LoCoP -- Software, Internet & Technology Guide by Kayvan

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)

2008-01-15T18:37:00.000-08:00

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)

GPRS protocol is a packet-switch protocol; define for web applications in GSM network. In other words Internet on GSM network is standardized as GPRS network. GPRS has digital structure and this structure based on Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technique. One TDMA frame has 8 time slots (TSs). These TSs can be allocated to users, and single TS can be shared by several active users for uplink and downlink purposes. Different coding schemes are used to enhance data rate from 9Kbps to 150 Kbps per user, and it takes 0.5 to 1 second. Security features in GPRS is provided by GSM network.

GPRS Architecture

Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) circuit-switch architecture does not support the GPRS packet-switch architecture. Thus, GPRS requires its own network architecture. Several networks and databases e.g. Mobile Station (MS), Base Station Subsystem (BSS), Home Location Register (HLR), Visitor Location Register (VLR) in existing GSM network are modified in GPRS network.

GPRS architecture introduces the following network nodes to GSM architecture.

Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN)

Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN)

Mobile Station (MS)

Base Station System (BSS)

Home Location Register (HLR)

Visitor Location Register (VLR)

1.Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN): In GPRS network SGSN is equivalent to MSC. Packets of data between MSC and Public Switch Data Network (PSDN) are transferred and received by SGSN.

2.Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN): GSM databases e.g. HLR and VLR are supported by GGSN. It also interacts with external packet-switch networks.

3.Mobile Station (MS): In GPRS network MS consists of Mobile Terminal (MT) and Terminal Equipment (TE). A computer attached to MT is called a ME. Through air, MT communicates with the BSS.

4.Base Station System (BSS): In BSS, Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and Base Station Controller (BSC) are modified to support GPRS channel coding schemes BTS is modified while to forward calls to Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) and data to SGSN through Packet Control Unit (PCU), is supported by BSC. One SGSN is served by one BSC.

5.Home Location Register (HLR): In GPRS, HLR contains information about routing. To map an MS to one or more GGSNs, update the SGSN and to store the Internet Protocol (IP) address, this information is accessed by both SGSN and GGSN.

6.Visitor Location Register (VLR): In GPRS. VLR contains the SGSN number and this number indicates the MS currently served by the SGSN.

GPRS Interfaces

Different interfaces are used for routing between network nodes in GPRS.

Um interface provides communication between MS and BSS.

Gb interface provides connection between BSS and SGSN.

Gn interface provides connection between SGSN and GGSN within the same GPRS network.

Gp interface provides connection between SGSN and GGSN when they are in different GPRS network.

Gi interface provides connection between GGSN and external networks.

Gs interface provides communication between MSC and SGSN.

GPRS functional Groups

The functions which are defined in GPRS are following.

Network access function: Point to point data transfer, registration of MS with packet data protocols, radio resources for MS communication and charging information about packet transmission, is provided by this function.

Packet routing and transfer function: Routing of data between an MS and destination, conversion of GPRS address to external address and forwarding of packets between an MS and GGSN, is provided by this function.

Logical link management function: The communication between an MS and the GSM network is maintained by it.

Radio resources management function: Radio communication paths are allocated by it.

Mobility management function: Current location of an MS is kept by it. When an MS is entered to a new area, all routing and location in formations are also updated by it.

Network management function: If provides mechanisms to support network functions related to GPRS.

Advantages

The major advantage of GPRS is that, to access data no dial-up connection is

How to increase the processor power of your computer?

2008-01-15T18:30:00.000-08:00

How to increase the processor power of your computer?

Today tip is very useful for those users who are still using computer with minimum processor speed. To increase the performance of slow computer, you can force your system to free up the idle tasks that are running in the background and sharing processor power. This end tasks method force the computer to devote its full processor resource to what you want it to do.

Follow the given steps to end the idle tasks:

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

· Click Start button and click on Run option.

· In the Run box, type the command Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks command and press Ok button.

Here system will take some time to end the background idle tasks.

How to disable the unread email notification in XP welcome screen?

2008-01-15T03:38:00.000-08:00

How to disable the unread email notification in XP welcome screen?

Windows XP by default display the list of unread email on the windows welcome screen. But some time this unread email notification is irritating users and they don't want to display it on the welcome screen. They can easily disable it using the windows registry editor. Make sure before modifying your system Registry about its backup because Registry contains all information how your system runs. This backup will help you to restore Registry in case any problem occurs after modifying.

Follow the given steps to disable the email notification option:

To edit the computer registry, first you should log onto your computer with administrative rights.

First click on Start button and type "Regedit" in Run option.

Here locate the location to:

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ UnreadMail

Here in right side panel, double click on the key MessageExpiryDays and set its value to 0.

But if MessageExpiryDays key doesn't exist, then in right side panel, click right to create a key with the name MessageExpiryDays and then set its value to 0.

Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.

Add Check Boxes In Vista Windows Explorer For Selecting Multiple Folders and Files

2008-01-15T03:29:00.000-08:00

Add Check Boxes In Vista Windows Explorer For Selecting Multiple Folders and Files

Up until the release of Windows Vista, when selecting multiple files and folders in previous versions of Windows, you needed to use the Ctrl or Shift key to select individual or multiple files and folders. With Vista, you can add a check box column to folder views to select files and folders instead of using the keyboard.

To add the check boxes option to folder views, open any folder or click on Start \ Computer to run Windows Explorer.

Once Windows Explorer opens, from the menu, select Tools \ Folder Options… and select the view tab.

