ODESA YAZILIM'S BLOG

How To Change A Cmos Battery

2009-11-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

First the safety rules

The inside of a computer is a bad place full of electricity and sharp edges.
On the electricity side always when working on you computer make sure that it’s still plugged in to the power socket and the power is turned off, this is to ensure that any static
From you is discharged through the earth. The inside of most computer cases are unfinished metal and has very sharp edges so be careful.

The first signs of a battery failing are:-

1) your clock starts running slowly
2) when you boot (start) your computer it has a problem finding your hardware (no hard drive, no cd rom)

To change the battery you need the following tools

1) a X-point screwdriver
2) an anti-static strap(optional)
3) a new battery (seems logical)

Then unplug all the cables from the back of the computer as you remove them make a note where they came from. (So when you finished you can put them back)

Move the computer somewhere where you can work on it with ease

Remove the cover by locating the screws around the outer edge (back) of the computer
Some computer cases only require you to remove 2 screws on one side then a panel can be removed allowing you access to the computers insides, others you must remove 6 screws and remove the whole case by sliding it to the rear and lifting it off.

Now make sure that you read the safety instructions about static.
Look inside you will see a round silver thing that looks about the size of a 10p piece (quarter). This is the battery itself, carefully lift the retaining clip and slide the battery out. That’s it removed now go to your local computer retailer, electrical retailer (Tandy/Radio shack) taking the old battery with you and get a new battery.

Back to your computer insert the new battery by lifting the clip and sliding the battery in.

Reinstall your case and plug all the cables back (you did remember to label them didn’t you)

Now for the fun part.

You will now need to go into you bios….

Right the bios is the god of your computer.

To access it, when your computer first starts you will see a black screen with white text.

If you look carefully you will see a line that says something like "press del for setup" or some other key (F2 or ESC or tab) this will take you to god's house where you can make lots of changes to the way your machine works.

It is also the place where you can make your nice computer in to a rather expensive door stop so be careful and don’t go playing with anything.

You will now be presented with a blue screen with a lot of options on it,
The one we want is load optimised/default settings.

Press the F10 key and type y the computer should now reboot.

If every thing went well then your computer will now be up and running.

Shizers way: Keep computer running. Lay it on it's side and remove side cover to expose MoBo. Take any thin object, "small screwdriver, knife point, wood shiskabob skewer. Pull back the battery retaining clip. Toss the old battery in the junk recepticle, unless you belong to greenpeace and want to save the earth. Install the new battery. No need to reset bios becasue the compter supplies voltage to the cmos while it is running. Reset or resync clock with internet. Done!

Kill USB Viruses – Use AutorunEater

2009-07-05T07:08:00.000-07:00

The most easiest way to get your computer infected with a computer virus is to use your friends USB on your computer. You just copied a few songs and got all the computer viruses and worms for free

Ever wondered how does these virus “automatically” infect your computer as soon as you insert the USB? Well, its the magic of autorun.inf file in the USB drive. All the startup information of the virus is written in the autorun.inf file so that its the first program that runs when you insert the USB. You can read more about autorun.inf at this wikipedia page.

But now there is no need to worry even if you don’t know the syntax of the autorun.inf files. You can use AutorunEater to protect your computer from these virus.

How To Use AutorunEater To Stop Viruses In Infected USB Drives?

1. Install it. Then right click on its icon in the notification area or system tray and click on Add Billy To System Startup option.

That’s it. Now AutorunEater will automatically start with Windows. It continuously scans all the removable drives just like an antivirus program scans your system files. As soon as you insert a USB drive, it will scan it for all the autorun.inf files and will prompt a warning window if a malicious autorun.inf file is found. You can then delete the file and the poor virus will never get a chance to infect your system

FOR DOWNLOAD AUTORUNEATER CLICK HERE!

Easy Remote Connection : TEAMVIEWER ;)

2009-07-04T02:23:00.000-07:00

Many of you who is reading this blog are geeks or those who are willingly ready to help other regarding their PC problem.

I often came across the situation where i have to help my friends, once they face any problem regarding their pc.

But, going every1 place to fix their problem is not possible, so i always look for the remote applications by which i can fix their problem remotely.

The Software of the day “TEAMVIEWER” is one such software which let you remotely access anyone pc with his permission.
And the advantage of this software is that It’s everybody cup of tea. Easy to configure.

TEAMVIEWER is Simpe and fast solution to connect to any pc remotely. and it work behind any firewall or proxy.

With the first start, automatically ID’s are generated which is the unique ID for every pc.
Enter your partner’s ID into TeamViewer and the connection is established immediately.

It can also be used to control unattended server or system.Just install the software as service and it can also be used to shutdown or reboot.

It offers Secure and encrypted data, so that makes it reliable and secure.

The best part is It’s portable and zero configuration.

FOR DOWNLOAD TEAMVIEWER CLICK HERE!

Free PC-Tools Internet Security license for 1 year

2009-06-28T02:09:00.000-07:00

Computer security is major concern for any PC user. Most of good antivirus are paid and charge a lot for the updates.

PC Tools, one of the best websites for PC users is providing Internet-Security-2009 Antivirus for free for a full 12 month period!!

Hurry up and follow the below procedure to get the Antivirus for free.

1) Go to www.pctools.com/wbc

2) Fill the Sign-Up form.

3) Check your mailbox for the confirmation method and activate your account from the confirmation mail.

4) After you have verified your account, you will get a mail which will give details about your Free license.

5) Download Internet-Security from www.pctools.com/internet-security

6) Last but not the least Install the antivirus, copy & paste the license key and the antivirus is yours for free for a full period of 12 months.

