ADTC (Computer)

WPF Flat Button FOR REAL!

2012-01-12T02:59:00.000+05:30

Three different solutions are available to create a "flat button" from a standard button. A flat button is one which only pops up when you point your mouse to it or gives it focus by tabbing with the keyboard. Watch the video, try the one that best suits you, and leave your comments. Note that in all three solutions, events of your created button will work as per normal.

In the video, buttons in the first column contain a Polygon. Those in the second column contain an Image, and those in the third contain simple text.

Solution 1: Property-based WPF Flat Buttons

To get these flat buttons, all you have to do is set both Background and BorderBrush properties of a standard button to Transparent. These buttons also show natively the fade-in and fade-out effects when they gain focus or are pointed to.

<Button Background="Transparent" BorderBrush="Transparent" />

However, these flat buttons fail when Windows is using the Classic theme or a High Contrast theme (as you can see from the video). If your application is targeted to work on all themes, try Solution 2 or 3.

Solution 2: Style-based WPF Flat Buttons (non-animated)

Add the following to your application's resources (usually Window.Resources or Page.Resources):

<Style x:Key="FlatButton" TargetType="Button">

<Setter Property="IsTabStop" Value="False" />

<Setter Property="Template">

<Setter.Value>

<ControlTemplate TargetType="Button">

<Grid>

<Button> 

<Button.Style>

<Style TargetType="Button">

<Style.Triggers>

<MultiTrigger>

<MultiTrigger.Conditions>

<Condition Property="IsFocused" Value="False" />

<Condition Property="IsMouseOver" Value="False" />

</MultiTrigger.Conditions>

<Setter Property="Opacity" Value="0" />

</MultiTrigger>

</Style.Triggers>

</Style>

</Button.Style>

</Button>

     <Label HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" VerticalContentAlignment="Center" Padding="3" IsHitTestVisible="False">

<ContentPresenter />

</Label>

</Grid>

</ControlTemplate>

</Setter.Value>

</Setter>

</Style>

With this style in place, create your button as follows:

XAML:

<Button Style="{StaticResource FlatButton}" />

Code-behind:

Button myButton = new Button();

myButton.Style = (Style)this.FindResource("FlatButton");

The inner button in the style definition will not automatically inherit some properties such as Background that you set to the above button. If you need to apply any such property that doesn't inherit automatically, you will have to inherit it by editing the button inside the style definition as follows, with Background as an example:


<Button Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" />

However, you must not inherit the Opacity property! If you do that, the button will completely fail at being flat. You may add an Opacity property to the inner button to help yourself visualize the buttons during design-time. But you must remove the Opacity property of inner button before runtime, or your created buttons will be stuck at the added opacity value permanently.

If you want to control the runtime opacity, simply set the Opacity property of your created button (there is no need to inherit it to the inner button). Alternatively, for a global effect, you may also change the value in the MultiTrigger's Setter (or) use solution 3 (edit the DoubleAnimation's by setting the duration to "0:0:0" and setting the opacities to your desired values).

Solution 3: Style-based WPF Animated Flat Buttons

Add the following to your application's resources (usually Window.Resources or Page.Resources):

<Style x:Key="AnimatedFlatButton" TargetType="Button">

<Setter Property="IsTabStop" Value="False" />

<Setter Property="Template">

<Setter.Value>

<ControlTemplate TargetType="Button">

<Grid>

<Button Opacity="0.1"> 

<Button.Style>

<Style TargetType="Button">

<Style.Triggers>

<MultiTrigger>

<MultiTrigger.Conditions>

<Condition Property="IsFocused" Value="False" />

<Condition Property="IsMouseOver" Value="False" />

</MultiTrigger.Conditions>

<MultiTrigger.EnterActions>

</Storyboard>

</BeginStoryboard>

</MultiTrigger.EnterActions>

<MultiTrigger.ExitActions>

</Storyboard>

</BeginStoryboard>

</MultiTrigger.ExitActions>

</MultiTrigger>

</Style.Triggers>

</Style>

</Button.Style>

</Button>

     <Label HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" VerticalContentAlignment="Center" Padding="3" IsHitTestVisible="False">

<ContentPresenter />

</Label>

</Grid>

</ControlTemplate>

</Setter.Value>

</Setter>

</Style>

With this style in place, create your button as follows:

XAML:

<Button Style="{StaticResource AnimatedFlatButton}" />

Code-behind:

Button myButton = new Button();

myButton.Style = (Style)this.FindResource("AnimatedFlatButton");


<Button Opacity="0.1" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" />

You may edit the Opacity property to help yourself visualize when designing your form. But remember to set it back to zero or 0.1 because an opacity too high will give the unwelcome visual effect of all your flat buttons fading into flatness when you launch the application window.

If you want to control the runtime opacity, simply set the Opacity property of your created button (there is no need to inherit it to the inner button). To control the fade speed of the buttons, edit the DoubleAnimation's by setting the duration to your desired values. You may also change the opacity values in the DoubleAnimation's if desired.

Backstory:

After searching everywhere on the Internet for a perfect solution, I could only find half-baked solutions of either inheriting the toolbar button style (which looks very ugly with a simple blue box) or hacking up the button and defining your own style (which makes you lose the standard button look and gradients).

I ended up spending two days trying different ways and coming up with a good solution that actually works. The solutions 2 and 3 were created and perfected by me before I stumbled upon solution 1 here. I'm glad I didn't see solution 1 before. Initially I was surprised that the problem could be very easily solved with solution 1, but upon further testing, I found it unreliable if an application is to be deployed in an environment which may use the Classic theme or its derivatives.

Remember to leave your comments if you found it useful or encountered problems.

Smart Keyboard Pro - Malay Dictionary

2011-09-24T00:24:00.000+05:30

Selamat datang ke blog saya!

If you own an Android phone and use Smart Keyboard (Trial or Pro)... and you want to send messages in Malay (yup, that's Bahasa Melayu), here's how to get a dictionary for it (Yea, there's no official dictionary, even for Bahasa Indonesia).

Note: The procedure assumes that you do not currently use "Bahasa Indonesia" language in your Smart Keyboard. It's a lengthy procedure but I assure you it's easy to follow through. Do give it a full reading first before following the steps.

Download this file and open it in Notepad.
On your phone, go to Smart Keyboard Settings > Backup settings.
Tap on "Backup to SD card", "Export user dictionary" and "Export AutoText", and confirm each of the backups. Do take note of where the backups are saved. This is for a rollback in case something goes wrong. You will also need one of the backup files later.
Go to Smart Keyboard Settings > Language.
Ensure "Hide Language key" is disabled (unchecked).
Tap "Language selection key" and select two languages:

The language you normally use (most likely "English" or "English (UK)") You can check what you're using by going back and tapping on "Current Language".
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian). Make sure all other languages are unchecked unless you use them.

Go to Smart Keyboard Settings > Text prediction.
Ensure that "Smart Dictionary" is enabled (checked). This will help learn word frequencies, showing you most used words first.
Exit out of Smart Keyboard Settings and connect your phone to your computer in Disk Drive mode. You may also use other methods as long as you can access the SD card contents.
Open the phone's SD card in your computer. You should find the backup files in the folder "smartkeyboard" or "smartkeyboardpro" (as you noted in step 3).
Make a copy of the file "userdic.csv".
Open the original "userdic.csv" (not the copy!) in Notepad. It's important to open in Notepad or a text editor. Avoid using Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Calc or other complex software.
Copy the contents of the file you downloaded in step 1 and append it to the contents of "userdic.csv".
Save the file, and disconnect the phone from the computer (or give the SD card back to the phone).
Go to Smart Keyboard Settings > Backup settings.
Tap on "Import user dictionary" and tap OK (tap it a little harder to be sure).
Now you must WAIT! Smart Keyboard may seem to have frozen with the confirmation dialog on screen. Depending on the speed of your device, this step can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes! It's important to remember that there are over 9000 Malay terms in the user dictionary and importing all of them will take a while. If you tap on the screen, Android may complain that Smart Keyboard is not responding. Tap WAIT to this message! Do not tap Force Close or Report! Once again, Smart Keyboard is not frozen, it is simply taking a little while to import all the Malay terms. When it's done, the confirmation dialog will automatically disappear. If your phone screen turns off, turn it on after a few minutes to check the progress.
Once the confirmation dialog has disappeared, exit out of Smart Keyboard Settings and open a text area where you can see the Smart Keyboard on-screen keyboard.
If you have never had this before, you will see a new key next to the 123 key. Tap on this key to switch between the languages you selected in step 6: EN ("English") and ID ("Malay"). Although ID stands for Indonesian, the user dictionary you loaded in steps 16-17 is standard Malay used in Malaysia and Singapore. It is not Indonesian Malay.
Switch to EN when you want to type in English, or to ID when you want to type in Malay. Allow Smart Keyboard a few weeks to learn the frequent words through your daily use. At first, you may get less frequent words as your top choices, but as you keep using, Smart Keyboard will learn the more frequent words you use and prioritize them.

About the Dictionary:

This dictionary was compiled from Bhanot's Malay-English Cyber- Dictionary. The Malay terms and derivatives were compiled together, one term/derivative per line. Phrases of two or more words separated by spaces were broken into separate words. Duplicates were removed, and the final compilation was prepared for use with Bahasa Indonesia in Smart Keyboard by adding the language code "ID" to all the words. Notepad2 was used to complete this entire process quickly and efficiently.

The prefix ber and the suffix kan were added to the dictionary for convenience. I didn't think of any other prefix/suffix to add. Suggestions are welcome.

Disclaimer:

I do not claim ownership of any part of my compilation here which had been borrowed from the source material. I do not intend to use my compilation or any part of it commercially or for profit. I have made it available for everyone free of charge, just as the raw material for it had been made available free of charge in the source website.

Terima kasih!

Windows Explorer Jump Lists missing in Windows 7

2011-09-18T14:15:00.000+05:30

If you find that the Jumplist of Windows Explorer in Windows 7 has reduced to merely the name, the pin/unpin option and the close option, you can fix it by doing this:

Create two temporary folders on your Desktop called "Automatic" and "Custom".
Click Start.
Paste %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations in the search box and hit Enter.
Move all the files in this folder to the temporary folder called "Automatic".
Repeat steps 3 and 4 for %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations, using temporary folder "Custom".
Restart your computer.
Use your computer normally for a few hours, a day or so. Especially, you have to browse your folders frequently using Windows Explorer. This is so that new files get created for Windows Explorer in the two folders where you moved out old files in step 4. (Set a reminder for step 8.)
Go back to the two locations in step 3 and step 5, and check if a few new files (around 5 or so) have been created. If yes, proceed to step 9. If not, continue step 7.
Open the temporary folder called "Automatic" and move all files into the location %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations but Please Take Note:
- When a conflict arises, choose the 'Don't move' option.
- The new files created must not be replaced by old files you moved out!
- This is very important! If you click 'Move and Replace', you will break the Windows Explorer jump list again.
Repeat step 9 for temporary folder "Custom" and location %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations. Once again, for conflicts, click the 'Don't move' option.
If you followed instructions correctly, after step 10 you will find a few files remaining unmoved in the temporary folders. Now you can delete these temporary folders from your Desktop.

Technical note: Steps 1 to 6 will fix Windows Explorer jump list but they will break other jump lists and the recent documents feature of Start Menu. Steps 7 to 10 will fix what is broken by steps 1 to 6.

Save and automatically connect to an ad-hoc network in Windows 7

2011-09-12T00:11:00.000+05:30

This could probably be the ULTIMATE solution! Post a comment if it has helped you!

With each new Windows version, Microsoft has unfortunately chosen to make life harder for people who use ad-hoc networks to connect computers together without the use of a middleman (the router). In Windows Vista, one could choose to save the ad-hoc network one is connecting to.

But with Windows 7, not only is there no way of connecting automatically (well actually there is a shortcut for that, as below), but now one cannot save an ad-hoc network that one is connecting to. (One can only save an ad-hoc network one is creating in the host computer.)

The biggest annoyance is that every time one connects to an ad-hoc network as a guest, one has to enter the password (network key) again. All of these problems can be solved with the steps below.

To save an ad-hoc network and its network key on the guest computer (running Windows 7)

Note down the SSID, security type, encryption type and the key of the ad-hoc network.
Disconnect your connection to any wireless network and switch off/disable your wireless device.
Click on the network icon in the taskbar.
Click Open Network and Sharing Center > Manage Wireless Networks > Add.
Click "Manually create a network profile". (This may look silly but we really are going to create an infrastructure network now.)
Enter the network name (SSID), security type, encryption type (if any) and the key that you noted in step 1.
Uncheck both checkboxes ("Start this connection automatically" and "Connect even if the network is not broadcasting".) [Note that you cannot have the connection start automatically. If you try to have it checked, step 10 will fail. A different way to start it automatically during system boot is described below.]
Click Next > Close. Your connection must appear in the list with the icon suggesting infrastructure (two big screens connected to a tube). Don't worry about it.
Click Start, type in "cmd" in the search box, press Enter.
In the Command Prompt, type in "netsh wlan set profileparameter name=NetworkName ConnectionType=IBSS", exactly as shown, without quotes, except you must substitute NetworkName with the SSID (network name) of your ad-hoc network.
If everything went well, you'll see that the icon has now changed to an ad-hoc icon (three small screens connected to each other) in the Manage Wireless Networks window.
Turn on/enable your wireless device, and try connecting to the Ad-hoc network. You will notice that you no longer need to enter the network key.

To automatically connect to a saved ad-hoc network during Windows boot (can be applied to both guest and host computers running Windows 7)

Click Start > point to All Programs > right-click Startup > click Open. (You may choose Open All Users instead if you prefer).
Right-click an empty space and click New > Shortcut.
Type in "netsh wlan connect NetworkName". Once again, NetworkName must be substituted with the SSID of your ad-hoc network.
Click Next and enter a fancy name such as "Connect to NetworkName" or something like that.
Click Finish and you're done. This shortcut will run when Windows starts up, giving you a very brief flash of the black command window, followed by your computer connecting to the ad-hoc network if it is available. Tip: You can also pin the shortcut in your taskbar or copy it to the desktop to easily connect to the network any time you want.

Note: You will probably need Administrator access to complete some of the steps above (in both procedures).

Random trivia: I kept typing ad-hock instead ad-hoc throughout this post.

Pre-Windows 7 "Window Control Menu" in Windows 7 taskbar

2011-07-28T19:18:00.001+05:30

As Windows 7 introduced a new feature called "Jump Lists," right-clicking on the icon of an open window will show this list. If you want to see the "control menu"* instead, hold the Shift key and right-click the icon.

If you want to permanently change this new behavior, try 7 Taskbar Tweaker. It can make regular right-clicks bring up the control menu, as well as change many other features of the Windows 7 taskbar.

* A control menu is a menu that enables you to manipulate a window frame, providing options such as Maximize, Restore, Minimize, Move and Size.

Alert: "You need to upgrade your Flash Player" scam

2011-05-10T12:19:00.000+05:30

Recently I found a few instances where when I click Play on videos shown on the Facebook homepage (which displays the news feed), I get a message in place of the video that says "You need to upgrade your Flash Player" followed by a button called "Upgrade Now"

Be warned! This is a scam to get spyware and viruses installed into your computer. I have once clicked the button and immediately realized my mistake when I noticed that the browser is attempting to download an executable file that looked extremely suspicious. On researching further about the origins of the file, I have found that it comes from a spyware making company (of sorts).

If you want to check whether you have the latest version of Flash Player, just go to this page in the official Adobe Flash website. It will show you the latest version of flash player, and the version you have installed. Also note that Adobe Flash does not alert you of an update the way the scam does. Besides, videos will still play as long as you have a recent version of the player even if you don't have the latest.

I didn't get a chance to make a screenshot. When I do, I'll put up a screenshot here. The conditions where it happened to me are:

Random videos from YouTube (shared by my friends in the Facebook wall)
Facebook home page news feed
Mozilla Firefox 4.0.1
Reloading the page and playing the video again fixes the problem.

If you encountered the same scam, post a comment and tell me what the conditions are for you.

Probably the fastest way to make screen clipping

2011-04-02T10:06:00.000+05:30

If you have Microsoft Office OneNote installed, you have at your disposal the fastest way to create a screenshot of a specific region of the screen. The standard way of creating screenshots had two options:

PrintScreen (on your keyboard): Takes a screenshot of the entire screen.
Alt-PrintScreen: Takes a screenshot of the active window.

But when you want to take a screenshot of a custom defined region of the screen, you will have to either screenshot the entire screen and crop it in an image processing program, or use a special software such as "Snipping Tool" from Microsoft.

When using a software, you'll usually have to find it and run it (unless you have a quick-access shortcut or keyboard shortcut assigned to it), then command it to let you create a new screenshot. Such softwares usually also provide a preview of the screen clipping in addition to copying it to the clipboard. You will have to dispose of this preview once you have used the screen clipping.

Microsoft OneNote, although not specifically designed for screenshots, has the fastest way to take screen clippings ready for use. Once you have installed Office with OneNote, you will find the OneNote icon in the notification area (aka system tray) which is a stylized purple N.

If you're into keyboard shortcuts, you can always press Win-S keyboard shortcut to create a screen clipping anytime. It's easy and fast.

If you're a heavy mouse user, you need to first set the OneNote icon to create screen clippings by default:

Right-click the icon in the notification area to get its context menu.
Point to "OneNote Icon Defaults" menu item.
Select "Create Screen Clipping" in the sub-menu (not the main context menu).

From now, you can simply single-click the OneNote icon to create a screen clipping. There is no need to double-click although it will also work.

In either case, you will get a dialog box "Select Location in OneNote" when you create a screen clipping. This is useful if you're a OneNote user and you will sometimes paste screen clippings in your notes. But if you're not a OneNote user, you can have OneNote always copy the clipping to clipboard:

In the dialog box, click "Don't ask me again and always do the following:" (a check mark must appear).
Click "Copy to Clipboard" button.

When you create a screen clipping next time, it will always be copied to the clipboard silently. You can then paste it anywhere you want. (Do note that previous clipboard contents will be lost.)

If you wish to have the dialog box appear again, you can change the settings by opening OneNote Options:

Right-click the OneNote icon in the notification area.
Select "Open OneNote" menu item.
Click File > Options.
On left-side, select "Send to OneNote".
For "Screen clippings" under "Other Content", choose "Always ask where to send" (you can also choose to always send to a note).
Click the OK button.

Whenever you start creating a screen clipping, there will be a pop-up notification balloon tip that says "Select a region of the screen to create a screen clipping, or click anywhere to cancel." If you don't want to see this, do as follows:

Do the first three steps above to open OneNote Options.
On left-side, select Display.
Click "Disable screen clipping notifications" so that a check mark appears for the item.
Click the OK button.

That's it. Now you can clip away anytime with Win-S keyboard shortcut or by clicking the OneNote icon!

Input Chinese using Dvorak (Windows)

2011-01-16T20:52:00.000+05:30

If you're a regular Dvorak user, you may be frustrated that inputting Chinese pinyin can only be done using QWERTY layout.

But it's actually very easy to use Dvorak layout to input Chinese pinyin. You only have to change a key in the registry, and restart (or log off), and you can instantly start inputting Chinese pinyin using the Dvorak layout!

I found the simple instructions mirrored below at the following web pages (both belong to the same author).
This will probably work for German, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Indian and other layouts as well. Just look for the correct language in the Keyboard Layouts folder.

Press 【Win+r】 then type “regedit”. Then, go to the folder in this path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts\00000804

That's the folder for Chinese simplified.
In the one named “Layout File”, change the value to “KBDDV.DLL”
Then, restart Windows. (relogin might also work.)

Microsoft Registry showing the Chinese (simplified) input method.

Here's the folder name for some other languages.

Language	Folder Name	Original “Layout File” value
Chinese Simplified	000000404	KBDUS.DLL
Chinese Traditional	000000404	KBDUS.DLL
Japanese	00000411	KBDJPN.DLL
Korean	00000412	KBDKOR.DLL

Before you change, write down the original value, just in case you want to change it back.

Scam site fakes Firefox and Chrome attack page warning

2010-10-24T16:28:00.000+05:30

I had only recently sent out an email to a few close people educating them about the dangers of rogue anti-virus. Moments ago, I almost became a victim to the same danger I was warning them about.

Scam sites try to use popular computer usage behavior in order to bypass securities and install virus, trojans and spywares. And the attack upon my computer is yet another example that testifies to this.

While attempting to visit a site which I had never visited before, I was presented with the following message:

Looks like the authentic Firefox warning about a scam site? Well, it's not. I knew something was wrong because of the following:

The authentic Firefox warning is like this (notice the differences):

The original one has two buttons and an Ignore link, while the scam version just has one button.
The police-man logo is not positioned properly.
The scam version does not have website address in its warning page (Example: This web page at www.mozilla.com has been reported...).
Clicking the X button on all the dialogs gets you into an endless loop of dialogs. The Cancel button is similar to the X button and gets you into the same loop. Thus you are lured to click the OK button because it seems to be the only way out of this loop.
Look at the scam site address: It is antivirus-downloads.is.com. One of the popular ways scam sites spread spywares, viruses and trojans is by faking antivirus softwares.
The scam version prompts you to download secure updates for Firefox. But why would you need to download and install updates upon discovering a scam site?
Upon searching about this warning message, I found this webpage, which mentions that a similar attack exists for Google Chrome, faking Chrome's scam site warning.

