Simple Technical Tips

Send SMS for Free to any country

2011-11-22T22:37:00.001-08:00

JaxtrSMS has introduced free Mobile Texting, Local And International.
You can send messages to all in your address book whether they have the app or not.
It goes direct to SMS inbox and behaves like regular SMS.
Also works on tablets PC's like Motorola XOOM, iPad, Samsun Galaxy Tab etc . Use your own number or buy a new global phone number.

How does it work?
Use JaxtrSMS to send and receive messages with any other mobile phone in the world forFREE.

1. Recipient does not have to be a user
2. Send a text message to any other mobile phone, domestic or international.
3. Use your own phone number

Sorting in Gmail

2011-09-20T23:46:00.001-07:00

Unlike Yahoo Mail or most other email providers, Google's Gmail does not specifically provide any option or feature to sort the emails.
I came across many options though for sorting emails in gmail, while looking for same on the Internet.
Here are some quick tips for sorting emails in gmail -

Sort Gmail by Sender

Use from:sender’s name in Gmail search box

Sort Gmail by Size

Use has:attachment in Gmail search box

Use has:attachment from:me label:sent to quickly sort emails having attachments sent by you. Can be used to clean and reduce the mailbox size.

Sort/Search by Unread Mails

Use is:unread in Gmail search box

Sort by file type
Use filename:pdf (mp3 etc) in Gmail search box

Android Phones Vulnerable to WiFi Attack

2011-05-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

Folks over at Ulm University in Germany have determined that all Android phones running any version below Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread are vulnerable to attacks over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. And since only the Nexus S, and a few other devices have that update onboard, that pretty much means the entire Android user base (99.7%) is at risk.
The German researchers published their findings in a paper entitled "Catching AuthTokens in the Wild: The Insecurity of Google's ClientLogin Protocol." Vulnerability is specific to unencrypted Wi-Fi hot spots, where the team demonstrated an attack that gained access to all items of contacts, calendar events, and private pictures, including those currently being synced. This is done with an impersonation attack, stealing authToken (authentication tokens), markers used to communicate between the Android device and Google services.
By steal authToken, the hackers can theoretically access a variety of other Google services on the phone, at least those that use ClientLogin authentication protocol for its data APIs. The best solution is to upgrade to Android 2.3.4, but upgrades are hard to come by, with both manufacturers and operators lagging far behind the curve.
All is not so bleak though - switch-off automatic synchronization on your device, and don’t use apps, whenever you log on to unencrypted Wi-Fi. Or in other words, don’t log on to an open Wi-Fi network.

Source - http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-and-PDAs/997-percent-of-Android-devices-vulnerable-to_6791.html

Free SMS Reminder Service from Google

2011-01-11T04:38:00.000-08:00

You might have been using google calendar for setting reminders for various events like Birthdays, Marriage anniversaries and other
important tasks.
There is much more to it though - Google also offers to send SMS to your cellphone to remind about the events setup in your calendar, absolutely free.

Though there might be several service providers available offering this service free, but as you can even integrate google calendar with your gmail, using google
calendar as free reminder service makes it more convenient.

It works with almost all telecom circles in India, like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc.

All you have to do is register your mobile phone number with google.
And next time when you add an event to google calendar, you can choose to receive the
reminder on your mobile phone as an SMS, anytime before the event.

Here are the steps to set it up -

Step 1. Go to google calendar settings -

Step 2. Register your mobile number with google -

Step 3. While adding an event/reminder to a date on google calendar, choose SMS as reminders option. You can choose to receive alert as an email and popup as well.

All set. Now jump on that important reminder as an when it comes to you SMS inbox.

Date Picker for Excel Sheets

2011-01-11T04:23:00.000-08:00

Found a nice add-on for Microsoft Excel 2007 that allows you to add a date picker in a excel sheet cell.
It comes really handly when you need to quickly add a date (Current date or any other) in a excel sheet cell. This add-on gives some options to customize as well
like using a cell icon etc.

For details check out MS Excel Date Picker

Download add-on at MS Excel Date Picker add-on download

What is MAC address and how to find it?

