in coherent lapses

Beyond Google

2007-02-28T16:58:00.000+05:30

Other facets of the world’s favourite search engine.

Circa 2004 onwards, the computing universe, as you may be aware, is mightily smitten with one search standard: Google. www.google.com has grown to become a ubiquitous feature of contemporary Internet culture. Nay, it is well nigh a synonym for Web searches. So most of us look upon Google so fixedly as a search engine that we fail to acknowledge several other specialised features that have grown around Google itself. Here’s a peek at some of these.

Special Searches
www.google.com/options/specialsearches.html
This enables you to confine you quest to specific topics. Namely: Microsoft, Apple Macintosh, Linux, BSD, and the U.S. Government. The Public Service Search offers rummaging around in educational institutions and non-profit organizations worldwide. Those interested in US education can use the University Search function here. This facilitates searching for things like admissions information, course schedules, or alumni news out there.

Alerts
www.google.com/alerts/
Google Alerts are wonderful little e-mail updates or alerts you can set up for yourself for the latest relevant Google results (news, articles, info etc.). The alerts are based on your query or topic choice. You can keep tabs on specific industry news, business competitors, celebrities, products, sports… whatever. To create a Google Alert, you enter the topic you wish to monitor, pick the type of source (news, blogs, web, groups, or comprehensive), how often do you want the updates (ranging from as it happens to once a week), and bang out your e-mail Id. Voila!

Book Search
http://books.google.com/
From the annals of academia. This microsite lets you search book texts, provides snippets, locates ones that interest you, and even helps you buy them. An 'About this book' gives you basic bibliographic data like title, author, publication date, length and subject. Booking viewing varies between, no previews, snippet views, limited previews to full view. If a book is out of copyright, or publisher permitted, you can browse the entire book from beginning to end, as often as you want. If the book is in the public domain, you can also download it.

Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/
An uncomplicated method to seek sources on scholarly literature. Here you can dig around in several disciplines—across peer-reviewed papers (in any area of research), theses, books, citations, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. A must visit site for any and every persevering academic. Because here you find yourself standing on the shoulders of giants.

Suggest
www.google.com/webhp?complete=1
This makes searching easier for many of us by volunteering suggestions, even as you type. For example, as you are typing in “rabbi” and you will get a selectable drop-down offering you possibilities that will straight away taper down your search from “rabbit” to “rabbi shergill” to the “rabbi trusts”. Similarly, keying in "prog," may get you refinements like "programming," "programming languages," "progesterone," or "progressive." You simply choose one by scrolling up or down the list of alternatives with the arrow keys or mouse and select what you want. Simplifies our drilling for information a lot, doesn’t that?

Other Google Tools

Blog Search
www.google.com/blogsearch
Perform Google searches focused on blogs.

Directory
www.google.com/dirhp
The World Wide Web prearranged by topic into categories.

Earth
http://earth.google.com/
Combines satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic infor at your fingertips.

Froogle
http://froogle.google.com/
To find products for sale online, or even check the prices of products abroad.

Language Tools
www.google.com/language_tools
Let’s you search specific languages or countries. And translates.

Maps
http://maps.google.com/
Hmmm… Great only for some parts of world.

Patent Search
www.google.com/patents
Search the full text of 7 million U.S. patent corpus and find ones that interest you.

Trends
www.google.com/trends
See what the world is searching for and find out how your interests compare.

Video
http://video.google.com/
An open online video directory you can search, watch and buy an ever-growing collection of TV shows, movies, music videos, documentaries, personal productions and more.

Windows Vista: A Beginner’s Guide

2007-02-21T17:00:00.000+05:30

Essentials you should know before booting up to Microsoft’s new OS.

Long awaited, much delayed and greatly anticipated Microsoft’s hefty upgrade to the Windows order of operating system is finally here. Windows Vista a milestone that has taken Microsoft over five years to reach. And it arrives with the assured gait of being far more advanced and robust an operating system than its venerable sibling Win XP. While a spanking new graphical user interface is its shiniest promise, security and stability are its stoutest pledge. And here is an essential skinny to this fat upgrade.

What new does Windows Vista offer?
There are many new genies in the Vista bottle. Here are some of the most vital ones.

Windows Aero: A redesigned GUI that works and looks better with juicy eye candy like translucent windows, “live” thumbnails and animations.

