.

Kingston and Sony are the two leading brands in Pen drives. A Kingston Pen drive is value for money and can be bought for as little as Rs 800. Sony is expensive and starts at about Rs 2,000.

CD ROM/DVD

You can store up to 1GB of data in a CD ROM although the most common size is 650 MB. To make it simple, a CD has a storage capacity of up to 700 floppy disks. You can store about 300,000 text pages in one CD.

You can copy the files and information on to a CD/DVD. In case your hard drive is damaged, you will still have all the important data on your CD which can later be copied again to the computer's hard drive.

If your hard drive is erased or damaged, you can easily restore the data from the archived copy.

Click here to learn more about backing up data on a CD or a DVD from your hard drive:

"Loss of data on your hard-disk can be a paralyzing experience but regular back ups on a CD could prove to be an antidote to such an unpredictable experience," says Bangalore based management consultant Joseph Paulson, an ex-joint director, corporate HR with the Indian Air Force.

As CDs can store large chunks of data. Updating it once every week is a good idea.

HP, Sony, Moser Baer are some popular brands. A set of 10 blank CDs from Moser Baer is available for Rs 100 while a pack of 100 CDs would cost you about Rs 800.

Floppy drives

They are kind of outdated and are not very practical as they store only 1.4 megabytes of data so you would need a large collection in order to save all your data. Also you would have to spend long hours in front of the PC swapping them in and out. So use them only as the last option if nothing else is available.

As they can be unreliable, update your floppy disk every day and immediately transfer the data to another source like another computer or CD drive as and when you find one.

A box of 10 floppies would cost you anywhere between Rs 90 -150 depending on the brand. Amkette and Sony are the popular brands in this category.

Online methods

Online briefcases

Websites like Yahoo provide you with an Online beriefacase Service which is free of cost. You can store data up-to 30 MB. You can access this data anytime by using your Yahoo ID.

This offers tremendous mobility since you can access all your files online and can therefore work pretty much out of anywhere. All you would need is an internet connection.

You can simply upload your files to your briefcase and then email your friend a message with a link and instructions to download that file. You no longer have to wait to upload or download through your e-mail programme.

E-mails

Another very cost effective way to store basic files. This is ideal for Word documents or Excel files.

Create a separate folder within your mail account and put all your important documents in there.

Alternatively, you can create an exclusive e-mail account like

yourname.backup@ gmail.com and copy all your important files to this ID. Gmail offers you up to 2GB of free space and you can store all your files in there. You can also use the search feature to locate an important file.

How to Bypass Megaupload

2009-12-21T20:57:00.004+08:00

How to Bypass Megaupload

I should start with firefox

first go to firefox addons install the below addons from the below mentioned link

http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/59/

install addon.
Restart FF. Tool–>User Agent Switcher–>Options–>Options
Click User Agents–>Add Type this

Description: MEGAUPLOAD
User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; Alexa Toolbar)

Click OK twice to finish adding User Agent.
From now, before downloading any file from MegaUpload, just go Tools–>User Agent Switcher–>MEGAUPLOAD.

Now for internet explorer

Start–>Run–>Regedit–>OK
In Registry Editor window:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mcft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform]

Right click Post Platform–>New–>String Value–> Type “Alexa Toolbar”
Restart PC. Done!

Note: For IE 7.0 the “Post Platform” will located at:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mcft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]

How to Hide Folder With Blank Space

2009-12-21T20:55:00.001+08:00

How to Hide Folder With Blank Space

1 - right click on it and choose rename.
2 - hold down Alt and type "0160" -without quotes
3 - then click anywhere outside.[you can see only a blank space now]

In addition, you can change your folder's icon to a transparent icon from SHELL32.dll icons library: your folder will totally look hidden

Hidden Photoshop Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts

2009-12-21T20:54:00.001+08:00

Hidden Photoshop Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts

1. Press Tab will hide tool bar and palette, Shift+Tab will hide only palette.

2. Hold Shift + click the top blue bar for toolbar and pallette will move them to the nearest edge.

3. Double click the top blue bar for any pallette window will minimize it.

4. Double click the grey background will bring up open file option, Hold Shift+double click will open up the browser.

5. Sick of the default grey background around your image? select paint bucket, hold shift and click on the grey background will change to whatever color you have in your foreground color box.

6. In photoshop, all "Cancel" button in a window can be changed to "Reset" button by holding Alt.

7. Caps lock will switch you cursor for accuracy.

8. Press F button will switch between 3 different screen mode give you more working area.

9. To draw a straight line, click then move to the end point and hold shift + click.

10. Hold Ctrl will temporary make any tool into move tool until you release Ctrl.

11. Ctrl + Alt and click drag the image will make an duplication of the current image over lay on top.

12. Hold Space bar will make any tool into "Hand Tool" until you release Space bar.

13. While in Zoom Tool, Ctrl+space = zoom in, alt+space = zoom out.

14. Hold Ctrl and press "+" or "-" will change the % for image in navigator window.

15. When Using eyedropper tool to capture foreground color, hold Alt and click will instantly capture the color for background.

16. With Measure Tool, draw a line then hold Alt and draw another line from the end of the first line will measure the angle.

17. Ctrl+Alt+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z will go back and forth in the history.

18. Alt+Backspace and Ctrl+Backspace will fill in whole screen with foreground color or background color, Shift+backspace will bring up option windown, Alt+Shift+Backspace and Ctrl+Shift+Backspace will fill the image with foreground or background color but will leave the alpha transparent area alone.

19. When free transform with Ctrl+T, hold Alt to keep the origial image and transform an duplicated layer of it. Ctrl+Shift+T to repeat whatever you did in the last transform.

20. To make sure you Crop is on the edge of the image, hold Ctrl while croping.

21. Ctrl+J will duplicated the current layer.

22. Ctrl+Shift+E will merge all visible layers to one layer, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E will make copy of the original and merge all visible layers.

23. While using Marquee Tools, hold Alt will make the starting point as a center of the selection.

24. Ctrl + D to deselect, Ctrl+Shift+D to reselect what you deselected.

25. While selecting with Marquee tool, press space bar can allow you to move the selection.

26. Hold Shift and press "+" or "-" will switch between the layer mode:

N = Normal

I = Dissolve

M = Multiply

S = Screen

O = Overlay

F = Soft Light

H = Hard Light

D = Color Dodge

B = Color Burn

K = Darken

G = Lighten

E = Difference

X = Exclusion

U = Hue

T = Saturation

C = Color

Y = Luminosity

Q = Behind 1

L = Threshold 2

R = Clear 3

W = Shadow 4

V = Midtones 4

Z = Highlights 4

***The shortcut works even for following situation:

***Alpha turned off, Indexed Mode, Line tool, Bucket Tools, Dodge and Burn Tools

27. While using Brush or any other tools, change the opacity by type the number.

*** type one number for % of it's ten times [4=40%]

*** type two number for exact % [press 7 then 2 will get 72%]

28. Hold Alt while clicking on the eye icon beside the layer will hide all other layers.

29. Hold Alt while clicking the pen icon beside the layer will unchain this layer from all layers.

30. Select a layer, hold Alt and click the top edge of another layer will group them.

31. Hold Alt and click the button "Create a new layer", will create a new adjustment layer.

32. Select a layer and hold Alt, then click on the garbage can button will instantly delete the layer, marquee where you want alpha and Ctrl+click the "Create new channel" button will create a alpha only on the area you marqueed.

33. File> Automate > Contact Sheet: this can create a small thumbnail for every file, this can save you some time from searching.

34. When Move Tool is selected, two box on top can be useful from time to time, those are "Auto select layer" and "Show bounding box".

35. While Move Tool is selected, hold Shift (Alt+Shift+Right click) can allow rather or not make current layer chain with upper layer.

36. With grid on, click the top left corner of the grid and drag to anywhere on the image to set the pivot, double click ont he icon again can reset the pivot.

37. After draw a path on the image with pen tool, Ctrl+shift+H can hide/show it.

38. Control Navigator with keyboard sometimes can be more time efficient than mouse.

Home = move to top left corner

End = move to right bottom corner

PageUp = move up one page

PageDown = move down one page

Ctrl+PageUp = move left one page

Ctrl+PageDown = move right one page

Shift+PageUp = move up 10 pixel

Shift+PageDown = move down 10 pixel

Ctrl+Shift+PageUp = move left 10 pixel

Ctrl+Shift+PageDown = move right 10 pixel

39. Ctrl+Tab allow you switch between different image files you are working at.

40. F12 = Revert to how the file is like the last time you saved it.

41. Shortcuts for Channel: RGB, CMYK, indexed color...

Ctrl+"~" = RGB

Ctrl+1 = red

Ctrl+2 = green

Ctrl+3 = blue

Ctrl+4 = other path

Ctrl+9 = other path

Ctrl+"~" = CMYK

Ctrl+1 = light green

Ctrl+2 = pink red

Ctrl+3 = yellow

Ctrl+4 = black

Ctrl+5 = other path

Ctrl+9 = other path

Ctrl+1 = Indexed

Ctrl+2 = other path

Ctrl+9 = other path

42. hold Ctrl then you can draw a red box in the Navigator thumbnail for viewing.

43. Hold Alt and click on any of the history step, that step will be copied and become the most recent one.

44. Alt drag a step from a serial action can copy it to another action

How to Get Any Windows Password

2009-12-20T20:53:00.001+08:00

How to Get Any Windows Password

This works whether its windows 2000 or windows xp or windows xp SP1 or SP2 or windows server 2003....

This works even if syskey encryption is employed...

If it is FAT file system...

just copy the sam file like stated in the first post to an empty floppy disk and take it home. I'll tell u what to do with it later... DON'T DELETE THE ORIGINAL SAM FILE. just remove its attributes. the sam file is a file called SAM with no extension. YOU MUST ALSO GET.... a file called SYSTEM which is in the same folder as SAM. both files have no extensions...

If it is NTFS....

u have to download a program called NTFSPro.... it allows u to read from ntfs drives... the demo version allows read only. the full version is read-write.... you use the program to create an unbootable disk (so u will still need another bootable disk and an empty disk) that has the required files to access NTFS.

Use the boot disk to get into dos, then use the disks created with ntfspro to be able to access the filesystem, then copy the SAM and SYSTEM files to another empty disk to take home....

AT HOME: u have to get a program called SAMInside. it doesn't matter if it is demo version. SAMInside will open the SAM file and extract all the user account information and their passwords, including administrator. SAMInside will ask for the SYSTEM file too if the computer you took the SAM file from has syskey enabled. syskey encrypts the SAM file. SAMInside uses SYSTEM file to decrypt the SAM file. After SAMInside finishes, u still see user accounts and hashes beside them. the hashes are the encoded passwords. Use SAMInside to export the accounts and their hashes as a pwdump file into another program, called LophtCrack. it is currently in version 5, it is named LC5. the previous version, LC4 is just as good. u need the full or cracked version of the program. LC5 uses a brute force method by trying all possible combination of letters numbers, and unprintable characters to find the correct password from the hashes in the pwdump file imported into it from SAMInside. This process of trying all passwords might take 5 minutes if the password is easy, up to a year if the password is long and hard (really really hard). LC5 howver, unlike LC4, is almost 100 times faster. both can be configured to try dictionary and common words before using all possible combination of everything. Once the correct password is found, it will display the passwords in clear beside each account, including administrator.

LC4 usually took between 1 second and 10 minutes to find the passwords because they were common words found in any english dictionary. I haven't used LC5 yet.

If there is anything unclear, anything I overlooked, plz tell me so that I can turn this into a very easy to follow tutorial to help anybody fix any windowz pass.

Programs needed: SAMInside (doesn't matter which version or if demo)

LC4 or LC5 (lophtcrack)( must be full version)

NTFSPro (doesn't matter if demo)

any bootdisk maker

Windows XP Password Trick

2009-12-20T20:50:00.001+08:00

Windows XP Password Trick

1. Restart you computer

2.When booting, press F8 and select "Safe Mode"

3.After getting to the user menu. Click on a user and this time it will not ask you for a password

4.Go to Start>Run and type "CMD" (without the quotes).

5.At command prompt type in "cd C:WindowsSystem32" (without the quotes), I am assuming C is your System/Windows Drive

6.For safety purposes first make a backup of your Logon.Scr file.. You can do this by typing in "Copy to Logon.scr to Logon.bak" (without the quotes)

7.Then type "copy CMD.EXE Logon.scr"(without the quotes)

8.Then type this command, I will assume that you want to set Administrator's password to "MyNewPass" (without the quotes)

9.Now, type this in (I am assuming that you are still in the directory C:WindowsSystem32) , "net user administrator MyNewPass" without the quotes

10. You will get a message saying that it was successful, this means Administrator's new password is "MyNewPass" (without the quotes)

11. Restart the PC and you will login as Administrator (or whatever you chose to reset) with your chosen password

Firing up Firefox

2009-12-20T20:45:00.001+08:00

Firing up Firefox

Firefox lends itself to extending its functionality using a range of tiny plug-ins called extensions. There are extensions for several applications such as FTP, AD blocking, mouse gestures, weather and stock updates, enhanced download functionality, etc. Some of the must-have extensions you need to make your Firefox installation into a power web browser are:

Adblock: Besides speeding up your web browsing experience, this plug-in eliminates all web advertising from the web pages your browse through. It works by referencing a list of known advertising web sites and electively blocking content from these sites which appear on other pages in the form of banner Ads, popups, etc. The list can be modifi ed to incorporate future inclusions as well.

All-in-One Gestures: Once you start using it, there’s no looking back—using your mouse, you can defi ne specific movement patters to execute tasks during your web browsing experience. This enables you to virtually control your surfi ng using just the mouse, where you can browse through pages, navigate between open web sites, close web sites and move forward and backward within them with just a flick of your wrist.

Tab browser Preferences: Tab browsing is one of the best pieces of functionality in Firefox. This extension extends this functionality by giving you greater control on how tabs appear, where they appear and how links within them are handled.

FoxyTunes: For all you music junkies out there, how would you like to control your MP3 player software from your browser itself? FoxyTunes lets you do just that—it hooks into popular MP3 players like iTunes and Windows Media Player and offers full audio control from a toolbar in the browser itself. Very handy.

IEView: There are some web sites that aren’t Firefox-friendly. For these, you can open them in a dedicated window using this extension. Google Toolbar for Firefox: It’s been around for a while, but this version is now offi cially released and supported by Google. This Google-enabled Firefox extension lets you search from within the interface itself.

Gmail Notifier: Just like your local e-mail client, this extension provides a notification each time you receive mail on your Gmail account. Neat.