2010-06-30T03:57:00.000-07:00

What is MAC address?
The MAC address is a unique value associated with a network adapter. MAC stands for Media Access Control.
The MAC address (also known as the physical address) is your computer's unique hardware number. When you're connected to the Internet from your computer (or host as the Internet protocol thinks of it), a correspondence table relates your IP address to your computer's physical (MAC) address on the LAN. This is how the router knows where to send IP packets destined for your system. MAC addresses are also known as hardware addresses or physical addresses.

MAC addresses are 12-digit hexadecimal numbers (48 bits in length). By convention, MAC addresses are usually written in one of the following two formats:

MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS

MM-MM-MM-SS-SS-SS

The first half of a MAC address contains the ID number of the adapter manufacturer. These IDs are regulated by an Internet standards body (see sidebar). The second half of a MAC address represents the serial number assigned to the adapter by the manufacturer. In the example,

00:A0:C9:14:C8:29

The prefix

00A0C9

indicates the manufacturer is Intel Corporation.

How do I find my computer's MAC address?
It's quite easy to find your PC's MAC address -
The list below summarizes options to find a computer's MAC address:
* Windows 95 and newer: winipcfg
* Windows NT and newer: ipconfig /all
* Linux and some Unix: ifconfig -a
* Macintosh with Open Transport: TCP/IP Control Panel - Info or User Mode/Advanced
* Macintosh with MacTCP: TCP/IP Control Panel - Ethernet icon

Also check this link
and this link.

Data Recovery Software with free License

2010-05-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

In addition to one of my earlier post on Data Recovery tools for free, Here is another option to recover your lost data.
iCare Data Recovery Software is dedicated in most frequently data recover like formatted hard drive, MBR (Mast Boot Record) corrupted, bad boot sector, drive inaccessible, partition unreadable, partition deleted, software operation failure like Partition Magic caused data loss, Ghost failure, virus attacked, etc.
iCare Data Recovery can easily recover files from wrong formatted drives, unexpectedly file deletion, raw drive or raw file system, virus attack, partition deleted, software crash etc. It can recover any deleted files like photos, documents, mp3, outlook file, presentations, and it also works with any type of storage media like hard drive, removable hard drive, digital camera sd card, usb drives, ipod, memory card etc.

You can download the full version of this software from here - Download the Full version here

And the License code is : “2K1XB2X964MPHOCJ8M1RYIJF0OVHFOFH”

Edit your PDF Files for Free

2010-02-11T00:41:00.000-08:00

If your looking for basic editing of your PDF files, Open Office comes very handy. Extremely easy to install and use.
Open office version 3 and above support editing of PDF files. You can download the latest Open Office here. As of date, the latest release is Open Office version 3.2.
Once you download and install Open Office, you would need to download and install 'Sun PDF Import Extension'. It can be downloaded here. To install for windows, you can simply download and dbl-click on the downloaded '.oxt' file. Or else you can open new document (or spreadsheet etc) in Open Office -> go to Tools -> Extension Manager, and install it.
Open 'Draw' (File -> New -> Drawing), then in Draw, simply open the PDF file to edit it.
Best part about Open Office PDF editor is, it retains all the original formatting.

Run Command In Windows

2010-02-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

A comprehensive list of various Run command.

To access go to run (Win + R )