The scam site bets on the general human behavior of computer usage. Many novice computer users are conditioned to do the following at prompts without reading or thinking about the prompt:

When two buttons OK and Cancel are presented, click Cancel.
When one button OK is presented, click OK.
When two buttons Yes and No are presented, click No.

Many others simply click the X button on top right corner of any dialog. While this maybe safe most of the time, even this action can be programmed to do something malicious in your computer.

When you suspect that you maybe under attack by scam site, the safest way out is to open Task Manager and find firefox.exe in the Processes tab, right-click it and select "End Process Tree." Once firefox.exe is no longer on the process list, run Firefox again, and you will be presented with a list of tabs and windows that were open. Find the tab that was the scam site, uncheck it, then click Restore to get your other tabs and windows back.

As for Google Chrome it is easier because Chrome includes a checkbox from the second dialog box onwards (if you clicked the X button on the first dialog): "Prevent this page from creating additional dialogs." Just enable this check box and click the X button and the site will stop showing dialogs. Then you can easily close the scam site's tab. (I really wish Firefox had this feature!)

Here is the contents of the original email that I had mentioned earlier:

I have found a blog with an excellent collection of rogue and fake antivirus software. These softwares pretend to scan your computer for viruses and provide antivirus protection. But in reality, these softwares are viruses themselves, and they also help install more viruses.

Also, these softwares are credit card theifs. They display fake results, tell you that your computer is infected, and that you must remove the viruses immediately. When you tell the software that you wish to remove the viruses, it redirects you to a website where you will be asked to purchase a full version of the fake antivirus software (this is where your credit card information may get stolen). This is a tell-tale sign of a fake. (Real free anti-virus softwares remove virus threats for free immediately upon finding them).

Here's the blog. Have a look at the number of rogue antivirus softwares they have listed here with screenshots: SUPERAntiSpyware Blog (http://www.superantispyware.com/blog/)

Familiarize yourself with the kind of names these rogue antivirus softwares have, and what they look like. Protect yourself from installing rogue antivirus by informing yourself about them. (Don't forget to check out the past entries on the blog!)

My preferred real free antivirus is AVG. You can also look for Avast! free anti-virus. Those who would like to take paid route can look for Kaspersky, McAfee or Norton.

How to install Notepad2 and replace Windows Notepad

2010-09-02T11:46:00.000+05:30

Update: The Setup installer of the latest Notepad2 will automatically replace the Windows Notepad using the registry hack described below. It will also install Notepad2 to C:\Program Files\Notepad2 or an appropriate folder.

Original Post:
This has been tested in Windows 7 64-bit edition, however should work in other versions and 32-bit editions as well.

In the days of Windows 2000, it was easy to replace "notepad.exe" with your own custom version of Notepad, such as the light-weight but powerful Notepad2. Simply find the file and overwrite.

But with Windows XP and later versions, a new feature called "Windows File Protection" prevents you from doing so.

However, you can now replace Notepad system-wide without even touching the original "notepad.exe" using a simple registry hack.

Download Notepad2 (either 32-bit or 64-bit depending on your system). The original version will work fine. There is no need for any hacked versions such as this.
Extract the downloaded archive into an empty folder. This folder should now contain Notepad2.exe and other supporting files.
"Install" Notepad2 by simply copying the folder containing extracted files into "C:\Program Files" (This is not necessary but helps keep your system organized by keeping software in the Program Files folder.)
Start Registry Editor by clicking the Start button and typing in "regedit".
Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options"
Right-click this folder and create a new key called "notepad.exe" (no quotes)
Inside this new folder, create a new string value (REG_SZ) called "Debugger" (no quotes)
Paste the full path of the new Notepad2.exe file with quotes, and add "/z" at the end. An example would be: --- "C:\Program Files\Notepad2\Notepad2.exe" /z --- but remember that your folder might be different (you can rename the folder).
That's it! Test by running Notepad from the Start Menu and/or double-clicking some TXT files in Windows Explorer.

Enjoy!

Make Samsung DVD-C350 region-free

2010-05-22T11:49:00.006+05:30

Update 2: An anonymous commentator has shown me a way to make Region 1 players (such as DVD-H1080R) region-free by first converting it to Region 3, then applying my region-free hack below. For details, click here or look for a comment by an Anonymous user dated 18 April 2011.

Update: The instructions in the original post below did not make the DVD player region-free. Instead it only locked it to region 1. Many thanks to Anonymous who posted the first comment on this post, I now have alternate instructions. Note: If you have edited the numbers menu (see original post), I suggest you return it to the original settings you had backed up. A modified numbers menu may prevent the instructions below from working properly.

Make sure there is no disc in the player.
Turn on the player (you can use remote control or front panel, it doesn't matter)
Wait for "No Disc" message to appear on the TV screen.
Press the Repeat button on remote (plain, not A-B).
Press the correct sequence of buttons of remote according to the original region code of your player (it's on the sticker on the back panel of the player). FF = fast forward, FR = fast rewind.

Region 2 players: FF, FR, FF, UP, DOWN
Region 3 players: FF, PLAY, FR, UP, LEFT
Region 4 players: FR, PLAY, DOWN, DOWN, RIGHT
Region 5 players: FF, UP, DOWN, STOP, RIGHT
Region 6 players: LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT, PLAY, LEFT

If you pressed the correct sequence, a small white number 0 will appear somewhere on the top right of the screen. The white number 0 of the same font and size as the "No Disc" message, so don't confuse with the red "not allowed" sign that would appear when you press a function that's not available.
Turn the player off and on again, then you can pop in a DVD of any region and watch immediately.

I have found DVD discs of three regions to work without any problems: region 1, 3 and 6. I will test other regions when I can, but I think they should work as well.

Unfortunately I don't have a sequence for originally region 1 players. I read somewhere that region 1 players cannot be made region-free, so I'm not sure. You can try all the sequences above or comment in on a sequence you know works.

The above instructions could also work for DVD-C350K, DVDC360, DVD-C450 and DVD-C450K since they're in same series. A commentator reported that it also works for DVD-H1080R region 5 player.

Original Post: ~~I have a Samsung DVD-C350 that's locked to region 3, and I wanted to play a region 1 disc. After trying everything I could find, I discovered that this works:~~

Instructions removed. Please see update above.

You will get a menu full of numbers.** I don't know what any of the numbers mean but taking clues from instructions available for H1080 and H1080R DVD players (links 1, 2), I highlighted all numbers from 1 to 9. I did not modify any numbers from 10 onwards. Use arrow buttons and Enter button to highlight or unhighlight numbers.

** NOTE: I recommend you backup the original highlights in the numbers menu by noting it down on the back of the player's manual or some place safe. You may want to revert to the original settings when you want to send the device for warranty or if something goes wrong.

Instructions removed. Please see update above.

~~This worked for my region 1 disc and my C350 DVD player played it like a piece of cake!~~ I'm not sure if the above arrangement of highlights will work for other regions,* but the instructions I found says it will make the player region-free. Post a comment and let me know what works for you!

* See update above.

~~Blog entry~~ Original post has also been posted as comment on "How To Unlock Region Zones On A DVD Player".

Windows PC Scout

2009-11-19T00:48:00.006+05:30

Here's a great Flash presentation by Microsoft where you can learn about laptop computers and what to look for when you shop for them. You will learn about the basics in choosing a laptop such as the processor, RAM and the hard disk. Well, the presentation is bent towards Windows 7 and Microsoft's own laptop shopping site. But nevertheless, you can gain a lot of knowledge about computers if you're a newbie, or check your understanding if you're an expert. The narrator is humorous so you can have some good laughs as well. Enjoy!

Note: At the end of the presentation, you will be re-directed to Microsoft's shopping website. Continue shopping, or click the Back button to return to the blog.

Click here to see the presentation in its own website (utilizes full window space)

Remove tab bar in iGoogle

2009-11-17T18:04:00.002+05:30

Just today, Google changed the tab bar position of iGoogle Singapore version from top to the left. I love Google for their simplicity and neatness. But to have tabs on the left side is such a bad choice. What's worse is that this is forced upon the users, with no option to return them to the top.

I only use iGoogle on my personal computer, in Firefox, therefore I found a solution that works for me. It's the Firefox Add-on called "iGoogle Tab Remover" and it works like a charm! To make use of its full functionality, you have to learn its various options and set them according to your preferences. However, you have to note that this add-on does not have a formal "Options" dialog, and its options should be accessed from iGoogle.

Install the add-on from here: iGoogle Tab Remover :: Add-ons for Firefox
Once Firefox is restarted, browse to the iGoogle page.

Update: Ensure that iGoogle Tab Remover is enabled in the Tools menu of Firefox. You will find a menu item in the Tools menu which is either Enable or Disable iGoogle Tab Remover. If it is Enable iGoogle Tab Remover, click it to enable.

Below the usual white bar with "Web Images News..." you will find a new bar with 'iGoogle Tabs' and a custom search box.
Point to 'iGoogle Tabs' and you will get a drop-down menu. Point to 'Timedyn' and the menu will expand further.
You can remove the custom search box by unchecking "Search Bar." I find it pointless to have a custom search box, as iGoogle already has one.

Update: David Rubin (the author of the add-on) told me that he included the custom search box as some users may want to resize the header (see step 6) to be so small, iGoogle's usual search bar will no longer be visible. This is particularly useful for "netbooks" where the screen size is extremely small.

Next, you can click on Resize Header to reduce the size of the top header (area that is greyed when you click this option).

This cool feature lets you remove unwanted features in iGoogle such as "Search (o) the web (o) pages from Singapore" and stuff below it.
Click anywhere in the grey area to reduce the size of the header from bottom to that point.
If you reduced too much, simply click Reset and start again.
Once done, click Finished.
Note that elements may still be partially visible even after hiding them. This is a bug, but it's OK with me.

Finally, you can click 'Minimize Tabs' to remove the new bar completely. You will find a new arrow next to the 'more' link, which you can click to bring back the bar.

Tip: Disable Chat in iGoogle if you don't use it there. You can do so by going to My Account > iGoogle Settings > Hide Chat.

Can't install .NET Framework

2009-10-02T22:48:00.000+05:30

If you came across a situation when your computer is broken and you can't install or update .NET Framework, you need to get the .NET fx Cleanup Tool.

This .NET Framework cleanup tool is designed to automatically perform a set of steps to remove selected versions of the .NET Framework from a computer. It will remove files, directories, registry keys and values and Windows Installer product registration information for the .NET Framework. The tool is intended primarily to return your system to a known (relatively clean) state in case you are encountering .NET Framework installation, uninstallation, repair or patching errors so that you can try to install again.

More details and download here: Aaron Stebner's WebLog : .NET Framework Cleanup Tool User's Guide
Alternate download here: Download .NET Framework Cleanup Tool 6.0.3790 - It will remove files, directories, registry keys and values and Windows Installer product registration information for the .NET Framework. - Softpedia

Vista Help and Support became ugly!

2009-10-02T22:44:00.000+05:30

If you have noticed an annoying problem with Help and Support of Windows Vista, such as the images being missing and replaced with a red cross (X) or the pages lacking style and being displayed in the default (and ugly) Times New Roman font, then you need to get a registry fix. It also fixes a more severe issue of "Internet Explorer cannot download / from help"

When you open Help and Support center in Windows Vista, one of the following problems may occur:
Red X mark appears where the images are to be displayed
CSS styles are not applied to the pages in Help and Support
Error Internet Explorer cannot download / from Help occurs

Full details and solution here: Pages in Windows Vista Help and Support are not displayed correctly

Disclaimer: Always open all downloaded REG files in Notepad and verify them for any malicious content before merging them to your Windows registry. I do not accept responsibility for broken Windows installations after application of the downloaded REG files.

Sometimes, I do agree with Mac users. Microsoft sucks.

2009-10-02T22:25:00.001+05:30

I give up on trying to install the Windows Live Writer. It just refuses to install. After giving a variety of different errors and exhibiting a variety of different installation behaviours, it still refuses to install. And I now lost the previous version I had, because the installer uninstalled it!

I was updating all Windows Live software and trying out the Photo Gallery (which I later uninstalled). Windows Live Messenger updated successfully and is now reported to be up-to-date. But the Writer simply refuses to install. It gives errors like:

Installation failed due to unknown reason
Connectivity problems: Can't connect to Internet (even downloading the 135 MB 'Try again' installer did not work!)
Installation failed due to installation conflict: More than one instance of Windows Live installer is running (which is false, because I tried just after I restarted my computer. I even tried 'End Process' on running instances of Windows installer, which led to...
Can't access Windows installer service. (this error was caused by me, as explained before).

And it exhibits behaviours like:

Using the old Writer.msi in the cache folder of Windows Live installer (if you know what I mean). I solved this by deleting the cache completely which, by the way, freed up almost 400 MB of my hard disk space!
Downloading the Writer installation file over and over again (with each 'Try again').
Installation briefly starting and ending with error.
Installation going all the way to 94% then ending with error.
Installation going all the way to 96% then pausing, then ending with error.

I had been battling with this for the past 2-3 days. I uninstalled Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP2, used Windows Install Clean Up Utility, ended up unable to install 3.5 SP2, solved that by using the .NET fx Cleanup Tool (more about this here), restarted several times, checked for Windows Updates, solved the problem of Help and Support looking ugly (more about this here) and lots of other stuff I can't remember. Nothing helped.

I give up. Microsoft sucks. They always like to bring out new experimental stuff and throw it to their users, making their lives miserable. Why couldn't they stick with the good old tried and tested "run setup.exe, install software, run software" routine. Why did they have to come up with this headache-laden "new and improved" Windows Installer technology?

Anyway I tried to find some other alternative to Writer, but nothing comes close to the beauty and capabilities of Writer. Not even the w.bloggar (which had its last update in December 2007!) I miss Live Writer!

Back to the good ole Blogger New Post page.

How to set dpi and size of photo in mm or cm?

2009-09-24T21:31:00.001+05:30

Ok, so you might have come across some sites that ask you to upload a photo, but also tell you that it must meet some requirements like these:

Measurements: 35mm wide and 50mm high
Minimum resolution: 150 dpi
Format: JPEG file
Should be a colour photograph
The photo size should be less than 200KB

First of all, since the website is asking you to upload a photo, the use of ‘dpi’ (dots per inch) in the minimum resolution requirement is wrong. It should actually be ‘ppi’ or pixels per inch. ‘dpi’ is strictly used only in hard copies, printers and printing, and has no meaning in computer files or soft copies. You may want to read this page for a good explanation of the difference between the two, before you proceed with the tutorial: DPI and PPI Explained
You will need a good graphics editing software to set the ppi and measurements of a photograph. Windows Paint is very basic and does not provide this functionality. Sophisticated software like Adobe Photoshop would most likely provide this functionality, but now you don’t need to whip out your credit card to buy them. Just get the free and powerful replacement for Windows Paint: The Paint.NET
So, how do you set the ppi (mistakenly called dpi) and measurements in Paint.NET? Let’s use the requirements above as an example.

In Paint.NET, open the photograph which you wish to upload to the website (or meet the requirements with).
Click on Image > Resize (Ctrl-R) on the menu bar.

Make sure the blue areas are exactly as given here. Do not touch the red area. We will work on the green area.
First we will set the Resolution (ppi). Since we want it in inches, click inside the second box, and select “pixels/inch”. Then enter 150 in the first box.
Next we need to set the measurements or the “Print size”. Now, this is a bit tricky. You should set only one of the two measurements here. Either the width or the height, not both. If you force both width and height, you may end up with a distorted photograph (think about a ball getting crushed into a flat plate).

So which one should we change? Before we change anything, since the required measurements are in mm (millimeters, which is one-tenth of centimeters), you need to click inside the box on right side and select “centimeters”.

Now enter the required Width, which is 3.5 cm (note that 35 mm = 3.5 cm). Notice the automatic change in the Height box. In my example it reads 4.67 cm. Here’s the rule: If the new height is bigger than the required height (5.0 cm), you’re right so far. It is the width that you need to enter. Just click OK and continue to step 5.

If the new height is smaller than the required height, it is the height that you need to enter. Since our example has 4.67 which is smaller that 5.0, we will enter 5.0 into the Height box. Note that now the width automatically changes. Allow this to happen (do not try to change the width back). Click OK and continue to next step.
Click Image > Canvas Size (Ctrl-Shift-R) on the menu bar.

Along with the usual colour code, yellow means an area you can change according to what you want, but you will most likely leave it as shown here.
In here, you will see that either the width or the height is meeting the requirement. Change the one that does not meet the requirement. In our example, the Width (3.74 cm) does not meet the requirement (3.5 cm). Therefore we will enter 3.5 into the Width box (under Print size). Note that this time, the height does not change automatically, but remains 5.0 cm.
About Anchor: This determines how Paint.NET will crop your photograph as you change the size. Most of the time, you will select the anchor to be in the middle, as subjects of a photograph are usually placed in the middle of the photograph. But in case your photograph has subjects on a side or a corner, change the anchor to match it, so that the photograph crops sensibly. (Play around, and you’ll know what I mean.)
Click the OK button and you’re done! Save the image as JPEG using File > Save (Ctrl-S) and select a good quality setting (95%) while saving.

Well, I hope it’s easy for you to follow the steps, even though some of them are quite long and explanatory. Post comments if any of you encounter problems.
Keywords: dpi, ppi, dots per inch, pixels per inch, inches, centimetres, millimetres, mm, cm, photo, photograph, picture, requirements.

The Curse of QWERTY

2009-09-24T15:08:00.001+05:30

Here are the results of a comparison of the usage of Dvorak and QWERTY keyboard layouts to type the article quoted below. The total number of keys pressed to type the article is 23093.

	Dvorak	Qwerty
Distance	333.4m	586.2m
Same hand	22.90%	36.65%
Same finger	2.594%	5.603%
Number row	1.157%	1.582%
Top row	23.68%	51.29%
Home row	66.15%	29.96%
Bottom row	8.997%	17.15%

Finger Usage
Dvorak	7%	9%	13%	13%	--	16%	14%	14%	10%
QWERTY	7%	8%	18%	21%	--	20%	8%	11%	3%

Excerpt from The Curse of QWERTY | Gadgets | DISCOVER Magazine:

O typewriter? Quit your torture!
by Jared Diamond
From the April 1997 issue, published online April 1, 1997

q - w - e - r - t , y - u - i - o - p, q - w - e - r - t , y - u - i - o - p, q - w - e - r - t , y - u - i - o - p . . .

It was boring to type the letters in the upper row of my typewriter keyboard 20 times, then go on to the next row. But it was even more boring to lie in bed and do nothing. So when the chicken pox forced me to stay home from school for two weeks, I used the time to learn touch typing. At age ten I, like millions of Americans each year, memorized the QWERTY keyboard (as it is called from its starting arrangement of letters).

At the time, I didn’t wonder about its arbitrariness and never asked myself why our standard keyboard uses the QWERTY arrangement instead of alphabetical order or any other obviously advantageous arrangement. Whatever the original reasons for our adopting QWERTY, however, we now seem firmly committed to it. The typewriter, and its successor the computer, are among the most widely used office machines in the Western world, and keyboard-related repetitive-strain injuries are among our most common industrial accidents.

Commitment is incessantly urged upon us fin de siècle twentieth- century Americans. Commitment to our spouses, our children, and our careers is held to be virtuous; lack of commitment is a common criticism. Yet commitment should be seen as morally neutral. After all, what one is committed to might be either good or bad; commitment to a destructive relationship, an unsatisfying job, or alcoholism deserves no praise. Often, commitment can mean nothing more than an involvement that has outlived its original justification. All of us have at one time or another felt trapped by such a commitment, longing for a happier, though uncertain, state of existence but fearing the short-term pain required to reach it.Commitment is a big issue not only for us as individuals, but for us as a culture as well. All human societies have many apparently arbitrary practices that persist for centuries or even millennia--writing systems, counting systems, sets of number signs, and calendars, to name just a few examples. At one time there existed alternatives to the system that we eventually adopted. Were some of these alternatives better than others? Did we in fact end up committed to the best ones? Are our alphabets, decimal counting, Arabic numerals, and Gregorian calendar really superior to Chinese logograms, Babylonian base-60 counting, Roman numerals, and the Mayan calendar?

Those questions are hard to answer for some of these choices-- counting systems, for instance--to which we became committed in the remote past. But the QWERTY keyboard is a modern-day commitment, dating back only to the late nineteenth century, and thus it is one whose history we can reconstruct. We know that QWERTY is the dominant survivor of dozens of keyboard designs that competed during the early years of the typewriter. Hence we can ask, with the expectation of finding an answer, to what advantages does it owe its triumph?

Studies of the consequences of keyboard design were pioneered by the industrial engineers Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, who were made famous by a biography, Cheaper by the Dozen, written by 2 of their 12 children. The Gilbreths sought to decrease worker fatigue and increase the efficiency of many industrial processes (as well as of surgical operations and buttoning a shirt) by time-and-motion studies and slowed-down motion pictures. Applied to keyboard design, such studies showed that typing fatigue, errors, and slow speed depend especially on bad design in allocating letters among keyboard rows, among fingers, and between the left and right hands.

When you prepare to type, you rest your fingers on QWERTY’s second-from-the-bottom row, called the home row. Obviously, the more typing you can do without having to move your fingers from the home row, the faster you’ll be able to type, the fewer errors you’ll make, and the less you’ll strain your fingers. Confirming that straightforward prediction, motion-picture studies prove that typing is fastest on the home row and slowest on the bottom row.