Flashblock: If you’re bogged down by those Flash-heavy web sites that slow down your surfi ng experience, this functionality banishes them to digital oblivion!

Ten Science Stories That Changed Our Decade

2009-12-20T20:37:00.001+08:00

Ten Science Stories That Changed Our Decade

There is no doubt that science has become more like science fiction in the past decade, with amazing innovations and discoveries that increased our understanding of the universe. We list ten of the biggest science stories from the past decade.This was the decade of the first face transplant, the first extinct species brought back from the dead, and printable human tissue; a decade that brought us closer to synthetic life forms and the invisibility cloak. But we've whittled it down to ten of the decade's biggest science stories, with discoveries, advances, and topics that are sure to change our lives in the next ten years.

It's Full of Planets: This was a big decade for planets, and not just because Pluto got a downgrade. In 2005, astronomers discovered Eris, a dwarf planet larger Pluto (as well as smaller dwarf planets Haumea and Makemake). Eris' discovery prompted the International Astronomical Union to actually define the term planet, leading toPluto's demotion to dwarf planet. But the discovery of Eris after all this time suggests there is still a lot to learn about our solar system.

We also got our first direct look at exoplanets, worlds outside our solar system, thanks to the Hubble Telescope. In 2008, astronomers at the Keck and Gemini captured the first images of planets orbiting distant stars. And the planetary discoveries just keep getting more exciting; just this week, astronomers announced that they had observed a super-Earth that might be made largely of liquid water.

Water, Water Everywhere: The world watched on as the Phoenix Lander dug through the Martian terrain for signs of water on the Red Planet. In the summer of 2008, NASA announced it had found definitive proof of water ice on Mars. More recently, scientists discovered that large deposits of water ice exist beneath the planet's surface. This fall, the moon became the center of our watery attention when astronomers found evidence of water throughout the moon's surface. Although the supervillainous plot to bomb the moon didn't seem as initially impressive as we had hoped, the probe did confirm researchers' suspicions that the moon does, in fact, contain a significant amount of frozen water. These discoveries not only reveal moreabout our solar system, they indicate that, should humans try to colonize Mars or the moon, there will be resources to make survival a little easier.

Shaking Up the Human Family Tree: Humanity got anew great-great-grandmother (or perhaps she's our great-great-great-aunt) in Ardi, a fossilized hominid skeleton found in Ethiopia. Granted, Ardipithecus ramidus was discovered in 1992, but it wasn't until 2009 that she was revealed as a significant addition to our family tree. Although there's technically no "missing link" because humans didn't evolve from chimpanzees, Ardi is, so far, our closest link to chimps, and brings us closer to the common human-chimp ancestor than ever before. Analysis of Ardi's skeleton and probably anatomy reveals just how unlike either chimps that common ancestor is bound to be. One of the Ardi researchers even quipped that when we find that common ancestor, it might look less like we evolved from a chimp-like creature and more like chimps evolved from creatures more like us.

The Book of Life Recorded: Our understanding of human genetics reached a new milestone with the mapping of the human genome. The Human Genome Project announced a rough draft of the human genome in 2000, followed by a more complete version in 2003; the sequence of the last chromosome was published in 2006. Though the genome hasn't been 100 percent mapped, theHuman Genome Project has completed its mapping goals. We still have to interpret the sequences we have recorded, but hopefully as we translate the book of our genetic lives, we will get a better understand of how our genes interact and improve our treatment of genetic diseases. Plus, the project has paved the way for sequencing other critters and plants, and, just this week, the lung cancer and melanoma genomes were sequenced.

Changing Your Genes: The promises of genetic engineering have really begun to bear fruit in the last few years, in ways far beyond Alba, the glowing transgenic bunny that grabbed headlines in 2000. In 1999, an 18-year-old with a, inherited liver disease died during a gene therapy trial, after suffering an unanticipated immune reaction to a viral vector. But in more recent years, gene therapy and genetic engineering have shown their promise. In 2000, scientists reported the first gene therapy success, having provided a patient with severe combine immunodeficiency (commonly known as "Bubble Boy" syndrome), though SCID gene therapy treatments were halted when patients developed leukemia. This year, gene therapy successfully treated children with a congenital form of blindness, giving them the ability to see for the first time in their lives. Meanwhile, genetic engineering experiments on animals have cured color blindness in monkeys, created super-strong monkeys, created drug-producing rats, and enabled animals to pass their altered genes to their offspring.

Stem Cells Grow Up: Embryonic stem cells have been a source of contention for years, but in 2007, Shinya Yamanaka helped sidestep that issue when he found a way to reprogram adult skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. Stem cells themselves have continued to aid important medical advances. In 2008, researchers generated motor neurons from elderly patients with ALS, an advance that could help researchers better understand the disease. A newly released study has suggested that a mini stem cell transplant could reverse sickle cell disease, and stem cell research has lead to advances in HIV research and the treatment of heart disease.

Climate change Takes Center Stage: One of the biggest science stories of the decade has been less about scientific advances than about how the public responds to scientific research. Reports that the glaciers are melting faster than expected, a decade of record warmth, and Al Gore's Nobel Prize have all been part of the conversation on climate change and to what extent humans are responsible.

Commercial Spacecrafts Prepare to Take Flight: Amidst NASA budget cuts, commercial spaceflight has come to the forefront. The Ansari X Prize, first offered in 1996 for the first private enterprise that could fly a three-passenger vehicle 100 kilopmeters into space twice in one week. In 2004, the prize was finally won by Mojave Aerospace Ventures' SpaceShipOne. That same year, Virgin Galactic was founded to further space tourism. The company recently unveiled SpaceShipTwo, the first commercial spacecraft. 2004 also saw the certification of the Mojave Air and Space Port, the first licensed facility for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft in the US. In anticipation of the spaceflight business, one company claims it's readying a space hotel.

Our Cyborg Present: In the last decade, humans and machines have gotten closer than ever. We have machines that can read our memories, computers that let us type with our brains, and robotic arms controlled by monkey minds. Perhaps the most impressive cyborg advances have come in the last few months, with researchers hooking amputees up to robotic arms that not only respond to electrical signals from the human brain, but also provide tactile feedback.

The LHC Comes Online: The Large Hadron Collider has just begun colliding proton beams, but its construction represents one of the most ambitious scientific undertakings ever. The immense particle accelerator will hopefully give us first-hand observations of aspects of the universe that have been, thus far, the realm of theoretical physics. Despite fears from doomsayers that the LHC would destroy the world and a series of mishaps that led to claims that the device was being sabotaged from the future, the LHC came online this year and quickly got to smashing protons at record-breaking speeds.

Increase Your Internet Speed by 20%

2009-12-19T22:21:00.001+08:00

Increase Your Internet Speed by 20%

(works for me)

Here is a simple way to increase your internet speed by increasing bandwith occupied by the computer for waste(its 20 %}
here we go...

1.) log on as Administrator.

2.) start - run - type gpedit.msc

3.) expand "local computer policy"

4.) then expand "administrative templates"

5.) then expand "network branch"

6.) Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler"

7.) on right window double click "limit reservable bandwidth"

8.) on setting tab check the "enabled"

9.) change "Bandwidth limit %" to 0

You're done. It would be a good idea to reboot after this.

Multiple instances of yahoo! Messenger!

2009-12-19T22:19:00.002+08:00

Multiple instances of yahoo! Messenger!

Here is a trick for yahoo messenger (for those who dont know this trick)
log in with multiple ID's at the same time:
Run Multiple Instances of Yahoo Messenger
Click start then run
* Write regedit, press enter
* Goto “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Yahoo\Pager\Test”
* Create a DWORD registry value named “Plural” by right clicking the right hand side window.
* Double click the new DWORD entry and set the value to 1
* Now you remain online with two or more different yahoo ids at the same time.

117 Useful Run Commands

2009-12-19T22:18:00.001+08:00

117 Useful Run Commands

Run Commands for faster access to your PC

1. Accessibility Controls - access.cpl
2. Accessibility Wizard - accwiz
3. Add Hardware Wizard - hdwwiz.cpl
4. Add/Remove Programs - appwiz.cpl
5. Administrative Tools - control admintools
6. Automatic Updates - wuaucpl.cpl
7. Bluetooth Transfer Wizard - fsquirt
8. Calculator - calc
9. Certificate Manager - certmgr.msc
10. Character Map - charmap
11. Check Disk Utility - chkdsk
12. Clipboard Viewer - clipbrd
13. Command Prompt - cmd
14. Component Services - dcomcnfg
15. Computer Management - compmgmt.msc
16. Control Panel - control
17. Date and Time Properties - timedate.cpl
18. DDE Shares - ddeshare
19. Device Manager - devmgmt.msc
20. Direct X Troubleshooter - dxdiag
21. Disk Cleanup Utility - cleanmgr
22. Disk Defragment - dfrg.msc
23. Disk Management - diskmgmt.msc
24. Disk Partition Manager - diskpart
25. Display Properties - control desktop
26. Display Properties - desk.cpl
27. Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility - drwtsn32
28. Driver Verifier Utility - verifier
29. Event Viewer - eventvwr.msc
30. Files and Settings Transfer Tool - migwiz
31. File Signature Verification Tool - sigverif
32. Findfast - findfast.cpl
33. Firefox - firefox
34. Folders Properties - control folders
35. Fonts - control fonts
36. Fonts Folder - fonts
37. Free Cell Card Game - freecell
38. Game Controllers - joy.cpl
39. Group Policy Editor (for xp professional) - gpedit.msc
40. Hearts Card Game - mshearts
41. Help and Support - helpctr
42. HyperTerminal - hypertrm
43. Iexpress Wizard - iexpress
44. Indexing Service - ciadv.msc
45. Internet Connection Wizard - icwconn1
46. Internet Explorer - iexplore
47. Internet Properties - inetcpl.cpl
48. Keyboard Properties - control keyboard
49. Local Security Settings - secpol.msc
50. Local Users and Groups - lusrmgr.msc
51. Logs You Out Of Windows - logoff
52. Malicious Software Removal Tool - mrt
53. Microsoft Chat - winchat
54. Microsoft Movie Maker - moviemk
55. Microsoft Paint - mspaint
56. Microsoft Syncronization Tool - mobsync
57. Minesweeper Game - winmine
58. Mouse Properties - control mouse
59. Mouse Properties - main.cpl
60. Netmeeting - conf
61. Network Connections - control netconnections
62. Network Connections - ncpa.cpl
63. Network Setup Wizard - netsetup.cpl
64. Notepad notepad
65. Object Packager - packager
66. ODBC Data Source Administrator - odbccp32.cpl
67. On Screen Keyboard - osk
68. Outlook Express - msimn
69. Paint - pbrush
70. Password Properties - password.cpl
71. Performance Monitor - perfmon.msc
72. Performance Monitor - perfmon
73. Phone and Modem Options - telephon.cpl
74. Phone Dialer - dialer
75. Pinball Game - pinball
76. Power Configuration - powercfg.cpl
77. Printers and Faxes - control printers
78. Printers Folder - printers
79. Regional Settings - intl.cpl
80. Registry Editor - regedit
81. Registry Editor - regedit32
82. Remote Access Phonebook - rasphone
83. Remote Desktop - mstsc
84. Removable Storage - ntmsmgr.msc
85. Removable Storage Operator Requests - ntmsoprq.msc
86. Resultant Set of Policy (for xp professional) - rsop.msc
87. Scanners and Cameras - sticpl.cpl
88. Scheduled Tasks - control schedtasks
89. Security Center - wscui.cpl
90. Services - services.msc
91. Shared Folders - fsmgmt.msc
92. Shuts Down Windows - shutdown
93. Sounds and Audio - mmsys.cpl
94. Spider Solitare Card Game - spider
95. SQL Client Configuration - cliconfg
96. System Configuration Editor - sysedit
97. System Configuration Utility - msconfig
98. System Information - msinfo32
99. System Properties - sysdm.cpl
100. Task Manager - taskmgr
101. TCP Tester - tcptest
102. Telnet Client - telnet
103. User Account Management - nusrmgr.cpl
104. Utility Manager - utilman
105. Windows Address Book - wab
106. Windows Address Book Import Utility - wabmig
107. Windows Explorer - explorer
108. Windows Firewall - firewall.cpl
109. Windows Magnifier - magnify
110. Windows Management Infrastructure - wmimgmt.msc
111. Windows Media Player - wmplayer
112. Windows Messenger - msmsgs
113. Windows System Security Tool - syskey
114. Windows Update Launches - wupdmgr
115. Windows Version - winver
116. Windows XP Tour Wizard - tourstart
117. Wordpad - write.

How to Install Google Desktop 2

2009-12-19T22:14:00.001+08:00

How to Install Google Desktop 2

1. Surf to http://desktop. google.com/ where the application can be downloaded in a file about 1/3 the size of a typical MP3 song (1.3 mb)

2. Click on "Agree and Download" to agree to the passable privacy policy and terms of use. Users concerned with privacy will want to set their preferences as described in steps 5 and 6 below. Save the folder on your desktop.

3. Double click on the Google Desktop icon on the desktop icon of your computer. You may need to restart your computer to complete installation The Google desktop icon should look something like:

4. Set your initial preferences. You can choose between the new default sidebar with news, email, stocks, and other information or the smaller floating deskbar or stationary deskbar.

5. Decide whether to accept the privacy implications of the advanced features. Depending on your preferences and selections you may need to decide whether to "Enable Advanced Features" such as Personalized Search and Page Rank display. Be aware that by accepting advanced features you allow Google to capture data on your web surfing habits.

6. After completing installation manually adjust your preferences by minimizing the sidebar into a deskbar and then clicking the down arrow and selecting Preferences. Concerned users may want to uncheck default selections such as indexing secure page web history. Other privacy and security minded options include specifying folders or websites not to index of an option to encrypt the entire index.

7. Enjoy the default features. News, Web Clips (aka RSS feeds), Scratchpad, Weather, photo slideshows, email notification, and more.

8. Download plug-ins from 3rd party developers on the Preferences page. Current offerings include a Desktop Search Plug-in for Firefox and a plug-in that allows you to control iTunes from the Google Desktop. Undoubtedly more cool plug-ins will be developed over time.

Some plug-in options

Warnings

Google desktop search has some serious and privacy and security implications you should consider before installing it. Anyone with access to your computer will be able to search everything you have done on your computer. For example they could easily do a search for "password" and find every time you used the word "password" in email, a file, or on the web.

