Warm & Blended

How to connect to Dial-up internet/broadband(PPPOE) using Ubuntu or Linux Mint??

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:56:00 +0000

Ubuntu (Or Linux mint , for that purpose) is a good and prevalent linux distro, But is having some hidden setting which are not easy to figure out for a newbie. We noticed a problem on first installing ubuntu that it couldn’t connect Using PPPOE to the internet using GUI. After some hits and trials, we got to the core of it, and figured a way to connect. here’s how…

1. Open SYSTEM->Terminal

2. now write Sudo pppoeconf and press Enter. Your ADSL modem should be ON and stable( Yellow DSL Light stable,NOT blinking)

3. Authenticate your action by typing your LINUX account password.

4. Now enter Internet connection account Username.

5. Enter your password and follow the instructions and select YES when asked to activate the connection. that’s all.

6. You are connected now.

Learn Ubuntu…from the expert for free!!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:22:00 +0000

What you don’t have Ubuntu?? Following our previous post about Linux mint, you preferred it and got it for your system?? Never mind, ‘cause this free pdf file teaches you ubuntu the easy way, and what works for ubuntu will most probably work as such in Linuxmint! No hassles! Then just don’t wait for long and grab this free pdf available for purchase as hard copy from AMAZON at $10, but for sure, the pdf is free for you to download. Grab your copy from here

Install Linux mint for a great linux desktop Experience.

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:43:00 +0000

Ubuntu has recently been updated to ver 9.10, known as “karmik Koala”. Along with it, has updated the very famous Linux mint to version 8,Halena. It is based in good old ubuntu but is more polished and sleek with wide support at a click of a button on its desktop using xchat. Download it from here and install it along with your current windows or linux installation or do a fresh install. Though it derives its underlying technology from UBUNTU, but it’s much more sleek and efficient. With its completely new and fresh interface, it won’t let you miss your windows system much. Preloaded with many useful applications and with its unique and very handy package Manager, its one of the best Linux distros to try. Easy to work and light on system resources, linux mint will not eye your pocket like windows does, since it’s absolutely free of charge download as other Linux developments. A Must try for Ubuntu users.

How to best use windows 7’s sticky notes feature?? for Dummies!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:03:00 +0000

Exploring the features of windows 7? Many features are great and help you work productively! One is sticky notes.

The Sticky notes accessory enables you to plaster the electronic equivalent of good old-fashioned Post-It notes all over your Windows 7 desktop. You can use Sticky Notes in Windows 7 as onscreen reminders: you can even color code them to help you stay organized.

They remain securely wherever you put them on the desktop until you delete them! Of the best part is that you never have to save them. Just type in and it will automatically save itself. Even after a Restart of the machine, you’ll find it resting on your desktop as it did. so here’s how to make the most of it.

1 To create a Sticky Note, click Start→All Programs→Accessories→Sticky Notes.

2.Type the text of the note.

3. You can also format the note text if you want. Just select the desired text and then press the appropriate shortcuts : Ctrl+B for bold text, Ctrl+I for italics, and Ctrl+U for underlining.

4. When you finish entering the note text, simply click somewhere on the desktop outside the sticky note itself.

5. To color-code a sticky note, right-click the note and then click the color you want.

Your choices here are Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, White, or Yellow.

6. To delete a note that you no longer need, click its Delete button in the upper-right corner.

Stay organized!

Reset your system clock to 12 hrs format.

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:43:00 +0000

If your system clock forgot to show 1 after 12 o’ clock and showed 13 instead then, it’s time for it to re-attend its manners’ class! Jokes apart, this is mostly very much hated by many if the system clock in the right corner does not follow proper 12-hr format. For many it might be a child’s play to reset it but if you do not know how-to then just have a look at the album here. Just go to control panel and click Date and time.

View Full Album

Best way to download Videos from YOUTUBE!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:38:00 +0000

Youtube is overflowing with millions of videos and many of them are those you love to watch over and over again. Then why waste the precious bandwith of yours to watch it online everytime you feel like. the best thing is to download it and that to really simply. Just replace the Y of YOUTUBE in the address of your browser with 3 and that’s it! you can download the video in Mp4 or flv format for later viewings.

How to remap Keyboard keys to perform desired functions?

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:25:00 +0000

Have multimedia keyboards?? with special keys resting without being used quite often? or have some special keys on your newly brought laptop, which to you, are nothing more than just an eye-candy? Be more productive and reassign those useless keys to perform common tasks or accessing your computer using Sharpkeys.

