Hackish Box

How to find the best SEO book on the internet market.

2011-04-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

Find a top SEO book on the market is a challenging task.How do you determine which book is right for you? Before Buying or follow a SEO book you need to consider a number of key factors to help you determine the utility of a search engine optimization guide.

Consider following point before you spend your hard earned money on a book :-

1- Clear understanding of what you are looking for.
2- What is your current understanding of SEO?
3- What type of SEO book do you truly need?
4- Book's Author is a proven SEO expert ?

After determining these point, the next step is to determine the breadth and depth of content that is available. Are you looking for technical information that is going to provide you with all the details necessary to program a web site? Alternatively, are you what they consider a newbie, someone starting from scratch who needs a clear understanding of the basics.

Check out that the guide is explicit in it's instruction and can give you the tangible "to do" list that can make your purchase worthwhile. Read reviews on Amazon.com or other online booksellers. Reviews are not always trusty but directionally they should give you enough information by which to make a definitive selection from a sea of SEO books.

As a final note if i summarized this post Then result is determine following :-

1- current situation
2- your specific needs,
3- evaluating the practicality of a given book
4- based on web reviews

Finally you can make the right decision on an SEO book.

Liquid Metal an Android Mobile By Acer Launched in India

2011-03-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Acer launches the Liquid Metal smartphone in indian market. The Liquid Metal runs on a Snapdragon MSM7230 SoC with an 800MHz Scorpion CPU and Adreno 205 GPU.

Acer Liquid metal Specifications : -
Some attractive features are :-

# Size:                        3.6 inches
# Resolution:              480 X 800 WVGA
# Operating System: Android 2.2 Froyo with Acer's 4.0 Breeze UI
# ROM:                    512 MB
# RAM:                    512 MB
# Battery type:          1500mAh Li-Ion battery
# Camera:                5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash that can also record videos in 720p

resolution
#Price : Rs. 20,500.

Casting Couch allegations On Love, Sex and Dhokha Director Dibakar Banerjee

2011-03-17T00:21:00.000-07:00

The actress Payal Rohatgi claims that she was propositioned by Director Dibakar Banerjee, to get a role in his much anticipated project, 'Shanghai'. After this news the issue of the casting couch in Bollywood seems to have reared its ugly head. Pyal has worked in films like Plan, 36 China Town and Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai. According to Payal the Love, Sex and Dhokha director had reportedly dropped by her home and asked her to take her top off. She said, when she refused to do so, he nixed her from the film. Trouble in paradise apparently occurred when she talked to him about getting a role in the Emraan Hashmi – Abhay Deol starrer film 'Shanghai'.

Want To Know Your Ugliness? New iPhone App Help You

2010-10-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

No one is forget the lines from Snow White's fairy tale "Mirror, mirror on the wall / Who in the land is fairest of all?" Now its your turn to ask same question but not to the mirror but your iPhone and new iPhone app give response to you.
A new iPhone app called Ugly Meter claims to be able to tell you how ugly a person is. This $0.99 app available in the App Store.
How Ugly Meter works :
1 - It take a photo of a person,
2 - Analyzes its contours in real-time and displays a score out of ten.
Since this is Ugly Meter, the score is about ugliness, the higher the score, the more ugly the person in the photo is.

Algorithm behind working :
Once accepted into the app, the picture can be lined up by the user using the on-screen grids to get the best results. Once done, the app delivers its verdict. As was found out, more often than not, it is rather vitriolic than pleasant.
Check out the result of Ugly Meter perform on various celebrities by Daily mail.
The first two to go were The most famous couple of Hollywood Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

Angelina scored 2.0 out of 10 which very low.

Brad Pitt score just opposite to Angelina ,what a interesting result. So buy this app and check your ugliness.

CDMA iPhone in india

2010-10-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

Reliance Communication and Tata teleservices might bring CDMA iPhone by this year-end.

Acoording to wall Street Journal Tata Teleservices and reliance Communication have been in talks with Apple Cooperation to bring CDMA iphone to INDIA.

As India is a big market for CDMA, so it should benefit both parties.

Apple iPhone has its own users in India and Airtel and Vodafone promised to bring iPhone 4 in India by this month but we see no details from their end as yet.

How this pact work :

if Reliance and Tata manage to convince Apple for bringing CDMA iPhone in India, then it might be competitively price alongside the GSM version. Only if both CDMA specializing telecoms manage to offer iPhone on contractual basis, a significant traction of Indian audience might get interested.

Biggest Threat for Google : Partnership between Facebook and Microsoft

2010-10-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

When Microsoft launched Bing search engine its a little worry for Google but after Social media giant Facebook and Microsoft annoused that they are teaming up to make internet searching more social that could represent the biggest threat to Google's search dominating yet.

How partnership work:

When someone uses Microsoft's Bing search engine to look for a new mobile phone or a bike, he/she can see which ones his/her Facebook friends liked. It will now be easier for searchers to get their friends' opinions before they make purchasing decisions.

What Mark Zuckerberg Said on this partnership :
"They (Microsoft & facebook) really are the underdog here,They're incentivized to go out and innovate. They have all these smart people and are trying to do all these new things."

What Google Said :

"We welcome competition that helps deliver useful information to users and expands user choice,Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space. It makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day our users benefit from that."

What industry analysts said :

Microsoft-Facebook partnership could spell trouble for Google, despite the fact that the search giant handled 72.15% of all U.S. searches last month.
Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Research said : "People prefer Google to Microsoft, but they prefer Facebook to Google. If the partnership makes Facebooking better, then it could pull users away from Google."
Valdes said. "There is a battle for the future of the Web, and it is not about search engines, but about the social Web.

My views :

Just wait and watch. whats your ? feel free to comment.

The New Nokia C7 : Product Analysis

2010-10-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

Nokia launches the New Mobile Phone : Nokia C7 operating on the latest Symbian^3 OS, has finally been packed up.

This New Nokia C7 smartphone offers quick access to the deluge off applications hosted at the Ovi Store. It is crafted in a sophisticated blend of glass and stainless steel.

It promises to use social media sites more frequently, Twitter and Facebook updates can be directly accessed via the homescreen, along with several email accounts like Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and Ovi Mail.

Specification of the Product :

GENERAL

2G Network              : GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network              : HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
Announced                : 2010, September
Status                        : Available. Released 2010, October

SIZE

Dimensions                : 117.3 x 56.8 x 10.5 mm, 64 cc
Weight                      : 130 g
              DISPLAY

Type                       : AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size                          : 360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches
                                :- Nokia ClearBlack display
                                :- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
                                :- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
            SOUND

Alert types : Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones

Speakerphone         : Yes
            - 3.5 mm audio jack
           MEMORY

Phonebook              : Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records             : Detailed, max 30 days
Internal                    : 8 GB storage, 256 MB RAM, 1 GB ROM
Card slot           : microSD, up to 32GB, buy memory
          DATA

GPRS                     : Class 32
EDGE                     : Class 32
3G                          : HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
WLAN                   : Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth                : Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
Infrared port           : No
USB                       : Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support
         CAMERA

Primary                  : 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, fixed focus, dual-LED flash
Features                 : Geo-tagging, face detection
Video                    : Yes, 720p@25fps, video stabilization
Secondary             : Yes, VGA
       FEATURES

OS                      : Symbian^3 OS
CPU                    : ARM 11 680 MHz processor, 3D Graphics HW accelerator
Messaging            : SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser               : WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Radio                   : Stereo FM radio, FM transmiter
Games                 : Yes + downloadable
Colors                 : Charcoal black, Frosty metal, Mahogany brown
GPS                    : Yes, with A-GPS support; Ovi Maps 3.0
Java                    : Yes, MIDP 2.1
                            - Web TV
                            - TV-out
                            - Digital compass
                            - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
                            - MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ player
                            - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player
                            - Quickoffice document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
                            - Adobe Reader
                            - Flash Lite 4.0
                            - Voice memo/dial/command
                            - T9
         BATTERY

                               Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh (BL-5K)
Stand-by                Up to 552 h (2G) / Up to 648 h (3G)
Talk time                Up to 9 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 5 h (3G)
Music play             Up to 54 h
        MISC

Price group About

350 EUR

$484.15

Keen to see New Nokia C7 ? Wait and Watch.

Leonardo The Vinci's Dream Comes True After 520 Years.

2010-09-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

Todd Reichert a Canadian university student has invented a human powered " wing- flapping plane Called an Ornithopter, and inspired sketched by da Vinci way back in 1485 and never actually built.

Todd ( an engineer ) made history by sustaining flight in his Ornithopter -- named Snowbird -- for 19.3 seconds and covering 475.72 feet.

materials used to make Snowbird are fiber, balsa wood and foam. Weight of machine is 92.59 pound and average speed is 15.91 miles per hour.
Todd and 30 other student had been working on the plane for 4 years.

Now Cure of Cancer and Diabetes is left hand game - Saint Prahlad Jani of India

2010-09-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

If we believe on Saint Prahlad jani then disease like cancer,diabetes is easier to drive away.
The holy God gift of Gujarat is Prahlad Jani from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He said, remove cancer and diabetes is left hand game.

The 82-year-old Indian saint Prahlad Jani is formally known as “Chundadivala Mataji” and “Chunriwala Mataji” in Gujarat, India.
He lives without eating drinking food and water since last 70 years. By taking from 1942 until today, so many doctors have been done medical tests on Indian holy man.

Saint said that he can shut out many diseases such as cancer, diabetes and ext. by giving one fruit to diabetes and cancer patient.that fruit produces antibodies into the patients body which help to fight with illness.

Many Doctors examined him several works and monitored daily activities by CCTV Cameras. Finally revealed that saint actually does not eat any food drink anything but finally his whole body revealed flourishing.

To know more about Saint Prahlad jani (Chundadivala Mataji)
visit Prahlad Jani Wikipedia

Nokia X2 new music phone

2010-09-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

After much awaiting finally Nokia India has launched its latest music phone, Nokia X2.
This Time Nokia targeted to delight young entertainment enthusiasts and music lovers.
Nokia X2 comes with Following Functions and Features.

- Dedicated music keys
- 3.5mm AV connector,
- FM radio with built-in antenna,
- A digital music player and
- Loud stereo speakers for sharing music.
- 5 megapixel camera with flash
- A video recorder.

The phone, which boasts of several features, is available at Rs 6,579.

Dopod pops out music-centric smart phone

2009-08-25T03:11:00.000-07:00

Asian smart-phone supplier Dopod has unveiled its latest HTC-made handsets, among them version of the manufacturer's familiar BlackBerry-like S620, the 3G-friendly P3600 and the GPS-enabled P3300. But a couple of other, unexpected models stood out from the rest.
Top of the list is Dopod's C800, a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device based on HTC's slide-out keyboard design. Unlike the manufacturer's other such devices, the C800 isn't a 3G phone. It's othere specs are pretty standard: two megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 with stereo audio, 2.8in 240 x 320 display, 802.11b Wi-Fi, 64MB of RAM, 128MB of Flash and a MicroSD card slot.

The M700 looks rather like the HTC P3300 - which Dopod's offering as the P800W - but drops the latter's GPS receiver in favour of an FM radio. Again, it has a two megapixel camera, 2.8in 240 x 320 display, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP for wireless stereo audio, and 802.11g Wi-Fi. The phone's a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE job.
Pitching the music playback angle, Dopod will bundle a 512MB MicroSD card with the M700, while HTC has equipped the handset with double the usual Flash complement: 256MB.
Both devices - and, indeed, the others - are due to ship later this month in Dopod's Asian markets. HTC owns a majority stake in Dopod.