Remember that GDS 2 is beta software, and that you cannot rollback to GDS 1 using the same index if you experience problems. A lot of users are experiencing strange errors and memory issues, so use your best judgement.

15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever

2009-12-19T21:58:00.003+08:00

15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever

Everybody’s favorite open-source browser, Firefox, is great right out of the box. And by adding some of the awesome extensions available out there, the browser just gets better and better.

But look under the hood, and there are a bunch of hidden (and some not-so-secret) tips and tricks available that will crank Firefox up and pimp your browser. Make it faster, cooler, more efficient. Get to be a Jedi master with the following cool Firefox tricks.

1) More screen space. Make your icons small. Go to View - Toolbars - Customize and check the “Use small icons” box.

2) Smart keywords. If there’s a search you use a lot (let’s say IMDB.com’s people search), this is an awesome tool that not many people use. Right-click on the search box, select “Add a Keyword for this search”, give the keyword a name and an easy-to-type and easy-to-remember shortcut name (let’s say “actor”) and save it. Now, when you want to do an actor search, go to Firefox’s address bar, type “actor” and the name of the actor and press return. Instant search! You can do this with any search box.

3) Keyboard shortcuts. This is where you become a real Jedi. It just takes a little while to learn these, but once you do, your browsing will be super fast. Here are some of the most common (and my personal favs):

* Spacebar (page down)

* Shift-Spacebar (page up)

* Ctrl+F (find)

* Alt-N (find next)

* Ctrl+D (bookmark page)

* Ctrl+T (new tab)

* Ctrl+K (go to search box)

* Ctrl+L (go to address bar)

* Ctrl+= (increase text size)

* Ctrl+- (decrease text size)

* Ctrl-W (close tab)

* F5 (reload)

* Alt-Home (go to home page)

4) Auto-complete. This is another keyboard shortcut, but it’s not commonly known and very useful. Go to the address bar (Control-L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Let’s say “google”. Then press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there - like magic! For .net addresses, press Shift-Enter, and for .org addresses, press Control-Shift-Enter.

5) Tab navigation. Instead of using the mouse to select different tabs that you have open, use the keyboard. Here are the shortcuts:

* Ctrl+Tab (rotate forward among tabs)

* Ctrl+Shft+Tab (rotate to the previous tab)

* Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)

6) Mouse shortcuts. Sometimes you’re already using your mouse and it’s easier to use a mouse shortcut than to go back to the keyboard. Master these cool ones:

* Middle click on link (opens in new tab)

* Shift-scroll down (previous page)

* Shift-scroll up (next page)

* Ctrl-scroll up (decrease text size)

* Ctrl-scroll down (increase text size)

* Middle click on a tab (closes tab)

7) Delete items from address bar history. Firefox’s ability to automatically show previous URLs you’ve visited, as you type, in the address bar’s drop-down history menu is very cool. But sometimes you just don’t want those URLs to show up (I won’t ask why). Go to the address bar (Ctrl-L), start typing an address, and the drop-down menu will appear with the URLs of pages you’ve visited with those letters in them. Use the down-arrow to go down to an address you want to delete, and press the Delete key to make it disappear.

8) User chrome. If you really want to trick out your Firefox, you’ll want to create a UserChrome.css file and customize your browser. It’s a bit complicated to get into here, but check out this tutorial.

9) Create a user.js file. Another way to customize Firefox, creating a user.js file can really speed up your browsing. You’ll need to create a text file named user.js in your profile folder (see this to find out where the profile folder is) and see this example user.js file that you can modify. Created by techlifeweb.com, this example explains some of the things you can do in its comments.

10) about:config. The true power user’s tool, about.config isn’t something to mess with if you don’t know what a setting does. You can get to the main configuration screen by putting about:config in the browser’s address bar. See Mozillazine’s about:config tips and screenshots.

11) Add a keyword for a bookmark. Go to your bookmarks much faster by giving them keywords. Right-click the bookmark and then select Properties. Put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark.

12) Speed up Firefox. If you have a broadband connection (and most of us do), you can use pipelining to speed up your page loads. This allows Firefox to load multiple things on a page at once, instead of one at a time (by default, it’s optimized for dialup connections). Here’s how:

* Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Type “network.http” in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):

* Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”

* Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”

* Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once.

* Also, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

13) Limit RAM usage. If Firefox takes up too much memory on your computer, you can limit the amount of RAM it is allowed to us. Again, go to about:config, filter “browser.cache” and select “browser.cache.disk.capacity”. It’s set to 50000, but you can lower it, depending on how much memory you have. Try 15000 if you have between 512MB and 1GB ram.

14) Reduce RAM usage further for when Firefox is minimized. This setting will move Firefox to your hard drive when you minimize it, taking up much less memory. And there is no noticeable difference in speed when you restore Firefox, so it’s definitely worth a go. Again, go to about:config, right-click anywhere and select New-> Boolean. Name it “config.trim_on_minimize” and set it to TRUE. You have to restart Firefox for these settings to take effect.

15) Move or remove the close tab button. Do you accidentally click on the close button of Firefox’s tabs? You can move them or remove them, again through about:config. Edit the preference for “browser.tabs.closeButtons”. Here are the meanings of each value:

* 0: Display a close button on the active tab only

* 1Default) Display close buttons on all tabs

* 2on’t display any close buttons

* 3display a single close button at the end of the tab bar (Firefox 1.x behavior)

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: King Mickey, Zack & Multiplayer Details

2009-12-19T21:51:00.001+08:00

Good new's for all the Kingdom Heart lovers! Here's something that you have to watch out. Weeee!!! Cant wait for this to get released.

With the game coming out in less than a month’s time in Japan and constantly the most viewed item in Play-Asia ($59.90), Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is without a doubt the biggest PSP games since Dissidia Final Fantasy came out late last year. The latest Weekly Famitsu report shared plenty of details about the game, including Mickey Mouse, who are still an apprentice here; the surprise appearance of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII’s Zack Fair; and last but not least, what we can expect from the multiplayer mode.

Mickey Mouse (look for the hidden Mickey, lol)

Still an apprentice before becoming a Keyblade Master himself, Mickey Mouse arrived just in time to save Aqua and Kairi from being pursued by the Unversed in Radiant Garden. You will be able to team up with King Mickey for some fight sequences here.

You’ll be able to unleash Mickey’s Holy Blast through D-Link, a system where your character can “borrow” the power of other characters who are in other dimensions. As shown in the screen above, players simply have to press the button where Mickey’s head overlaps for Holy Blast.

Olympus Coliseum

As you probably know by now, besides the younger version of Hercules, you (Aqua) will be able to meet Crisis Core’s protagonist Zack in Olympus Coliseum. Hercules, who is undergoing training from Philoctetes here, appears to know Terra, the leader of the three main characters in Birth by Sleep, and see him as role model. On the other hand, Ventus seems to e very close with Zack and can be seen fighting the Unversed together.

Terra also arrives at Olympus Coliseum, apparently after being lured by the Underworld ruler Hades, and ended up fighting Zack in the coliseum. Obviously, the fighting tournaments, a staple of the coliseum, will be available to see who is the best fighter.

Like Mickey, you will be able to borrow Zack’s swords skills to activate his D-Link called Heroes Pride.

Mysterious Tower

Home of Yen Sid, master of King Mickey and surprisingly Terra as well, which suggests he is probably one of the Keyblade Masters as well. Donald Duck and Goofy can be seen here too and as usual, they are looking for King Mickey. They suspect Ventus has some connection with Mickey and bring him here too. Both Aqua and Terra will be visiting Mysterious Tower too, one of the screens in the mag shows Yen Sid telling Aqua: “the thing you need to do now is not to protect your friends” while the other showing King Mickey with Terra together.

Terra visited Yen Sid for his extensive knowledge on something which the report didn’t reveals.

Multiplayer (Wahaha! Games keeps getting bigger and bigger, you can play with friends)

As reported earlier, Mirage Arena will be where most of the multiplayer actions take place and Famitsu shares with us what kind of modes we can expect here. Arena Mode (screen above) supports up to three players and there will be constant stream of powerful enemies appearing that require co-operation from your friends.

VS Arena Mode supports up to six players and besides free brawl with other you can also team up with two others for Team Battle. There are also special 3-player moves that can be activated by timing your button presses together.

How to Back Up the Registry

2009-12-19T21:23:00.000+08:00

Before you edit the registry, export the keys in the registry that you plan to edit, or back up the whole registry. If a problem occurs, you can then follow the steps how-to restore the registry to its previous state.

How to Export Registry Keys

** Start, and then ** Run.

In the Open box, type regedit, and then ** OK.

On the File menu, ** Export.

In the Save in box, select the boxs at the bottom the bottom according to weather you want to export all or only selected branches of the registry.

Next select a location in which to save the backup .reg file. In the File name box, type a file name, and then ** Save.

How to Restore the Registry

To restore registry keys that you exported, double-** the .reg file that you saved.

Final Fantasy: Last Order, Download it Here

2009-12-18T22:40:00.001+08:00

CLICK ON IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD

Plot:

Narrated by Tseng, Last Order switches between the past Nibelheim incident and Zack's escape to Midgar with his unconscious friend, Cloud Strife. During the Nibelheim event, Sephiroth, insane after discovering his origins, sets fire to the village of Nibelheim. After killing many villagers, he proceeds to the Nibelheim reactor, where Jenova had been encased. Soon after he arrives, Tifa, a resident of Nibelheim angry at Sephiroth for killing her father, attempts to kill him. He quickly knocks her away and continues to Jenova's body, preserved in a large glass tank filled with liquid. Zack follows Sephiroth into the reactor and fights him, but is eventually disarmed and injured too severely to attack further. Sephiroth returns to Jenova's body, but does not hear the military grunt Cloud approaching.

Zack as he appears in Last Order

Cloud immediately impales Sephiroth with his sword, cracking Jenova's glass tank. He returns to Tifa and the two converse, while Sephiroth, still alive after receiving the injury, cuts off Jenova's head. He carries her head with him towards Cloud and they engage in battle. Cloud is quickly impaled through the stomach and hung over the reactor's core, but in a feat of strength, he grabs Sephiroth's sword and moves himself down the blade to solid ground, and hurls Sephiroth aside. Instead of continuing the fight, Sephiroth, with Jenova's head, jumps into the reactor core in an attempt to reach the "Promised Land". Though Zack and Cloud survive the ordeal, they are taken by Hojo to the Shinra Mansion for experimentation.

The other event detailed in Last Order illustrates Zack and Cloud's escape from Shinra. During their experimentation, Cloud had succumbed to Mako poisoning, caused by a surge of memories flooding through one's mind to the extent that they can no longer perceive who they are. Due to this, Cloud remains in an unconscious, non-reactant state. Zack escapes with Cloud from the Shinra Mansion with the intention of returning to Midgar, the headquarters of Shinra. However, Shinra orders their elite espionage and assassination division known as the Turks and their paramilitary to find and the two escapees. Tseng, leader of the Turks, decides to capture them alive while Shinra's army is sent out to eliminate the two.

On a bluff overlooking Zack and Cloud, who had hitched a ride on a truck, Shinra operatives decide to ignore orders to wait for the Turks. One takes aim on the incapacitated Cloud and Zack, noticing, jumps in front of Cloud, yelling at him to escape.

Definition Of Portable Applications

2009-12-18T22:20:00.002+08:00

What is a portable app?

A portable application (portable app) is a computer software program that runs from a removable storage device such as a CD-ROM drive, USB flash drive, flash card, or floppy disk. Portable apps should not be confused with software portability where software allows its source code to be compiled for different computing platforms. Portable applications can be run on any computer system with which they are compatible but typically require a specific operating system such as Microsoft Windows XP or above, any Linux, etc.

Its Easy As Below:

No Special Hardware - Use any USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod/MP3 player, or run it from your internal HDD without activation/installation etc

No Additional Software - Just download the portable app, run the portable installer and go

Features:
- Carry your web browser with all your favorite bookmarks
- Carry your calendar with all your appointments
- Carry your email client with all your contacts and settings
- Carry your instant messenger and your buddy list
- Carry your whole office suite along with your documents and presentations
- Carry your antivirus program and other computer utilities
- Carry all your important passwords and account information securely
- Have your favorite websites handy to recommend to a friend or colleague
- Have your presentation AND the required software ready to go for that big meeting
- Have your password with you if you want to bank online while traveling
- Have utilities handy when visiting family or friends that are having PC problems

How To Block Websties Without Software

2009-12-18T22:20:00.000+08:00

Steps:

1] Browse C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
2] Find the file named "HOSTS"
3] Open it in notepad
4] Under "127.0.0.1 localhost" Add 127.0.0.2 www.sitenameyouwantblocked.com , and that site will no longer be accessable.
5] Done!

-So-

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.2 www.blockedsite.com

-->www.blockedsite.com is now unaccessable<--

For every site after that you want to add, just add "1" to the last number in the internal ip (127.0.0.2) and then the addy like before.

IE: 127.0.0.3 www.blablabla.com
127.0.0.4 www.blablabla.com
127.0.0.5 www.blablabla.com

Keyboard Shortcuts

2009-12-18T22:17:00.001+08:00

Getting used to using your keyboard exclusively and leaving your mouse behind will make you much more efficient at performing any task on any Windows system. I use the following keyboard shortcuts every day:

Windows key + R = Run menu

This is usually followed by:
cmd = Command Prompt
iexplore + "web address" = Internet Explorer
compmgmt.msc = Computer Management
dhcpmgmt.msc = DHCP Management
dnsmgmt.msc = DNS Management
services.msc = Services
eventvwr = Event Viewer
dsa.msc = Active Directory Users and Computers
dssite.msc = Active Directory Sites and Services
Windows key + E = Explorer

ALT + Tab = Switch between windows

ALT, Space, X = Maximize window

CTRL + Shift + Esc = Task Manager

Windows key + Break = System properties

Windows key + F = Search

Windows key + D = Hide/Display all windows

CTRL + C = copy

CTRL + X = cut

CTRL + V = paste

Also don't forget about the "Right-**" key next to the right Windows key on your keyboard. Using the arrows and that key can get just about anything done once you've opened up any program.

Keyboard Shortcuts

[Alt] and [Esc] Switch between running applications

[Alt] and letter Select menu item by underlined letter

[Ctrl] and [Esc] Open Program Menu

[Ctrl] and [F4] Close active document or group windows (does not work with some applications)

[Alt] and [F4] Quit active application or close current window

[Alt] and [-] Open Control menu for active document

Ctrl] Lft., Rt. arrow Move cursor forward or back one word

Ctrl] Up, Down arrow Move cursor forward or back one paragraph

[F1] Open Help for active application

Windows+M Minimize all open windows

Shift+Windows+M Undo minimize all open windows

Windows+F1 Open Windows Help

Windows+Tab Cycle through the Taskbar buttons

Windows+Break Open the System Properties dialog box

Accessibility shortcuts

Right SHIFT for eight seconds = Switch FilterKeys on and off.