Just download and install sharpkeys and change the functionality of any key on your keyboard. Press Type key and then press the key you want to remap. In the right panel, choose the application you want key to be assigned to, or just press the key you want to switch functioning with. This is extremely useful in some laptops with misplaced Function key in the extreme bottom left which annoys you quite often as it gets pressed when you want to press Ctrl.Now you can switch the key to function as Ctrl. Click on Write to Registry. After making changes just reboot or Logoff and there you go ready with new functionality!

Download [via www.randyrants.com ]

Download and install your favorite applications automatically, Hassle free!!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:30:00 +0000

Got a new PC or laptop?? or a freshly installed windows?? then installing your favourite applications might be in your to-do list and some of you might be at it. Ninite is an online application that lets you choose your favourite software from a list and then automatically installs the latest versions on your machine without you even clicking approvals. Just visit www.ninite.com and select the software you want to install, then click on download Installer button there. This will give you a small file to download which contains information ‘bout the choices you made online. all you have to do is to run this application and that’s it. It automatically installs everything for you directly from the web locations ensuring that you get the latest versions. Plus it takes care of all the additional toolbars and useless junky addons which you never use and doesn’t lets them creep in along with the apps you chose. This is one of the best uses of web we’ve come across for a first times which is enough to set him high praising!

Sing along Your Music! Minilyrics displays lyrics as your song plays.

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:23:00 +0000

Always wanted to enjoy your precious music collection all the way more? here, now you can! using minylyrics which displays your song lyrics in the desired position on your screen as your computer plays your favourite music. though it has been there for quite some time now but for those who are fascinated by the ability your PC will be empowered with, it’s always new and fresh. All languages are supported! Including HINDI. Just play your favorite music player and minilyrics will pop-up. Most of the times, it will find automatically the lyrics for your song from the internet but in case, the metadata of your mp3 or other music files have been altered or does not resemble the actual song name then, you will have to manually search for song lyrics.

As minilyrics pops up, jus press the SEARCH button, this will display text boxes for artist and song, fill in the correct information and hit the BEGIN SEARCH button, a number for search results will be generated, choose the one that has highest resemblance with your desired song, and with the highest ratings. hit the download button, minilyrics will take a second or two before it gets your lyrics in synchronization with your currently playing song. You’ll have to do this once for ever song as it saves in your hddisk for use when you’re not online. Sing along and enjoy!

Download [Via Crintsoft]

How to actually speed-up Your Internet browsing speed?

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:30:00 +0000

Here we’re telling you about a DNS(Domain Name Server) tweak. Google, some time ago, launched a DNS service which it claimed to be the fastest! It may or may not be the fastest service, but is sure to find you a DNS which is faster than your current Server.
Firstly, what is DNS? As google puts it, Most of us aren't familiar with DNS because it's often handled automatically by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it provides an essential function for the web. You could think of it as the switchboard of the Internet, converting easy-to-remember domain names - e.g., www.google.com - into the unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers - e.g., 74.125.45.100 - that computers use to communicate with one another. i.e whatever query you write as the name of a website in your browser, it goes to your DNS which converts it to the IP address and redirects your browser to fetch the data.
Switching to a faster and more secure DNS will certainly increase your browsing speed.
To set up your, DNS server to Google DNS, we have a set of instructions directly from Google, Here! (also you can refer to instructions below)
But if you are not satisfied with the performance after changing the DNS and want a faster DNS, then you can download Namebench.
is a portable software (Windows/Mac/Linux), which utilize your web browser history, or standardized datasets and finds by best DNS servers available!
Just download it from here, then double click the file, which will extract some data and now start bench marking by clicking on “Start Bench Mark” button. The tests can take some time, since each DNS server is tested on the resolution of the most popular 10,000 site names, according to Alexa web survey,so just leave it running.
After some time the results will be displayed on your default browser with pretty graphs which will tell you the fastest + nearest DNS server available for your PC.
To set up this custom DNS for your connection, follow:
for Windows 7/Vista,

Go to Control Panel>>
Network and Sharing Center>> (Network connections for Windows XP)
Then choose your connection>>
right click on it and choose Properties>>
Click “Networking” Tab>>
Click “Internet Protocol version 4(TCP/IPv4)>>
Click “Properties” >> Select “Use the following DNS server addresses”
Now fill the address that NAMEBENCH displayed as “Fastest” in Preferred DNS server **.
And fill Second fastest in Alternate DNS.
Click Apply.
Disconnect and Reconnect your internet connection.

