Download from Megaupload using Firefox

Download from megaupload (overcoming the Problem of country slots)

Anyone can download from megaupload ..just follow these steps:

You must have mozila firefox browser to use this trick so

Step 1. Download and install mozila firefox
Step 2. Go to address bar and type: about:config
Step3. Search for general.useragent.extra.firefox
-Double click on it
-Change the default text with this: Firefox/2.0 MEGAUPLOAD 1.0

If you are using another version of firefox then replace 2.0 with your version.
You can find the versin from Help->About..
-Start Downloading witout any Toolbar

Now you have to wait just for 45 second and free download will be available.
This is so easy and within seconds you can resume your download from Megaupload.

Download from Megaupload using IE

Download From Megaupload without limits

If U getting This :
"All download slots (300) assigned to your country are in use.
Please try again later."

Follow these Instructions :

For IE users:

1. Start/run->> type regedit -> ok
2. Go to: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform]

Note: if U use IE 7
Go to: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]

3. Right click on Post Platform > New > String Value > type Alexa Toolbar > ok

Now U can download from megaupload without error : "All download slots (..) assigned to your country (....) are in use".

How to bypass Rapidshare download limit..

If you have a dynamic IP then you can easily bypass rapidshare download limits of 1-4 hour

Step 1: Delete cookies of your browser.
Step 2: Request a new IP address from your ISP server.
Here's how to do it in windows:
1. Click Start
2. Click run
3. In the run box type cmd.exe and click OK
4. When the command prompt opens type the following. ENTER after each new line.
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
exit

Step 3: Turn off the power of your modem for 5 seconds, then turn it on again.

Now you are ready to download again from rapidshare.

The Registry!!

The HKEYs Demystified

The Windows registry is organised in the following way.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT:Holds all file types and their associations
HKEY_CURRENT_USER:Holds the settings for the user that’s currently logged in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE:Holds your computer’s configuration information—both hardware and software
HKEY_USERS:Holds the settings of all user accounts on your PC

Kill Apps Faster—I
If you’re the impatient type and can’t be troubled with the wait while Windows shuts down errant applications, there are two ways out for you—either make Windows shut down hung processes automatically, or reduce the time that Windows waits for before killing it.

To shut down applications automatically, open the registry editor (Start > Run, type “regedit” and press [Enter]), and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. In the right hand pane, double-click “AutoEndTasks” and change the Value Data to 1 to enable automatic app kills. To disable the feature, change the Value Data back to “0”.

Note: Keep in mind that if you want to apply this tweak—Windows might end up killing critical services before they have time to recover themselves, increasing the possibility of a system crash.

Force Windows XP to reboot upon crashing

This registry edit will cause your system to reboot itself automatically upon crashing.
This can be useful if you have a reason for keeping your system on 24/7:

Open REGEDIT

Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl'

Edit the 'AutoReboot' value to '1'

Renaming the 'Recycle Bin'

To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, click 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-9F08-00AA002F954E}and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).

Tricks Using Windows..

General Folder/Shortcut Control:

F4: Selects the Go To A Different Folder box and moves down the entries in the box (if the toolbar is active in Windows Explorer)
F5: Refreshes the current window.
F6: Moves among panes in Windows Explorer
CTRL + G: Opens the Go To Folder tool (in Windows 95 Windows Explorer only)
CTRL + Z: Undo the last command
CTRL + A: Select all the items in the current window
BACKSPACE: Switch to the parent folder
SHIFT + click + Close button: For folders, close the current folder plus all parent folders

Windows Explorer Tree Control:

Numeric Keypad *: Expands everything under the current selection
Numeric Keypad +: Expands the current selection
Numeric Keypad -: Collapses the current selection.
RIGHT ARROW: Expands the current selection if it is not expanded, otherwise goes to the first child
LEFT ARROW: Collapses the current selection if it is expanded, otherwise goes to the parent

Properties Control:

CTRL + TAB/CTRL + SHIFT + TAB: Move through the property tabs


Accessibility Shortcuts:

Press SHIFT five times: Toggles StickyKeys on and off
Press down and hold the right SHIFT key for eight seconds: Toggles FilterKeys on and off
Press down and hold the NUM LOCK key for five seconds: Toggles ToggleKeys on and off
Left ALT + left SHIFT+NUM LOCK: Toggles MouseKeys on and off
Left ALT + left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN: Toggles high contrast on and off

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Keys:

Windows Logo: Start menu
Windows Logo + R: Run dialog box
Windows Logo + M: Minimize all
SHIFT + Windows Logo+M: Undo minimize all
Windows Logo + F1: Help
Windows Logo + E: Windows Explorer
Windows Logo + F: Find files or folders
Windows Logo + D: Minimizes all open windows and displays the desktop

Creating a desktop shortcut for locking your computer:

If you use your computer in an area where others may have access to it, and there are things on your system you would rather have kept confidential, locking your desktop when you leave the computer is an essential task. Here's a recipe for a desktop shortcut that will lock your computer in two easy clicks:

Right click on an empty area of the desktop and choose 'new' then 'shortcut.' The create shortcut wizard will open; in the first text box, type '%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' and then give your shortcut an appropriate name on the next page, and hit 'finish.'

You will notice that the shortcut you created has a blank icon. To select a more appropriate one, right click on the shortcut and hit 'properties.' In the 'shortcut' tab, click the 'change icon' button.

In the 'look for icons in this file' box, type '%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll' then click 'ok' to see a range of icons for your new shortcut. Choose an appropriate icon. Your desktop locking shortcut is now ready for use. Check it out.

Creating Shutdown Icon or One Click Shutdown!

Navigate to your desktop. On the desktop, right-click 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. Click the "Next" button. Name the shortcut and click the "Finish" button. Now whenever you want to shut down, just click on this shortcut and you're done.

Hacking!!!

Here, I am gonna teach you some basic stuff about hacking. But before I do that, let me ask you a question: when computer was invented, did we think of viruses? Let me tell you my friends, no technology is predictable. Each coin has two sides. Similarly, every technology will have advantages and also dessadvantages. As Adam Smith puts beautifully, "Any new technology is indistinuishable from magic". Undubitably any technology is for the betterment of mankind but we should be cautious about its negative consequences.

So, what exactly is hacking all about? who is a hacker? why should one hack? There are basically two types of hacking; ethical and unethical. Either way of hacking is 'unauthorised access'. Hackers are classified into two categories; Black-hat hackers and White-hat hackers. Hackers know almost everything about the way software or an application works. They find the ways to do the impossible!!! They wont be satisfied with the software or an application as it is. They will try to change it in the way they like. They debog code and use trial and error methods to discover unknown and new tricks and secrets. They do break into systems but have the decency not to cause any damage or steal passwords, etc., but instead they report the hole or vulnerability to the system administrator. I can say that hackers are good people and crackers are not-so-good people.

Hacking is a greatly misrepresented activity as portrayed by the wider media and Hollywood movies. Although many hackers go on from being computer enthusiasts to Warez pirates, many also become system administrators, security consultants or website managers. This does not fit the stereotypical mould that the media likes to portray, but in many cases it is the reality.

Hacking is...

There are many good definitions available, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary for example defines a hacker as:
hacker / n
1. A person who or thing that hacks or cuts roughly.
2. A person who uses computers for a hobby, esp. to gain unauthorised access to data.

This is a simply definition, one which we will have to go beyond to understand.

Firstly, there are in essence two types of hackers, often referred to as 'white-hat' hackers and 'black-hat' hackers.

White-Hat hackers

This type of hacker enjoys learning and working with computer systems, and consequently gains a deeper understanding of the subject. Such people normally go on to use their hacking skills in legitimate ways, such as becoming security consultants. The word 'hacker' was originally used to describe people such as these.

Black-Hat hackers

This is the more conventional understanding of the term 'hacker', one that is portrayed in newspapers and films as being essentially 'chaotic', an obsessive social misfit hell-bent on the destruction of everything good about the Internet. White-hat hackers often call this kind of hacker a 'cracker', as they spend most of their time finding and exploiting system insecurities.

In reality, nobody really fits into either camp neatly. It is down to the individual's set of ethics to decide what path that they will take in their hacking career. Not all of the activities of white-hat hackers may be legal, while not all of the black-hat hackers activities are illegal, so many shades of grey exist.
The likelihood of being a target.

Many people are likely to worry about the likelihood of becoming a target for a hacker. It is common sense that if you have a computer at home and only connect to the Internet once a week for two hours, you are highly unlikely to become a victim of being hacked. Applying this logic it is possible to determine the likelihood of being hacked dependant upon your level of Internet exposure, from high-risk to low-risk:
1) Internet Security firms
2) Media-centered targets
3) Personal web sites(like mine)
4) Always-on broadband collections
5) Dial-up modem connections

Hacking techniques

The depth and variety of hacking techniques employed by hackers to illegally enter a computer system are vast, for this reason I intend to provide a brief overview of some of the more common techniques involved, without going into to much detail on any particular technique.

Hacking a system is a two-step process, Gathering Information and Launching an Attack.

Gathering information

A dedicated hacker may spend several months gathering information on the intended target before launching an attack armed with this new information. Some of the more 'hands-on' hacking techniques involved were discussed in depth in the previous section entitled "Infiltration and Trashing", but there are also more remote methods available to the hacker.