Left ALT +left SHIFT +PRINT SCREEN = Switch High Contrast on and off.

Left ALT +left SHIFT +NUM LOCK = Switch MouseKeys on and off.

SHIFT = Five times Switch StickyKeys on and off.

NUM LOCK = for five seconds Switch ToggleKeys on and off.

Explorer Shortcuts

END = Display the bottom of the active window.

HOME = Display the top of the active window.

NUM LOCK+ASTERISK = On numeric keypad (*) Display all sub folders under the selected folder.

NUM LOCK+PLUS SIGN = On numeric keypad (+) Display the contents of the selected folder.

NUM LOCK+MINUS SIGN = On numeric keypad (-) Collapse the selected folder.

LEFT ARROW = Collapse current selection if it's expanded, or select parent folder.

RIGHT ARROW = Display current selection if it's collapsed, or select first sub folder.

Type the following commands in your Run Box (Windows Key + R) or Start Run

devmgmt.msc = Device Manager
msinfo32 = System Information
cleanmgr = Disk Cleanup
ntbackup = Backup or Restore Wizard (Windows Backup Utility)
mmc = Microsoft Management Console
excel = Microsoft Excel (If Installed)
msaccess = Microsoft Access (If Installed)
powerpnt = Microsoft PowerPoint (If Installed)
winword = Microsoft Word (If Installed)
frontpg = Microsoft FrontPage (If Installed)
notepad = Notepad
wordpad = WordPad
calc = Calculator
msmsgs = Windows Messenger
mspaint = Microsoft Paint
wmplayer = Windows Media Player
rstrui = System Restore
netscp6 = Netscape 6.x
netscp = Netscape 7.x
netscape = Netscape 4.x
waol = America Online
control = Opens the Control Panel
control printers = Opens the Printers Dialog

Internet browser

type in u're adress "www.google.com", then press [Right CTRL] and [Enter]
add www. and .com to word and go to it.

All About Computer Virus

2009-12-18T22:15:00.002+08:00

A computer virus is a computer program which distributes copies of itself without the permission or knowledge of the user. A computer virus is often simply called a virus. The term is commonly used to refer to a range of malware, but a true virus does not need to be harmful. To distribute itself, a virus needs to execute. Viruses often hide themselves inside other programs to be executed.

A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer viruses are manmade. A simple virus that can make a copy of it self over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.

Since 1987, when a virus infected ARPANET, a large network used by the Defense Department and many universities, many antivirus programs have become available. These programs periodically check your computer system for the best-known types of viruses.

Some people distinguish between general viruses and worms. A worm is a special type of virus that can replicate itself and use memory, but cannot attach itself to other programs.

How viruses work

A computer virus will pass from one computer to another in the same way that a real life biological virus passes from person to person. For example, it is estimated by experts that the Mydoom worm infected a quarter-million computers in a single day in January 2004. Another example is the ILOVEYOU virus, which occurred in 2000 and had a similar effect. There are tens of thousands of viruses out there, and new ones are discovered every day. While a generic explanation of how viruses work is difficult due to the wide variety of infection or spreading patterns, there are broad categories commonly used to describe various types of viruses.

Basic types of viruses

File viruses

File viruses, also known as parasitic or executable viruses, are pieces of code that attach themselves to executable files, driver files or compressed files, and are activated when the host program is run. After activation, the virus may spread itself by attaching itself to other programs in the system, and also carry out the malevolent activity for which it was programmed. Most file viruses spread by loading themselves in system memory and looking for any other programs located on the drive. If it finds one, it modifies the programs code so that it contains and activates the virus the next time its run. It keeps doing this over and over until it spreads across the system, and possibly to other systems that the infected program may be shared with. Besides spreading themselves, these viruses also carry some type of destructive constituent that can be activated immediately or by a particular trigger. The trigger could be a specific date, or the number of times the virus has been replicated, or anything equally trivial. Some examples of file viruses are Randex, Meve and MrKlunky

Boot sector viruses

A boot sector virus affects the boot sector of a hard disk, which is a very crucial part. The boot sector is where all information about the drive is stored, along with a program that makes it possible for the operating system to boot up. By inserting its code into the boot sector, a virus guarantees that it loads into memory during every boot sequence. A boot virus does not affect files; instead, it affects the disks that contain them. Perhaps this is the reason for their downfall. During the days when programs were carried around on floppies, the boot sector viruses used to spread like wildfire. However, with the CD-ROM revolution, it became impossible to infect pre-written data on a CD, which eventually stopped such viruses from spreading. Though boot viruses still exist, they are rare compared to new-age malicious software. Another reason why they're not so prevalent is that operating systems today protect the boot sector, which makes it difficult for them to thrive. Examples of boot viruses are Polyboot.B and AntiEXE.

Multipartite viruses

Multipartite viruses are a combination of boot sector viruses and file viruses. These viruses come in through infected media and reside in memory. They then move on to the boot sector of the hard drive. From there, the virus infects executable files on the hard drive and spreads across the system. There aren't too manymultipartite viruses in existence today, but in their heyday, they accounted for some major problems due to their capacity to combine different infection techniques. A well-known multipartite virus is Ywinz.

Macro viruses

Macro viruses infect files that are created using certain applications or programs that contain macros. These include Microsoft Office documents such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Access databases and other similar application files such as Corel Draw, AmiPro etc. Since macro viruses are written in the language of the application and not in that of the operating system, they are known to be platform-independent they can spread between Windows, Mac and any other system, so long as they are running the required application . With the ever-increasing capabilities of macro languages in applications, and the possibility of infections spreading over networks, these viruses are major threats. The first macro virus was written for Microsoft Word and was discovered back in August 1995. Today, there are thousands of macro viruses in existence some examples are Relax, Melissa.A and Bablas.

Network viruses

This kind of virus is proficient in quickly spreading across a Local Area Network (LAN) or even over the Internet. Usually, it propagates through shared resources, such as shared drives and folders. Once it infects a new system, it searches for potential targets by searching the network for other vulnerable systems. Once a new vulnerable system is found, the network virus infects the other system, and thus spreads over the network. Some of the most notorious network viruses are Nimda and SQLSlammer.

Email Viruses

An email virus could be a form of a macro virus that spreads itself to all the contacts located in the hosts email address book. If any of the email recipients open the attachment of the infected mail, the virus spreads to the new hosts address book contacts, and then proceeds to send itself to all those contacts as well. Email viruses can infect hosts even by previewing the infected email in a mail client.

There are many ways in which a virus can infect or stay dormant on your PC. However, whether active or dormant, it is dangerous to let one loose on your system, and it should be dealt with immediately.

Other malicious software

Earlier, the only way a computer was at risk was when you inserted an infected floppy. With the new age of technology, almost every computer is interconnected to the rest of the world at some point or other, so its difficult to pinpoint the source and/or time of the infection. As if that weren't bad enough, new-age computing has also brought about a new breed of malicious software. Today, the term virus has become a generic term used for all the different ways that your computer can be attacked by malicious software. Besides the type of viruses we mentioned, here are some of the newer problems we face today.

Trojan horses

File-Destructive Trojans

The only function of these Trojans is to destroy and delete files. They can automatically delete all the core system files on your machine. The Trojan could be controlled by the attacker or could be programmed to strike like a logic bomb, starting on a specific day or hour. The main idea behind Denial of Service (DoS) Attack Trojans is to generate a lot of Internet traffic on the victims machine, to the extent that the Internet connection is too overloaded to let the user visit a website or download anything. Another variation of a DoS Trojan is the mail-bomb Trojan, whose main aim is to infect as many machines as possible and simultaneously attack specific email addresses with random subjects and contents that cannot be filtered.

Proxy/Wingate Trojans

These types of Trojan turn the victims computer into a proxy/wingate server. That way, the infected computer is available to the whole world to be used for anonymous access to various risky Internet services. The attacker can register domains or access pornographic Web sites with stolen credit cards or do similar illegal activities without being traced.

FTP Trojans

These trojans are probably the most simple, and are outdated. The only thing they do is open port 21 the port for FTP transfers and let everyone connect to your machine. Newer versions are password-protected, so only the attacker can connect to your computer.

Software Detection Killers

These Trojans kill popular anti-virus/firewall programs that protect your machine, to give the attacker access to it. A Trojan could have any one or a combination of the above-mentioned functionalities.

Worms

Computer Worms are programs that reproduce and run independently, and travel across network connections. The main difference between viruses and worms is the method in which they reproduce and spread. A virus is dependent on a host file or boot sector and on the transfer of files between machines to spread, while a worm can run completely independently and spread of its own accord through network connections. The security threat of worms is equivalent to that of a virus. Worms are capable of doing a whole range of damage such as destroying essential files in your system, slowing it down to a great extent, or even causing some essential programs to crash. Two famous examples of worms are the MS-Blaster and Sasser worms.

Spy ware

Spy ware is another term for advertising-supported software (Ad ware). Advertising in shareware products is a way for shareware authors to make money, other than by selling it to the user. There are several large media companies that offer to place banner ads in their products in exchange for a portion of the revenue from banner sales. If the user finds the banners annoying, there is usually an option to get rid of them by paying the licensing fee. The advertising companies often also install additional tracking software on your system, which is continuously using your Internet connection to send statistical data back to the advertisers. While the privacy policies of the companies claim there will be no sensitive or identifying data collected from your system and that you shall remain anonymous, the fact remains that your PC is acting as a server, sending information about you and your surfing habits to a remote location, using your bandwidth. Spyware has been known to slow down computers with its semi-intensive usage of processing power, bringing up annoying pop-up windows at the most inappropriate times and changing your Internet browsing settings such as your home page or default search engine to their own services. As well as being illegal, this is a major security threat, and the fact that there is no way to get rid of them makes them as much of a nuisance as viruses.

Classification

Viruses can be subdivided into a number of types, the main ones being:

Boot sector viruses

Companion viruses

Email viruses

Logic bombs and time bombs

Macro viruses

Sentinels

WB Microworm

Cross-site scripting virus

The invisible Halo Virus

Two other types of malware are often classified as viruses, but are actually forms of distributing malware:

Trojan horses

Worms

Boot sector virus

A boot sector virus alters or hides in the boot sector, usually the 1st sector, of a bootable disk or hard drive. Boot sector viruses were prevalent in the 1980s.

Companion virus

A companion virus does not have host files per se, but exploits MS-DOS. A companion virus creates new files (typically .COM but can also use other extensions such as ".EXD") that have the same file names as legitimate .EXE files. When a user types in the name of a desired program, if a user does not type in ".EXE" but instead does not specify a file extension, DOS will assume he meant the file with the extension that comes first in alphabetical order and run the virus. For instance, if a user had "(filename).COM" (the virus) and "(filename).EXE" and the user typed "filename", he will run "(filename).COM" and run the virus. The virus will spread and do other tasks before redirecting to the legitimate file, which operates normally. Some companion viruses are known to run under Windows 95 and on DOS emulators on Windows NT systems. Path companion viruses create files that have the same name as the legitimate file and place new virus copies earlier in the directory paths. These viruses have become increasingly rare with the introduction of Windows XP,which does not use the MS-DOS command prompt.

E-mail virus

An E-mail virus is a virus which uses e-mail messages as a mode of transport. These viruses often copy themselves by automatically mailing copies to hundreds of people in the victim's - Fishbert Regina Sk address book.

Logic bomb

A logic bomb employs code that lies inert until specific conditions are met. The resolution of the conditions will trigger a certain function (such as printing a message to the user and/or deleting files). Logic bombs may reside within standalone programs, or they may be part of worms or viruses. An example of a logic bomb would be a virus that waits to execute until it has infected a certain number of hosts. A time bomb is a subset of logic bomb, which is set to trigger on a particular date and/or time. An example of a time bomb is the infamous Friday the 13th virus.

Macro virus

A macro virus, often written in the scripting languages for programs such as Word and Excel, is spread by infecting documents and spreadsheets.

Cross-site scripting virus

A cross-site scripting virus (XSSV) is a type of virus that utilizes cross-site scripting vulnerabilities to replicate. A XSSV is spread between vulnerable web applications and web browsers creating a symbiotic relationship.

Sentinels

A sentinel is a highly advanced virus capable of empowering the creator or perpetrator of the virus with remote access control over the computers that are infected. They are used to form vast networks of zombie or slave computers which in turn can be used for malicious purposes such as a Distributed Denial of Service attack.

Trojan horse

Trojan Horses are impostor files that claim to be something desirable but, in fact, are malicious. Rather than insert code into existing files, a Trojan horse appears to do one thing (install a screen saver, or show a picture inside an e-mail, for example) when in fact it does something entirely different, and potentially malicious, such as erase files. Trojans can also open back doors so that computer hackers can gain access to passwords and other personal information stored on a computer. Although often referred to as such, Trojan horses are not viruses in the strict sense because they cannot replicate automatically. For a Trojan horse to spread, it must be invited onto a computer by the user opening an email attachment or downloading and running a file from the Internet, for example.

Worm

A worm is a piece of software that uses computer networks and security flaws to create copies of itself. A copy of the worm will scan the network for any other machine that has a specific security flaw. It replicates itself to the new machine using the security flaw, and then begins scanning and replicating a new worm.

Worms are programs that replicate themselves from system to system without the use of a host file. This is in contrast to viruses, which requires the spreading of an infected host file. Although worms generally exist inside of other files, often Word or Excel documents, there is a difference between how worms and viruses use the host file. Usually the worm will release a document that already has the "worm" macro inside the document. The entire document will travel from computer to computer, so the entire document should be considered the worm. Mydoom or ILOVEYOU are two examples of worms.

Effects of computer viruses

Some viruses are programmed to damage the computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard disk. Others are not designed to do any damage, but simply replicate themselves and make their presence known by presenting text, video, or audio messages. Even these benign viruses can create problems for the computer user. They typically take up computer memory used by legitimate programs. As a result, they often cause erratic behavior and can result in system crashes. In addition, many viruses are bug-ridden, and these bugs may lead to system crashes and data loss.