**The Google Public DNS IP addresses are as follows:

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

You can use either number as your primary or secondary DNS server. You can specify both numbers, but do not specify one number as both primary and secondary.
In most cases, you will now experience faster browsing! your pages will load faster from the time your fired your query in the browser. Happy faster browsing…

How to automatically start your computer, Download and shutdown at desired time?

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:10:00 +0000

Many internet plans, the world over, are Time slot based, for ex. night unlimited Plans. Such Subscribers, if want Your computers to automatically Start and download at certain time in night and switch off in the morning as the free Time slot ends, can use a few tricks to get the task done.

How to start your computer at certain time?

Method 1. Use BIOS Built-in feature: Many BIOS have features to auto start the system at certain specified time. To enter into your BIOS, Press DEL while the computer is just switched on.( The key might differ for your system, F2 or F12) This will display a Blue screen. This is your BIOS(Basic Input Output System) search for Power Options and Start By Alarm, Set it to ENABLED( again the option might differ depending on your BIOS). Set the desired time. Press F10 to Save and exit. Your computer will auto start at the time you specified.

Method 2. Download Auto power-on and shutdown for windows. This software does the job of starting your PC at certain time, and if your BIOS does not have starting by Alarm option, then this can come to your rescue. Set it to auto start your system at a specific time , but the system must be in a hibernate state, i.e you must NOT shutdown your system, just hibernate it.

Download [Via Lifsoft]

How to shutdown your system at certain time?

Method 1. Download slawdog’s smart shutdown for windows: Smart shutdown is a 5 star nifty tool which gives you lots of options before turning off your computer. Set it to complete certain tasks like emptying the Recycle Bin or close all your apps before turning off your machine, then decide how long you want your computer to be idle before Smart Shutdown comes into action.

Download [Via Slawdog]

Method 2. Use Windows Run command to auto shutdown at time you set. Start > Run and type the following statement “At 08:00 shutdown –s –t” where “08:00” can be replaced by the time you want as per a 24 hour clock format.

OR type “Shutdown –s –t 3600” where “3600” is the seconds (3600 sec = 1 Hour) after which you want your computer to shutdown. This will pop-up a dialog box with timer which will shutdown the system after specified time.

This window can’t be closed by other means. To shutdown, Type “Shutdown –a” and this will kill the dialog box that has opened. In windows 7 there will just be a pop-up in the system Tray instead of dialog box.

For advanced users, you can create a batch file with the “At 08:00…” statement and put it in the start-up folder of windows.

How to auto start the Downloads?

All you need to do is to set the “Scheduling options” in the download manager or torrent client you use to start download at few minutes after you have set your computer to auto-start.

This will get your Job done in no time and with ease.

With all said and done, remember to keep the power supply switch or UPS on!

Convert your favorite Youtube videos to ringtones Online!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:53:00 +0000

While on Youtube, often you come across some vidoes which have some great audio and now you want to have it as your ringtone or just save a .mp3 file. Here is a solution online. Just visit www.tube2tones.com and paste the address of the youtube video you were watchihng from the address bar of your browser. The wesite also suggests trimming off the part of the video which has no sound or audio and does it automatically for you if you want, just at ta click of a button.
Or you can manually set the starting and end point of the audio file you want to save.
Now it provides 3 options to have your file , all for free. You can download from various formats provided as an option, or you can have it mailed directly to your inbox and finally you can have it sent directly to your phone, It's that easy.
So next time you want to have your favorite video as a ringtone, direct your browser to www.tube2tones.com

Best Free antivirus comes right from Microsoft.

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Microsoft has been keeping it’s developers under constant workload since nearly two decades now to give you new(supposedly) pieces of software, and off course to make big cash too but this time an antivirus tool comes right from microsoft which performs as good in free edition as in paid one( few extra features). Microsoft Security Essentials( aka Morro) provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple. It runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times, and too it doesn’t ambush your system memory. Runs really light and quite.

Give it a try and you might want to switch from your current antivirus for good.

Download [Via Microsoft]

Best Free apps to work faster and more productively.