•Accessibility Controls : access.cpl
•Accessibility Wizard : accwiz
•Add Hardware Wizard : hdwwiz.cpl
•Add/Remove Programs : appwiz.cpl
•Administrative Tools control : admintools
•Adobe Acrobat (if installed) : acrobat
•Adobe Designer (if installed) : acrodist
•Adobe Distiller (if installed) : acrodist
•Adobe ImageReady (if installed) : imageready
•Adobe Photoshop (if installed) : photoshop
•Automatic Updates : wuaucpl.cpl
•Bluetooth Transfer Wizard : fsquirt
•Calculator : calc
•Certificate Manager : certmgr.msc
•Character Map : charmap
•Check Disk Utility : chkdsk
•Clipboard Viewer : clipbrd
•Command Prompt : cmd
•Component Services : dcomcnfg
•Computer Management : compmgmt.msc
•Control Panel : control
•Date and Time Properties : timedate.cpl
•DDE Shares : ddeshare
•Device Manager : devmgmt.msc
•Direct X Control Panel (If Installed)* : directx.cpl
•Direct X Troubleshooter : dxdiag
•Disk Cleanup Utility : cleanmgr
•Disk Defragment : dfrg.msc
•Disk Management : diskmgmt.msc
•Disk Partition Manager : diskpart
•Display Properties control : desktop
•Display Properties : desk.cpl
•Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected) control : color
•Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility : drwtsn32
•Driver Verifier Utility : verifier
•Event Viewer : eventvwr.msc
•Files and Settings Transfer Tool : migwiz
•File Signature Verification Tool : sigverif
•Findfast : findfast.cpl
•Firefox (if installed) : firefox
•Folders Properties control : folders
•Fonts control : fonts
•Fonts Folder : fonts
•Free Cell Card Game : freecell
•Game Controllers : joy.cpl
•Group Policy Editor (XP Prof) : gpedit.msc
•Hearts Card Game : mshearts
•Help and Support : helpctr
•HyperTerminal : hypertrm
•Iexpress Wizard : iexpress
•Indexing Service : ciadv.msc
•Internet Connection Wizard : icwconn1
•Internet Explorer : iexplore
•Internet Properties : inetcpl.cpl
•Internet Setup Wizard : inetwiz
•IP Configuration (Display Connection Configuration) : ipconfig /all
•IP Configuration (Display DNS Cache Contents) : ipconfig /displaydns
•IP Configuration (Delete DNS Cache Contents) : ipconfig /flushdns
•IP Configuration (Release All Connections) : ipconfig /release
•IP Configuration (Renew All Connections) : ipconfig /renew
•IP Configuration (Refreshes DHCP & Re-Registers DNS) : ipconfig /
registerdns
•IP Configuration (Display DHCP Class ID) : ipconfig /showclassid
•IP Configuration (Modifies DHCP Class ID) : ipconfig /setclassid
•Java Control Panel (If Installed) : jpicpl32.cpl
•Java Control Panel (If Installed) : javaws
•Keyboard Properties control : keyboard
•Local Security Settings : secpol.msc
•Local Users and Groups : lusrmgr.msc
•Logs You Out Of Windows : logoff
•Malicious Software Removal Tool : mrt
•Microsoft Access (if installed) : access.cpl
•Microsoft Chat : winchat
•Microsoft Excel (if installed) : excel
•Microsoft Frontpage (if installed) : frontpg
•Microsoft Movie Maker : moviemk
•Microsoft Paint : mspaint
•Microsoft Powerpoint (if installed) : powerpnt
•Microsoft Word (if installed) : winword
•Microsoft Syncronization Tool : mobsync
•Minesweeper Game : winmine
•Mouse Properties control : mouse
•Mouse Properties : main.cpl
•Nero (if installed) : nero
•Netmeeting : conf
•Network Connections control : netconnections
•Network Connections : ncpa.cpl
•Network Setup Wizard : netsetup.cpl
•Notepad : notepad
•Nview Desktop Manager (If Installed) : nvtuicpl.cpl
•Object Packager : packager
•ODBC Data Source Administrator : odbccp32.cpl
•On Screen Keyboard : osk
•Opens AC3 Filter (If Installed) : ac3filter.cpl
•Outlook Express : msimn
•Paint : pbrush
•Password Properties : password.cpl
•Performance Monitor : perfmon.msc
•Performance Monitor : perfmon
•Phone and Modem Options : telephon.cpl
•Phone Dialer : dialer
•Pinball Game : pinball
•Power Configuration : powercfg.cpl
•Printers and Faxes control : printers
•Printers Folder : printers
•Private Character Editor : eudcedit
•Quicktime (If Installed) : QuickTime.cpl
•Quicktime Player (if installed) : quicktimeplayer
•Real Player (if installed) : realplay
•Regional Settings : intl.cpl
•Registry Editor : regedit
•Registry Editor : regedit32
•Remote Access Phonebook : rasphone
•Remote Desktop : mstsc
•Removable Storage : ntmsmgr.msc
•Removable Storage Operator Requests : ntmsoprq.msc
•Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof) : rsop.msc
•Scanners and Cameras : sticpl.cpl
•Scheduled Tasks control : schedtasks
•Security Center : wscui.cpl
•Services : services.msc
•Shared Folders : fsmgmt.msc
•Shuts Down Windows : shutdown
•Sounds and Audio : mmsys.cpl
•Spider Solitare Card Game : spider
•SQL Client Configuration : cliconfg
•System Configuration Editor : sysedit
•System Configuration Utility : msconfig
•System File Checker Utility (Scan Immediately) : sfc /scannow
•System File Checker Utility (Scan Once At Next Boot) : sfc /scanonce
•System File Checker Utility (Scan On Every Boot) : sfc /scanboot
•System File Checker Utility (Return to Default Setting) : sfc /
revert
•System File Checker Utility (Purge File Cache) : sfc /purgecache
•System File Checker Utility (Set Cache Size to size x) : sfc /
cachesize=x
•System Information : msinfo32
•System Properties : sysdm.cpl
•Task Manager : taskmgr
•TCP Tester : tcptest
•Telnet Client : telnet
•Tweak UI (if installed) : tweakui
•User Account Management : nusrmgr.cpl
•Utility Manager : utilman
•Windows Address Book : wab
•Windows Address Book Import Utility : wabmig
•Windows Backup Utility (if installed) : ntbackup
•Windows Explorer : explorer
•Windows Firewall : firewall.cpl
•Windows Magnifier : magnify
•Windows Management Infrastructure : wmimgmt.msc
•Windows Media Player : wmplayer
•Windows Messenger : msmsgs
•Windows Picture Import Wizard (need camera connected) : wiaacmgr
•Windows System Security Tool : syskey
•Windows Update Launches : wupdmgr
•Windows Version (to show which version of windows) : winver
•Windows XP Tour Wizard : tourstart
•Wordpad : write