Use of the word "virus"

computer virus acronym V.I.R.U.S. - Vital Information Resources Under Siege

The word virus is derived from and used in the same sense as the biological equivalent. The term "virus" is often used in common parlance to describe all kinds of malware (malicious software), including those that are more properly classified as worms or Trojans. Most popular anti-virus software packages defend against all of these types of attack. In some technical communities, the term "virus" is also extended to include the authors of malware, in an insulting sense. The English plural of "virus" is "viruses". Some people use "virii" or "viri" as a plural, but this is rare. For a discussion about whether "viri" and "virii" are correct alternatives of "viruses", see plural of virus.

The term "virus" was first used in an academic publication by Fred Cohen in his 1984 paper Experiments with Computer Viruses, where he credits Len Adleman with coining it. However, a 1972 science fiction novel by David Gerrold, When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One, includes a description of a fictional computer program called "VIRUS" that worked just like a virus (and was countered by a program called "VACCINE"). The term "computer virus" with current usage also appears in the comic book Uncanny X-Men #158, written by Chris Claremont and published in 1982. Therefore, although Cohen's use of "virus" may, perhaps, have been the first "academic" use, the term had been used earlier.

History

A program called "Elk Cloner" is credited with being the first computer virus to appear "in the wild" that is, outside the single computer or lab where it was created. Written in 1982 by Rich Skrenta, it attached itself to the Apple DOS 3.3 operating system and spread by floppy disk. This virus was originally a joke, created by the high school student and put onto a game. The game was set to play, but release the virus on the 50th time of starting the game. Only this time, instead of playing the game, it would change to a blank screen that read a poem about the virus named Elk Cloner. The computer would then be infected.

The first PC virus was a boot sector virus called (c)Brain, created in 1986 by two brothers, Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi, operating out of Lahore, Pakistan. The brothers reportedly created the virus to deter pirated copies of software they had written. However, analysts have claimed that the Ashar virus, a variant of Brain, possibly predated it based on code within the virus.

Before computer networks became widespread, most viruses spread on removable media, particularly floppy disks. In the early days of the personal computer, many users regularly exchanged information and programs on floppies. Some viruses spread by infecting programs stored on these disks, while others installed themselves into the disk boot sector, ensuring that they would be run when the user booted the computer from the disk.

Traditional computer viruses emerged in the 1980s, driven by the spread of personal computers and the resultant increase in BBS and modem use, and software sharing. Bulletin board driven software sharing contributed directly to the spread of Trojan horse programs, and viruses were written to infect popularly traded software. Shareware and bootleg software were equally common vectors for viruses on BBS's. Within the "pirate scene" of hobbyists trading illicit copies of commercial software, traders in a hurry to obtain the latest applications and games were easy targets for viruses.

Since the mid-1990s, macro viruses have become common. Most of these viruses are written in the scripting languages for Microsoft programs such as Word and Excel. These viruses spread in Microsoft Office by infecting documents and spreadsheets. Since Word and Excel were also available for Mac OS, most of these viruses were able to spread on Macintosh computers as well. Most of these viruses did not have the ability to send infected e-mail. Those viruses which did spread through e-mail took advantage of the Microsoft Outlook COM interface.

Macro viruses pose unique problems for detection software. For example, some versions of Microsoft Word allowed macros to replicate themselves with additional blank lines. The virus behaved identically but would be misidentified as a new virus. In another example, if two macro viruses simultaneously infect a document, the combination of the two, if also self-replicating, can appear as a "mating" of the two and would likely be detected as a virus unique from the "parents".

A computer virus may also be transmitted through instant messaging. A virus may send a web address link as an instant message to all the contacts on an infected machine. If the recipient, thinking the link is from a friend (a trusted source) and follows the link to the website, the virus hosted at the site may be able to infect this new computer and continue propagating.

The newest species of the virus family is the cross-site scripting virus. The virus emerged from research and was academically demonstrated in 2005. This virus utilizes cross-site scripting vulnerabilities to propagate. Since 2005 there have been multiple instances of the cross-site scripting viruses in the wild, most notable sites affected have been MySpace and Yahoo.

Why people create computer viruses

Unlike biological viruses, computer viruses do not simply evolve by themselves. Computer viruses do not come into existence spontaneously, nor are they likely to be created by bugs in regular programs. They are deliberately created by programmers, or by people who use virus creation software. Computer viruses can only do what the programmers have programmed them to do.

Virus writers can have various reasons for creating and spreading malware. Viruses have been written as research projects, pranks, vandalism, to attack the products of specific companies, to distribute political messages, and financial gain from identity theft, spyware, and cryptoviral extortion. Some virus writers consider their creations to be works of art, and see virus writing as a creative hobby. Additionally, many virus writers oppose deliberately destructive payload routines. Many writers consider the systems they attack an intellectual challenge or a logical problem to be solved; this multiplies when a cat-and-mouse game is anticipated against anti-virus software. Some viruses were intended as "good viruses". They spread improvements to the programs they infect, or delete other viruses. These viruses are, however, quite rare, still consume system resources, may accidentally damage systems they infect, and, on occasion, have become infected and acted as vectors for malicious viruses. A poorly written "good virus" can also inadvertently become a virus in and of itself (for example, such a 'good virus' may misidentify its target file and delete an innocent system file by mistake). Moreover, they normally operate without asking for the permission of the computer owner. Since self-replicating code causes many complications, it is questionable if a well-intentioned virus can ever solve a problem in a way that is superior to a regular program that does not replicate itself. In short, no single answer is likely to cover the broad demographic of virus writers. Releasing computer viruses (as well as worms) is a crime in most jurisdictions.

Replication strategies

In order to replicate itself, a virus must be permitted to execute code and write to memory. For this reason, many viruses attach themselves to executable files that may be part of legitimate programs. If a user tries to start an infected program, the virus' code may be executed first. Viruses can be divided into two types, on the basis of their behavior when they are executed. Nonresident viruses immediately search for other hosts that can be infected, infect these targets, and finally transfer control to the application program they infected. Resident viruses do not search for hosts when they are started. Instead, a resident virus loads itself into memory on execution and transfers control to the host program. The virus stays active in the background and infects new hosts when those files are accessed by other programs or the operating system itself.

Nonresident viruses

Nonresident viruses can be thought of as consisting of a finder module and a replication module. The finder module is responsible for finding new files to infect. For each new executable file the finder module encounters, it calls the replication module to infect that file.

For simple viruses the replicator's tasks are to:

1. Open the new file

2. Check if the executable file has already been infected (if it is, return to the finder module)

3. Append the virus code to the executable file

4. Save the executable's starting point

5. Change the executable's starting point so that it points to the start location of the newly copied virus code

6. Save the old start location to the virus in a way so that the virus branches to that location right after its execution.

7. Save the changes to the executable file

8. Close the infected file

9. Return to the finder so that it can find new files for the replicator to infect.

Resident viruses

Resident viruses contain a replication module that is similar to the one that is employed by nonresident viruses. However, this module is not called by a finder module. Instead, the virus loads the replication module into memory when it is executed and ensures that this module is executed each time the operating system is called to perform a certain operation. For example, the replication module can be called each time the operating system executes a file. In this case, the virus infects every suitable program that is executed on the computer.

Resident viruses are sometimes subdivided into a category of fast infectors and a category of slow infectors. Fast infectors are designed to infect as many files as possible. For instance, a fast infector can infect every potential host file that is accessed. This poses a special problem to anti-virus software, since a virus scanner will access every potential host file on a computer when it performs a system-wide scan. If the virus scanner fails to notice that such a virus is present in memory, the virus can "piggy-back" on the virus scanner and in this way infect all files that are scanned. Fast infectors rely on their fast infection rate to spread. The disadvantage of this method is that infecting many files may make detection more likely, because the virus may slow down a computer or perform many suspicious actions that can be noticed by anti-virus software. Slow infectors, on the other hand, are designed to infect hosts infrequently. For instance, some slow infectors only infect files when they are copied. Slow infectors are designed to avoid detection by limiting their actions: they are less likely to slow down a computer noticeably, and will at most infrequently trigger anti-virus software that detects suspicious behavior by programs. The slow infector approach does not seem very successful however.

Host types

Viruses have targeted various types of hosts. This is a non-exhaustive list:

Binary executable files (such as COM files and EXE files in MS-DOS, Portable Executable files in Microsoft Windows, and ELF files in Linux)

Volume Boot Records of floppy disks and hard disk partitions

The master boot record (MBR) of a hard disk

General-purpose script files (such as batch files in MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, VBScript files, and shell script files on Unix-like platforms).

Application-specific script files (such as Telix-scripts)

Documents that can contain macros (such as Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, AmiPro documents, and Microsoft Access database files)

Methods to avoid detection

In order to avoid detection by users, some viruses employ different kinds of deception. Some old viruses, especially on the MS-DOS platform, make sure that the "last modified" date of a host file stays the same when the file is infected by the virus. This approach does not fool anti-virus software, however. Some viruses can infect files without increasing their sizes or damaging the files. They accomplish this by overwriting unused areas of executable files. These are called cavity viruses. For example the CIH virus, or Chernobyl Virus, infects Portable Executable files. Because those files had many empty gaps, the virus, which was 1 KB in length, did not add to the size of the file. Some viruses try to avoid detection by killing the tasks associated with antivirus software before it can detect them. As computers and operating systems grow larger and more complex, old hiding techniques need to be updated or replaced. Avoiding bait files and other undesirable hosts. A virus needs to infect hosts in order to spread further. In some cases, it might be a bad idea to infect a host program. For example, many anti-virus programs perform an integrity check of their own code. Infecting such programs will therefore increase the likelihood that the virus is detected. For this reason, some viruses are programmed not to infect programs that are known to be part of anti-virus software. Another type of hosts that viruses sometimes avoid is bait files. Bait files (or goat files) are files that are specially created by anti-virus software, or by anti-virus professionals themselves, to be infected by a virus. These files can be created for various reasons, all of which are related to the detection of the virus:

Anti-virus professionals can use bait files to take a sample of a virus (i.e. a copy of a program file that is infected by the virus). It is more practical to store and exchange a small, infected bait file, than to exchange a large application program that has been infected by the virus.

Anti-virus professionals can use bait files to study the behavior of a virus and evaluate detection methods. This is especially useful when the virus is polymorphic. In this case, the virus can be made to infect a large number of bait files. The infected files can be used to test whether a virus scanner detects all versions of the virus.

Some anti-virus software employs bait files that are accessed regularly. When these files are modified, the anti-virus software warns the user that a virus is probably active on the system.

Since bait files are used to detect the virus, or to make detection possible, a virus can benefit from not infecting them. Viruses typically do this by avoiding suspicious programs, such as small program files or programs that contain certain patterns of 'garbage instructions'.

A related strategy to make baiting difficult is sparse infection. Sometimes, sparse infectors do not infect a host file that would be a suitable candidate for infection in other circumstances. For example, a virus can decide on a random basis whether to infect a file or not, or a virus can only infect host files on particular days of the week.

Stealth

Some viruses try to trick anti-virus software by intercepting its requests to the operating system. A virus can hide itself by intercepting the anti-virus softwares request to read the file and passing the request to the virus, instead of the OS. The virus can then return an uninfected version of the file to the anti-virus software, so that it seems that the file is "clean". Modern anti-virus software employs various techniques to counter stealth mechanisms of viruses. The only completely reliable method to avoid stealth is to boot from a medium that is known to be clean.

Self-modification

Most modern antivirus programs try to find virus-patterns inside ordinary programs by scanning them for so-called virus signatures. A signature is a characteristic byte-pattern that is part of a certain virus or family of viruses. If a virus scanner finds such a pattern in a file, it notifies the user that the file is infected. The user can then delete, or (in some cases) "clean" or "heal" the infected file. Some viruses employ techniques that make detection by means of signatures difficult or impossible. These viruses modify their code on each infection. That is, each infected file contains a different variant of the virus.

Simple self-modifications

In the past, some viruses modified themselves only in simple ways. For example, they regularly exchanged subroutines in their code for others that would perform the same action - for example, 2+2 could be swapped for 1+3. This poses no problems to a somewhat advanced virus scanner.

Encryption with a variable key

A more advanced method is the use of simple encryption to encipher the virus. In this case, the virus consists of a small decrypting module and an encrypted copy of the virus code. If the virus is encrypted with a different key for each infected file, the only part of the virus that remains constant is the decrypting module, which would (for example) be appended to the end. In this case, a virus scanner cannot directly detect the virus using signatures, but it can still detect the decrypting module, which still makes indirect detection of the virus possible.

Mostly, the decryption techniques that these viruses employ are simple and mostly done by just XORing each byte with a randomized key that was saved by the parent virus. The use of XOR-operations has the additional advantage that the encryption and decryption routine are the same (a XOR b = c, c XOR b = a.)

Polymorphic code

Polymorphic code was the first technique that posed a serious threat to virus scanners. Just like regular encrypted viruses, a polymorphic virus infects files with an encrypted copy of itself, which is decoded by a decryption module. In the case of polymorphic viruses however, this decryption module is also modified on each infection. A well-written polymorphic virus therefore has no parts that stay the same on each infection, making it impossible to detect directly using signatures. Anti-virus software can detect it by decrypting the viruses using an emulator, or by statistical pattern analysis of the encrypted virus body. To enable polymorphic code, the virus has to have a polymorphic engine (also called mutating engine or mutation engine) somewhere in its encrypted body. See Polymorphic code for technical detail on how such engines operate.

Some viruses employ polymorphic code in a way that constrains the mutation rate of the virus significantly. For example, a virus can be programmed to mutate only slightly over time, or it can be programmed to refrain from mutating when it infects a file on a computer that already contains copies of the virus. The advantage of using such slow polymorphic code is that it makes it more difficult for anti-virus professionals to obtain representative samples of the virus, because bait files that are infected in one run will typically contain identical or similar samples of the virus. This will make it more likely that the detection by the virus scanner will be unreliable, and that some instances of the virus may be able to avoid detection.

Metamorphic code

To avoid being detected by emulation, some viruses rewrite themselves completely each time they are to infect new executables. Viruses that use this technique are said to be metamorphic. To enable metamorphism, a metamorphic engine is needed. A metamorphic virus is usually very large and complex. For example, W32/Simile consisted of over 14000 lines of Assembly language code, 90% of it part of the metamorphic engine.

Vulnerability and countermeasures

The vulnerability of operating systems to viruses

Another analogy to biological viruses: just as genetic diversity in a population decreases the chance of a single disease wiping out a population, the diversity of software systems on a network similarly limits the destructive potential of viruses.