Nokia N85 Cellular Phone

2009-08-25T03:09:00.000-07:00

Description:

It's hard to knock a phone that has all the current popular technologies, but it would have still been great for Nokia to consider new technologies for this latest N-Series range, particularly a media sharing networking protocol.

Buying choices:

Nokia N85 Cellular Phone | $0 - $0

Users' rating:

9/10

First Look:-

Upside
It's hard to knock a phone that has everything, and as with the Nokia N-Series announcements from the beginning of 2008, the N85 has all bases covered, especially in regards to connectivity technology. Combining HSDPA data downloads, WLAN for local networking and A-GPS for navigation makes the N85 another powerful mobile from the world's leading phone manufacturer.
As a multimedia player, the N85 will support the same raft of music and video files we see in N-Series devices including the DRM protected WMA music files purchased from the Nokia Music store and will play back video on its 2.6-inch OLED colour screen. While the N85 doesn't have substantial internal storage, Nokia does plan to bundle an 8GB microSD card with the phone.
To set it apart from the other N-Series handsets, specifically the N96, Nokia is pitching the N85 as an N-Gage gaming phone with dedicated gaming controls. To emphasise this association, the N85 will come bundled with 10 pre-installed N-Gage game demos and a voucher to fully activate one of these titles. In our experience the N-Gage platform and the available games are slowly improving, so this could actually be quite an attractive offer by the time the N85 is released.
Downside
As with all of Nokia's previously released N-Series phones we'll be watching the battery closely. The N85 will employ a 1200mAh battery pack, similar to last year's N95 8GB. Nokia does seem to be refining the way its high-power handsets conserve battery life — we saw the 8GB model maintain better battery cycles than the originally released N95 — but this could still be an area for concern.
It's a shame not to see Nokia implementing new technology in the features list of the N85. One particular area of technology we'd be interested in seeing in an N-Series device is networked media sharing. Other mobile manufacturers including Samsung and Sony Ericsson are experimenting with including DLNA media sharing in upcoming phone releases. This sort of technology would be an excellent inclusion for a media-centric phone like the N85.
Outlook
The N85 is a fairly uninspiring announcement from Nokia, even though we don't doubt that it will perform in line with Nokia's other high quality N-Series devices. Except for a marginal difference in size, the difference between the N85 and the N96 on paper is so small that it seems unlikely that people will hold off buying the N96 in the fourth quarter of 2008 and instead wait for the N85 which is set for release in the first quarter of 2009.

SPECIFICATIONS:-

Battery

Talk time
6.5 hours

Standby time
363 hours

Camera

Camera resolution
5-megapixel

Camera flash
LED

Video capture
Yes

Connectivity

Networks
GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, UMTS 2100

Connectivity
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HSDPA

Data services
GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA

USB connectivity
Yes

Display

Main display: Screen resolution
240 x 320 pixels

Main display: Number of colours
16 million

Entertainment

Video player
Yes

Games
Yes

FM radio
Yes

Music player
Yes

Functionality

Input method
Numerical keypad

Voice recorder
Yes

Ringtone options
Polyphonic, MP3

Java
Yes

Operating system
Series 60

Supported audio file formats
AAC, AAC+, MP3, WMA

Supported video file formats
MPEG-4

Supported picture file formats
JPG

Other supported file formats
JPG

Video calls
Yes

Web browser
Yes

General

Phone type
3G, Multimedia, Smartphone, GPS

Form factor
Slider

Dimensions (W x D x H)
50 x 16 x 103 mm

Weight
128 g

Memory

Internal memory
74 MB

Memory card included
8GB

Expansion slot
microSD

Messaging

Messaging options
SMS, MMS

Physical features

Available colours
Black

Included accessories
Manual, Software (Windows), Charger, Stereo headset, USB cable, Memory card

N93i Ultimate One.......

2009-08-25T03:05:00.000-07:00

I should stress right at the outset that the Nokia N93i isn't strictly an upgrade to the N93. The N93i is an evolution of the original design, to be sure, and the main point is that it's much slimmer and more visually appealing, thus attracting people who would have dismissed the original bulk of the N93. It remains to be seen how long the N93 stays available for, but I'd guess that the two can coexist happily for a while. The N93i is the one most newcomers will buy, but there are quite a few compromises made in the N93i design that might annoy anyone determined to buy the 'flagship' S60 smartphone. For more on the pros and cons, read on....

First impressions of the N93i are excellent, with the large mirror-backed screen prominent and attractive, with a silver surround that's unfortunately not carried down into the base unit, which remains black(ish) - the two-tone silver/black looks a little odd. The camera housing still dominates the top of the N93i, but it's been restyled since the N93 and is slightly thinner.

Using a combination of newer screen technology (the small exterior display is now OLED) and clever concave sculpting (see the diagram, right) the majority of the N93i is a good 5mm thinner than the N93. This is a huge difference and obviously THE main selling point of the newer model when picking it from a line-up. With the slimmer form comes lower weight too, 17g less than the N93, at 163g. Holding and opening up the N93i doesn't overwhelm you with its bulk, unlike the original N93. The combination of mirror top and svelte form factor transforms the device into something more instantly desirable.
Other physical improvements made in the N93i include:

a joystick rather than d-pad for the side (camera mode) controller - this is significantly less fiddly
a recessed lanyard mount on the bottom of the device - saving a couple of millimetres in length in one go
a flush-fitting and more secure miniSD slot cover
a tethered cover for the Pop-port connector - no chance of this one getting lost(!), although leaving it hanging there while you listen to music on the Pop-port stereo headset looks and feels somewhat messy
relocation of the main speaker to the base unit - again, to help save space in the lid assembly
a redesigned battery cover that's a lot easier to remove and reattach
a proper SIM card recess (rather than the flimsy and fiddly clasp on the N93)
a charging LED set underneath the mirror top

Opening up the Nokia N93i reveals changes too, both positive and negative. Most obvious is the flush, metallic keypad, probably a necessity given the new slimmer lines of the base unit. There are spidery rubber inlays to improve grip and give you a better sense of where the key boundaries are in the dark. Although this largely works well and there's a definite 'click', the amount of force needed to effect each keypress is fairly high and the N93i isn't as useable as its predecessor when it comes to text entry. I also didn't like the way there were no dividers between the Green/Edit and (more vitally) C/Red 'keys', it's going to be quite easy to go for 'C' and hit the hangup button by mistake, thus ending the application you're in.

Having reckoned the N93 had just about the best display of any smartphone I'd seen (in all light conditions), the N93i blew me away, indoors at least, with its colour rendition of my photos. The N93i has 16 million colours rather than the N93's (paltry!!!) 262,000 available. What this means is that colours are more vibrant and more accurate, which is good. Not so good is that the change in screen technology has meant undistinguished performance outdoors, especially in sunlight, as shown below. The outer layer of the screen proved too reflective and consequently ruined the contrast, whereas the original N93 screen reflected nicely off the back of the display, giving excellent contrast in the brightest of light.

The main reason why outdoor screen contrast is important, of course, is because it's the viewfinder for all still and video camera functions, the main raison d'etre for the N93 and N93i. Although restyled, the camera seems to be identical, in terms of hardware, to that in the N93, though once you examine photos you'll realise that there is a significant difference.

As you know, the raw CMOS sensor data from a smartphone camera gets processed by various hardware and software in order to improve contrast while reducing digital 'noise' and artificial constructs ('artefacts') brought about because of the physical layout of the sensor and optics, and because of the compression schemes used to keep the amount of data manageable. In the Nokia N93, the noise reduction seemed to be largely turned off, with the result that images were very crisp but horribly full of artefacts if you zoomed in very closely. For the N93i, there's far more noise reduction applied, with the result that artefacts (i.e. detail that isn't really there in the first place) get blurred out, to hopefully result in a more pleasing picture, even if the photo isn't apparently quite as crisp as the same image taken on the original N93. A nice side benefit of the reduced level of artefacts is that JPG file sizes are considerably (up to 50%) smaller.

Which noise reduction setup you prefer is down to personal preference - but for most people it won't matter as there's nothing you can do to adjust it on each device - and in any case, the photos are more than good enough on both devices for semi-professional use. There are the usual range of focus presets and lighting modes (e.g.'Incandescent'), plus of course the tremendous 3x optical zoom, making the N93i as good as many standalone digital cameras. Focussing is done by the usual gentle pressing of the main shutter button and, impressively, I found the speed of auto-focus to be far quicker on the N93i than on the N93, a real boon as speed of focus has always been an N93 gripe.

Although in theory, N93i video recording should be the same as on the N93, with the familiar VGA (640 by 480) capture at 30 frames per second, better than anything else currently available, there are several significant differences. On the plus side, there's now the option for 'Continuous auto-focus', with the usual tick-tick-ticking of the focussing mechanism activating as your subject matter changes. Being able to film items really close up is a huge advantage, probably offsetting the fact that the mechanism noises make their way onto the video soundtrack.
Talking of soundtracks, one big minus point is that the move of the stereo microphones from either side of the camera housing (on the N93) to beside the power button (on the N93i) has meant lower sound levels overall and a reduction in the stereo separation.

I've had a few minor issues with handling the MP4 files produced by the two N93 variants, but digital video is such a complicated area that I'm not prepared to lay the blame with the smartphones at this time. I can suggest you steer clear of the supplied Adobe Premiere Elements as your editing software unless you have an absolute monster dual-core PC.

Away from multimedia, the Nokia N93i is familiar on all fronts, it's standard S60 3rd Edition all the way, though with the extra tweak that you can run any application in 'landscape' mode by twisting the screen round in the other direction. And, as with the N93, you can echo your display out to a widescreen TV using the supplied TV-out lead and extra graphics chips in the smartphone. Being able to shoot video and then play it back straight away on any TV... and then upload it directly to the web to a video blog via a Wi-Fi connection is just cool, cool, cool. And blogging got even easier too, at least in theory, with the addition of Vox to the 'Open online service' option in Gallery (Flikr is already there). Just don't try this at home on a typical European data tariff...

The N93i comes with a handful of dark and moody themes, as shown below, although I preferred to use it with a much lighter theme, giving more screen clarity in daily use.

There's also the WLAN wizard, as featured in the very latest N93 firmware, helping you to define an access point directly from an initial scan of the airwaves. As with other S60 3rd Edition smartphones, the Wi-Fi reception isn't spectacular and you'll need to be close to a router for perfect operation. As with the N93, there's support for UPnP (over Wi-Fi), should your home a-v equipment support this for streaming media. Quickoffice is supplied for business use, in viewer form but with the latest Quickmanager module for over-the-air upgrading to full edit mode.

Another casualty of the slimmer form is the battery, which is now a 950mAh BL-5F rather than the 1100mAh battery in the N93. This is a little worrying to be honest - when using the N93 day to day with a reasonable amount of photography or filming, I was often out of power by nightfall. To have battery capacity reduced is definitely cause for concern.
S60 itself shows the same maturity as in the N93, with almost 22MB of RAM free after booting, ensuring that memory problems in use are few and far between, even when starting up a Java program or a satellite navigation app.
In summary, here are the pros of each of the N93 models, based on my experience:

Nokia N93	Nokia N93i
Longer battery life Clearer sound on video recordings Better stereo separation on video recordings More legible and tactile numeric keypad Much clearer display in sunlight	Slimmer, sleeker, shorter Better on-board optical noise reduction on still images Faster auto-focus Option of continuous focus in video recordings 16 million colour display Better Pop port and card covers Better side joystick

By necessity, I've been concentrating on technical differences from the N93, but most new users will be coming to the N93i fresh and will be blown away by its features and capabilities. N93 purists may want to hang onto their black (or silver) monsters, with better screen contrast, better video sound, proper keys and longer battery life, but for everyone else the new slimline member of the N93 family is a very welcome addition.
The N93i looks and feels like a second generation design and will doubtless delight many a new Nseries customer as well as make jaws drop around the world, in homes and offices, both at its looks and at the sheer number of things such a relatively small device can do.