You might then naively expect that the QWERTY keyboard was designed so that most typing is done on the home row. You would be wrong. Only 32 percent of strokes are on the home row; most strokes (52 percent) are on the upper row; and a full 16 percent are on the bottom row, which you should be avoiding like the plague. Not more than 100 English words can be typed without leaving the home row. The reason for this disaster is simple: QWERTY perversely puts the most common English letters on other rows. The home row of nine letters includes two of the least used (J and K) but none of the three most frequently used (E, T, and O, which are relegated to the upper row) and only one of the five vowels (A), even though 40 percent of all letters in a typical English text are vowels.

To appreciate the consequences of that misdesigning, just remind yourself of how it feels to type pumpkin or minimum on your QWERTY keyboard. Your fingers must not only reach from the home row to the top or bottom but must at times hurdle completely over the home row, moving directly from top to bottom and back again. Those awkward hurdles and reaches slow you and introduce typing errors and finger strain. Unfortunately, out of any 100 pairs of consecutive letters in a typical English text, six require a reach and four a hurdle on the QWERTY keyboard.

These inconveniences are minimized by any of the numerous competing keyboard designs that concentrate the most common English letters onto the home row. For instance, the Dvorak keyboard devotes the home row to nine of the 12 most common English letters--including all five vowels and the three most common consonants (T, H, N)--while the six rarest letters (V, K, J, X, Q, and Z) are relegated to the bottom row. As a result, 70 percent of typing strokes remain on the home row, only 22 percent are on the upper row, and a mere 8 percent are on the hated bottom row; thousands of words can be typed with the home row alone; reaches are five times less frequent than in QWERTY typing, and hurdles hardly ever happen.

Another easily understood vice of the QWERTY keyboard has to do with alternation of hands. Whenever the left and right hands type alternate letters, one hand can be getting into position for the next letter while the other hand is typing the previous one. You can thereby fall into a steady rhythm and type quickly. In reality, though, even a good typist’s speed is seldom steadily maintained. It repeatedly shifts between fast bursts and slow stutters within even a few seconds, and many of the stutters arise from strings of consecutive letters typed by the same hand. The longer the string, the slower the typing rate and the more frequent the errors.

Yet QWERTY typing tends to degenerate into long one-handed strings of letters, especially strings for the weak left hand. More than 3,000 English words utilize QWERTY’s left hand alone, and about 300 the right hand alone. (Try typing exaggerated and greatest, then try million and monopoly). The underlying reason for this shortcoming is that most English syllables contain both vowels and consonants, but QWERTY assigns some vowels (A and E) as well as some common consonants (R, S, and D) to the left hand, and others (I, O, and U, plus H, L, and N) to the right hand. Hence, for about half of all digraphs (two consecutive letters) in a typical English text, QWERTY allocates both letters to the same hand.

The Dvorak keyboard instead forces you to alternate hands frequently. It does so by placing all vowels plus Y in the left hand, but the 13 most common consonants in the right. As a result, not a single word or even a single syllable can be typed with the right hand alone (no, grr isn’t a word), and only a few words can be typed with the left hand alone.

QWERTY’s many words and letter strings for the left hand are especially unfortunate when you consider that most people are right-handed. Yet QWERTY allocates to the weaker left hand the most common English letter (E), the second most common (T), and the fourth most common (A), thus making the left hand perform more than half of all typing strokes (56 percent). We are condemned to struggle with a left-handed typewriter in a right-handed world. The Dvorak keyboard instead gives 56 percent of all strokes to the right hand.

QWERTY’s overuse of our weaker hand extends to our weaker fingers. On each hand, the pinkie (fifth finger) is the weakest, and finger strength increases from the fifth to the second finger (index finger). Yet QWERTY makes almost as much use of our weakest finger (left fifth) as of our second strongest (right third). In contrast, the rank sequence of finger use on the Dvorak keyboard is identical to the rank sequence of finger strength, and the typing load on each finger is proportional to its strength.

The QWERTY keyboard also condemns us to awkward finger sequences. As we already know, strokes that alternate between hands are faster than successive strokes of the same hand. But if you must type two successive strokes with the same hand, it’s fastest to do so with two remote fingers (such as at, left fifth to second finger), next fastest with two adjacent fingers (as, left fifth to fourth finger), slower with the same finger on the same row (ee, left third finger), and slowest of all with the same finger on different rows (ed, left third finger). Yet with the QWERTY keyboard, 20 percent of all English digraphs are typed by adjacent fingers, and more than 4 percent (such as the common ed) by the same finger; corresponding numbers for the Dvorak keyboard are only 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

The result of all these shortcomings is that typing on a QWERTY keyboard is unnecessarily tiring, slow, inaccurate, hard to learn, and hard to remember. In a normal workday a good typist’s fingers cover up to 20 miles on a QWERTY keyboard, but only one mile on a Dvorak keyboard. QWERTY typists achieve barely half the speed of Dvorak typists, who hold most world records for typing speed. QWERTY typists make about twice the errors that Dvorak typists make. For a beginner to reach a speed of 40 words per minute, the person would need 56 hours of training on a QWERTY keyboard (an average of four hours per day during my two weeks of chicken pox) but only 18 hours on a Dvorak keyboard.

How, then, did the QWERTY keyboard arise? Why was it adopted, despite all its failings? And why in the world have we continued to stick with it?

The first recorded typewriter patent was filed in 1714 by the British engineer Henry Mill, for an artificial machine or method for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another, as in writing . . . so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print. But there’s no evidence that Mill actually built his proposed machine. It was not until around 1808 that an Italian named Pellegrino Turri constructed a typewriter, which allowed a blind woman to write letters. Over the next six decades, several dozen inventors filed patents or built prototypes, but none of the machines entered mass production or attained commercial success. That had to wait until April 1874, when the American gun manufacturer E. Remington & Sons, which had already branched out into sewing machines and farm tools, shipped its first Type Writer, based on a prototype by the American inventor Christopher Sholes.

From about 1880 to 1920, an incredible diversity of competing models poured forth from numerous inventors (including Thomas Edison) and manufacturers. Some of those early machines resembled pianos, some (including Remington’s first product) looked like sewing machines, others were the recognizable ancestors of modern typewriters, and still others resembled no machine you have ever seen. Letters were variously mounted on separate type bars, on a single ball, or on a single wheel, strip, or plate. If separate type bars were used, they struck up, down, or sideways, behind or in front of the paper, which was mounted on a flat or curved carriage. What moved was the type ball carrier (as in the later ibm Selectric), the type bars (as in modern mechanical typewriters), or the machine itself. Ink was applied to a ribbon or directly to the typeface. The desired letter was chosen by striking a key or by turning a dial. Among machines that opted for striking a key, some struck one key at a time, others up to three at a time, like playing chords on a piano. The typist’s left and right hands either typed on the same keyboard or on two separate keyboards.

We now have separate numeral keys, combine uppercase and lowercase letters on the same type bar, and choose between uppercase and lowercase forms of the same letter with a shift key. But other machines added numerals to that same bar and used two shift keys (one for uppercase, another for numerals), while still others had separate uppercase, lowercase, and numeral keys. Naturally, keyboards were equally diverse-- straight, curved, or circular, with one to nine rows of keys.

QWERTY was devised by Christopher Sholes, who began his typewriter-building experiments in 1867. Sholes’s first keyboard used piano keys in a single row, with the letters in alphabetical order. But he was soon forced to change that arrangement, because his type bars responded sluggishly. When he struck one key soon after another, the second key’s type bar jammed the first bar before the first could fall back, and the first letter was printed again. Key jamming was still an occasional problem some 80 years later, when I had chicken pox, but at least by then the type bars struck the paper from the front side, so you could immediately see what was happening and separate the keys with your fingers. Alas, with Sholes’s machine and most other typewriters until the early part of the century, the type bars struck the invisible rear side of the paper, and you didn’t know the bars had jammed until you pulled out the page and saw that you had typed 26 lines of uninterrupted E’s instead of the Gettysburg Address.

To overcome the problem of invisible jamming, Sholes applied antiengineering principles with the goal of slowing down the typist and thus preventing the second bar from jamming the falling first bar. At that time, modern typing speeds were not yet a goal. The idea of eight-finger touch typing was still unknown. Typists rummaged around with one or two fingers while looking at the keyboard, and Sholes was ecstatic if the resulting typing rate reached a measly 20 or 30 words per minute, the rate of writing by hand.

Sholes began to redesign his keyboard by commissioning a study to determine the most common letters or letter combinations in English texts, then he scattered those common letters as widely as possible over the keyboard. For example, the three most common letters (E, T, O) were placed in the top row, the next two most common (A, H) in the home row, and the next most common (N) on the bottom row, causing the common digraph on to require a hurdle from top row to bottom. Remington engineers slightly modified Sholes’s almost-QWERTY design by transferring the common consonant R to the upper row, thereby enabling typewriter salesmen to show off their machine to prospective buyers by typing the word typewriter very quickly (all the letters were now in the same row). That final resulting keyboard still betrays its origin as an alphabetical arrangement of piano keys, by the nearly alphabetical sequence fghjkl in the home row, with de just to the left and I just to the right of that sequence.

The QWERTY keyboard of 1874 was eventually joined by many competing keyboards, whose manufacturers often boasted of faster or less tiring typing. For instance, the Hammond and Blickensderfer Ideal keyboard used only three rows and sensibly put the most common letters in the bottom row for easy access, in the sequence dhiatensor. Why did QWERTY nevertheless prevail, even after improvements in typewriter technology (reducing the jamming problem) and the demand for fast typing had removed the original motivation for it?

For one thing, QWERTY enjoyed a head start, as the keyboard layout of the first commercially successful typewriter. That success, however, was due not so much to the layout as to the many other advantageous components that Sholes added, such as type bars, an inked ribbon, and a cylindrical paper carriage. Those inventions helped Remington remain one of the leading typewriter manufacturers, and the company continued to use QWERTY even as its typewriters evolved in other respects.

QWERTY gained another undeserved advantage around 1893, when Underwood, Remington’s chief rival, introduced a typewriter with two big virtues: visible typing on the front side of the paper, and a component called an accelerating sublever that permitted faster speed. Those features helped propel the Underwood Model No. 5 to the status of the most long- lived and widely sold office standard typewriter. Underwood happened to use the QWERTY keyboard.

QWERTY’s early dominance meant that typewriter users became committed to the layout. From 1874 until 1881, the only typewriters commercially available were Remington machines with QWERTY keyboards, and typists learned to use them. Some of those typists set up typing schools, where they taught the QWERTY keyboard familiar to them. Their pupils took jobs at offices with the keyboards they knew. Many businesses newly equipping themselves with typewriters ordered QWERTY machines, because it was easy to find typists trained to operate them.

Nevertheless, QWERTY’s apotheosis came slowly. As of 1900, many typewriter engineers still disliked shift keys. But touch typing was prohibitively difficult with the alternative--a double keyboard with eight or nine rows of keys and separate keys dedicated to uppercase and lowercase letters. As touch typing gradually became the norm, sales of double- keyboard machines declined; the last model was discontinued in 1921.

The infinitely superior Dvorak keyboard is named for August Dvorak, a professor of education at the University of Washington in Seattle and a distant cousin of the famous Czech composer Antonin Dvo?rák. Around 1914, August’s brother-in-law William Dealey attended some industrial efficiency seminars led by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, watched their slow- motion films of typists, and reported what he saw to Dvorak. The brothers- in-law then devoted almost two decades to enormously detailed studies of typing, typists’ errors, previously designed keyboards, hand physiology and function, and the relative frequencies of letters, pairs of letters, and words in English. Finally, in 1932, they took what they had learned and designed a new keyboard.

Dvorak typists began to sweep typing speed contests two years later, and they have held most typing records ever since. A large-scale comparative test of several thousand children, carried out in the Tacoma schools in the 1930s, showed that children learned Dvorak typing in one- third the time required to attain the same standard with QWERTY typing. When the U.S. Navy faced a shortage of trained typists in World War II, it experimented with retraining QWERTY typists to use Dvorak. The retraining quickly enabled the Navy’s test typists to increase their typing accuracy by 68 percent and their speed by 74 percent. Faced with these convincing results, the Navy ordered thousands of Dvorak typewriters.

They never got them. The Treasury Department vetoed the Navy purchase order, probably for the same reason that has blocked acceptance of all improved, non-QWERTY keyboards for the last 80 years: the commitment to QWERTY of tens of millions of typists, teachers, salespeople, office managers, and manufacturers. Even when daisy wheels and computer printers replaced type bars, forever banishing the jamming problem that had originally motivated QWERTY, manufacturers of the efficient new technologies carried on the inefficient old keyboard. August Dvorak died in 1975, a bitter man: I’m tired of trying to do something worthwhile for the human race, he complained. They simply don’t want to change!

QWERTY’s saga illustrates a much broader phenomenon: how commitment shapes the history of technology and culture, often selecting which innovations become entrenched and which are rejected. In the nineteenth-century United States, for example, those who profited from canals, barges, stagecoaches, and the pony express resisted the construction of railroads; in England, electric street lighting spread slowly, partly because of opposition from local governments with heavy investments in gas lighting. Even today, commitment influences railroad gauges and television technology, and whether we mark our rulers with centimeters or inches and drive on the right or the left.

Some of those choices, of course, make no real difference. But others do. The transistor was invented and patented in the United States in the 1940s. So why does Japan today dominate the world market for transistorized consumer electronics products? Because the company that became Sony bought transistor licensing rights from Western Electric at a time when the American consumer electronics industry was committed to churning out vacuum tube models and reluctant to compete with its own products.

The origins of many other commitments are now lost in remote history. How did China become committed to its beautiful but hard-to- memorize writing system? Chinese children can master pinyin (a Roman alphabet adapted to Chinese) in one-tenth the time required to learn the traditional writing system. Why do Americans cling to the awkward English measuring system of pounds, inches, and gallons? How did we become committed to decimal counting and a 24-hour clock? Would we have been better off with other choices?

Those questions are tantalizing but perhaps academic, because there is no prospect of our abolishing the 60-minute hour or reverting to base-60 counting, even if such changes did prove advantageous. But we do have the choice of discarding QWERTY in favor of the Dvorak keyboard. For QWERTY typists, learning the Dvorak keyboard is quick and painless, since they’ve already mastered the hard part of typing--coordinating finger movements. A common but specious objection is that it would be prohibitively expensive to convert existing QWERTY office machinery. In reality, mechanical typewriters are vanishing anyway, and the keyboard of any word processor or computer can be converted--or changed back--merely by pressing buttons.

The only real obstacle to our adoption of the Dvorak keyboard is that familiar fear of abandoning a long-held commitment. But if we were to overcome that fear, millions of our children would be able to learn to type with increased speed, greatly lowered finger fatigue, greater accuracy, and a reduced sense of frustration. That seems reason enough to end our commitment to QWERTY, a bad marriage that has long outlived its original justification.

Periscope for webcam

2009-09-21T20:38:00.001+05:30

I was just thinking about the latest notebooks having built-in webcams, thus eliminating the need for an external USB webcam… well, they don’t quite eliminate the need. The problem with these built-in webcams is that they are immobile by themselves, and to capture something other than the notebook user, the whole notebook has to be repositioned. This problem does not occur with external webcams, which can be moved around independently of the laptop (notebook).

Well, I came across an interesting ‘gadget’ that tries to solve this problem… for Macbooks. Though I believe it can be easily adapted for other notebooks. Meet the Huckleberry.

Supposedly it should give the built-in webcam the ability to view what’s behind the screen, such as the person sitting in front of you, or the lecturer if you’re in a lecture theatre. Well, it does solve the problem of spinning your laptop 180 degrees to take a shot of what’s behind the screen, but it doesn’t quite solve the immobility problem.

Well, let’s hope and wait for something better… or study optical physics and make a better one ourselves. Or maybe we should just get a USB webcam like the Volvox webcam key.

Sources:
Huckleberry iSight periscope
Play "I Spy" with the Huckleberry – MacUser
Huckleberry Uses Mirror to Make MacBook More Versatile - Huckleberry - Gizmodo

Default Bullet of Word changed to Up or Upward Arrow

2009-09-17T00:13:00.001+05:30

If, for no apparent reason, your Word shows upward arrows (or some other weird symbol) instead of the usual black dots as its default bullets, don’t waste time doing any of the following:

Clicking Reset button for every bullet style
Office Diagnostics
Office Setup’s Repair option
Windows SFC (System File integrity Checker)
Repairing Font Cache
Deleting “Normal.dot” or “Normal.dotm” templates
Deleting “List Gallery Presets” key from registry
Deleting “ListGal.dat” file

I wasted my time, but I can save yours. Your “Symbol” font is missing. Get a copy of the “Symbol” font from your friend’s computer (with same Windows version) or from any source and install it.

Full discussion here: Office Discussion Groups – Word Application Errors – Default Bullet of Microsoft Word changed to Up Arrow (Upward Arrow)

Group, Ungroup and Regroup disabled in Word

2009-09-14T16:29:00.001+05:30

I was editing a Microsoft Word document which had a collection of shapes and text boxes grouped together. I wanted to modify some of the shapes, and therefore I had to ungroup them. But when I right-click the group and open the Group menu, all three options namely Group, Ungroup and Regroup are completely disabled or grayed out.

I couldn’t figure out what’s wrong. This group of objects is perfectly ungroupable, and I can even select objects within the group. However, Microsoft Word 2007 is not letting me ungroup it.

I searched the Internet for a solution, but did not find anything very useful. The closest I came across is this statement: “The type of Text Wrapping doesn't make any difference as long as it isn't In Line with Text.” (Link here)

Anyway, I changed the text wrapping of the group of objects from ‘In line with Text’ to ‘Tight’ and viola! I could now ungroup it and edit it. The document got a bit messed up when I did so, but after I ungrouped, edited and regrouped, I changed the text wrapping back to ‘In line with text’ and everything was back to normal.

Annoyingly, even the Help for Microsoft Word does not mention about this problem or have a note about it in its page teaching you how to group and ungroup objects. And I haven’t found a solution on the Internet either.

Java Programming Hiccup! – Binary File Handling

2009-09-13T18:34:00.001+05:30

I discovered something interesting in Java Programming. You may have come across output streams such as FileOutputStream, BufferedOutputStream and ObjectOutputStream when learning about binary file handling in Java. All of them have a particular method called flush(). The descriptions provided for this method for the last two output streams are as follows:

BufferedOutputStream: Flushes this buffered output stream. This forces any buffered output bytes to be written out to the underlying output stream.

ObjectOutputStream: Flushes the stream. This will write any buffered output bytes and flush through to the underlying stream.

As for FileOutputStream, the method is inherited from OutputStream, which gives this description:

Flushes this output stream and forces any buffered output bytes to be written out. The general contract of flush is that calling it is an indication that, if any bytes previously written have been buffered by the implementation of the output stream, such bytes should immediately be written to their intended destination.

The flush method of OutputStream does nothing.

My university’s lecture note gives this description for the flush method:

Flushes the output stream to force any buffered output bytes to be written to the file.

My understanding from all these, is that using the flush() method anywhere in the code would actually commit all the write actions (such as writeChar, writeUTF, etc) into the file stored in the hard disk.

Normally, all the write actions are stored in memory, and when the code calls the close() method, they are committed to the actual file in hard disk before closing this file. The flush() method promises to provide you a way to commit the write actions into the file without closing it.

This is useful when it is required for a program to (for example) accept a database record from the user and immediately store it into a file, instead of waiting for the user to finish entering all the records. I wanted to see this in action, so I went to test it out. Here is a snippet of the code:

  FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("database.dat");     
  BufferedOutputStream bos = new BufferedOutputStream(fos);     
  ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);     
  while (true) //infinite loop... see comment below     
  {     
    //code to accept and write database record     
    //also includes condition to terminate while loop     
    oos.flush(); //writes this record into file     
  }     
  oos.close(); //closes the file

I ran the code and watched the file changes using… no, nothing sophisticated, just Notepad2. Yea, you can set Notepad2 to appear “Always on Top” and set the “File Change Notification” to auto-reload, and you pretty much have a Watch window for the binary file. Make sure you have the binary file open in your Notepad2 though.

Disappointingly, it did not work. Every time the code encountered the flush() method, nothing happened. Seems like the underlined phrase above (“does nothing”) is correct! Well, I searched the Internet, and not many people have an answer to this problem. Some even happily use the flush method, thinking that it is committing all the write actions onto the file, not realizing their mistake.

But I stumbled upon a particular site: The Java Developers Almanac 1.4: e27. Forcing Updates to a File to the Disk. There are two interesting things here: The FileDescriptor and its sync() method. The descriptions given are:

XOutputStream.flush() method: Flush the data from the streams and writers into system buffers. The data may or may not be written to disk.

FileDescriptor.sync() method: Block until the system buffers have been written to disk. After this method returns, the data is guaranteed to have been written to disk.

Anyway I decided to try them out in my code. Here’s the snippet of my modified code. Notice the two new additions.

  FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("database.dat");     
  BufferedOutputStream bos = new BufferedOutputStream(fos);     
  ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);     
  FileDescriptor fd = fos.getFD(); //FileOutputStream only!     
  while (true) //infinite loop... see comment below     
  {     
    //code to accept and write database record     
    //also includes condition to terminate while loop      
    oos.flush(); fd.sync(); //writes this record into file      
  }     
  oos.close(); //closes the file

I tested it out, and it works! The program now commits the record into the file in hard disk before accepting the next record. Just as I want it to.