Check Strength of Your Password

2009-08-08T04:11:00.000-07:00

Your online accounts, computer files, and personal information are more secure when you use strong passwords to help protect them.

Here is a small yet useful utility from Microsoft to check the strength of your password.

So each time you decide to change your password for any kind of account, you can use this password strength checker from Microsoft.

Time to sheild your Windows OS

2009-08-08T03:35:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has announced new patches for "critical" Windows bugs that are actively being exploited on the internet, allowing an attacker to take control of your system remotely. Here's how to keep your Windows system protected -

1. Keep your WINDOWS OS updated
Verify that you have the most recent security updates from Microsoft and that AutoUpdate is on.

a) Start Internet Explorer and go to http://update.microsoft.com
b) Check the box at the top right to see Automated Update status. If needed, click to turn ON Automatic Updates from Microsoft.
c) Hit "Express" to install all outstanding high-priority updates.
d) If needed, be sure to reboot to finalize the install of the updates.

2. Keep your ANTIVIRUS and FIREWALL updated

3. Update BROWSERS and APPLICATIONS.
All softwares that interacts with the internet are updated regularly by the publisher as vulnerabilities are discovered. This includes products such as internet browsers, social networking software, mobile device operating system and apps (such as iPhone), Adobe products like Acrobat and Flash, and media players. Staying current with the latest versions is crucial to your system security.

Send emails using your own language

2009-07-06T01:52:00.000-07:00

Quillpad is a free online Indian language typing tool. You can type in Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Nepali. For example, when you type 'aap kaise hain' in Hindi, Quillpad will convert it directly into Devanagari script. If you write a word like 'vishesh', first sh should become 'श' and the second sh should become 'ष'. Quillpad will intelligently do that for you. No need to use shift keys or to memorize any key mappings. So 'राष्ट्रपति' can be written by typing 'rashtrapati' or 'raashtrapathi'. Quillpad can also predict if multiple words are possible for your input. You can click on the word to select from those options. In addition Quillpad allows you to type English words freely in between Hindi words. It intelligently transliterates them into Hindi.

www.quillpad.com/hindi
www.quillpad.com/kannada
www.quillpad.com/malayalam
www.quillpad.com/marathi
www.quillpad.com/tamil
www.quillpad.com/telugu

Type some word of your regional language in English. You will get the exact word in your language.