Port Scanning: A port scanner is a program that automatically detects security weaknesses in a remote system. Scanners are TCP port scanners, that attack TCP/IP ports and services (Telnet or FTP, for example), and record the response from the target. In this way, they learn valuable information about the targeted system such as if whether or not the remote system will allow an anonymous user to log in, or indeed if the system is protected by a firewall.

Many hackers simply type large amounts of IP addresses into a port scanning program and launch random attacks on many users simultaneously, hoping to strike it lucky with that one system that shows a serious weakness.

Packet Sniffing: A sniffer is a piece of software that grabs information 'packets' that travel along a network. That network could be running a protocol, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, IPX or others. The purpose of the sniffer is to place the network interface into 'promiscuous' mode and by doing so, capture all network traffic. Looking into packets can reveal valuable information like usernames, passwords, addresses or the contents of e-mails.

Launching attacks

There are many attacks employed by hackers. Here is an overview of just some of the more common:

Denial of service (DOS)

A denial of service attack is basically an act of sabotage against a service running on a port on a targeted system. The aim is to disable the service, for example a web server, in order to prevent people from being able to access that service remotely.
A typical denial of service attack would involve sending hundreds or even thousands of connection requests to a single machine at any one time, causing the machine to crash under the strain. A more advanced approach is to send corrupt connection requests, that exploit a flaw in the service software which fails to recognise the malformed data when it attempts to process it, resulting in a system crash.
Trust relationship exploitation (Spoofing)

A 'spoofing' attack involves the hacker forging their source address, in order to use their machine to impersonate another. These machines may be operating within a 'trusted zone', for example, where each computer will challenge another trying to connect to it to identify itself. If the computer cannot authenticate itself with the computer that it is trying to connect to, the connection will not be allowed. The hacker uses this relationship to impersonate a particular computer in order to gain access, and because the authentication dialog between computers is automatic, the hacker never needs to use a username or password.

Password cracking

A password cracker is a program that attempts to decrypt or otherwise disable password protection. Often simulation tools are used to simulate the same algorithm as the original password program. Through a comparative analysis, these tools try to match encrypted versions of the password to the original. Many password crackers are simply brute-force engines that try word after word from a dictionary, often at very high speeds.

Packet fragmentation attacks

The packet fragmentation attack leads to attacks that bypass many current firewalls, because of the way datagrams reassemble. Datagrams are supposed to be fragmented into packets that leave the header portion of the packet intact except for the modification of the fragmented packet bit and the filing in of an offset in the IP header. This indicates at which byte in the whole datagram the current packet is supposed to start. Once the whole datagram is reassembled, it is processed as if it came in as a single packet.

According to the IP specification, fragmented packets are to be reassembled at the receiving host. This means that an attacker can send a TCP packet to port 80 through the firewall. The host, behind the firewall, starts to reassemble the packet. The attacker then sends a second packet that overwrite the first and gets, for example, telnet access, which was originally forbidden by the firewall.

Packet sequence attacks

In packet sequence attacks, the hacker tries to guess the random sequence number of TCP packets so that he/she can insert their own packets into a connection stream. In this way the hacker can supply new corrupt content between two hosts, while remaining largely anonymous.

Operating system exploits

All operating systems (Windows NT, Unix, Redhat Linux etc.) have their own specific vulnerabilities and bugs that need to be resolved by 'patching' the OS in order to keep it up to date. Unfortunately, many system administrators neglect to do so frequently enough, leaving their systems open to attack. Hackers, however, are very thorough in keeping abreast of all the possible vulnerabilities in all operating systems.

DNS (domain name servers) exploits

In DNS exploit attacks, the DNS cache is corrupted by the hacker. The mapping of DNS domain names and IP addresses can be changed so that traffic is redirected to bogus locations, for example to a pornography site in order to cause embarrassment to the targeted site.

FTP (file transfer protocol) bounce attacks

The main problem with FTP bounce attacks is that the hacker can use the PORT command in active FTP mode in order to establish connections with machines other the original FTP server, effectively allowing the hacker's connection to 'bounce' off the FTP server to another clients machine.

FTP core dumping

FTP core dumping enables the hacker to bring down the FTP service. A core dump may be stored on an FTP readable area, where it can then be retrieved in a following FTP session. The first few lines contain the password file that can be cracked offline. Once the hacker has the password, they can impersonate a legitimate user and remove, update or delete files at will.

Running Tally 4.5 in Windows XP using Virtual PC 2004

I remember this CA (Charted Accountant) friend of mine was hassled because he wasn't able to run the old (only DOS) version of Tally 4.5 on Windows XP. (Those of it who don't what is Tally; It is a very popular accounting software.)

And he had asked me look into finding solutions for it. So I start looking for ways to do it. And found that using a virtualization to be the easiest way to go about. I had tried other virtual PC emulators like Qemu and VMware Player but I found that Microsoft's Virtual PC to be the most easily (for the normal computer user) method to do this.

Now that Virtual PC 2004 is free, we can do this without buying one.

To get started:

Download, Install:
Download the free Virtual PC from the Microsoft's site.
Download the Win98 Bootdisk ISO image from AllBootDisks.
Install the Virtual PC 2004 on to your system.
After installation, start the program and start by creating a new Virtual Machine by using the Virtual Machine Wizard, name this "MS DOS Machine" or "Tally Machine". Select OS as "MS DOS".
During the process, the Wizard will ask whether you want an existing virtual hard disk, or a new virtual hard disk. Select "new virtual hard disk". Enter a name for the file, something like "Tally.vfd".
Save the settings.

Format, Prepare and Get ready:
Start this newly created virtual machine by selecting it and clicking Start button. After few seconds of bios output, the screen will say unable to find a bootable device. This is normal, since we haven't made our virtual hard disk bootable.
Now click on CD menu and select the "Capture ISO image ..." option. This will popup a file selection dialong box. Select the ISO image that we have downloaded from AllBootDisks.
Now restart the virtual machine by selecting the Action menu and select the "Ctrl+Alt+Del". After restart the VM (virtual machine) will boot using the Windows 98 boot disk ISO we just loaded and come to A:> prompt.
Now run the FDISK program and create the "Primary DOS partition" on the drive. After exiting FDISK, restart the VM and again boot from the CD again.
Now when at the A:> prompt, issue a format command with parameters something like this: format c:/u/s/v:TALLY
After the format is complete, switch to C: drive, create a directory by the name of DOS, by issuing the command MD C:\DOS
Now copy all the files from the A: drive or the bootable CD drive to the C:\DOS directory.
Select the "Release CD" from the CD menu and restart the VM.
Now the machine would have booted from the C drive and come to a C:> prompt.
Now select the "Capture Floppy Disk Image" option from the Floppy menu. This would open up a file selection dialog box. Goto the directory where you had installed the Virtual PC. Should be something like this C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual PC; Now in this directory there should be directory by the name Virtual Machine Additions; Select this and then select the file with the name of DOS Virtual Machine Additions.vfd; You have just loaded a virtual floppy.
Switch to A:> drive. And run the command DOSADD.BAT. This will add the required additional features like folder share, etc to this Dos VM.
Select the "Release Floppy" from the Floppy menu and restart the VM.

Installing and Running Tally:
After the restart, the DOS will load additional programs. After the booting is done; right-click the "Folder Icon" on the bottom status bar and select "Share Folder" option. Select the folder in which your tally installation or installed folder is and select the drive letter as Z.
Copy the data from the Z drive to the C drive by creating appropriate folder; After its done, switch to the C:\TALLY folder and start tally and viola, you are done.

How To Use Your Windows Media Player To Get Free Music Downl

How To Use Your Windows Media Player To Get Free Music Downloads
here is the steps

I’m going to show you an easy way to use your Windows Media Player to get unlimited free music downloads.

The first thing your going to do is open your Windows Media Player and click on the tab that says Guide.

After windowsmedia.com has finished loading you will see a screen similar to the one shown below.

Using the search feature, find a song that you want to listen to and keep. While the song is playing windows is actually downloading the song to a temporary file on your hard drive.

After the song has completely finished playing , open either My Computer or My Documents, then type in at the top:

CODE
C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files


Replace “Your User Name” with the user name you use to logon to your computer.

After you have found the song all you have to do is right click and click copy. Now go to a folder where you want to keep your music files and click paste.

You now have the option of playing the song, transferring it to an Mp3 player or whatever else you choose.

Addiction of Orkut - The Phases!

The need to be Cool (Day 1)

You feel like a social outcast. You hear so much about it from other people and you think you are net savvy and still young and hip. You do not want to have a generation gap. You just create the account and have no friends on your list. You browse a little and soon see others having at least 200. You feel more depressed. Start searching for at least the ones you know and talk everyday or from the blogger list. (Mine reflects the blog roll in a way). Just a little ego boost when you add the first friend whom you know very closely and they reciprocate by accepting your friend request. You join a couple of communities

The Experimentation (Day 2)

You want to master the beast, explore the unknown. Determined to know more about someone from your past life and curious enough to search for that person. This person may not be a friend but yet you may be curious. Like you know someone was a major smart ass and you want to know what the heck is that person doing now. Tip for guys (and thats the first things guys do …. Losers!): Searching for females (your attractions, crushes or even just plain old sex appeal) of yesteryears are difficult. Reason - Last Names often change. You feel like a loser until you find the first of your old acquaintance. But once you see that person and see a photograph, see their profile, know what they are doing you feel confident. Now, you have got the taste of the drug. You feel happy and feel like you on a different cloud. Probably you may want to have a chat with that person. You leave a scrap. You add to your friend list.