100 strangest unexplained mysteries ebook

2009-06-23T23:58:00.000-07:00

This ebook 100 strangest mysteries is 100 Strangest Mysteries is an amazing compendium of the weird and the wonderful. The range of entries is extraordinary, from the bizarre to the horrific, and from the spooky to the just plain confounding.
The book includes some of history’s most astounding tales of the strange and supernatural, and tells in vivid detail the story of both events and the people involved,the impact of particular myths and beliefs, and the latestinvestigations being undertaken in an attempt to find answers to the world’s most bewildering phenomena. The text is complemented by 100 photographs and illustrations.100 Strangest Mysteries is a gripping and compelling account of some of the most baffling and astonishing events and is sure to shock and amaze in equal measure.

Some Contents Are Here:

BEASTS & MONSTERS

CONSPIRACIES & COMMUNICATIONS

Stone Circles at Castlerigg

HIDDEN CITIES & LOST CIVILISATIONS

HORRORS & HAUNTINGS

MARVELS & MIRACLES

PSYCHIC POWERS & PHENOMENA

PUZZLING PEOPLE & ENIGMATIC ENTITIES

SECRET SOCIETIES & HIDDEN TREASURES

MISCELLANEOUS

FOW DOWNLOAD PLEASE CLICK HERE

Create Your Own Radio Easily

2009-06-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

Online or Internet radio is an audio broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet.Internet radio services are usually accessible from anywhere in the world.
This tutorial is to teach how to make your own online radio which you can operate from your own PC.

Instructions ::

1. Download Winamp by going to the Winamp site.
2. Download the SHOUTcast Radio DSP plug-in for Winamp and install it.

http://yp.shoutcast.com/downloads/shoutcast-dsp-1-9-0-windows.exe

3. Now go to http://listen2myradio.com/ and sign up for a free account, and verify it.

4. Now sign in and and chose any server you like as your radio server.

5. Now go to "radio installation" option.

6. And enter these:-

broadcaster password:
admin password:
radio name:
radio url:

NOTE- Keep broadcaster password, admin password same as your account password. it will be better.

7. Now after installing. scroll down and again choose server which you selected earlier or any other server!

8. Now wait For Some Time till Your servers work!

9. Now click on "Turn on/off" Option and Turn on your Radio. [You may have to repeat this step few more times to start it]

10. Now if it is on, Open any song with winamp.

11. Now press Ctrl+P and a Window will Open in Winamp.

12. Now Go To "Plug-ins >> DSP/Effect " and double click "Nullsoft SHOUTcast source DSP v1.9.1 [dsp_sc.ddl]

13. Now Go To "Output >> Connection" And Fill 'Address' & 'Port' as Given in your "listen2myradio.com" account.

14. Now Go To "Output >> Yellopages" and fill 'URL' and other information.

15. Now Go To "Encoder" And select MP3 encoder and select 24kbp/s or 32kbp/s [according to your net speed].

16. Now Go To "output" and see the status it should be showing that it is sending some bytes.

[NOTE - if u don't see this or see disconnected then check if your radio status is on or not and if then also you see this jus recheck address and port and password.]

17. If you have done till here now log on to listen2myradio and go to that url which you gave in "radio installation". Now it will show that wait for 5 seconds and then it will start playing!

18. Now if it does not plays and shows ready then check your encoder stings it must be mp3.

9 Methods of More Fast Computer ;)

2009-06-22T04:25:00.000-07:00

Your computer running Windows isn’t running in the same speed that it used to run when you first used it. It’s slower, crappy, takes a while to start and tests your patience like anything. There are many reasons for this, let’s try fixing up a few things on your slow Windows PC:

Slow Start Up

There can be a variety of reasons to Windows loading slow during start up. Go to Run, type msconfig and hit enter. Under the ‘Start Up’ tab, uncheck the unwanted programs and press OK. Things should be a bit fine the next time Windows boots.

Another program worth mentioning here is StartUp Delayer which will help in setting after how much time programs should be loaded after Windows boots. For instance, you could set your instant messenger program to load 50 seconds after Windows starts up.

Slow Loading Start Menu
If the Start Menu items are loading slowly, you can open the Registry Editor by typing in the Run menu ‘regedit.exe’ and pressing Enter. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Look for MenuShowDelay, and double click to edit the value. The lower the number specified, the faster the Start Menu will load.

Slow Right Click Context Menu
Probably the Windows Right Click menu on your computer is loading slow because too many programs added unwanted entries there. Just download this program called Mmm, install it and then modify your context menu to remove unwanted items to speed it up.

'Send To' Menu Slow Send To Menu
If the Send To menu loads slowly, you can type ’sendto’ in the Run Dialog, and remove unwanted items in the Explorer Window that appears. This should add some speed to it.

Slow Defragmentation
The Windows Defragmenter can’t get any slower. You need to have an alternative to the Windows Defragmenter, and Defraggler is just one of the best ones available in the market. It’s free, and works like a charm and can speed up defragmentation manifold.

Slow loading My Computer Window
my-computer.jpg If the My Computer Window loads slowly, in the Explorer Window, go to Tools >> Folder Options >> View and uncheck ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers”

Slow loading Add or Remove Programs Applet
This is one of the most annoying piece of programs present in Windows, it takes ages to load if you have a considerable number of programs installed on your computer. You can either use the all-in-one CCleaner for this purpose, or get MyUninstaller that comes as a speedy replacement for Add or Remove Programs.

Slow Ending of Unresponsive Programs
If you’ve clicked on ‘End Task’ if any program is running unresponsive, you might have noticed that the program is not terminated immediately. You can alter this by going to Run >> regedit.exe >> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ and change this value to 1000.