CREATION.EXE

2009-08-31T19:28:00.001+05:30

In the beginning there was the computer. And God said
c:\>Let there be light!
Enter user id.
c:\>God
Enter password.
c:\>Omniscient
Password incorrect. Try again.
c:\>Omnipotent
Password incorrect. Try again.
c:\>Technocrat
And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Sunday, March 1.
c:\>Let there be light!
Unrecognizable command. Try again.
c:\>Create light
Done
c:\>Run heaven and earth
And God created Day and Night. And God saw there were 0 errors.
And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Sunday, March 1.
And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Monday, March 2.
c:\>Let there be firmament in the midst of water and light
Unrecognizable command. Try again.
c:\>Create firmament
Done.
c:\>Run firmament
And God divided the waters. And God saw there were 0 errors.
And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Monday, March 2.
And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Tuesday, March 3.
c:\>Let the waters under heaven be gathered together unto one place
and let the dry land appear and
Too many characters in specification string. Try again.
c:\>Create dry_land
Done.
c:\>Run firmament
And God divided the waters. And God saw there were 0 errors.
And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Tuesday, March 3.
And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Wednesday, March 4.
c:\>Create lights in the firmament to divide the day from the night
Unspecified type. Try again.
c:\>Create sun_moon_stars
Done
c:\>Run sun_moon_stars
And God divided the waters. And God saw there were 0 errors.
And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Wednesday, March 4.
And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Thursday, March 5.
c:\>Create fish
Done
c:\>Create fowl
Done
c:\>Run fish, fowl
And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature
that creepeth wherewith the waters swarmed after its kind and every
winged fowl after its kind. And God saw there were 0 errors.
And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Thursday, March 5.
And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Friday, March 6.
c:\>Create cattle
Done
c:\>Create creepy_things
Done
c:\>Now let us make man in our image
Unspecified type. Try again.
c:\>Create man
Done
c:\>Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and
have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and
over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth
Too many command operands. Try again.
c:\>Run multiplication
Execution terminated. 6 errors.
c:\>Insert breath
Done
c:\>Run multiplication
Execution terminated. 5 errors.
c:\>Move man to Garden of Eden
File Garden of Eden does not exist.
c:\>Create Garden.edn
Done
c:\>Move man to Garden.edn
Done
c:\>Run multiplication
Execution terminated. 4 errors.
c:\>Copy woman from man
Done
c:\>Run multiplication
Execution terminated. 2 errors.
c:\>Create desire
Done
c:\>Run multiplication
And God saw man and woman being fruitful and multiplying in Garden.edn
Warning: No time limit on this run. 1 errors.
c:\>Create freewill
Done
c:\>Run freewill
And God saw man and woman being fruitful and multiplying in Garden.edn
Warning: No time limit on this run. 1 errors.
c:\>Undo desire
Desire cannot be undone once freewill is created.
c:\>Destroy freewill
Freewill is an inaccessible file and cannot be destroyed.
Enter replacement, cancel, or ask for help.
c:\>Help
Desire cannot be undone once freewill is created.
Freewill is an inaccessible file and cannot be destroyed.
Enter replacement, cancel, or ask for help.
c:\>Create tree_of_knowledge
And God saw man and woman being fruitful and multiplying in
Garden.edn
Warning: No time limit on this run. 1 errors.
c:\>Create good, evil
Done
c:\>Activate evil
And God saw he had created shame.
Warning system error in sector E95. Man and woman not in Garden.edn. 1
errors.
c:\>Scan Garden.edn for man, woman
Search failed.
c:\>Delete shame
Shame cannot be deleted once evil has been activated.
c:\>Destroy freewill
Freewill is an inaccessible file and cannot be destroyed.
Enter replacement, cancel, or ask for help.
c:\>Stop
Unrecognizable command. Try again
c:\>Break
c:\>Break
c:\>Break
ATTENTION ALL USERS *** ATTENTION ALL USERS: COMPUTER GOING DOWN FOR
REGULAR DAY OF MAINTENANCE AND REST IN FIVE MINUTES. PLEASE LOG OFF.
c:\>Create new world
You have exceeded your allocated file space. You must destroy old files
before new ones can be created.
c:\>Destroy earth
Destroy earth: Please confirm.
c:\>Destroy earth confirmed
COMPUTER DOWN *** COMPUTER DOWN. SERVICES WILL RESUME SUNDAY, MARCH 8 AT 6:00 AM. YOU MUST SIGN OFF NOW.
And God logged off at 11:59:59 PM, Friday, March 6.

Steam Hardware Survey

2009-08-19T14:15:00.001+05:30

Each month, Steam collects data about what kinds of computer hardware our customers are using. The survey is incredibly helpful for us as game developers in that it ensures that we're making good decisions about what kinds of technology investments to make. Making these survey results public also allows people to compare their own current hardware setup to that of the community as a whole.

Link: View the Survey Results

Slow Flash on Mac

2009-05-05T00:52:00.001+05:30

I recently got a chance to play with a Apple Macintosh PowerBook and I have noticed that while everything else is so smooth and cool, Adobe Flash Player (previously known as Macromedia Flash) performs poorly on both Firefox and Safari.

After researching the Internet, I came to the conclusion that there is no real solution to this problem. However, there are some measures you can take to minimize the problem.

Set your power options to run your Mac at Better Performance or at least Normal. Other options reduce the processor speed drastically, affecting Flash Player’s performance.
Update your Safari and Mac OS X with the latest updates and upgrades. To do this, click the Apple Logo in menu bar and select Software Update. Update your Firefox with latest version if you use Firefox.
Update your Flash player by visiting this link which is Apple’s official page for downloading and installing Flash player. (Don’t ask me why, but somehow going through the Apple site seemed to give better results than going directly to Adobe site.)
Always make sure you have only one page loaded with a Flash Player in it. If you have two or more pages open with Flash players in them, the processor is divided and the performance degrades. (If you want to see what I mean, try loading two or more windows with the choppy test below.)
Optionally use only one browser at a time. Even if you use multiple browsers, make sure you minimize your use of Adobe Flash player to just one page, regardless of what browser is used to display the page.
Make sure you quit all applications by pressing Apple-Q or selecting Quit from the menu bar. Closing the window does not quit applications on a Mac, and thus applications continue running in the background.

To test the performance of Adobe Flash Player, click here to run the Choppy Test.

File Extension List

2009-02-21T10:22:00.001+05:30

I found a nice website with a large file extension list, and all the details that go with each extension. It is:

www.file-extensions.org

It has easy-to-understand description and a legibly given list of associated applications. You can quickly search by extension, or view common and most popular file extensions.

You can also check out the extension categories such as audio and music files, multimedia, graphic and image file types. This makes it a great place to discover new software that are associated with the extension category you are interested in.

Photofiltre – Powerful, free and portable

2009-01-15T18:36:00.001+05:30

Are you looking for a feature-rich free image editor software that is also portable? Look no further, because we have Photofiltre.

It is powerful. It’s a freeware for non-commercial use. And it can be made portable in a few simple steps. Not only that, there are some features that Photofiltre gives that I even couldn’t get in Paint.NET. Two such features I discovered are:

Complete control of placement of the photo on a sheet of paper while printing, including automatic centering and original size (according to dpi). Paint.NET only gives us a choice of templates and does not give good control over how you want the photo to be placed on the paper.
“Paste Special > Assemble” which makes it easy to stitch images together. I used to do this in Paint.NET the hard way, but with Photofiltre, it’s as easy as cake.

Paint.NET remains my primary image editing freeware as Photofiltre has a steeper learning curve compared to the earlier. But Photofiltre serves as a secondary editor when I’m out travelling or using a public computer. It’s a great software to put inside your camera’s memory card, which would help you when you’re on a vacation and end up using a public computer.

The creation of the portable version is very simple. Just follow these steps.

Click here to go to the official Photofiltre download site.
Download the ‘French version / zip file’ link. We are not downloading the English version because it is not portable and needs to be installed. The zip file, as the website says, does not have to be installed. Don’t worry, we will take care of the language barrier.
Extract the contents of this ZIP file into a folder named ‘Photofiltre’ (or whatever pleases you).
Under the section “Language files for Photofiltre,” download the ‘English / Anglais’ link. You can also choose any other language if you like.
Extract the contents of this ZIP file into the same folder we created in step 3 above. You will be requested permission to replace two files. Say ‘yes’ to the request, otherwise the help files will remain in French.

That’s it! Do keep Photofiltre updated whenever you can.

Let Firefox decide how pop-ups should open

2008-12-08T17:41:00.001+05:30

You must have seen that the Internet Explorer’s Tabbed Browsing Settings dialog box has an option called “Let Internet Explorer decide how pop-ups should open” which is explained best by the quote below

Basically what this will do is open any pop-up without size or other restrictions in a new tab, the rest will open in a new window. For users experienced with tabbed browsing this is typically the best option, as it allows most windows to open in tabs, but allows pop-up style windows to open in a new window.
[Source: IEBlog: Your Tab Settings…]

However users of Firefox will find that such an option does not exist in the Firefox’s Options or Preferences dialog. The closest option that is there would be “New pages should be opened in: (a) a new window (b) a new tab” but this option does not make the distinction between pop-up style windows and normal windows.

There is a hidden preference in Firefox which will make this distinction. It is browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction and you can find it in the about:config page. Just type “about:config” followed by the Enter key in the address bar.

Filter the page by typing in open_new or restrict. Then double-click the preference and enter the value 2, which makes Firefox open normal windows as new tabs, while opening pop-up style windows as real pop-ups.

Other values are 0 which follows the above mentioned closest option, and 1 which ignores the same option (all pop-ups open in a new window regardless of what you set).

[Reference: MozillaZine Knowledge Base Article]

Network Connections in Vista

2008-11-17T16:04:00.001+05:30

For those who have used previous versions of Windows (up to XP), you may have grown accustomed to being able to quickly open the Network Connections folder. It's the folder that displays all your dial-up connections, Local Area connections, 1394 connections and Wireless connections.

Someone in the Windows Vista development team was smart enough to decide to bury this folder, thinking the new Windows users won't need to have immediate access to this folder because of the new "Connect To" wizard and the "Network and Sharing Center."

How wrong of them! I definitely prefer to see things in the Network Connections folder and hate it that I have to open the "Connect To" wizard, then the "Network and Sharing Center" and finally the "Network Connections" folder. If you're like me, you'd want to create a shortcut somewhere. Here are four methods:

If you just want a quick and dirty solution, simply create a shortcut to "ncpa.cpl" or "C:\Windows\system32\ncpa.cpl". Beauty Tip: Change the icon to the first icon of netshell.dll.
You can create a "clone" of the actual Network Connections folder. Clone means it's not a simple shortcut but functions like a real folder. That means if you see it in any menu (e.g. Quick Launch menu), you can point to it to display your connections in a sub-menu.
1. Open Network Connections folder.
2. Right-click the address bar and select "Copy Address" (not Copy Address as Text).
3. Open the folder where you want the clone to appear. (e.g. Quick Launch)
4. Right-click an empty area and select "Paste Shortcut." You may need to refresh (F5) to see the icon.
The following method is for advanced users only. If you want to create a real shortcut to Network Connections (not to ncpa.cpl but to the actual Network Connections in Control Panel), do the below.
1. First of all, create the clone as mentioned above.
2. Open the cloned folder in Command Prompt and issue the "dir" command. You will see "target.lnk".
3. Copy this file "target.lnk" using the "copy" command to a folder where you want the real shortcut to appear.
4. Open the folder in Explorer and rename the copied shortcut to "Network Connections."
If you right-click the shortcut and select Properties, you will see the difference.
The following method requires editing of Windows registry. Incorrect modification of registry may cause irreversible damage to Windows.
To enable Network Connections in the Control Panel menu (Classic View), open Registry Editor (regedit) and browse to
"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\don't load"
Delete or rename the value called "ncpa.cpl"
Additional Tip: Delete or rename "desk.cpl" to enable the "Display Settings" icon in Control Panel.
Close Registry Editor and refresh Control Panel.

How to create self-extracting 7z archives

2008-11-12T19:42:00.001+05:30

Note: This is not an easy task and requires intermediate or advanced knowledge in batch files, parameters, encoding, escape sequences and such computing terms. If you are a beginner, you should create a self-extracting Zip archive, which can be easily done using software such as WinZip.

To successfully create an SFX (self-extracting) archive, you need three parts and a batch program to combine them together. The three parts are:

SFX module, the executable code of the SFX archive
Configuration file, provides options that control the behavior of the SFX archive.
7z archive, contains the files and folders you want to extract.

Download the required SFX module from Solta.ru Download Links. You would most likely use an LZMA module, which is the default compression method of 7z. The first or second download link should be sufficient, but you must remember to use the module that corresponds to the compression method of your 7z archive. If you are not sure, just use the 7ZSD_All module which is compatible with all compression methods.

Extract the modules into a folder. From now on, we will be working in this folder. Create a configuration file "config.txt" and edit it. The documentation (third link in the download page) provides full-fledged help on what you can include in this configuration file and how to use it. But here's a quick overview. The file should begin and end like this:

;!@Install@!UTF-8!

;!@InstallEnd@!

Any configuration parameter you wish to include should be between these two lines. There are several parameters that can be included here and I don't wish to go through all of them. You can check the documentation which provides in full detail what they are and how to use them. However the most important parameters are:

InstallPath - an absolute or relative path to which the contents must be extracted. If the path is relative, it will be created in the folder where the SFX archive is.

RunProgram - an application or file in the archive which should be run/opened after the extraction is complete. Do not include the InstallPath value. "nowait:" can be used before the file name to free up memory taken up by the SFX archive after it has extracted.

GUIFlags - controls the user-interaction behavior of the SFX archive. There are several values you can include here as explained in the documentation. For example, if you wish to display the extraction percentage on right (1), display an icon in the extraction window (32), confirm with the user if they click Cancel (256) and replace the question mark with an icon (2048), you should enter the value as "1+32+256+2048" or add them up to "2337"

If you have placed the above three parameters, your configuration file would look similar to this example:

;!@Install@!UTF-8!
InstallPath="ExtractFolder"
RunProgram="nowait:setup.exe"
GUIFlags="1+32+256+2048"
;!@InstallEnd@!

Explore the documentation as there are many more parameters that can be used to add your own messages to the SFX archive, such as licence agreements, instructions, etc.

Once you have prepared the configuration file, place the 7z archive in our working folder. Create an MS-DOS batch file (example, runme.bat) and edit it. The batch file only needs to have one line. Here is an example:

copy /b 7ZSD_LZMA.sfx + config.txt + Archive.7z SFX.exe

7ZSD_LZMA.sfx - This is the SFX module. You may change the name if you are using a different module such as 7ZSD_Deflate or 7ZSD_All.

config.txt - This is the configuration file. You may change the name if your file has a different name.

Archive.7z - This is the 7z archive. Change the name to match your archive.

SFX.exe - This is the file name of the output SFX archive. You may choose any name you like, but keep the ".exe" part.

Please note that the order of the three input files should be maintained. Save and run this batch file and you should see a new EXE file (in example above, SFX.exe), which is the self-extracting archive. Test the SFX archive before deploying.

Why Meebo and not eBuddy

2008-11-11T15:24:00.003+05:30

I've seen many in Singapore using eBuddy as their favorite online multi-messenger (even if they are only signing into MSN!) Maybe they are used to it, but to me, Meebo has a lot more advantages compared to eBuddy.

Meebo has no advertisements! eBuddy has both text and image banner advertisements in every window you open.
Meebo uses the familiar Windows interface. eBuddy uses a tabbed interface, but this to me is not comfortable for chatting. I use a tabbed browser but for chatting, I prefer having separate windows.
Meebo has a simplistic, minimal and clean design. eBuddy has an overly stylistic design, wastes a lot of screen space (for not only the ads).
Meebo allows you to have or even upload your own display picture. eBuddy forces its own display picture (the orange b with two orange dots in it) on its users, promoting itself.
Meebo is a web-based desktop and allows wallpaper. Nothing comparable in eBuddy.
Meebo has chat rooms and promotes music. Tell me who doesn't love music? eBuddy has eBay tab, Youtube tab, Mobile Music tab, and such crappy tabs that people would hardly find any use for. They copied it from MSN Messenger, but then even that Messenger is wasting space and time with those tabs.
Meebo has history. Maybe eBuddy does too, I don't know.
Meebo allows you to search your contact list. When will eBuddy come up with this feature?
Meebo allows you to sign into multiple accounts and has an integrated contact list. With eBuddy, you need to create an eBuddy account first to have this feature.
Meebo has themes. Nothing comparable in eBuddy.

That's all I can figure out now. If there's anything I missed, or something is wrong, leave me a comment :)

RoboCop[y] at your service

2008-10-25T16:24:00.001+05:30

Back in the days of Windows 98, I used to use Xcopy and Xcopy32 to copy files at the Command Prompt. The built-in simple copy command was not as powerful and customizable as Xcopy.

A few minutes ago, I tried these commands in Vista's command prompt, due to a DVD drive problem that lets me read the disc contents via the Command Prompt, but not through Windows Explorer.

Xcopy32 no longer exists, but Xcopy does. As I was looking through the /? help page of Xcopy, a certain line in the beginning said:

NOTE: Xcopy is now deprecated, please use Robocopy.

Wow, something new. RoboCopy? Ok let's try that... robocopy /?

Almost two and a half screens of help appeared! There are a lot more options than Xcopy, and the options are neatly arranged in groups. Certain options that are new and interesting include controlling what details about the file are copied (dates, permissions, etc.), excluding certain files or folders from the copy and copying directory structure (not files).

I gave RoboCopy a try and was impressed by the detailed information that was provided. during the copy. A summary of copy options is given, then each file is shown with a percentage indication. Folder paths are never repeated, thus the table is very clean and neat. Created folders are also mentioned.

After the copy operation, a conclusive summary is also shown, giving the statistics of the operation, such as files that were skipped or gave errors, and time required. It finally ends with the speed of the operation, given both in bytes/sec and MB/min

Microsoft says RoboCopy is Robust File Copy for Windows. Maybe RoboCopy is what lies behind the new move/copy system of Vista that shows detailed information. Will you please confirm this for me?

Installing Flash and Shockwave in Firefox Portable when using restricted computers

2008-10-23T20:14:00.002+05:30

If you have just installed Firefox Portable, you would find that there is no Flash or Shockwave in the installation. The official website has a Support page explaining how to get these two in the installation. These procedures assume that you either have access to a computer that has a normal Firefox installation, or that you have Administrator privileges. And oh, the Flash extension does not work with the new version of Firefox.

However, you may be using a computer that you have very limited access on. For example a school or university library computer that is designed to let the students use the Internet. In such cases, the installation of Shockwave will fail due to having no Admin privileges. And you will have nowhere to copy Flash from, since a restricted computer will not usually have a normal Firefox installation, and you may not have access to C drive of the computer.

In such cases when you are using a heavily restricted computer, here's the sure-fire way to get Flash, Shockwave or both plugged into your Firefox Portable. But actually you can use the same method for every computer. Note that you only need to do this once for every new Firefox Portable installation.

1. Get 7-Zip Portable from here and install it on your thumb drive.
2. Go here for Flash and/or here for Shockwave. Download and save the EXE files. Do not run them.
3. Open each of the downloaded files in 7-Zip Portable and select these files accordingly:
Flash: flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll
Shockwave: SHOCKWAVEPLUGIN.CLASS and NP32DSW.DLL
4. Extract them to FirefoxPortable\Data\plugins and restart Firefox Portable

That's it. Adobe Flash and Shockwave should be up and running now.

Update (10 July 2009): It seems to me that the file "shockwaveplugin.class" no longer exists. You may try with "np32dsw.dll" only and check if it works by going to this webpage: Test Adobe Shockwave and Flash Players

Internet Explorer Icon Missing

2008-10-17T12:33:00.004+05:30

Perhaps your Internet Explorer icon on the desktop is missing. I'm talking about the real icon, not an ordinary shortcut. The real Internet Explorer icon has the advantage that you can right-click it to start without add-ons or open the Internet Options dialog box.

You have tried everything you could find on the Internet about fixing this problem, but nothing seems to work. But you may have missed one solution which is not talked about much.

Just open regedit and go to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}\ShellFolder
You will find a DWord value called Attributes. If its data is 0x00100024, this is causing the problem. You should change to 0x00000024 or just 24 (hexadecimal).

If you're afraid to mess with the Windows registry, or are not a tech savvy computer user, you can use a file that will automate the process for you. It also includes all the other solutions you may have already tried, along with the one mentioned above. This page here has a tip #100 which is quoted below. Merge the .REG file to automate the process, then Refresh the desktop to get the icon.

100. Restore the missing Internet Explorer icon to the Desktop in Windows XP (link to a .REG file)

Delete multiple posts on Blogger

2008-10-07T17:05:00.001+05:30

As mentioned in previous post, I had been uploading Friendster posts to Blogger to help my friend, and suddenly I ran into a problem. I accidentally posted some 50 posts twice, so they started appearing in doubles in the blog. [By the way, I got the 50/day limit upped to 300/day by emailing Trevor at Google.]

So now, the dilemma is to delete the duplicate copies. Blogger, after so long, is yet to give an option by which we can select multiple posts and just click a Delete button, to trash them all. Their standpoint is to avoid accidentally deleting a lot of posts. Maybe it's good.

Except in times like this.

