Intresting Facts and Tutorials

Make any song on your computer a ringtone on your iPhone

2008-07-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

So after a bit of reading I've figured out a way to make your own ringtones out of any song on your computer for your iPhone.

It goes like this.

1. Add file(s) to your iTunes library.

2. Right click Get Info, then options tab.

3. Make the start time and stop time the duration of the ringtone you'd like to use (no longer than 40 seconds though). For example, if you'd like to use the first 40 seconds of a song, make the start time 0:00 and the end time 0:40. If you want to use from 1:40-2:20 then do it like that, just make sure you use whichever part of the song you want to be your ringer and also make sure it doesn't exceed 40 seconds. After you've selected which part of the song will be your ringer, click OK.

4. Right click the song, and click 'Convert Selection to AAC'.

5. Go to your desktop, and make a folder called Ringtones. Once you've done that, go back to iTunes, right click the newly created clip and click copy. Paste it in the folder you just made.

6. Rename the file from whateversongyoupicked.m4a to whateversongyoupicked.m4r (in order to see file extensions you might have to play with your settings a bit) (whateversongyoupicked is just the example, you don't need to change the name of the song, just the extension).

7. Go back to iTunes, and delete the 40 second AAC clip you've made, but be sure to keep the file!

8. Sync/Resync your iPhone, and it should automatically add the file to your ringtone folder.

Free, easy, hackless.

How to Double Firefox Speed

2008-07-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

Firefox is in my opinion the best browser ever made until now. It includes:
-improved tabbed browsing
-pop up blocking
-integrated Goggle search
-enhanced privacy controls
-built-in phishing protection
-online spell checking
-lots of themes, interfaces, and extensions/addons

Mozilla Firefox officially supports:
-Microsoft Windows
-Linux
-Mac OS X

Unofficial Support:
-Free BSD
-OS/2
-Solaris
-SkyOS
-BeOS
-XP Professional x64 Edition

Now here are some Tips&Tricks that can help you double the speed of Firefox.

1. Type about:config in the address bar and then press Enter.

2. In the filter search bar type network.http.pipelining. Be sure the value field is set true,if not double-click to set true. HTTP is the application-layer protocol that most web pages are transferred with. In HTTP 1.1, multiple requests can be sent before any responses are received. This is known as pipelining. Pipelining reduces page loading times, but not all servers support it.

3. Go back to the filter search bar and type network.http.pipelining.maxrequests. Double-click this option and set its value to 8.

4. In the filter search bar and type network.http.proxy.pipelining. Once opened doubleclick on it and set it to true.

5. In IPv6-capable DNS servers, an IPv4 address may be returned when an IPv6 address is requested. It is possible for Mozilla to recover from this misinformation, but a significant delay is introduced.
Type network.dns.disableIPv6 in the filter search bar and set this option to true by double clicking on it.

6. CONTENT INTERRUPT PARSING
This preference controls if the application will interrupt parsing a page to respond to UI events. It does not exist by default. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window, select New and then Boolean from the pop-up menu. Then:
A. Enter content.interrupt.parsing in the New boolean value pop-up window and click OK
B. When prompted to choose the value for the new boolean, select true and click OK.

7. Rather than wait until a page has completely downloaded to display it to the user, Mozilla applications will regularly render what has been received to that point. This option controls the maximum amount of time the application will be unresponsive while rendering pages. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window, select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Enter content.max.tokenizing.time in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 2250000 and click OK.

8. CONTENT NOTIFY INTERVAL
This option sets the minimum amount of time to wait between reflows. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window, select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Type content.notify.interval in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 750000 and click OK.

9. CONTENT NOTIFY ONTIMER
A. This option sets if to reflow pages at an interval any higher than that specified by content.notify.interval. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Boolean from the pop-up menu.
B. Type content.notify.ontimer in the New boolean value pop-up window and click OK.
C. You will be prompted to choose the value for the new boolean. Select true and click OK.

10. Notify Backoffcount
This option controls the maximum number of times the content will do timer-based reflows. After this number has been reached, the page will only reflow once it is finished downloading. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Enter content.notify.backoffcount in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 5 and click OK.

11. CONTENT SWITCH THRESHOLD
You can interact with a loading page when content.interrupt.parsing is set to true. When a page is loading, the application has two modes: a high frequency interrupt mode and a low frequency interrupt mode. The first one interrupts the parser more frequently to allow for greater UI responsiveness during page load.
The low frequency interrupt mode interrupts the parser less frequently to allow for quicker page load. The application enters high frequency interrupt mode when you move the mouse or type on the keyboard and switch back to low frequency mode when you had no activity for a certain amount of time. This preference controls that amount of time. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Enter content.switch.threshold in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 750000 and click OK.

12. NGLAYOUT INITIALPAINT DELAY
Mozilla applications render web pages incrementally, they display what’s been received
of a page before the entire page has been downloaded. Since the start of a web page
normally doesn’t have much useful information to display, Mozilla applications will wait
a short interval before first rendering a page. This preference controls that interval. Rightclick (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Enter nglayout.initialpaint.delay in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 0 and click OK.

15 Top Windows XP secrets

2008-07-14T01:13:00.001-07:00

1. Useful key shortcuts available:

- Windows key + D - shows the desktop
- Windows key + M - minimizes all open windows
- Windows key + Shift + M - maximizes all open windows
- Windows key + E - Runs Windows Explorer
- Windows key + R - shows the RUN dialog
- Windows key + F - shows Search window
- Windows key + Break - shows System Properties box
- Windows key + TAB - Go through taskbar applications
- Windows key + PAUSE Display the System Properties dialog box
- Windows key + U Open Utility Manager
- ALT + TAB - Cycle through opened applications
- Hold down CTRL while dragging an item to Copy it
- CTRL + ESC Display the Start menu
- ALT + ENTER View the properties for the selected item
- F4 key Display the Address bar list in My Computer or
- NUM LOCK + Asterisk (*) Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder

2. Lock Windows to protect computer
You can lock Windows to protect the computer when leaving the station easily by creating a shortcut with the path rundll32.exeuser32.dll, LockWorkStation. The Windows key + L is also a shortcut to this feature.

3. Edit sysoc.inf to list all software
To show all software that can be removed from your computer (including protected Windows services), you can manually edit (using notepad for example) the sysoc.inf file located in Windows\inf\. Just remove the word hide next to the software pack.
*Note* - use this at your own risk. Removing critical components of the system will make Windows instable.

4. Windows XP comes with IPv4 and IPv6
Windows XP comes both IPv4 and IPv6 support. To enable IPv6, you can install the protocols needed with the command "ipv6 install" in the command-prompt. Then type ipv6 /? to see the options. The installation will not remove the IPv4 protocols so your current configuration will still work.

5. Access Task Manager with shortcut
To access the Task Manager easier, you can make a shortcut that points to %windir%\system32\taskmgr.exe.

6. Stop treating ZIP files like Folders
If you don't want your Windows XP to treat ZIP files like folders, you can disable this component by running regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll at the command prompt or Run dialog. If you start missing it, you can enable it by typing regsvr32 zipfldr.dll.

7. Run program as diffrent user
You can run a program as a different user. Right click an application and select Run As command.

8. Switch users leaving applications opened
You can switch users leaving the applications opened too (*NOTE* use this only when needed since it could lead to system instability).
Go to Task Manager - processes and end the process explorer.exe. This will end only your session and not all applications. Then go to Applications tab, click New task and type runas /user:domainname\username explorer.exe. A password prompt will appear to login to the desired username. The user's session will start, with all your previously applications running.
I recommend to open first a command-line prompt and type runas /? to see all the options available.

9. Rename multiple files in Windows at once
Rename multiple files in Windows at once. Select them all, right click and select Rename. Enter the desired name. They will be renamed using what you specified, with a number in brackets to distinguish them.

10. Task kill feature in Windows
Windows has a task kill feature similar to Linux. Go to a command prompt and run the command tasklist to see running processes with PID numbers. Then type tskill to end the specific task. This forces an instant closing of the task.

11. Edit features with GPEDIT.MSC
You can edit many features by running gpedit.msc. You can add log on/log off scripts here and many features.

12. Edit accounts in the command prompt
You can edit accounts by running "control userpasswords2" at the command prompt.

13. Use systeminfo.exe to see System Information
You can use the systeminfo.exe command in the command prompt to see System Information, including all Windows updates and hotfixes.