Example :

Type it as : eppadi irukkeenga?
You will get : எப்படி இருக்கீங்க?

You can copy and paste these words in any document or mail.

Recover deleted or lost Data from Hard Disk, Digital Camera, Memory Card or USB Flash Drives for free

2009-07-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

There are times when you might have, intentionally or unintentionally, or may be accidentally, deleted your important images, documents or some other data from your computer's Hard Disk, Or say Photographs from your Digital Camera (Memory Stick, Memory Card) Or from USB Flash Drive.
Recuva comes to rescue in such situations. It is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
Recuva is free to download. You can download it from here.

Gtalk (Google Talk) Shortcuts

2009-06-08T00:16:00.000-07:00

Keyboard shortcuts------------->

* CTRL + Mousewheel up/down: Change the font size in a conversation window.
* CTRL + E: Center text
* CTRL + R: Right justify text
* CTRL + L or CTRL+J: Left justify text
* F9: Open Gmail to send an email to the person you talk to
* F11: Start a call
* F12: Stop the current call
* ESC: Close the current window

Conversation---------------------->

* Some smileys are converted by Google Talk: :-| :-O :-x :-P :-D ;-) :-( :-) B-) :'( :| :O :x :P :D :) :( :)
* To write bold text, type *your gtalk message*
* To write italic text, type _your gtalk message_

Startup parameters (go to Start/Run and type "c:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe" /one_parameter_from_the_list_below)

* /nomutex: allows you to open more than one instance of Google Talk.
* /register: write Google Talk settings in the registry.
* /checkupdate: check for new version.
* /factoryreset: revert to default settings.
* /mailto email@gmail.com: send an email with Gmail.
* /diag: start Google Talk in diagnostic mode.

Lock or Hibernate your Computer without using Keyboard

2009-06-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you may have to lock your computer with the mouse instead of keyboard for say the keyboard is not working, or if there is any other problem using ctrl+alt+del keys.

Try this for a quick and fast way to Lock or Hibernate your Computer

For Locking :
Right click on desktop.... new..... shortcut .....
paste %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
click next
You can name this shortcut as 'Lock My Computer'. Just double click to use it.

For Hibernating :
Right click on desktop.... new..... shortcut .....
Paste %windir%\system32\RUNDLL32.EXE PowrProf.dll,SetSuspendState
click next
You can name this shortcut as 'Hibernate'. Just double click to use it.

Keep these shortcuts on Desktop or alternatively drag and drop it to Quick Launch.

How to recover and read data from scratched CDs

2009-05-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

Most of us might have had trouble with a scratched CD. In the case of data CDs (CD-ROM), the drive cannot properly read the CD, giving rise to reading errors. In the case of audio CDs, the CD skips when we play it.

The first thing to do when coming across a CD with a read error is to clean it, to check whether it the error is not being caused by a dirty surface. You can even wash the CD gently with a little detergent, using your fingers to clean it (avoid sponges, since they can scratch the CD). If the error persists, try reading or playing the CD on another drive. If another drive (or CD player, in the case of audio CDs) gives the same result (read error or skipping, in the case of audio CDs), it will mean that the CD is scratched.

Looking against the light, the recording surface (the flip side of the label) of a CD with this kind of trouble will allow you to easily see one or more existing scratches. A CD's data is recorded on a metal layer inside it, a silvered layer on commercial CDs, which is usually golden on CD-Rs. This metal layer is inset in a transparent plastic covering (polycarbonate), used to protect the CD's metal layer and allow printing a label on the side not used for reading.

A CD-ROM drive or CD player utilizes a laser beam to read the metal layer. This laser beam crosses the plastic layer and reads the metal layer. If the plastic layer is scratched, the beam will be unable to pass through it, resulting in a read error or skipping the music. In other words, the data to be read are still in the CD, the trouble lies in the layer of plastic.