To solve the problem, I found a software called "w.bloggar" (It is spelt bloggar, not blogger.) It is mainly a software to create and manage posts in your blog, but I got it to delete multiple posts. I downloaded the portable version as I would not be using it all the time. You can get w.bloggar here.

Note that when you are in the opening Account Setup wizard of w.bloggar you can only access it by minimizing/moving away whatever is on top of it. There is no taskbar button for it, and it does not appear in the Alt-Tab list. (I have no idea why.) You won't have this problem once you are in the main w.bloggar window.

Once you have set up w.bloggar using the opening wizard, just click the arrow next to "Posts" in the toolbar. Select "Last 'n' Posts" and enter a number large enough to accommodate the posts you want to delete. You can also select one of the predefined numbers if the posts are recent.

You will get a list of posts. To preview any post, click it on the list, and you will get a preview on the right. Place a tick mark in the box (check it) next to every post that you want to delete. Once you have checked/ticked all the posts you want to delete, click the "Delete" button.

That's it. Easy as a cake.

Importing posts from WordPress or Friendster to Blogger

2008-10-05T21:08:00.001+05:30

Blogger is currently working on an Import/Export tool. As of now, it only works within the Blogger family and does not work with Friendster or WordPress exports.

Meanwhile, after a lot of research I learnt about a Java application that can migrate WordPress posts to your Blogger. Now, the export of a Friendster blog is fully compatible with this application since Friendster blogs are based on WordPress.

How do you use this application? It's quite simple but not really for novices. If you're quite bad at using computers, you'd be better off asking your closest geek to help you out. Of course, show him/her this post!

First, you need to make sure that the latest version of JRE or JDK is installed on your computer. JRE means Java Runtime Environment (or quite simply Java). JDK means Java Development Kit (you will only be installing this if you're programming in Java). If you have JRE, that's fine. You don't need JDK.

Now you need to find out if typing "java" will work in the command prompt, no matter which folder you are in. Just open Command Prompt, type in "java" and press Enter. You should see a bunch of options and usage instructions. Skip the next two paragraphs

But if you see something along the lines of 'bad command' or 'not recognized.' It's time to find out where Java is hiding. Open up "C:\Program Files\Java" and you should see one or more folders. Depending on what you did in the past, there maybe jre folders and jdk folders.

Choose the folder (jre or jdk) with the highest version and open it. There should be a 'bin' folder inside. Open it. Now you need to copy the full path of this 'bin' folder. You will need this later. It would be something like: "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_07\bin"

Next, let's go get the Java app. It's called BlogSync and it can be downloaded here. If you want to read the FAQ, it's here. Note that the FAQ says you need JDK, but JRE alone is enough.

Extract the downloaded ZIP file (version 0.3 at the time of writing) and open the file "run.bat" in Notepad. [You guys with Mac or Linux has to deal with "run.sh"] Now there's a line "set path=e:/jdk1.5.0/bin" and there are two cases. If you skipped two paragraphs quoted above, simply add a "rem" command to change this line to "rem set path=e:/jdk1.5.0/bin". This disables the line.

But if you found out the location of the bin folder, do not add rem command. Instead change it to a line like this:

set path=%path%; C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_07\bin

But make sure you insert the location of the bin folder you found out earlier, instead of the example I have shown you here.

Save the file and close Notepad. Now double-click run.bat to execute it. If everything goes well, you should see this window:

I've only shown part of the window here. Now click Accounts and enter your Blogger username, password and blogid in the boxes towards the bottom. Best practice is to import posts from an XML file, especially for Friendster, so leave the WordPress settings as they are. [Feel free to try it though, if you use WordPress.]

The blogid can be found out from the Blogger Dashboard. Links like 'Layout,' 'Settings' etc. that directly correspond to your blog can give you the blogid. Just check the URL of one such link, and there should be a variable in the URL that gives you the blogid.

Now is the crucial part. After you click the Save button in Accounts dialog, and click OK to the pop-up message, you must exit BlogSync. Then run it again by double-clicking "run.bat". Never click the "Save Options" button between this process. [This process needs to be done due to a bug in BlogSync.]

Ok, assuming you have already logged in to WordPress or Friendster and exported all your posts as an XML, you may click the "Choose Rss File" button and browse to/open that downloaded file. [To export in Friendster, go to "My Blog Home > Manage > Export."]

Then adjust the numbers (0 is the oldest post, but the numbers are not always continuous) in the two number boxes below, then click Read From RSS. I suggest you test the import first using just one or two posts. You may choose to import comment, but I cannot guarantee its functionality.

Once you see the posts on right side, you may delete what you don't need by selecting them and then right-clicking them. If you're ready, click the "import" button. Keep an eye on the log below.

Here's the catch about the whole thing. Blogger allows only 50 posts to be imported per user account everyday. So if you have a lot of posts, you need to import a set of 50 today, then do the next 50 tomorrow, and so on.

To repeat the import process, simply adjust the numbers below "Import Comment" checkbox to select a set of 50 posts. Then click the "Read from RSS" button and the "import" button. The number you enter corresponds to postid on the Sync box.

That's it. Yes, if you have some 1500 posts, it's going to take you a month, but it works! It's the only thing that works right now when you want to move your blog from Friendster to Blogger or WordPress to Blogger.

Worst Customer Service

2008-10-03T23:04:00.001+05:30

If there's ever an award for the worst customer service, it should go for Friendster. I have sent them many feedback and comments, and reported problems, but they have never cared enough to get their fingers on the keyboard to answer my feedback and problems personally. All they would do is sit there with one hand on the mouse, and copy/paste one of the pre-fabricated answers. And those answers sometimes don't even relate to the problem I'm reporting.

Are they really a lazy bunch of snobs?

And I have made some really useful suggestions in the past two years, but even now, they have never implemented any of them. They are wasting their time in useless stuff like Applications. Friendster, oh dear, stop copying MySpace and Facebook and start doing something useful like giving users what they want!

Messing with the UAC - the Admin Approval Mode

2008-10-03T00:54:00.001+05:30

Initially when I got Vista, I disabled UAC completely in my account and turned off Security Center alerts. However, my friend suggested that he can keep the UAC enabled, yet not get the annoying prompts. He did this by enabling the built-in Administrator account and using it.

So I thought of fiddling with the hidden settings of UAC to find out if I can re-enable UAC yet get rid of those prompts in my account with administrator privileges. This is my own account, not the built-in Administrator account.

The hidden settings can be accessed by typing in secpol.msc in the Start menu, Run dialog or a command prompt. They are under Local Policies > Security Options. All the settings concerning UAC start with the words "User Account Control." Note: secpol.msc may not be available in Home Premium or lower.

After fiddling around, I found out that what my friend thought he is doing, is actually wrong. One of the settings here is "Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account." This setting is Disabled by default, and that means no prompts what-so-ever will be displayed in the built-in Administrator account.

However, the very feature of displaying consent prompts is named by Microsoft as "Admin Approval Mode." Therefore, turning this off is exactly the same as turning UAC off via Control Panel. If you change the above mentioned setting to Enabled, even the built-in Administrator will start to display UAC prompts, just like other accounts.

There is another setting to about the Admin Approval Mode, namely "Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode." This setting is Enabled by default. Now, disabling this will cause the prompts to be no longer displayed in any account. But it also means that UAC is completely turned off. I had UAC turned on prior to changing this setting, and after I changed it, UAC was found to be turned off.

In fact, turning off UAC in Control Panel actually toggles the above mentioned setting.

The only true way to keep UAC turned on, but get rid of the prompts is by utilizing the setting called "Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode." The default choice is Prompt for consent, but you can change this to Elevate without prompting. It means the UAC prompts are still there, but Windows automatically clicks the Continue button for you. (This is just a description to make it easy to understand. You won't see Windows actually doing it on screen. You won't even see the prompt or the Secure Desktop.)

For the above mentioned setting to work for the built-in Administrator account, the first setting mentioned in this post must be enabled. Otherwise UAC will just be disabled in that account. Also, Security Center will continue to show that UAC is off, even though it appears turned on in Control Panel.

Although I did not get any more UAC prompts despite the fact that UAC is still turned on, I ran into other problems with software that I regularly use. Most notably, enabling UAC caused the programs to run underprivileged, and certain programs generated "Access Denied" errors when trying to access files in drives other that C drive. The problem did not occur when I ran the programs as Administrator.

Due to these problems, I reversed all my changes and went back to keeping the UAC turned off. Bottom line, if you know what you are doing with your computer and won't do anything silly to get it infected, an annoying security feature is really unnecessary.

Did I just notice that?

2008-10-01T18:12:00.001+05:30

I'm a regular user of Firefox. But while I was helping someone with their computer, I stumbled upon the new Internet Explorer 8 Beta. So I tried it in my computer.

And so far, I like it!

New features I have taken notice include the InPrivate browsing. I used Google Chrome for a short while but I dropped it due to instability. However I miss the Incognito feature of Chrome which allowed me to browse websites without leaving a trace. IE8's InPrivate is the answer. It also lets you browse privately by not leaving traces of your browsing on your computer. Close the InPrivate window and IE8 forgets everything in that window.

Another simply blew my mind as it was the last thing I expected IE to have: A find toolbar! IE had always been stuck with the infamous Find dialog which just sticks like a sore thumb out when I press Ctrl-F. I hated this, and I always loved how neatly Firefox shows a find toolbar at the bottom of the page.

IE8 surprises you with something very similar to Firefox, but at the top, just below the tab bar. But oh man, did I just notice that? I was so used to Firefox's find toolbar that when IE8 tried to surprise me with its own version, it took me a while before I realised it!

Then there is the brand new feature called Tab Groups. If you open a link from a page in a new tab, both the new tab and the original tab are assigned a randomly chosen colour. Thereafter any new tab created by a link in any tab of this colour will have the same colour. It's a bit hard to explain but once you try it, you'll understand. I found a Firefox add-on that can do the same and more: Tab Kit

There are many more new features. Check out the website.

Vista crashes due to Magnifier

2008-06-05T18:27:00.001+05:30

I just ran a very simple tool that comes in Windows, the Magnifier. But it immediately crashed my Vista Ultimate installation with a Blue Screen of Death (Stop Error). It said something about Video Memory Manager Error. Just before the crash, Vista tried to switch to Basic skin, possibly 16-bit mode. Anyway it's strange that such a simple accessory that comes preinstalled with Windows caused such a serious error. Could be my video card? Let's see what Microsoft has to say about this.

One man's patience with Mac OS X on PC

2008-04-19T19:35:00.001+05:30

I've always tried many flavours of Linux and pretty much know quite a lot of what anybody should know about Linux. But I never got to try Mac OS X because it uses a completely different computer architecture, isn't free, and would need me to buy a whole MacBook which would cost me the same as 2 Windows laptops...

... until now!

Yes, I finally got to experience Mac OS X right in my Tablet PC! Here, I will enumerate my experiences.

Day 0

First, I wanted to find a Mac OS X DVD ISO file. I got the latest version 10.5 from [sorry source cannot be mentioned]. It is nicknamed Leopard.

Day 1

I was hoping to try Mac on a virtual PC so that I can avoid having to deal with my hard disk and issues like that. Unfortunately... keep reading!

I downloaded Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, created a new virtual machine, mounted the ISO and started up. Wow. Something is happening. The DVD is booting and files are being loaded.

After about a minute or so of loading several files, *BOOM* Unrecoverable processor error! Ok this is something I can do absolutely NOTHING about. Clearly, the Virtual PC's processor is not capable enough. The source mentioned that only Intel SSE2/SSE3 processors will work.

After further fiddling with Virtual PC with no positive results, I tried to find other virtual machine software. I downloaded the free version of VMware Server and tried creating a virtual machine there. DVD loads up and does file loading.

It proceeds to part 2 of start-up (where M$ crashed) but gets stuck with the error message "ATA disk: checksum cookie not valid." After a while it spits out some more garbage and throws me into a terminal (hmm that looks familiar... similar to Linux!) Anyway I can't do anything with the terminal, so after fiddling more with VMware, I gave up on it.

Next, I searched for emulators and virtual machines that is possibly designed with Mac OS in mind. I found Pear PC and tried it, but quickly gave up on it since it didn't even showed signs of life. I also tried VirtualBox with no positive results. And I happened to find a lot more info too.

In the midst of these, I also put in an empty DVD and fired up InfraRecorder. I burned up the ISO onto the DVD. The virtual machine/emulator solution was looking so hopeless, so I decided I should install to my hard disk, or another hard disk. This was planned for Day 2.

Ah it's time to go to bed, so I pause my Mac pursuing and visit dreamland.

Day 2

One last try with an emulator, I went on to go for a hard disk install. So I selected my 160 GB Maxtor external hard disk. I shrunk the partition to gain a 16 GB unallocated space.

Then I booted up the DVD I burned on Day 1 and it seemed to start up fine without any problem. It took a while (a hell lot of time) but it did work! Viola! For the first time, I see the Mac OS X installer! It's quite cool and simple compared to the Windows installers, but it already gives you a taste of what's yet to come! The installer itself runs in a stripped-down Live DVD version of Mac OS X.

Language selection, preparing installation, and there it is, the welcome message and the top-of-the-screen menu bar, a trademark of Mac OS. I found quite a few utilities can be found in the menu bar, which lets you prepare or troubleshoot your computer. This is something Windows installer lacks. The downside is, only one utility can run at a time and you cannot switch applications (or I don't know how to).

Anyway I was happy to find the Disk Utility. Loaded it up and I found all my drives and partitions. However I was stumped at the fact that the Disk Utility does not recognize unallocated space in a disk, and thus the space cannot be used to create a new partition. All you can do is redefine the entire layout or reformat an existing partition.

Well, I booted back to Vista and created an unformatted undefined partition in the 16 GB space. Went back to OS X installer, silently suffering its ridiculously long startup, and I could format this partition to Mac Extended Journalised (yet to find out what a journal does).

Then I went to installation options. Once again simplicity shines. The core essentials of OS X are grouped into just one item called "Essential System Software," and are not categorized further.

Then there is a set of Printer Drivers. Now what's ridiculous is, all these drivers can easily take up 3.43 GB of space, and what's more ridiculous is, they are all installed by default! I mean, you should be allowed to install only the drivers you need, especially since the drivers take a bloating amount of hard disk space!

Other options were Additional Fonts, Language Translations and X11. That's all! A very simple list. Anyway I installed OS X onto the newly created partition. An optional consistency check was done on the DVD before installation, which took around 10 minutes. Installation took around 20 minutes and everything went well.

Restart. Set the BIOS to boot from external disk and started it up... fingers crossed...

*CRASH*
MBR Error 3
MBR Error 1
Press any key to boot from floppy... [pressed]
MBR Error 2
Press any key to boot from floppy... [the last two lines loop endlessly]

Oh no, this can't be! Everything was going on so well...

Emotional side put away, I determined that the installer either did not install a bootloader, or the installed bootloader doesn't work. So I loaded up Vista again and went searching about this error.

I found some info about running a script in Terminal (one of the utilities) in Mac OS X setup. Got that script and files and jotted down the instructions. This hopefully should solve everything.

Back to X installer, started up Terminal (oh yes I played with it earlier), changed to Dvorak keyboard (this is important!) Then I tried to follow the instructions. Unfortunately the Terminal in the installer seems overestimated. It does not have commands that are required by the script and the script itself could not be run. Experimenting, I figured how to run the script and it started up. Unluckily again, it didn't really work the way it should. Now instead of the MBR Error, I simply have a blank screen with constant access to the hard disk. It never changed.

I also tried other things like creating a new entry in the Vista's boot menu using EasyBCD and loading up chain0 and other files that I thought maybe required. Nothing worked, absolutely nothing.

Day 3

I thought up the idea that if I can boot up a Linux live CD, maybe I can make the script run properly and make Mac OS X boot. I tried Parted Magic which has terminal. I had to edit the script a bit to make it on par with Linux, since it was originally designed for the Mac OS X installer. The script now worked better, but it still didn't solve the blank screen problem which remained.

Giving up on the external hard disk partition, I figured that the only sure-fire way to make this work was to dedicate an entire hard disk to Mac OS X. That way, the hard disk can be redefined using GUID partition table and OS X can be installed AND run without booting problems. Windows uses MBR partition table, and probably might not support anything else. Linux is also perfectly fine with MBR. But somehow, Mac OS X seems to hate it ;)

Now I have two options:
1. Save my hard disk contents as an image or into the external disk, then wipe out my internal hard disk. The drawback is I won't be able to use Windows until I restore the image, and even the restoration is not guaranteed.
2. Buy a new external hard disk. The drawback is, it costs money! A lot!!

Day 4

I tried to save as an image using Disk Utility in Mac OS X installer, but I could not figure out how I will be restoring it. The Restore tab doesn't accept my hard disk as a destination! I am pretty sure that the hard disk image can probably never be restored and is simply useless. Therefore deleting it.

Finally I decided to shell out some cash. Well, even if Mac doesn't work, at least I get some extra storage space!

Day 5

Did nothing today because I had to attend a function.

Day 6

Bought a new 160 GB hard disk, with an external casing! Singapore Dollars 105 *OH MY LORD* Anyway I did some asking around and this is the cheapest I could get. And I bought it at the only shop in the whole wide world that charges 2% surcharge for NETS payment; NETS payment usually is free service (you pay the same amount as you would in cash) and has no surcharge.

Anyway, installed OS X onto the hard disk, with loads of new hope dawning on me. GUID partition table was used, hoping this would solve the problem. Install finished quickly, and I booted...

*BLANK SCREEN*

Once again, my hopes were completely shattered. I was heartbroken today more than any other day in the past few. I spent hard cash to get Mac working, but it still doesn't!

Anyway I switched hard disks and resumed Vista (it was on hibernation ;) and searched for some more info. I found out that Leopard Installer doesn't write the bootloader, which is weird because the older installers do. I also found some option start Terminal in the DVD without starting up the installer, and another one to use a different root device. The option to specify root device means I can start the installed Mac OS X through the DVD.

Back into the installer, I tried the terminal starting option and checked out fdisk. Turns out I can clean out the hard disk and create an 8MB Darwin Boot partition along with one partition spanning the rest of the disk. So I did and reinstalled (what a long day) Mac OS X on it. Tried it... no hope, still the same.

I then tried running the installed Mac OS X through the DVD. After a bit of guessing I figured it out and got it up and running! A little progress after 4 days! The Welcome video started playing, but it was nowhere close to being smooth. Then the welcome screen came up, asking for country, keyboard and transfer from old Mac. Skipping the transfer (obviously!) I clicked Continue. My "Mac" hung for a while, then it went blank. Then the Welcome video started playing again! Then back to the country selection. Once again I went through the steps and it repeats. It's like the welcome screen and wizard loops endlessly!

Argh! I'm almost there! Almost... I remember the squirrel in Ice Age, the scene in which he is almost there reaching out for his nut, then suddenly the wind freezes him! I'm like that. Almost there... frozen!

I discovered few other things like another source offers a Mac that can be extracted onto a hard disk directly in Windows (no installation). I'm going to try that tomorrow. I'm also thinking of creating a tiny partition at the end of the disk and copying down the install DVD onto both the main partition and the tiny one. The idea is to get the bootloader that's already on the DVD to be written down on the hard disk. Then I will try to install from the second partition onto the first (Gotta be faster than DVD)

Day 7

I can't remember much of the day, but I tried the extract to hard disk Mac thing, and it created a 15 GB partition. But it didn't work because it's only for SSE3 processor, and mine is SSE2.

My new hard disk also started failing SMART test, so now if I want to use it as internal hard disk, I have to bear with pressing F1 key every time I switch on the computer.

A week later

I got another version of Mac from another source. This one, everything went well, and I installed Mac into my primary hard disk, where Vista and XP is residing. Fortunately it didn't overwrite the bootloader of my hard disk, so starting Mac OS X was as simple as just adding another entry to the Vista Boot Menu.

I managed to start up and it works very fine and smoothly. Even the welcome video is very smooth, due to nVidia drivers being used instead of basic drivers. Even my wireless card is being recognised now, because this new version already has the drivers in the DVD.

But now, here's the problem. Everything works fine for about 10-15 minutes, then suddenly the whole system freezes. The display is frozen, showing what is being shown, the keyboard doesn't work and the whole system responds to absolutely nothing. It always happens, after 10-15 minutes of uptime.

I'm yet to figure out how I can solve this problem. But, I finally got a working Mac!.. well, almost ;)

Some things never change (but finally changed)

2008-02-19T19:24:00.001+05:30

Update: It did finally change! In Windows 7, the Add Fonts dialog box is completely missing (or has been made inaccessible). Now, the File menu in the Fonts folder does not have an Install New Font option and there's no way to bring up an Add Fonts dialog box. According to the Windows Help, there are only two ways to install a font. One is to right-click the font and click Install. The other is to drag the font into the Fonts folder.

Original Post:
This has to be the most ridiculous thing about Microsoft Windows. The dialog box below is from Windows 3.1 (earlier?) and still continues to exist even in the lastest Windows Vista in the exact same form. See the drive and folder selection part and icons used there?

Microsoft should do either of the following.

Remove this dialog box and the File menu item completely. 99% of people adding new fonts simply drag and drop them into the Fonts folder (or use similar methods).
If such a feature proves useful, replace this antique dialog box with a standard "Open Files" dialog box which has the ability to select multiple files. See picture below.

Technology continues to improve, but...

2008-02-18T21:50:00.001+05:30

the keyboard still stays where it is.

Well, sort of.

You see all kinds of different keyboards such as multimedia keyboards, gaming keyboards, curved keyboards, split keyboards, foldable keyboards and so on.