This became a particular concern in the 1990s, when Microsoft gained market dominance in desktop operating systems and office suites. The users of Microsoft software (especially networking software such as Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer) are especially vulnerable to the spread of viruses. Microsoft software is targeted by virus writers due to their desktop dominance, and is often criticized for including many errors and holes for virus writers to exploit. Integrated applications, applications with scripting languages with access to the file system (for example Visual Basic Script (VBS), and applications with networking features) are also particularly vulnerable.

Although Windows is by far the most popular operating system for virus writers, some viruses also exist on other platforms. Any operating system that allows third-party programs to run can theoretically run viruses. Some operating systems are less secure than others. Unix-based OS's (and NTFS-aware applications on Windows NT based platforms) only allow their users to run executables within their protected space in their own directories.

As of 2006, there are relatively few security exploits targeting Mac OS X (a Unix-based operating system); the known vulnerabilities fall under the classifications of worms and Trojans. The number of viruses for the older Apple operating systems, known as Mac OS Classic, varies greatly from source to source, with Apple stating that there are only four known viruses, and independent sources stating there are as many as 63 viruses. It is safe to say that Macs are less likely to be exploited due to their secure Unix base, and because a Mac-specific virus could only infect a small proportion of computers (making the effort less desirable). Virus vulnerability between Macs and Windows was/is a chief catalyst of the platform wars between Apple Computer and Microsoft.

Windows and Unix have similar scripting abilities, but while Unix natively blocks normal users from having access to make changes to the operating system environment, Windows does not. In 1997, when a virus for Linux was released “ known as "Bliss" leading antivirus vendors issued warnings that Unix-like systems could fall prey to viruses just like Windows. The Bliss virus may be considered characteristic of viruses as opposed to worms on Unix systems. Bliss requires that the user run it explicitly, and it can only infect programs that the user has the access to modify. Unlike Windows users, most Unix users do not log in as an administrator user except to install or configure software; as a result, even if a user ran the virus, it could not harm their operating system. The Bliss virus never became widespread, and remains chiefly a research curiosity. Its creator later posted the source code to Usenet, allowing researchers to see how it worked.

The role of software development

Because software is often designed with security features to prevent unauthorized use of system resources, many viruses must exploit software bugs in a system or application to spread. Software development strategies that produce large numbers of bugs will generally also produce potential exploits.

Closed-source software development, as practiced by Microsoft and other proprietary software companies, is seen by many as a security weakness. Open source software such as Linux, for example, allows all users to look for and fix security problems without relying on a single vendor. Some advocate that proprietary software makers practice vulnerability disclosure to improve this weakness.

On the other hand, some claim that open source development exposes potential security problems to virus writers, hence increases in the prevalence of exploits. They claim that popular closed source systems such as Windows are often exploited by claiming that these systems are only commonly exploited due to their popularity and the potential widespread effect such an exploit will have.

Anti-virus software and other preventative countermeasures

There are two common methods that an anti-virus software application uses to detect viruses. The first, and by far the most common method of virus detection is using a list of virus signature definitions. The disadvantage of this detection method is that users are only protected from viruses that pre-date their last virus definition update. The second method is to use a heuristic algorithm to find viruses based on common behaviors. This method has the ability to detect viruses that anti-virus security firmsâ€™ have yet to create a signature for.

Many users install anti-virus software that can detect and eliminate known viruses after the computer downloads or runs the executable. They work by examining the content heuristics of the computer's memory (its RAM, and boot sectors) and the files stored on fixed or removable drives (hard drives, floppy drives), and comparing those files against a database of known virus "signatures". Some anti-virus programs are able to scan opened files in addition to sent and received emails 'on the fly' in a similar manner. This practice is known as "on-access scanning." Anti-virus software does not change the underlying capability of host software to transmit viruses. There have been attempts to do this but adoption of such anti-virus solutions can void the warranty for the host software. Users must therefore update their software regularly to patch security holes. Anti-virus software also needs to be regularly updated in order to gain knowledge about the latest threats.

One may also prevent the damage done by viruses by making regular backups of data (and the Operating Systems) on different media, that are either kept unconnected to the system (most of the time), read-only or not accessible for other reasons, such as using different file systems. This way, if data is lost through a virus, one can start again using the backup (which should preferably be recent). If a backup session on optical media like cd and DVD is closed, it becomes read-only and can no longer be affected by a virus. Likewise, an Operating System on a live cd can be used to start the computer if the installed Operating Systems become unusable. Another method is to use different Operating Systems on different file systems. A virus is not likely to affect both. Data backups can also be put on different file systems. For example, Linux requires specific software to write to NTFS partitions, so if one does not install such software and uses a separate installation of MS Windows to make the backups on an NTFS partition (and preferably only for that reason), the backup should remain safe from any Linux viruses. Likewise, MS Windows can not read file systems like ext3, so if one normally uses MS Windows, the backups can be made on an ext3 partition using a Linux installation.

Recovery Methods

Once a computer has been compromised by a virus, it is usually unsafe to continue using the same computer without completely reinstalling the operating system. However, there are a number of recovery options that exist after a computer has a virus. These actions depend on severity of the type of virus.

Virus Removal

One possibility on Windows XP is a tool known as System Restore, which restores the registry and critical system files to a previous checkpoint.

Operating System Reinstallation

In the most extreme circumstances, the reinstallation of the operating system is required. To do this properly, the hard drive is completely erased and the operating system is installed from media known not to be infected.

The Ten Most Dangerous Viruses

Panda Software, leading antivirus software developer, has published a list of the ten most prevalent viruses in 2002 based on the data compiled from Panda ActiveScan, the free, online antivirus.

There's no doubt that this year's most virulent malicious code has been Klez.I, responsible for nearly 18 percent of all infections. This ruthless virus uses a two-pronged attack. On the one hand using 'social-engineering' under a multitude of guises, to trick users, and on the other exploiting a known vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer to run automatically when viewed in the Preview Pane.

In second place, although responsible for less than five percent of total infections, comes Bugbear. This worm exploits the same vulnerability as Klez.I and is able to block certain application processes including those of some antiviruses and personal firewalls. It also opens port 36794 on the computer under attack to create a backdoor that could be used by a hacker to gain remote access to the computer or network.

Right behind Bugbear comes Elkern.C. The prevalence of this virus throughout 2002 is due largely to the fact that it is installed on computers by the Klez.I worm.

The tenacious Nimda, the culprit in just over three percent of cases, holds fourth place in the Top Ten list. This virus was first detected in September 2001 when it reached epidemic proportions. Its persistence is largely due to its exploiting of both an Internet Explorer vulnerability (the same one asexploited by Klez.I) and a flaw affecting Microsoft IIS, allowing Nimda to infect both directly and indirectly, via Internet downloads.

In fifth place is Sircam, which has appeared in nearly all monthly rankings of virulent malicious code since August 2001, no doubt due to its cunning use of social engineering techniques.

The remaining five viruses to make up this year's ranking are Grade.A, Help, Magistr.B, Klez.F and the PSW/Bugbear Trojan horse. Despite seemingly low infection rates -all of them were responsible for less than three percent of total infections- the continuous appearance of such viruses once again highlights the need for users to take the protection of their IT resources seriously.

Ranking Name Percentage frequency

1 W32/Klez.I 17.96%

2 W32/Bugbear 4.41%

3 W32/Elkern.C 3.70%

4 W32/Nimda 3.22%

5 W32/Sircam 2.94%

6 W32/Grade.A 2.91%

7 VBS/Help 2.72%

8 W32/Magistr.B 2.63%

9 W32/Klez.F 2.47%

10 Trj/PWS.Bugbear 2.30%

The Difference between a Virus, Worm and Trojan horse

The most common blunder people make when the topic of a computer virus arises is to refer to a worm or Trojan horse as a virus. While the words Trojan, worm and virus are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. Viruses, worms and Trojan Horses are all malicious programs that can cause damage to your computer, but there are differences among the three, and knowing those differences can help you to better protect your computer from their often damaging effects.

A computer virus attaches itself to a program or file so it can spread from one computer to another, leaving infections as it travels. Much like human viruses, computer viruses can range in severity: Some viruses cause only mildly annoying effects while others can damage your hardware, software or files. Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, which means the virus may exist on your computer but it cannot infect your computer unless you run or open the malicious program. It is important to note that a virus cannot be spread without a human action, (such as running an infected program) to keep it going. People continue the spread of a computer virus, mostly unknowingly, by sharing infecting files or sending e-mails with viruses as attachments in the e-mail.

A worm is similar to a virus by its design, and is considered to be a sub-class of a virus. Worms spread from computer to computer, but unlike a virus, it has the capability to travel without any help from a person. A worm takes advantage of file or information transport features on your system, which allows it to travel unaided. The biggest danger with a worm is its capability to replicate itself on your system, so rather than your computer sending out a single worm, it could send out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself, creating a huge devastating effect. One example would be for a worm to send a copy of itself to everyone listed in your e-mail address book. Then, the worm replicates and sends itself out to everyone listed in each of the receiver's address book, and the manifest continues on down the line. Due to the copying nature of a worm and its capability to travel across networks the end result in most cases is that the worm consumes too much system memory (or network bandwidth), causing Web servers, network servers and individual computers to stop responding. In more recent worm attacks such as the much-talked-about .Blaster Worm., the worm has been designed to tunnel into your system and allow malicious users to control your computer remotely.

A Trojan Horse is full of as much trickery as the mythological Trojan Horse it was named after. The Trojan Horse, at first glance will appear to be useful software but will actually do damage once installed or run on your computer. Those on the receiving end of a Trojan Horse are usually tricked into opening them because they appear to be receiving legitimate software or files from a legitimate source. When a Trojan is activated on your computer, the results can vary. Some Trojans are designed to be more annoying than malicious (like changing your desktop, adding silly active desktop icons) or they can cause serious damage by deleting files and destroying information on your system. Trojans are also known to create a backdoor on your computer that gives malicious users access to your system, possibly allowing confidential or personal information to be compromised. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files nor do they self-replicate.

Added into the mix, we also have what is called a blended threat. A blended threat is a sophisticated attack that bundles some of the worst aspects of viruses, worms, Trojan horses and malicious code into one threat. Blended threats use server and Internet vulnerabilities to initiate, transmit and spread an attack. This combination of method and techniques means blended threats can spread quickly and cause widespread damage. Characteristics of blended threats include: causes harm, propagates by multiple methods, attacks from multiple points and exploits vulnerabilities.

To be considered a blended thread, the attack would normally serve to transport multiple attacks in one payload. For example it wouldn't just launch a DoS attack it would also install a backdoor and damage a local system in one shot. Additionally, blended threats are designed to use multiple modes of transport. For example, a worm may travel through e-mail, but a single blended threat could use multiple routes such as e-mail, IRC and file-sharing sharing networks. The actual attack itself is also not limited to a specific act. For example, rather than a specific attack on predetermined .exe files, a blended thread could modify exe files, HTML files and registry keys at the same time basically it can cause damage within several areas of your network at one time.

Blended threats are considered to be the worst risk to security since the inception of viruses, as most blended threats require no human intervention to propagate.

Combating Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses

The first steps to protecting your computer are to ensure your operating system (OS) is up-to-date. This is essential if you are running a Microsoft Windows OS. Secondly, you should have anti-virus software installed on your system and ensure you download updates frequently to ensure your software has the latest fixes for new viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Additionally, you want to make sure your anti-virus program has the capability to scan e-mail and files as they are downloaded from the Internet. This will help prevent malicious programs from even reaching your computer. You should also install a firewall as well. A firewall is a system that prevents unauthorized use and access to your computer. A firewall can be either hardware or software. Hardware firewalls provide a strong degree of protection from most forms of attack coming from the outside world and can be purchased as a stand-alone product or in broadband routers. Unfortunately, when battling viruses, worms and Trojans, a hardware firewall may be less effective than a software firewall, as it could possibly ignore embedded worms in out going e-mails and see this as regular network traffic. For individual home users, the most popular firewall choice is a software firewall. A good software firewall will protect your computer from outside attempts to control or gain access your computer, and usually provides additional protection against the most common Trojan programs or e-mail worms. The downside to software firewalls is that they will only protect the computer they are installed on, not a network.

It is important to remember that on its own a firewall is not going to rid you of your computer virus problems, but when used in conjunction with regular operating system updates and a good anti-virus scanning software, it will add some extra security and protection for your computer or network.

Recommanded Antivirus Software

Norton, AVG, Panda, ZoneAlarm, NOD32, SpyDoctor, MacAfee

Computer Virus List

OPRAH WINFREY VIRUS: Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB, and then slowly expands back to 200MB.

AT&amp or T VIRUS: Every three minutes it tells you what great service you are getting.

MCI VIRUS: Every three minutes it reminds you that you're paying too much for the AT&amp orT virus.

POLITICALLY CORRECT VIRUS: Never calls itself a "virus", but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism."

RIGHT TO LIFE VIRUS: Won't allow you to delete a file, regardless of how old it is. If you attempt to erase a file, it requires you to first see a counselor about possible alternatives.

ROSS PEROT VIRUS: Activates every component in your system, just before the whole darn thing quits.

MARIO CUOMO VIRUS: It would be a great virus, but it refuses to run.

TED TURNER VIRUS: Colorizes your monochrome monitor.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER VIRUS: Terminates and stays resident. It'll be back.

DAN QUAYLE VIRUS #2: Their is sumthing rong wit your komputer, ewe jsut cant figyour out watt!

GOVERNMENT ECONOMIST VIRUS: Nothing works, but all your diagnostic software says everything is fine.

NEW WORLD ORDER VIRUS: Probably harmless, but it makes a lot of people really mad just thinking about it.

FEDERAL BUREAUCRAT VIRUS: Divides your hard disk into hundreds of little units, each of which does practically nothing, but all of which claim to be the most important part of your computer.

GALLUP VIRUS: Sixty percent of the PCs infected will lose 38 percent of their data 14 percent of the time. (plus or minus a 3.5 percent margin of error.)

TERRY RANDALL VIRUS: Prints "Oh no you don't" whenever you choose "Abort" from the "Abort" "Retry" "Fail" message.

TEXAS VIRUS: Makes sure that it's bigger than any other file.

ADAM AND EVE VIRUS: Takes a couple of bytes out of your Apple.

CONGRESSIONAL VIRUS: The computer locks up, screen splits erratically with a message appearing on each half blaming the other side for the problem.

AIRLINE VIRUS: You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore.

FREUDIAN VIRUS: Your computer becomes obsessed with marrying its own motherboard.

PBS VIRUS: Your programs stop every few minutes to ask for money.

ELVIS VIRUS: Your computer gets fat, slow and lazy, then self destructs; only to resurface at shopping malls and service stations across rural America.