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:30:00 +0000

If you have a freshly installed windows computer or a descent running old one and want to add cool and awesome functionality to it, we’re listing 10 most useful applications to make your friends go WOW over your computer capabilities.

1. Everything

This is one of the best applications we could recommend! if you have lots of data lying haphazardly in remote places that you can’t keep a track of, then “everything” is to your rescue. it’s a freeware. after installing just set a hotkey in its options so that it pops up as soon as you press it. Preferably, i recommend ctrl+shift+E or ctrl+alt+E , so that it comes handy. as soon as you type anything in its search box it will show you all the appearances of the search query in names of the files. and it all takes less than quarter of a second because it initially indexes all the files of your computer. pretty neat, pretty fast and awesome!

[download Via voidtools]

2. Launchy

This has been my favourite utility since long, it indexes all the application that appear in your “all programs” of the start menu and launches it very fast. Just press Alt+Space and Launchy will fire up. Just type the first few letters of the application you want to launch and launchy will shortlist it and display. just press enter to launch it.

Again a free and amazing piece of software.

[download Via Sourceforge.net]

3. Wordweb

You might already know it well. This is an Offline dictionary that provides great features. as you encounter a word you want to find meaning to, just hold CTRL and right click on the word. This will pop-up wordweb with antonyms, synonyms, Types, Similar and many other references for the word. it also uses Microsoft speech to tell you the pronunciation of the word in English. Offcourse it’s free!

[download Via Download.com]

We’re pretty sure these awesome tools are going to enrich your computing experience! happy computing :)

Store it on the web! Online web desktops

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:21:00 +0000

We all need mobility and portability for our numerous files and data. So where do we store it? obviously on the web!! Most advantageous thing? access them from anywhere in the world, plus it looks too cool to do it…Here we present to you the best of the online desktops existing.

1. Windows MESH

This service is by Microsoft. here you can save your files in customizable folders in the online desktop. it also provides you a desktop client which provides a very remarkable feature, that’s synchronization! Yes, you can synchronize your web desktop with a specific folder on your local hard drive. while offline, just paste files into your folder and the desktop client, on finding an internet connection will automatically upload it to the online desktop, keeping it synchronized!

2. G.ho.st.com

One of the best and cool looking web desktops we found is g.ho.st.com. Again all you need is a web browser. It has a bulk uploader for mass uploading of files at once. it also flaunts cool gadgets as you have in your windows system. it provides various cool features such as, Zoho Writer, Zoho sheet, online games and many others.

It provides 15 Gb of free webspace and fires up pretty quickly in your browser. quite useful.

3. Eyeos

This is another choice that provides similar functionality. It has been there since quite some time now. This is again a web based system that can be easily used synchronize in schools and colleges. Each student having a personal desktop and able store personal files. Eyeos is under constant improvement.

4. Glide OS

Glide OS offers a free account and has 20GB of storage and up to 6 different users. It offers a lot of the same functionality of G.ho.st with their own unique interface and other features.There are different available office features that allow you to create documents and presentations and collaborate with others as well.

Another feature rich and useful tool.

Advantages of a Web OS are there is nothing to install, no Antivirus to worry with, and files and documents are available anywhere you have a web connection. Also you don’t need to worry a whole lot about a machines specs, but rather the speed of your Internet connection. There are a many online operating systems to choose and each one has different features. You might want to try each of them out to find the one that suites your needs. If you’re constantly moving from computer to computer to get work done, you may want to check out a Web OS. If nothing else, they are geeky and fun to play with.

Have a research or school project waiting?? ask Factbites!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:19:00 +0000

People at www.factbites.com have worked upon a search technique aimed at providing you the enormous power of an encyclopaedia while you search. whether you need to find some facts and information for any school college research project or just need to acquire some information on any topic on earth that interests you, the results shown are interesting and informative which can properly lead you to the bits of exact information you were searching.

While other search engines link relevance with popularity, FactBites draws on the web’s vast amount of encyclopedias and information websites such as Wikipedia and more specialised ones to provide you with factual information. All you need with no excess useless stuff. And as they say “where results make sense”. This is a very good alternative to our dearest Google when it come to getting factual information or relevant information with neatly organised search results all at one place. So next time you need help, refer to www.factbites.com.A must try!