As the CD's contents are preserved, a scratched CD can be recovered by polishing its plastic surface. If, after carrying out the above cleansing, the CD persists in giving reading errors, just polish the CD with toothpaste. That's right, toothpaste. It works wonders, and you won't spend a fortune buying professional cleaning kits. Polish the scratches with a cotton swab, rubbing gently the paste-imbued swab over the scratches until they disappear or until you notice that you have removed them as far as possible. Sometimes the paste may cause new scratching, but it will be merely superficial and easily removed. After clearing the scratches, wash the CD in water.

If there are still scratches that the toothpaste has not managed to removed, use a metal polish (Brasso) in the same way as described above. Finally, rub Vaseline on the CD, very gently (do not press hard), from moving out from the centre to the rim.

The last step will be testing the CD. If it starts working properly, great. If not, repeat the above procedure, looking for the scratch that is causing the error and concentrating your polishing efforts on it.

Originally at http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/77

Convert (encode) and Play any media file for Free

2009-04-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer) is a free utility tool that provides a simple, yet very efficient GUI to convert to and from almost all media files and plays them too. It is a easy to use Multimedia Encoder and a Multimedia Player.
More from their website -
SUPER © "The Player" surpasses any known player by supporting just any Multimedia file format. SUPER © plays files that cannot be played with WMP or even other libavcodec-based players like MPC and VLC.
SUPER © also plays and saves Internet Media Streams of different protocols ( mms:// rtsp:// http://).
SUPER © "The Encoder" is the fastest and simplest tool to encode full length movies to any other format without any time or function limitation.
The best thing about SUPER is it is free to download and user. No trial or evaluation versions. SUPER © does NOT require any additional external codec to be installed, absolutely nothing. Necessary codecs are built in!
Few more converters are given at this link

Free up some space on your computer's Hard disk running Windows Vista

2009-04-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

I've Windows Vista Home Premium OS on my laptop. I was trying to find some space to copy a big file on any partition on my Laptop's drives when I noticed that C:/ drive is left with almost no space despite being a 25 GB partition and no secondary software (other than default OS software) installed on it. Neither it has any big media file or anything else.
I was wondering what could it be eating all the space on C:/ drive! When I started looking for help at several forums, got some tips, tried and was able to free up around 25% of space on C:/ drive. Here is what I tried and worked for me -

Tip 1 - Use 'Disk Cleanup'. A utility that comes bundled with the Windows. In Vista, click on start, type Disk, select Disk Cleanup from the filtered list and select option to clean for all users.

Tip 2 - Use 'vsp1cln.exe' utility , If you have SP1 installed. Typically You can find it under C:/Windows/System32 folder, or else you can go to Start->Run, type 'vsp1cln.exe'. It will do the rest for you.

Tip 3 - Disable Hibernate option, using the Disk Cleanup utility. It might free up at least 1 GB of space.

Tip 4 - Regularly cleanup the 'Temporary Internet Files' and 'Cache and Cookies' in your browser. (Tools->Internet options)

Download books and copy text from Google Books

2009-01-09T00:52:00.000-08:00

Google books provides thousands of of books, magazines, and journal titles from various authors for online reading.
Great if it could be possible to download them for offline reading, printing or copy text to use somewhere else as a reference. That's really possible however not all of the books on google books could be downloaded or pinted.
Here is how to find out whether you can download/print/copy text from a book available for online reading at google books.
Step 1 - Go to Advanced Book Search option in google book search
Step 2 - On the Advanced Book Search page, select 'Full view only' option (it's a radio button) as 'Search'.

Check this example.

Step 3 - As a search result after step 2, you should see this in the right pane of your browser's window displaying the book.

Step 4 - Go ahead and download or view full text to copy and use the book.

Cheers Web Developers! HTML5 is here

2008-12-30T17:46:00.000-08:00

Introduced and owned by WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) HTML incorporates WebForms 2.0 .
If you are kind of new Web developer who has been struggling to create a neat and nice looking web page or blog or website, or a advanced developer looking for an easy and nice way to properly place and manage your web page's page elements, HTML 5 is going to make your life a lot easier.
With introduction to new elements and attributes like

, <header>, <footer> etc., it is going to save us a lot of life while keeping the HTML clean as well.
Also, from it's previous version HTML 4.01, few elements have been either dropped or deprecated like, <font>, <center> etc. These are going to be handled b use of CSS going forward.