Next scroll down to the bottom and check the box next to Use check boxes to select items (circled in above screen shot), then click OK to close the Folder Options window.

Now when you need to select folders and files, just move your mouse to the first column, and a check box will appear allowing you to select the item in Windows Explorer.

Cool, now you don't need to use the Ctrl or Shift key to select files and folders anymore.

Use Task Manager To Identify Excessive Disk Thrashing In Windows

2008-01-15T03:21:00.000-08:00

Use Task Manager To Identify Excessive Disk Thrashing In Windows

How many times have you been force to wait for a simple task to complete because something in the background ends up thrashing your hard drive, slowing everything down? Helpless, you watch the light on the hard drive go from a flicker to a continuous glow, leaving you to wonder what process or program is the culprit.

To get to the bottom of annoying disk thrashing, an often over-looked feature of Task Manager, in both XP and Vista, provides the capability to add disk counters that can identify excessive disk activity.

By default, Task Manager displays the familiar CPU, Memory, Description, etc columns for each process that is running on your System. These columns are actually performance counters that are also found with Windows perfmon (performance monitoring) tool.

To add, additional counters, specifically for monitoring disk activity, open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc or right click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager.

Then, from Task Manager menu, select View \ Select Columns…

…scroll down and check I/O Reads, I/O Writes, I/O Read Bytes, I/O Write Bytes. Click OK when finished.

The four columns will be added to Task Manager. If the columns are not visible (because you need to scroll to the right), you can easily click and hold on a column, then drag it to the left and order the columns to your preference.

As you can see from my Task Manager, vmware-vmx.exe has been the most active process in the I/O Read Bytes, I/O Write Bytes columns.

NOTE: To easily identify the most active process, click on the column name to sort the data either highest to lowest or lowest to highest.

What's interesting, is that most of the disk thrashing that occurs is not from writing to disk, but caused by reading.

To help understand, what these counters mean, let's take a look at their definitions listed below.

I/O Read Bytes - The number of bytes (bytes/sec) read in input/output operations generated by a process, including file, network, and device I/Os. I/O Read Bytes directed to CONSOLE (console input object) handles are not counted.
I/O Reads - The number of read input/output operations (operations/sec) generated by a process, including file, network, and device I/Os. I/O Reads directed to CONSOLE (console input object) handles are not counted.
I/O Write Bytes - The number of bytes (bytes/sec) written in input/output operations generated by a process, including file, network, and device I/Os. I/O Write Bytes directed to CONSOLE (console input object) handles are not counted.
I/O Writes - The number of write input/output operations (operations/sec) generated by a process, including file, network, and device I/Os. I/O Writes directed to CONSOLE (console input object) handles are not counted.

Now that you know how to identify what is causing disk thrashing on your Computer, you can begin to troubleshoot. Start by disbaling programs or process, Do not just uninstall applications.

Make sure you pin point the problem and understand why it is occuring. Once you do, your disk thrashing days can finally come to an end.

Run Firefox 3 Without Removing Version 2

2008-01-14T03:57:00.000-08:00

Run Firefox 3 Without Removing Version 2

The great people over at PortableApps.com have done it again. This time they have made the next major version of Firefox browser, version 3, available as a portable app. This means you can run Firefox 3 without disrupting the current Firefox installation and check out all the new features.

If you're not familiar with PortableApps, check out running Firefox on a USB drive for more information. In the meantime, let's look at how you can get Firefox 3 up and running.

Installing Firefox 3 Portable

While Firefox 3 portable edition is meant to be run on a removable drive, you can also install it in a folder on your hard drive.

Start by downloading the portable edition of Firefox 3 from PortableApps to your Computer and click on the executable to start the installation.

Click Next at the first screen.
Check the box to accept the License Agreement and click Next.
Click Browse to select a location to install Firefox 3 and click Install to start the installation.
Click Finish to close the wizard.
To start Firefox, make sure version 2 is closed then open the folder you selected during installation, and double click on FirefoxPortable.exe.

Import Your Previous Settings

To import your settings (bookmarks, etc..) from version 2, just copy your local Firefox settings right into Firefox Portable.

Locate the profile folder which is usually installed in:

XP computers - C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxx.default

Vista computers - C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxx.default

Then select all contents inside the profile folder (except the cache folders if they exist) and copy (do not cut!!) to the FirefoxPortableTest\Data\profile folder. After the copy has completed, delete the file FirefoxPortableSettings.ini found in the FirefoxPortableTest\Data\settings folder (if there is one).

Now startup Firefox 3. If you have any add-ons installed in version 2, Firefox will check for incompatablities and allow you to check for new versions or skip the check.

If you are using Firefox 3 on a flash-based portable device, it is recommended that you turn off disk cache, password saving and history. These settings can be found within the Privacy tab of the Firefox Options window.

NOTE: If you experience any problems, disable any extensions or add-ons.

So what's new with version 3? A lot! You can check out all the great new features located in the Welcome page when Firefox starts for the first time or in the Release Notes.

Run FireFox And Thunderbird As Portable Applications on USB Drive

2008-01-14T03:53:00.000-08:00

Run FireFox And Thunderbird As Portable Applications on USB Drive

As Computer technology keeps advancing and hardware becomes smaller and lighter, innovations have been made that allow more mobility when it comes to accessing our data. A great example is with the portability of USB flash drives. No longer does the typical home user need to be tied to one computer to view digital photos, videos or documents.