Disable Animations and Appearance Overhauls to maximize performance
If you’re a serious performance junkie, you probably won’t bother about eyecandy. Go to System Properties in the Control Panel. Click ‘Advanced’, then ‘Performance’ and click ‘Adjust for best performance’. This might boost your PC’s performance up a bit.

+Plus Instructions :

- Always keep your computer clean. Remove Junk and Unnecessary registry entries. Use CCleaner for this purpose, one excellent tool that just does what it says.

- Don’t keep installing software. Install a program only if it really serves you a purpose.

- Keep as less programs as possible running on the System Tray. This essentially means reducing the number of programs that start during Windows start up.

Alternative Of Win Explorer: Snowbird

2009-06-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

Snowbird is a lightweight Windows Explorer alternative that offers its users some extended functionality. The portable software program is compatible with Windows XP and above and comes with a tiny size of 468 Kilobytes unpacked.The interface of the computer program has been divided into three areas. The header area containing menus and the breadcrumb navigation, the left sidebar that contains a list of all local and network drives including their folders and the main area that displays the files and folders that are located in the current directory level.

Some might say that this does not sound exciting enough to give it a try. Snowbird comes with an advanced feature set that might entice some users to give it a try though.

The Windows Explorer alternative offers a search form right in the interface which can search for files, folders and even file contents. It is furthermore possible to navigate with mouse gestures which can speed up folder navigation quite a bit.

The overall speed of Snowbird is fast, faster than that of Windows Explorer especially when navigating in network shares and large local folders. There is however one aspect that is not well designed. The only way to copy or move files is to mark them, right-click and select the appropriate option from the menu. In other words: Drag and drop is not supported

For Download Snowbird CLICK HERE!

POP3 Configuration For Gmail

2009-06-19T03:43:00.000-07:00

I read several emails lately that asked me how to setup email clients so that they could retrieve Gmail emails using the POP3 protocol on Outlook, thunderbird etc. The Gmail POP3 configuration is fortunately not that complex: The major problem that most users run into is that POP3 has to be enabled in the Gmail web interface before they can actually retrieve their emails in another email client.
Enabling POP3 in Gmail is therefor a two-step process. POP3 needs to be enabled on the Gmail website first before the other email client is configured to connect to Gmail using the POP3 protocol.

Enabling Gmail POP3

Open the Gmail homepage, log into your Gmail account and click on the [Settings] link in the top right corner of the screen to open the Gmail configuration. Now select the [Forwarding and POP/IMAP] link which should open a page just like the one you see below on the screenshot.

You basically got two options here to enable POP3. The first [Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded)] enables POP3 in Gmail for all email messages even those that have already been retrieved while the second [Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on] enables POP3 from that moment on which means that old emails cannot be retrieved. A click on the Save Changes button will save the changes and allow POP3 connections.

Gmail POP3 Data

It is time to create the accounts in the email client now that POP3 has been enabled in Gmail. The procedure is different depending on the email client at hand. Below are the values that need to be entered into the email client.

Email Address: Enter your full Gmail email address
Password: Enter your email password
Incoming Server: pop.gmail.com
Incoming Server Port: 995
Outgoing Server: smtp.gmail.com
Outgoing server (SMTP) port: 587
Encryption: TLS

That's enough ;)

Free Spyware Clean Tools

2009-06-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

There are hundreds if not thousands of free spyware removal tools for the Windows operating system. The choice ranges from to popular spyware removal tools such as Windows Defender, Spybot Search And Destroy or Spyware Terminator to lesser known anti spyware software programs and even so called rogue applications that look like spyware removal tools but are in fact malicious in nature.

This article will concentrate on two lesser known free spyware removal tools. The first program is called Roguefix. It has been designed to counter so called rogue applications. The tool has been specifically designed to remove rogue scanners, desktop and homepage hijackers, trojans, codecs and miscellaneous malware.

Roguefix comes as a simple batch file that has to be executed in Windows safe mode.

The tool will then scan the operating system for spyware and remove detected spyware automatically from the computer system. The free spyware cleaner is only compatible to the Windows XP operating system according to the software developer.

SmitfraudFix on the other hand can scan a Windows XP or Windows 2000 operating system directly. The user needs to boot into safe mode for the removal process though. The program will generate a report after the scan which will list all the malicious files found after the spyware scan.

Both tools have been designed to detect and remove rogue applications only which does limit their usefulness in day to day spyware scans. It is however a good idea to have them at hand in case the computer system gets infected by rogue spyware.

Five Rapidshare Search Way

2009-06-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

Rapidshare is a file hosting goldmine if you know how to search it properly. There are basically two ways to do that. First, you can use Google search parameters to search Rapidshare. Several websites offer a basic search interface that does nothing more than to add the parameters to your searches and display the Google search results. Then there is a different kind of website that has its own database and performs searches using it.

The second kind of site tends to be more up to date because they use several sources for finding new Rapidshare files including user submitted ones. I do not like the first kind of sites to search Rapidshare that much because I can enter those parameters by myself into a search engine like Google and get the desired results.

To be able to compare the Rapidshare search engines I have performed searches for the terms “video”, “avi” and “windows”. Finding files is one thing but finding working files on file hosting websites and keeping the file database up to date deleting files that have been removed from the file hosting website properly is another. This has also been born in mind.

I did check three results for each search term, namely the first, fifth and tenth entry to see if the links were not broken.

A basic search engine and site that does nothing more than to offer a search form and a results page

RAPID SEARCH ENGINES:

http://rapid.tvphp.net

http://www.filecrop.com

http://www.rapidsharedata.com

http://www.xoogo.com

http://www.rapidlibrary.com

The car that makes its own fuel

2009-06-17T04:30:00.001-07:00

A unique system that can produce Hydrogen inside a car using common metals such as Magnesium and Aluminum was developed by an Israeli company. The system solves all of the obstacles associated with the manufacturing, transporting and storing of hydrogen to be used in cars. When it becomes commercial in a few years time, the system will be incorporated into cars that will cost about the same as existing conventional cars to run, and will be completely emission free.