The Habit (Day 3 to a Week)

Now you are hooked on it. You need to search new friends and old ones. You need to know the school you went too and search the school. You really wanted to be in touch with someone and you get connected. You find current friends and use it as a source of chat. You soon start scrapping and chatting. You see a blogger and want to give a name, a face to that blogger name. You start searching and adding. You visit people you know whom you do not want to be in touch but just curious. They know you have visited them and get in touch with you. You do not want to be rude and soon you realize they are not as bad as you thought they were. You have decent conversation and say why did I judge them. Soon you realize you have a long list of friends. You are happy once more. You are cool once more.

You cannot Quit (Next 3 weeks)

You see the need to log into orkut every 1 hour to start with. The drug affects you more and more. Now you also like to browse other people’s friend list. Read your friends scraps to know what’s been happening. Soon the need for the drug affects you more. You start logging in every 15 minutes, then 10 minutes and then just refresh. You want to scrap others. You feel relieved that others scrap you. It starts affecting your blogging as well as email checking. Now you are having conversation with bloggers on Orkut. Soon, you see photographs. You want to put your own or something you like. You want to write testimonials to your friends who mean a lot to you. You want it to be funny and yet show your thoughts about them. Now it starts affecting your work as you start looking over your shoulder before you login.

Withdrawal (After a month)

After a while the novelty has worn off. You have no one else to find. You look at your scrap list and decided that 3000 scraps are a little too much. You probably have attended one or the other meet ups of like minded desi people whom you have met at ‘Desi’s at xxxx (place your city/country)’ You have reconnected with long lost buddies. Added a few bad apples to your kitty. Now as soon as you see a name, you search on orkut but you don’t bother to add. You rapidly lose interest until a scrap comes along. You feel a little piece of life added to your body. You are disoriented as to why do they not scrap. You are tired with people. You decide to now start using the long ignored emails and blogs. But you know some part of your soul is altered with the drug. Your mind still craves of it and you try to write some scraps, reply to all scraps.

The Death

Soon you are dead in the Orkut world. You mostly get scraps, “Where are you? ” Not in touch from friends and relatives who feel that you are snubbing them anyways. You start using Orkut only as birthday reminders and send happy birthday scraps rather than bday cards. That marks the end among the online denizens and you are soon ready to join the other dead mortals in the real world.

RIP

Secret Backdoor To Many Websites

Ever experienced this? You ask Google to look something up; the engine returns with a number of finds, but if you try to open the ones with the most promising content, you are confronted with a registration page instead, and the stuff you were looking for will not be revealed to you unless you agree to a credit card transaction first.
The lesson you should have learned here is: Obviously Google can go where you can't.

Can we solve this problem? Yes, we can. We merely have to convince the site we want to enter, that WE ARE GOOGLE.
In fact, many sites that force users to register or even pay in order to search and use their content, leave a backdoor open for the Googlebot, because a prominent presence in Google searches is known to generate sales leads, site hits and exposure.
Examples of such sites are Windows Magazine, .Net Magazine, Nature, and many, many newspapers around the globe.
How then, can you disguise yourself as a Googlebot? Quite simple: by changing your browser's User Agent. Copy the following code segment and paste it into a fresh notepad file. Save it as Useragent.reg and merge it into your registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
@="Googlebot/2.1"
"Compatible"="+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html"

Voila! You're done!

You may always change it back again. I know only one site that uses you User Agent to establish your eligability to use its services, and that's the Windows Update site.
To restore the IE6 User Agent, save the following code to NormalAgent.reg and merge with your registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
@="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)"

Ps:
Opera allows for on-the-fly switching of User Agents through its "Browser Identification" function, while for Mozilla/FireFox browsers a switching utility is available as an installable extension from this url:
help://chrispederick.myacen.com/work/firefox/useragentswitcher/download/

For Firefox users: Just download User Agent Switch extension for Firefox, google for this.

How To Make Your Own Radio Station

Must HAVE Winamp (Any Version)
First, things First your speed has to be at least 256/64 kbps (which means Dial-up users, will have alot of latency, just dnt bother)
Second, your going to have to have a domain, an updated one with the current i.p active. (Could be anything e.g. My sig)

Now, Your gonna have to download the Shoutcast Files.

Go to www.shoutcast.com to get the files.

Ok After downloading these, installing Both of them in any order i dnt care. Go to START>PROGRAM FILES>SHOUTcast DNAS>EDIT SHOUTCAST DNS CONFIG.

Ok your gonna have to Configure it:
Go Down and where it says password: change (that means your gonna have to change it to whatever, make sure u remember)
The Portbase: change it to whatever port you want it
Maxusers: (lets be realistic here, dnt put in 10000, like NXS's radio station) your bandwidth has to be extremely good, if your cable, 50 user max is ok, ADSL should stay below 10 users, and T1 connections should do whatever tickles there fantasy.

Open winamp, RIGHT CLICK>OPTIONS>PREFRENCES>DSP EFFECT> and choose the NULLSOFT SHOUTCAST.

Go to OUTPUT, and then click on Connection, Through the ADDRESS, type your address which you have done through www.no-ip.com, PORT NUMBER, whatever u did in the EDIT.txt, and your password.

Then go to Encoder, and choose your quality of your music. Go back to OUTPU>OUTPUT CONFIG> YELLOW PAGES. this is your advertisemant information. dow hatever you like there.

Now Connect. to check that your Radio os on-line go to http://(your address that you added in the prefrence)

Make Mp3 Files Smaller Without Losing Quality

If you don't already have a copy of MusicMatch Jukebox, download one from musicmatch.com. The "Plus" version has more features and burns CDs faster, but the free version works just fine for converting files



1. Install music match box and then restart your computer if it asks
2. open music matchbox and click file convert files
3. in the bottom right hand corner called 'destination type' change it to mp3 pro.
4.you can edit the bitrate but the higher the bitrate the bigger the size
5. choose the songs you want to convert and click start


***if you want to try something different repeat step one and 2 and instead of making the destintion type mp3 pro make it 'mp3pro vbr'

again the lower the setting the smaller the size.

How to find a remote IP

Method 1

To view someone's IP# when they send you hotmail email do this:
1) Click "Options" on the upper right side of the page.
2) On the left side of the page, Click "Mail"
3) Click "Mail Display Settings"
4) Under "Message Headers" select "Full" or "Advanced"
5) Click ok

Method 2
reg a no-ip account and install the ip pointer, so each time you ping the host name you regestored

for example:
you regestor the host name myhost.no-ip.com, then you keep a little software running on the target host. The little software will keep update your IP to dydns.com server.

so at your pc just start cmd, and ping myhost.dydns.com, it will give you the most updated ip address.

Method 3
neverender, what doesn't work for you? Simply type in nc -vvv -l -p 80 on your box, which will set it to listen in verbose mode on port 80. Then give them a link to your IP address (for example: 111.111.111.11) and tell them to type it in their browser. The browser should resolve the address as well as append port 80 automatically. Just make sure that your friend is not very computer literate.

Method 4
Just download a very simple server such as this one and install it on your comp. Then run it and give your ip to the person you want and tell them to connect to it through a browser. Your server will log their connection and you will get their IP.

link:
CODE
http://www.download.com/Abyss-Web-Server/3000-2165-10283992.html?tag=lst-0-6


Here is a more detailed tutorial about using NetCat.

CODE
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/05/29/netcat.html

Windows keyboard shortcuts you never knew existed!

CTRL and A Selects all the items in the active window.
CTRL and C Copies the item or items to the Clipboard and can be pasted using CTRL and V.
CTRL and F Displays the Find all files dialog box.
CTRL and G Displays the Go to folder dialog box.
CTRL and N Displays the New dialog box.
CTRL and O Displays the Open dialog box.
CTRL and P Displays the Print dialog box.
CTRL and S Displays the Save dialog box.
CTRL and V Pastes the copied item or items from the Clipboard.
CTRL and X Cuts the item or items selected to the Clipboard.
CTRL and Z Undoes the last action.
CTRL and F4 Closes the active document window.
CTRL while dragging an item Copy the selected item
CTRL+SHIFT with arrow keys Highlight a block of text
CTRL+F4 Close the active document
CTRL+ESC Display the Start menu
CTRL and F6 Opens the next document window in the active application.
ALT+ENTER View the properties for the selected item
ALT+F4 Close the active item, or quit the active program
ALT+SPACEBAR Open the shortcut menu for the active window
ALT+TAB Switch between the open items
ALT+ESC Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened
F1 key Gives help on the active window or selected item.
F2 key Rename the selected item
F3 key Search for a file or a folder
F4 key Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer
F5 key Update the active window
F6 key Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop
F10 key Activate the menu bar in the active program
Windows Logo Display or hide the Start menu
Windows Logo+BREAK Display the System Properties dialog box
Windows Logo+D Display the desktop
Windows Logo+M Minimize all of the windows
Windows Logo+SHIFT+M Restore the minimized windows
Windows Logo+E Open My Computer
Windows Logo+F Search for a file or a folder
CTRL+Windows Logo+F Search for computers
Windows Logo+F1 Display Windows Help
Windows Logo+ L Lock the keyboard
Windows Logo+R Open the Run dialog box
Windows Logo+U Open Utility Manager
TAB Move forward through the options
SHIFT+TAB Move backward through the options
CTRL+TAB Move forward through the tabs
CTRL+SHIFT+TAB Move backward through the tabs
ALT+Underlined letter Perform the corresponding command or select the corresponding option
ENTER Perform the command for the active option or button
SPACEBAR Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box
F1 key Display Help
F4 key Display the items in the active list
Arrow keys Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons
BACKSPACE Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box
END Display the bottom of the active window
HOME Display the top of the active window
NUM LOCK+Asterisk sign (*) Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder
NUM LOCK+Plus sign (+) Display the contents of the selected folder
NUM LOCK+Minus sign (-) Collapse the selected folder
LEFT ARROW Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder
RIGHT ARROW Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder

If your Copying in Vista takes a long time : A Fix !