N78 The Vehcile Gadget Mobility

2009-08-25T03:01:00.000-07:00

One of Nokia's new N-series multimedia computers - the N78. It runs S60 3.2 / Symbian 9.3 has all the usual features - 3.2MP camera, WiFi, HSDPA, GPS... yawn - plus something new: An integrated FM transmitter. That means you can play music off your phone over any bog-standard FM radio with no cables. Quite useful for long car rides, I'm sure. James Nash (aka Cirrus) James Nash (aka Cirrus) -->

One of Nokia's new N-series "multimedia computers" - the N78. It runs S60 3.2 / Symbian 9.3 has all the usual features - 3.2MP camera, WiFi, HSDPA, GPS... yawn - plus something new: An integrated FM transmitter. That means you can play music off your phone over any bog-standard FM radio with no cables. Quite useful for long car rides, I'm sure.

Technical specifications:-

General:-

Sleek design; Capable multimedia computer

Search and find places and know how to get there, with integrated A-GPS
Tag images automatically with capture location and upload directly to the web
Browse the internet with large 2.4” display, access the web over Wireless LAN (WLAN) with automatic hotspot authentication
Up to 24-hour music playback time, scroll to your favorite tracks using Navi™ wheel
Access images, music, podcasts, video with high speed WLAN, or 3.5G connection

Operating Frequency

Dual mode WCDMA 900/2100 (HSDPA), GSM/GPRS/EGPRS 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Automatic switching between bands and modes

Dimensions

Volume: 76.5 cc
Weight: 101.8 g
Length: 113 mm
Width: 49 mm
Thickness (max): 15.1 mm

Memory Functions

Up to 70MB internal memory
MicroSD memory card support (hot swappable)
Approx. memory capacity indication with included 2GB microSD card:
-Video (VGA @ 15fps): up to 120 min
-Photos (3.2 megapixel): up to 3,400 photos
-Music (eAAC+): up to 1,500 tracks*

* Capacity based on 3:45 per song with 48 kbps eAAC+ (M4A) encoding on the Nokia Audio Manager. Capacity with 128 kbps AAC encoding is up to [550] songs.

Power Management*

Battery: Nokia Battery BL-6F 1200mAh
Talk time: up to 190 minutes (WCDMA); 260 minutes (GSM)
Stand-by time: up to 320 hours (WCDMA); 320 hours (GSM)
Still images: up to 375 pictures (3.2 megapixel)
Video capture: up to 215 minutes (VGA @ 15fps)
Video call: up to 125 minutes
Video playback: up to 280 minutes (VGA @ 15fps)
Music playback: up to 24 hours (offline mode)
Web browsing: up to 3 hours (3.5G)
FM radio: up to 14 hours

*Operation times may vary depending on radio access technology used, operator network configuration and usage.

Display and User Interface

2.4” QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) TFT color display with up to 16 million colors and wide 160° viewing angle. Ambient light detector - to optimize display brightness and power consumption
Operating system: Symbian OS
User Interface: S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2
Java™: MIDP2.0
C++ and Java SDKs

Call Management

Call logs, speed dial, voice dialing, voice commands, and talking ringtone

Messaging

E-mail (SMTP, IMAP4, POP3), MMS, SMS

Data Transfer*

Dual mode WCDMA 900/2100 (HSDPA) with simultaneous voice and packet data (PS max speed UL/DL= 384/3.6MB, CS max speed 64kbps)
Dual Transfer Mode (DTM) support for simultaneous voice and packet data connection in GSM/EDGE networks. Simple class A, multi slot class 11, max speed DL/UL: 118.4/118.4 kbits/s
EGPRS class B, multi slot class 32, max speed DL/UL= 296 / 177.6 kbits/s

*Actual achieved speeds may vary depending on network support.
Imaging :-

Imaging and video

3.2 megapixel (2048x1536 pixels) camera, Carl Zeiss Optics, Tessar™ lens, 20x digital zoom, MPEG-4 VGA video capture of at 15 fps
Secondary camera, CIF (352x288 pixels) sensor
On device photo editor (manual & automatic) and video editor (manual).
2.4” QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) TFT color display with up to 16 million colors and wide 160° viewing angle. Ambient light detector - to optimize display brightness and power consumption
Nokia XpressShare solution - share easily from Photos application or after capture via email, by using Bluetooth connectivity or MMS.
Video call and video sharing support (WCDMA network services)
Online album/blog: one click image/video uploading from Photos application or camera post-capture view
Tag images automatically with capture location and show on a map where they were captured.
Transfer and organize photos and video between your device and compatible PC with Home Media solution.
Nokia XpressPrint solution – online printing service or direct printing via USB, Bluetooth connectivity (BPP), WLAN (UPnP), from compatible memory card.

Mobile Video

Video resolutions: up to VGA @ 15 fps
Audio recording: AAC stereo, 48kHz
Digital video stabilization
Video clip length: max 60 min per clip
Video file format: .mp4 (default), .3gp (for MMS)
White balance: automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
Scene: automatic, night
Color tone: normal, sepia, B&W, negative
Zoom: Digital up to 8x

Mobile Photography

Still image resolutions: 3.2 megapixel (2048x1536)
Still image file format: JPEG/EXIF
Auto focus
Auto exposure - center weighted AE
Exposure compensation: +2 ~ -2EV at 1/3EV step
White balance : automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
Scene: automatic, user, close-up, landscape, night, night portrait
Colour tone: normal, sepia, B&W, negative
Zoom: Digital up to 20x
LED flash
Secondary camera, CIF (352 x 288) sensor

Camera Specifications

CMOS, 3.2 megapixel (2048x1536)
Carl Zeiss optics: Tessar™ lens
Focal length: 4.6 mm
Focus range: 10 cm ~ infinity
Macro focus distance: 10 cm - 30 cm

Music :-

Music Features

OMA DRM 2.0 support for music.
Integrated FM transmitter* (88.1 – 107.9 MHz)
Nokia Internet Radio
Stereo speakers
Nokia Stereo Headset HS-45/AD-54
Digital music player: supports MP3/ AAC/ AAC+/ eAAC+/ WMA with playlists, equalizer and album art.
Synchronize music with Windows Media Player 10 & 11.
Rip your CDs with one click, converting and transferring music to your device using Nokia Music Manager
Stereo FM radio (87.5-108MHz /76-90MHz) with Visual Radio™ support

Explore :-

Navigation

Integrated Assisted Global Positioning System (A-GPS)
Pre-installed Nokia Maps application and downloadable maps*
Comes with a selection of the regional maps

E-mail

Easy-to-use email client with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents
Compatible with Nokia Wireless Keyboard SU-8W (sold separately)

Browsing

Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map
Web feeds support (RSS)
xSP framework support

Digital home

Access multimedia content on your compatible home media network over UPnP.
Automatically synchronize your mobile and home content with Home Media solution

Java Applications

Java™: MIDP2.0
Over-the-air download of Java-based applications and games

Other Applications

Personal Information Management (PIM)
Advanced S60 PIM features including contacts, calendar, to-do list, notes, recorder, calculator, clock, converter
Office applications: Quickoffice supports viewing of common e-mail attachments and Adobe PDF Reader
Setting wizard for easy configuration of e-mail, push to talk and video sharing
Data transfer application for transfer of PIM information from other compatible Nokia devices
WLAN wizard

Connectivity

WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g with UPnP support
USB 2.0 high-speed through micro USB connector
Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 + EDR
Nokia AV connector 3.5mm
Nokia Nseries PC Suite connectivity with USB, and Bluetooth wireless technology
Local synchronization of contacts and calendar to a compatible PC using connection
Remote over-the-air access to your home content with ORB
Automatic synchronization with Home Media Solution
Send and receive images, video clips, graphics, and business cards via Bluetooth wireless technology

* The service is available free of charge, although any data transferred over the network will incur charges from your network operator. To check the availability and cost of the service, contact your network operator or service provider.

Video :-

RealPlayer media player

Full-screen video playback to view downloaded, streamed or recorded video clips
Supported video formats: MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, H.263/3GPP, RealVideo 8/9/10, Flash 3.0
Up to 30 fps (frames per second) playback

Sales Package Contents :-

Standard Sales Package Contents

Nokia N78 (including Nokia 2GB microSD Card MU-37)
Nokia Battery BL-6F
Nokia Travel Charger AC-5
Nokia Music Headset HS-45/AD-54
Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-101
User guide
Quick Start guide
DVD

Digg Source Code has a "Secret Message"

2008-11-20T03:47:00.000-08:00

Nowadays Digg is popular amongst the bloggers .Recently I came to know about this, the homepage of Digg contains a "Secret Message". This secret message is in the source code of the Home Page of the website in the form of a comment at the very bottom .After analyzing the code it seems that some physics-lover has worked on the code of the website.The message is :::

< !-- digg is done serving you. 2.01355321270u 137.03599911 6.6742x10-11m3kg-1s-2 6.6742x10-11m3kg-1s-2 -->

This line is a comment and thus not visible on the website but can easily be seen in the source code of the homepage.These are not just random numbers but are a result of very smart physics work done at the Digg labs.
What is the significance of these numbers ? Take a guess (Hint :: Relate these numbers to physics)...

OK,here is the answer.....

2.01355321270u :: This is the atomic mass of the hydrogen isotope known as Deuterium.
137.03599911 :: This is a complicated one and really a geek in physics can figure this out.This is Inverse of the Sommerfield fine-structure constant.
6.6742x10-11m3kg-1s-2 ::The last two numbers are the same.This one is very easy to guess and is known as The Gravitational Constant(G).

The numbers represent Deuterium, Inverse of the fine structure constant, G, G.
After the analysis what we get is ::
2.01355321270u :: D
137.03599911 :: I
6.6742x10-11m3kg-1s-2 :: G
6.6742x10-11m3kg-1s-2 :: G

Finally , the secret message is DIGG !!.
Ohhk..someone at Digg is crazy or should i say a geek who came up with this crazy idea of encrypting "DIGG" as such a weird figure so that no one figures it out easily thereby getting them involved into this puzzle. What you say!!.

Links to Check::
Digg Home Page
Hyperevo
Wikipedia (For physics related information)
Technogarage

Prevent PenDrive Virus

2008-10-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

Nowadays Most Common medium for Virus are PenDrive . Following steps help to prevent PenDrive Virus .

1) Disable autorun/autoplay function of your pen drive.

2) Now plugin your pen drive and open any folder of your computer.
(Do not open any folder from ur pen drive.)

3) Now goto tools then select Folder Option .
In that box mark the Show Hidden Files & Folders option.
Also Uncheck Hide Extension for known file types & Hide Protected OS files.

Now click apply and ok buttons and close that folder.

4) Nome come to Desktop.
On the Desktop, click on windows Start button and select Search for files & folders.

When the search dialog box appears on the screen, in that click on All Files & Folders, now click on More Advanced Options then select search Hidden files & folders.

Now go above & in Look In option, select your pendrive letter .
(For example E: Or G:) and hit Enter.

5) Now if you see any unknown .Exefiles, simply delete them all.

I hope this Tip give you some relax.

Crazy Typewriters

2008-10-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

Imagination have no boundaries and people ready to experiment can take their creativity to another level.Recently while surfing the net I came across this post on some site,what drew my attention was the work of Mr.Jeremy Mayer who collects antique typewriters, not to display them but to break them into small components and then combine them into some amazing sci-fi-inspired bugs, skeletons and human figures.
Mayer, who describes his work as a cross between Leonardo da Vinci's mechanical drawings and the gritty futures imagined by sci-fi maestros William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, assembles his artwork without welding, soldering or gluing.