As President Bush urges Americans to cut back on the use of oil in wake of the recent surge in prices, more and more people are looking for more viable alternatives to the use of petroleum as the main fuel for the automotive industry. IsraCast recently covered the idea developed at the Weizmann Institute to use pure Zinc to produce Hydrogen using solar power. Now, a different solution has been developed by an Israeli company called Engineuity. Amnon Yogev, one of the two founders of Engineuity, and a retired Professor of the Weizmann Institute, suggested a method for producing a continuous flow of Hydrogen and steam under full pressure inside a car. This method could also be used for producing hydrogen for fuel cells and other applications requiring hydrogen and/or steam.

The Hydrogen car Engineuity is working on will use metals such as Magnesium or Aluminum which will come in the form of a long coil. The gas tank in conventional vehicles will be replaced by a device called a Metal-Steam combustor that will separate Hydrogen out of heated water. The basic idea behind the technology is relatively simple: the tip of the metal coil is inserted into the Metal-Steam combustor together with water where it will be heated to very high temperatures. The metal atoms will bond to the Oxygen from the water, creating metal oxide. As a result, the Hydrogen molecules are free, and will be sent into the engine alongside the steam.
The solid waste product of the process, in the form of metal oxide, will later be collected in the fuel station and recycled for further use by the metal industry.

Refuelling the car based on this technology will also be remarkably simple. The vehicle will contain a mechanism for rolling the metal wire into a coil during the process of fuelling and the spent metal oxide, which was produced in the previous phase, will be collected from the car by vacuum suction.

Beside the obvious advantages of the system, such as the inexpensive and abundant fuel, the production of Hydrogen on-the-go and the zero emission engine, the system is also more efficient than other Hydrogen solutions. The main reason for this is the improved usage of heat (steam) inside the system that brings that overall performance level of the vehicle to that of a conventional car. In an interview, Professor Yogev told IsraCast that a car based on Engineuity's system will be able to travel about the same distance between refueling as an equivalent conventional car. The only minor drawback, which also limits the choice of possible metal fuel sources, is the weight of the coil. In order for the Hydrogen car to be able to travel as far as a conventional car it needs a metal coil three-times heavier than an equivalent petrol tank. Although this sound like a lot in most cars this will add up to about 100kg (220 pounds) and should not affect the performance of the car.

Engineuity is currently in the advanced stages of the incubator program of the Chief Scientist in Israel, and is seeking investors that will allow it to develop a full scale prototype. Given the proper investment the company should be able to develop the prototype in about three years. The move to Hydrogen based cars using Engineuity's technology will require only relatively minor changes from the car manufacturer's point of view. Since the modified engine can be produced using existing production lines, removing the need for investment in new infrastructures (the cost of which is estimated at billions of dollars), the new Hydrogen cars would not be more expensive. Although Engineuity's Hydrogen car will not be very different from existing conventional cars, the company is not currently planning an upgrade kit for existing cars but is concentrating on building a system that will be incorporated into new car models.

Possibly the most appealing aspect of the system is the running cost. According to Yogev, the overall running cost of the system should be equal to that of conventional cars today. Given the expected surge in oil prices in the near future Engineuity's Hydrogen car could not come too soon.

Internet Explorer Removed From Windows 7 In EU

2009-06-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

We all have heard the news that the European Union made the “suggestion” that Microsoft should bundle additional web browsers with their upcoming operating system Windows 7 to make up for failings in the past and to embrace competition. Many users felt that this move was entirely unnecessary as users who wanted a new web browser were able to get one minutes after finishing the installation of the Windows operating system. The success of the Firefox web browser in European countries demonstrated as well that it was possible to compete with Internet Explorer without having to be supplied with an operating system.

While the intention might have been good the whole suggestion was clearly aiming for troubles. Some questions that came up where about the web browsers that should be supplied with the operating system. Who would pick the ones that would be supplied, who would make the decision to not supply a web browser and why.

It seems though that the suggestion has backfired as Microsoft announced that they will not ship Windows 7 with a version of Internet Explorer in the European Union which in turn means that the operating system will ship without web browser at all. Veteran Internet users might be reminded of times back then when web browsers were supplied on floppy disks or CDs and this is apparently going to happen in 2009 again. History repeats itself so to say, at least in the EU.

The browser-less versions, dubbed Windows 7 “E”, will be distributed in all members of the European Economic Area as well as Croatia and Switzerland. In addition, Microsoft will strip the browser from the Europe-only “N” versions of Windows 7, which also removes the Windows Media Player from the operating system and is the result of another move by Europe’s antitrust authorities.

“Microsoft will not offer for distribution in the European territory the Windows 7 product versions that contain IE, which are intended for distribution in the rest of the world,” Microsoft said in the memo. “This will apply to both OEM and Retail versions of Windows 7 products.”

“To ensure that Microsoft is in compliance with European law, Microsoft will be releasing a separate version of Windows 7 for distribution in Europe that will not include Windows Internet Explorer,” the software maker said in the memo. “Microsoft will offer IE8 separately and free of charge and will make it easy and convenient for PC manufacturers to preinstall IE 8 on Windows 7 machines in Europe if they so choose. PC manufacturers may choose to install an alternative browser instead of IE 8, and has always been the case, they may install multiple browsers if they wish.”