14. Disable system services for maximum performance
There are system services that you can disable to free up the system's load. To access the interface that permits you to make changes to system's services, type services.msc and the command prompt.
This is a list of services that are *usually* useless and can be safely disabled.
Alerter
Application Layer Gateway Service,
Application Management
Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Transfer
Clipbook
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinater
Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching Compatibility
IMAPI CD-Burning
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
Messenger
Net Logon
Net Meeting
Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Secondary Logon
Smartcard
SSDP Discovery Service
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Webclient
Wireless Zero Configuration
WMI Performance Adaptor

*NOTE*: Make sure you don't need them since some applications you're using could depend on them. If you make any application to fail by disabling any of the services, go back and enable it again.

15. Repair Windows XP by using the XP installation CD
If your system failes to start due to an error related to missing HAL.DLL, invalid Boot.ini or any other critical system boot files you can repair this by using the XP installation CD. Simply boot from your XP Setup CD and enter the Recovery Console. Then run "attrib -H -R -S" on the C:\Boot.ini file and delete it. Run "Bootcfg /Rebuild" and then Fixboot.

A Great Cool Google trick

2008-07-10T06:38:00.000-07:00

1. Go to
http://www.google.com

2. Click "images"
3. Fill in "bikes, flowers, cars" or any other word.
4. You will get a page with a lot of images thumb nailed.
5. Now delete the URL on the address bar
(example: http://images.google.nl/images?hl=nl&q=flowers&btnG=Afbeeldingen+zoeken&gbv=2)

6. Copy the script down here, and paste it in your address bar :

Job at Google : Working in Heaven ?

2008-06-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

We already knew that working for Google had certain advantages, but, believe me, this giant of the search motor takes the welfare of its employees seriously ... as shown by this decompression (stress) capsule that is impermeable to sound and light ...

Visit to Google's European center in Zurich

MOVING AROUND: A slide allows quick access from different floors ... There are also poles available ... they are similar to the ones used in fire stations.

FOOD: Employees can eat all they want from a vast choice of food and drink.

WORK STATION: Each employee has at least two large screens. There are 4-6 'Zooglers' per office.

INNOVATION: Large boards are available just about everywere because "ideas don't always come when seated in the office" says one of Googles managers.

LEISURE: Pool tables, video games etc. are available in many areas.

COMMUNICATION: On each floor, there are private cabin areas where employees can attend to personal affairs.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT: Problem with your computer ? No problem ... Bring it to this area where drinks are available while it is being fixed ...

HEALTH: Professional masseurs (eusses) available.

REST: This room provides massage chairs that you control ... while you view relaxing aquariums ... !!!

Now tell ,wanna work with Google ?,

Qualities of a Highly Profitable Webmasters

2008-06-24T00:43:00.000-07:00

This article details a few simple things that seasoned webmasters do that allow them to pull ahead of their competition. As a savvy web hosting customer and webmaster, these are steps you can take yourself.

Off-site Backups - It amazes me whenever I hear of a website hosting user complaining about "that great twenty-dollars-a-year website host I was using that disappeared and took all my files with them!" This is a consistent complaint in the industry, and it is so easily prevented. How do savvy webmasters avoid losing their files? Keep a backup either at your physical location, or on a web server in a different geographical region than the one your website is hosted on.
Independent Domain Registration - The second most-common complaint is a domain name that is held hostage by a web host, either because of misunderstanding between the client and the host, or because of an underhanded host. How can you prevent this? Register your domain name at GoDaddy.com, Netsol, Register.com, eNom, or one of the other domain registrars. Then, just point the domain to your hosting account. This way, if your host goes under or you decide to cancel your hosting account, you won't have to worry about losing your domain.
Good Client-Host Host-Client Relationship - As lame as it may sound, it helps to have a positive relationship with your host. You need to trust them 100%, and they need to trust you 100%. If this is not the case, neither one of you are benefiting the other, and it is a relationship that should be broken off.
Regular Website Updates - Want to know what irks users more than anything else? A website that never changes! Even if you have only five minutes a day to devote to managing your site, you should have some little tidbit of information that changes on a daily or weekly basis. Site visitors like to know that there is really a living, breathing thing on the other side of that website, and one way to convey this is by showing change.
Prompt Reply to Emails - Well, maybe this irks users more than anything else. It's probably a toss-up between points four and five. But the point is this: When someone sends you an email, they expect it to be answered right away. So answer it right away! If you can't do this, hire someone who can. One of the best things you can do for your company's image is to answer every single customer inquiry in a super-fast manner. Not only does this impress your customers, it also shows them that you truly care.

Follow this advice, and I guarantee you'll see more success from your web-based business!

Courtesy : Webhosting Talk

Building A Personal Computer Tutorial

2008-06-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

Introduction

In this tutorial I will try an teach you how to successfully build your own computer! There are many benefits to building your own computer.

1. You get hand's on experience learning how a computer works
2. Its a hell of alot less expensive then buying one from a retailer
3. Its a hell of alot more reliable than buying one from a retailer being that you hand select QUALITY parts and put it togethor yourself.
4. You can do your own tech support no more relying on stupid Best Buy Tech's that don't know the difference between their ass and a hard disk jumper (don't worry I'll tell you what those are later)

Section #1 (What Your Going To Need)

Here we will discuss a list of the parts you need and the best place to purchase them. If you want the best
prices on computer hardware you will definitly want to look online. Unfortunatly (and for some of you very fortunatly
if you know what I mean) this requires the use of a credit card. Below is a general list of the devices you will
need...

1. A Computer Case (Something To Put All The Computer Parts Togethor In)
* Should only run you about 50 dollars
* Beware the cheap ones with cheap power supplies they will die in a year
2. A Mother Board (Everything Will Be Plugged Into The Mother Board)
3. A Floppy Drive and a CDROM (Should Be Obvious)
4. A Hard Disk (Come In Many Different Flavors and Quality Levels, Stores All The Information In Your Computer)
5. A Video Card (Cheap Stuff, Its What Your Monitor Plugs Into)
6. IDE Controller Ribbon
7. Miscellaneous Accessories

Next we'll take a look at many of the different options you have when buying these pieces of equipment. Your choice
may vary depending on which Operating Systems you plan on running.

Section #2 (Which Brand And Model Should I Buy?)

We'll lets start with your computer case and move all the way down to Miscellaneous Accessories..

1. Computer Case

You will most certainly need an ATX style case with a quality power supply. How do you tell? Well if the case
is only 15-20 bucks theres a pretty good chance its a crappy power supply.

2. A Mother Board

I suggest a quality ASUS (ATX style to match your computer case) mother board its up to you ask your friends.
I've had bad experiences personally with FIC
mother boards.

3. A Floppy Drive and CDROM

Pretty inexpensive stuff, i'd suggest a Sony Floppy drive and a generic CDROM. Doesn't make too much a difference if your
concerned about getting the best price.

4. Hard Disks

Gets alittle tricky. If you want reliability, high speed transfers, and are willing to run Windows I suggest a Western Digital
or a Seagate ULTRA DMA-66. If your not to concerned with speed and want to run a server with Unix i'd go with a Fujitsu or
a Western Digital. Their farely inexpensive but only transfer in 33 megabit bursts as apposed to the DMA-66 which transfer
in 33 megabit bursts. I don't believe Unix currently supports ULTRA DMA-66, but don't quote me on that. Now there's an even faster
transfer rate available via SCSI Hard Disk Controllers, but i'm not about to go into setting up SCSI controllers in this tutorial.
For now we will stick with IDE Hard Disk controllers.

5. Video Cards

Video cards are cheap and if your not a gamer a plain ole gener Cirrus Logic or STB video card will do fine.

6. IDE Controller Ribbon

You'll need 2 different kinds of IDE Ribbon 2 40 pins for your CDROM and Hard Disk and Another with less pins for your floppy.
You can buy these at any local computer store or order them off the web.

7. Miscellaneous Stuff

You may be interested in adding a sound card, ethernet card, and/or 3DFX card to your system. These are relatively easy to do and
I will explain how to add card's to your mother board later.

Section #3 (Where do I buy all this crap!?)

Well if your looking for the best prices online for computer hardware (and this is my unbiast opinion) i'd suggest going to

http://www.pricewatch.com

Section #4 (Lets Assemble!)

This next part is very important so read carefully...

1.

First things first get yourself a clean desk to work on.

2.

Place your ATX stlye computer case on the desk and slide/lift the top off. Inside should be a bunch of wires coming out
of the power supply in the back and a bunch of wires coming out near the face of the box.

3.

The next thing your going to want to do is place your mother board inside the case and fasten it in. Their might be
metal coverings covering the holes in the computer case were the parralel ports and serial ports on the mother board
should poke through, go ahead and poke those out with a screw drive so you can fit the mother board in snuggly. Every
Case fastens mother boards in different ways. Some use plastic pegs, some use metal screws. It will hopefully be obvious
which you have to use.