Few new elements (as taken from wikipedia) -
- New elements – section, video, progress, nav, meter, time, aside, canvas
- New input attributes – dates and times, email, url
- New attributes – ping, charset, async
- Global attributes (that can be applied for every element) – id, tabindex, repeat

However, this version of HTML 5 has not been officially released yet and still at the draft stage. We could expect few more changes in the final draft.

Download videos from Youtube in your preferred format

2008-12-26T02:50:00.000-08:00

Youtube has an excellent collection of videos ranging from movie songs to speeches by Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and so on. If you have been wondering how you could see them offline and if it is possible to convert them in your preferred format like .mpg, .avi, .wmv etc from that strange looking .flv extension. There are many options available over the Internet but few are very straight forward and really easy to use.

One of these website that enable you to download videos not only from Youtube but from other video hosting websites like Google Video, iFilm (now known as Spike) etc, is Video Downloader. It gives you all three solutions to your requirement of downloading, converting and viewing offline it on a media player like Windows Media Player or VLC.
All you need to do is provide the url of the song you want to download and select the website from the drop down box provided, from where you are trying to download the video.

Few other good website are Download Youtube Videos (only Youtube) and http://www.videodl.org/

Another interesting website is OUIDEO that lets you even search for Youtube videos, play and download too as .mp4 file.
One more great website is FilePop that saves you one step for converting the video from .flv to your choice of format. You can simply provide the url of the youtube video and choose what format you want to download it as, and it gets you the video in that format.

Activate Administrator Account in Windows Vista

2008-12-22T04:32:00.000-08:00

There were couple of reasons which forced me to enable and activate the administrator account in Windows Vista (Home Premium) otherwise generally it is advisable not to use the administrator account for each and every activity on your computer as it make your computer more prone to virus attack.
1st reason was installation of Anti Virus which required a true Administrator account log on.
2nd reason was annoying (yet useful alerts) UAC (User Access Control) pop ups when you run any executable.
3rd reason was that you don't have to run most of the programs by selecting 'Run as Administrator'.
And there may be more reasons as well.
Now coming back to 'How to enable, show, activate, use, logon to a true Windows Vista administrator account' -

Step 1 - Log on as a normal user to you vista
Step 2 - Click on Start and then Search for cmd.
Step 3 - In the search result pane, right click on cmd and select 'Run As Administrator'.
Step 4 - In the command prompt window, type this command

net user administrator pa$$word

Note: a) This command will set the pa$$word as your login password for administrator account
b) You can type any other password instead of pas$$word that you want
c) If you want to use a blank password you can skip this step # 4 and directly go to step # 5

Step 5 - Type the following command and press Enter to activate and enable Administrator account:

net user administrator /active:yes

It should display the following message

The command completed successfully

If no success message is displayed, repeat the process from Step # 1 again.
Step 6 - Logout from Windows Vista by choosing restart or switch user
Step 7 - Voila! you get an extra icon for Administrator on the login screen
Step 8 - Click on Administrator icon and logon with the password you have mentioned in Step # 4 above

You are done!

Critical Security Update for Internet Explorer MS08-078

2008-12-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

On 17th Dec 2008, Microsoft has released a critical security update for Internet Explorer. This out-of-band security update fixes a JavaScript-related vulnerability that's being actively exploited through hacked Web sites. This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, and Internet Explorer 7.
For complete details see here .

Modify Default Template in MS Word

2008-12-18T21:59:00.000-08:00

Here is something i tried while working with MS Word.
The problem i faced was, everytime i used create a new word doc, i had to repeat some of the formatting stuff like inserting page number, setting font etc.
The solution i tried was to find out and modify the default template that MS word offers you to edit andsave as a word document. It's called normal.dot. Here are the steps to modify it -
1. Open MS Word.
2. File -> Open -> In the open dialog box go to this location in you machine C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
and select Normal.dot (Make sure in open file dialog box you have Document Templates (*.dot) selected against 'Files of Type').
3. Open this template and do whatever setting you want to have by default whenever you open MS Word to create a new doc (like font, font size, page numbers etc.)
4. Save and close.
That's it!
Now next time you open MS Word, you will see all the setting done in effect.