Finally Find: J. Device Uses Laser Plasma to Display 3D Images in the Air

2009-06-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

A collaboration of the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Keio University and Burton Inc. has produced a device to display "real 3D images" consisting of dot arrays in empty space.

Many previous displays in 3D have been virtual images on 2D planes which, due to human binocular disparity, appear as 3D. However, the limitation of our visual field and the physical discomfort caused by wrongly identifying virtual images makes these displays less than perfect.

The new device uses the plasma emission phenomenon near the focal point of focused laser light. By controlling the position of the focal point in the direction of the x-, y-, and z-axes, real 3D-images in air (3D-space) can be displayed.

Our living space and the objects within it are three-dimensional but while 3D imaging is well documented on the Internet, we don’t see "real 3D-images" on our computer screens. This is because our monitors are unable to display them.

Keio University and Burton Inc. noticed that, when laser beams are strongly focused, air plasma emission can only be induced near the focal point. So, they experimented by fabricating a device to display 2D-images in the air. The images are constructed from dot arrays produced by a technique combining a laser light source and galvanometric mirrors. To form 3D-images in the air, the scanning of the focal point in the depth direction along the laser optical axis is essential. However, to do this, the quality of the laser and the technique for varying the position of the focal point must be improved. This explains why we do not yet have the technology to display 3D images.

By modifying the 2D image device with a linear motor system and a high-quality and high-brightness infrared pulse, the AIST, Keio University and Burton Inc. created a spatial display of "real 3D images" consisting of dot arrays.

The linear motor system can vary the position of the laser focal point by high-speed scanning of a lens set on the motor orbit. Incorporation of this system makes the image scanning in the direction of the z-axis possible. For scanning in the x and y axis directions, conventional galvanometric mirrors are used.

The high-quality and high–brightness infrared pulsed laser (repetition frequency of pulse: approximately 100 Hz), enables plasma production to be more precisely controlled, resulting in brighter and higher contrast image drawing. Furthermore, the distance between the device and drawing points can be extended by several meters.

The emission time of the laser pulse light is approximately a nanosecond (10-9 sec). The device uses one pulse for each dot. The human eye will recognize the after-image effect of plasma emission from displays up to 100 dot/sec. By synchronizing these pulses and controlling them with software, the device can draw any 3D objects in air.

MS Vista Theme Customization

2009-06-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

Microsoft put a lot of effort into making Windows Vista a visually compelling operating system. The system still has the same Windows Vista theme protections in place that make it impossible to add custom themes to Windows Vista. There is also no easy way to change elements like the boot logo or system icons in Windows Vista.

The Windows Vista theme customization application Vista Visual Master changes that. It is a all in one solution for everyone who wants to customize the Windows Vista theme and appearance. The application can be divided into two sections. The first deals directly with the Windows Vista theme while the second takes care of system settings that relate to the visual appearance of Windows Vista.

One of the most important aspects of Windows Vista theme customization is patching the uxtheme.dll file in Windows Vista to be able to apply custom themes to the operating system. This option is available in Vista Visual Master. The same menu contains an option to change the Windows Vista theme directly to another one.

Other options that relate to the visual appearance of Windows Vista are the abilities to change Windows vista icons, logon pictures and the vista boot screen. All options are easily accessible and there is always an option to restore to defaults with should ease the minds of users who feel uncomfortable about changing system files in Windows Vista.

The second section is just the usual Windows Vista tweaker with the only difference that the available settings relate to visual effects on the system. It is for instance possible to remove icons from the computer deskop, remove shortcut arrows and to disable the changing of wallpapers in Windows Vista.

The main use of the tool is to customize the Windows Vista theme. It works flawlessly and creates backups of the most important files which come in handy if something goes wrong along the way.

For More Theme CLICK HERE!

Earth-Venus smash-up possible in 3.5 billion years

2009-06-15T03:46:00.000-07:00

This undated handout illustration provided by Nature Publishing group shows what a collision between Earth and Venus might look like. A force known as orbital chaos may cause our Solar System to go haywire, leading to possible collision between Earth and Venus or Mars, according to a study

The good news is that the likelihood of such a smash-up is small, around one-in-2500.

And even if the planets did careen into one another, it would not happen before another 3.5 billion years.

Indeed, there is a 99 percent chance that the Sun's posse of planets will continue to circle in an orderly pattern throughout the expected life span of our life-giving star, another five billion years, the study found.

After that, the Sun will likely expand into a red giant, engulfing Earth and its other inner planets -- Mercury, Venus and Mars -- in the process.

Astronomers have long been able to calculate the movement of planets with great accuracy hundreds, even thousands of years in advance. This is how eclipses have been predicted.

But peering further into the future of celestial mechanics with exactitude is still beyond our reach, said Jacques Laskar, a researcher at the Observatoire de Paris and lead author of the study.

"The most precise long-term solutions for the orbital motion of the Solar System are not valid over more than a few tens of millions of years," he said in an interview.

Using powerful computers, Laskar and colleague Mickael Gastineau generated numerical simulations of orbital instability over the next five billion years.

Unlike previous models, they took into account Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. Over a short time span, this made little difference, but over the long haul it resulted in dramatically different orbital paths.

The researchers looked at 2,501 possible scenarios, 25 of which ended with a severely disrupted Solar System.

"There is one scenario in which Mars passes very close to Earth," 794 kilometres (493 miles) to be exact, said Laskar.

"When you come that close, it is almost the same as a collision because the planets gets torn apart."

Life on Earth, if there still were any, would almost certainly cease to exist.

To get a more fine-grained view of how this might unfold, Laskar and Gastineau ran an additional two hundred computer models, slightly changing the path of Mars each time.