4.

#4 Once the mother board is mounted properly you will need to fasten the floppy drive, and cdrom into the computer case.
All computer cases store floppy drives differently there maybe a slide out container that you screw them into. You'll
have to make sure that the the floppy drive is right side up (duh!) and that the pins are facing towards the back of the
computer. Installing the CDROM is pretty much the same in all computer cases. Some mounting rails should have come
with your mother board. You need to fasten those to the sides of the CDROM and you should be able to slide it right in
to one of the top bays.

5.

Insert your Video Card. There are presently about 3 differnet forms of slots on your mother board. PCI, ISA, and AGP.
Video Cards are presently made for all 3 of them. AGP stands for "Accelrated Graphics Port" Video Cards made for this
slot are generally more high tech/performance. PCI's work and so do ISA (Althoug ISA is more Old School). Gee how
do I tell the difference? Well AGP slots more than likely is the only small, brown, slot on your mother board. PCI
you probably have the most of these their white and little longer than AGP. ISA, these are longggg and black, ugly.
Insert your Video Card and snug it in there firmly. Don't force it (duh).

6.

Time for that evil Hard Disk installation. We'll Hit hooking up the power supplies and Installing the Hard Disk at the
same time just for fun. Insert the Hard Disk In a very much similar way to the way you inserted the floppy disk. But
Before you do make sure that the jumper settings are correct on the back of Har Disk. Most hard disks are shipped in
single mode, but if you want to run multiple hard disks (which we won't discuss) you need to set the jumpers differently.
Jumpers are little metal prongs connected with little jumpers that complete a connection. You figure it out. Anyway
you got your hard disk in now its time to hook up the power supplies. The hard disk and the CDROM have similar power supp
lies. 3 or 4 prong. Hook those funny looking cords coming out of the back of the power supply into your CDROM and Hard
Disk. Theres a smaller one that hooks into your floppy it should be obvious. Theres a big power supply (the biggest one
in the lot usually made of white plastic) It fits into a slot on your mother board, it is the main power supply to your
mother board. Its kind of tricky to get in so be careful.

7.

Now that you have your Power Supplies hooked up you'll need to connect your Periphrials to your Mother Board. Use the IDE
Controller Ribbon I know you all have. Hey one end goes to your CDROM (make sure the red line on the ribbon "pin 1" is
matched up with the first pin on the back of your CDROM) and the other end goes to your mother board (same deal). The
same goes for your hard disk and yoru floppy. Figure it out its not that difficult. You'll know you did something wrong
when you get a floppy disk fail on boot.

8.

Finishing touches. Don't forget to connect those nasty wires coming out from behind the face of your computer case to
your mother board. They control the on, off, reset, hard disk activity, and power switch. Every mother board is different
so i hope you have a manual with your mother board. Most specify with 2 or 3 character paraphrases that make no sense.
For Example "PWR SWT" = Power Switch "RST SWT" = Reset Switch. Or even more vague than that.

Section #5 (Testing 1, 2, 3)

Ok your ready to give it a whirl, you'll need to get in your system bios. The "DEL" key should usually get you in.
Get it to autodetect your hard disk. Accept the Setting and Save your Configurations. Install Your OS and your ready to go.
That easy!! Ha! you'll prolly have lots of trouble theres a million resources online to help you. Get to it.

Watching divx and mkv with subtitles on XBOX 360

2008-06-20T20:07:00.000-07:00

First of all be aware that doing the following you will need a computer with a windows xp media center or windows vista.

1º Connect your 360 media center, this is quite simple. Make sure that u have your 360 connected by network with your pc and add an extender.

2º Download transcoder 360:

Ref :

http://runtime360.com/projects/transcode-360/transcode-360-download

3º After installing the program make sure u have both subtitles and movie files on the same folder (the file's name size can't be to bigger or they wont be linked)

4º Start windows media center on the 360. Go to the video library, then to the folder where u have the video and instead of pressing A to run it press X and you'll notice there is a new option "MORE". Press A.

When u get to this one press A again:

5º If you have breaks during the movie change the settings of the transcoder. Double click in the lower left icon of the transcoder and set as it is in here:

It also help if you stop the movie at the beginning and let it load for a while.

Note: Transcoder 360 will stream the video data already processed by the pc, therefore if u wish to se HD u'll
need a nice machine

Then do the rest from the third step.
Trying to watch mkv directly without converting doesn't usually work.

Here it is the result, subs are in Portuguese:

Know About BIN / .CUE / .ISO

2008-06-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

1) What is a .BIN? What is a .CUE? What is an .ISO

The .BIN / .CUE CD image format was made popular by the CDRWin software. Afterwards many programs have started supporting or partially supporting it, including: Nero, BlindWrite, CloneCD, FireBurner. The .CUE file contains the track layout information, while the .BIN file holds the actual data.

.ISO is also a CD image format, but is sometimes used for 'ISO9660 format' (standard, recognized by all applications) and sometimes for unique Easy CD ISO format.

2) I have download .BIN&.CUE/.ISO files - what to do with them?

You can burn them to a CD-R or a CD-RW with:

-Alcohol 120% - My favourite, excellent software, easy and yet very advanced (burns ISO, BIN/CUE, CCD, CDI, BWT files!)

Ref : http://www.alcohol-soft.com/

You can also mount image files as virtual CD-ROM drives using
Alcohol 120%
Daemon Tools
There are also several softwares you can use to exploit & manipulate BIN/CUE files in various ways
CDMage

Ref : http://www.geocities.com/cdmage/

IsoBuster
Ref : http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/

3) I have a .BIN file but no .CUE?

.CUE can be made with just Notepad. A typical Playstation(One or 2) .CUE file looks like this:

FILE "image-name.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 1 MODE2/2352
INDEX 1 00:00:00

A typical PC CD-ROM .CUE looks like this:

FILE "image-name.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

"image-name.BIN" being the name of the image file (IWDII.BIN, CIV3.BIN and so on...)

Notice the difference of the track mode - PC-ROMs being Mode 1, Playstations CDs Mode 2 and (Super)Video CDs are also MODE2/2352.

4) How do I make .BIN/.CUE files?

CDRWin or the BIN/CUE format is not ideal for distributing. BlindWrite suite and CloneCD perform a lot better in this purpose and can also handle various copy protections. Both of these softwares can also create .CUE files for increased compatibility

5) I have a .BIN & .CUE, but my CD writing software can't locate the .BIN file?

Edit the .CUE file with Notepad (or similar) and verify that the FILE "C:\path\image.bin" matches the location of your image file

6) Sector sizes of CD image files

When you talk about images must think on SECTORS not on DATA SIZE.

The rules are:

1)A standard 74 min CD is made by 333,000 sectors.
2) Each sector is 2352 bytes big, and contains 2048 bytes of PC (MODE1)Data, 2336 bytes of PSX/VCD (MODE2) Data or 2352 bytes of AUDIO.
3) The difference between secor size and data content are the Headers info and the Error Correction Codes, that are big for Data (high precision required), small for VCD (standard for video) and none for audio.
4)If you extract data in RAW format (standard for creating images) you always extract 2352 bytes per sector, not 2048/2336/2352 bytes depending on data type (basically, you extract the whole sector).

This fact has two main consequences:

a) You can record data at very high speed (40x) without losing information, but if you try to do the same with PSX or Audio you get unredable CD (for PSX) od audio CD with lots of clicks because there are not error correction codes (and error are more likely to occur if you record at high speed.

b) On a 74 min CD you can fit very large RAW images,up to 333,000 x 2352 = 783,216,000 bytes (747 Mb). This should be the upper limit for a RAW image created from a 74 min CD. Remember that if you store standard data (backup files), you can burn only 333,000 x 2048 = 681,984,000 bytes (the well known 650 MB limit).

Please note that an image size is ALWAYS a multple of 2352 bytes (you extract SECTORS), if extracted in RAW mode

Steps to Moving from One Host to Another webhost

2008-06-19T01:50:00.000-07:00

Every webmaster cringes at the thought of moving hosts. Like moving your home it can be messy and sometimes problems arise. But if you follow these simple steps, your move will be less painful.

Backup Backup Backup

If you’ve been diligent with your backups, you’ve got a lot of insurance to fall back on yet always make the latest backup. If you haven’t, before you do anything else, do a backup now. Backup anything and everything you can and don’t forget your database if your site relies on it. Save at least 2 copies and store them separately. One for you to work with, and the other as an archive. Do not underestimate how easy it is to copy over these files as you make changes or simply mess it up.