With the same freedom these devices give us, software advancements has also been made with making applications portable. One that comes to mind, is a suite of applications including Mozilla FireFox and Thunderbird from PortableApps.com

PortableApps have been around for a while, but they recently released a suite that includes Mozilla FireFox web browser, Mozilla Thunderird email client, OpenOffice suite, Mozzila Sunbird calendar/scheduler, Gaim instant messaging client, GaimWin antivirus, Sudoku game, backup utility and integrated menu, all preconfigured to work portably. Applications are Open source or freeware. All capable of fitting on a 512mb USB thumb drive.

Installation is easy and once installed on your USB drive, a small system-tray icon appears. Clicking on the icon will bring up the launcher menu:

From here you can run any application such as Firefox, as if it was installed on your hard drive. One of the first task I did after installing PortableApps suite was to copy my Firefox bookmarks from my Laptop to the installed location of Firefox on the USB drive. Now I can easily keep the bookmarks in sync and always have them with me.

Having the mobility like this has many advantages. With Thunderbird you can easily backup your email either from GMail or an ISP account directly to the USB drive. No need to create backup copies and always have your address book, settings and customizations available. Since the installation resides entirely on a removable drive, you can plug into any Computer and immediately begin to surf the Internet or work on documents or spreadsheets, save your data, unplug and have everything available where ever you go.

For the Tech geeks, there is also a version of Mac OS Classic 7.0.1 available.

PortableApps suite runs on Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista and Wine if your running Linux. Check them out at PortableApps.com.

How To Backup Your FireFox Bookmarks

2008-01-14T03:11:00.000-08:00

Like everything else with computers, if you do not have a backup when your PC crashes, you will lose everything. For everyday applications such as browsers, backing up your bookmarks does not require a complete hard drive backup to keep them from being completely wiped out.

By default Firefox backups your bookmarks automatically when it is closed to C:\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[profile name]\bookmarks.bak. To restore, just rename to bookmarks.html.

Firefox will also archive, by default, the last five saves to the bookmarkbackups folder at the same location. The number of times it archives, can be modified by typing in the address field: about:config and changing the value for browser.bookmarks.max_backups.

You can also export your bookmarks with Bookmarks Manager.

To access Bookmark Manager in Firefox, click Bookmarks from the menu, then Organize Bookmarks. Once Bookmark Manager opens, select File/Export from the menu and select a destination to save the bookmarks.htm file.

For safe keeping, you should copy bookmarks.htm to CD or USB Drives. To restore, just select File/Import and browse to the location of the bookmarks.htm.

If your seeking an automatic solution, checkout Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer at https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2410/. Foxmark is an Firefox add-on that works silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized between two or more computers.

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer add-on will need to be installed on all computers in order to synchronize.

For mobile access from any computer, you can create an account at Foxmart and log on to access your bookmarks.

Another solution is Google Browser Sync, which is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions. (a Google account is needed to run Google Browser Sync).

If your like me and just want a simple way to backup your bookmarks, use the first method above to save the bookmarks.html by creating a batch file on your desktop. Follow the steps below:

Microsoft Windows

Create a file on your desktop and give it a name with .bat extension such as ffbookmarks.bat and copy the script into it.
Change destination at SET FFBMBKUP=destination to the destination path of where you will save your bookmarks.
Change xxxxx to the random string of 8 characters with the .default extension. To find this, search for bookmarks.html and look at the path. You should see something similar to: basuo6hm.default
Save batch file
Run batch file by double clicking on the file

REM #################################################################
REM Firefox bookmark backup script from www.locop.co.cc
REM #################################################################
@echo off
SET FFBMBKUP=destination
SET PROFILE=xxxxx
COPY /Y "%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\%PROFILE%\bookmarks.html" %FFBMBKUP%
EXIT

Linux

Modify the variables xxxx to your profile name path and FFBMBKUP to the destination path of where you will save your bookmarks.

#!/bin/sh
# - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
# Firefox bookmark backup script from www.locop.co.cc
# - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
xxxx=profile folder
FFBMBKUP=destination
cp ~/.mozilla/firefox/%xxxx%/ %FFBMBKUP
exit 0

Use Task Manager To Identify Excessive Disk Thrashing In Windows

2008-01-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

Use Task Manager To Identify Excessive Disk Thrashing In Windows

To add, additional counters, specifically for monitoring disk activity, open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc or right click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager.

Then, from Task Manager menu, select View \ Select Columns…

…scroll down and check I/O Reads, I/O Writes, I/O Read Bytes, I/O Write Bytes. Click OK when finished.

As you can see from my Task Manager, vmware-vmx.exe has been the most active process in the I/O Read Bytes, I/O Write Bytes columns.

NOTE: To easily identify the most active process, click on the column name to sort the data either highest to lowest or lowest to highest.

What's interesting, is that most of the disk thrashing that occurs is not from writing to disk, but caused by reading.

To help understand, what these counters mean, let's take a look at their definitions listed below.

I/O Read Bytes - The number of bytes (bytes/sec) read in input/output operations generated by a process, including file, network, and device I/Os. I/O Read Bytes directed to CONSOLE (console input object) handles are not counted.
I/O Reads - The number of read input/output operations (operations/sec) generated by a process, including file, network, and device I/Os. I/O Reads directed to CONSOLE (console input object) handles are not counted.
I/O Write Bytes - The number of bytes (bytes/sec) written in input/output operations generated by a process, including file, network, and device I/Os. I/O Write Bytes directed to CONSOLE (console input object) handles are not counted.
I/O Writes - The number of write input/output operations (operations/sec) generated by a process, including file, network, and device I/Os. I/O Writes directed to CONSOLE (console input object) handles are not counted.