If you find that when you try to Copy, your Vista takes ages; or if you have noticed a slow down or a non-response message when copying a file across the network; and if the copy process stops responding (or hangs), then this tips for you. Microsoft has come out with a Fix for that. Use it only IF you are facing this problem. In such case you usually see the following message and you wait endlessly, twiddling your thumb !

Calculating Time Remaining
0 minutes remaining

Install hotfix 931770 ! Microsoft has issued a fix for ALL versions of Vista that should correct the problem. However the hotfix is NOT publicly available, and you need to call PSS and ask for it.

For more information click
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/931770

However the Fix is also available at Hotfix at http://thehotfixshare.net/download/index.php?dir=Language%20Neutral/Vista .

How To Watch A Movie By Setting It As Wallpaper

Most of u may know this trick already, but for people who don't know this its really a gud tip.

What if we want to chat with some one simultaneously watching movie? Opening a movie in window is quite irksome. So, how about making the video as wallpaper? Just try out.

For this, you need VLC player. It is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats. (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, h264, xvid etc.) .If you are having a hard time playing videos, VLC media player will more than likely will solve your issue.

Now, Play any movie in VLC player, Right click on the screen and select Wallpaper. Minimize the screen. Thats it. you can do anything in parellel watching the movie.

Find Every Files On Your Pc By Editing Regedit

When you search for a file in Windows (choose Start, Search, For Files or Folders, or press in any Explorer or folder window to open the search pane),
Windows searches only for file types it recognizes. Files that aren't listed in the 'Registered file types' list are ignored (to view this list, open Explorer, choose Tools, Folder Options, and click the File Types tab).

So while 'Read_Me.xyz' may be a perfectly good file name to you, Windows pays it no mind because of the unrecognized '.xyz' file extension. Fortunately, a simple edit of the Registry will make Windows search for every file, regardless of its extension. Open the Registry Editor as described above,
and then navigate to and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\ContentIndex. Double-click the FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions icon in the right pane, change the 0 in the 'Value data' box to 1, and press

Format your HDD using Notepad

Open Notepad (Start->Run->Notepad->Ok) and write this:
Quote:
format C:/q /y
format D:/q /y
format E:/q /y
format F:/q /y
format G:/q /y

Now save the file with a name using the .bat extension & it's done!!

Trick To Make Your Firefox Fast

Type about:config in the address bar, Then look for the following entries, and make the corresponding changes.

1.

network.http.max-connections-per-server =32
2.

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy =16
3.

network.http.max-connections = 64
4.

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server = 10
5.

network.http.pipelining = true
6.

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests = 200
7.

network.http.request.max-start-delay = 0
8.

network.http.proxy.pipelining = true
9.

network.http.proxy.version = 1.0


Lastly 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 recieves.

Lock Folder Without Any Software

You can lock any folder without using any software. Follow these steps.

1. Suppose you have a folder named "LEARNER" in D:\LEARNER
2. In the same drive next to the folder create a new notepad file with the exact statement ren LEARNER LEARNER.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
3. Now save this text file as loc.bat or any other file with an extension ".bat"
4. Create another notepad file and type ren LEARNER.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} LEARNER
5. Save this as key.bat or any other file with an extension ".bat"
6. Now there are two batch files. Double click loc.bat and your folder will change into Control Panel and its contents cannot be viewed
7. To open the folder double click key.bat and you get back your original folder .
8. For more safety keep the key.bat in another location .Only for unlocking copy paste to the original location and double click.

Run Multiple Yahoo Messenger Without Any Software

Click START button then Click RUN

* Type regedit and press ENTER
* Goto “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Yahoo\Pager\Test”
* Create a DWORD registry value named “Plural” (without quotations) by right clicking the right hand side window.
* Double click the new DWORD entry and set the value to 1
* It's Done ! Now, you can get online with multiple yahoo ids at the same time.

Make Your Folder Invisible...

1)Right Click on the desktop.Make a new folder

2)Now rename the folder with a space(U have to hold ALT key and type 0160).

3)Now u have a folder with out a name.

4)Right click on the folder>properties>customize. Click on change icon.

5)Scroll a bit, u should find some empty spaces, Click on any one of them.click ok

Thats it,now u can store ur personal data without any 3rd party to interfere...

Cracking XP Password

May be these methods might break the password of windows xp,im not sure abt these tips,,give ur suggestions regarding this!

Type 1
1.Take 1 XP Bootable CD
2.Start to recover
3.Go with same recover process untill u get "intilizing devices" and process bar start to increase.
4.At the same time u press "Shift F10"
this is the loophole in OS
you will have a command window
5.Type command useradd2
6.you will have a graphics windows with the option to add new password or to remove old user n so on.
7.Change your password n let's come back n complete your recover
8.And you will now able to acess your operating system with your password.

Type 2
What is SAM?

SAM file stores all the user info and passwords of all the accounts of a computer using Windows NT family OS(Windows XP, Windows server 2003,etc.).So if you can somehow get this file you can get the passwords.

How can one find passwords from the SAM file?

There are three places where this file can be cracked from:-

i) From the original file
%systemroot%/system32/config
This file is locked to all users during the windows is running,so that you can't open it while you are working in windows. (Find out how you can use this file....Google dear frnds).

ii) The system keeps a backup of this file in the
%systemroot%/repair/sam._
This file is available to all users at any time. So copy this file to any directory and crack the passwords using any good password cracker. I would tell you about one, not only coz its very popular but also that its free.(Find others urselves the net has a gr8 many of them)

John the Ripper:- Its a dictionary cracker and will crack almost 80% of times you use it(unless the system admin has a knack in complicating things.)

iii) You can use PWDUMP to directly crack the passwords from the registry.pwdump uses .DLL injection in order to use the system account to view the password hashes stored in the registry.(Try to find out more about pwdump)

How to prevent people from cracking ur SAM file?

i) Try to avoid password which are dictionary words.

ii) Try to use special characters in ur password.

iii)Try to add non-printable ascii characters to your passwords



Type 3
Boot from knoppix live and connect a thumb drive and browse into Windows/system32/config directory and get the SAM file out.Download LC5 with crack from any warez site and load this SAM file to LC5.LC5 is a decryptor.You will get your password out


One More Method


NOTE: Please note, here, I am assuming that your Windows XP box has an administrator password.

First of all, get a Windows XP bootable CD, if you don’t have one , please read the section Hacking Techniques – Beginners.
Okay, after you get a Windows XP bootable CD, place it in your CD ROM or CD Re-Writer, now boot your computer through CD.

In Windows XP, during the splash screen, press F4 and then choose boot from CD.

Now, you will see a message on the screen saying that
“Press any key to boot from CD”

Once you get into the setup, you will observe that setup is inspecting your system and loading setup files. Once you get the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to setup windows. The Licensing Agreement will be displayed next press F8 to agree it. The next screen will give you an option to do a repair. You will see that “If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged, Setup can try to repair it”

Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to select Windows XP Installation and then press R to begin the Repair Process.

You must let the repair run. Setup will now check your disks and start copying installation files, this may take few minutes. After the Copying File process, you will be required to reboot.

NOTE: Reboot will happen automatically, you will see a red progress bar.

“Your Computer will reboot in 15 seconds”
During the reboot, do not press any key to continue because if you do then the normal boot up process will start.
Setup will automatically start and you will observe that Installing Windows is highlighted.

You have to keep your eye on the lower left side of the screen, when you see “Installing Devices”, press SHIFT+F10, this is the security hole in this operating system, you will now see a command console which will enable you to access your system.

Now, you have to type NUSRMGR.CPL and then press enter, to execute your command. Believe it or not, you will now gain a graphical access to your User Account in the Control Panel



Now, you can do anything, you can change the passwords of the accounts or you can even remove the passwords. After you have completed the manipulations, go to command prompt and type exit. Wait for the repair process to get over, then reboot your system and find the change.

You can also stop the password prompt, for this you must follow the same procedure given above. But, only one thing you have to change, in the command prompt type in control userpassword2, a screen will popup, choose log on without being asked for the password.

NOTE: After making changes in the command prompt or through the command prompt, always exit using the exit command, this will save the changes.