If you’re moving to a host who has as different control panel, make a manual backup by downloading all your files because different control panels may not be able to restore the backups made by your old host. They also have different directory structures so your file trees will be in a mess. If you need to, make a small note file with notepad with memos for you to remember the old server configurations. This will help you as you make changes on your new host server and save the confusion moving back and forth between hosts. Remember to make the correct transfer type (ASCII or Binary) as you download. If your download is not right chances are you’ll have a tough time getting your site to work on the new host server.

If server logs are especially important, remember to backup those too. There is no good way of moving logs yet because different hosts may log statistics differently. So the best thing to do is to download it and use a log analyzer on your computer to make references to later on.

Gather Odds & Ends

1. A Good FTP program which you should have by now
2. Get your new host server’s DNS
3. It’s also helpful to have a script that tells you the server environments installed on your new host server for quick references.
4. Get the temporary URL on your new host so you can check your site before you make a DNS change.
5. If you have your host control the domain inform them not to change your DNS until you tell them to.
6. If you run scripts:
- Get a copy of the original installation guide and the script. Sometimes after moving the scripts just do not work right so you might need to install the script from scratch.
- Get a list of all the server paths such as Perl, Sendmail and home directory on your new server.
- If your script needs special server modules or programs ensure they are installed and where. Even though these might be covered before you ordered the account with the host but sometimes your host has removed it or haven’t installed it yet.

Inform Your Visitors

It is common and good practice to inform your visitors and customers of the server move. If you run a e-store, this helps assure your customers you have not fled with their money if there is any downtime. Also give an alternate email so you won’t lose emails in the transfer. You might also want to give periodic updates prior, during (if there is downtime) and after. If your site is large, doing this is helpful because your visitors can alert you whenever there is a part of the site not working.

Moving Day

Try to schedule the move at a time where there’s least traffic. Backup again just before you do the move so you’ll have the latest data. Start by first copying or creating your custom error pages onto the new host server. Put a small note in there about the move. You can always remove it later. Then upload the most visible parts of the site first i.e the main pages then move on to the less critical parts of the site. If you have a large site with many divisions you might want to split them across different days and instead move the least critical first. Just ensure you always do a backup before you do any moving. Use the temporary URL to check your site, visiting as many pages as you can.

Changing DNS

Once you’re satisfied, change your DNS over. This typically takes about 24-48 hours so you have time to make some minor changes if need be. You might want to also take this time to modify your old site’s error pages to inform your visitors of the move and give a new URL if there are URL changes. To help you determine if the DNS has resolved, make a small change on the new pages to differentiate between the old and the new.

Monitor

After you’ve moved and the DNS resolved, do not release the old account yet. Keep it as long as two weeks running concurrently. Go back and check the old servers for activity. Check your old email account and if you have a web based contact method on the old server check to see if any communication is left there. Once you’re comfortable all email and traffic is correctly directed to the new host server, you can cancel that account.

Determining How Much Space and Bandwidth You Need to Host Your Site

2008-06-19T01:48:00.000-07:00

There is lots of space and bandwidth talks going on these days with hosting companies trying to surpass each other, customer running after space and bandwidth, seems more of a fashion than any one really knowing what he/she needs in this area, May be this needs to be discussed:-

How much Space you need:

Think of your web hosting account as a sub-directory (or folder) on your hard drive. To determine how much disk space you will need, In Microsoft windows simply open explorer or my computer and click on the folder that contains your web sites files. Create a new folder for your web site if you don't have one and then move all of files you plan to host on the web server into that folder. All you have to do now is right click on your folder to check the size of that folder and now, you know how much disk space you will use on the server. This entire site is around two megs.

How much monthly (bandwidth)Data Transfer do you need:

Try using the following formula to estimate your site's monthly data transfer.

[Average size of your web page(s) + any graphics included within] * [number of visitors you expect each day * number of pages each visitor will view] * [30 days in a month] = Total Monthly Data Transfer Usage.

For example: if we had a site with 30 pages averaging 8 KB each, 50 KB worth of images in each page, and 50 visitors each day who viewed an average of 4 pages, you would have the following formula:[8 KB + 50 KB] * [50 visitors * 4 pages] * [30] = 348,000 KB So we would be using 348,000 KB, or approximately 340 MB, of bandwidth each month. Well within the limitations of our hosting plans.

It's hard to generalize how much data transfer a site will use without looking at it specifically, but in most cases it is very rare for a personal or small business site to use more than one gigabyte (GB) of data transfer in a month. Starting with a data transfer limit of one gigabyte per month is probably appropriate for most new sites. If your average web page is 20Kb in size. 1 Gig of transfer allows for well over 50,000 hits per month at that size! If your average page size is smaller obviously more hits per month.

8 Steps to Choosing the Right Web Host

2008-06-19T01:26:00.000-07:00

First thing I would like to discuss is that price is not everything! Doesn't matter if your paying .99c for hosting and your site is completely unreliable because in the end, you'll lose money over these problems. Let's go through the considerations that you need to ponder in order to ensure that you get what you need. You want to choose the web host that is going to provide your needs as they stand now as well as where they lead to in the future. Here we go:

1. Understand the differing types of hosts: shared, collocated, unmanaged dedicated, and managed dedicated. Is your site brand new with little traffic? In the event your site is a newer domain, you won't need the raw power of a dedicated server unless your site is resource intensive which can include: streaming, video's, proxies and even linking to videos as well can cause a high load on Apache and the CPU(s).

2. Go for stability, not just size. Just because the host if offering you unmetered and unlimited space, doesn't mean you should soley base your decision on that. What good is that account to you when your site is down or the server is overloaded? Research how long the hosting business has been in operation. See if they have recently changed ownership, and if they show positive cash flow.

3. The possession of fully redundant data centers. If you are considering doing business with a smaller hosting vendor, ensure that they have adequate power and connectivity capabilities. Inquire as to the number of lines the facility has. Do they possess an on-site generator? Does the generator receive regular checks and maintenance? What is the average utilization of the connections available?

4. How skilled is their staff? When you need customer service of a technical nature, you need it immediately, right? Find out the availability of their systems administrators. Send them a support ticket and see how fast they respond.

5. Other customer's reviews of the hosting services. Same as any business, the hosting vendor should be able to provide good references.

6. Is the potential host flexible? In the future, your needs may change. Can you upgrade services should the need arise?

7. This step of course, is optional. Make sure that the host does not have blacklisted IPs. The host that you want to do business with would not be one that promotes illegal sites, spammers, or other security issues. You are considering associating your business with this host. You could always ask them what web server they plan to put you on.

8. Begin with and maintain a clear and written understanding of all services and all charges for them. If questions still remain or some terms are unclear it is strongly advised that you ask for clarification before signing up for anything.

If you do your research before beginning business, you will find a better avenue to the successful hosting, and thereby promotion, of your online business. Take your time in making this important decision.

How to download ebooks from google

2008-05-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

As you know Google.com is the most popular search engine in the world.
Here are some tips to helps you find eBooks with Google:
Find Apache's (default) Index page
Try this query:

+("index of") +("/ebooks"|"/book") +(chm|pdf|zip|rar) +apache

To Find a particular eBook file
Try this query:

allinurl: +(rar|chm|zip|pdf|tgz) TheTitle of the book

Listen to any PDF instead of reading

2008-05-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

I just learnt below stuff so lets share it.

You can listen to any PDF instead of reading with Adobe Reader 7.0 or 6.0, and the short cut is:

Ctrl+shift+b - to hear the entire Document
Ctrl+shift+v - to hear the page
Ctrl+shift+c - to resume
Ctrl+shift+e - to stop Open any PDF File

What next? you should test it.

How to make an inexpensive & efficient Computer

2008-05-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

Everyone who owns a computer knows how fast the technology gets outdated in Computer world. A brand new hardware which you buy today might be outdated in 10 days. Now, we just can’t keep on upgrading the hardware always so there comes a point when a user is looking for a cheap & efficient computer system with the ability to upgrade it later as required & having the best value for money. If you don’t play games or play games casually only, then this PC will easily last for 4 years without upgrading anything in it. Even if you play games then small updates will do. you might pay a bit high for the PC but then you will not need to pay a penny on it.

Now, you can go in the market & buy the best product available for your money but is it balanced? Remember, a 80% balanced PC will work better then a 100% high end component based PC as it is more efficient & there are very few flaws. I came across a configuration which I think fits this balanced & efficient PC configuration perfectly with a lot of room to upgrade as required.