OLLIE NORTH VIRUS: Causes your printer to become a paper shredder.

NIKE VIRUS: Just does it.

SEARS VIRUS: Your data won't appear unless you buy new cables, power supply and a set of shocks.

JIMMY HOFFA VIRUS: Your programs can never be found again.

CONGRESSIONAL VIRUS #2: Runs every program on the hard drive simultaneously, but doesn't allow the user to accomplish anything.

KEVORKIAN VIRUS: Helps your computer shut down as an act of mercy.

IMELDA MARCOS VIRUS: Sings you a song (slightly off key) on boot up, then subtracts money from your Quicken account and spends it all on expensive shoes it purchases through Prodigy.

STAR TREK VIRUS: Invades your system in places where no virus has gone before.

HEALTH CARE VIRUS: Tests your system for a day, finds nothing wrong, and sends you a bill for $4,500.

GEORGE BUSH VIRUS: It starts by boldly stating, "Read my docs....No new files!" on the screen. It proceeds to fill up all the free space on your hard drive with new files, then blames it on the Congressional Virus.

CLEVELAND INDIANS VIRUS: Makes your 486/50 machine perform like a 286/AT.

LAPD VIRUS: It claims it feels threatened by the other files on your PC and erases them in "self defense".

CHICAGO CUBS VIRUS: Your PC makes frequent mistakes and comes in last in the reviews, but you still love it.

ORAL ROBERTS VIRUS: Claims that if you don't send it a million dollars, it's programmer will take it back.

No Text Icons

2009-12-18T22:14:00.000+08:00

No Text Icons

If you would like your desktop Icons to have no text underneath then try this tweak:

Right ** the icon and select "Rename"

Now hold the "Alt" key and type "255" and hit Enter

NOTE : It may only work with the keypad numbers and not the number keys on top of the keyboard.

10 Ways to Speed Up Torrent Download

2009-12-17T21:51:00.001+08:00

10 ways to speed up torrent Download

P2P file sharing is one of the widely used applications now days. The Torrent search engine is the utility which is excessively used in this context. As the young generation says “impatience is the new world”, means the generation can’t afford anything too slow, same is the case with torrent download. But there are some tips which can really help to improve your download speed. Let’s have a quick glance at these tips.

1. Choose your ISP wisely

The basic rule is that the maximum Torrent download speed that you can get can’t cross the upper limit of the bandwidth provided by your ISP. Usually ISP’s specify the upload and download maximum for the connections. So it is always better to have an ISP who provides better Download and Upload limits for an affordable price.

2. Choose the right BitTorrent client

Always choose the latest versions among the available BitTorrent clients. mTorrent, Vuze etc are some of these latest versions available now. The latest versions are equipped with provisions for obtaining the highest download speed and an overall smooth downloading experience.

3. Check the seeds and peers

A peer is a computer which participates in the P2P sharing either for downloading or uploading. A seed is a computer who has got a complete copy of the file and is sharing that file in the network. A leech is a computer who doesn’t have a complete copy of the file, and is downloading the file at the moment. A leech becomes a seed when it completes the download and shares it over the network. It is always advisable to choose the files with more number of seeds and less no of leeches. That means the file with the highest seed to leech ratio.

4. Altering the firewall configuration

By default the firewalls block all the BitTorrent connections coming through. This can adversely affect the downloading speed. So you must make sure that your firewall is configured in such a way that it allows the BitTorrent connections through it. This can be done by checking the box ‘Add Windows Firewall Exception” in the firewall settings following the path options/preferences/connection. For ease some users may disable the firewall, but it is strongly advised that you shouldn’t disable your firewall that it will open your computer to serious threats.

5. Limiting your upload rate

A peer to peer sharing is all about simultaneous upload and download. So every BitTorrent clients must upload some data at the same they are downloading some other data through torrent. For obtaining a high download speed you should vary your upload speed accordingly. Usually the upload maximum by the ISP is very much less than the download maximum. It is only 50Kbps for a 2Mbps connection. For fast downloading you can set your uploading speed to 80% of your maximum uploading speed. You must vary the speed as the download progresses for an efficient downloading. Keep the uploading limit maximum in the

beginning and then slightly decrease it as the download progresses. In mTorrent the upload limit can be set from the option Global Upload Rate.

6. Selecting a different port

The default port for the BitTorrent file sharing is one between 6881 and 6999. As BitTorrent sharing involves high bandwidth usage the ISP’s usually throttle traffic on these ports. So you can increase the downloading speed by selecting some port above 10000. Usually mTorrent randomly assign the port as the application starts. So set a specific port with a number above 10000, by disabling the Randomize port checkbox.

7. Increasing the number of Maximum Half Open TCP Connections

Usually the maximum no of half open TCP connections in Windows XP with SP2 is set as 10 for blocking the virus multiplication. But torrent needs more. To facilitate this a patch TCPIP.sys is available. Through this patch you can set the maximum no of open TCP connections. Set it to any number between 50 and 100.

8. Protocol encryption

Some ISP’s constrict the bandwidth for P2P sharing. Protocol encryption can be used to override this restriction. Check the Allow incoming legacy connections box and make the outgoing Encryption as Disabled for getting maximum speed on Torrent downloads. Between non-encryption is not advisable as it may lead to some encrypted client to be left as undiscovered.

9. Connections and bandwidth

The BitTorrent client you are using will allow you to enter values for

Global maximum no of connections: It is the maximum no of connections BitTorrent client can make for any P2P sharing. Setting this no to a very high value will take up useless bandwidth, and to a very low value will miss out some peers. For a 256kbps connection you can set this number to 130.

Maximum no of connected peers per torrent: Set this no to one which is closer to the no of available peers for the file.

No of upload slots per torrent: It gives the maximum no of peers to which the BitTorrent client uploads at a time. Since a low settings may affect the download set it to a moderate low value.

10. Miscellaneous

Disable the individual files for download along with a particular file, if we don’t want them at the beginning of download. Be familiar with your BitTorrent client settings from the users manual or web.

Windows XP Secrets

2009-12-17T21:36:00.003+08:00

Windows XP Secrets

Hidden Programs In Windows Xp

1) Private Character Editor

This program is for designing icons and Characters(Alphapet)

cl!ck :start

Then :run

type :EUDCEDIT

2) iExpress

This Program is for converting your files to EXECUTABLE files

cl!ck : start

Then : run

type : iexpress

3) Disk Cleanup

This program used for cleaning harddisk to offer space

cl!ck : start

Then : run

type : cleanmgr

4) Dr Watson

This program Is for repairing problems in Windows

cl!ck : start

Then : run

type : drwtsn32

5) Windows Media Player 5.1

Opens the old media player

cl!ck : start

Then : run

type : mplay32

Well Some More XP Secrets

Deleting System Softwares:

XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/ sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

Creating Shutdown Icon or One cl!ck Shutdown:

Navigate to your desktop. On the desktop, right-cl!ck and go to New, then to Shortcut (in other words, create a new shortcut). You should now see a pop-up window instructing you to enter a command line path.

Use this path in "Type Location of the Item"

SHUTDOWN -s -t 01

If the C: drive is not your local hard drive, then replace "C" with the correct letter of the hard drive. cl!ck the "Next" button. Name the shortcut and cl!ck the "Finish" button. Now whenever you want to shut down, just cl!ck on this shortcut and you're done.

Increasing Band-Width By 20%:

Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes like Windows Updates and interrogating your PC etc

To get it back:

cl!ck Start then Run and type " gpedit.msc" without quotes.This opens the group policy editor. Then go to:

Local Computer Policy then Computer Configuration then Administrative Templates then Network then QOS Packet Scheduler and then to Limit Reservable Bandwidth.

Double cl!ck on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain' tab i.e."By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default."

So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%.It works on Win 2000 as well.

Renaming The Recycle Bin icon:

To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, cl!ck Start then goto Run, write Regedit and press Enter. It opens Registry Editor. Now in Registry Editor go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ ROOT/CLSID/ {645FF040- 5081-101B- 9F08-00AA002F954 E}

and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).

Managing Tasks:

You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

Removing Shared Documents folder From My Computer window:

Open registry editor by going to Start then Run and entering regedit. Once in registry, navigate to key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders

You must see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72- 44a7-89c5- 5595fe6b30ee} . If you delete this key, you have effectively removed the my shared documents folder.

Making www.www.google.com.com the Default Search Engine in Internet Explorer:

Open registry editor by going to Start then Run and entering regedit and navigate to following three keys separately and change it as shown below:

[HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Main]

"Search Page"=" [noparse]http://www.www.www.google.com.com[/noparse]. com"

"Search Bar"=" [noparse]http://www.www.www.google.com.com[/noparse]. com/ie"

[HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\SearchURL]

""=" [noparse]http://www.www.www.google.com.com[/noparse]. com/keyword/ %s"

[HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Search]

"SearchAssistant" =" [noparse]http://www.www.www.google.com.com[/noparse]. com/ie" .

Improving the Slow Boot up time:

There are a variety of reasons why your windows XP system would boot slowly. Most of the times it this has to do with the startup applications. If you would like to speed up the bootup sequence, consider removing some of the startup applications that you do not need. Easiest way to remove startup apps is through System Configuration Utility. Go to Start then Run and enter MSCONFIG and go to the Startup tab. Deselect/UnCheck application( s) that you do not want to startup at boot time.

Customize Logon prompt with your Own Words:

Open Registry by going to Start then Run, entering regedit and Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\ Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ Winlogon] . In right pane, look for key by the name "LogonPrompt" . Set its value to whatever text you want to see displayed at login screen.

IP address of your connection:

Go to Start then Run. Enter 'cmd' and then enter 'ipconfig' .Add the '/all' switch for more info .

Making Folders Private:

Open My Computer Double-cl!ck the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C, unless you have more than one drive on your computer). If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, cl!ck Show the contents of this drive.

Double-cl!ck the Documents and Settings folder. Double-cl!ck your user folder. Right-cl!ck any folder in your user profile, and then cl!ck Properties. On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have access to it check box.

To change Drive Letters:

Go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, Disk Management, then right-cl!ck the partition whose name you want to change (cl!ck in the white area just below the word "Volume") and select "change drive letter and paths."

From here you can add, remove or change drive letters and paths to the partition.

Removing the Shortcut arrow from Desktop Icons:

Goto Start then Run and Enter regedit. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ ROOTlnkfile. Delete the IsShortcut registry value. You may need to restart Windows XP.

Get Drivers for your Devices:

Visit Windows Update (XP Only)

Look at the left hand pane and under Other Options cl!ck Personalize Windows Update.

Now in the right hand pane check the box - Display the link to the Windows Update Catalog under See Also

Below Choose which categories and updates to display on Windows Update - make sure you check all the boxes you want shown.

cl!ck Save Settings

Now look in the left hand pane under See Also cl!ck Windows Update Catalog and choose what you're looking for. Choose either MS updates or drivers for hardware devices.

Start the Wizard and off you go.

Customize Internet Explorer's Title Bar:

Open Registry by going to Start then Run and Enter regedit. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Internet. Explorer\Main. In right hand panel look for string "Window Title" and change its value to whatever custom text you want to see.

Disabling the use of Win Key:

If your are a gaming freak then you must be sick of the Win key in your keyboard. To disable use of Win key, open registry by going to Start then Run and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSe t\Control\ Keyboard Layout] . In this look for value of "Scancode Map". Its binary data so be extra careful:

Set its value to "00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00" to disable the win key.

Restarting Windows without Restarting the Computer:

This one is again is. When you cl!ck on the SHUTDOWN button, make sure to simultaneous press SHIFT Button. If you hold the Shift key down while *** on SHUTDOWN button, you computer would restart without restarting the Computer. This is equivalent to term "HOT REBOOT".

Stopping XP from displaying unread messages count on Welcome Screen:

To stop XP from displaying count of unread messages, Open registry and navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\UnreadMai l] and look for the data key "MessageExpiryDays" . If you do not see this key, create one DWORD key by the name "MessageExpiryDays" . Setting its value to 0 would stop Windows XP from displaying the count of unread messages.

Modify Color Selection of Default Theme:

Open registry by going to Start then Run. Entering regedit, navigate to [HKEY_USERS\ .DEFAULT\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\ThemeMana ger] and locate the key "ColorName".

Right cl!ck on it and select modify its value from "NormalColor" to "Metallic"

cl!ck Ok, and exit regedit and restart your computer.

Removing the Recycle Bin from the Desktop:

If you don't use the Recycle Bin to store deleted files , you can get rid of its desktop icon all together. Run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/ SOFTWARE/ Microsoft/ Windows/CurrentV ersion/explorer/ Desktop/NameSpace

Windows Xp Registry Tips & Tweaks

Modifying the Disk Check Autochk.exe Time-out (Scandisk Delay) Value from 10 seconds to 3 Seconds

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager]

"AutoChkTimeOut"=dword:00000003

Disable Automatic Restart in the event of a System Crash / BSOD

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\CrashControl]

"AutoReboot"=dword:00000000

Disable The Windows XP Desktop Cleanup Wizard (Unused Desktop Shortcuts)

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Desktop\CleanupWiz]

"NoRun"=dword:00000001

Speed up Network Browsing by Removing Network Scheduled Tasks

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{D627 7990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}]

Disables Windows Take A Tour Bubble Popup

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Applets\Tour]

"RunCount"=dword:00000000

Disable Remote Registry Service (Remote users to modify registry settings on your computer. Now registry can be modified only by users on your computer)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\RemoteRegistry]

"Start"=dword:00000004

Removes the Recent Documents from the Start menu. The system saves a shortcut to each of the non-program files the user opened most recently, and it displays the shortcuts on the Recent Documents.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"NoRecentDocsMenu"=dword:00000001

Classic Search, Full Path In Title Bar And Address Bar. This allows you to disable the new Search Assistant Dog and use the traditional search interface in Windows Explorer

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\CabinetState]

"FullPath"=dword:00000000

"FullPathAddress"=dword:00000001

"Use Search Asst"="no"

"Settings"=hex:0c,00,02,00,1b,01,e7,77,60,00,00,00

Have you ever wanted to Rename Recycle Bin ? This Tweak Allows Renaming of Recycle Bin

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]

"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20

"CallForAttributes"=dword:00000000

Are you getting 'Low Disk Space Notification' ? This Disables Low Diskspace Warnings

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"NoLowDiskSpaceChecks"=dword:00000001

Do you want to Speedup the Windows XP Start Menu?

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]

"MenuShowDelay"="2"

Maximize Your Internet Explorer's Simultaneous Downloads From 2 to 10 Connections

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Internet Settings]

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:0000000a

"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:0000000a

Remove the Queue-it-up, Burn to CD right cl!ck options on Windows Media Player files.