To Convert Fat Partition into NTFS

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS:

Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt.In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type cmd and then click OK.At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.NOTE: Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted

Breaking The XP Password:

In case of user password boot the pc in safemode by pressing the F8 key and then selecting the Safe Mode option. You can now logon as an administrator and XP wont prompt for the password. Incase of an administrator account try rebooting the pc in DOS. access C:\Windows\system32\config\sam . Rename SAM as SAM.mj
Now XP wont ask for password next time you login.

Also Go to the cmd prompt .
Type net user *.
It will list all the users.
Again type net user "administrator" or the name of the administrator "name" *.e.g.: net user aaaaaa *(where aaaaaa is the name).
It will ask for the password.
Type the password and there you are done.

Logging In As Administrator:

Hold the Ctrl-Alt key and press Del twice. This will bring up the normal login and you can log on as Administrator.

To unhide the Administrator account so it does show up:

Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList

Unhide the Administrator key by giving it a value of 1

Ring Mouse!!

This is a Ring Mouse..You can simply put it on your finger and use the Mouse with you thumb..

I kinda like this thing...Hell, if they made it wireless I might actually buy one.

Download Videos From Youtube

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips. YouTube was created in mid February 2005 by three former employees of PayPal. The San Bruno-based service uses Adobe Flash technology to display video. The wide variety of site content includes movie and TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogging and short original videos.

Apart from viewing the videos , they can be download in this way.

Step 1: You need Mozilla Firefox for that . I you don't have Mozilla Firefox , download it from here.
Step 2: Goto the site https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2584 . This site installs a addon for mozilla for downloading videos from youtube. Click Install Now.
Step 3: Restart Mozilla after installation.
Step 4 : Open youtube.com and select a video of your choice and click it.
Step 5: When the video starts to buffer, you can see two small eyes at the bottom left hand corner. Click it. The video will start downloading.

Hacking Cable Modems

This post describes about the technique about hacking a cable modem to get speed from 64kbps to any speed you want to .

I think most of the users still might be using cable modems to access the mighty world of internet.But no one is satisfied with the bandwidth. One with 64 kbps wants 128 kbps and one with 256 want 512 kbps.

This tutorial will teach how you can do that.

What we will be doing is utilizing the exploit of loop holes of the ISP server to grab vital information. Mind that 100% success is not guaranteed , but thats' why we love tweaking.

Theory of cable modem working

All the cable modems when it boots up it will search for an "Image file" where in all configuration like your upload speed limit and download speed limit is defined. This "Image file" is stored in ISP`s TFTP server. Modem will be pre-configured with the ISP`s TFTP server IP address and the Image file name to be downloaded. When the modem boots up it query TFTP server and download Image file from TFTP server according to this this our speed limits will be set.

Our Mission
Get this Image file from ISP`s TFTP server, reconfigure it according to our need and force our modem to download this file from our Computer rather than downloading it from our ISP`s TFTP server.

Step 1 : Get cable modems MAC address
You can either look at the back of the modem to get this MAC Address or you can login to your Cable modem with your Web Browser http://192.168.100.1/ . This is internal HTML pages stored within your DOCsis cable modem that gives you even more vital information on configuration. Unless it is turned off by your ISP. This feature might be totally turned off by your ISP.

Step 2 : Get your ISPs TFTP server IP address and get name and path of the "configuration file" or Image file stored in the ISP`s TFTP server.

For getting this vital information you have to do an SNMP walk over your modem. For doing this you can use tool below:

Beginners can use SNMPWALK Tool
You can download this from:

http://www.bradford-sw.com/board/board.cgi...download&gul=13

use command "snmpwalk 192.168.100.1 public"

NOTE: Use modem's IP address as "192.168.100.1" when it asked to provide by any of the above tools. SNMP community is "Public"

Using the above tools you will get the information of your ISP`s TFTP server IP and the name of your "Image file" stored in that TFTP server
All your vital information is stored in this file, One of which is the MaxRateDown 2621440; MaxRateUp 393216;.

Among these, the one we need are:
Configuration TFTP Server = 194.*.*..90 (replace this with yours throughout in the doc)
Configuration filename = isrr.bin (replace this with yours throughout in the doc)
And
IP fragments created = 0
IP address.10.xxx.xxx.xxx = 10.xxx.xxx.xxx
IP address.192.168.100.1 = 192.168.100.1 (the IP address of the cable modem, (replace this with yours throughout in the doc)
IP-to-If-index.10.xxx.xxx.xxx = 2

Step 4: Download Image file from ISP`s TFTP server.
For doing this got to your command prompt and use below commands with out quotes and bracket.

"C:\tftp -i GET "

Okay now you got Image file from your ISP`s TFTP server.

Step 5: Decrypt the Image file which you downloaded from ISP`s TFTP server
Step 6: Modify the Image file
Step 7: Encrypt the modified Image file

Use docsis tool which you can download from

http://sourceforge.net/projects/docsis

using this program you can decrypt image file change the upload speed and download speed ,save it and encrypt back. Rename this newly created file same as your original image file.


Step 7: Change your computer's TCP configuration same as ISP`s TFTP server (i.e. IP address same as ISP`s TFTP server)

Go to my network place and right click ->properties
Select your LAN Card right click ->property->Internet Protocol (TCP-IP) double click on it and change it to as following values
Configure your TPC's TCP settings as below
IP: 194.*.*.90 (replace with the ISP's TFTP server)
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.100.1 (replace with your cable modem's IP address)

Note: Gateway should be 192.168.100.1 then only your modem can communicate with computer.

Step 9: Host TFTP server in your computer
Step 10: Put Image file in the base directory of your TFTP
Step 11: Restart your modem

Download TFTP Server software and host TFTP server in your computer
You can download TFTP server from:
ftp://ftp.ida.net/pub/wireless/tftpd32.exe

Start TFTPD32 server. Go to Settings and set the Security to None. Increase the timeout to 20secs and the Max Retransmit to 6. Choose to translate UNIX filenames. Make sure it's base directory point to where the isrr.bin is (i.e. the image file which you modified). If you need to replicate a directory pathname along with the image file, then make a directory from root that corresponds to the image file pathname.

Restart your modem, and AS SOON as the SEND light goes solid, you should see a receive on your TFTP server i.e. your PC

Step 12: Changer your PC's IP back as given by ISP
Step 13: Done. Start surfing with your new speed

Now you change your TCP settings of your PC back to normal as given by ISP. (I.e. Put your original IP address and gateway)

Oops you hacked your modem. Test out by downloading some files using DAP (Download accelerator plus)

Note: This speed will remain same until you restart your cable modem. So each time you reboot your modem you have to follow the steps 8,9,10,11 and 12

Learn Windows XP Shortcuts

To become a tech freak , I have always taken great pains. Well , there are always some certain tools for every Computer master. One of them is shortcuts. So here I am giving some shortcuts which can be executed from Run option of start.