CPU & Motherboard = AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ AM2 with Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H. AMD has recently released the 780G chipset which by far is the best Value for Money chipset out there I have seen in a long time & with the Gigabyte motherboard, you get lots of features for such a low price. The feature list of this motherboard is quite long & it has everything you will ever want in a PC. When combined with the Athlon64 CPU, this machine has more then enough power to do anything you throw at it for a really low price.

Although AMD in my opinion is better then Intel when it comes to Value for Money, but if you still want to go with Intel Setup then simply buy Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 along with Asus P5E-VM HDMI. This motherboard has similar features to the AMD 780G chipset based Gigabyte motherboard sans DirectX 10 based onboard graphics. Rest all features are almost similar.

CPU Fan = The stock CPU Fan should be good enough but if you want to further reduce the noise of your computer then you can have a look at Cooler Master Gemini S CPU cooler.

Memory = RAM is relatively cheap these days. It makes perfect sense to for 2X1GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM, If you are not into overclocking then you can buy Corsair Value Select RAM for as low as Rs. 2,000 in the market. You are advised to upgrade to 2X2 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM after about 1 or 2 years when the prices further reduce.

Cabinet & SMPS = Zebronics Cube is something I would recommend for such a PC. It is small, easy to carry & move around, gives enough room for expansion as required. This cabinet comes with a basic 400W SMPS but I would recommend to change it to Cooler Master Extreme power 500W for Rs 2,200. This will provide adequate electricity for the components.

Hard Disk = There is no limit and it depends completely on your requirements. however, as a starting point I would recommend Western Digital SATA2 WD3200AAKS Hard disk with 16 MB Buffer & 320 GB HD space. If you need more space then buy an external HD. If you can pay a it more then look for Western Digital 500GB GreenPower Hard disk. This is a RoHC compliant hard disk & required less power & electricity compared to the above mentioned 320 GB hard disk at a slight price premium but it is worth it as you will save more in electricity bills.

Optical Drive = There are many optical drives in the market right now but one Drive which is enough for needs would be Samsung SH-S203D DVD Writer at Rs 1,200.

Audio & Video = The Gigabyte motherboard already comes with a more then decent onboard audio & video configuration. The Onboard 7.1 channel Realtek ALC889A HD Audio Codec should suffice for all your HTPC needs & the onboard Radeon HD 3400 class graphics should take care of all your non-gaming needs to run the OS. The onboard graphics chip comes with UVD 2.0 which means automatic decoding of HD & VC-1 Content. If you want to upgrade then look no further then a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card for about Rs 4,500 & Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 with 512 MB DDR3 RAM for about 11k. However a separate graphics card & sound card will not be needed as this PC is not meant for serious gaming.

TV Tuner Card = Buy it if you need it else leave it. I would recommend Leadtek Winfast TV2000XP Global Media Center with my eyes closed as this TV Tuner is by far the best analog TV Tuner card I have seen. It is compatible with Windows Media Center & even comes with a Media Center Remote. If you can find the PCI Express X1 based WinFast PxTV1200 Media Center Edition then buy that instead to use that idle PCI Express X1 slot to some good use.

Speakers & Headphones = This is a completely personal choice & I would advice you to go to the market & check yourself after listening to some available models.

If you are looking for headphones then look for Philips HiFi SHP-8900 headphones for Rs 3,500. Not only they look good, but for a headphone of Rs 3,500 they sound astonishingly good. It comes with gold plated 4 meter long OFC cable which is long enough to take it to to the couch too.

For speakers, although you should check yourself in the market but I would say as a starting point look for Creative Gigaworks T20 or Creative I-Trigue T3000 for Stereo Sound.

Webcam = Buy it if you need it. These days webcams start for as low as Rs 500 in the market. Considering the state of Indian broadband, a Microsoft LiveCam VX-1000 should suffice or Frontek Webcam which are surprisingly good for the price at Rs 500.

Keyboard & Mouse = Again, this is a personal preference. Look yourself to judge which keyboard & mouse you find comfortable with your hands & posture. Since this Computer is meant to be a life style PC, better go for Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 set if your budget allows it.

Monitor = LCD Monitors are dirt cheap now so it makes prefect sense to invest in a LCD Monitor instead of a CRT now as monitors easily last for many years & is generally the last hardware component to upgrade. Since this is the HD Era it makes sense to buy a HD certified LCD Monitor such as LG L206WTQ for Rs 10,500. This monitor is 20″ with TN Based panel & HDCP compliancy. You can easily upgrade to a Blu-ray Drive later & still enjoy all your HD Movies as Blu-Ray requires a monitor with HDCP connection. It has a native resolution of 1650X1080 pixels which is more then enough for whatever you want to throw at it, even 720p HD Videos play flawless on this monitor as 1080p will look different from 720p only when seen on a 32″ or higher LCD Display. You can also connect your gaming console such as XBOX 360 or Playstation 3 to this monitor to play games on a wide screen LCD with real HD resolution.

Operating System = With all this perfectly balanced hardware, it would be a shame to use Windows XP which will severely hinder the feature & hardware power of this Machine. On the other hand, 64bit Windows Vista Home Premium for Rs 4.200 will compliment this hardware completely out of the box. It’s more like the OS & this machine are made to complement one another. Once installed & configured for which you can have a look at my article “Using Windows Vista : The MVP Way” & your setup will be like Set it & forget it. Just start the system, work on it & do what ever you want.

If you are into Linux, even then this hardware setup is perfectly suited as the drivers are easily available & since you are into Linux, chances are you are not afraid or tinkering around with the OS. Linux Mint is something I would recommend to start with in this case. You might loose some features such as Blu-ray playback etc with Linux but there are always other ways.

I have written some prices which I personally know, however you can have a look at Lynx India or TheITwares for better idea of approximate prices.

This PC is not supposed to be a high end PC, it is supposed to be a small, silent & “Does your work without hassle” PC.

Using Windows Vista: The MVP Way

2008-05-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

That’s it, I can’t see the slogan “Intel Inside, Idiot outside” coming true & then users blaming Windows just because they don’t know how to work on Windows. No operating system in this world is good enough out of the box, you always need to make it good by installing or removing things you need & don’t need. This is a process which will sure take some time but the process is easy & you can save the files & settings so that you don’t need to do it again & simply use the old settings.

There is a way I use my computer due to which I don’t need to install Windows again & again, like many people do. In my case, it works when I want it to, the way I want it to. I decided to share my deployment expertise here which might help other Windows Vista user. I don’t use many paid apps now, & also use some OSS apps where applicable, so I am making this tutorial in a step by step way.

1) Install Windows Vista, then go to Windows Update & install every update available.

2) If you have a Bluetooth adapter, then don’t forget to install BlueSoleil 5. It is a must have application for all your Bluetooth needs in Windows Vista. Although you can transfer & receive files without BlueSoleil in Vista too, but since it is an OEM bundle, chances are you already have it bundled with your Bluetooth adapter.

3) Make sure you use Ad Muncher, it is a must have application for Windows Vista. Just install it, then run it & forget it, it won’t bug you & do its work automatically. Vista comes with Windows Defender which is good enough for removing Adware & Spyware. If you want something else, there are many free tools to choose from but once u start using Ad Muncher, you won’t need an adware cleaner & you can very well disable Windows Defender.

4) The best torrent client for Windows is un-doubtfully µTorrent. It us low on resources, works the way you want it to work & even provides a WebUI for controlling even when you are away from the computer. Start it, configure the way you want it like setting the folder to download files to, enable port forwarding & that’s it, Just double click on a torrent file & it will do the rest automatically without bugging you. A very good Vistaish skin for uTorrent is the nCore suite.

5) For CD Burning you will be satisfied & surprised by InfraRecorder. It is a very small & simple, easy to use CD Burner with support for writing Audio & Video CD out of the box. It can also make CD Images of your optical CDs. For mounting Virtual CDs there is no better solution then DAEMON Tools for Windows. It hardly has any front end & runs simply from the tray. Install it, then right click on any disk image & select to mount it.

6) A must have Add-on for Internet Explorer 7 in Vista is IE7 Pro, it has one very small but effective Download Manager integrated which works very nicely with IE 7. If this isn’t sufficient for you then you can always use Orbit Downloader. To view the loaded cookies in Windows you can use Cookie Monster.

7) When it comes to IM clients, I recommend using the official IM client due to more features available compared to something like Pidgin.

8 ) For your Image Viewing & Management tasks, you can rely on the inbuilt Windows Photo Gallery or something like Pictomio which uses the power of WPF in Vista. If you can pay, then there is nothing better than ACDSee 10 for Windows. Other good solutions are XNView but I haven’t tried them. You can also use Paint.net which is by far the best free Image editing application for Windows Vista.