Now that you know how to identify what is causing disk thrashing on your Computer, you can begin to troubleshoot. Start by disbaling programs or process, Do not just uninstall applications.

Make sure you pin point the problem and understand why it is occuring. Once you do, your disk thrashing days can finally come to an end.

Orkut Profile Information To Appear In Google Search

2008-01-11T05:57:00.001-08:00

Google has introduced a new feature in their social networking site, Orkut. Your Orkut profile information will now be included in Google search results when someone searches for your name. I would say, this is by far the best feature orkut is going to have.

Google has mentioned the following in orkut’s help center, “Some orkut profiles will appear in Google search results as an orkut OneBox. A OneBox is a summary of your orkut profile, including key details like your name, photo and location. A OneBox appears only when someone who is logged in to orkut performs a search on Google.com for another orkut user. Keep in mind that this project is still in its experimental stage, so for now, only a small percentage of orkut users will see the OneBox in their search results,”.

However, if you don’t like this change you can simply disable it. Go to your settings page and in the Privacy tab select “hide information” to remove your profile from the orkut OneBox. As I use orkut quite often, I’ve seen people putting up weird quotes or random thoughts instead of their name and surname, so if you want this feature to work for you, you better not do that!

Google Introduces New Features for Chat Inside Gmail

2008-01-11T05:51:00.000-08:00

Google has just introduced couple of new features for chat inside Gmail. Now you can have a conference ie group chat and chat with as many people as you want inside Gmail. Also you can now insert smileys.

The group chat feature lets you chat with many friends at once. There’s no limit to the number of people you can chat with, and any participant can invite others to join. To get started, follow these steps:

Start a chat with a single person in your Contacts list.
Once you’ve started the chat, click Options at the bottom left of your chat window and select Group Chat.
In the field labeled ‘Add a person to this chat,’ enter the name of the contact(s) you want to add to your group chat.
To end your chat, click the X at the corner of the chat window. Others in the group chat will get a message saying that you’ve left the conversation. If you want to rejoin, you’ll need to be invited back by a contact who’s still in the group chat. The group chat will continue until all participants have left.

To use emoticons, just choose one of these options:

Type the appropriate combination of keys and press Enter.
Click the blue smiley-face button at the right of the text-entry field. A pop-up menu appears, where you can choose from different emoticon sets, including circular, rectangular, or standard.

Top 10 Windows XP Tips of All Time

2008-01-10T06:32:00.000-08:00

These are some really good XP tips of all time I found while surfing. I’m sure you will find these useful. Have a look.

Tip 10: Halt background services to improve performance.

This tip is one of our favorites because it always works. Running in the background of Windows are scores of services, small processes used by Windows and many Windows applications. The thing is, you don’t need all these services — especially for applications you never use — and many of them actually slow your PC down.

Win XP power users have long known that you can easily eke a little extra performance out of your PC by disabling services that are completely unnecessary or that don’t need to be running all the time. Here’s how it works.

1. Click Start > Run, type services.msc and click OK. This will bring up the Services management console. Click on the Extended tab at the bottom of this window; each background service running on your PC is listed here. Windows includes a fairly detailed description of each service; simply drag the Description column wider to read more of each description, or click on a service to see its full description in the left pane.

2. Double-click a service to bring up a window with several options. In the Startup Type area, you can set the service to run automatically in the background at all times so it’s ready whenever it’s needed, or you can tell it to run manually, which means you’ll have to go into this Services management console and re-enable it if an application needs it.

You can also completely disable the service. In general, you want to disable services tied to applications and/or features you don’t use or rarely use. You can find a great list of appropriate services to disable at the Elder Geek’s Services Guide For Windows XP.

If you’re logged onto the computer as the administrator, you can also pause the service (click the Pause button in the Service Status area just below the Startup Type area), then see how the computer behaves. Danger signs include crashes or other erratic behaviors in your applications, such as running slowly or getting stuck on a query prompt. Click Resume to start up the service again.

Tip 9: Increase available disk space by scaling back System Restore.

It’s not perfect, but Windows System Restore is a useful first step in recovering your PC or drive from a major system error. However, it can consume more than 10 percent of your total hard drive space.
If you find yourself desperate for an extra few gigabytes — particularly on secondary storage drives — there’s an easy way to reclaim data space by simply limiting the number of System Restore points Windows XP establishes. This one’s a snap and there’s no tangible increase of risk, which is why we love it.

1. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties > System Restore.

2. If you have just one hard drive, skip to step 3. Otherwise, select the drive on which you want to gain storage space and click the Settings button.

3. Adjust the slider to the left to use less disk space, and Win XP will reduce the number of System Restore points by the appropriate amount.

Tip 8: Scrub your hard drive clean.

Windows Support Tools, provided free by Microsoft, are a suite of some 20+ separate applications that are extremely handy for a number of uses. Ordinary PC users probably won’t use many of these apps — they’re mostly used by IT pros to troubleshoot and analyze Windows XP. But even if you’re not an expert, don’t be afraid of using the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility, which will help you remove all leftover files from a failed uninstall of a Windows Installer application.

Download Windows Support Tools from Microsoft’s Download Center. (If you’re curious about the other apps in the suite, check out the help file included in the Windows Support Tools Program group.)

To run the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility, go to the command prompt (select Start > Run) and type msicuu.exe. You’ll see a list of all applications with uninstall data. Select the ones you want to get rid of and click the Remove button. Obviously, you want to use caution here — don’t clear the install data for an application unless you’re absolutely sure you won’t ever need it.