Let Flux automatically adjust your monitor settings according to time of the day, for reduced eye stress!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:25:00 +0000

This is one of the application that deserves to occupy your system tray space every hour you work! Flux is a nifty application that silently runs in the background and keeps adjusting the temperature setting for your monitor for a stress free working environment! This is such a reliever application, which assists you while you work. Just enter your location information( latitudes and logis) with the help of a location guide button which helps you track your current location via a map, and you are ready for this application to assist you while you stare at that screen of yours!

This is good only while you are not playing games or doing any high graphics involving job. Best while you are surfing, writing a note entry or doing any textual work. This is a free application and promises to do the job well for you!

Before you see this application work for you, just a setting needs to be adjusted as per your viewing comforts. just adjust the slider for “Night” time to a lower comfortable value. and there it goes “up-ready and running” for you! if you install this during night time…you’ll see that your screen went yellowish( if it wasn’t already set to high temperature setting! ) just adjust the slider and get ready to toll. you also need to set your location in the option provided, though it tries to get to your closest location and does fine. but still, the exact value will work better!

just disable it for the time you play games or do any graphical work through a one click option in the system tray icon for one hour.

After using this application for a while, you’ll feel that this becomes indispensible for your work! it’s like having a personal guide every time you work, who takes Care of your eyes and viewing pleasures!

Download FLUX[via stereopsis]

How to Divide Your computer screen into regions with “MaxTo” and go multi tasking!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:40:00 +0000

You are surfing the web on your browser and need to copy some content to your word file running in the background! How will you do it? Most people will go switching between the two soft wares by clicking in the taskbar. That’s such a pain to work out if you have a long assignment waiting to be finished and most part of it need you to work simultaneously on multiple applications. Wouldn’t it be great if you could divide the screen into two or more regions for you to keep your eyes on, at the same time? and in-fact to interoperate amongst multiple apps? Yes, it sound pretty cool and productive! all you need is a good screen size ( though it works on smaller monitors too, but for some, it may seem chaotic and all-messed-up!). The application is name MaxTo and according to the developer’s website,

“ MaxTo is a small Windows program that divides your monitor into regions. When you maximize a window, it will no longer fit the entire screen, but only the region it was maximized into. Your windows are neatly organized into the grid you have defined when they are maximized. MaxTo has been described as a tiling window manager. ”

View Full Album

MaxTo is a very light-weight application which works on both 64-bit and 32-bit ver sions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. The .NET framework version 2.0 or higher is required for it. if you need full screen space to work in an application, a simple shortcut of holding the shift key will disable it.

When you double click its icon in your system tray, it will display a screen to drag handles and divide the screen as you desire.its that simple. it has a multi monitor support and the best thing?? yes…it’s available Free for Download! Grab this tool and get more productive at work!

Download [MaxTo]

500 GB on a DVD-sized disk! That’s what growing exponentially is!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:43:00 +0000

WoW!!! That was the first words that sailed though my brain when i first heard of it. Not because i was finding a solution to store my collection of movies on, or making a backup of my system, instead it was because i was happy that the world had found seen something that actually was witnessing EXPONENTIAL growth over the years. optical storage media! Not many months had passed with the Blu-Ray coming into the reach of common people, and here we see another development in the storage media sector.

General Electric or GE has demoed an optical disc which can up to 500GB of data and possibly even more. The new disc has the same size as conventional DVDs, but it can hold the equivalent of 100 DVD discs or 20 single-layer Blu-ray discs. The micro-holographic disc developed by GE represents the next-gen in optical storage, however, the company says that their discs will soon be entering the market and users will use players similar to DVD or Blu-ray disc players.

GE experts are using holographic techniques to store data in a 3D format rather than the conventional methods of storing data into layers. Conventionally, the data is written in the form of Ones or Zeroes embedded on the layers. The telegraph reads and writes data the same way like today’s discs do with data burnt and read using lasers. Lately mass storage has been possible using shorter and shorter wavelength lasers.

But this is something else. Abandoning the traditional ‘pits and groove’ method data is burnt in a holographic way that is 3D volumetric patterns using chemical methods. These discs are made of special polycarbonate materials and the material changes its chemical composition when bombarded by a certain type of laser. These discs are read by optical drives very similar to those for reading BluRay discs having special kind of laser. The company claims that these optical drives can be made compatible to read CDs , DVDs and BluRays.

A pair of laser beams is used to write data into discs of light-sensitive plastic, with both aiming at the same spot. One beam shines continuously, while the other pulses on and off to encode patches that represent digital 0s and 1s.