9) When it comes to system maintenance, Tune-up utilities is the all in one solution that I use. However you can also use separate applications for maintenance, however other CCleaner, I have not tested the others.

For cleaning temporary & obsolete files, you can use CCleaner

For Registry Cleaning, a simple & effecting solution is Eusing Free Registry Cleaner

For registry defragmenting use Free Registry Defrag/Compact

You can use either the inbuilt defragmentor or use any free defragmenting application like Defraggler or Auslogics Disk Defrag.

10) You must be having a mobile phone, right. If it is Sony Ericsson then make sure you see MyPhoneExplorer & if it is Nokia, then make sure to install Nokia PC Suite for managing everything in your phone

11) A very good & lite PDF reader is Foxit PDF reader , it’s only 2 MB & works wonders however it is good only for simple text PDFs, not those with inbuilt movies or interactive content. For that you should use Adobe Reader which is very fast now & even supports hardware acceleration in Windows Vista something which Foxit lacks. For printing to PDF, have a look at BullZip PDF printer with Ghostscript 8.6. Install it & then you can print any document or web page to PDF.

12) For all your Multimedia needs just install K-Lite Codec Pack. It has FFDShow inbuilt which is the only decoding engine you will ever need. For more formats like Quicktime & Real Media, just install Quicktime Alternative & Real Alternative. These codec come without the player so you can simply use Windows Media Player 11 or Media Player classic to play the videos.

13) The inbuilt security in Vista is quite beefed up, in most cases the default ones are enough. Still if you want to have control over the system, then just install Comodo Personal Firewall which is free for home use. You already have Ad muncher installed so with this firewall it is a killer combination. For your antivirus needs, I would recommend NOD32, the best antivirus for Windows Vista I have ever used. It’s very light on resource usage. For storing your passwords, you can either use Keypass or AI Roboform. Most of the time I have my antivirus disabled & I run it only when I plug in a pen drive of a friend or a CD. It's advisable to download Applications etc from reputed sources like Download.com or FileHippo or Fileforum

14) The Media center application in Vista will take care of all your PVR needs; you can even record TV using it. If your TV tuner card is not supported then have a look at ChrisTV or Media Portal, which is equally good.

15) For converting videos from on format to another, you can use SUPER, although I use Riverpast video cleaner.

16) A must have UI enhancer for Vista is Vize. Install it after you have installed every update for Windows. Vista comes with inbuilt sidebar which brings gadgets to Windows, but if you want a bigger library of Widgets, considers using Yahoo Widgets.

17) Windows Vista comes with Windows Mail inbuilt but it lacks support for Windows Live Mail in it. A better solution is Windows Live Mail desktop using which you can check & access your Yahoo, Gmail & Windows Live Mail. It’s quite simple to use & an All in one E-Mail Client.

18 ) For saving contacts, you can use Windows Contacts. It integrates with WLM Desktop so you don’t have to worry about syncing.

19) For archiving purpose WinRAR is the best but it is paid, however another good & free solution is jZip which integrates in Windows like it is a part of Windows. The shell integration is better than WinRAR. It can open RAR files too, just that you can only make Zip files using it.

20) You can use Winmpy FLV player for playback of FLV files like those downloaded from YouTube.

21) RSS Feeds are a very good way to stay in touch with latest news & articles. Although you can use any of the RSS reader application out there like FeedDaemon etc, but Windows Vista already has a RSS feed reader inbuilt, it’s in IE 7. A simple & easy to navigate RSS feed reader.

22) You can simply use TCPOptomiser to optimize the internet settings of your computer. Just select the speed of your internet connection & select Optimal Settings, then reboot.

23) GSpot is a free utility which identifies the codec required to play an AVI file and supplies other information as well.

24) For recording what you do on the screen I use Snag-It, but you can also use Jing which is free. The only problem is that it saves in Flash video format.

These are all the applications I use in Vista. There are some more professional applications such as 3ds Max & Photoshop CS3 but most home users won't need them.

A quite extensive TweakGuide for Vista can be found here.

Vista has inbuilt instant search but if you manage it like me, you will not need that. I am assuming that you only have 2 partitions in your computer, one C drive for Windows & another E drive for files.

1) Make some folders in E drive named Music, Movies, Documents, Software, Backup, Download, Pictures. Now go to C:\users\your username\ Right click on the appropriate folders & go to properties, then the location tab, then set the location to the folders created in E drive.

The benefit of this is that you don’t have to worry about backing up your data in case of a Virus breakthrough or corrupt windows installation. All you have to do is to insert the vista DVD & repair. All your documents will remain safe.

2) Make a folder inside the folder Backup in E drive with the name “Application files”. This is where you should save your application files like Firefox profile folder, or Windows Live Mail Desktop data folder. This way the application settings will remain same even if you reinstall Windows. In case you have to migrate to a laptop or new computer, just copy the files there. The method to change the folder location should be there in Options or Preference of the application. Like in ACDSee, the option to change the location of Database folder is in Tools->Options-> Database. Just give the path of this application folder & it will take care of the rest.

3) Copy all your songs to the Music folder & videos to Movies folder. Now open WMP 11, Go to tools -> Library -> Monitor folders & give the path of these 2 folders. WMP11 will automatically add new files placed in these folders to the library.

4) Make a shortcut of the download folder & put it in the folder

C:\Users\saurav\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\ SendTo

This way you don’t need to copy files individually when you are trying to copy files from different locations to a particular location. Just right click on files placed in various locations & select downloads from the Sendto Menu. After this just copy the files at once from the download folder to where ever you like.

5) Make a habit of copying downloaded applications or files or documents to their proper location. Like make a folder named Office in the E:\Documents\ folder & place all your office related files there only. This simple task makes life easy.

6) Once Vista is installed, Disable DEP. To do this, go to Start -> Run -> Type “CMD” & enter this command.

bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff

7) Don’t install applications in the default path of program files. Instead, make folders like “User Interface”, “Security” in Program Files folder & install the applications inside them. For example, this is how my Program Files folder looks like, all application released to security such as Firewall, NOD32, Ad Muncher & AI roboform are installed inside the Security Folder, while Codec Pack & Riverpast suite is inside the “Studio” folder.

8 ) Instead of Shutting down the system, Hibernate it.

9) Make links to frequently used folders in the Sidebar of explorer

10) Start up Regedit and navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l]
On the right pane look for the "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" string and change its value to 5000 . Default value is 20000.

11) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\explorer, Create a new string called Max Cached Icons & give it a value of 10000.

12) To change the reserved bandwidth by Windows go to gpedit.msc then to Local Computer -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> QoS Packet Scheduler -> Limit reserved bandwidth Then enable it & change the bandwidth to 0

13) Disable Auto Play from control Panel. This will save you from the nasty virii like Brontok etc which spread via Pen drives.

14) I am not much into gaming these days, but Microsoft started a new program with Vista called, Games for Windows. Once you install a compatible game it automatically shows up in Games explorer, if u run he game from here then Vista automatically disables unused resources, DWM & indexing service for games to run faster & better. If a game is not detected then either follow this tutorial or use Vista Game Explorer Editor

Well, this is just part of how I use my Windows Vista system & how it stays top notch even after months of usage, I will be adding more to this guide soon about how I have made it easy to run Windows here. There are lots more tricks & tweaks, but this is how I use Windows.

How to Block Website without any Software

2008-05-06T05:16:00.001-07:00

Here is the trick how to block website without any software.

Block website without any Software

Go to C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc
Find the File named "HOSTS"
Open the said file with the help of Notepad
Under "127.0.0.1 localhost" just add the site you want to block

e.g.
127.0.0.2 www.orkut.com
127.0.0.3 www.santabanta.com

Save the file & exit notepad. (Some antivirus may prompt you the changes, simple allow the changes to take effect.)

Now both website are blocked at all.

Just add anyother website you want to block but remember last number must increase in every website.

e. g.

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.2 www.orkut.com
127.0.0.3 www.santabanta.com
127.0.0.4 www.google.com

All About Wordpress - Themes, Plugins, Tips and Tweaks

2008-05-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

I have been using wordpress for a long time. People who are already hooked up to it will know that it is a great piece of software and is infinitely extensible. As many people are now turning to hosted wordpress from their free blogs, thought I would share my experiences and resources here.