Tip 7: Run two displays on the same PC.

This tip is for the worker bee. Adding a second display to your PC won’t quite double your productivity, but it will make your computing life easier. Walk around a cube farm these days, and you’ll likely see at least a few power users doubling up.
Thankfully, Windows XP makes it extremely easy.

1. Plug the second display into your computer. (Many video cards today have a second Video Out port; if not, you’ll have to install a second video card.)

2. Right-click on your desktop and click Properties to bring up the Display Properties window. Click on the Settings tab.

3. See the grayed-out box to the right of the black box? That’s your second monitor. Click on it and then click the check box next to “Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor” to enable it. From here you can adjust the resolution of the secondary display. The goal here is to have a desktop that spans both of your displays, so if your second screen is physically located to the left of your primary one, drag and drop the #2 monitor to the left of the #1 display.

Tip 6: Force unresponsive applications to close at shutdown.

When it comes to balky PCs, few things annoy us more than the moment when we try to shut down Windows and it tells us it can’t because some crashed application isn’t responding, and that we have to do it ourselves by clicking the End Now button.
This registry hack changes that. Here’s how it works.

1. Launch RegEdit (select Start > Run, type regedit and click OK) and browse to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

2. Find the string called AutoEndTasks. Right-click it, select Modify from the pop-up menu, and change the data value from 0 to 1. (If you can’t find this string, create it by selecting Edit > New > String Value and set the data value to 1.)

3. Close RegEdit and reboot.

Tip 5: Automatically optimize your hard drive.

One of the keys to system performance is an optimized hard drive. Typically, you optimize your hard drive using Windows’ Defrag utility. But there’s a great registry hack that will force Win XP to automatically optimize the location of files when your PC is idle. Here’s how it works.

1. Open RegEdit and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ OptimalLayout

2. Find the string called EnableAutoLayout, and change its data value to 1. (If this string doesn’t exist, create it and set the value to 1.)

3. Exit RegEdit and reboot your PC. Done!

Tip 4: Set a custom resolution.

Notice a trend in the second half of this story? If you answered, “They’re all registry hacks,” you are correct. Windows XP’s registry loads an amazing amount of flexibility and customization in a fairly low-risk package.

Tip number 4 on our list is another one of our favorite registry hacks. Windows XP allows you to specify a large number of set screen resolutions based on what types of images your display can accept. However, in a few rare instances, you may want to specify a non-standard resolution for a clearer or more accurate picture. This tip allows you to do just that. It’s one of those tips that doesn’t seem all that handy — until you desperately need it. Plus, it’s just plain cool. If you have a wonky projector or TV screen you want to use with a laptop or PC, you might want to give this a try.

Here’s how it works:

1. Open RegEdit and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VIDEO\ {the address of your primary video card…it often begins with “23A77BF7″}\0000\

2. The Default Settings.XResolution data value is the horizontal resolution, and the Default Settings.YResolution data value is the vertical. Double-click the Default Settings.XResolution data entry, select the Decimal radio button, and in the Value Data field, enter your desired horizontal resolution. Then do the same with Default Settings.YResolution to change the vertical resolution.

3. Exit RegEdit and reboot your PC.
If you’re scared of tweaking your registry on this one, a handy app called PowerStrip ($29.95, available for a free try-before-you-buy download), allows you similar resolution-changing functionality.

Tip 3: Stay on top of registry changes.

Given the power and flexibility of Windows XP’s registry (and the large number of registry hacks in this Top 10), it’s no surprise that the number 3 XP tip involves keeping track of any and all changes made to your registry.

But given the prevalence of spyware, rootkits, and other malware these days, knowing what you’ve done to your registry is a secondary concern to knowing what other applications are doing to it.

For peace of mind — and occasionally, for curiosity’s sake — we consider SysInternal’s Regmon an essential piece of our OS. It’s a freeware application that allows you to browse through all the keys in the registry, filtering in a variety of ways to pinpoint specific registry changes.

For example, you can quickly filter for certain applications. If you’re having trouble with Windows Media Player, you click on the Options menu, then Filter. At the menu, type wmplayer into the Include field. When you see the resulting list, you can double-click any entry to open up its registry value.

Because you can search and filter, Regmon is also an excellent method for tracking down hard-to-find registry items.

Tip 2: Recover lost data.

Everyone has accidentally deleted files from their hard drive, and very few feelings are as low as the moment right after you nuke 300 irreplaceable photographs of your kids/dogs/life. Actually, one feeling is worse than that: accidentally quick-formatting your entire drive.

Even if you regularly back up your drives, mistakes happen. That’s why this tip is paramount. It’s also really simple. There’s an excellent downloadable data recovery app for XP called Zero Assumption Recovery that can help. Don’t waste another minute — download and install it now.

When you run into trouble, here’s what to do:

1. The moment you delete your data, stop using your hard drive. Don’t save or install any new applications — they’ll be written over your recently departed data.

2. Run Zero Assumption Recovery. You already had it installed, right?

3. Select the hard drive you want to scan. Wait for the scan to finish. (This can take between one and two hours — part of Zero Assumption Recovery’s effectiveness is its thoroughness.)

4. With any luck, you’ll see a list of your missing folders and files. The freeware version of Zero Assumption Recovery allows you to recover up to four folders per scan. If you pay $100 for the full version, you get full recovery.
Note: You can also use Zero Assumption Recovery to recover deleted photos from your camera’s memory card.

Tip 1: Automatically log when and why shutdowns have occurred.