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{CE3FB1D1-02AE-4a5f-A6E9-D9F1B4073E6C}]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{F1B9284F-E9DC-4e68-9D7E-42362A59F0FD}]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{8DD448E6-C188-4aed-AF92-44956194EB1F}]

Removes Sign up with Passport Wizard when trying to sign in MSN Messenger First time

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Internet Settings\Passport]

"RegistrationCompleted"=dword:00000001

Disables Preview (Thumbnails) of Movie File Formats (Allowing You To Move/Rename/Delete without Errors)

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.avi\ShellEx]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpg\ShellEx]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpe\ShellEx]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpeg\ShellEx]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mov\ShellEx]

Open Explorer From My Computer or Any Folder (Power users love this)

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell]

@="explore"

Remove 'Shortcut To ...' Prefix when you create new Shortcut

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer]

"link"=hex:00,00,00,00

This **** 'Command Prompt here' on Right cl!ck Menu (When you right cl!ck on a Drive/Folder)

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Command Prompt Here]

@="Command &Prompt Here"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Command Prompt Here\command]

@="cmd.exe /k cd %1 "

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\Command Prompt Here]

@="Command &Prompt Here"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\Command Prompt Here\command]

@="cmd.exe /k cd %1 "

Remove Shared Documents folders from My Computer System Folder

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\DelegateF olders\{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}]

Disable the Unread Mail Message on the Welcome Screen

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\UnreadMail\]

"MessageExpiryDays"=dword:00000000

Disable Compress Old Files (This is useful when Disk Cleanup Tool Stops Responding While Compressing Old Files)

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress old files]

Windows Explorer Crashes When Opening Folder Containing avi/video files

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shel lex\PropertyHandler]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D9 4-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32]

ANY MISTAKE DONE IN EDITIN REGISTRY IT CAN LEAD TO SYSTEM FAILURE.

DO AT UR OWN RISK.....

Send Out Executable Files Via Gmail

As a security measure to prevent the intrusion of potential viruses, Gmail strictly disallows users to send and receive executable files (files with the extension ".exe", ".dll", ".ocx" or ".bat") in its policy. If you try to send these files, Gmail will send you an error message: "This is an executable file. For security reasons, Gmail does not allow you to send this type of file." You might try to zip or compress the files into other formats such as ".zip", ".tar", ".tgz", ".taz", ".z" or ".gz". However, your Gmail account will bounce back your message. How to send executable files with your Gmail account if you really need to do so?

Of course the easiest way is to use other email services such as Yahoo to send your important executable files. However, if you are still set on using Gmail to send your executable files, there are a few ways you can try: -

1. You can rename your executable files from the "exe" extension to other formats such as "doc", "jpeg", etc. For instance, your file name is happy.exe; just rename your file to happy.doc and send it over to the receivers. Once the receivers have received the files, they just need to change the extension back to the original file extension.

2. The other way you can try is upload your executable files to some free file hosting service such as DivShare or Rapidshare. Copy down the link and send it to the receivers. It's pretty straightforward.

3. The last option you can try is to compress your executable file by using Winrar. Gmails doesn't scan files in the RAR format. You can send the file out without a problem. However, you must make sure your receivers can open the RAR files

50GB online storage (FREE)

2009-12-17T21:09:00.000+08:00

I just want to share this site I've found

http://www.adrive.com/

some FAQ's

Which file types can I upload to ADrive?
All file types.

Will my files or account ever expire?
We do not expire, nor delete any user accounts or files.

What is the upload limit on a single file?
At the moment, the largest file size that can be uploaded is 2 gigabytes (2048 megabytes). :-o

How fast will my uploads/downloads go?
We do not limit your transfer speeds but, many other variables such as the volume of traffic at any given moment may slow this down.

This is neat and I believe you will love this website for uploading.By uploading here, you can upload bigger size files and a permanent storage. Try to upload big file by using this online server storage and avoid mobilesmania server for bigger files. It will make our forum faster.

Transfer File FAST and EASY

2009-12-17T20:42:00.001+08:00

Are you getting upset to transfer files and took hours to complete? well here's the solution to you guys out there! I'll introduce to you TeraCopy PRO. This software let's you transfer files in NO TIME!!! FAST and EASY! I recommend this software to you guys! Especially transfer MORE than a GIG! You can pause, resume and abort.

I also provide mirror to download the program:
FileFront
Megaupload

I also provide a key and the software itself.

Features:
TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, providing the user a lot of features:

* Copy files faster. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.
* Pause and resume file transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click.
* Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer.
* Interactive file list. TeraCopy shows failed file transfers and lets you fix the problem and recopy only problem files.
* Shell integration. TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy and move functions, allowing you work with files as usual.
* Full Unicode support.

Install the reg key:
go to MENU>ABOUT>enter registration key at the text box

The Ultimate Guide to Speeding Up Windows 7

2009-12-17T20:31:00.002+08:00

Speed Up the Windows 7 Boot Speed

A simple tweak will help you to decrease the boot time of windows 7. You will be benefited by this tweak only if you have a multiple core processor. These days most of the computers have a dual core or quad core or something better than that CPU's.

1) Press [Win] + R or take the RUN option from the start menu.

2) Now type msconfig in there and press Enter Key to open up the System Configuration Window. Click on the Boot tab in there. You will see a box called Time out. This is the time (in sec) which the system waits for the user to select the operating system to boot to. then set it to 3 or more (which ever is convenient).

3) Now after doing the above step click the " Advanced Options " button. The Boot Advanced Options Window will then pop up.

4) Tick the check box saying "Number of Processors". Now click on the drop down box and select the maximum number of processor cores (might be 2 or more).

5) Press " OK " and also tick the " No GUI Boot " option too.

6) Click " Apply "and then on " OK " and that's it.

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Disable The Aero Theme on Windows

The Aero user interface certainly adds some " Eyecandy " to Windows 7 but certainly is a resource hog especially when, what you expect from windows 7 is more performance juice. Aero user interface squeezes your graphics or video card to its maximum. So why cant we just avoid theWindows 7 aero? if we care more about speed and performance in Windows so Disabling the Aero in Windows 7 certainly adds an extra speed boost to it.

1) Right Click on your Desktop and select " Personalize " click the Window Color Tab.

2) Uncheck the Box saying " Enable Transparency " and then click on " Open classic appearance properties for more color options"

3) Then a window will open up. Apply a Standard or Basic theme from it. The Standard Windows 7 theme is more preferred.

Disabling the aero theme alone in Windows 7 will really speed things up.

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Disabling the Unwanted Visual Effects in Windows 7 to Speed Up more

1) For this right click on "Computer" and select "Properties" from the right click menu.

2) Click on " Advanced System Settings " from the left pane to open up the " System Properties " window.

3) Select the "Advanced" tab from it. Then Under " Performance " click " Settings ". Choose " Custom: " Options From it.

4) Now untick all the options and select only the last four options

5) Now just logoff your system and turn logon.

You will now notice the speed difference now.

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Disabling the Unwanted Services to Speed up Windows 7

There are many services in windows 7 that we dont require for our daily use. There are some exceptional cases though. Services such as "print spooler" is only needed when we use a printer. If we use a printer only occasionally we can safely turn off that service in Windows 7 and turn it on only when we need to take a print.

Here is a list of services that can safely be disabled; to disable them, go to "run", then type "services.msc" and a window will pop up, right click the service then select "disable"

1. Application Experience

2. Computer Browser (If your PC does not connect to any network)

3. Desktop Window Manager Session Manager (If you don't want the aero effects)

4. Diagnostic Policy Service

5. Distributed Link Tracking Client

6. IP Helper

7. Offline Files

8. Portable Device Enumerator Service

9. Print Spooler (If you do not use Printer)

10. Protected Storage

11. Remote Registry (You can safely disable it for more Security)

12. Secondary Logon

13. Security Center

14. Server (If your computer do not connect with any network)

15. Tablet PC Input Service

16. TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper

17. Themes ( If you want any aero and good visual appearence (classic theme will be applied))

18. Windows Error Reporting Service

19. Windows Media Center Service Launcher

20. Windows Search (If you rarely use Windows Search feature )

21. Windows Time (If you do not want to synchronize system time with internet time automatically)

Disabling the unneeded services in Windows 7 can really speed up the system boot time.

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Disable the User account control (UAC) Feature in Windows

The User account control (UAC) feature in Windows 7 is very annoying though it says it can protect your computer from harmful virus activity etc. But if you are a daily user of your computer thiswindows 7 feature will be a total nuisance to you.

1) From the Control Panel open the " User Accounts and Family Safety " > User Account.

2) Click the User Account Control settings link.

3) Now just Drag the Slider towards "Never Notify".

4) Click "OK" and Reboot your system.

Disabling UAC is for advanced users only i don't recommend doing it if not

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SetUp the Windows 7 Ready Boost Service for an Extra Speed Boost

The ready boost feature in Windows 7 will help you to use your flash drive or pendrive or USB drive as Ram there by improving the performance and speed of windows 7 greatly. You can certainly experience it when launching bulky applications such as Adobe Photoshop etc.

1) To configure the Ready Boost Feature in Windows 7 you need to have a High Speed Flash/USB or Pendrive with you which is ready boost compatible.

2) After plugging you pendrive, open "Computer" > Right-click the on USB Drive/Pendrive > select "Ready Boost" tab > tick the "Use this device" checkbox.

3) You can configure how much space on your USB drive/ Pendrive to be used as Ram. Hit "OK" and your done

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Turn off Unused Windows 7 Features

There are many feature in windows 7 that we often dont use. Disabling these unused features in Windows 7 will really help in speeding things up.

1) Open up " Programs and Features " from Control Panel.

2) Click the " Turn Windows features on or off " from the left pane.

3) Now uncheck all the Feature that you don't use in Windows 7 and restart the system for the changes to take effect. (I personally turned off Games and Tablet PC Input)

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Disable the Windows 7 Sidebar (Actually the Gadgets)

Disabling the window 7 sidebar is definitely help you to to gain a few seconds during start up time. There are many useful utilities such as the RocketDock etc. which are good application launchers.

To Disable the Sidebar in Windows 7,

1) Right click on the sidebar and select " Properties ".

2) On the properties windows Untick the check box showing " Start sidebar when Windows Starts "

From now on windows sidebar won't start when windows 7 start up.

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Change the Power Plan To Maximum Performance

The Power settings in Windows 7 is not automatically set for maximum performance. By default the power plan in Windows 7 is set for a balanced performance with energy consumption on hardware. So you may not get the optimal performance from windows 7 if this is the case. So we need to change the power plan to High Performance Mode.

1) Double click the " Power Options " in the Control panel.

2) Click the down arrow showing " Show Additional Plans " to see the " High Performance " power plan

3) Now just activate the " High Performance " plan and that's it.

4)You may go for the advanced settings for further tweaking if you want

NB: I use a laptop so I kept my settings on balanced to save power

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Disable the Thumbnail Preview Feature to speed up File browsing in Windows 7

The thumbnail preview feature in Windows 7 will show the small thumbnails of the contents of a folder instead of showing it's icon. But this feature really do take up some system resources. So by disabling the Thumbnail Preview feature in Windows 7 the file browsing in Windows 7 explorer can be speed up.

For disabling thumbnails in Windows 7,

1) Double Click on " Computer " >click on the "Organize" drop-down menu and select the "Folder and Search options"

2) Under ‘Files and Folders’ section, go to the "View" tab and tick the check box showing "Always show icons, never thumbnails" check-box.

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Most Essential Software's To Speed Up Windows 7

In order to maintain your Windows 7 Performance and keep it up in Top Shape there are some very essential software's that can help us to Speed Windows 7. I will list some of them here. You can download these utilities. But i remind you that you need to run these utilities at least once in a week. Only if you do it regularly your Windows 7 will be in top shape every day.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner - Cleans Up Your Registry

Auslogics Disk Defragment - Best Defragger For your HardDrive

CCleaner - Cleans the Crap from your Computer - Works Amazingly Well

Teracopy - Speeds up copying (Much better than the windows copier, works amazingly well with memory cards and usb's)

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Registry Tweaks to Speed Up Windows 7

Here are some registry teaks that can be used to speed up windows 7 even more. I have complied only the safest tweaks that can be applied to your PC. Apart from speeding up windows 7 they will also add some functionality in windows like adding Copy to / Move to in right click context menu to speed up your daily tasks.

Link to Download - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CV7J63B2

Just extract using Winrar and read the "readme.txt" file found inside

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Disable Unwanted Start Up Items and Speed Up Windows 7 Start Up

This really matters when you have installed a lot of softwares on your PC. Many software such as AcdSee will run services such as device detector etc during the system start up. These are of no use actually for most windows users. So preventing such services from starting up during the start up of windows 7 can result in quicker start Ups. This will actually save some seconds during windows 7 start up.

1) Type " msconfig " in the "RUN" option from start menu press [Enter] to open up the System Configuration Utility.

2) Now navigate to the "StartUp" tab.

3) Untick the Entries which are not needed (I disabled everything except my virus protection)

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Disable Unwanted System Sounds in Windows 7

In order to play the sounds you hear in windows 7, system resources are being utilized. So if you can disable these sound effects you can gain some speed and also free some system resources too.

To disable the system sounds in Windows 7,

1) Type mmsys.cpl in RUN From the Windows 7 Startmenu search box and press [Enter].

2) Navigate to the "Sounds" tab.

3)Now from under "Sound Scheme:" select "No Sounds" > Click "Apply" > "OK".

4) You can keep some of your favorite sounds turned on if you want, but sounds played during the Windows 7 start up, shutdown, Logon, logoff, start navigation etc should be set to none if you want some real speed boost.

10 Reasons Why PCs Crash You Must Know

2009-12-16T19:26:00.001+08:00

Here are some reasons why PCs crash

Fatal error:

The system has become unstable or is busy," it says. "Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications."

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?

1. Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.

For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.

Often if a device has a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is PM for the Link. If the device is a sound card, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

2. Bad Ram

Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force thecomputer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ramproblem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.

3. BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and thecomputer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze thecomputer's display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).

4. Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open theWindows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

5. Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.

These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Settings

Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.

If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card's manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

6. Viruses

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.

An excellent antivirus programme is McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates . Another is Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec.

7. Printers

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer's performance.

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.

8. Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don't do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message "Starting Windows" press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn't work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.

9. Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from PM me for the link or PM for the Link

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

10. Power supply problems

With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.

If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.

Enjoy