All but five of them ended in a two-way collision involving the Sun, Earth, Mercury, Venus or Mars. A quarter of them saw Earth smashed to pieces.

The key to all the scenarios of extreme orbital chaos was the rock closest to the Sun, found the study, published in the British journal Nature.

"Mercury is the trigger, and would be be the first planet to be destabilised because it has the smallest mass," explained Laskar.

At some point Mercury's orbit would get into resonance with that of Jupiter, throwing the smaller orb even more out of kilter, he said.

Once this happens, the so-called "angular momentum" from the much larger Jupiter would wreak havoc on the other inner planets' orbits too.

"The simulations indicate that Mercury, in spite of its diminutive size, poses the greatest risk to our present order," noted University of California scientists Gregory Laughlin in a commentary, also published in Nature.

New Face Of Security: Windows Defender

2009-06-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

Windows Defender is a Microsoft security software product that is included in the Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating system. It is also available as an option download for the Windows XP system. The program is a anti-spyware program that can scan a computer system for malicious software and delete or quarantine the findings.

Windows Defender comes with the usual options to automatically update the program and schedule regular system scans to protect the computer system. Default actions for low, medium and high alerts can be defined that will be executed by the anti-spyware program automatically.

Microsoft’s anti-spyware solution comes with the interesting advanced tool Software Explorer which can display extensive information about startup programs, currently running programs, network connected programs and Winsock service providers.

Each program and provider is sorted by company which makes it easier to find non-Microsoft programs that are running or connected to the computer system.

Microsoft has improved Windows Defender over the years. The company did receive lots of criticism in the beginning which can be attributed to a low spyware detection rate. Several anti-spyware products have performed better in tests, outlined here or here. Please note that the tests linked in this article have been performed about 10 months ago and that the situation may have changed in the mean time.

Which leads to the question: Are you running anti-spyware software? If so which?

Free Antivirus Protection Offer From Microsoft

2009-06-12T00:23:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is gearing up to offer Windows users a free real-time antivirus protection. Code name Morro, the antivirus product will be a hosted service. Morro works by routing all users Internet traffic to a Microsoft datacenter, where the application will process the traffic and identify and block malware in real-time, by examining all of the rerouted traffic.

Microsoft says Morro will be released as a public beta first. However there is no word on the final release. The question is will Windows users trust their PC to a beta hosted antivirus product? Or is this just another marketing strategy that will give Windows 7 the perception it has anti-malware technology built-in?

Microsoft claims that Morro will help them build better products in the future, by being on the leading edge of malware protection. This will help Microsoft understand how malware develops, spreads and infiltrates systems.

There will be questions that Microsoft will have to address by the Windows community before they expect users to try their free product. Some of the questions that will need to be answered are:

• Will there be any impact on Windows performance?
• Will Morro be implemented in Microsoft's other Operating Systems?
• What happens when a computer is not connected to the internet?
• Will the product remain up-to-date?
• What user information will be routed to Microsoft's servers?

These are only a few of the many questions that Microsoft will have to answer.
Since Morro is only a real-time malware protection antivirus, I don't see the majority of Windows users switching over to this free service. Companies like Symantec and McAffe also offer spam, identity and network security protection that is not mentioned in Morro's hosting service.

Only time will tell if Morro's real-time malware protection will gain momentum and be of any use to the personal PC community and the corporate IT departments.

Find a way: A New Type of Atomic Clock

2009-06-12T00:11:00.000-07:00

Physicists from the University of New South Wales, Australia and the University of Nevada, Reno propose a method to reduce the size of atomic clocks to handy, compact devices using specially engineered optical lattices.

Optical lattices are created by trapping atoms in a standing wave light field formed by laser beams. But the lasers can hamper the time keeping ability of the atoms. By applying an external magnetic field to the lattice in a specific direction, the atomic clock is rendered insensitive to the laser field strength. This property allows the atomic clock to function properly at a smaller size.

While a portable cesium clock could benefit numerous scientific and general applications, the expected accuracy of the optical lattice clocks has yet to be explored. Calling for further theoretical and experimental investigation, the authors assert that even if the precision of such clocks turns out to be less competitive than the fountains, the optical lattice clocks have a clear advantage of a smaller apparatus size, making them useful in applications like navigation systems and precision tests of fundamental symmetries in space.

Very Dangerous Web Search Words

2009-06-11T00:56:00.000-07:00

Which search terms would make it on the list if you would have to compile a list of the ten most dangerous web search terms? Most users would probably add search terms like warez, cracks and sex when asked to compile a top ten list. A recent McAfee study on the other hand came to a completely different conclusion. The ten most dangerous web search terms are everyday search terms that cannot be connected easily with malicious intent. The top spot is occupied by searches for Screensavers, followed by free games, work from home and Rihanna with Barrack Obama, the iPhone and Taxes in the list as well. It should however be noted that the top 10 list is made up of categories and not single search terms.

These search terms are more dangerous than, lets say warez, because most users know that warez can lead to malicious software quite easily while they most likely do not suspect the same from these popular search terms.

Please Be careful and use an internet security packet or an antivirus with firewall.

Have a nice day ;)

AutoAdminLogon Setting On Vista Registry

2009-06-10T03:35:00.000-07:00

The idea behind AutoAdminLogon is that a user(name) can logon at a computer without having to type a password. A typical scenario would be a test machine on a private network. With AutoAdminLogon enabled, when you restart the machine it automatically logs on a named user. The trick, which also its liability, is to set a value for DefaultPassword in the registry.