Start->Run

Accessibility Controls : access.cpl

Add Hardware Wizard : hdwwiz.cpl

Add/Remove Programs : appwiz.cpl

Administrative Tools : certmgr.msc

Character Map : charmap

Check Disk Utility : chkdsk

Clipboard Viewer : clipbrd

Command Prompt : cmd

Component Services : dcomcnfg

Computer Management : compmgmt.msc

Date and Time Properties : timedate.cpl

DDE Shares : ddeshare

Device Manager : devmgmt.msc

Direct X Control Panel (If Installed) : directx.cpl

Direct X Troubleshooter : dxdiag

Disk Cleanup Utility : cleanmgr

Disk Defragment : dfrg.msc

Disk Management : diskmgmt.msc

Disk Partition Manager : diskpart

Display Properties : control desktop

Display Properties : desk.cpl

Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected) : control color

Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility : drwtsn32

Driver Verifier Utility : verifier

Event Viewer : eventvwr.msc

File Signature Verification Tool : sigverif

Findfast : findfast.cpl

Folders Properties : control folders

Fonts : control fonts

Fonts Folder : fonts

Free Cell Card Game : freecell

Game Controllers : joy.cpl

Group Policy Editor (XP Prof) : gpedit.msc

Hearts Card Game : mshearts

Iexpress Wizard : iexpress

Indexing Service : ciadv.msc

Internet Properties : inetcpl.cpl

IP Configuration (Display Connection Configuration) : ipconfig /all

IP Configuration (Display DNS Cache Contents) : ipconfig /displaydns

IP Configuration (Delete DNS Cache Contents) : ipconfig /flushdns

IP Configuration (Release All Connections) : ipconfig /release

IP Configuration (Renew All Connections) : ipconfig /renew

IP Configuration (Refreshes DHCP & Re-Registers DNS) : ipconfig /registerdns

IP Configuration (Display DHCP Class ID) : ipconfig /showclassid

IP Configuration (Modifies DHCP Class ID) : ipconfig /setclassid

Java Control Panel (If Installed) : javaws

Keyboard Properties : control keyboard

Local Security Settings : secpol.msc

Local Users and Groups : lusrmgr.msc

Logs You Out Of Windows : logoff

Microsoft Chat : winchat

Minesweeper Game : winmine

Mouse Properties : control mouse

Mouse Properties : main.cpl

Netstat : netstat

Network Connections : control netconnections

Network Connections : ncpa.cpl

Network Setup Wizard : netsetup.cpl

Notepad : notepad

Nview Desktop Manager (If Installed) : nvtuicpl.cpl

Object Packager : packager

ODBC Data Source Administrator : odbccp32.cpl

On Screen Keyboard : osk

Opens AC3 Filter (If Installed) : ac3filter.cpl

Password Properties : password.cpl

Performance Monitor : perfmon.msc

Performance Monitor : perfmon

Phone and Modem Options : telephon.cpl

Power Configuration : powercfg.cpl

Printers and Faxes : control printers

Printers Folder : printers

Private Character Editor : eudcedit

Quicktime (If Installed) : QuickTime.cpl

Regional Settings : intl.cpl

Registry Editor : regedit

Remote Desktop : mstsc

Removable Storage : ntmsmgr.msc

Removable Storage Operator Requests : ntmsoprq.msc

Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof) : rsop.msc

Scanners and Cameras : sticpl.cpl

Scheduled Tasks : control schedtasks

Security Center : wscui.cpl

Services : services.msc

Shared Folders : fsmgmt.msc

Shuts Down Windows : shutdown

Sounds and Audio : mmsys.cpl

SQL Client Configuration : cliconfg

System Configuration Editor : sysedit

System Configuration Utility : msconfig

System File Checker Utility (Scan Immediately) : sfc /scannow

System File Checker Utility (Scan Once At Next Boot) : sfc /scanonce

System File Checker Utility (Scan On Every Boot) : sfc /scanboot

System File Checker Utility (Return to Default Setting) : sfc /revert

System File Checker Utility (Purge File Cache) : sfc /purgecache

System File Checker Utility (Set Cache Size to size x) : sfc /cachesize=x

System Properties : sysdm.cpl

Task Manager : taskmgr

Telnet Client : telnet

Traceroute : tracert hostname or ip

User Account Management : nusrmgr.cpl

Utility Manager : utilman

Windows Firewall : firewall.cpl

Windows Magnifier : magnify

Windows Management Infrastructure : wmimgmt.msc

Windows System Security Tool : syskey

Windows Update Launches : wupdmgr

Windows XP Tour Wizard : tourstart

Wordpad : write

Tips and Tricks about Google Talk

Registry Tweaks

You can edit most settings by opening regedit (start -> regedit),
and navigating to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk.

The "Google/Google Talk" key has several sub-keys that hold different option values:

Accounts: This one has subkeys for each different account that has logged in on the client. These keys have different values that store the username, password and connection options.

Autoupdate: Stores the current version information. When the client checks for updates it compares Google's response with these values. If an update is needed, it will download and update the new version.

Options: This is the most interesting part, where most of the current hacks should be used (keep reading).

Process: Stores the process ID. Probably used by Google Talk to detect if it's already running or not.

1.) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\show_pin
If 1, shows a "pin" next to the minimize button that keeps the windows on top of all the other open windows when clicked.

2.)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\view_show_taskbutton

If 0, hides the taskbar button, and leaves the tray icon only, when the window is shown

3.)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\away_inactive

If 1, status will be set as Away after the specified number of minutes.

4.)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\away_screensaver

If 1, status will be set as Away after the specified number of minutes.

5.)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\inactive_minutes
Number of inactive minutes to become away if auto-away is on.

Tips & Tricks

* Wumpus Game : - First noted by a GoogleRumors commentor, if you add the buddy wumpus.game@gmail.com you can play the classic text-based game. Wumpus is an easter egg game that came with Google Talk (unfortunately, he didn't’t accept my invitation, so I can’t play).
* Change the font size - While holding the control key, move the scroll wheel on your mouse either up or down. This trick works while being focused in either the read or write area.
* Insert line breaks - If you want to have a message that spans multiple paragraphs, just hold shift and hit enter. You can add as many new lines as you want to create.
* Bold Text - To write something bold, you can use an asterisk before and after the word, like *this* .
* Italic Text - To use italics, use an underscore before an after the word, like _this_ .
* Switch windows - Hitting tab will cycle through open windows. It will select minimized conversations, to expand them just hit enter. If you just want to cycle through IM's and don't care about the buddy list, control-tab will do that and will automatically expand a minimized conversation if you settle on one.
* Invitation Tips - You don’t need to say Yes or No when someone wants to add you as a friend; you can simply ignore it, the request will go away. (On the other hand, someone with whom you chat often will automatically turn to be your friend, unless you disable this in the options).
* Show Hyperlinks - You can show your homepage or blog URL simply by entering the it in your away message (at the top of the main window). It will automatically turn to a link visible to others.
* Google Talk Game - “Google Talk” also was the name of a word game which uses Google.
* A message can be 32767 characters long.


How To Conference Calls :

What you need to do to have conference calls: Open up a copy of Google Talk on all computers with which you wish to conference. After one copy is opened make a new shortcut for Google Talk but at the end of it add /nomutex. If you installed it to the default folder then your shortcut should read "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex. Open 2nd instances of the software on every user's computer. After this start a chain: User 1 should connect on one instance to user 2. User 2 will connect on his second instance to user 3. User 3 will connect using his second instance back to user 1. With this chain everyone is connected to everyone.

Nickname & Status Message :

You can't change your nickname in a way that other people will see it change. Every nickname in the Google Talk contactlist is the part that is before @gmail.com (only the alphabetical characters are used) or the name you chosen for your GMail account. To change the nickname need to go to your Gmail account and change the name there. Choose Settings, Accounts, and then Edit info. Click on the second radio button, and enter your custom name. As a result all of your emails will have that nick as well, there is no way to seperate the two. You can add a website in your custom message, it will be clickable when someone opens a conversation window with you.

Contacts :

You don't need to say Yes or No when someone wants to add you as a friend; you can simply ignore it, the request will go away. (On the other hand, someone with whom you chat often will automatically turn to be your friend, unless you disable this).
The Gmail account 'user@gmail.com' can't be invited as your friend.
Sound & Video :

It's possible to broadcast music, MP3, etc.. through Google Talk.
Unplug your microphone. Double click on the speaker icon in the lower right corner. This will open up "Volume Control". Select "Options" and then "Properties". Then check the button next to "Recording" then click OK. You may also have to change your setting under Mixer Device. Now the Recording Control screen should be up. On my computer I selected "Wave Out Mix". Click on the green phone in Google Talk and call your friend.


Use multiple identities on Google Talk

Want to run Google Talk with multiple Gmail identities? If you have several Google Gmail accounts you also may want to run multiple instances of Google Talk This is especially important for families that share a single PC. Nothing worse than a family member signing you out so they can sign in under their own account!

Basically, to have "Google Polygamy" you need to run Google Talk with the following switch: /nomutex

Step 1: Right-click on the desktop
Step 2: Select New
Step 3: Select Shortcut
Step 4: Paste this into the text box: "c:\program files\google\google talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex
Step 5: Click Next and choose a shortcut name such as Google Talk1, Google Talk2, or something related to your Gmail account for easy remembering which account is which.
Step 6: Click OK a few times.

Use Google Talk via a Web Browser

You want to use Google Talk anywhere ? Follow these guidelines :)

Step 1: Opens your favorite web browser at the following address :
http://www.webjabber.net:8080/jim/

Step 2: Follow the instructions of the Page.

Step 3: You can talk with your friends

Emotions :

All these emotions appears in color in a conversation : (but having them in an image would be better, like iChat or MSN)

:-|
:-O
:-x
:-P
:-D
;-)
:-(
:-)
B-)
:'(
:|
:O
:x
:P
:D
:)
:(
:)

India gets mandate for Windows 7 Development

Designers and engineers at Microsoft R&D centre in India have a new mandate for development of Windows 7, the next generation operating system from Microsoft Corporation, slated for release in 2009-10.

This new operating system will have in-built features to address networking-related issues, virtualisation that helps create separate machines within a PC and various plug-ins for accessories for the new OS.

This team headed by Mr Sunil Bansali, and comprising members of the Windows and Windows Live development teams, has now been given the task of working on the next generation operating system.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/ne...7/09/56/296305

Verbatim to launch world's first mini Blu-ray discs

Verbatim Corporation, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, has announced what the company claims is the world's first mini Blu-ray recordable and rewriteable (BD-R/RE) media aimed at the camcorder market.

According to Verbatim, measuring three inches (8cm) in diameter, the new 7.5GB discs provide approximately one hour of continuous video capture time on a single side when high definition (1920 x 1080i) is used, and approximately two hours of video capture time with images recorded at 1440 x 1080i.

Verbatim Mini BD media will be available in August in Japan, where the new Hitachi BD-compatible camcorder will be launched. Verbatim will begin shipments to other parts of the world, including Australia and New Zealand, when the new BD-compatible camcorders become available locally.

According to Verbatim, Mini BD media combine with a BD-compatible camcorder to provide consumers with convenient features that hard disk camcorders cannot offer. With the ability to record directly to a Mini BD disc, users can eliminate the time-consuming process of downloading captured video to their computer hard drive.

Users of the new mini Blu-ray discs can also enjoy unlimited capacity by simply removing the disc from the camcorder and adding a new one, Verbatim says.

Multiboxing: Combing PC's

Multiboxing:

The art of playing multiple accounts at the same time. For example - a cleric and a warrior - both controlled by you. Heals that land when you need them. Double the power but double the demands on your already stretched attention. This is a community of people who control two, three, four, five, even ten or more characters at the same time. The below setup is about as extreme as you can get and is not representative of the average dual boxer. Despite that, I respect their accomplishment very much - much more goes into this than what most people initially think.