Amazing Isn't it!!

The Great Zero Challenge

2008-10-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

In order to permanently delete data the only way is to destroy the hard drive ?Can we save the Hard Drive for future use destroying permanently the data?Can we recover data from a hard drive that has been overwritten with zeros once?
This is what The Great Zero Challenge is all about.It starts with the line::

It is noble and just to dispel myths, falsehoods and untruths

The challenge is organized by a firm in US named 16 systems and any established, professional data recovery company within USA can participate.Data recovery companies were contacted and the response of one of them was

According to our Unix team, there is less than a zero percent chance of data
recovery after that dd command. The drive itself has been overwritten in a very fundamental manner. However, if for legal reasons you need to demonstrate that an effort is being made to recover some or all of the data, go ahead and send it in and we'll certainly make an effort, but again, from what you've told us, our engineers are certain that we cannot recover data from the drive. We'll email you a quote.

And the website quotes-As of September 6th, 2008 the challenge stands unaccepted.Check out the details of the challenge.
The organization (16Systems) have used a new Western Digital (WD800JB) 80GB hard drive with a default initialization and NTFS format from within Windows XP.They have used a Unix dd command using /dev/zero as input to overwrite the drive.You don't actually have to recover any more data to win the challenge, just tell them the name of one of the two files or the name of the one folder that existed in this screen shot before the dd command was executed.
The prize money is mere $500.00 USD (if the challenge is won) but the challenge should be accepted as they say "to dispel myths" because many people believe that in order to permanently delete data from a modern hard drive that multiple overwrites with random data, mechanical grinding, degaussing and incinerating must be used thus lots of good, usable hard drives are ruined in the process.
for more information check out this link ....

Trojan Horses::The Virus!!

2008-10-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

Trojan Horse in History

The term comes from the a Greek story of the Trojan War, in which the Greeks give a giant wooden horse to their foes, the Trojans, ostensibly as a peace offering. But after the Trojans drag the horse inside their city walls, Greek soldiers sneak out of the horse's hollow belly and open the city gates, allowing their compatriots to pour in and capture Troy..

Trojan Horses

Back to the "modern" Trojan Horses. They're pretty much the same: invisible to the naked eye; appear within harmless programs; require some form of user/operating system intervention to activate; and they do something unexpected by surprise. This article is just to convey a basic principle about the design of Trojan horse programs.

Trojans are designed to access permissions and exploit resources. The goal of password snatchers is to securely leak the login/password pairs to the Trojan author, and the goal in kleptographic attacks is to securely leak private keys to the attacker.

Nature of Trojan Horses

There is no "real" definition of a Trojan horse. It all depends on the perspective of the user that runs into it. From the perspective of a hacker (generally black-hat hackers), a reboot monitoring Trojan (useful in making sure no one used your machine) is not a Trojan to him/her since the hacker knows what it's about. From a law enforcement agent or people like that, it is a Trojan since the agent doesn't know it's there.

There are two examples of Trojans. One is a Trojan that is nothing more than a bug. Don't think that's a good thing. This bug could be bad enough that when planted properly, a Trojan author can break into the computer system. The second Trojan is a mathematical one. The statistical distribution of the output of a random number generator is affected so that it makes the generator very sensitive to the input entropy (I will not go into detail in this, please Google if you do not understand this [:)].

Trojan Horses in a text editor

An example of a text editor being used as a target for a Trojan horse:

If there was an installed text editor on a multiuser operating system which cannot be deleted or modified by the users themselves, then this program has certain unique privileges. For instance, It can access all the text files that users create or open. This would be the perfect target for a Trojan horse. When the Trojan is installed on this program, it will store data from users and makes the data accessible for the Trojan horse author.

Salami Slicing

There was once an article describing a Trojan horse attack that was intended to achieve money. This was carried out by an employee of a bank. He managed to get 70 000$ by taking a few cents from every account, and transferred it into his own account. It got the name of salami slicing because small amounts of money were taken from a lot of accounts. It's pretty useful to prevent anyone from noticing any drastic changes. The bank Trojan had access to money therefore the Trojan steals the money. Therefore, a text editor has access to documents so the Trojan steals the documents (pretty simple isn't it?).

Password Snatching

Every hacker would love to steal login/password pairs (referring to black-hat hackers). Password-snatching programs are installed when a system is infiltrated. These programs are also called rootkits. They were probably written in DOS terminate and stay resident programs (TSR). They record all keystrokes entered via the keyboard and patch the operating system hardware interrupt for key presses and log them to a file.

It is best if a password-snatching Trojan is hosted in a program that could access the passwords of users, like the UNIX "passwd" program. It verifies the identity of UNIX users by checking the login/password pairs. One could copy the Trojan to the end of the passwd program, or one could modify the source code for the password program, recompile it, and then install the compromised version (only if the root access is possible).

However, if the source code for the passwd program is updated and the administrator compiles a new version of it, then the attack would fail. So it would make sense to install a Trojan horse into the compiler which will increase the percentage of success of the attack. But if the compiler is recompiled, then the code that secretly inserts the Trojan into the passwd program would be gone.
______________________________________________________________________

There's not much left for me to explain. But one more thing for you to see :

Ken Thompson described an involved Trojan horse attack.

CODE :

compiler(char*s) { ... }

This is a figure of a normal compiler (ANSI C notation) (I did not create this)

The parameter s is a pointer to a string that contains the source code. The idea is to insert a source level Trojan horse into the source code of the compiler that checks for two patterns in the string s.

The first pattern is source code corresponding to the password verification program. When it is found, the password-snatching source code is added to the program before it is compiled. But the Trojan is not saved to the source file of the password program.

The second pattern is source code corresponding to the compiler. When it is found, the entire compiler Trojan is included in the compiler source code. It will contain all of the source code for the Trojan which is marked by the "if" statements in this following figure.

CODE :

compile(char*s) { if (match)s,pattern1) ==true) { compile(trojan1); return; } if (match)s,pattern2) ==true) { compile(trojan2); return; } ... }

Figure of a compiler with Trojan (ANSI C notation)(I did not create this either)

Whenever the compiler is compiled, the Trojan copies itself into the source file for the compiler. It can be added to the source for the compiler then the compiler could be recompiled, and the old compiler could be replaced. This would remove all traces of the source code for the Trojan attack. It would remain in binary form, integrated with the compiled instructions.

So Thompson's Trojan horse attack exploits the capabilities of its host. For example, it exploits the fact that compilers are used to create programs such as the passwd program and the compiler itself.
Also, it exploits the fact that the passwd program has access to login/password pairs and that the compiler has access to them as well by transitivity.

Yeah... I believe that this is okay to be an overview of Trojan horses.

Ankit Fadia Certified Ethical Hacker

2008-10-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to those who want to become ethical hacker , you can be trained and

certified by computer security guru Ankit Fadia himself. AFCEH or “Ankit Fadia Certified

Ethical Hacker” course is a certification program on computer security. It is a computer

security course that helps IT security professionals protect internet enabled computer

security systems against cyber security threats and hacking. It helps people become more aware

about cyber crime and IT security measures to counter it.

They say the first five batches of this course were sold out with 5000 participants from 91 cities

across India and now courses have been started in Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and

China. This training and certification program is exclusively available at Reliance

WebWorld outlets in over 100+ cities across India. You can contact them for the next course details.

All training material for the course including live video lectures, video recordings, video

workshop demonstration, online study material, books and online exam will be prepared by

Ankit Fadia. Remember AFCEH certification is valid for two years only and you need to

retake the examination to renew your certification later. I checked the Registration Fees are

Rs.6499 and you will receive free copies of Ankit Fadia’s 6 internationally best selling security and hacking books.

Buy The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking, Second Edition

Move your Mouse cursor without Mouse !!

2008-10-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

Control your mouse pointer with keyboard keys in all windows versions. When your mouse stops working, you can enable this keyboard feature to complete your important work. This keyboard mouse can performs all tasks same like a normal mouse.

Follow the given steps to activate the keyboard mouse:

To edit this feature, first you should log onto your computer with administrative rights.
To activate this feature, press Alt+Shift+NumLock keys at once and you will receive a small MouseKey box.

To keep MouseKeys on, click on Ok button or click on cancel button to cancel MouseKeys box.
Click on Settings button, if you want to adjust the mouse cursor detail settings.

Here a new dialog box will appear with the title "Settings for MouseKeys", now you can manage all mouse settings for example mouse cursor speed, acceleration and some other features.

Now using Numeric keypad, you can move your mouse pointer. The controls are:

* 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 and 9 keys are used to move the mouse cursor into different
direction.
* Key 5 is used as mouse click button.
* Insert key used to hold down mouse button.
* + Sign used to double click on any object.
* Delete button used to release the mouse.
* Click on NumLock button to disable this keyboard mouse feature.

or apply above setting by following steps:-

* Start -> All program -> Accessories -> Accessibility -> Accessibility Wizard.

Eliminate the needless visual effects for better windows performance

2008-10-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

Increase the performance of your computer by eliminating the needless visual effects. By default windows XP gives you many options in the graphics fields to enjoy maximum graphics. For example, you can add pictures on folders and drop shadow on icon to give you better look but it will effect on the performance of your computer, especially on an older computer. Window XP has many default graphics which is not so useful for a common user, if you re-adjust these graphics then there is less effect on the user activities but the performance of computer will be increase tremendously. Here I will tell you how to choose:
To edit these settings, first you should log onto your computer with administrative rights.

Click Start button and type sysdm.cpl in Run box then press Ok button for next.

Here a dialog box will appear with the title "System Properties", select "Advanced" tab.

Here click on Settings button under Performance area.

When you have done then "Performance Options" dialog box will appear with different options. Here select the Visual Effects tab and choose the settings you want to use for the appearance and performance of windows on this computer.

Turns off all the visual effects in the option of "Adjust for best performance" and when you select the option "Adjust for best appearance" it will gives you opposite effect ,Everything will turns on. Selecting "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer" triggers, as you might guess, different choices on different computers. And to pick and choose individual effects yourself, choose "custom" then decide which ones you want.

press OK.

How to enable the advance performance setting in windows vista?

2008-09-28T03:57:00.000-07:00

If you have noticed that the speed of your system is very slow with windows vista then today tip is very useful for you to increase the performance of windows vista. There is some default setting in vista which is used to manage the write caching on disk. By default windows enabled the write caching on disk but the advanced performance setting is disabled.

Follow the given steps to configure the advance performance setting in Windows Vista:

To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

First right click on My Computer icon then select the option Manage.

Here small windows will appear with title Computer Management, now select the Device Manager option, then locate the SATA Disk under the Disk Drives.

Here select the enable advanced performance sittings on the SATA disk.

Now click on Ok button to apply the setting and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.

Integrated Circuit :: Celebrating half centuary

2008-09-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

The integrated circuit is 50 year old today(12 september 2008). It’s half a century since the first integrated circuit was demonstrated by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments Jack Kilby's first integrated circuit

If it wasn’t for the invention of the integrated circuit, then computers today would probably be housed in huge mahogany cabinets with a baffling array of polished, brass valves, or at least be stuffed into huge boxes containing hand-soldered transistors. We owe a lot of thanks to the integrated circuit, or microchip, which is today celebrating its 50th birthday.

The first microchip (pictured) was first demonstrated by Jack Kilby from Texas Instruments on 12 September 1958. It might not be much to look at, but then Texas Instruments admits that Kilby often remarked that if he’d known he’d be showing the first working integrated circuit for the next 40-plus years, he would’ve ‘prettied it up a little.’ The chip worked, though, producing a sine wave on an oscilloscope screen at the demo.