Love it or hate it, Windows XP is undeniably more stable than its predecessors. But it still crashes, and it still has occasional trouble shutting down. This registry hack logs all shutdown errors, telling you when, where, and why strange and annoying things have happened.

Some folks have the luxury of packing their buggy PC off to a help desk. But if you like to get your hands dirty, consider this essential tweakage.

Here’s how to set up logging for unexpected system shutdowns:

1. Open RegEdit and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Reliability

2. Set the ShutDownReasonUI data value to 1. (If this string doesn’t exist, create it and set the value to 1.)

3. Exit RegEdit and reboot your PC.

To examine the log you’ve created, open up the Event Viewer, which you’ll find by selecting Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer. Click on the System subheading and you’ll see a massive list of system events. Errors will be marked with a red X or a yellow exclamation mark. Double-click on the error and you’ll see details that may help you unravel the mystery.

Bluetooth Vibrating Alert Cell Phone Bracelet

2008-01-10T06:28:00.000-08:00

There’s nothing worst than your cell phone abruptly ringing when you had thought that you had placed it in silent mode but, even with vibrate switched on its often all too easy to miss what could be a vital incoming call – but this Bluetooth bracelet, apart from serving as an especially geeky form of modern jewellery, could warn you of any calls that you may otherwise miss in a wholly unobtrusive fashion.
Compatible with V1.1, V1.2 and V.2.o Bluetooth cell phones, the Alert Cell Phone Bracelet should work with all Bluetooth equipped cell phones and, apart from vibrating to warn you of an incoming message it will even act to alert you if your phone leaves a 5m detection zone – which could help avoid misplacing your device when you have other things on your mind.
The ideal, modern fashion accessory for those who spend their lives in board meetings or for those who have a habit of loosing their cell phones, the Alert Cell Phone Bracelet retails for a mere £30 (approximately $61 / €42)

Via : Nexus

Facebook Blocked At School or Office? Access Facebook Via Email

2008-01-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

Some businesses (particularly in UK) have blocked access to Facebook during office hours as IT managers feel that surfing social networking sites at work could make employees less productive.

If you also happen to work in such a company where the office firewall has restricted access to Facebook, there’s a workaround - your email.

A new service called MoDazzle makes it possible to use Facebook (and LinkedIn) through email commands.

For instance, you can send an email to fbreadwall@modazzle.com with the subject SELF to read messages posted on your Facebook wall - alter the subject like JOHN to read John’s Facebook wall.

You can do most Facebook actions via email including poke, status updates, writing on a friend’s wall, read messages lying unread in your Facebook Inbox and so on.

Modazzle.com - also supports LinkedIn and Google Maps.

The service could also pick up in schools and countries like Syria and UAE that have banned Facebook on religious grounds.

Know When Facebook Friends Secretly Delete You As a Contact

2008-01-09T15:27:00.000-08:00

“X and Y are now friends on Facebook” - That’s the message displayed in your Facebook profile each time you add a new friend on Facebook or someone else confirms your pending request.

But the reverse is not true - you will never know when existing friends remove you from their Facebook friends list. The count of your friends will decrease but Facebook won’t reveal the name of the person who just unfriended you.

You can however play detective using a Facebook app called Unfriender - this will let you know when friends quietly remove as a connection on Facebook. They are extending the alerts to email and SMS as well.

The only downside is that Unfriender works only with friends that you have added after installing the Facebook application. Thanks Josh.

How to Make Firefox Run Faster

2008-01-09T15:25:00.000-08:00

Earlier we suggested improving the speed of Firefox by using a brand new profile. The trick is effective because it creates an almost virgin copy of Firefox sans any problematic add-ons or user settings that were probably causing Firefox to slow down.

James Meyer has written an alternate trick where you can make Firefox run faster even without losing any of the cookies, bookmarks or extensions.

He says: In my experience, what slows down Firefox is usually some preference for some installed add-on.

To fix the problem, make a copy of the pref.js file in your profile, and then edit it. The prefs.js file can be edited using notepad and it is available in your Firefox profile folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[xxx].default

Try removing lines that are related to various add-ons, and you will at some stage remove the line/lines that are causing the problem.

A method I have tried before is simply remove half of the lines, and try running Firefox with several tabs of pages with a lot of content. When you have identified the bad half, restore the original prefs.js file and remove half of that bad half and try again.

In this way, you can identify the lines that are causing the problem and won’t lose all your saved preferences.

Thank you James. As he suggested, make a backup of your Firefox Preferences file before deleting any lines.

Apple Safari Browser for Windows - Is It a Failure ?

2008-01-09T07:17:00.000-08:00

Apple introduced Safari for Windows around six months ago calling it the fastest web browser that is almost twice as fast as IE 7 or Firefox 2.

Since then, Apple has released couple of minor upgrades for Safari 3 that are mainly bug fixes and the browser is still in beta stage.

We never heard of any third-party browser plugins being released specifically for Windows Safari and there’s practically little or no talk among the blogging community about Safari browser on Windows.

So did Safari manage to win any browser market share during the six month stint ?

I referred to the Google Analytics report (OS / Browser) and out the last 6 million visitors, only 8500 (0.15%) were using Safari on Windows.

The sample data may not be very big but it at least gives a reasonable idea about the possible market share of Safari 3 browser on the Windows platform.

Adobe PDF Ads inside Acrobat Reader

2008-01-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

“This web page has sponsored content which requires connecting to Google AdSense servers. Will you allow your browser to make this connection?”

Imagine IE or Firefox giving you such a choice each time you load a website that carries Google Ads. Chances are high that you will click No and the website will load sans any advertisements.