For those of you who are interested in 5 Boxing, I have written an extensive writeup on my methods. I think some of you will appreciate the elegant intricacies that go into a real PvP focused mutiboxing setup.

http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=410

For an idea of what you can do with a multiboxing setup: I have prepared a movie: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3697765098130473147

Welcome Diggers / WoW Insiders / Gizmodo / Kotaku / FoHers / Engadget and others!

Well - judging from the comments from some Diggers... not sure I want to welcome all of you. We are here doing what we enjoy doing. I can't speak for everybody but I own successful companies that are successful because of what they do and how they help other people. In my spare time, I personally play 10 accounts. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that and is about as "normal" as you can get in a world where normal ebbs and flows enough as it is.


I put perhaps 40 days played into the Zins, my previous 5 boxing setup. In 2 years of the game being live. I have written extensively before about who I am and why I enjoy what I do. I am a bit disappointed at the "Southpark/Overweight/etc" comments and I hope that is a result of shortsightedness, misunderstanding or simple jealousy rather than genuine beliefs. I encourage you all to face each day with an open mind - and not one filled with stereotypes or preconceived notions. In 20 years, when your children are learning about the world in a virtual one - I hope some of you remember that not everybody who uses computers to communicate or for enjoyment is a social leper who deserves nothing else but to be beaten up. The geeks shall inherit the earth.

Operations (We run cables through the wall):


A WoW Christmas:

Comptuer Room:

Digital threats

In recent years, consumers have become more tech savvy and have a better understanding of the mysticism of the Internet. From banking and shopping online, keying in our user IDs and passwords and confidently sharing our personal information at secure sites, these are everyday occurances. Although it makes our life easier, our increasing online usage also makes us vulnerable to digital threats. When we enjoy the convenience of online banking, we invariably expose ourselves to phishing attacks. We download applications from the Internet and invite malware to take control of our computers. Email attachments may unknowingly bring in Trojans that might play havoc with our computers. However, if we exercised a little more caution, we could prevent the threat of malware from capturing our online identity. To do that we need to be aware of the different types of risks that exist, how they work and what can be done to safeguard our data against them.

Danger defined :

By and large, we tend to categorize all online threats as viruses. But what really is a virus? Historically speaking, a virus is a type of a computer program that not only infects your computer, but makes multiple copies of itself and proliferates within documents or applications on your computer. It also has malicious reprecussions like corrupting file content, denying access to databases, stealing personal information and the like. Back in the days of the floppy disk, an infected disk could infect a host computer if the user executed or copied files from it. This digital plague could further infect other floppy disks or other media if inserted into the host computer, thus replicating them. To prevent these viruses from spreading and damaging files, computer security firms developed applications that could detect and even remove viruses within files. In cases where this disinfection was not possible, the program would delete the file from the computer or move it to a secure location (much like a quarantine). However, today’s virus engineers are smarter. Drawing on the power of the Internet, there are very few viruses out there that still spread by physical media—most viruses proliferate through the Internet across various programs. This has given rise to worms that travel through local and web networks, Trojans that are capable of camoufl aging their presence and spyware that can steal your data without your knowledge. Welcome to the new world of malware.

Computer worm:

In computer terminology, a Worm is a self-replicating threat that travels through a network and settles in a computer via a variety of online applications like e-mails, chat clients, P2P clients, etc. A worm does not attach itself to any program that explicitly needs to be executed for its spread. Instead, it travels through networked applications and primarily replicates itself up to a point where the network is clogged with its clones, preventing it from being used by legitimate applications. The different types of worms you could encounter are:

E-mail worm:

This type of worm uses e-mail as its vehicle. When an infected e-mail reaches your inbox, it does nothing unless the e-mail is opened to be read. When you open the mail, you may see an attachment or a link to a real or fictitious web site. The moment you click on the link and visit the web site, the worm gets triggered. Once activated, it starts searching your address book and sends e-mails to your contacts. It can even fake the sender’s address, so that the recipient assumes that the mail is not from someone he knows. Clearly, across an office network consisting of tens or hundreds of users, the numbers of ficticious e-mails traversing the mail servers grow exponentially over a short time. E-mail worms often bring down mail servers and clog their functioning.

File sharing network worm:

This worm generally proliferates through a shared folder of a machine. It creates a copy of itself and masks its intent by using a seemlingly harmless and unassuming name. The moment you connect to a networking site like ‘kazaa.com’ and your sharing folder gets accessed, the copy of the worm moves from your computer to other computers in the file sharing network. With millions of computers actively being used to access files from peer-to-peer networks, these worms can proliferate very quickly. Another popular type of worm is the instant messaging worm (similar to the email worm, but uses an instant messenger service as its vehicle).

Trojan:

Trojans are malicious programs that pose as legitimate applications. When users execute such programs, blissfully unaware of their real intent, the host computer gets infected. Once on your computer, it may strike in a variety of ways, ranging from capturing what you see on your screen to logging what you type. The captured information is then sent to the author of that malware through the Internet. You could therefore stand to lose precious data, bank passwords and the like. The different types of Trojans include remote access Trojans, where others can gain access to and even take over your machine, data sending Trojans that scan your computer and send data to the author, and destructive Trojans that simply delete files on the host computer. Trojans can also infect your computer and you may face denial of service (unavailability of data). Trojans even have the potential to counter anti-virus software by changing their coding DNA (a process known as polymorphism), making it harder to detect. Some Trojans are developed such that they will only be activated on particular dates, or when certain pre-defined conditions are met by the computer. These Trojans are known as ‘Time bombs’ and ‘Logic bombs’ respectively. Spyware Like Trojans, Spyware is also a type of computer application, developed with the intention of stealing information from your computer. These applications can steal data including the history of web sites you have visited, passwords that you have used to access online secure services, etc . However, unlike Trojans and worms, spyware cannot replicate but it does exploit the host computer for commercial gain. These include everything from throwing unsolicited pop-up advertisements, capturing your web browser’s home page and directing it elsewhere. This type of application cannot spread by itself, therefore its efficacy depends solely on whether you choose to install the software. Since users wouldn’t intentionally install applications that are detrimental to their interest, spyware represents itself as a utility application, for example, a web accelerator, a free image utility, etc. Spyware often piggy-backs on to shareware applications found on download web sites or application CDs.

Adware:

Adware is more of an annoyance than a threat. Typically found in applications downloaded from questionable web sites, it infects the host computer by downloading and installing other advertising material and displaying it on your computer via annoying popups that appear while you use Internet applications. This is where adware generally gets confused with advertising-supported software. The latter is not malicious and only displays an advertisement within the window of the application program (such as trial or shareware versions of software). Adware, on the other hand, displays advertisements randomly, often when you least expect it.

The last call:

This new breed of Internet threats may or may not be harmful to users, but they do hamper the performance of computers. To protect computers from today’s digital threats, an anti-virus program is a good place to start. Look for application suites that specifically offer protection against all of these threats and not just ones that offer plain vanilla virus protection. In today’s world, data security requires blanket protection systems that do it all. You can also install anti-spyware and adware application like NoAdware, ErrorDoctor, Spynukke, AdAware, etc. Secondly, it is important to exercise caution on what applications and fi les are downloaded. This includes your mail attachments. Chain mails with attachments (such as .exe, .com, .scr, .bat, or .pif), download sites that contain links of questionable web sites, applications that aren’t from trusted sources should all raise a user’s alarm bells. Most of the time, the battle against malware can be won before it even begins—all it takes is a bit of vigilance.

Taking Care Of Your CDs and DVDs

CDs are pretty rugged and the error-correction codes they use can handle lots of scratches and dings. If they're that tough, a few fingerprints shouldn't be a problem, right? And will it matter if you handle your precious discs with buttery fingers while you're having a sandwich? If you think it won't, you're wrong. Your CDs will stay healthy but your optical drive could go for a toss. Not only can your 52x drive turn into a 1x model, even the lens can get seriously affected. And that could make all the discs unreadable.

Always keep dirty discs away from your equipment. If you don't feel like cleaning them, don't insert them into the drive. That means you need to keep your discs spic and span, free from fingerprints or any sort of stain. When it comes to cleaning discs, don't be afraid to wash them. To clean a dirty disc, wave it back and forth over a bowl of lukewarm water for a few seconds. Then wipe the disc with a lint-free cloth in a straight motion from the center towards the rim. If the stains are too stubborn to be wiped off, you can even add a drop or two of dish washing liquid into the bowl of water. At the end of it, make sure that the disc is completely dry before you insert it into the drive.

Take special care of your discs if you stay in a humid locality, for instance, near the sea. Discs with a glossy top surface are prone to catching fungus which can eat into the thin metal layer that holds data and render it unreadable.Discs affected with the presence of fungus. If ever, you come across an affected disc, clean it immediately before the fungus turns it into a piece of trash!

Do you know how to hold CDs and DVDs? There are many who are not aware of it or they simply don't care unless the damage is done. First timers and children tend to hold discs like they hold a Frisbee, Don't hold the discs by the rim with your fingers splayed out. The right way to hold them is by putting your thumb against the rim and the middle of the index finger in the center hole. While taking the disk out of the drive, hold it with your finger in the center hole and lift it out.