The integrated circuit itself is the germanium strip that you can see in the middle of the glass slide, and it measured 7/16in by 1/16in. With protruding wires, and just containing a single transistor, some resistors and a capacitor, it’s a primitive chip by today’s standards. However, it opened the gate for mass production of larger-scale chips that could contain more and more transistors without the need for complicated hand-soldering jobs.

This was a major factor when it came to using lots of interconnected transistors, and in 1958 Texas Instruments was researching a new idea called the ‘micromodule,’ in which the components of a circuit all had the same size and shape, but still didn’t address the problems concerning high numbers of transistors.

In July 1958, Kilby took it upon himself to find the answer to small-scale modules with large numbers of transistors. As a new recruit at Texus Instruments he wasn’t able to take a two-week leave while his other colleagues were off sunning themselves. Instead, he confined himself to his lab alone where he came up with the idea of fabricating all of a circuit’s components with a single block of the same material. Two months later, the first integrated circuit was demonstrated, and technology has never looked back.

Kilby also kept very detailed notes on all of his work. He later went on to develop the first handheld electronic calculator at Texas Instruments in 1967, and racked up a prestigious et of awards, including the Nobel Prize in physics, the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology.

To mark the occasion, Texas Instruments has recreated the original lab where Kilby worked on the first integrated circuit at its HQ, which it hopes ‘will inspire future inventors and serve as a visual reminder of the power of science and technology combined with creativity.’ The company has also contributed to a fund to put up a statue of Kilby in his hometown of Great Bend, Kansas.

Chrome - The Internet Explorer Killer ???

2008-09-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Chrome to Google is what Internet Explorer to Microsoft. Yes, you are right. Chrome, a web browser, is the newest google product intended, as people might say, to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dominance.

Some of the interesting points of the Chrome browser include:

A new UI that places the tabs above the address bar, instead of the traditional way

Incognito mode, which will allow you to browse the web in complete privacy, without recording any of your activity.

A new JavaScript engine to speed things up

They've even put up a web comic to provide users with additional information regarding Chrome.

Can Chrome do it? The more important thing for us, the users, is not about which’s winning what . Having more options to browse and hence, as Google says, to “add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web” is a lot more substance.

This is what some bloggers say…

The software will be seamlessly integrated, and it will make Google’s (and other) online apps, games, etc. richer and simpler to use, especially if/when you’re offline. It will feature a Google search window (and, unlike Microsoft, Google won’t get in trouble when it sets the default to Google). It will be capable of running directly on any device without Windows. Unlike Windows, it will be free. And it will come pre-loaded–just like Windows–because who really wants to bother with downloadin.

download google Chrome from here.

MICROSOFT product ..without any bugs ??

2008-08-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hellozz.. friends I have received a mail from my friend saying the above picture is of Bill gates's daughter. You all must be very curious of the above statement and some of you might be familiar with this photo recently.
I had actually do some research and surfing online to find out the truth.

I got a link (http://www.nndb.com/people/435/000022369/), i came to know that gate's eldest daughter was just 12 years old! and her name is Jennifer Katherine and was born on 26-Apr-1996.When gates had married he was 39 years old .

Bill Gates children is:

* Jennifer Katharine Gates, his daughter born in 1996
* Rory John Gates, his son born in 1999
* Phoebe Adele Gates, his daughter born in 2002

Now question rounding in my mind is who is this girl........?

If anybody knows just write a reply in my blog....:)

The Cyberspace War

2008-08-21T02:40:00.000-07:00

AS the violence unfolded between Russia and Georgia during the past week, hackers waged war on another front: the Internet.
The Georgian government accused Russia of engaging in cyberwarfare by disabling many government Web sites, making it difficult to inform citizens quickly of important updates.
Russia said : it was not involved and that its own media and official Web sites had suffered similar attacks. although a cease-fire has been ordered, major Georgian servers are still down, hindering communication in the country.
Some Georgian officials, bloggers and citizens were able to work around the disruptions,
sending text messages to friends in other countries using web sites hosted by US servers that are less likely to fall victim to a cyberattack

Concerted online attacks have been a threat for years. But security experts say the
"cyberwar" between Russia and Georgia underscores the havoc that can spread on a digital battlefield. It also highlights how vulnerable Web-reliant countries are to assaults that could cripple military communications or a national banking industry.

The attacks against Georgia's Internet infrastructure began nearly two months before the first shots were fired, according to security researchers who track Internet traffic into and out of the countries. Such attacks, known as "denial of service" attacks, are triggered when computers in a network are simultaneously ordered to bombard a site with millions of requests, which overloads a server and causes it to shut down.

"In terms of the scope and international dimension of this attack, it's a landmark," said Ronald Deibert, director of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which has nearly 100 researchers mapping Web traffic through several countries, including Russia and Georgia. He said smallscale attacks have occurred between the countries since June.
"International laws are very poorly developed, so it really crosses a line into murky territory .. Is an information blockade an act of war ?"

Cyberattacks can be launched cheaply and easily, with a few hundred computers and a couple of skilled hackers.Simpler tactics are even easier to mount by hacking into a server and deleting files, reconfiguring settings and altering photos. Compared with expensive military attacks, cyberwar tactics "seems like the kind of thing that a sophisticated military would want experiment with ," said Ben Edelman, assistant professor at Harvard Business School who has studied cyberattacks.

"Imagine how devastating it would be to a military commander to lose access to a server that tells him where his troops are stationed and where he has resources," he said, adding that "this is the first time we've had such strong evidence of cyberwarfare. "
Instructions on how to mount such attacks are readily available on blogs, making it easy for a grass-roots effort to quickly escalate into a crippling assault.
Figuring out who is behind the attacks has been difficult, Deibert said, because of complex routing methods and a multitude of connection exchanges. The Internet's infrastructure is a maze of lines laid by different service providers traversing many countries, masking how information is traveling — or blocked. 'It's an ongoing battle in documenting where it's coming from and helping people get around it," he said.

In Georgia, which is not as dependent on the Internet as other nations, the cyberattack mainly hindered the government's ability to communicate with its citizens and others during the fighting. The Georgian Foreign Ministry's Web site, for example, was disabled except for a collage that compared Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili with Adolf Hitler.
To get around the blockade, Georgian officials relocated national Web sites to addresses hosted by Google's Blogspot, whose US servers are more immune to attack. Citizens used blogging platforms such as LiveJournal — the dominant platform in Russia and Georgia — to post their own reactions during the fighting.
For example, a Georgian refugee from Abkhazia who blogs under the name Cyxymu on LiveJournal, posted photos of Russian troops entering the Georgian town of Gori.
The blogger said the photos were taken after Russia had announced its withdrawal,
proving, he said, that fighting continued.

Morozov said only a few hundred Georgians used blogs to communicate with people outside the country. Even that tool was threatened, he said, when a group of Russian bloggers sent a letter to Sup, the Russian company that owns and manages LiveJournal,
to censor posts with pro- Georgian sentiment. Sup did not comply. The cyberwar will most likely serve as a Web security wake-up call, Morozov said."Georgia was completely unprepared to the fact that all this information was on the Internet," he said. "I think it taught them — and a lot of people — a lesson."

WHO THE HELL IS SHE ????

2008-08-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

India celebrated 61 independence day and we are thrilled that India grown up and so peoples,
But...these pictures I got through mail shows the gross disrespect and insult to the Indian National flag by this so called 'spiritual leader' and self proclaimed 'GOD' Mataji Nirmala Devi. this disrespect to our country's flag shows that she has definitely no respect or love for the country that gave her so much and her husband who was an IAS officer and chief of the SCI (he is seated next to her in he pics)... such as shame.

Is really India grown up ?????????

Windows Process Information

2008-08-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my friend Anna was asking me about process and want to know that which process window need and which are unnecessary.I found a intresting site which help to solve this problem.

When pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete on your computer you’ll get the task manager. In the task manager you can find a lot of valuable information such as: which applications and process are running at the moment, your pc performances, some info about your network activities and the current user which is logged on the computer.

When looking at the process tab in your task manager you’ll find that there are a lot of processes on your computer which are running. Some of them speak for them selfs such as: Photoshop.exe (which means that Photoshop is running), FireFox.exe (which means that FireFox is running) and you’ll also see some process which you didn’t start or know about. Processes like alg.exe, svchost.exe, ccapp.exe, ctfmon.exe etc..
There might also be a process of a program which you have installed with the autorun function (So it starts each time you turn your computer on!). Here’s what I do in this situation, depending on which program it is and if I NEED it, I’ll make sure that this doesn’t run when I turn my computer on.

I find the information in the process tab very handy cause I want to know what my pc is up to and which process are running at the moment. There are process which can be stopped simply because you don’t need/use them. Some of them can’t/shouldn’t be stopped because Windows XP needs them!!
By disabling the unnecessary process and the autorun programs you can gain more CPU & RAM resources and you’ll also notice that you’r computer is starting up more quickly.

So if you need to find more information about the process which are running on your pc and which you don’t know about, you can visit File.net.
On File.net you can find some background information about the process, which program uses that process, what it’s good for and how you can remove/stop the process.
So be in control of your computer and decide which programs may run on your computer.

WINDOWS TIPS COLLECTION

2008-08-08T23:01:00.000-07:00

How to hack windows XP admin password

If you log into a limited account on your target machine and open up a dos prompt
then enter this set of commands Exactly:
cd\ *drops to root
cd\windows\system32 *directs to the system32 dir
mkdir temphack *creates the folder temphack
copy logon.scr temphack\logon.scr *backsup logon.scr
copy cmd.exe temphack\cmd.exe *backsup cmd.exe
del logon.scr *deletes original logon.scr
rename cmd.exe logon.scr *renames cmd.exe to logon.scr
exit *quits dos
Now what you have just done is told the computer to backup the command program
and the screen saver file, then edits the settings so when the machine boots the
screen saver you will get an unprotected dos prompt with out logging into XP.
Once this happens if you enter this command minus the quotes
"net user password"
If the Administrator Account is called Frank and you want the password blah enter this
"net user Frank blah"
and this changes the password on franks machine to blah and your in.

Have fun
p.s: dont forget to copy the contents of temphack back into the system32 dir to cover tracks

No Shutdown:

Wanna play with your friends by removing the shutdown option from start menu in their computer.
Just hack it down !!!
Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
"NoClose"="DWORD:1"
Menu Delays:

Another minor and easy tweak to remove any delay from menus sliding out. For this you will need to use regedit (open regedit by going to Start -> Run..., then typing 'regedit' and pressing enter). The key you need to change is located in HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. The actual key is called MenuShowDelay - all you have to do is change the value to 0. Remember, you will have to re-boot your computer for this tweak to take effect.

Create a Shortcut to Lock Your Computer

Leaving your computer in a hurry but you don’t want to log off? You can double-click a shortcut on your desktop to quickly lock the keyboard and display without using CTRL+ALT+DEL or a screen saver. To create a shortcut on your desktop to lock your computer: Right-click the desktop. Point to New, and then click Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following: rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation Click Next. Enter a name for the shortcut. You can call it "Lock Workstation" or choose any name you like. Click Finish. You can also change the shortcut's icon (my personal favorite is the padlock icon in shell32.dll). To change the icon: Right click the shortcut and then select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button. In the Look for icons in this file text box, type: Shell32.dll. Click OK. Select one of the icons from the list and then click OK You could also give it a shortcut keystroke such CTRL+ALT+L. This would save you only one keystroke from the normal command, but it could be more convenient.

Hacking with Google, Is it Possible

2008-08-08T22:48:00.000-07:00

hello friend i got this stuff during surfing and i found it intresting.......