But the most basic thing about the keyboard is the QWERTY layout. All the keyboards you find in your favorite computer store, no matter what special features it has, have this standard layout.

So what's ~~wrong~~ right about this standard keyboard?

The QWERTY layout was designed as a quick-fix to solve the jamming problem that occurred in a very early model of typewriters. It was designed in such a way so that the user of the typewriter will not press two adjacent keys one after the other, as this was the source of jamming problem.

However, the later model of typewriters, and computer keyboards, don't have this jamming problem anymore and pressing two adjacent keys will not jam anything (in the case of typewriter) or has nothing to jam (in the case of keyboard).

The only thing "right" about this layout is that it has become popular and got standardised. It is a practically random layout with no regard to ergonomics, comfort and repetitive strain injury. The keyboard requires large amounts of finger movement during extensive typing.

What's better than QWERTY?

The all-so-awesome Dvorak keyboard layout!

What's so awesome about this cool layout? It's ergonomically designed, with the objective of minimizing the finger movement of an English typist as much as possible. It greatly reduces the chance of repetitive strain injuries due to extended keyboard layout.

Mankind, as much as it likes to change, is also afraid of change. Unfortunately this fear means, the acceptance of Dvorak keyboard layout is very rare.

Many of my friends have seen me use the awesome Dvorak keyboard, but they criticize that it's so strange, troublesome, not easy to set up, and especially that they are unwilling to change. I end up having to set up my laptop with both QWERTY and Dvorak, switching between the two for the sake of my friends.

Likewise, people are unwilling to change due to them getting used to the randomly designed ergonomically damaging standard QWERTY. Consider it something like eating McDonald's everyday, even though I tell you that it's greasy and unhealthy food. You got so used to the junk food, that you're so not willing to switch to more healthy food. Resistance to changing to Dvorak is something like this. People got so used to the unhealthy junk layout that they are so not willing to change to healthy layout.

Well, in Dr. August Dvorak's own words, "I'm tired of trying to do something worthwhile for the human race. They simply don't want to change."

The Dragon (or the over-blown-up balloon?)

2008-01-01T19:17:00.001+05:30

If you keep blowing air into a balloon, it keeps getting bigger and bigger. But how big can it ever get? How would you solve the problem of the walls getting thinner and weaker? And lastly, how big do you want it to be?

Apparently, HP decided to literally blow up a notebook computer. They nicknamed it "The Dragon" and that name matches very well. 20.1" widescreen (WSXGA+ 1680×1050) display. You know how big that is? I saw this notebook for real, and was asking myself, "Is this a desktop or a laptop?"

And about getting bigger means weaker, well there are only limited number of units available for sale, because they knew only the elite and strong would buy such an expensive (SG$ 5,999.00) and heavy (6.94kg) notebook PC.

Description and specifications are in the second picture below. For detailed specifications, visit HP Pavilion website (click here).

Price is in Singapore Dollars, approx. US$ 4,145.24

Norton sucks - Get over it!

2007-12-22T23:03:00.001+05:30

I can't believe normal people fall prey for all the nice packaging and advertisements those idiots at Symantec make for Norton Antivirus. They tell a white lie as though it's the ultimate truth, and people believe it just because it's advertised like "We have the BEST anti-virus on earth." while their product actually sucks to the maximum and is in fact the worst you can ever buy.

1) Norton Antivirus is commonly known to slow down computers with their ridiculously designed slow code-base. If you buy a pretty modern normal computer, and try installing Norton on it, you'll notice that the computer slows down to being like a snail as soon as u get Norton installed.

2) Norton heavily interferes with the proper functioning of not one, not two, but many popular programs, causing headaches to normal computer users who are not tech-savvy enough to understand what's really happening. This causes them to either blame the problem on the software, or the computer, or Norton, or waste their money calling the bloody expensive Tech Support lines of Norton.

Guys, I know many of you have been conditioned by the smart brains of the advertising team of Symantec that Norton is the king of all anti-virus, but you do know that kings are only good in eating loads of food and watching girls dance. Kick the gluttonous king on his butt and get a real soldier, a real knight who fights the real war against viruses and trojans. And I assure you, food (your money) and girls (speed of your computer) will not be scarce anymore ;) Get AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition for home use: Click here!

Inactive Conversation

2007-12-21T21:12:00.001+05:30

Ever seen this in Windows Live Messenger? I think this is something new:

This conversation has been inactive and some participants will be removed.

And then it randomly removes some participants, I think, until only one (excluding myself) is left.

Switching to Windows Live, despite my heavy criticism

2007-12-06T10:12:00.001+05:30

I totally hated it when the newly introduced (Integrated) Windows Live Installer would simply not work in my computer. It would hang forever at "Checking for Windows Live programs in your computer." But a very kind guy saved the life of mine, and everyone else by uploading all the real installers onto a Live SkyDrive (ironically!). If the integrated installer doesn't work for you, you can get all the standalone installers by clicking here. You may need to sign in with your .NET Passport or Windows Live ID.

Since the installers are named after the class IDs, here is a list to help you find the right one. Note that installing Sign-In Assistant maybe required for proper functioning of other Live programs.

Sign-In Assistant: {CB5EA99C-8A5B-49F2-9A1A-2EF78BE4DB41}
Mail: {EDB619FD-4E71-403C-8E99-DFC9CF9DD345}
Messenger: {508CE775-4BA4-4748-82DF-FE28DA9F03B0}
Photo Gallery: {AA436FBD-2595-479B-8DDE-E9C36F50D99D}
Writer: {1F973A7F-3FE4-4D11-A9A2-E869C2899A7D}
Toolbar: {C6876FE6-A314-4628-B0D7-F3EE5E35C4B4}
OneCare Family Safety: {4075FCAC-561C-4D4A-BCB5-BA1628CED34B}

Even though I criticized the Installer so much, I still use 3 Windows Live Programs. In fact I'm typing this post in Windows Live Writer, which is... more about it below.

Windows Live Messenger: I'm a heavy chatter, that is, a heavy instant messaging user. Almost all of my friends are on MSN Network, which makes using Windows Live Messenger (the latest name for MSN Messenger) a must. Though I try alternatives like Trillian and Meebo from time to time, I can't live without the Live one (pun unintended).

Windows Live Writer: It's an awesome blog posting and editing program that works so seamlessly with Blogger. You even can see how the post will look like when you're actually typing them out. And you can do everything offline too, in case you're stuck in Africa with no Internet but feel like blogging. There are a lot of plug-ins you can try adding to Live Writer. I used "Insert Flickr Image" and "Insert a smiley!"

Windows Live Mail: Recently Gmail introduced 5.something GB of space and IMAP support. IMAP is better that POP3 because it allows full-duplex (two way) communication between client (Live Mail) and server (Gmail), thus enabling the client to be constantly up-to-date with the server seamlessly, and even share features with the server. For example, folders and flagged mails in Live Mail become labels and starred items in Gmail instantly. Since I've never tried IMAP before (POP3 is a big headache), I gave Windows Live Mail a go (coz I'm bored of Outlook), and so far, I'm really loving it!

Linux Mint

2007-11-24T21:12:00.001+05:30

Some screenshots of Linux Mint. Enjoy!

Linux - 3D Desktop

Linux - Minimizing Window

Linux - Virtual Desktop

Linux - Moving Window Compression Effect

Linux - Moving Window Stretching Effect

Linux - Mint Start Menu

Annoying skipping and chopping problem - Shivering Computer™

2007-11-07T20:35:00.001+05:30

One day you turn on your computer, start boot into Windows and discover a brand new problem, right from the time the Windows loading bar showed up.

Booting Windows seems to take longer than last time.
Start-up (after the boot, before the desktop is shown) is very slow.
Windows start-up sound is being very choppy.
Mouse pointer skips a lot when you move it around.
Any video or music that you play becomes choppy.
Basically, the whole computer just freezes, doing the two points above and more, for fraction of a second, every 5-10 seconds.

If this is your case, there's only one definite solution to this problem. For your reference, I found it in this page: Odd XP Problem: Audio and Mouse Skipping and Jittering / Overall system slowness - Hardware Discussions - FiringSquad Forums

The Prescription (what you need to do):

In Start Menu (or on Desktop), right click on My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager. (Or you can also right click on My Computer > Manage > Device Manager (under System Tools on left).
Extend the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" group by clicking on the [+] sign.
Right click on "Primary IDE Channel" and click Uninstall.
You will be asked to confirm the uninstall. Answer Yes.
You will then be asked to restart. Answer Yes. (If computer doesn't do anything, restart manually using Start Menu).
Upon restart (you'll notice faster boot time), Primary IDE Channel and your hard disk drivers will be installed, and you will be asked to restart again. Answer Yes.
Upon second restart, you'll notice the problem is fully gone for good, plus boot time is much faster.

I really don't know for sure how Primary IDE Channel is linked with this Shivering Computer™ problem, but from my understanding, I think it is because of IDE channel drivers becoming corrupt due to installation of proprietary Bluetooth drivers or some other software (not sure what). This causes any instance of accessing the hard disk to freeze the computer, because of the corrupt drivers making Windows unable to properly access the hard disk without issues. Reinstalling the hard disk drivers (as you did by steps above) helps restore the drivers to their original version, thus putting an end to this annoying problem.

Major Update - ASUS A626

2007-10-31T15:31:00.002+05:30

Okay I got a PDA (Pocket PC) called ASUS A626. It's not a PDA phone though.

Original Vista Sidebar in Windows XP or 2003

2007-09-01T18:29:00.001+05:30

UPDATE: Information gets outdated as times goes. It seems there is an easier, much faster installer for Vista Sidebar in XP. You can get it here. It seems to do all the steps below automatically for you, and may even have the latest versions of the components including the sidebar.

You may have experimented with sidebar mock-ups like Thoosje Sidebar or Yahoo Widgets, but found them to be not as good as Windows Vista Sidebar. Well, now you can get the original Vista Sidebar working in your Windows XP or 2003.

I have zipped up all the required files into one ZIP file, which can be downloaded by clicking here. There are some PDF files in the ZIP file as well, in case you need more information.

Before you begin, you must make sure you have Windows Media Player 11 and Internet Explorer 7 installed in your system. You can find out by opening these programs and going to "Help > About" or a similar menu item. If they are not installed, you can download them here: Windows Media Player 11 and Internet Explorer 7.

Step 1. (XP only) Install Wireless LAN API Hotfix KB918997
Run the included file "1. XP Wireless LAN API (KB918997).exe" to install the hotfix. Follow on-screen instructions. Please note that this is required in Windows XP only. Windows 2003 does not require this hotfix. You can also download it by clicking here. A system restart after the installation of the hotfix is mandatory. Do not skip the restart even though you are allowed to.

Step 2. Install Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package
Run the included file "2. vcredist_x86.exe" to install the package. Follow on-screen instructions. You can also download it by clicking here.

Step 3. Install Alky for Applications
Open the included ZIP file "3. AfA_final.zip," browse to either XP or 2003, depending on your version of Windows, and open the file "Installer.msi" to install Alky. Follow on-screen instructions. You can also download the latest version here.

Step 4. Install Vista Sidebar (the BIG step ;)
Run the included file "4. Windows_Sidebar_Installer_August_1-2007.exe" to install the Sidebar application. Follow on-screen instructions. Do not restart or try to open the Windows Sidebar as you will not be able to proceed to the next two steps if the Sidebar is running. You can also download the installer here.

Step 5. Copy the included fonts to the Windows Fonts folder
Extract the four files from the "5. Copy to Fonts.zip" ZIP file. Open Control Panel > Fonts (or browse to C:\Windows\Fonts). Find the four fonts named Segoe UI (Regular, Bold, Bold Italic and Italic). If you open any one of them, you will get a completely blank font, which is the reason behind this step. Delete all the four fonts. Now drag and drop the four extracted files into the Fonts folder (or copy and paste them).

Step 6. Update the Sidebar to the latest version (this is long but can be skipped :D )
Extract all the files and folders from "6. Sidebar.zip" ZIP file. Open My Computer and go to C: drive > Program Files folder > Windows Sidebar folder (or browse to C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar). If necessary, back-up everything except Gadgets and Shared Gadgets folders. Copy the files you extracted before into this folder (use drag-drop or copy/paste), replacing all existing files and folders. (You can also obtain the latest version of these files from a Windows Vista installation.)

In C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar, after you copied the new files, right-click the file "sbdrop.dll" and click "Patch Vista library..." Do the same for "wlsrvc.dll". Right-click the file "sidebar.exe" and select "Patch and Run Vista executable...". Within some time, you'll see the sidebar and a new tray icon in the notification area. Right-click this Windows Sidebar icon and click "Exit". Confirm the exit by selecting "Start Sidebar when Windows starts" and clicking "Exit Sidebar".

Open Command Prompt by clicking Start > Run, typing cmd and clicking OK. Copy the following set of commands and paste them in Command Prompt by right-clicking the title-bar and selecting Edit > Paste (You cannot press Ctrl-V in Command Prompt to paste).

cd "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\"
sidebar.exe /RegServer
.\regsvr32.exe sbdrop.dll
.\regsvr32.exe wlsrvc.dll
exit

Two dialog boxes will appear. They should say that the operations had succeeded. Click OK to both of them, and press Enter at the Command Prompt to close it (the "exit" command is waiting at the prompt).

That's it. You can run Windows Sidebar by opening the shortcut on the Desktop. It will also run at start-up unless you change the options.

Easier way to link your friends in your blog

2007-08-17T04:10:00.001+05:30

My friends have been complaining about me not linking their blogs in my blog. I had decided not to link anyone because it involves editing the template for every addition or deletion of a link, which is not a convenient process. Namely, I have to log in to Blogger, choose the right blog, go to it's template HTML, scroll down and find the links, edit the HTML code and make sure everything is fine.

Then I started thinking of ways to simplify this. First I thought of creating a separate page and storing it in an online server, then embedding it with IFRAME tag of HTML code. But I abandoned this idea since it makes the page dirty with a frame box, and may fail in certain situations. Moreover it still has the HTML coding.

Then I thought of using the power of JavaScript. So I came up with this idea of a script that automatically creates the list of blogs that I want to link.

First, you have to create the script. To make things simple, I have a template script, with which you can start off. You can download it by clicking here.

You will be downloading a file called "template.js", which can be renamed to anything else, for example "filename.js", but the extension ".js" (if you see any) must remain. You can open the file in Notepad. The instructions to add the links are available in the file itself, so I hope I don't need to repeat them. There are some examples included to give you an idea of how things should be.

Next you will have to upload this file to an online server. The server must allow you to directly access your file, that is, you don't need to go through web pages to access the file. If you have a Gmail account or a Google account, you can upload it to Google Pages. If not, you can create a Google account or Gmail account for free. Once uploaded, you will have to edit your blog template and include a code to make this work. The following code should be placed wherever you want the list to appear:

In place of "JS-FILE-URL-HERE" you must put the URL address of the file you had uploaded. Now, whenever you want to add a new link, simply edit the local copy of the file and re-upload it to Google Pages or wherever you had uploaded originally. You can always download the file from Google Pages if you don't have a local copy.

Hey, why not send me a TXT through mobiK?

2007-08-12T11:01:00.001+05:30

Can you join me on mobiK? It's this site offering free TXT messaging. Once you register online - which is REALLY easy - then all our TXT's are free. Plus if you get anyone else to join, then those TXT's are free as well.

The best thing is we can TXT from PC to mobile as well as between mobiles. It's really easy to use and takes about three minutes to sign up.

Also, they have this deal - whenever you invite new members or get involved with their promotions, they give you some 'K' which you can exchange for all kinds of stuff at their online store.

Click here to join

Arun

PS.

SMS me soon okay? :) ~ADTC

visit mobiK.com | terms & conditions | privacy policy | contact us

What about UAC for restarting?

2007-08-07T06:23:00.001+05:30

Vista needs permission for trivial stuff that the user already informs it that he/she wants to do. I had been using Vista on my friend's laptop for about half an hour, and I can tell you, I clicked "Continue" in the User Access Control dialog box at least 10 times.

On the contrary, Vista does not permission to do something that I DON'T want it to do! Like a restart after installation of updates. Vista can give you warning any time of the day that it's going to restart in 5 minutes, and it DOES NOT need your permission to restart. Microsoft already gave it the permission! You have no choice but to save your work and close all stuff and either wait for the stupid timer to complete or click "Restart Now". There is no way you can cancel the restarting!

Check this out: Tech Shakedown #4: Should Vista be able to force an unwanted reboot when it wants to?

For now, I'll stick to XP, which is so much more easier to use than this 'Wow' junk. I hate being interrupted by 'Wow' dialogs every 5 minutes, asking permission that's already given. And I even HATE to the max if 'Wow' force-restarts the computer without my permission or consent!

Free Audio Pack

2007-08-06T21:30:00.001+05:30

Just want to post a quick post about this Free converter I found that is pretty useful!

Download it here.

Mozilla Firefox

2007-07-17T17:24:00.001+05:30

I switched to Mozilla Firefox recently because Internet Explorer always crashed when I closed it. I really like the streamlining of Internet Explorer 7 and have done the same to Firefox. Surprisingly, Firefox can be even more streamlined than IE7! Here's a screenshot of my Firefox. The menu appears when you click on the only icon on the toolbar.

A few extensions and customizations to achieve this:

Hiding the menu bar and displaying only the menu icon:
Download Personal Menu
You can hide the menu bar like you would hide any toolbar. View > Toolbars > Menu bar.
Choose these options:
- Show menus toolbar temporarily by pressing the Alt key: ON
- Warn when hiding the Menus toolbar: OFF
- Integrate into the menu-switching feature of Menu Bar: OFF
- Apply current theme style: ON
- Hide drop-marker: ON
Rearrange the menu in the "Edit Menu Button" tab to make it look the same as my screenshot. (All these options are of your own preference, no need to strictly follow.)

Removing the Go button in the Address Bar:
Go to "about:config" in your Firefox Address Bar (or you can click the Configuration option in your Personal Menu!)
Type in "gobutton" in the Filter bar to quickly find the required option.
Double-click the option called "browser.urlbar.hideGoButton" until it's value changes to True. (You maybe prompted, for which you can just select True and click OK.)

Tab Bar Customizations:
Download Tab Mix Plus
There are a lot of options, I can't list every one of them, but in summary:
- The tab bar should be at the bottom (or top, again this is personal preference). I like it to be at the bottom because it's similar to the Windows Taskbar.
- The close button should be only in the current tab, and nowhere else.
- There should not be any New Tab button. Instead of this, it should be set that double-clicking on the Tab Bar will create a new tab and right-click menu of the tab bar has a "New Tab" option.
- Select only required entries for the right-click menus under the Menu section. I like the "Duplicate Tab" option a lot. Very handy when you want to keep a copy of a page you're viewing while going back in History.
- Try the Single Window Mode.

Status Bar cleanup:
For each of the Add-ons you have installed that would show an icon in the status bar by default, check for an option to disable it. I disabled AdBlock Plus and GreaseMonkey icons even though I have these extensions installed, because the icons are useless to me. The green P is QuickProxy icon, which I like to keep because clicking on it will allow me to quickly and easily turn off my proxy settings in Firefox.

"It's so streamlined, it seems to make Firefox unusable!" If that's your comment about it, here are a few tips on using Firefox streamlined:
- When your hands are near your keyboard, simply hit the Backspace key for going Back. This may not work in some rare cases, so if that happens, try Alt-Left (Alt-Right for Forward) or do the next one:
- Right-click on empty space or text on the page with nothing selected. The menu that appears will give you immediate access to Back and Forward items. Reload option and Bookmark option can also be found in this menu. Once you get used to this, you'll find it much faster than clicking the buttons in the toolbar.
- Pressing Ctrl-T will also open a new tab. You can easily set TMP such that double-clicking on the tab bar or any tab to open a new tab.

Last, but not the least, EXPERIMENT! TMP extension and Personal Menu, both have a lot of options for you to choose from. Experiment and find out what is best for you. What I said above are my preferences, they need not be yours. Maybe you would find something else to work better for you!

Windows Live Writer Beta

2007-07-16T16:29:00.001+05:30

I'm posting this from Windows Live Writer. It's even better than Word 2007 and a lot better than the Blogger website's own editor. Although, like Word 2007, WLW also does not have a direct support for uploading images to Blogger, you can insert images using Flickr.

Download WLW here: http://get.live.com/betas/writer_betas

To use Flickr, you need to also download the Flickr4Writer plugin here:
http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=9cc421ec-b22e-45b6-98c4-3fae3846705e&bt=9&pl=8
Now you'll find "Insert Flickr Image" option on the sidebar of Windows Live Writer. Please note that uploaded photos must be public otherwise you won't be able to find them when searching with the plugin. Sign up for Flickr at http://flickr.com.

To easily upload images to Flickr, you can use the Windows XP's built-in File Publishing Wizard. You must first set it up to show Flickr by running this REG file:
http://www.flickr.com/tools/wizard.reg
Now you can simply select the files you want to upload, then in the sidebar under "File and Folder Tasks", click "Publish this file (the selected items) to the Web".
I believe this solution would also work in Vista though I have not tried it.

For those with other operating systems (Linux/Mac/Windows 98/XP/2000/Vista), you can find more uploading tools here: http://www.flickr.com/tools/

Of course you can always manually upload pictures by logging into Flickr in your web browser. That's it for now.

Want to know more about your computer?