Windows Shell: A whole new approach to the OS with a new range of organization, navigation, and search capabilities, no Windows Explorer task pane and an altered Start.

Instant Search: It is not as instant as greased lightening but it much, much faster and much more diligent than before.

Windows Sidebar: A new side panel that features user selected gadgets to display/run/control various little applets for the weather, news etc. on your desktop.

Internet Explorer 7: An improved web browser more secure, RSS capable and with a tabbed interface.
Windows Media Player 11: Big rework here with a new interface for the media library, photo display and organization, search-as-you-type capabilities, and music sharing.

Windows Defender and Firewall: Advanced anti-spyware and a two-way firewall have now been incorporated within the OS.

Windows Mail: A replacement for Outlook Express, this offers better stability, real time search, junk mail filtering and anti-phishing.

Windows Calendar: A new system-wide calendar and task management tool.

Speech Recognition: Completely integrated with the OS. It offers a wide and flexible set of commands and extensive control capabilities for voice activation and control.

ReadyBoost: A temporary performance booster that uses any available flash memory for disk caching.

ReadyDrive: Enables PCs with hybrid drives (that integrate non-volatile flash memory with a traditional hard drive) to boot faster, resume from hibernation faster, and preserve battery power.

Windows SideShow: Allows for additional displays on laptops and Windows Mobile devices.

Windows Photo Gallery: A photo and movie library management application. Also imports, edits, creates slideshows.

Windows DVD Maker: A natural companion program to Windows Movie Maker for creation of video DVDs.

Windows Media Center: Earlier a version of XP (Windows XP Media Center), this is now part of Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions.

Backup and Restore Center: For data backup (complete, periodic, incremental, or only changes) and restoration.

Network Center: Eases networking, network mapping and troubleshooting for PCs and devices in home and business setups with a single interface.

SuperFetch: Enables frequently used programmes and files to load faster by storing them in memory.
DirectX 10: The latest multimedia application programming interfaces (APIs) for gaming and multimedia for enhanced 3-D graphics-rendering capabilities and improved gaming.

What are Vista's hardware requirements?
To install Vista Home Basic edition, you need at least an 800-MHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM, 800 by 600 SVGA graphics, 20GB HDD with at least 15GB free, DVD-ROM drive, and audio output.

If you want all the bells and whistles that Vista's Aero GUI can offer on the other Vista editions, 1GB of RAM, 40 GB of HDD with at least 15 GB available, a graphics card that can handle at least DirectX 9 graphics APIs with Pixel Shader 2.0 3D texturing, supports a Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver and at least 128MB of graphics memory, with 32 bits per pixel support is what is needed.

How do I know if my current PC is Vista ready?
Point your browser to Microsoft’s Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor for a thorough check. Or stop by at PC Pitstop for fast comparison between what you have and you ought to have.

Can I upgrade Vista over my current Windows installation or should start with a clean PC?
You can install Vista to replace your existing Windows OS (called an in-place upgrade). But it is not recommended. All kinds of complications can arise from old apps and legacy drivers poking their snouts in to cause system conflicts and inexplicable errors at a later date. So back up your data and install Vista on a clean slate.

Healthy Bytes

2007-01-24T17:05:00.000+05:30

Freeware muscle for the health conscious.

May be you know this, maybe you don’t. Our spinal cord is less then two feet in length and has diameter of a finger, but contains over 10 billion nerve cells. Our nose can detect 50,000 different smells and our eyes can detect more than 10,000,000 different colors. Our stomach produces a new lining every 3 days to avoid digesting itself in its own acid--acid that is strong enough to dissolve razorblades! Our sneeze can exceed 100 mph; our eye muscles can contract in less than 1/100th of a second; our thighbones are stronger than concrete; and our brain cells can hold 5 times more information than Encyclopedia Britannica… With 100 trillion cells, 35 million digestive glands, 5 million hair follicles, and 60,000 miles of blood vessels, the human body is an amazingly complex creation.

To mind, monitor and minister this astounding formulation of organs, tissues, bones and multicellular eukaryote that we are made up of, here is a smart little set of freeware apps for the health conscious.