Every hacker needs to develop his abilities if he wants to maintain up to date. That's why he will use every tool he can find. From all of these possible options, Google hacks have become a new instrument for hackers. Although Google hacking isn't widespread knowledge, it should be understood by any hacker and even for the everyday computer user.

But, if you want to become a hacker, Google is the way to go. Learn how to hack Google and you will acquire a powerful tool for your everyday work.

What Is Google Hacking?

Basically, it's the ability to use Google for finding hidden bits of data or information that the hacker can use for his advantage. Or in other words, hacking Google search appliance. How so? Let's say that you are a black hacker (someone who uses his hacking abilities for selfish purposes) and want to access the email account of a chosen victim. The first thing that hacker's do is to find out what is the secret question in the email account of their prey. Let's say that the secret question asks the name of the pet of the account owner. How can the hacker learn it?

Besides asking the pet's name to his victim (which is very suspicious), it's probable that that bit of information is lost somewhere in the internet. Maybe the owner went into a forum regarding pet insurance and left inside the name of his dog. These are the kind of things that Google permits to find.

Another common use is to hack Google adsense click. That way your webpage will have a higher position when a related query is made through Google. After all, more clicks means more money for you.

How Is It Done?

If you want to make a typical search in Google, let's say, house insurance, you only need to put those words in the query bar and press the search button. In the case of a Google hacker, he will use special characters that the common user doesn't use or doesn't even considered using. For example: +, /, and -.

Each one of these characters are used for special purposes. For example, if you use the minus sign just before a determined word, like dog, Google will only show those searches were the word dog doesn't appear.

One of best places for finding a how to hack with Google tutorial is the Google Hacking database, posted online by the hacker Johnny Long. In this webpage, you will notice hundreds of ways of using Google for exploiting the weak points of servers and webpages.

Create Administrator Account using Guest Account

2008-08-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

I was wondering if this was possible. and oh yes it is possible. but the PC in which you want to create an admin account, an administrator who logs on regularly must be present. ( I mean someone with an administrator account must log in ) This process can be divided in to .... lets say about 5 steps. and here are the cools 5 steps to create your own admin account:

1. Right click desktop NEW> Text Document

2.Write the following in the notepad
@echo off
net user Newadmin /add /expires:never /passwordreq:no
net localgroup “Administrators” /add Newadmin

3.save the file and rename it to what ever you want with the extention .bat

4.Copy the file to the Startup folder. Here is the path to the Startup folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
5.The next time the admin logs on into the computer, the batch file runs and the admin account is created. Once the admin logs off, you can log in using the username newadmin and without any password.
Remember that it wouldn’t take long for the real admin to find out that a new admin account has been created.
Hope this helped someone who needs an admin a/C.

Firefox Addons FIRE

2008-08-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

Most of firefox fans are aware of awesomeness of Mozilla Firefox 3 address bar but few are aware that this awesome bar can be upgraded by using some Firefox addons and can be made more useful.

Here is the list of 5 Firefox 3 addons which can improve the working and efficiency of your Mozilla Firefox 3 address bar.

1.oldbar - Oldbar makes the location (URL) bar look like Firefox 2. If you need another alternative to this, try out Old Location Bar. Oldbar just makes the location bar look like FireFox 2 Old Location Bar makes it ACT like Firefox 2.

2.Hide Unvisited - You too can hide pages bookmarks that you haven't visited , since deleting or clearing history, from showing in the Address Bar.

3.Enter Selects - This Extension allows you to press enter in the Address Bar to select the first result without pressing down.
4.Hidden Places - Stop URLs from specified domains being added to places and the Address Bar.
5.Edit Middle - Show AwesomeBar results when editing in the middle not just at the end.
I personally feel that even without addons firefox 3 is a nice and safe web browser compared to others.

Google Adsense " Better than any other program"

2008-07-14T03:57:00.000-07:00

Google’s AdSense is a fascinating revenue-sharing opportunity for small, medium and large web sites. Some webmasters are designing brand new sites specifically for serving AdSense text ads. (It’s against the AdSense rules to design a site purely for AdSense, so you’ll want to include a few affiliate links or sell your own product, too.)
I read an article about how to increase adsense revenue from associate programs here is the analysis from the article
Let’s say you have a goal of earning $100,000 a year from AdSense. Is that possible? Let’s see … $100,000 divided by 365 = $274 a day. So your goal is to produce either:

274 pages which earn $1 a day or
548 pages which earn 50 cents a day or
1096 pages which earn 25 cents a day

The following are hypothetical cases. To earn $1 a day per page, you need, per page…

400 visitors, 5% click-through rate (CTR ) and average 5c payout.
Or 200 visitors, 10% CTR and an average 5c payout.
Or 100 visitors, 10% CTR, and an average 10c payout.
Or 100 visitors, 5% CTR, and an average 20c payout

Let’s assume you choose a goal somewhere around the middle, say aiming for 50 visitors per page and want 274 pages earning $1 a day. You’d need 274 x 50 = 13,700 pageviews a day.
Does that sound too tough? If so, you’d better look for more profitable keywords and ways to improve your click-through rates.
Let’s try a different scenario, You choose more profitable keywords and make your $1 on average per page from, say, 10 visitors. 274 x 10 = 2740 pageviews a day, That’s looking easier to achieve, If your average visitor sees 3 pages, you now need 913 unique visitors a day.
Is that too tough to achieve in your niche? If so, create two sites, each attracting half that number, 456 unique visitors, a day, Can’t achieve those click-through rates and payouts? Then you’ll either need more pages on your sites on more niche sites.
Please note, because of the AdSense rules, these are all hypothetical cases. I’m not allowed to give real cases. Real CTR rates and payouts vary hugely.Choose the goal which best matches your site or sites.
Then start building keyword-rich pages containing well researched, profitable keywords, and get lots of high quality links to your site.
For example, if your site is about topics such as debt consolidation, web hosting or asbestos-related cancer, you’ll earn much more per click than if it’s about free things.
On the other hand, if you concentrate only on top-paying keywords, you’ll face an awful lot of tough competition.
What you want are keywords that are high in demand and low in supply, So do some careful keyword research before you build your pages.

ATI Radeon HD 4850 gets official:available immediately

2008-06-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Considering that we've already seen AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4850benchmarked, it's not like we really needed some official verbiage to cement our belief that the unit was real. Nevertheless, said verbiage certainly doesn't hurt, and that's precisely what's been delivered this morning. The HD 4850 is a single-slot PCIe 2.0 card featuring 512MB of DDR3 RAM, a 625MHz clock speed, 993MHz memory speed, 480 stream processors and support for CrossFireX / DirectX 10.1. We're also told that at least Diamond Multimedia's HD 4850 is available as we speak from a number of fine retailers, thus we presume everyone else's version of the card shouldn't be too far behind.

Google plans to become net-access nanny

2008-06-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

Google is planning to release tools that let internet users know if their service provider (ISP) is tampering with their internet connection - for example by throttling access to popular bandwidth-heavy sites.

It is the latest round of the net neutrality debate. Net neutrals like Google say the the internet should be a straightforward commodity. Although you may pay more or less for access, what you get is always the same - freedom to use and access the internet as you wish, with all those potential activities being treated the same by your ISP.

In the opposite corner are those who think ISPs should be able to choose which services they support, and which they don't. For example, under this scheme an ISP could slow all traffic to pizza delivery sites except those it had commercial agreements with.

Google's planned software will let you know when that is happening, by presenting an easy-to-understand breakdown of how your connection has been performing. Exactly how has not been revealed. I'm guessing one way would be to let you know if certain applications or websites consistently perform badly on your connection, compared to Google's own data on how they usually perform.

Google is one of the most influential pro-neutrality organisations. But its as-yet-unnamed tool (Throottle, Nootral?) is unlikely to be downloaded by large numbers of people.

If Google wanted to push it to more than just principled geeks it could throw it in with Google Toolbar, which already comes bundled with other software. Adding the neutrality nanny into that mix could dramatically increase its impact.

Figuring Out Which Video Card Is Right for You

2008-06-15T00:19:00.000-07:00

When you think about upgrading a video card, do not just think it's for "gamers only." A number of specialized video cards on the market have nothing to do with games.

Here's a cross section of what's available:

A gamer's card: The latest 3-D video cards (equipped with GeForce 7 and Radeon X850 chipsets, from NVIDIA and ATI, respectively) kick serious tail for all types of games out there - no matter which are your favorites. If you haven't seen the realistic 3-D figures that these cards can produce, visit the gaming store at your local mall and ask a salesperson to crank up the latest game. Of course, Windows will display ho-hum applications faster with one of these cards as well. Many 3-D gaming cards also offer dual monitor support so that you can run two monitors side-by-side for a really big desktop.

TIP

These high-end, 3-D cards run tremendously hot - after all, they're practically separate computers - so they usually have a fan already installed on the card. However, if you're planning on installing the card in an older PC, you should have at least two fans installed in your case - that's one for the power supply (which is standard equipment) and at least one auxiliary fan (to help circulate air to all those hot components).

An MPEG card: These cards are specifically designed for encoding and decoding Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) digital video (usually from a DVD, but hardware MPEG support is also very useful for doing serious video editing on your PC). The idea is simple: Let the card do the video grunt work instead of your PC's processor, and everyone is happier. High-end video cards especially designed for digital video editing are significantly more expensive than video cards meant for home and gamer machines.

A capture card: This popular video upgrade card allows you to capture an incoming analog video signal and convert it to digital video. For example, you can connect your VCR or older analog VHS-C camcorder into the card, convert the signal to digital video, and then record CD or DVD backups of your home movies. If you can display it on your TV, you should be able to capture it with one of these toys.

20 things about Windows XP you never knew!!!

2008-06-15T00:12:00.000-07:00

* It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

* You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

* You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

* XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

* For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

* XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

* You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

* XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

* XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

* You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

* You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

* Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

* You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

* Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

* XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

* The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

* You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

* Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

*Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box;
*Windows key + D brings up the desktop;
*Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

Webbed-O-Meter

2008-06-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

Curious how much hype your site is getting from consumers,
bloggers, analysts, reviewers and reporters?
Well this is your lucky day…kind of. The Webbed-O-Meter utilizes a scale of 1-100 to determine your website’s buzz. Algorithms calculate the site’s word-of-mouth by utilizing ten authoritative sources such as: Technorati, Digg, Del.icio.us and Wikipedia. I don’t think you can do much with this tool, but it is interesting.
Here’s the really funny part. When you put Webbed’s website into the Webbed-O-Meter, you get this message: “Ah, very clever. There are some things even we don’t tell!” Nice!
so check it out and see your website's Buzz. It also help you how to increase your site's Buzz.

Task Manager disabled problem in windows xp

2008-05-28T12:07:00.001-07:00

It is due to some kind of virus/ trojan activity which normally disables the task manager.Now due to this problem when ever the user press alt+ctrl+del to launch windows task manager it gives an error saying “Task Manager is being disabled by your administrator”.
Solution:
To Enable the Disabled Task Manager on your system
1. Press window key+r to show run prompt
2. Follow the following steps
1. Enter gpedit.msc in the run prompt and click OK
2. In the Group Policy settings window
3. Select User Configuration
4. Select Administrative Templates
5. Select System
6. Select Ctrl+Alt+Delete options
7. Select Remove Task Manager
8. Double-click the Remove Task Manager option’.
9. Set the property of this item as disabled.
Updated on 12th FEB 2008
For Those who use Windows XP Home Edition can use the registry to enable Task Manager
1. open start >> run and type regedit
2. Navigate to the following path:
Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. You will find a registry key with name DisableTaskMgr of type: REG_DWORD
4. Double click the key with and set the Value to 0
5. Exit the registry and restart to see the effect.