2007-06-13T17:27:00.001+05:30

Try CPU-Z, it will give you detailed (read: geeky) information about the CPU, Cache, Mainboard, Total Memory and Individual Memory Modules. Very useful software. Download the software here.

Remember Year 2000?

2007-06-13T09:22:00.000+05:30

/YEAR=
•
Instructs the Windows core time function to ignore the year that the computer's real-time clock reports and instead use the one indicated. Thus, the year used in the switch affects every piece of software on the system, including the Windows kernel. Example: /YEAR=2001. (This switch was created to assist in Y2K testing.)

From: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/information/bootini.mspx

LOL. It seems so funny when we think back now to the year 2K, and all the confusions and predictions we had about changing from 1999 to 2000. And imagine having to change boot.ini every year after 2000! Thank God none of those happened, not even the silliest prediction about Y2K. What predictions they had! I think the two most popular ones are: 1) The world's going to end (plus 'Jesus is coming back' among some Christians) 2) All computers and digital devices would suddenly stop working... Good ole days!

Disabling Physical Address Extension

2007-06-13T07:11:00.000+05:30

Update for Windows Vista (Read original article below first.)

Windows Vista does not have a boot.ini and uses a new form of boot loader. The official way to edit the boot settings is to use the included "bcdedit.exe" command line tool. However, using this tool is not easy and requires an advanced knowledge about using the Command Prompt. A wrong command could create serious problems and even render your computer unbootable.

NeoSmart Technologies has a tool called EasyBCD which allows you to make changes to the boot loader of a Vista system, just as easily as you would edit boot.ini in an XP system. It provides a GUI front to the bcdedit.exe command line tool, making it very easy to enable or disable boot options. You can even install EasyBCD in Windows XP, if you have your system configured to dual-boot with Vista.

To disable PAE on Windows Vista, download, install and run EasyBCD. In the 'Advanced Options' page of EasyBCD, Change "DEP/NoExecute" to 'Always Off,' uncheck "Enable PAE (Physical Address Extension)" and click "Apply Settings."

Original Article for Windows XP

Have you noticed if you have a line that says "Physical Address Extension" in your System Properties or System Information? System Properties can be seen by right-clicking My Computer and clicking Properties.

PAE is a pre-requisite for Data Execution Prevention. By doing some research, I have found out that you only require PAE if you meet at least one of the two conditions below. You can safely disable PAE if you don't meet them.

1) You have more than (but not equal to) 4 GB of RAM. (I only have 1 GB, just recently upgraded).
2) You want to use DEP capabilities of your processor. (I don't really think DEP is useful at all, I feel it's more harmful than useful as it can crash any program that it suspects. I'd rather trust a full-fledged anti-virus program than DEP.)
In other cases, it's best to turn PAE off as it will increase processing performance and hard drive access speeds.

Many people have asked how to turn off PAE, but not many have found definite solutions. It is because of the confusion of the /PAE attribute in boot.ini file present in the root of the C drive (or wherever your Windows is installed). This option is most likely not present in your boot.ini file. Turning PAE off is very simple though. You just need to change the /NoExecute=OptIn or /NoExecute=OptOut option to /NoExecute=AlwaysOff and save boot.ini file. This will disable DEP, and in turn, it will also disable PAE because if DEP is not enabled, PAE is not required anymore.

Restart your computer and check if PAE is still enabled. Mine was immediately disabled, but if for some strange reason (provided you have 4GB or below of RAM) it is still enabled, you can also try adding the option /NoPAE to the same line as the /NoExecute option. But be warned that this forces PAE to be disabled, even when Windows determines PAE is required for things other than DEP.

Joost, the hottest TV!

2007-06-06T20:36:00.000+05:30

Joost! That's nothing like your average Internet TV application. It's super hot, with loads of channels for free! And the video is so high-quality you'd think you're watching a VCD or even an actual TV. Moreover the interface is very slim and slick. There are a few bugs in the current beta, but I love it!

I only hope that even after they go out of beta and release the software, they would keep the software and service free, and most (if not all) of the channels free to watch. And I hope that there will be more and more channels including regular TV channels. Right now I have not found any of the regular TV channels screening in Joost. There are also no technology-related channels like the Discovery on real TV.

http://www.joost.com

Anyone want invites, contact me.

Self-destruction

2007-05-19T08:48:00.000+05:30

Go to this link ... enjoy!

Joost invitation

2007-05-09T21:19:00.000+05:30

I want a Joost invitation. Can anyone give me?

Running Linux on Windows

2007-04-27T16:34:00.000+05:30

I'm currently running Linux on Windows XP. In fact, I'm typing this inside Linux, which is running through VMWare Player. It's a cool software that virtualizes an entire PC inside my computer enabling me to run Linux parallel to Windows. I did some research on doing so and found another software called CoLinux. It seemed promising but had to do a lot of setup and that was a big headache. And it didn't work.So I turned to this software. It's cool and I have a running "Damn Small Linux" distro right inside Windows XP. I can switch between Linux and Windows any time. There is another one called andLinux which supposedly should work straight out of the box though it's based on CoLinux.

That's it for now. I'm also using Qwerty to Dvorak Online Converter since the Linux distro is in Qwerty mode, and changing it to Dvorak doesn't work until restart, and nothing is saved, so on restart it will revert to qwerty anyway.

Thanks for reading. Take care.

March and April Updates

2007-04-23T18:16:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Bob - A failed attempt of Microsoft at creating a "user-friendly" software. Rare to get now. It was developed it the 1990s. Search for it and if you can get it, do try. Little kids will like it, as it will be a fun way for them to use your computer.

RiverPast Video Cleaner Pro - What I use to convert videos from one format to another. User friendly and straight forward. For simple as well as advanced users.

Windows Defender - Anti-spyware for free, from Microsoft.

MidpX J2ME Emulators Package - Play Java mobile games on your computer! (also Midp2Exe)

MatchUp - A concentration game from Microsoft.

And of course, Vista Transformation Pack (see last post :)

Give your XP a Vista make-over

2007-04-23T16:35:00.000+05:30

Bored with the old XP look? Friends talking about the cool Vista interface and you have no money to shell out for it? Get the Vista Transformation Pack. Though it can't bring all the eyecandy to your XP screen, it can still do a pretty good job.
I installed Vista Transformation Pack 6.
- Disabled VisualTooltip and Styler.
- Was forced to disable Sidebar because it started hanging. I hope it will be fine tomorrow :P
- Created a new theme called "Windows Aero Black" because transparent window borders is not available in XP, and you will have to buy WindowBlinds if you want to recreate that effect.
The default blue theme is so dirty without the transparency effect.
Here's the Black msstyles file: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/12/20/534119/My%20Documents/Windows%20Aero%20Black.msstyles
Go to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes
Copy the folder Windows Aero, rename the copy as Windows Aero Black.
Open the new folder Windows Aero Black, and delete the "Windows Aero.msstyles" file.
Download the Windows Aero Black.msstyles file (link above) and save it here in this folder.
Go check out the Appearance tab of Desktop Properties. There will be a new theme called "Windows Aero Black". Enjoy :)

February Updates

2007-03-05T22:08:00.000+05:30

Wow! It's been long since I last posted in this blog. Here are my computer-related updates from February.

Blue Coat K9 Web Protection - Those who are worried about children visiting illegal websites, or want to stop visiting immoral websites, use this strong filtering software. It is one of the leading filtered Internet solutions, but compared to others, it is offered completely free for home use. Get it at www.k9webprotection.com

SpeedSwitchXP (Centrino/SpeedStep capable laptops only) - If you have uninstalled the proprietary power management softwares (Acer Power Management, Dell Power Management, Toshiba Power Management) and thus reverted back to the default power management of Windows XP, then you're missing out on one important feature. You can add this feature into the default power management of Windows using SpeedSwitchXP. The feature is reducing the CPU clock speed during reduced usage and thus maximising battery life even further. Get it at http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp

Windows Live Messenger 8.1 - If you use this, you may or may not have seen some of your friends having a green "i'm" (with blue apostrophe) somewhere in their nickname. It looks pretty over there, but that's not all about it. The "i'm" stands for "i'm making a difference". If you are in United States, and you have it in your nickname, for every conversation you have, you will be donating to a charity organisation of your choice. You can which one you want, by going to this page: http://messengersays.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5B410F7FD930829E!25315.entry
Of course, if you are outside US, you can still add the emoticon, but it will not produce donation (they say so in that page, but this may change in the future).

Automatic Caps Lock Toggle

2007-01-27T15:58:00.002+05:30

You must have seen blogs and personal profiles where a lot of girls (and maybe a few guys, but I'm not one among them) type lIkE tHiS? Have you wondered how they manage to do the tedious task of pressing and leaving the Shift key for every alternative letter?

Well (on the other hand) are you one of those girls (and guys) who do that, like to do that, but are so frustrated that you have to do that to get that "beautiful blog page" you got? Fear not, for help is here.

I created this Automatic Caps Lock Toggle application (or ToggleCaPs, for short) in Visual Basic. It is also (a bit) intelligent as it only toggles Caps Lock when you type alphabetic keys (A-Z). You can download it by clicking here. Just extract the ZIP file into a folder and run the ToggleCaPs application. Create a shortcut to it on the Desktop if you like it!

Note that this application does not contain any virus. But since it does keyboard hooking, your anti-virus may warn that it could be a virus. Do not be alarmed! Add the dll file as an exception. (Keyboard hooking maybe used by virus applications to monitor your keyboard presses system-wide. My application also does this, however it is not with any malignant intent.)

I didn't do all the work in making that Caps Lock Toggle Application though. Credits go to Konstantin Tretyakov for some parts of the code. I had to merge two seperate code sets together and remove unnecessary parts to get this working. They are, for your reference:
1. Toggle CapsLock Key
2. Key Logger Based on a Global Keyboard Hook.
PS: If you are a developer and want the code for ToggleCaPs, drop me a comment.

HaPpY tYpInG!!!

Google takes over the world!

2007-01-02T11:40:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: This is a joke :P

You know the book of Revelation talks about a great (presumably evil) leader taking over the entire world? Some people think it is Osama. Some think it is George Bush. Some, European Union. Some, a supercomputer with highest AI. Some, Bill Gates.

But I think it's gonna be... Google!

Once upon a time, Microsoft Windows was the only operating system in a home computer, and Bill Gates was the ruler of the computer world. Today, many are fighting back his dictatorship.

But one freedom fighter is going beyond the limits. Once he was merely a spider, quietly crawling the web and eating poor fly(er)s caught in it. Now he is doing much more than just crawling.

He took over the world, virtually: Google Earth
He took over your favorite browser: Google Toolbar
He took over your alarm clock and your newspaper boy: Google Alerts
He replaced your friend who knows each and every spot and all directions in your place: Google Maps
He took over your mouth: Google Talk
He took over your mouth, once again: Blogger
He took over the chemicals (with which he was able to take over everything else): Labs
He took over your address: GMail
He took over your computer: Pack
He took over your Internet connection: Web accelerator
He's the professor you're a student of, lifelong: Scholar
He's watching what you gossip!: Google Groups
He's not your average language tutor: Translate
He's watching your photos, so better take nice ones: Picasa
He's not stopping: More Google Products

Somebody stop him!!!

.
.
.
Ah I'm bored...

Hide or remove Search box in Internet Explorer 7

2006-12-26T18:28:00.000+05:30

People like me, would like to have a long address bar. People like me, won't EVER use the search box of IE7 regularly. If you are one among people like me, and want to hide or remove that search box that you never use, and is therefore taking up valuable space, here is how to do it! Close all instances of Internet Explorer 7 before doing this. (You may need to copy this information below to Notepad before doing so.)
EDIT: Towards the end, there is valuable information about how to disable the annoying Security Risk message.

Shortcut:
Click Start > Run.
Paste the following line in the Run box.

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\InfoDelivery\Restrictions" /V NoSearchBox /T REG_DWORD /F /D 1

Click OK.

Direct way:
Click Start > Run
Type regedit and click OK.
Navigate to the following folder:
My Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\InfoDelivery\Restrictions
If you cannot find InfoDelivery and/or Restrictions folder, create it/them by right-clicking on an empty area and selecting New > Key
Once you're in Restrictions folder, right-click an empty space and select New > DWORD Value.
Name the value as NoSearchBox.
Click on an empty area, then double-click on the new value you just created (NoSearchBox).
Enter 1 in the Value data box.
Click OK, and close Registry Editor.

How to disable the "Security Settings at Risk" alert.
If you have customized your security settings in Internet Explorer 7, you will always be greeted by the highly annoying "Your security setting level puts your computer at risk" message, until you reset the settings back to default. Here is how to disable this message entirely:
Click Start > Run.
Type in gpedit.msc and click OK.
If you want to disable this for the whole computer (not recommended), start with "Computer Configuration".
If you only want to disable this for your own account (ideal choice), start with "User Configuration".
Navigate to the folder called "Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer".
On the right pane, find the setting called "Turn off the Security Settings Check feature".
Double-click it, and select "Enabled".
Click OK and close Group Policy window.

E-mail, E-news

2006-12-24T20:41:00.000+05:30

Well, G-news, to be more specific. This is what the latest introduction from Google Labs should be called as. But, they named it, the "Google Reader".

Are you the kind of guy who finds out a new blog, pledges about visiting it every day, bookmarks it, and forgets about it the very next day? Then fear not! Google Reader is here to help!

"But hey why Google Reader? Why not some other reader software?"

Because...

Google Reader's interface is very much similar in structure to G-mail. So reading your RSS feeds in Google Reader would be more like reading your regular mail. (This requires you to turn on the "List View", but don't worry, it's permanent change, and just a click away.) Unread items are white, read items are grayed out. You can star items and apply labels to them.

Google Reader is web based. So you can read your RSS feeds on any computer connected to the Internet, just as with G-mail.

Google Reader has podcast support. And videos (like YouTube) embedded in feed contents can be displayed in the Reader interface itself.

And of course, there are goodies like predefined sets of feeds for you to start with.

So go ahead! If you have Gmail or a Google account, you already have access to Google Reader. Subscribe to all your podcasts and blog RSS feeds in Google Reader and never miss an update, no matter where you are! It's as simple as G-mail!

Blogger Beta

2006-12-18T17:01:00.000+05:30

Have you upgraded your Blogger account to the new Blogger Beta? If not, you're missing out on these:

Linking with Google (Gmail) unified account. You don't need to remember your Blogger account details any more. You will be signing into Blogger using your Google account.

On the fly serving. Now the pages are no longer "published" as they used to be. Blogger Beta simply stores a database of your posts and everything, and when someone requests a page, Blogger creates it on demand and gives it them. You'll notice the difference when you have lots of posts. Previously, making a template change required you to republish, and that would take lot of time. Now there is no more republishing. A change in template is reflected immediately after the template is saved.

Layout. You can replace your template with the new layout system, which allows you to edit your layout directly rather than messing up with the HTML code behind it. Note that upgrading to layout requires you to lose all changes you made to your previous template. You'll have to manually add all the extras back on the layout. Blogger will save a copy of your template when you upgrade.

Labels: See below and you'll find labels for this post. This is one feature which Blogger had been lacking for a long time. Many other blogging website provided labelling system by default. Only now, is Blogger able to provide the same.

There are others like a new Dashboard, etc. Upgrade and you'll notice the difference.

Microsoft Office 2007

2006-12-09T06:05:00.000+05:30

I'm blogging this from Microsoft Word 2007. It's got blogging capability and supports several blog providers like Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, SharePoint Blog, Community Server, TypePad, and WordPress. There is also an Others option with which you can post to a provider which is not available in the list. The latest feature of Microsoft Office is the sparkling new Ribbon. This replaces all the toolbars that were prevalent in the previous versions, with a one inch tall bar which can be changed according to the type of operations you do. There are tabs above the ribbon, and additional tabs appear as you work with certain objects. The tabs categorize the buttons, and only one tab can be open at a time. This helps reduce clutter, yet keep the most used functions of Word easily accessible. Excel and Powerpoint follows the same method.

Another new feature about the 2007 Office System is the new file format. But Microsoft took a bad decision to force the format onto the users. The default should have been the older format, and users should have been given a choice to migrate to the newer format if they're ready to do so. Many users still use the older versions of Office, so if you create documents in Office 2007, I would suggest that you save them in the old format. You can change the default format of each application in the Options dialog. Compatibility issues are solved properly by Office. Even if you save in old format, information about latest features that are used in the document are saved alongside, so when you re-edit the document, it is edited as though it is in the new format. It will take some time before everyone starts sharing documents and presentations in the new format.

A new feature which cannot be properly saved in the old format is the SmartArt. You can create lists of information and format them into a visually appealing chart. There are a lot of options on how you want to represent the data, and you can format the whole SmartArt according to your preferences. These are the most important new features of Microsoft Office. You'll discover more as you work with it. Download the Trial version at the Office website: http://office.microsoft.com.

Bored of reading stuff on the Internet?

2006-11-26T15:15:00.000+05:30

Are you bored of reading stuff on the Internet? Especially with your eyes? Let your eyes rest while you let your ears... READ! That's right, you let your ears read... not listen, but read!

Say hi, to podcasts.

Well, contrary to popular belief, you don't need an iPod or any MP3 player. You don't need any special podcasting software. Podcast are shared as RSS feeds and almost any of the latest RSS readers can let you listen to them. Internet Explorer 7 has a built in RSS feed reader, and podcast have links to MP3 files of the podcasts. Clicking on them will open them in your favorite media player (Windows Media Player, for example). Maxthon, my favorite browser, embeds a small player on the bottom of it's built-in RSS feed reader which is effectively web-embed version of Windows Media Player.

The only reason you should be using a software dedicated to podcasts is that you need to download several feeds and store them in your MP3 player/iPod and listen to them when you jog, go to work, or go to school. I don't like that as it's much of a hazzle. It's more convenient for me to listen in my computer, so Maxthon Browser does the job for me.

As you may have guessed, I have the RSS feed reader on the left of my Maxthon Browser as I am typing this on the right. The reader is playing one podcast I have found. Oh, on a side-note even Firefox has an RSS reader, but I'm unsure about podcast capabilities. If it can't play the podcast itself, I'm sure it can at least open the podcast in your favorite media player.

So you have either your browser with built-in RSS reader, or have a reader/podcast software. Where do you get the podcasts from? To start with, go to http://www.podcastalley.com (PodcastAlley). There are over 26,000 podcasts in this website, and with a bit of browsing I'm sure you'll find a podcast to your taste. I found three (names are linked to feed URLs): 1 Year Daily Audio Bible, Good Night, The Bored-Again Christian.

That's it. Enough reading this with your eyes. Time to let them rest, and let your ears take over!

Windows Media Player 11

2006-11-08T05:06:00.000+05:30

Recently I installed Windows Media Player 11.

Notable differences from previous versions of Media Player:

Windows Vista-style interface.

Ability to automatically create playlist, sync list or burn list from your most favorite songs.

Ability to learn your preferences from your use of the next button to skip tracks.

Improved library view with albums, songs, photographs etc, shown in a spirally arranged way.

Maximising does not display the normal Windows titlebar.

Conveniently placed Play, Previous and Next buttons.

Compact mode.

Seperate repeat and shuffle buttons.

EDIT: Ability to resume last played playlist, wherever it was stopped. Useful if you accidentally close WMP.

That's about what I noticed, and it's more aesthetically pleasing. Go ahead! Launch WMP and click "Play Favorites". Skip the tracks you don't like. WMP learns from you.

Click here to download Windows Media Player 11.

The D of Dvorak!

2006-10-23T20:47:00.000+05:30

[UPDATE: Links in this blog post are no longer valid as "shrtn.us" is not an active website anymore. Meanwhile, you can visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard ]

I did a lot of research for this, and finally made some new improvements on the way you can quickly switch to Dvorak layout on any computer. Basically it just got quicker.

Note: You DO NOT need to type the "http://" part in the Address/Location Bar. Just start from the letter "d".

The Quickest Way:
http://dv.shrtn.us - Directly download the Dvorak Assistant Application. Run it instantly! (after Internet Explorer warnings if they appear).
- Also q.shrtn.us (shorten qwerty!), v.shrtn.us (second letter of Dvorak) and m.shrtn.us (one of the two letters which are in same place in both qwerty and Dvorak layouts; "a" was already occupied by some other website :( )

Less Quicker, but directly from the author (SourceForge Mirrors):
http://d1.shrtn.us }
http://d2.shrtn.us } Download the ZIP file. You may need another program
... and so on upto ... } to extract the application, unless you have Windows XP.
http://d14.shrtn.us }
Numbers are sorted according to geographic location of servers.
1-4 = North America
5 = South America
6-11 = Europe
12, 13 = Asia
14 = Australia

Information
http://dsk.shrtn.us - Wikipedia article about the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard Layout
- Also d.shrtn.us
http://d0.shrtn.us [D Zero] - This page!

Microsoft and Google joins hands, Yahoo is out of the game!

2006-09-27T17:22:00.000+05:30

Go to www.google.com and type in "search" (yes that's right, type the word "search") and click on "I'm feeling lucky!"
You'll arrive at Windows Live Search. Now type in "search" in the Live Search page, and click the magnifying glass. You'll see that the very first result is Google!
As for Yahoo, it is the eighth result on Google's "search" results page and it doesn't even appear on Live's "search" results page!
Also try searching for "search" on www.yahoo.com!
Enjoy!

Remove advertisements from Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger with Voice

2006-09-25T14:19:00.000+05:30

To remove advertisements and other unwanted features from Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger, dowload A-Patch from here. You will be able to choose which features of Messenger to remove. By default none of the features will be removed, but during install, you will be provided with lists where you can choose.