Blood Pressure Tracker
www.soundtells.com
Designed in accordance with American Heart Association guidelines, this uncomplicated programme allows you to maintain an accurate record of your blood pressure levels. The program automatically saves systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and time of measurement and provides all historical data. Functions include the ability to add comments, data export, and compatibility and syncing with mobile devices.

Exertrack
www.exertrack.com
This exercise performance management system allows you to create your exercise sets and schedules, update and modify these routines, and track your progress. It connects to the Exertrack Network to update your information, periodically analyse your performance, and get you advice on how and when to change and tweak your training to achieve optimum results.

First Aid Basics
www.healthp.info
A nifty little programme that provides basic information on first aid—from CPR, infarctions, pains, bites, stings, fractures, disjoints, to hypothermia and frostbites. There is a section on bandages, plasters, medicines and what to stock in a first aid kit. A segment on prevention details how to avoid injuries and infections. A video presentation on how to perform CPR and a glossary of common terms and links to useful websites is also included.

Food File
www.foodfileonline.com
This is actually an online food database and calorie counter. The nutritional information here has been compiled by the US Department of Agriculture, Nutrient Data Laboratory. Select a food; the proportion of fats, proteins and carbohydrates it contains are displayed, along with total calories and more detailed nutritional information. Also available: Food facts for people following low fat, low carb (Atkins/South Beach) or low sodium diets.

Glucose Tracker
www.soundtells.com
An essential one for sugar daddies who need to keep track of their glucose levels regularly. Along with the glucose level the proggie automatically saves the relationship to your meal and time of measurement. The tracker can prove to be an excellent tool for longitudinal trends analysis of glucose levels in the long term and associated drug dosage adjustments.

KiloCalc
http://kilocalc.inobe.qarchive.org
If you are on a food regimen, you need to count your calories constantly. KiloCalc connects you to multiple food databases on the Internet and helps you build and maintain a large, precise and complete nutritional database for yourself and your family. You can find and add nutritional values of food items as you please. A slider let’s you adjust food weight and recalculate nutritional values.

Recipe Manager
www.nutritionanalyser.com/recipe_manager/recipe_manager.htm
This helps you organise your recipes and food and assists in analyzing nutritional values of your food, recipes and meals. It contains a 6,000 ingredient database for customisation of recipes and over 30 nutrient (micronutrients, minerals and vitamins) values for analysis. No butter chickan or vada paus of course.

Recipes 3000
www.yourfamilysoftware.com
Another one for the belly, though nothing really scrumptious. Here you can browse, print and search some 5,500 free recipes along and add and edit your own creations. You can create an unlimited number of recipe books and also import concoctions you find on the Net.

The Runner's Log
www3.telus.net/public/whumeniu
Fond of jogging? Try raising the bar for your lower limbs further with an easy to use running log keeper like this one that provides a quick overview of your running. Highlights include multiple runs per day, up to five weeks at a glance of your runs, training schedules, distance (in km as well as miles) and shoe-usage tracking.

Weight Tracker
www.soundtells.com
If you need to chart you weight loss/gain stats, download this. With oversized numbers for easy data entry, it displays the average and maximum weights day by day. Comments (like sickness etc.) can be easily entered via dropdown. All data can be exported to a text file or CSV file (comma delimited text file) for mailing, backup, archival, and editing.

Star Gazing

2007-01-17T17:11:00.000+05:30

Surfing the best astronomy sites to unravel the mysteries of Deep Space.

“Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn’t the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on a map…”
--Vincent Van Gogh, 1880

Some 126 years and eons of technological advancements hence, we are still asking ourselves the same question. And mind you, astronomy is one of the oldest sciences known to man. Even when humans roamed the earth as nomads, they read the stars--to tell time and the seasons, to move their herds and plan their harvests. Centuries before Columbus sailed the Blue guided by the Pole Star, ancient peoples of the Old World—Mediterranean civilisations, Babylonians, Egyptians—as the earliest seafarers on Planet Earth gazing at the heavens learnt to make it their principle navigation aid.

This study and obsession with this Grand Majestic Clockwork of the Spheres and Celestial Space that surrounds us has resulted in much research, many tomes, and multiple websites. This week, nearly 400 years after Galileo first observed the heavens through a telescope, let us whiz by some of the best remote explorations of the cosmos that cyberspace has to offer.