At the points where the lasers meet, the intense light causes molecules in the disc's material to merge into chains, creating a physical pattern that locks the 0s and 1s into the disc. This pattern can be read back at a later date using another laser because the changed patches interact differently with light.

However, in the plastic normally used for holographic data storage, the s tructural changes caused by the laser also cause the material to shrink. Even though the volume change is tiny - around 0.23% - the distortion is enough to make reading the data from the disc tricky and means that the 1s and 0s can't be burned at the highest densities.

This also suggests that the disk without any protective covering, will be extremely prone to data loss due to minor scratches also.

Watch this video to understand how they developed something with such high storage capacities!

As they are determined to develop a disk with storing capabilities over 1TB, you never know when it lands in your palms, it might have already crossed the 1 Tibs bar.

Retrieve your forgotten windows passwords. [Tutorial For the month]

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sat, 02 May 2009 23:12:00 +0000

How many time have you had your windows logon screen staring at you in hostility? Just ‘cause you forgot or mis-spelt your windows account password! Almost all of us have faced such situation where we throw our fingers at the keyboard relentlessly just to crack that password!

One walkthrough to this situation is if we have our Administrator account enabled(by default) and unaltered( without password ). It makes sense to hit ctrl+alt+Del a few times at logon screen where it asks for the password. This switches the welcome screen to classic style where you have to manually enter the username and password. Just type Administrator in the username and keep the password blank and hit enter. you’ll get in! then create a new administrator account from the control panel. but what in case you had password protected the administrator account earlier and now you don’t remember it??? There’s another workaround and very efficient one too! Ophcrack live CD 2.1.0

How to…?

Just burn the disk image you download from here onto a blank CD. It is bootable hence you need to boot your system using this disk. DO make sure you download the Live cd for the correct operating system you use.

To set your system boot using CD

Step 1. Just after you power-on your Pc, and while its starting up, hit DEL a few times. this should bring up a Blue screen with settings. This is your Bios(Basic Input Output System) setup screen.

Step 2. Just search for “Boot settings”( or related) on the displayed screen. Take your cursor to it using the directional key and press Enter.

Step 3. take cursor to the “First Boot device” and press “+” ( or refer to keys on the screen help) till you find your CD ROM. press F10 and press Enter.

Now, just insert the Ophcrack live cd you burnt earlier in Your drive and restart the system. The system will boot using the CD you burnt.

-You’ll see a simple desktop screen. Let it function automatically and a window will pop up which will show your Operating system password for every user account.

-Eject your disk and restart the system and now you can logon with the password the magical application just retrieved for you.Note: At our Testlabs, we found that most of the password types were retrieved but it was unable to retrieve the passwords composed of only spaces. we mean that the password field was blank without any indication that whether the password has been retrieved or not.

The Final verdict!

This is one of the most efficient tool over the years which retrieves passwords for a system by efficient implementation of Rainbow tables. The best thing about it is that it’s completely Free for download. This is a professional-like tool and works like charm. Hats off the the developers for releasing it to public for Free!

Download[Ophcrack Live CD 2.1.0 for Xp]

Download[Ophcrack Live CD 2.1.0 for Vista]

Google streetview. Taking a virtual walk down the streets.

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:35:00 +0000

Google seems working hard adding feathers to its cap which contribute a good to bring it in world’s top most admired organizations’ list.

though it has been long since google made its streetview technology public but it has been improving over the time and this made us tell you more of it.

Google Street View is a feature of Google maps and Google earth that provides for many streets in the world 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic views from a row of positions along the street (one in every 10 or 20 meters, or so), from a height of about two meters. It was launched on May 25, 2007, and has gradually expanded to include more cities, and in these cities more streets, and also some rural areas. These photographs are currently available for countries including United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Coverage is shown by dragging "pegman" from its position, on a map of any scale. Pegman is an animated character which sails over the google maps as you navigate.

The google street View car, is the key element which mounts a special camera over its roof which records through its 11 eyes in different directions this provides you a very attractive 3d space view of the world to explore by the streets. This is an amazing technology. The quality of pictures you witness is extremely good and that forces you think how much amount of space might be required for their storage. During their scheduled times, these vans keep travelling round the famous cities and building their databases and capturing content.