While the above case is fictional, Adobe may be facing such a problem with their Ads for PDF program. (See “Bloggers Can Make Money from PDF“)

When you download an ad-enabled PDF file and load it inside Acrobat or Adobe Reader, you’ll be shown the following security message and the ads are displayed only when the user clicks “Yes” not otherwise.

Since an in-built security feature in Adobe programs makes it so easy for the end user to turn off the display of ads, eBook creators may find it a bit to generate decent advertising revenue from their PDF content.

Maybe Adobe will have to release new Acrobat updates that will white-list the IP addresses of Adobe Ad servers so users will not be prompted every time they load an ad-enabled PDF - quite similar to product activation.

The other issue is that Ads are displayed only when the PDF files are opened inside Acrobat or Adobe Reader 8.1 and above. PDF alternatives like FoxIt or web based PDF viewers won’t display the ads - they are like viewing an AdSense enabled site inside Lynx that doesn’t understand JavaScript.

Update: The confirmation dialog appears only if the users opens the PDF file inside Adobe Reader or Acrobat. Cynthia Tillo, Sr Product Manager at Adobe writes:

“If the user opens the PDF in-browser (ie. they downloaded and opened the PDF from his website), that dialog will not appear since the user is already online. Our market research shows that about 75% of the time, users are online reading the PDF in-browser. “

To test all this yourself, download True Films - an ad-enabled PDF eBook from Kevin Kelly. Thanks John.

Add Text Watermarks To Your Flickr Photos

2008-01-08T06:35:00.000-08:00

Now that Picnik and Flickr are integrated, you can easily add text watermarks to Flickr pictures.

To watermark a image on Flickr, click the “Edit Photo” link to open that photograph inside Picnik.

Go to Create -> Text and type the text. Now select any font for the watermark from the drop-down and then drag the Fade slider to around 55%. That will make your text slightly transparent so the image portions beneath it are also visible.

To add multiple bookmarks, just do a copy-paste and arrange the text boxes anywhere on the image.

When you are done, Picnik lets you overwrite the original photo with the watermarked image or you can add it as a new picture leaving the old one untouched.

Adding watermarks is destructive editing so you could keep you public photos watermarked while keep a private copy of your non-watermarked images.

2008-01-08T06:07:00.000-08:00

The Best Free Software for Windows

We pick some of the best software programs and utilities for your Windows computer that are completely free and still extremely useful. Given all these wonderful choices, why pay?

Audio Editing: If you ever wanted to do some basic audio recording, look no further than Audacity - it can record, remove noise from audio and also mix multiple sound track. With little effort, you can use Audacity to record live streaming music from Internet radio stations.

Video Editing: For videos, Windows Movie Maker from Microsoft is a good choice. It has all the basic video editing tools plus a good collection of transitions and video effects. For advanced usage, get the powerful VirtualDub - it has a number of filters (like video rotation), can create videos from image sequences, split videos or even extract sound from video tracks.

Instant Messenger: If your friends are spread across different services like Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN and others, get Pidgin and connect to all popular IM services using a single software. Pidgin provides a tabbed interface so the desktop won’t look cluttered even if you are simultaneously chatting with multiple buddies.

Computer Security: Your computer needs a firewall program like ZoneAlarm or Comodo Pro to stop spyware programs from connecting to websites secretly and for blocking any Internet intruders. For removing viruses from infected systems, AVG Antivirus and Avast are very reliable and unlike other commercial software, they are not heavy on system resources.

Multimedia Players: You may already have Windows Media Player and iTunes on your computer but they are not capable of playing all audio and video formats. For this reason, I recommend VLC Media Player that is light-weight and supports almost everything including DVDs and Flash Videos that you have downloaded from YouTube. Another option is GOM player.

Digital Photography: Taking photos with your digital camera is just half the job . For organizing your vast picture collection, get Google Picasa or Windows Live Photo Gallery. With Picasa, you can create Screensavers and Picture Collages while Live Gallery has a wonderful photo stitching feature for making panoramas. Both let you transfer pictures from the desktop to Flickr. For advanced photo editing, use Paint.NET or GIMP.

Windows Enhancements: If you like using keyboard more than the mouse, get Launchy - it helps you start your favorite programs (and documents) without touching the Windows Start Menu. TweakUI is another desktop enhancement to help you control the appearance of Windows, change the location of default folders and so much more.

Spring Cleaning: WinDirStat gives you a visual overview of files and folders that are consuming the bulk of space on your hard drive so you know where to hit the delete key when the drive is full. CCleaner with automatically find and remove all the unnecessary temp files from your computer reclaiming valuable hard drive space. It also clears all the junk from Windows registry so your system runs faster. MyUninstaller will help you remove software that do show up in Windows Add Remove control panel.

Desktop Email: If you like checking and replying to your web email from the desktop, Windows Live Mail and ThunderBird are worth considering. They let you check multiple e-mail accounts in one place, apply filters to incoming email, add another layer of protection from junk email, built-in RSS reader and best of all, you can work offline.

DVD Tools: For creating backup copies of your DVD video disks onto the hard drive, use DVD Shrink. For extracting movie scenes and MP3 music from DVDs, HandBrake is a good choice. It can also be used to export your DVDs into portable players like the iPod.

Other Worthy Mentions: HTTrack helps you create a mirror copy of any website on the hard drive for offline reading. Orbit Downloader lets you save streaming music and videos from almost every website. Copernic Desktop is an excellent software for finding emails, documents, photos and other multimedia files on your computer. Microsoft SyncToy provides a visual interface for synchronizing file folders between computers and external drives.