HubbleSite
http://hubblesite.org
www.spacetelescope.org
Synonymous with the most incredible images of universe, the 11,110 kg, bus-sized, solar powered Hubble Telescope is the world's first space-based optical telescope. It hurtles past us every 97 minutes at a speed of 28,000 kmph (8 km/sec) in a low-Earth orbit (569 km altitude). Launched into outer space from the Discovery space shuttle in 1990--and named after astronomer Edwin Hubble--the telescope has a mission duration of 20 years. To savour some of the amazing images the Hubble beams home in the last three years of its lifetime, loads of exciting information (decanted from the 120 GB it transmits every week), and an understanding of the many mysteries of the universe, check out this wonderful site run by the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Exploratorium - Top Ten
www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/cool/astronomy.html
A mother lode site that leads you onto some of superb historical webpages about outer space research. Probe deep and you will come upon sites like NASA Jet Propulsion Labs quest for another Earth, PlanetQuest(http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm), Amazing Space Explorations (http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/index.shtml), Solar Folklore (http://solar-center.stanford.edu/folklore/folklore.html) and lots of fascinating information on phenomena, myths and legends.

Space
www.space.com
Our universe was born a “big bang” some 13.7 billion years ago. Scientists believe that if all the events in the history of the universe until now were squeezed into 24 hours, the Earth wouldn’t form until late afternoon and humans would have existed for only 2 seconds. You’ll learn about all this as well as space flights, space views, night skies, space tech etc. at this awesome site. Bookmark it as a must visit--even if you are just a wannabe space buff.

Astronomy Blinklist
www.blinklist.com/tag/astronomy
A super duper listing of the newest hottest, and most happening astronomy websites. You find links on everything astronomical--from Sunita Williams adventures aboard the space shuttle, to what doomed the Mars probe, to current dope on meteor showers, to animations on the formation of the galaxies, to websites on black holes, to astronomy software and online ware and planetariums, to some neat astro blogs.

Top Ten Astronomy Images of 2006
www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/12/27/the-top-ten-astronomy-images-of-2006
A collection of beautiful space imagery on astronomer, teacher, lecturer and all-around science junkie, Phil Plait’s blog. The images have been scoped from NASA (www.nasa.gov), APOD (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod), the ESA (www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html), BAUT (www.bautforum.com), and dozens of professional and amateur websites. Other pages on the site are devoted to “airing out myths and misconceptions in astronomy and related topics”. Will help rub star dust out of your bewildered eyes.

What is out there? Where did it come from? What does it all mean? Point you’re your little browser to these get a hint of the astounding cosmic concert playing all around us. It is quite coherent, yet quite incomprehensible. Like this little piece of verse by a little 10-year old called Marvin Mercer:
My heart trembles like a poor leaf,
The planets whirl in my dreams.
The stars press against my window,
I rotate in my sleep.
My bed is a warm planet.

Other Great Lodestars
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~akerr/astrowebsites.html
http://www.worldbestwebsites.com/science.htm
http://www.astronomylinks.biz/

The Innovation Mantra

2007-01-10T16:24:00.000+05:30

Adapting, evolving, innovating… Freeware grows up.

Ever heard of the term “bat walking”? Well, it is a nocturnal activity indulged in by bug-eyed humanoid insomniacs and batty naturalists scouting for bats (those nasty looking winged mammals of the Chiropetra order). Instead of binoculars, the bat walker breed carry high-frequency listening devices to monitor their subjects' echolocation activities. I find myself congenitally very similar to bat walkers in my nocturnal routines. Only I equip myself with a high-bandwidth Internet locomotion contraption to get a fix on the IP location of innovative and adaptive technological coding activity across various latitudes. Here are a few of my recent discoveries…

Democracy Player
http://participatoryculture.org
www.getdemocracy.com
DP is a new wave desktop app for watching internet TV. A free and open source programme, it improves and enhances the video over the Internet experience by letting you subscribe to video RSS feeds, podcasts, or video blogs, or explore free Net TV channels. It allows you to download and save video from YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video etc. You can watch your video downloads full screen, one after the other by arranging them in a playlist in a single app.

Touted as the only player you need on your PC, DP plays QuickTime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID etc. formats. It permits you to browse and organise your video collection as well as generate playlists. Wah bhai wah! Everything—including the interface—is quite hunky dory, but watch what the narrow nostrils of your bandwidth permit!