Official Wordpress Links

Download - http://wordpress.org/download (the main stuff)
Themes - http://themes.wordpress.net (tons of themes can be searched by various conditions)
Plugins - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins (top reason for the popularity of Wordpress)
Documentation a.k.a Codex - http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page (the place you'll probably never visit unless someone says RTFM )
Support Forum - http://wordpress.org/support (the place you'll rush to if you have screwed up your blog big time)

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALLATION

Installation of Wordpress is pretty simple. Just download the zip file, unzip it, edit the 'wp-config-new.php' with your mysql database details and rename it to 'wp-config.php', upload all the files to the server through FTP, point to your domain and complete the installation. Thats it If you are clueless, there is a thread by Giga on installing Wordpress locally. The installation part should come in handy.

THEMES

One of the biggest concern for a wordpress newbie is choosing a right theme for the blog. Settling on a theme is pretty difficult decision to make. Apart from the official links another important website to visit is http://weblogtoolscollection.com by Mark. New themes, Plugins are released here and there is a lot of discussion on Wordpress. So if you are serious about blogging I recommend either visiting it regularly or subscribing to the feed.

A website that is more similar and as useful as the official themes site is http://www.wpthemesfree.com It contains a HUGE collection of wordpress themes on a number of categories. The difference is that the official wordpress theme site (and also the WebLogToolsCollection) does not allow the submission of Sponsored Themes. For more info regarding the issue of sponsored themes visit this site Lorelle.

So If you are undertaking the adventure of finding a great theme for you blog please stop by the following places before you go rampant on Google

10+1 Tips for Choosing a WordPress Theme (Concise and Quick)

Choosing a Wordpress Theme (More Detailed and a bit old. But a 'must read'.)

From The Smashing Magazine Blog (an Excellent Design Resource) :

100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes

83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen

21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant Wordpress Themes

10 Fresh, Elegant and Clean Wordpress Themes

8 Fresh Wordpress Themes

PLUGINS

It is a fact that the number one reason for the popularity of Wordpress is the extensibility through plugins. There are a ton of them out there. Plugins can be easily downloaded from the official plugins directory by searching for what you want. A few resources to look first are listed below:

50 Best WordPress Plugins for Power Blogging

WORDPRESS GOD: 300+ Tools for Running Your WordPress Blog (this is a HUGE page.. its a triumph if you can go through the entire thing )

Photoshop Tutorial : Create Magzine Effect

2008-05-06T05:10:00.000-07:00

I was sick looking at the dull images that come in the newspapers and I really wanted to create some mouth watering effect that the guys here at digit give to their Images.
So I selected any sample image (For this tut you won't need any pictorial guidance....it's so easy!!).

STEP 1: Open your Image In Photoshop.Duplicate the Background Layer. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Give it a gaussian blur of 3 Pixels....6 Pixels in case the image contains too much detail.

STEP 2: Press Ctrl+Shift+F To bring the fade option. Adjust the opacity to 100% and Mode to normal.

STEP 3: Again apply Gaussian Blur of about 4 Pixels.

STEP 4: Again Press Ctrl+Shift+F to bring the fade option. Don't disturb the opacity but change the mode to Soft Light.

YOUR FRONT PAGE MAGZINE EFFECT IS READY

Play DivX/Xvid/MP3 on your Playstation 2

2008-05-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

Do you have a large collection of DVD's or DivX movies in your cub board, but don't know how to play them independently without a desktop PC or don't want to connect your PC to TV via TV-out for obvious reasons or Do you have a Playstation 2 but don't know how to make an optimum use of your investment? In 10 mins you will learn how you can convert your same old PS2 into a Home Entertainment HUB. DVD burners and DVD-Rom's becoming cheaper day-by-day, its really convenient to backup all your movies into DVD's or backup your mini library into compress Xvid or DivX file format. You can store as-many-as six movies into one DVD in Xvid format. Of course you can opt for new DivX players available in market, but wait, are these players good enough? I don't think so.

Why should one opt for PS2 rather than some media player? One, you can play cool PS2 games, all the neighboring kids will envy you and befriend you. Two, you can play DVD's, CD's. Three, you can play DivX and Xvid file format movies. Four, you can listen to all those MP3's that you have collected since 1972. Five, you can play all the movies from USB hard-disk.

Disclaimer! Ensure that you legally own the original movies which you backup in DivX or Xvid formats. I take no responsibility for any damage to your property. Take your own risk.

Step 1:

You Need
Hardware:
Playstation 2
Blank CD
USB Hard Disk (Optional)
Software
CD Gen PS2
SMS Player

Step 2:

SMS is a DivX and MP3 player for the PS2.
Using SMS, you can stream movies and music right to your TV. forget about all the set-top boxes, forget about the 'Media PC', if you have a PS2, you have all the hardware you need.
Features of SMS include:
Smooth DivX AVI Playback at decent resolution
Pan/Scan and zooming
Subtitles support (SRT and SUB)
Visual seek (Fast Forward and Rewind)
Multiple language and character set support for subtitles other than English
MP3 Playback
AC3 Surround Support
Full resolution
Multilanguage
Copy your movies and mp3's to your internal HDD!
SMS will read video files from a variety of sources:
Network Streaming
USB Drives
Hard Drives (both the Official Sony HDD and any normal PC HDD)
CD/DVD-ROM (and NO modchip required!)
SMS can even read DVD-RW discs specially formatted with the DVD-Video filesystem, or CD-R Discs formatted with CDDAFS without needing a modchip or any Swap tricks.
Download SMS Player.
Download CDGenPS2.
Download USB.irx file which is part of Naplink.
Download the SYSTEM.cnf file.
Note: There are other Media players for PS2, But I chose SMS because I find it most efficient.

Step 3:

Extract the CDGenPS2 zip file to any location on your drive. Launch the CDGenPS2 exe file.

Drag all the files in the application which you have download (i.e SMS.elf, USB.irx, System.cnf)

Right click on "System.cnf" and click "Edit", check "Fix LBA", type 12231 in LBA "text box"

Click File->Create CD then Save

Voila! Burn to a CD (not DVD) using any of your favourite CD-Writer software.

Step 4:

Place the newly created CD into your PS2. Power On.

After the SMS player loads up. Replace the CD, with any DVD or CD which contains the DivX / Xvid or MP3's, just browse and play the files.

If you want, I have created a CD-Image for you. Download SMS Player CD-Image Zip, extract it, then burn it to your CD.

Anyone can download from Megaupload. Just follow the steps

2008-04-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

Helo friends..
well i had a big prob downloading fuiles from
megaupload.. but now tehre is a hack for this.
u don't have to install tat stupid toolbar nor wait for hours.
if ur a Firefox user u can download as soon as u punch the link in.
it will not ask u to download toolbar but directly take u to the code..

Here is a crack/trick for Megaupload which stops the message "All download slots... assigned to your country are in use..." from appearing while downloading a file.
Only with Firefox 2.0 (cos i have tested on mine)
Here is solution:

-Go to address bar and type: about:config

-Search for general.useragent.extra.firefox

-Double click on it
-Change the default text with this: Firefox/2.0 MEGAUPLOAD 1.0
-or if you are using 2.0.0.4 version type next: Firefox/2.0.0.4 MEGAUPLOAD 1.0

-Start Downloading witout any Toolbar

This is so easy and within seconds u can resume ur download from Megaupload.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANOTHER WAY

Working for ALL BROSWERS

Having problems with downloading from MEGADOWNLOAD site

use this trick & it is working 100%

Follow THESE instructions if you use IE

1.Go to Start and click Run, then type regedit.

2. Go to: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTW ARE\Micros oft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]

3. Right click on Post Platform > New > String Value.

4. Keep "Alexa Toolbar" as a name for the string. Don't do anything else, or else it won't work.

This tricks the MegaUpload site into believing that you have Alexa Toolbar installed on your PC.

You better do this quickly, because MegaUpload will soon find out about this

Working for FIREFOX ONLY
------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ---------
Start using Mozilla Firefox with extension : - User Agent switcher
------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- -

Download and install it from :

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

01.) Now open Firefox, go to Tools > User Agent Switcher > Options > Options
02.) In the new opened window, click on User Agents
03.) In the next window click on Add
04.) In the next window type information as follows : -

Description : - MEGAUPLOAD
User Agent : -

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

Then Click on OK, again click on OK.

Once you have done this, open Firefox again
Go to Tools > User Agent Switcher > click on MEGAUPLOAD

Now you can enter a downlaod link in the address bar & hurray no SLOTS issue !!!!!!!