Some Tricks for MS Windows !!!

2008-05-27T07:43:00.001-07:00

Just a little bit of easy bugs discoverd.............

Trick #1

An Indian discovered that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON". This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable... why this happened!

TRY IT NOW ,IT WILL NOT CREATE " CON " FOLDER

Tricks #2

For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1.) Open an empty notepad file
2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3.) Save it as whatever you want.
4.) Close it, and re-open it.

isn't it just a really weird bug? ??

Trick #3

Microsoft crazy facts
This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable... It was discovered by a Brazilian. Try it out yourself...

Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)
And then press ENTER
then see the magic...............................

How To: Enable Compiz effects on Fedora Core 6 with an nVidia Card

2008-05-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

I installed Fedora Core 6 in my system on Last week - ok yeah I know I need to get a better life. But, hey I was just mesmerized by reading the new features in Core 6 - named Zod that I had to try. Well, Zod is NO god!! After 3 reinstallations and reading through millions of articles on What the hell is the problem with Fedora Core 6, I finally managed to get everything up and working!!
Some basic instructions to the newbie planning to install Fedora Core 6.
Solving the i686 architecture with the i586 kernel and kernel-devel problem:
If you are planning to install FC6 on an i686 architecture - make note of this!! Anaconda screws up BIG TIME, and installs the i586 kernel and kernel-devel on ur i686 machine. Normally this is not a problem, however, CPU Frequency controller daemon will not work and it’ll be a pain in various parts of the anatomy if your driver / program requires a kernel-module to be installed along with it. The worst part - your architecture is still maintained as i686!! Just that anaconda installs the i586 kernel!!

Solution:

1. Install yumex$ su -
$ yum -y install yumex
2. Once the installation is over, get into yumex
[Applications->System Tools-> Yum Extender]
3. Go to the Install View once it’s done updating everything
4. Install kernel-xen and kernel-devel-xen packages for the i686 architecture
5. Once installation is done, reboot into the xen kernel
[which itself is not really worth having owing to tons of problems].
6. Go to yumex again and remove kernel and kernel-devel packages currently for the i586 architecture
7. Once it is done, Go to the Install View and add kernel and kernel-devel packages, but now for the i686 architecture
8. Once it is done, reboot into the non-xen kernel and remove kernel-xen and kernel- devel-xen packages
9. Boom you are done and you can get to installing the packages for nvidia/ati drivers, ntfs support etc.

I read there is a simpler way - aka the more adventurous way of getting ur kernel to the i686 architecture. It’s provided here!! Me, not being so adventurous, especially on breaking Linux 3 times after installation, I stuck to the safer bet :-D!
Solving the Desktop Effects cannot be enabled problem for nVidia cards
Another crazy thing I noticed - after reading so much about Compiz being installed by default with Fedora Core 6 and GNome 2.16 is that - try as I may - it never got enabled!! Aaarrgghhh!! Well, so I went to the Compiz requirements site - and checked that for it to work with nVidia cards, it required driver 1.0-9625 or higher..

Known Working
ATI: Radeon 7000 through X850 (r100 through r400 generations)
Intel: i830 through i945
nVidia: all cards supported by the driver 1.0-9625 or higher
[source: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RenderingProject/aiglx]

And the latest stable driver in the Livna repo for Fedora Core 6 is 1.0-8776. Umm - what DO you do?
Solution:

1. Enable livna-testing repo.
2. Go to the update view in Yum Extender
3. Select kmod-nvidia and the xorg-x11-drv packages which are 1.0-9626. Update your drivers people!! and Boom!! After a reboot - thou shall be able to enable Desktop Effects. Enjoy rotating the cube and all sortsa window wobbly effects.

Note: The Window Wobbly effects could get to you after some time, if you move around your Windows a lot :-D!!
Note to self: Need to post more links and screenshots of the same. Shall get to that in a day or two!

Doodle for Google winner

2008-05-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

I told you about a contest where kids in grades Kindergarten to 12 were invited to create a logo for the Google home page. The theme for the contest was "What if...?" and the winning entry was promised the honor of seeing his or her design grace the Google home page on May 22. Well, today is the day and if you visit Google.com, you will see Grace Moon's lovely drawing entitled "Up in the Clouds."

Moon is a 6th grader at Canyon Middle School in Castro Valley, California. Her vision of "What if...?" is a beautiful world in the sky. Of her design, she writes: "This new world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened. Every person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day." It's a lovely drawing and an beautiful sentiment.

Grace Moon may have won the top spot, but I am sure the judges had a difficult time choosing from all these wonderful entries. Congratulations to Grace and all the kids who answered the question "What if...?" with their own unique visions.

How to beat spyware and viruses?

2008-05-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here's my perennial "How to Beat Spyware".
Here's what to do if you suspect an infection on your Windows PC. (Please note these steps apply to both Windows XP and Vista.)

1) Are you sure it's spyware or a virus?

Windows pop-ups and alerts can often seem invasive enough to be viruses, especially with Vista. Try searching the web for the exact text you see on the screen to make sure you aren't dealing with an aggressive Windows message. (Many of these can be turned off, so try whatever instructions you find.) On the other hand, some viruses masquerade as Windows alerts, so tread lightly.
2) Boot in safe mode. If you have a virus, first step is to try booting in safe mode. You can get to safe mode (a simplified version of Windows that disables a lot of extra junk, possibly including some spyware apps) by restarting your PC and tapping F8 during boot. Soon you'll get a menu of options. Select "Safe Mode" (it's at the top of the menu) and wait for the machine to fully boot. The system will look funny (with a black background and larger icons, probably), but don't worry about it. This is only temporary. (Also note that many spyware applications can disable safe mode, so if you find this doesn't work, just boot normally.)
3) Run your antivirus application. This is of course assuming you have an antivirus application. You're in safe mode now, so run a full scan of your PC at maximum security levels (include the option to scan within compressed files, for example). This will probably take an hour or more, so be patient. Fix any problems the virus scan turns up. Then reboot into safe mode again using the procedure in step 2.
4) Run one or two anti-spyware applications. I used to recommend running multiple anti-spyware apps, but virtually all antivirus apps now do a pretty good job at getting rid of spyware too, so you don't need an army of additional applications just for spyware. Also, I now recommend starting with AdAware (which is free) and moving on to Spyware Doctor (free as part of the Google Pack) if you feel you need additional help. (Please note that recent versions of Spyware Doctor and Norton Antivirus have some trouble with each other.) You can try other apps too, but the once-recommended SpyBot Search & Destroy is no longer very effective, sadly. (Neither is Microsoft's own Windows Defender.) Of course, fix anything and everything these apps find.
5) Reboot normally. (Not in safe mode.) Now take stock. Still got spyware? It's time to move along to my more advanced techniques for removing the nasties.
6) Run HijackThis. HijackThis is a free software tool that scans your computer to find malware that other apps might miss. Scroll down to "Official downloads" to download the tool. Next, simply open the ZIP file you downloaded, extract the application, and run the tool (you don't need to install it). Click the "Do a system scan and save a logfile" button. You'll receive a large text file as well as a dialog box which gives you a list of active software processes, which you can then choose to delete. Unfortunately, this list includes both helpful and unhelpful software, so don't just start deleting items. Continue in step 7 to figure out how to fix your spyware infection.
7) Post your log file online. Visit this page, which offers a list of forums staffed by volunteers who can help you interpret your HijackThis log. The SWI Forums are especially busy, but most of the forums on the list are equally apt. Go to SWI and visit the "Malware Removal" forum which has over 50,000 topics listed: Those are all people like you who are seeking help getting rid of spyware. Register for an account, read the FAQ, then visit that Malware Removal forum, and post a new topic. Paste the content of the text file you created in step 5 into this topic and (politely) ask for help. You will get a response from a volunteer helper, typically within 3 days. You'll be given specific advice on what entries to remove with the HijackThis tool, and you might be pointed to additional software to run to help remove common spyware infections. Follow all the instructions and keep working with the forum helpers until either you or they give up. (And no, don't send your log file to me or post it here. I am not nearly the spyware removal expert that these guys are.)
7a) Alternately: Paste your log file into an automated tool. Don't have three days? Try simply pasting your HijackThis log file into this form. It does a pretty good job at auto-analyzing what's wrong with your machine, with no waiting. As well, if that doesn't work, you can search for the items you find in the HijackThis log by name to see what they are and how to remove them, if they're spyware. This can be quite time consuming, though.
8) Try System Restore. If that doesn't work, you might try running Windows System Restore to roll back your OS to a time before the infection happened. This isn't foolproof: You might not have System Restore turned on, or the spyware might have shut System Restore off, as well. But it's worth a shot. With either XP or Vista, System Restore can be found under Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.
9) Give up and wipe your hard drive. At this point, you've exhausted all the options I know of. You might try again at steps 6/7 to make sure you've done everything you can to salvage the PC. Forum helpers will often work with you for weeks to help fight a spyware infection, but there are tens of thousands of possible variants out there, with new ones cropping up every day. It's just not possible to clean them all, every time. Sometimes the only thing you can do is call it quits, reformat your hard drive, and reinstall your OS. Again, make sure you have your backups ready and verified. Once you're up and running, reinstall your antivirus and anti-spyware applications, and stay vigilant against infection. Good luck.

The worst computer viruses of all time

2008-05-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

If you haven't experienced a computer virus yet, just wait -- you probably will.
Fortunately, you missed the real heyday of computer viruses when anti-virus software wasn't very widely used, and virus attacks caused millions of dollars in damages overnight. Today's viruses can still be nightmarish, but for the average user, cleanup is considerably easier than it was just a few years ago, when the only solution in many cases was reformatting your hard drive and starting from scratch (and even that didn't do the trick sometimes).
So join me on a trip down memory lane as we revisit some of the worst viruses of all time and count our blessings that our computers are still up and running despite it all. (Though, please note, "worst" is a matter of considerable debate in the security industry, as the number of infected machines and amount of financial loss is always estimated. If you think another virus was worse than these, please post it in the comments to remind me!)
The worst viruses of all time
Brain, 1986
It all started here: Brain was the first "real" virus ever discovered, back in 1986. Brain didn't really hurt your PC, but it launched the malware industry with a bang and gave bad ideas to over 100,000 virus creators for the next 2 decades.
Michelangelo, 1991
The worst MS-DOS virus ever, Michelangelo attacked the boot sector of your hard drive and any floppy drive inserted into the computer, which caused the virus to spread rapidly. After spreading quietly for months, the virus "activated" on March 6, and promptly started destroying data on tens of thousands of computers.
Melissa, 1999
Technically a worm, Melissa (named after a stripper) collapsed entire email systems by causing computers to send mountains of messages to each other. The author of the virus was eventually caught and sentenced to 20 months in prison.
ILOVEYOU, 2000
This was notable for being one of the first viruses to trick users into opening a file, which in this case claimed to be a love letter sent to the recipient. In reality, the file was a VBS script that sent mountains of junk mail and deleted thousands of files. The results were terribly devastating- one estimate holds that 10 percent of all computers were affected, to a cost of $5.5 billion. It remains perhaps the worst worm of all time.
Code Red, 2001
An early "blended threat" attack, Code Red targeted Web servers instead of user machines, defacing websites and later launching denial-of-service attacks on a host of IP addresses, including those of the White House.
Nimda, 2001
Built on Code Red's attack system of finding multiple avenues into machines (email, websites, network connections, and others), Nimda infected both Web servers and user machines. It found paths into computers so effectively that, 22 minutes after it was released, it became the Internet's most widespread virus at the time.
Klez, 2001
An email virus, Klez pioneered spoofing the "From" field in email messages it sent, making it impossible to tell if Bill Gates did or did not really send you that information about getting free money.
Slammer, 2003
Another fast spreader, this worm infected about 75,000 systems in just 10 minutes, slowing the Internet to a crawl (much like Code Red) and shutting down thousands of websites.
MyDoom, 2004
Notable as the fastest-spreading email virus of all time, MyDoom infected computers so they would, in turn, send even more junk mail. In a strange twist, MyDoom was also used to attack the website of SCO Group, a very unpopular company that was suing other companies over its code being used in Linux distributions.
Storm, 2007
The worst recent virus, Storm spread via email spam with a fake attachment and ultimately infected up to 10 million computers, causing them to join its zombie botnet.