Hamachi
http://www.hamachi.cc
If you want to set up a personal little Virtual Private Network of your own, this is it. (A VPN is a private network that employs public telecommunication infrastructure but maintains privacy via protocols and security procedures.) An awesomely tidy piece of code, Hamachi sits unobtrusively in the background and manages secure (AES-256 encrypted) connections between a group of PCs that you approve. Available for Windows XP, 2000 and Linux. Remote desktop dalliances, file sharing fellowships, global gaming… that’ll be a good VPN beginning.

Surprisingly, you don’t have to get your noddy neural noodle in a twist with gibberish like IPSec, SSH, SSL, PPTP while setting this up… Hamachi requires virtually zero configuration and is up and running in minutes! The graphical user interface is easy to use and a first-timers wizard explains how to get things done. Go man, go…

StrokeIt
www.tcbmi.com/strokeit
Nope, this is not about petting your fur-faced (Tommy, Tipsy, Tipu?) canine companion. StrokeIt is “mouse gesture” recognition software. Mouse gestures are uncomplicated symbols that you "draw" on your computer screen using your mouse. This software identifies the gesture and performs the "action" associated with that gesture, thereby providing you shortcuts and saving you the time/effort (and the carpal tunnel syndrome) of wading-clicking through menus.

For each gesture recognised, StrokeIt executes a user-defined set of commands within the active application. It is pre-programmed with over 80 gestures for the more ubiquitous programs like Photoshop, Firefox, Internet Explorer, WinRAR etc. But trust me you can easily train it to recognize mouse gestures for any software—as well as customise it to your suit your needs.

Songbird
www.songbirdnest.com
Find that an odd name? Then what say you for its developer’s moniker--Pioneers of the Inevitable! But that’s beside the point. Songbird is a rather radical desktop Web media player, browser cum jukebox. It integrates your local and Web music libraries into one amalgamated audio player. Yes, you can play audio files directly off the Web and add them to you playlists as well.

Some of you will find it quite akin to iTunes, but it is much more mature and much faster. Some of you will find it quite akin to Winamp in supporting extensions and skins (or should we say feathers?), but it is in quite a different league. Just try the search-and play-on-the-spot feature and you will love it. Gripe zone? Stability.

The Coolest Gadgets of 2006

2007-01-03T15:33:00.000+05:30

Nintendo DS Lite
www.nintendo.com/channel/ds
Even as heavy metal gaming consoles like the Xbox and the PS3 begin to smother our sense and sensibilities, the sleek and diminutive Nintendo's DS Lite stands out and stands tall. With its handheld portability, WiFi-enabled gameplay, touch screen interface, a wide array of games, Game Boy Advance backward compatibility, dual screens, and in-built microphone, the NDS is sure the coolest gaming doodad ever to ensconce in your pocket. And what with an Opera web browser in the offing, you'll whistling Dixie in cyber space soon as well with this one.

Logitech Wireless DJ Music System
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,crid=2653,contentid=11828
This amazing little thingie allows you to stream (and control) the digital music squatting in your PC to your stereo, sitting virtually anywhere your house. MP3s, WMAs, iTunes, Internet radio waves, podcasts jabber—whatever. Its “long-range remote” abilities let you browse through your PC’s entire music medley on its backlit LCD screen--even see what's playing, or lined up for the ear drums. And no, it doesn’t require a network snaking across your home to twiddle with the play, shuffle, volume or mute buttons on this one.

Creative’s Zen Vision:M
www.creative.com/products/mp3/zenvisionm
With all ears and eyeballs trained solely on the iPod, it is but natural for most of us to play possum to the Zen Vision:M. But hark this, here’s a very able MP3/video playing competitor to the Apple’s zing thing. Cos the 2.5 inch screens plays almost any type of video to throw at it, it makes great sound, shows excellent video, squeezes out more life than the iPod from its juice pack, plus features an FM tuner.. PDA functions, voice recording, big screen entertainment with a video out connection—yeah, it does all that too.

Nokia N95
www.nokia.com/nseries/index.html#home
It is very tough not to be intimidated by Nokia’s current flagship. A unique two-way slide form factor, 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss optic, auto-focus cam, DVD-like quality video, WLAN, 3D stereo sound, 4GB hard drive of internal storage, TV out, 60 MB of RAM, a microSD card slot for expansion. The acronyn alphabet soup support includes: HSDPA, 3.5G, 3.6Mbps download speeds, UMTS, GPRS, DGE, SIP, GPS... Obviously there is Bluetooth, infrared, USB connectivity. Total KO. No adjectives required.