How To BackUp Your DVD's

2008-04-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

How to Back Up Your DVD's by mcp2

First of all you will need:

- DVD Decrypter
- DVD Shrink
- DAEMON Tools

I'm assuming some of you have bought a DVD some time or another, so today you will be able to back them up. I will sub categorize the tutorial by the program you will be using at each point, this tutorial should take no longer than 2 hours MAX and will only require 15 minutes MAX input from you and the rest will be done by your computer.

FIRST, stick in your DVD in your DVD drive but don't let it play.

DVD Decrypter
-------------

DVD Decrypter does what it says on the box, it decrypts your DVD's. DVD Decrypter is one of the most used applications in DVD decypting and is liked allot by the Doom9 community. DVD Decrypter will rip right through 80% or more of copyright protected DVD's.

Open up DVD Decrypter and select your source (your DVD drive), when it has read your DVD it will tell you its region, RCE Protection and the System Protection that is on the DVD but don't worry DVD Decrypter will rip right through them. Next select your Destination, this is where the ripped copy will be placed so make sure the destination is somewhere on your hard drive. After you have selected your source and destination you will select the mode in which DVD Decrypter will rip your DVD, in this tutorial we will be using the ISO mode, to turn DVD Decrypter into ISO mode you simply click Mode >> ISO >> Read R, to complete this section of the tutorial you just have to click the image which looks like a DVD which has an arrow pointing to a hard drive and you're done. You can now eject your DVD from the drive.

DAEMON Tools
------------

DAEMON Tools is a virtualization utility that can create up to 4 virtual drives on your computer, these virtual drives can be used to play CD/DVD-ROM images in quite allot of formats including ISO, MDS and NRG.

Open up DAEMON Tools and you see nothing happens, thats because it has placed itself in bottom right hand side of your screen as an icon. We are going to mount the DVD ISO on a virtual drive, we do this by right clicking the icon the click on Virtual CD/DVD-ROM >> Device 0: [E:] No Media (the device number and drive letter could be anything), then click on Mount Image, a file browser windows pops up and from there you navigate to where your ISO image is and select it, your computer now thinks that you have placed a DVD into your DVD Drive and will want to play so just exit and you can now go onto part 3 of the tutorial where you will be using DVD Shrink.

DVD Shrink
----------

DVD Shrink is a tool that will let you re-author your DVD's, it lets you reduce the DVD file size and remove the copy protection and encryption. It reduces the DVD size to fit onto one DVD-R without any visible loss of quality.

Open up DVD Shrink. Click on the Open Disc button and select the virtual DVD drive and click OK. Now what we want to do is reduce the DVD size by re-authoring it, what we are going to do is take out some of the extra features in the DVD like the Extras and Menus so it will fit on one DVD-R. Click on the Re-author button up top an the main window should change, in this DVD we are only going to keep the main movie and nothing more. The right hand pane should be split up into 3 sections Menus, Main Movie and Extras, under Main Movie it should say Title 1, right click it and select Add and the Title 1 should be added to the left pane as well, the left pane tells you what will be on the DVD. Above the right pane there should be two buttons DVD Browser and Compression Settings, click on Compression Settings. One in the Compression Settings view click on Title 1 in the left pane and the right pane should change. The right pane right now is split into 3 sections Video, Audio and Subpicture. Video tells you what the compression rate is, Audio tells you audio streams are in the movie and Subpicture tells you what subtitles are in the movie. Now, we want to reduce the DVD size even more so we are going to untick all the subpictures and any other Audio stream that is not English, you should see that the compression rate has increased because we are removing more features from the DVD. We are finished with our editing now onto creating the ISO file. Click on the Backup button up top and a new window should pop up, this is where we change all the output options. Under "Select Backup Target" there should be a drop down menu, you can either burn the edited DVD onto a DVD, create ISO image, create ISO image and burn it with DVD Decrypter or save the DVD files (VOB's, IFO's etc.) on the hard drive, we are going to select ISO Image File. Under "Select Target Image File" there should be a browse button which should bring up a file browser window where you select your where you want to save the ISO. We are done with the file type now we have to set the DVD Region, click on DVD Region up top, the window should change and Region Free should be selected, if it's not the select and under Provider ID put your name or handle. Making the DVD Region Free will allow it to be played on any DVD player. Now we are going to edit the Quality Settings, click on the Quality Settings button up top and tick the first box and the second box, in the second box's drop down menu select "Sharp (Default)" this will increase the time it will take to transcode the DVD but will result in better quality, you may choose "Maximum Sharpness" if you wish. Next click on Options and select "Run backup in low priority mode" this is if you want to use the computer while it's backing up the DVD. We're nearlly finished now, click on Burn Settings and give the ISO a volume label or leave it how it is. Now that everything has be selected all you have to do now is click OK and it should begin to back up your DVD.

One it has finished backing up your DVD you can right click on the DAEMON Tools icon select Virtual CD/DVD-ROM >> Unmount all drives. If you want to test the ISO file, right click on the DAEMON Tools icon select Virtual CD/DVD-ROM >> Device 0: [E:] No Media >> Mount Image and navigate to the ISO file.

Now that you have seen that the ISO file is fine and working you can now burn it onto a DVD with the burning software of your choice, I recommend Nero.

P.S For some of the DVD's that can't be ripped I suggest your use DVDFab Decrypter instead of DVD Decrypter which is also free.

How to Customize Right Click Menus

2008-04-22T03:52:00.000-07:00

Till now you simply learnt how to delete the special system folders by deleting a registry key, but the hack would have been better if there was a way of adding the DELETE and RENAME option to the right click context menus of these special folders. You can actually change the right click context menu of any system folder and add any of the following options: RENAME, DELETE, CUT, COPY, PASTE and lots more.

This hack too requires you to know the CLSID value of the system folder whose menu you want to customize. In this section, I have taken up Recycle Bin as the folder whose context menu I am going to edit.

First launch the registry editor and open the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder.

In case you want to edit some other folder like say the FONTS folder, then you will open the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{CLSID VALUE HERE}\ShellFolder.

In the right pane there will be a DWORD value names attributes. Now consider the following options:

1.To add the Rename option to the menu, change the value of Attributes to

50 01 00 20

2. To add the Delete option to the menu, change the value of Attributes to

60 01 00 20

3. To add both the Rename & Delete options to the menu, change the value of Attributes to

70,01,00,20

4. Add Copy to the menu, change Attributes to

41 01 00 20

5. Add Cut to the menu, change Attributes to

42 01 00 20

6. Add Copy & Cut to the menu, change Attributes to

43 01 00 20

7. Add Paste to the menu, change Attributes to

44 01 00 20

8. Add Copy & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to

45 01 00 20

9. Add Cut & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to

46 01 00 20

10. Add all Cut, Copy & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to

47 01 00 20

11. We want to add only the Rename option to the right click context menu of the Recycle Bin, so change the value of attributes to:

50 01 00 20

Press F5 to refresh and then after rebooting you will find that when you right click on the Recycle Bin a RENAME option pops up too.

12. To reset the default Windows options change the value of Attributes back to

40 01 00 20

The Registry File which one can create for the above process would be something like the below:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\Shell-Folder]
"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20

How to do a GIF animation

2008-04-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Preparing the windows for an animation:

First open up Gimp, now go to file->New.

Make the dimensions 65x65.

Now for this tutorial I'm going to be making the image transparent.(If you don't want it transparent ignore this step)

Select the background layer and cut out the image(ctrl + x)

Step 2: Starting the animation:

Now if your animating you'll certainly need something to work with.

Open up a sprite sheet, and pick out a series of movements.
Now cut out the first pose that you'll be using, then switch over to your 65x65 image.
Now go to Layer->New Layer.

Paste the sprite in now.

Continue doing the following for the remaining sprites (in order)

Cut sprite out, switch over to animation window, make new layer then paste the sprite.

Important:You have to make the images overlap or else it will end up jerky.

Step 3: Saving it as a GIF.

Now you're ready to save it.

Warning: The following step is optional, only do it if your file size is really large!

Before you do that:

If you want to decrease file size you can do the following:

1.Filters->Animation->Optimize for Gif.
2.Image->Mode->Indexed. Now click on "Generate Optimum Palette", choose a number.(some numbers may change the colors disaplayed.)

Go to File-Save as...
Save it as a GIF.

Make sure that you have "Save as animation" checked off.

Click on export and one final window should pop up.

On this window you'll have to do a couple of things:
1.Make sure "Loop forever" is checked.(If you don't want a looped animation, don't check this)
2.Under "Frame disposal where unspecified:" scroll down and select "One frame per layer (replace)"

Doing the above will make your animation look good, and make it continually loop.

The Mother of All Error Messages

2008-04-21T22:08:00.001-07:00

Get it here

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q276304