The Street View camera One of the many secrets behind the technology is a patented 11 lens camera system that simultaneously takes photos in 11 directions based on a dodecahedron geometry. They can capture 30 frames a second of high resolution photography. That's right - we're talking high resolution video in digital 360.

The Official video

Visit StreetView[Via Google Maps]

Know ‘bout the enabling technology.[ The immersive Media]

Click Here for a very amazing video that will leave you drooling.

Panda cloud Antivirus puts cloud computing to best use! Security!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Imagine how would it be if some of the world’s most powerful computers come to rescue your poor “not so powerful” system from attacks of most malicious of the viruses and codes! That sounds extremely Empowering!! Well actually thats what the concept of Cloud computing embeds in! Using the processor clocks of the machines connected through a network to perform a power hungry task.

Panda systems have now come up with a freely downloadable antivirus that is empowered by the concept. It uses the power of cloud computing to scan and eliminate viruses from your PC that can identify new malware in almost real time. Unlike traditional antivirus applications that relied on the power of the individual system for scanning and waited for an update to scanning definitions to be made available by the developer company on the parent site server, Cloud Antivirus uses their cloud system to do the work of classifying and scanning for new viruses, and is constantly updated with the latest virus information based on information from every other PC running the application.

Currently available only for 32 bit systems, the client side application takes a nominal space of mere 16 mb and guess what? neither were the antivirus definitions bulky! just took some kbeees.

while it is one of the first products coming up exploiting the power of cloud computing to make your system more secure, we expect more developers putting it to use. The coming world expects to see more efficient uses of the concept. Till they arrive, this nifty but enormously powerful scanner will be worth a try.

Download[Panda cloud antivirus]

Convert your document and music files online for free!

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:21:00 +0000

You’ve worked whole night and prepared a report to display to all in at your workplace. You plug-in your flash drive and try to open it, but to all your surprise, you fail to find an application that supports the format you saved your document in. All your seconds to fame and appreciation goes off in a whisk. Thankfully there are online apps that save you from the embarrassment of fiddling with the computer in hope that it plays the file!

They’re called Zamzar , and they will convert your files from one format to another. (i.e. convert a word document into a PDF, or a .AVI file into a .FLV file.)

All you have to do is to upload your file to Zamzar’s servers, they will convert the file into the designated format, and then they’ll mail you a link to download your converted file. The service is dead simple and works well. The turnaround time varies between 20 minues and three to four hours. It seems to depend on what type of file conversion you are doing, as well as how much traffic they’re dealing with. Rumor has it that they are adding servers and working to speed up those long delays. The list of file types users can convert from / to is pretty extensive and most of the time you’re sure to find your desired format. In situations where you have no access to offline means of conversion, just go for this nifty online application which will save you from panicking.

Microsoft with service pack 2 for office 2007. [Update]

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:26:00 +0000

According to many professionals, office 2007 was the most productive piece of software when it comes to rescue in tough times! all the pre designed templates and sleek work environment help a big time!

Adding a feather to the cap, Microsoft has released the service pack for the office 2007 suite! Microsoft claims that the 290 Mb update improves the performance of the suite to a high extent and fixes some bugs too. It includes major performance enhancements for Office applications, most notably Microsoft Office Outlook, as well as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. One big benefit of SP2 is a boost to interoperability.After you apply this update, your office will support additional built-in file formats such as PDF and ODF. If you are an MS office user, it’s time to equip yourself with the update that will empower your productive box, all the way more!

Download office 2007 SP2 update[Via Microsoft]

Reduce Thumbnail size to load faster in Explorer. (XP tricks)

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav Bhatnagar) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:37:00 +0000

Thumbnail view provides and easy way to explore through all the images & pictures contained in a folder in a single go, but if you have low system memory then using this feature can become a bit of a drain on your system. For faster exploring, it is possible to lower the thumbnail size and quality by a simple registry trick. Just Follow the simple tricks!

Step 1: Go to start and click on RUN.

Step 2: Type “REGEDIT”

Step 3: This will Open the registry. In the left pane, navigate to :

“ HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft \ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer “

Step 4: Create a new DWORD value called ThumbnailSize, and set the value between 32 and 256. ( This reduces the size of thumbnails in Explorer. Something around 45 will be fine)

Step 5:And/or create another DWORD value called ThumbnailQuality, and set the value between 50 and 100. ( This sets the quality of thumbnails! )

This simple Editing will reduce the load on the system while you browse in thumbnail view.