A computer that can recognize attractiveness in women has been built.

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

The program measures facial symmetry, hair color and skin quality, among other attributes, and compares them to a database of human responses.

It can then make an "aesthetic judgment" about someone's hotness that is almost identical to opinions of real-life people.

This could definitely be useful. (Hooking up with Scarlett Johansson and Marion Cotillard, but only have one seat in the Jaguar? Consult the laptop...Cotillard wins!)

But who says what's attractive and what's not? Miss Surrey 2008 has recently shown us how beauty comes in many forms.

More important, robots are already stronger, more intelligent and more resilient than human males. If they start hitting on our women, too, we won't be able to compete! We need clear boundaries! Didn't humanity learn anything from Blade Runner?

Great Hackers

2008-05-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

The 414s
The 414s were a gang of six teenagers named after their Milwaukee, Wisconsin area code, who broke into dozens of computer systems throughout the United States and Canada in 1983.Their exploits included Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Security Pacific Bank.The incident appeared as the cover storyof Newsweek with the title Beware: Hackers at play,possibly the first mass-media use of the term hacker in the context of computersecurity. As a result, the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings on computer security and passed several laws.

Mark Abene
Mark Abene (also known as Phiber Optik) inspired thousands of teenagers around the country to "study" the internal workings of the United States phone system. One of the founders of the Masters of Deception group.

Dark Avenger
Dark Avenger is the pseudonym of a Bulgarian virus writer who invented polymorphic code in 1992 as a means to circumvent the type of pattern recognition used by Anti-virus software, and nowadays also intrusion detection systems.

John Draper
John Draper(also known as Captain Crunch) is widely credited with evangelizing the use of the 2600 hertz tone generated by whistles distributed in Captain Crunch cereal boxes in the 1970s, and sometimes inaccurately credited with discovering their use.Draper served time in prison for his work, and is believed to have introduced Steve Wozniak to phone phreaking through the 2600Hz tone. Draper now develops anti-spam and security software.

Farid Essebar
Farid Essebar (also known as Diabl0) is the creator of Zotob

Nahshon Even-Chaim
Nahshon Even-Chaim (also known as Phoenix) was a leading member of Australianhacking group The Realm. He targeted US defense and nuclear research computer systemsin late 1980s until his capture by Australian Federal Police in 1990. He and fellow Realm members Electron and Nom were the world's first computer intruders prosecuted based on evidence gathered from remote computer intercept.

Markus Hess
Markus Hess is a West German who hacked into United States Military sites and collected information for the KGB,he was eventually tracked down by Clifford Stoll.

Jonathan James(convicted cybercriminal)
Jonathan James(also known as c0mrade) downloaded $1.7 million dollars worth of softwarewhich controlled the International Space Station's life sustaining elements, and intercepted thousands of electronic messages relating to U.S. nuclear activities from the Department of Defense. Sentenced at age 16, he was the youngest person ever incarcerated for cybercrime in the United States.

ne0h
ne0h was reported to have been employed by a Pakistani terrorist with Al-Qaeda connections, in order to steal student information from a Chinese university(reportedly, one comparable to MIT[citation needed]), India's BhabhaAtomic Research Centre, and SIPRNet, the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Data Network.

Adrian Lamo
Lamo surrendered to federal authorities in 2003 after a brief manhunt, and was charged with nontechnical but surprisingly successful intrusions into computer systems at Microsoft, The New York Times, Lexis-Nexis, MCI WorldCom, SBC, Yahoo!, and others. His methods were controversial, and his full-disclosure-by-media practices led some to assert that he was publicity-motivated.

Vladimir Levin
Vladimir Levin allegedly masterminded the Russian hacker gang that tricked Citibank's computers into spitting out $10 million. To this day, the method used, or even if Vladimirwas a mathematician, is unknown.

Kevin Mitnick
Kevin Mitnick was held in jail for four and a half years and released on January 21,2000. He was convicted of computer related crimes and possession of several forged identification documents. Once "the most wanted man in cyberspace", Mitnick went on to be a prolific public speaker, author, and media personality.

Robert Tappan Morris
Robert T. Morris, while a graduate student at Cornell University in 1988, created the first worm, Morris Worm, which used buffer overflows to propagate. He is the son of Robert Morris, the former chief scientist at the National Computer Security Center, a division of the National Security Agency (NSA). Morris was not exactly a hacker of the computer security hacker culture, but a user of the MIT-AI, the home machine of the early academic hacker culture. According to Steven Levy, he was a true hacker who blundered.

v00d00
Jason Burks born October 2 1976, also referred to as "v00d00" is a former computer hacker, and malicious software writer. He is best known for writing the Juggernaut Hydra, and releasing it into the Progressive Insurance mainframe.

Craig Neidorf
In 1990, Neidorf (a co-founder of Phrack) was prosecuted for stealing the E911 documentfrom BellSouth and publicly distributing it online. BellSouth claimed that the document was worth $80,000; they dropped the charges after it was revealed that copies of the document could simply be ordered for a minuscule $13.

Brian Salcedo
Brian Salcedo was convicted in 2004 of conspiracy to commit wire and computer fraud for hacking the Lowe's home improvement chain's unsecured wireless LAN in an attempt to capture credit card numbers used during transactions. The FBI claimed that the crime could have caused more than $2.5 million in damages. He was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison. The government claims that at the time of its imposition, Brian Salcedo'ssentence was the longest federal prison sentence ever given for a computer related offense.

David L. Smith
In 1999, Smith launched the Melissa Worm, causing $80 million dollars worth of damageto businesses. Originally sentenced to 40 years, he eventually served only 20 monthswhen he agreed to work undercover for the FBI.

How you can speed up your Firefox?

2008-05-14T03:50:00.000-07:00

Here is how you can speed up your Firefox to work faster....

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Scroll
down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time.
When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really
speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

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

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

Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 30. This
means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. 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.

Here you go now pages will load 2-30 times faster .

Review: Mario Kart Wii Skids Way Off the Road

2008-05-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

Oh, Mario Kart.
What have they done to you?

The Mario Kart series, in which Nintendo's famous mascot characters jump into go-karts and race each other on wacky tracks, has been one of my favorite series ever since the 16-bit days. Since Nintendo has only ever released one Mario Kart game for each of its consoles, the launch of each new version is always a big event, and hasn't ever been disappointing.

Until now. Mario Kart Wii looks great at first blush, adding motion controls and online multiplayer to the non-stop frantic racing action of the classic games. I can understand that the gameplay has been dumbed down a bit for the Wii audience, but in the process, they arbitrarily yanked out the series' best feature.

I am referring, here, to "Battle Mode." For my friends and I, the Mario Kart series has never been about racing around a track. Ever since the series' first installment, 1992's Super Mario Kart, the games have featured a fantastic gameplay mode that drops players into an open arena, then challenges them to defeat each other in mortal kart combat.

You drive around and pick up the goofy attack items for which the series is well-known: Green turtle shells that smash into opponents, mushrooms that give you speed bursts, lightning bolts that miniaturize the other players. And you attack other players, all the while attempting to drive away from and avoid their attempts on your life.

It is some of the best multiplayer gaming fun I have ever had, and it's been a staple of every entry in the Mario Kart series for the sixteen years that followed. Mario Kart Wii does in fact have a Battle Mode, but it's not what you remember. Tearing the game open, my friends and I quickly found that they'd utterly gimped it.

It's no longer a last-man-standing contest: Matches now last three minutes each, and if your kart takes too much damage, don't worry! You'll just respawn. Even worse, all battles are now played in teams of two. So while you can still have four human players, they can't all face off against each other -- and what's the point of that?

How could they do this? I can imagine why: Since the Battle Mode, like the kart races, can be played online, changing the rules in this way makes for a better online experience. If players drop out, it doesn't kill the whole match. And new players can be added in easily to existing matches. I get it. But there's absolutely no reason for them to cripple the offline rule set, too.

This is a game-killing issue for me, as it's just taken the potential fun that I will have with Mario Kart Wii from "months" to "hours." It's really too bad, as this is in all other respects a decent addition to the series. Mario Kart Wii ditches the two-riders-per-kart mechanic that didn't quite work in Double Dash on GameCube and adds more vehicles. Now, there are tons of different karts and, in a new twist, motorbikes that players can ride, adding a decent amount of depth to the proceedings.

Mario Kart Wii includes the Wii Wheel controller (right), a plastic shell that you insert the Wiimote into. Unlike last year's Wii Zapper gun controller, which was pretty much a useless piece of junk, the Wii Wheel does help your accuracy by stabilizing your hands and letting you turn the Wiimote just as if it were a steering wheel.

The Wii Wheel is a good idea insofar as the accessible design will help you wrangle your grandma into a race every now and then. But if you're a hard-core gamer, you don't want to use this thing.

The standard Wiimote/Nunchuk combo is the best Mario Kart Wii controller. You can use a GameCube pad, but it's a lot harder to pull off tricks. When you go off a jump and catch some air, you can waggle the controller to do a flashy aerial maneuver that will give you a speed boost when you land. If you're using a GameCube controller, you have to reach down and hit the D-pad to do a trick, which is as uncomfortable as it sounds.

As ever, Mario Kart racing is as much about navigating the crazy tracks (of which the Wii version has an astonishing 32) as it is about collecting the items that lay about the track and using them on your opponents to screw up their driving. Also as ever, if you are a skilled racer and sail into first place, you'll never get any good items -- just some measly shells and banana peels. Drivers who end up in the back will get all kinds of crazy stuff, allowing them to plow through other players and catch up to the pack.

This is another area in which Mario Kart Wii could have benefited from some customization options. You can turn items off entirely, or make it less likely that the unbalanced, powerful ones will appear. But you can't just go in and individually turn off the stupidest items. Why on Earth not? It would be a trivial thing to add, and like the Battle Mode disaster, would have made a huge difference to the gameplay.

The aforementioned online mode does work well, even though Nintendo still refuses to let people chat with their friends during a match, and still requires the input of sixteen-digit Friend Codes before you can add anyone to your friends list. But the gameplay is lag-free, and all kinds of races and battles are available to you.

With all these improvements, it's just too damn bad they had to have the best part of the Mario Kart series taken out back and shot.

portable pc concept

2008-04-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

hii....frndzz.. this is my first blog and i am keen to give you new tech post ..........

The Flux PC concept is an ultra-portable computer that can be worn on your wrist and consists of three parts: the bracelet, a display that can be folded and the inductive charging tray.
It is designed based on the following principles: flexibility, mobility, friendly user interface and fashion.
The bracelet, stores the wearer’s personal information and connects wirelessly with the foldable display that provides multimedia features accessed via a touch-sensitive interface. The bracelet stores the user’s personal information while the display incorporates a larger viewing area and multimedia devices.

The display is needed for instances when up-scaled viewing and interfacing is needed. The system can interface wirelessly with a portable display or other computers. This display is very economical, with core touch screen and display ability, as well as environmentally friendly materials. The bracelet is a very personal, customizable product which has materials to reflect its value.