Non-muslims (non-islams), just ignore the islam-related advertisements in
that website and the software you download. The use of the software does not
require you to convert to Islam religion at all! :P

For Yahoo! Messenger,
UPDATE: Disabling Ads in Yahoo! Messenger causes these features to malfunction: Yahoo! Chat, Plug-ins, IMVironments.
NOTE: If you use the Yahoo! Chat feature, add your favourite chat rooms to the favourite list. (Messenger > Yahoo! Chat > Favorite Rooms > Organize Favorites). Once you remove the ads you will not be able to access the full chat room list through "Messenger > Yahoo! Chat > Join a Room..." or "Organize Favorites", but you can still access your favorite rooms through the Favorite rooms list.

1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following in Notepad.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\yahoo\pager\YUrl]
"First Login Beacon"="*"
"Messenger Help"="*"
"Voice General Help"="*"
"Change Room Banner"="*"
"Address Book"="*"
"Finance Disclaimer"="*"
"Messenger Ad"="*"
"Chat Adurl"="*"
"Calendar Alert Ad URL"="*"
"Conf Adurl"="*"
"Mail Alert Ad URL"="*"
"News Alert Ad URL"="*"
"Personals Alert Ad URL"="*"
"Stock Alert Ad URL"="*"
"Webcam Viewer Ad Medium"="*"
"Webcam Viewer Ad Big"="*"
"Webcam Viewer Ad"="*"
"Webcam Upload Ad"="*"
"Chat Transition Ad"="*"
"N2Phone Adurl"="*"
"Y Content"="*"

3. Click "File > Save As...".
4. Select a suitable folder to save in if required. Mostly this should be your Desktop.
5. Enter the file name as "yahoo.reg" or "something.reg" or "anything.reg". (The '.reg' part SHOULD be there.)
6. IMPORTANT: Choose "All Files" in the "Save as type:" box.
7. Click Save button.
8. Close Notepad and go to the folder where you saved it.
9. Double-click the file.
10. Click Yes. Then click OK.
11. Exit and restart Yahoo! Messenger.

IMVU - The World's Greatest 3D Chat

2006-09-17T00:33:00.000+05:30

Mona Lisa's Opinion

2006-09-09T02:39:00.000+05:30

What does Mona Lisa have to say about Dan Brown and his The Da Vinci Code?

Click here to listen to her opinion!

Update: In memory of the Crocodile Hunter

2006-09-06T20:42:00.000+05:30

Today I got another message from an MSN Messenger user:

It's been two days since Steve Irwin has died, and it's time we pay our last respects to Steve and his family by removing the turtle and the rose from the start of our MSN names, and placing a sun (# ) instead, to symbolise bravery will always be with us. Send this to all of your contacts, and keep Steve's family in your thoughts and praise through those difficult times. [May his soul] rest in peace.

I have a feeling that this maybe a hoax.

In memory of the Crocodile Hunter

2006-09-04T19:29:00.000+05:30

"World-renowned Australian "crocodile hunter" and television environmentalist Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray Monday on the famed Great Barrier Reef, police said..."

Click here to read the full story.

If you use MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, please do what this message below says:

If you haven't heard already, Steve Irwin died today on the 4th of September, on the Barrier Reef, near Cairns... As a sign of respect for the Australian cultural icon, please place a turtle ( tu ) at the start of your nick name, and forward this message to others... http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/228451/1/.html

May his soul rest in peace.

Software I can't live without...

2006-09-03T20:49:00.000+05:30

These softwares are must-have's for me:

7-Zip - Free, and clean (no adwares).
Ares Galaxy - Download music, video, software, etc through P2P; thousand times faster than LimeWire!
Audiograbber - Rip music from CD; full control over ripping options, for advanced users.
AVG Free Edition Anti-Virus (Previously I used: Avast! Anti-Virus) - FREE FREE FREE! Norton can kiss my... (oops! sorry)
Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) - No more "The connection with the server was reset!"
Dvorak Assistant - The forgotten standard created specifically for computers, NOT typewriters!! -> www.dvzine.org
Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal - Spywares, goodbye!
Maxthon Browser (Maybe I can exclude this when they release IE7... maybe... maybe not!) - Nothing beats Maxthon! Not even the fox!
Paint.NET - Throw that "MS Paint" in Recycle Bin!!
PowerMenu - I want more Power over the Windows™. [Right click on any title bar after running this.]
PrimoPDF - Totally free PDF printer, no ads!
TweakUI PowerToy for Windows XP - Open the "Advanced Users Only" cover of Windows, flip the hidden switches!
Windows Live Messenger - Friends!!!!
Yahoo! Messenger with Voice - More Friends!!!!
ZoneAlarm Firewall - Burn, baby burn!!!

Internet Explorer after Slimming Diet Plan

2006-09-03T20:35:00.001+05:30

It seems like Internet Explorer, the built-in browser of Window operating system, had gone through slimming programs! You should check out the latest in the IE7 line, the pre-release RC1. Its very slim and sexy! I mean seriously it's sexy. Though it lacks some important features, it finally has the one special feature that was stealing its popularity by other software - Tabbed Browsing!

And the interface is very cleaned up having only a few important buttons as compared to BIG size toolbars full of buttons in the previous versions. Moreover the softwares like Maxthon Browser and Avant Browser have even more buttons in toolbars than Internet Explorer 6 by default. I really like this new IE, and I'm blogging this from IE7 RC1. So far the pre-release version has not caused any problem. (If you're not an experienced computer user, refrain from installing beta or pre-release software.)

People are already suggesting some important features missing, and I voted for them. I hope they implement the suggestions in the release version. You should check this new version of IE. Seriously cool!

Technology makes the world smaller? Not for everyone.

2006-09-03T20:17:00.000+05:30

Technology makes the world smaller. True. When your father was studying overseas in his teenage years, to keep in touch with his parents, he had to write a letter, buy postage stamp, post it and wait weeks for the reply. Now when you study overseas, you can easily log in to your email account, and go to "Compose Mail" write and send, and the reply comes out within a few days, or sometimes within minutes. You can even chat with your parents in real time using one of the messenger services. Who knows? In the future you might be talking to a real-size holographic image of your son, while he talks to your holographic image overseas!

The world is becoming smaller, with every passing day. The distance is getting lesser and lesser an issue. To cross the desert, Israelites took years and years, but with aeroplanes we can cross the same desert in hours.

As technology is improving; parents, siblings, friends, all these people can keep in touch with each other in an easier and better way, despite the geographical distance between them.

But... there is one particular type of relationship where technology will not be much of a help. This is love relationship! Ask any long distance lovers how mobile phones or instant messengers are helping them communicate to each other. They would say it's not enough. Even the future promise of life-size holographic image cannot make them feel the physical presence of their lover. They can't just wait to get to be actually together, in one place. Science does not give a perfect living, and it can never do that. But God can give a perfect living. With God given the authority, control and configuration of your long distance relationship, it will work out despite the distance! Trust God on this!

Want to decorate your Desktop?

2006-08-06T10:12:00.000+05:30

You can decorate your Desktop with a cute and adorable sunflower if you use Windows Media Player. Just click here to download the skin for WMP. Optionally, turn on "Keep the Player on top of other windows" in WMP Options/Preferences.

MSN, Yahoo! joins hands!

2006-07-27T10:50:00.000+05:30

Yup! Its done. MSN and Yahoo!, as they promised, have started interoperability. But one thing remains. They should implement at least one of the following:
1) Both messengers must be able to actually log into each other's accounts. The idea is to use MSN Messenger alone to log into both MSN and Yahoo accounts at the same time. Or, to use Yahoo Messenger the same way.
2) Import contacts automatically by using the other messenger's log in details. That is if the person enters Yahoo log in details in to MSN Messenger, it should log in, download the contact list and add them up to user's MSN account (maintaining the groups). (In this case, when chatting with the Yahoo contacts from MSN, the other person must be shown the Yahoo ID along with the MSN ID.

Okay I'm sure Microsoft wouldn't even see this blog, but still I'm putting my wishlist here, because... that's what my blog is for!!!

How to replace notepad.exe with notepad2.exe

2006-07-16T14:56:00.000+05:30

Update: The Setup installer of the latest Notepad2 will automatically replace the Windows Notepad. Also, the method of replacement is very different for Windows 7, compared to what is described below. Instead of actually replacing the Windows Notepad, a registry hack simply redirects all Notepad requests to Notepad2. The Setup installer uses this registry hack. I am unable to determine if the setup does a replacement in Windows XP as well.

Original Post:
I searched the Internet on information on how to do that, and I found this nice page: Click here to see it.

But both the methods didn't work in my Windows installation, as the file protection dialog box was NEVER appearing. Windows was automatically replacing Notepad2 with the original Notepad without any warning or question. Then I worked around another method. Call it Method 3 if you will.

NOTE: These instructions apply to Windows XP Service Pack 2 only! My Windows installation is the Tablet PC Edition.

Download Notepad2 and extract it into a temporary folder.
Close all open windows of Notepad.
Go to My Computer and open C: Drive.
Go to Tools > Folder Options in the menu bar.
Go to View tab.
Under "Hidden files and folders", select "Show hidden files and folders".
Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types" and "Hide protected operating system files".
Click OK.
Now you should see a new folder in C drive, called i386. Open it.
Rename NOTEPAD.EX_ to NOTEPAD.EX$
Go back to the temporary folder you have Notepad2 in.
Make a copy of Notepad2.exe and rename it to NOTEPAD.EX_
Copy this to C:\i386
Now go to C:\WINDOWS\system32
Rename notepad.exe to notepad.ex$
Make another copy of Notepad2.exe in the temporary folder, and rename it to notepad.exe
Now copy this to C:\WINDOWS\system32
Wait a few seconds to see if it is automatically replaced.
Now it shouldn't be so. If it does get replaced, then try this below. Otherwise go to FINAL STEPS.

Open Notepad and paste the following in it:

copy /Y "notepad.exe" "C:\WINDOWS\"
copy /Y "notepad.exe" "C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\"
copy /Y "notepad.exe" "C:\WINDOWS\system32\"

Save it as "np.bat" in the temporary folder having Notepad2 (Make sure the "Save as type" is selected as "All files".
IMPORTANT: Close Notepad, and all open windows of Notepad.
Now go to the temporary folder and double click np.bat
This should work.
Now do the final steps below.

FINAL STEPS:
Go to Tools > Folder Options > View.
Reverse all the changes you had done previously.
Click OK.
Run Notepad by clicking Start > All Programs > Accessories > Notepad.
Is it still the original Notepad, or is it the better-than-the-best Notepad2?

Send SMS in Singapore through Internet

2006-06-26T12:14:00.000+05:30

Whenever you want to send an SMS through Internet, it is always a better practice to send them through the website of the mobile service provider, whose connection the recipient is using.

When I searched for such pages on the Internet, I found these for Singapore:
StarHub: Click Here
This is a two-way service, and so the recipient can reply to your message.

SingTel: For one-way service, Click Here
You will not receive any reply.
For two-way service, Click Here
You will need to register an account before you can use this service.

M1: Click Here
This is also a one-way service (not sure though), but M1 customers need to activate Internet SMS before they can receive your messages. To activate, they need to send "Insms on" to "8888".

Librarians' Internet Index

2006-06-25T11:27:00.000+05:30

This website was recommended by the library of my polytechnic (Temasek).

http://www.lii.org/

A ball of dough...

2006-06-16T21:14:00.000+05:30

You are given a ball of dough.
You have three choices.
Choice 1:
Mould it into a small artefact that means something to you. Bake it so that it will never change its shape from being that beautiful artefact. Place it in your showcase where you have more similar beautiful artefacts.
Choice 2:
Flatten it and make it into a roti. Cook it in a pan and make a delicious gravy to accompany it. Eat it and relish it's taste.
Choice 3:
Crush it in your hand. Go to the nearest dustbin. Throw it in the dustbin.
Which will you choose to do?
.
.
.
Have you chosen what you will do with a ball of dough?
.
.
.
Have you?
.
.
.
Are you sure you won't regret your choice?
.
.
.
If you're sure you made the best choice...
.
.
.
... know that each new friend you make is a ball of dough in your hands.
You've made your choice. You can't change it now!

Meebo.com - Virtual Operating System?

2006-06-07T14:46:00.000+05:30

You should check out www.meebo.com ! It's supercool.
Although the only purpose of it is functioning as a multi-protocol (AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber and Google Talk) instant messenger, it looks more like an operating system in a browser window!
If Microsoft would take the same concept into action, they can create a real life Windows demo that would instantly run in the browser window through the latest and coolest web technology called AJAX!
Using this technology they can create live demos of their next operating systems in which demo users can click and explore what they want instead of staring at a screen of slides.
And they can have the real experience as though they already have the OS installed, although it's just a webpage!

Dr. August Dvorak

2006-04-12T01:33:00.000+05:30

Click here to see an actual black and white photograph of Dr. August Dvorak, the inventor of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard.

"Dr. August Dvorak, an educational psychologist and professor of education at the University of Washington, teaches a class of typists his new Simplified Keyboard Layout. In May 1932 Dr. Dvorak filed a patent for the new layout, which claimed to result in faster, easier to learn typing. This photo may have been taken for a promotional piece."

Viva La Dvorak!

Dvorak vs. Qwerty

2006-04-11T19:18:00.000+05:30

In the Typing Analyst of DVzine, I put in all the answers I posted in Yahoo! Answers before I began writing this. These are the interesting results I got:

Key-by-key usage analysis
These charts will give you a general idea of key usage in Dvorak and QWERTY. To get exact information about keystroke counts and percentage of keystrokes on a key, simply hold your mouse over that key.

Dvorak

No usage > > > > Highest usage

QWERTY

The Dvorak / QWERTY Keyboard Efficiency Analyzer

	Dvorak	QWERTY
Number Row Usage	273 (2%)	391 (2%)
Top Row Usage	3961 (25%)	7877 (49%)
Home Row Usage	10211 (64%)	4817 (30%)
Bottom Row Usage	1490 (9%)	2850 (18%)
Number of hand alternations	26338	20541
Number of same-finger reaches	901	1361

Temasek Polytechnic

2006-04-07T21:00:00.000+05:30

Want to immerse yourself with the vivid and colourful display of the campus of the institute I'm going to study in? Click here!!

If you still didn't click there, you are missing out on something spectacular!

Everywhere Messenger (Web Messenger)

2006-04-07T01:07:00.000+05:30

Everywhere Messenger - e-messenger.net

"e-Messenger is a web application that enables you to chat with your MSN, AOL and Yahoo buddies without having to install any program or Java applet. All you need is a JavaScript enabled browser and you're set to go and use e-Messenger, even if you're behind a firewall.

Please note that you must disable your pop-up blocker for e-Messenger to work correctly. After you have logged in you will be notified if you have a blocker activated for the server you are chatting on. [You can also keep your pop-up blocker enabled as long as you have "e-messenger.net" (no quotes and no 'www.') in your pop-up blocker's exceptions/allow list.]

If you are on the road you can still chat with your buddies using e-Messenger. Every mobile device that supports HTML or WAP can be used.

	MSN You'll need a Microsoft .NET Passport. You can register your FREE .NET Passport today!
	AOL You'll need an AOL * Netscape * Compuserve Screen Name. You can register your FREE Screen Name today!
	Yahoo You'll need a Yahoo ID. You can sign up now for FREE!

Mobile version Available at http://mob.e-messenger.net . All you need is a xHTML or WAP 2.0 enabled browser. WAP Version A WAP version (for WAP 1.1 or higher) is also available. Just open your WAP Browser on your device and go to http://wap.e-messenger.net Light Version Old light version of eMessenger available here: server 1 server 2

eMessenger is the first, web browser-based instant messaging service since 2003. eMessenger is a privately funded, Netherlands based company. Our patent pending technology enables millions of unique users every month to chat over the web and mobile phones. Proprietary and Ajax technology are used for best user experience. For general information about eMessenger please contact us at info[at]e-messenger.net"

SMS from Internet, Email or IM to United States Mobile Number

2006-04-03T00:34:00.000+05:30

It is very, very easy to send a text (SMS) message to an United States mobile number from anywhere in the world, for free. But it is very tricky too. In my desperate attempt to send an SMS to my girlfriend through the Internet, I found a few helpful resources. All of them are free, and MonkeyMaximus is international! If you find more resources, add them as remarks.
Disclaimer: I cannot be and should not be held responsible if using any of these resources resulted in any mobile number being harvested for text spamming.

Google SMS
It supports these cellular carriers: Alltel, AT&T (converted to Cingular), CellularOne, Cingular, Nextel, Omnipoint, Qwest, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Virgin Mobile
The problem here is that, you need to know the carrier. Don't worry! The next resource is the solution to the problem.

SearchBug People Finder - Landline or Cellular Phone Number?
"Verify if a phone number is a cellular number or a regular (home or office) land line number. The tool also reports telephone company and location. Works for both US and Canada. We use first 7 digits of the number to give you the most precise results on the Web."
Area Code Decoder serves the same purpose, but is also international.
These two resources above may provide false information due to number portability.

US Cellular
Now I faced another problem. I found out that Google SMS does not support US Cellular, which is what my girlfriend has. But luckily I found this page. If you don't have your own number to put as the From number, put one of the To numbers as the From number. I did that with my girlfriend's number, and it worked! (She replies to me as US Cellular has something like SMS-to-email.)

You can send through email, but it did not work for me.
Teleflip
A simple way is to send plain text email to 2345557777@teleflip.com (replace the number with your 10 digit phone number).
This will automatically find out the carrier, and forward your message to the appropriate address. If you know the carrier (or find out using the second resource above), then you can send an email directly to these email addresses (where phonenumber is the 10 digit phone number):
Former AT&T customers: phonenumber@mmode.com
Alltel: phonenumber@alltelmessage.com OR phonenumber@message.alltel.com
CellularOne: phonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com
Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Omnipoint: phonenumber@omnipointpcs.com
Qwest: phonenumber@qwestmp.com
Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com
Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com

AOL's AIM claims to be able to send IM2SMS messages, though this didn't seem to work for me. "In AIM (or any client that you can log in to AIM with, such as GAIM or Trillian), type +(Number) where number is 1(area code)(7 digit number). For example; an IM to +12223334444 would send a text to (222) 333-4444."

Monkeymaximus | TextNation - Free Text SMS Messaging
"Monkeymaximus \ TextNation allows users to send text messages using our website. Users make a custom text message page that they can link to using AIM, Xanga, Blogs, ICQ, YAHOO!, or just ANY place you can put a Link! We also offer a BuddyList feature so that users can have quick access to text messaging their friends. We now allow users to text unregistered users!"

bitBomb.com: Text Message Your Reminders to your Cell Phone
Here you can schedule messages to be sent to a mobile phone (US/Canada) at a specific date and time. You will need to know the carrier.

Free Web SMS : Sanity Software
"I offer a similar free service on my website and support more carriers than Google (including Canada). You can also specify your Sender ID (unlike Google) and send long messages that are automatically split up into multiple pieces."

#1 Cell Phone Prank Site: Play a Joke on Someone - Pranks.biz
Although this site professes to send prank, you can very well use it to send messages that are not prank/joke. "Get at your friends by bombing their cell phones with text messages, i.e. spam. Be creative with your text message (and time of sending) to ensure a most memorable prank :)"

Living For Jesus

2006-03-10T17:40:00.000+05:30

Download and use this image as a display picture (avatar) in MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, forums, etc.
PNG Version: http://www.fileshack.us/files/1414/LFJ_96.png

Download and use this bigger image for other purposes.
PNG Version: http://www.fileshack.us/files/1414/LFJ.png

Rolling on the Floor Wiki-ing!

2006-02-20T10:39:00.000+05:30

If you really want to get a good laugh, read some "factually accurate" articles from the Uncyclopedia.
Uncyclopedia is a comedic parody of the famous Wikipedia.

Link: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Practice Typing in Firefox

2006-02-17T04:04:00.000+05:30

If you are well versed with the position of the keys on your keyboard, and type fairly well, you can improve your typing skills if you are using Mozilla Firefox Browser (the same may be true for Thunderbird and Netscape... I really don't know).

1) Open the webpage (or HTML file or even TXT file) that contains the text that you want to practice typing on.
2) Press Ctrl+F (or click Edit>Find in This Page...)
3) Make sure the cursor is in the text box in the Find bar that appears below. If you want, check "Match case".
4) Find your favorite paragraph and start typing. The paragraph you type will get selected in green according to how much you type. (Note that if the first word of the paragraph is repeated somewhere before it, the paragraph will begin to be selected on completion of second or third word.)
5) When you make a mistake, the paragraph deselects, the Find box becomes red, and a warning appears in the Find bar. Press backspace key until this condition changes back to the normal green selection.
6) When you complete the paragraph, press Shift+Home and press Backspace. (The idea here is to clear the Find text box and prepare it for the next paragraph.)

TIP: If "Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Accessibility > Begin finding when you begin typing" is checked, you can directly go to step 4 after step 1, and the Find bar will appear automatically.

Enjoy your typing and tell me when you become a ninja typist using only Firefox (or whatever)!!

/YEAR=
•	Instructs the Windows core time function to ignore the year that the computer's real-time clock reports and instead use the one indicated. Thus, the year used in the switch affects every piece of software on the system, including the Windows kernel. Example: /YEAR=2001. (This switch was created to assist in Y2K testing.)