Do you think we are missing some really good software here ? Please share in the comments.

Ulead PhotoImpact 12

2008-01-08T03:36:00.001-08:00

Ulead PhotoImpact 12

Wielding what is, at any price, one of the most powerful image editors on the planet requires the skills of an expert. Technical users who don't want to shell out 650 bucks for Photoshop CS3 and are willing to learn the nooks, crannies, and many idiosyncrasies of Ulead PhotoImpact 12 will be richly rewarded. But casual users seeking a fast and easy tool to clean up and distribute their images may get frustrated. They should turn, instead, to other sub-$100 programs that offer a smaller set of relevant features in user-friendlier interfaces.

PhotoImpact's new ExpressFix mode, for instance, has a wonderful side-by-side interface for correcting problems with exposure, color, focus, and the like, but it's flawed by illogical procedures and a confusing workflow. Here's one example: The top button, which you might presume to be the first you should apply, is Reduce Noise, which is usually the last filter applied, since you often can't see noise until you boost exposure.

The next control, the SmartCurves adjustment, enhances the dynamic range of an image by applying a camera curve—a set of adjustment parameters for your camera. You can't, however, select a camera from the ExpressFix window or even see which camera you've previously chosen; you have to use the regular menu. When you do choose SmartCurves in the menu, you exit the ExpressFix interface into a new window with a similar side-by-side display, but with different controls. Close this and you're back in ExpressFix.

Rather than putting its excellent White Balance adjustment along with other ExpressFix corrections, the adjustment button sits atop the side-by-side display, confusing the workflow further. Which do I do first: SmartCurves, white balance, color cast, or color saturation? Ditto for the red-eye adjustment, which should also sit with the other ExpressFix controls.

Where other programs Photoshop Elements and Noromis PhotoLab expose their automatic correction options in their side-by-side, image-adjustment interface, PhotoImpact does not, forcing you to access correction options from the menus. When you click buttons for Overall Exposure or Color Cast in the ExpressFix interface, the program displays three tiny thumbnails you must choose from, but they're far too small to provide useful detail.

Rotate a landscape image to Portrait mode in the side-by-side before-and-after display mode, and the before image stays on its side, which makes logical sense but is decidedly unhelpful for further editing. By contrast, Photoshop Elements rotates the before image as well, which is undoubtedly what all users would want.

Offical website : http://www.ulead.com/pi/

What is Spyware?

2008-01-08T03:36:00.000-08:00

What is Spyware?

In general, spyware is a software application that gathers information about a person or employee with or without their knowledge. There are basically two types of spyware. The most annoying type is the spyware that some unscrupulous businesses place on your computer to track your surfing habits and then that information is transferred or sold to marketers and other interested parties.

The other type of spyware, sometimes known as Spy software, is used to monitor or record all activities occurring on the computer. Typically this is a parent trying to identify what their children are doing on the computer. This can also be used by a husband or wife, to check up on the online activities of their spouse. This web site, Monitoring Software Review, is focused on this later example of spyware, the type that monitors your children, spouse, or employees.

Spyware or Spy software can be loaded intentionally by the purchaser of the software or unintentionally from a virus or attachment in an email. Sometimes, Spy software can be installed as a computer monitor and is readily apparent to all users that they are being monitored. Some might argue then, that it isn't Spyware because they know they are being monitored and not spied on. Whatever you call it, Spyware primarily allows the monitoring and recording of information about an individual or organization.

Worm or Virus...What's the Difference?

2008-01-08T03:23:00.000-08:00

Worm or Virus...What's the Difference?

Everyone has been infected with a virus at one time or another either through the common cold or the flu. A virus attacks the human body by entering through one of the many openings and attaching itself to a host cell. It releases a piece of genetic information into the cell and recruits the cell’s enzymes to propagate the genetic information. Once the genetic code has been adequately replicated, it destroys the cell and attacks cells nearby.

How does a computer virus simulate a biological virus? Just as a biological virus injects its own genetic information into a cell and interferes with the body’s normal operations, a computer virus is a program written to interfere with the proper functioning of a computer. It may damage programs, delete files, reformat hard disks and perform other forms of destructive acts.

To be classified as a virus, a program must meet two criteria. It must be able to execute itself by placing its own code in the execution path of another program. The program must also be able to replicate itself by replacing existing computer files with copies of the virus-infected files. Similar to the way a biological virus requires a host cell, a computer virus requires an infected host file to propagate itself.

Viruses have become the villains of the computer world, propagating themselves and destroying everything in their path. However, another tool of destruction, known as the worm, has been creeping into the computer industry. Most of us have heard of the dreaded Blaster worm that attacks Microsoft websites, but what exactly is a worm and how does it differ from a virus? Actually, a worm is a type of virus that attacks the computer in a method differing from the way a typical virus attacks a computer. Unlike the typical virus, the worm does not require a host program to propagate. A worm enters a computer through a weakness in the computer system and propagates itself using network flaws.

The typical virus requires activation through user intervention, such as double clicking or sending outgoing email. However, a worm releases a document containing the “worm” macro and sends copies of itself to other computers through network flaws, therefore bypassing any need for user intervention.

So, what can you do to protect your computer from virus infection? There are a number of preventative measures that you can take. For example, you can purchase and continually update virus scan software. Make sure that this software contains the “real-time” scanning feature which monitors all incoming and outgoing mail. You may also install a firewall which prohibits unauthorized access to your computer. By installing these preventative devices, you can proactively defend against viruses .