1.Launch Regedit

2.Navigate to:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\winlogon
Set: AutoAdminLogon = 1 (one means on, zero means off)

3.Tip: Try Regedit's 'Find': AutoAdminLogon

4.Create a new String Value called DefaultPassword
Set: DefaultPassword = "P@ssw0rd"

5.Check for the existence of a REG_SZ called DefaultUserName. The value should reflect the user who you wish to logon automatically. If this value does not exist, then right-click in the right pane, New, REG_SZ, name it, DefaultUserName. Set the string value to the required UserName.

6.Optional Item: If your Vista Machine has joined a domain, then create a String Value called DefaultDomainName. Set: DefaultDomainName = "OnlyYouKnowDomain"

Here is a summary of the four key registry settings:
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"
"DefaultUserName"="xxx"
"DefaultPassword"="xxxx0xxxx"
"DefaultDomainName"="xxx.xxx". Definitely needed in a domain situation.

Key Learning Points
*Do you find the AutoAdminLogon value in HKCU** or HKLM?
Answer: HKLM
*Do you have to add a value, or modify an existing setting?
Answer: Modify 0 --> 1.
*Is it a String Value or a DWORD?
Answer: These are all REG_SZ (String value).
*Do you need to Restart, or merely Logoff / Logon?
Answer: Restart
*Extra Information: With AutoAdminLogon you also need to create a REG_SZ called, DefaultPassword, and possibly another called DefaultDomainName.
If you ever need to breakout of AutoAdminLogon, hold down the shift key as Vista initializes and the user logs on. What the shift key does is enable you to logon as a different user.

Addendum for Vista Home Editions

I have been using AutoAdminLogon since NT 3.5, however, in Vista Home editions there is a much easier alternative, namely tick: 'Users must enter a user name and password'.

Navigate to the Control Panel, User Accounts and finally click on the Users tab, then remove the tick in:
'Users must enter a user name and password'. All you need to do next is type the password twice in the, 'Automatically Log On' dialog box. See screenshot. Once you restart Vista, it will logon that user automatically.

Double-check the logic of what you are ticking. Also, when you set a registry value to one or zero, read the value carefully. Half of all people who write and say 'Guy that tweak did not work', have not understood the logic, double negatives are a particular source of errors.

Before you try the above configuration, note: I did not, repeat, not find this setting in a machine which had joined an Active Directory domain.

Just out of interest I would check the registry to see how AutoAdminLogon has been configured (Regedit, Edit (menu) find AutoAdminLogon).

Creating a .Reg File
For my solution to work, I needed the same settings on all 8 machines. Thus from my machine I exported the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\winlogon branch of the registry into a .reg file, which I then imported to each of the delegates machines. No more problems with logging on after that. Training is the classic place to try these naughty but nice tricks; another scenario for AutoAdminLogon is for test machines not connected to a production network.

IE Password Management Add-on

2009-06-10T03:08:00.000-07:00

Last Pass is a password management add-on for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that can store login credentials to web services in a securely encrypted password vault. The password manager is compatible with most editions of Internet Explorer including the latest Internet Explorer 8 edition that has been released a while ago. The passwords are stored in encrypted form on the Last Pass servers which comes in handy for several reasons.

It is for example possible to access the passwords on other computer systems without having to carry them around on storage devices like USB sticks. And since Last Pass is not only compatible with Internet Explorer it comes also handy for users who work with web browsers like Firefox. It is basically possible to share passwords and other data between Internet Explorer and Firefox this way.

The download of the password management software is cross-browser compatible. It can install the add-on in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox at the same time. New users can create an account during the installation while existing users need to supply their login credentials to end the installation.

Last Pass adds a button to the Internet Explorer toolbar that provides quick access to most of the features offered by the password management software. It is for example possible to open some of the recently opened websites, switch identities, edit the preferences or add secure notes.

Password Management is not the only feature offered by Last Pass. The program can store notes in the password vault and offers an option to create form profiles to fill out forms on websites more easily.

The add-on will automatically recognize username and password forms on websites and act accordingly. It can fill out the form automatically if the login credentials are already stored in its database. New passwords can be generated with the versatile password generator. Last Pass is definitely one of the best password management tools.

Download Last Pass Software

New Windows Task Manager Alternative "DTaskManager"

2009-06-09T03:42:00.000-07:00

DTaskManager is a lightweight replacement for the default Windows Task Manager. It can be used side by side with the Windows Task Manager or replace it fully. If the second option is selected it will be launched when the user is opening the task manager the usual way. The program uses a similar layout as the Windows Task Manager but provides access to additional information and functions in its various tabs.

The five default tabs that are available in the Windows Task Manager are offered by DTaskManager plus the two additional Ports and Kernel Modules section. The program displays extensive information in each section of its interface, something that can only be partially achieved in the Windows Task Manager. The processes tab lists for example the path of the process and the cpu time by default

The Ports section displays all network connections of the local computer system offering massive amounts of information that include the process name, local IP and port, remote IP and port, the protocol, path and socket status.

DTaskManager offers some advanced functions on how to deal with processes. It can for example kill processes the usual way, force the process to be closed and initiate an override to close the process which will bypass permissions as well. Another interesting feature is the ability to suspend tasks. This is a feature known from the Linux operating system which can temporarily halt tasks. That’s a handy feature in situations where all system resources are needed by a process as the user can suspend processes and resume them once the resources are not needed anymore for the priority process.

A few minor options are the ability to display the cpu and memory usage in the system tray. This can be displayed as a bar or as numerical values. DTaskManager is a solid and lightweight Windows Task Manager replacement. It is compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista

New Google Translate Software

2009-06-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

You sometimes encounter websites or text on the Internet, in emails or in documents on your computer desktop that are written in a language that you either do not understand completely or have only a limited knowledge of. Automatic translation services are one of the most comfortable and fastest ways of translating these information into an understandable language. The trade-off is that the quality of the translations does not come close to that of a manual translation by a language translator. It is however usually enough to understand the text at hand.