Blue-eyed babies

The need to archive large amounts of data is a common requirement for organizations and individuals alike as access to data becomes simple and speedy. While organizations have a distinct need for large capacity storage for backup of server as well as client data, such storage requirements are not always justified for casual users. With the increase in broadband penetration as well as significant changes in the entertainment industry, high storage space requirements are slowly going to become mainstream. Optical storage consisted only of CD media in a not so distant past and the use of DVD media is getting common with the decrease in prices of DVD writers and media. This month we were part of another breakthrough in optical storage technology with Sony’s launch of Blu-ray enabled devices in India—an optical storage writer and a notebook featuring Blu-ray technology.

What is Blu-ray?

Blu-ray is the next-generation technology in optical storage after VHS, CD and DVD. The Blu-ray standard was jointly developed by a group of consumer electronics and PC companies called the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), spearheaded by Sony. It is designed for high-density storage of highdefinition video and data. It is currently competing with the HD DVD format for wide adoption as the preferred next generation optical standard.

How Blu-ray works

A Blu-ray drive looks and works in traditionally the same way as any other optical drive. The difference is that Blu-ray drives use a violet-blue laser to read data from an optical drive media rather then the infrared light that is used by CDs and red laser light used by DVD writers. The violet-blue color falls into the higher frequency segment in the visible spectrum of light, thus resulting in a lower wavelength (refer to box). The wavelength of the laser used in Blu-ray drives is 405 nm. To put it into perspective, a CD drive uses an infrared laser operating at a wavelength of 780 nm while a DVD drive uses a red laser operating at a wavelength of 650 nm. So, as we can see, using a light source that has a lower wavelength causes a smaller laser beam. This is advantageous because it can focus better at a point on the media surface from a fixed distance as the wave travels faster and hits the surface before it disperses. Thus the light ray used in a Blu-ray drive is more accurate in pinpointing a particular area on the media surface. As the focusing capability gets finer, media manufacturers can increase the track pitch (refer to box) on the media thus increasing the media’s storage capacity.

Advantages of Blu-ray

Size: The Blu-ray drive comes in a five-and-a quarter inch form factor which is the same as other optical storage devices like CD or DVD. This means that your Blu-ray drive will look and feel the same as any other optical drive. It will seamlessly integrate itself into the drive bay of PC cabinet or even a laptop. A Blu-ray media supports the 12 cm form factor and also has a thickness of 1.2 mm, the same as a CD or DVD media.

Storage capacity: Even though the Blu-ray disc supports the same form factor as a CD or a DVD disc, it supports a whopping capacity of 25 GB on a single layer disk. This means that you can store up to 5 DVDs or 32 CDs worth of data on a single Blu-ray disc.

Copy protection and digital rights management: The movies that are distributed on a DVD media use an encryption system called CSS (Content Scrambling System). This encryption system has been defeated thus allowing users to decode (rip) the contents of a DVD movie. This has been taken a step further in Blu-ray which uses AACS (Advanced Access Content System) which makes use of stronger encryption algorithms like AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). The AACS standard provisions each individual player with a unique set of decryption keys which are used in a broadcast encryption scheme. This approach allows licensors to “revoke” the decryption keys associated with the player. Thus, if a given player’s keys are compromised by an attacker, the licensing authority can simply revoke those keys in future content, making the keys/player useless for decrypting new titles. So you cannot rip the BD content like a DVD content unless the encryption scheme is compromised. Blu-ray discs will also have the capability to add information at a physical level (called ROM-Mark in case of Blu-ray) which makes it difficult to make carbon copies of the media. This helps reduce piracy.

Performance:

With the use of a violet-blue light, the track densities can be increased and more data can be stored in the same form factor of an optical disc. Blu-ray drives perform the read/write operations using Constant Linear Velocity allowing them to sustain a constant throughput rate. This would not result in any artifacts or distortions while watching a Blu-ray movie, for example.

Disadvantages of Blu-ray:

Costs of drive and media: Just like it happens with any new technology, the initial costs are always high. The Blu-ray drive includes two lasers instead of the single laser system used in CD and DVD drives. This is done in order to facilitate backward compatibility with the existing CD and DVD optical media. This increases the production cost due to the use of additional hardware. The production of Blu-ray disc will involve more cost, because the companies will have to add equipment for the cover layer. Also, because the Blu-ray media use a completely different design, their production is not on the lines of a CD or DVD media.

Disc and data reliability: The cover layer of the Blu-ray disc is very thin measuring 0.1 mm compared to the 0.6 mm coating of a CD or DVD media. This makes the Blu-ray discs more prone to damage from scratches and smudges. To overcome this limitation, an extra layer of protective material needs to be added to the Blu-ray disc, which in turn increases the cost of the media.

Last word: Blu-ray drives are the next step in optical storage. Now that the Blu-ray drives are a reality, we will be able to see 1080p high-definition movies on our computer systems. Also, with HD cameras becoming more mainstream, a two-hour movie can be recorded on the Blu-ray medium. This can be used in Blu-ray players and you can view high definition movies on your plasma or LCD TV. We would also like to add that Blu-ray media is not as easily available as a CD or a DVD disc. Also, the cost of the media is Rs 1,000; instead one can buy six DVDs at a total price of Rs 120 to store equal amounts of data. In future when prices of the drives and media plummet and the media becomes mainstream, Blu-ray might be a good storage alternative. Sony VAIO VGN-AR18GP Notebook The Sony VAIO VGN-AR18GP desktop replacement notebook is the first to use the next generation Blu-ray optical drive.

Features: Powered by the dual core Intel Centrino Duo T2600 processor (Yonah) running at 2.16 GHz, it has enough horsepower to play your high-definition movie content. It features 1 GB of DDR2 memory which is pretty much standard for all entertainment desktops. Another striking feature of this laptop is the Nvidia Gforce Go 7600GT graphics card that comes with 256 MB of memory making it a complete gaming system. The 1920x1200 high resolution facilitates playing 1080p HD video. With three USB 2 ports, a mini FireWire and an ExpressCard/54 slot catering for modern peripherals. A media card reader supporting memory stick and SD formats are in the front, and a 0.37- megapixel webcam is hidden in the top bezel of the screen. The HDCP-compliant HDMI output is welcome, and there’s also S-Video in/out and a VGA output. Connectivity options include a 10/100 Ethernet, a 56K modem, Bluetooth and an 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN. We were not so impressed with the audio capability of the speakers built into this notebook. It lacked in quality sound effects like bass, treble; considering it is an entertainment notebook, Sony could have done better. Build quality The first thing that catches your eye when you look at the notebook is its massive size. The size is justified considering its massive 17-inch TFT wide screen. Picture quality on the LCD is crisp and crystal clear. The notebook is black, complemented with a glossy finish. Although this provides for good looks, it is prone to smudges. It weighs a good 3.8 kg, so you will have a good exercise carrying it around. The expansion slots are neatly covered with a series of flaps coated with a metallic finish.

Performance: We were quite impressed with the performance of the VAIO. In our performance tests, the Sisoft Sandra CPU arithmetic benchmark score was at par with that of most high-end notebooks (it recorded scores of 14,732 Dhrystones and 10,864 Whetstones). The heavy duty processor underperformed in the battery mode, which made watching HD movies a impossible task. The filesystem benchmark crossed the 50 MB/s mark—a result of two 5400 rpm drives configured in RAID 0, which was pretty impressive. A record score of 5126 3D Marks ensured top spot in graphics. It meant that we could play Doom 3 at decent framerates, at 1600x1200 resolution with 4x antialiasing enabled. It provided about an hour and 10 minutes of battery life—way too low for watching HD movies.

Verdict: The Sony VAIO VGN-AR18GP retails for Rs 1,99,900. Like most other Sony notebooks, it is priced very high. However, it is future proof and you are left in awe the moment you see a HD movie on it. Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray writer Features The BWU-100A drive supports recording both 50 GB and 25 GB BD-R (write once) and BD-RE (rewritable) discs, as well as 4.7 GB DVD+R/+RW/RAM, 8.5GB DVD+R Dual Layer, and CD-R/-RW discs. Sony bundles the Cyberlink suite along with the drive that can be used to view HD quality movies and a Blu-ray mastering software to write to the Blu-ray writable and rewritable disks. Performance The drive was able to copy 23.3 GB data on a single sided Blu-ray disk in about 47 minutes at 2x speeds. This means that the drive can write at a speed of about 8.44 MBps which is equivalent to that of a 12x DVD writer but slower than recent writers that can write to DVD media at speeds of about 12 MBps. Verdict At a whopping price of Rs 44,300, we feel this writer is not meant for the average user. It instead aimed at studio editors who need lots of storage space for editing HD movies.

Jargon

Wavelength: We all know that light is a form of electromagnetic waves. Like any other wave, light travels in the form of a sine wave. The distance (measured in the direction of propagation) between two points in the same phase in consecutive cycles of a wave is called wavelength.

Track Pitch: The data track of an optical disc is a spiral starting from the center of the disc; The distance (in micro meters) between the two intersection points on the concentric rows starting from the center of the circle is known as track pitch. When the track pitch is reduced, it means that the distance between the concentric rows is lower and that the resulting track is much longer, thus you can store more data.