Sony PlayStation 3
www.playstation.com
The ultimate next-gen gadget for hi-def gaming. It plays Blu-ray movies alongwith standard DVDs, does WiFi, figures a 60GB hard drive, has a PSP-like user-friendly interface, no external power supply, HDTV support, built-in memory card readers, is backward-compatible with PS2 and PS1 games, online play is free, Bluetooth support for wireless controllers and accessories is acomin’. At almost 50,000 INR you may need to break quite few piggy banks to own this. But look at it as just collateral damage.

2006 Unplugged

2006-12-27T15:38:00.000+05:30

Looking back at the year gone by…

Another year has flown past. For the tech world, 2006 will go down the almanac as a chapter entitled Lage Raho Munna Bhai, not Dhoom 2. It was a year in which: Wireless technologies like WiFi and Bluetooth made it as household vocab. Microsoft finally delivered a long awaited offspring, IE 7. Cell phones trilled to the sound of music, grew gobs of memory, and delicious displays to slay the iPod; but couldn’t. Intel actually appeared in the sanctum santorum of the Mac. Firefox 2 chugged in as promised and chaffed the competition. Shiny new Apples with fresh cores blossomed forth…

Furthermore, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), led by Skype (with its over 120 million users), could be heard loud and clear. Sony PS3 powered in to stun. LCD panels wrestled plasmas and their own price tags to capture eyeballs. YouTube and Google Video enriched our online lives as video sharing became a runaway hit. MySpace and the blogsphere flourished and matured. Nintendo Wii began winding itself around non-gaming hearts. And the much delayed, eagerly anticipated 100-tonne gorilla, Microsoft Vista arrived... well almost.

Yet, perhaps the single biggest advent of 2006 was the proliferation of multicore processing. Over five years after IBM gave us the first dual-core processor, the multicore species began to swamp the computing world in 2006 from all directions. Led by thousands of Windows PCs and hundreds of Apple Macintosh machines running Intel plural pacemakers (Core 2 Duo), followed by the Microsoft XBox 360 (with three-core processors), and chased by Sony's PlayStation 3 (powered by the Cell processor with an eight core design)... Keeping in mind Moore Law (the 1965 observation/prognostication by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits on a chip doubled every 18 months), this is obviously just the beginning... A sign of impending times and future thingies to come.

On another front, maybe the most thrilling strides—maturation, frankly speaking--came about in the realm of cyber space with Web 2.0. Web 2.0 generally refers to a second generation of architecture, application development, and services available on the World Wide Web that has let people move towards collaborative computing and information sharing online. This is giving users a richer and more interactive computing experience that is getting akin to software applications rather than merely providing simplistic and static Web pages of the first era. Web 2.0 has led to a burgeoning of web service APIs, AJAX sites, web syndication, blogs, wikis… Yeah, there is something new out there every hour. Where is all this headed? Towards mass publishing, global interaction, social networking... And where are we headed? Towards that oft heard destination: The Global Village.

So as you bid adieu to an eventual year, “graze” upon these unique samples of the brave new Web ahead. Cheers!

24 Eyes
www.24eyes.com
A personal web portal.

3form Free Knowledge Exchange
http://3form.org
A collaborative problem solving website.

Fleck
www.fleck.com
Allows you to add info to any web page.

Librarything
www.librarything.com
An online catalog for your books, connector to like-minded readers.

MediaFire
www.mediafire.com
A free, unlimited file host.

Mousebrains
www.kennieting.com/mousebrains
A “thought starter” for advertising creatives.

Podesk
www.podesk.com
An integrated tool for video blogging.

Properti
www.poperti.com
A desktop POP3 client the plays MP3s from your Gmail account.

Quotiki
www.quotiki.com
A social quotes site.

Yedda
http://yedda.com
A community knowledge exchange.

Unsung Heros

2006-12-20T15:45:00.000+05:30

A peek at an assortment of ten interesting but unknown free programs.

This week, a very random assortment of some fantastic freeware that I have had the good fortune to find tucked away in the trenches of terra incognita over the years, but not found the occasion or opportunity to write about.