The Google Translate software client is a software program for the Windows operating system that can automatically translate text that is marked by the user. It is not limited to the web browser or any other application. It will automatically recognize selected text and provide a translation for that text in its interface.

The user is asked to select a main language during setup which will be the language that the other languages get translated to. The translation tool will display the original text in the upper part of its window and the translated text in the lower parts. It is possible to switch the source and target languages manually if needed.

The google Translate software client can also be used by dragging and dropping text into its interface which will also be translated immediately if the automatic recognition is enabled. A handful of options are available that allow the user to change the design of the application and the way the text gets translated.

The software program was tested with various applications including the Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer web browser, the email client Thunderbird, text documents and Microsoft Office Word. It worked with all of the applications and it is likely that it supports additional programs as well.

Download Google Translate Software

How To Use Nokia Symbian Cell Phone / Mobile Camera Phone As Webcam For Free

2009-06-08T06:23:00.001-07:00

The mobile phone market has seen tremendous growth in the last few years. Today’s cell phone is no less than a laptop, with all the most important features integrated in it. You name a function that you’d miss if your laptop’s not around, and cell phone manufacturers address the issue almost immediately.

Today, let us learn how we can turn your normal, ordinary cell phone into a webcam, using which you can have live video chat with any of your friends who are online. You can build your own cell phone webcam right in your house, at no extra cost, as the software that is necessary to transform your cell phone to a mobile webcam is absolutely free, in fact it’s open sourced, so you can get the source code as well.

I am talking about SmartCam, an open source software which can be downloaded from Sourceforge, will turn your Symbian-based cell phone into a webcam, which can be hooked up to your PC or laptop and you can have do live video chat with your freinds and family.

The software works on Symbian phones and the operating system on the PC or laptop must be either Vista or Windows XP. Another catch is, your cell phone mush have blue tooth and your laptop should be bluetooth enabled, as the synchronization is available only through bluetooth as of now. May be in the later versions we can expect some wired support.

So if you are travelling, you can use your laptop and blue tooth enabled cell phone and start video chat the moment you are hooked on to internet !!

Download Smartcam

Google announces "developer" builds of Chrome for Mac OS X, Linux

2009-06-08T03:25:00.000-07:00

"Danger!" warns the sign. If it were in front of a cliff, you might step away. Seeing though as it's in front of a piece of software, and moreover it's software from Google, it instead has roughly the effect of saying "Naked dancing and free beer inside!"

For thus it is with the announcement of "developer builds" of Google's Chrome browser to run on Mac OSX and Linux.

Come on, get it while it's hot:

whatever you do, please DON'T DOWNLOAD THEM! Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software.

Why, what's missing?

How incomplete? So incomplete that, among other things , you won't yet be able to view YouTube videos, change your privacy settings, set your default search provider, or even print.

The list of things that are among the other things is pretty extensive, running to 445 at the moment, though it's not obvious at a glance which ones are the showstoppers and which are just a bit annoying. (I'd point out that Cmd-L doesn't select the location bar, which can be a bit annoying).

As noted previously, Chrome creates each new tab (or window) as a separate processor instance, meaning that you can kill them from the command line without affecting others - which is great if you have a runaway (or stuck) process in one tab/window and don't want to have to bring the whole thing down. The problem is still figuring out which of the many processes, each called "Chrome", is the one you want to kill, though.

What's still missing overall from the Chrome experience though is a big enough group of developers who have gotten to grips with a plugin framework so that they can begin to make it more than just, well, a browser. That is arguably what made Firefox rise so dramatically from the ashes (or parting of the ways) of the Mozilla project; the Greasemonkey plugin lets people write scripts that will configure web pages they visit as they want them to be (and was used to great effect at the Guardian's Hack Day, and doubtless many others) is a game-changer, for example.

But when you look at the Google Chrome blog, there's only one entry about plugins. Hardly encouraging. Chrome, at present, is looking like a good idea that has gotten left behind in the eagerness to do other things that will catch up with potential rivals in search such as Wolfram Alpha and Microsoft's Bing. It's not in trouble - but there's a serious danger of losing momentum if something doesn't start happening that ties it in with other things.

US cuts off 'criminal' net firm

2009-06-08T01:45:00.000-07:00

An American ISP allegedly involved in distributing spam and images of child abuse has been thrown off the net.
The US Federal Trade Commission asked for Pricewert LLC's net links to be severed after it had gathered evidence of the firm's 'criminal' connections.
The FTC alleges that Pricewert had created one of the "leading US-based havens for illegal, malicious, and harmful content".
Pricewert denied the allegations and said it would fight them in court.

Legal fight
In an official complaint filed in a San Jose Federal court, the FTC described Pricewert as a "rogue" or "black hat" ISP that acted as a hosting centre for many hi-tech criminals.

The FTC alleges that Pricewert was paid to host "child pornography, botnet command and control servers, spyware, viruses, trojans, phishing-related sites, illegal online pharmacies, investment and other web-based scams".

The evidence against Pricewert was gathered with the help of the National Security Agency's computer crime division, Symantec, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as groups such as Spamhaus and the Shadowserver Foundation.

In its statement accompanying its filing, the FTC said its complaint was "not a finding or ruling that the defendant has actually violated the law". That, it said, would be decided by a court. A preliminary hearing will be heard on 15 June.

So far, the FTC has not been able to identify who was behind Pricewert. Although its servers are based in the US, it is registered as a business in Belize and many of its employees are thought to be located in Eastern Europe.

Talking to technology news site Network World, a spokesman for Pricewert said the action was "unfair" and it would take legal action to defend itself.