Yankee Clipper III
http://www.intelexual.com/products/YC3/
If you’re tired of XP’s measly clipboard, please switch to this clipboard extender pronto. YC3 chomps up over 200 text and RTF, 20 BMP and metafile, and 200 URL clipboard entries—with no size limits. It saves and re-uses "boilerplate" clippings. Hot-key driven, drag-drop enabled, it can also “float” on top of other applications for quick pastes. You’re a chronic copy-paste champ you’ll wonder how you ever managed without something like this.

PowerPro
http://powerpro.webeddie.com
Mitely but mighty! This efficient and versatile launch bar cum menu cum tray icon facility incorporates a whole gamut of useful functions-- hot keys, mouse actions, menus, timer, scheduler, program window controls--to help you dominate your OS. It lets you send keystrokes to programs, run commands when windows first open, manage virtual desktops, extend your clipboard, create keyboard macros, manage folders, sounds, wallpapers, and screensavers etc.

Wink
www.debugmode.com/wink
A natty tutorial creation proggie ideal for demoing how to use software. It let’s you capture screenshots, record mouse movements, bung in other images, record audio/voice-overs, type-in explanations for each step, create a navigation sequence—replete with buttons, delays, titles etc.--to create a pro looking self-running tutorial or presentation. Wink output formats include Macromedia Flash, HTML, standalone EXE, PDF, PostScript, HTML etc. Need we say more?

Nvu
www.nvu.com
Pronounced N-view, this is a freeware web authoring system running the FrontPage and Dreamweaver lane. It provides first class integrated web file management and good WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page editing capabilities. An uncomplicated interface, decent publishing controls, tabbed editing, spell checking, etc. are some of its true virtues. Newbies, please note.

Keynote
http://sourceforge.net/projects/keynote/
Keynote is a powerful, flexible, multi-featured, tabbed notebook with a tree-based interface. A file can contain any number of notes which appear as separate tabs--and each tab can hold its own tree of subnotes! So you can create only one file, jot multiple notes inside it and make it a three-dimensional notebook; i.e. multi-level, nested pages within a single note. Keynote supports rich formatting, hyperlinks, images, macros, and even Blowfish or Idea encryption. Wah!

Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
www.ultimatebootcd.com
UBCD4Win is a bootable CD download bristling with software that can help you repair/restore/diagnose most computer glitches. It contains a mind blowing assortment of tools and utes for almost every conceivable Windows requirement, ranging from applications and antivirus software to tools for disk and partition management, diagnostics, compression, recovery, network, passwords, shell features, system information, and stress test/benchmarking etc. All software included in UBCD4Win is based on a "pre-install" CD environment.

Crypt Edit
www.woundedmoon.org/win32/ce/cedit.html
A rather ancient multi-document word processor with enhanced cryptography features. It saves to several formats, encrypts/decrypts binary files with compression, creates desktop shortcuts for documents, inserts OLE-objects and pictures. It includes an e-mail client with an address book, spelling checker, built-in clipboard viewer, various converters, character map, autoformat tool and all kinds of jazz. Most thrilling replacement for WordPad if nothing else.

MP3Gain
http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net
Sick of thumbing the volume buttons each time you play a load of MP3s? Get an MP3 normaliser like MP3Gain. This adjusts MP3 files so that they all play at a more or less even volume. Allegedly, MP3Gain does not reply on peak normalization, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear. No re-encoding is involved, the adjustment is lossless and there is no drop in audio quality. Whoopie!

Loopnote
www.loopnote.com
It is a new discovery and I haven't spent time with it. But it sounds interesting so you can sample it along with me. Loopnote is multi-channel notification service over four communication mediums--RSS, e-mail, SMS, and IM. Seems a neat way to keep people in your circle "in the loop" about events, happenings in your life, and other info you want to feed your friends and associates--selectively or en masse.

JDiskReport
www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
A very handy way to glean what is eating up your hard disk. This tool analyses your disk and presents stats in the form of easy to understand overview charts and tables. It provides different “perspectives” about your disk drives: Absolute and relative sizes, size distribution, distribution of modification dates, and distribution of types. Each perspective has a pie chart, a bar chart, and a details table. It also collates a list of 100 largest, oldest, and newest files.

Gaming Secrets Revealed

2006-12-13T15:51:00.000+05:30

How to cheat in games.

This week I am going to play a Narad Muni cum Shakuni Mama cum Chugglie Chacha. That is, slip into the choga of a conniving old bad baba, do a bit of idhar-ki-udhar by carrying tales, and tell you dirty secrets that shouldn’t be told. That’s right, I am going to be the devil’s advocate and reveal a few clandestine details about Windows gaming and teach you how to cheat.

Gaming cheats are hidden codes that enable you to fraud your way through in a game—and make winning easier. And yes, almost all games have cheat codes. To activate these codes, you need execute a sequence of keystrokes, commands and/or special moves. They are usually built into the game by the game developers and are always hidden. The real purpose behind cheat codes is not to make winning easier for the player but to help game developers and beta testers “jump” certain levels while testing. These codes are not officially documented and disclosed to the aam janta. Generally, they are either surreptitiously “leak” out, “cracked” by avid gamers, or intentionally disclosed by developers themselves---especially when a newer version of the game is on the shelves. Now and again bugs in a game also permit players to exploit loop holes and attain “supernatural gaming abilities”.

If you are looking for the dhokha kunji to a particular game, you can go Googling. Or mail me. Over here, we’ll make a full disclosure on some Windows XP’s default games. But first heed this: I am issuing a spoiler warning right here, right now. Game cheats ruin the pleasure of gaming. Forever. If you are stuck at level or can’t solve a game, hunt up some tips and tricks, or even download a “game trainer” to hold you hand. Avoid cheats as they quite wreck the challenge, entertainment value, and sheer gleeful satisfaction of gaming. Believe me, it takes a lot of will power to play a game without deploying a cheat code once you know the easy way out. So if you don’t want the fun of your games to be eternally blighted, don’t read on (and condemn me to eternal damnation thereupon). Mogambo-minded and other badmash log, don your sly look, grin forth and follow me...

FreeCell

Want to try a couple of secret game modes in FreeCell? In the game menu, first choose Select Game. Then key-enter “-1” or “-2” (without the quote marks) to activate these two hidden game modes.
Fed up of a game and think there is no solution in sight, use this magic mantra for instant victory: Hold ++ down during the game. When you are asked if you want to “Abort, Retry or Ignore?”, pick Abort, and then move any card. Its winabad all the way!

Pinball

To run Pinball in test mode, key “hidden test” in at the start of a new ball. You won’t get a notification for this but you can now left-click the mouse button and drag the ball around and explore the landscape. Good one for newbies.
Here’s superb little skillful trick to keep your scoreboard ticking. Launch a ball partly up the chute, past the third yellow light bar so it falls back down and bag 75,000 points each time. (Sigh... Wish we could find something like this for the Indian cricket team as well.) The six yellow light bars along the chute are worth the following:

First: 15,000 points
Second: 30,000 points
Third: 75,000 points
Fourth: 30,000 points
Fifth: 15,000 points
Sixth: 7,500 points

Havaldar, instant promotion mangta? Type “rmax” (no quotes) in a new game to go up the ranks.
To activate the Gravity Well, type “gmax” at the start of a new game.
You can get extra balls and prolong your pinballing by typing “1max” at the beginning of a new ball.
To pocket an unlimited set of balls, type “bmax” at the start of a new ball. You won’t get any notification to the effect though each time you lose a ball, a new ball will keep materializing till kingdom come from the yellow wormhole. One catch: If you activate this cheat, no other trickery will work.

Solitaire

Frustrated with you game and still yearning to win? Press ++2. And win instantly!
If you are stumped in Draw Three game and want to cheat your way to success, press ++ while drawing a new card. Instead of drawing three cards you will only pull out one.

Bhai saab (and your sister folk), all these are tried and tested (and re-tested) cheats. So don’t hurl your gaaali-galoch my way. If something doesn’t work for you, seems your PC is protected from the dark forces of cheating by a lucky charm/divine blessing/version mismatch/ham-handedness/your pudden-head (tick all that apply). Desist therefore and detour the wayward walks of wickedness, my child. Go chew on goodie-goodie gum drops instead…

Exploring XP

2006-12-06T15:58:00.000+05:30

Capers and conjurations with the worlds’ best known OS.

Life would be much easier if we had its source code… And we could tweak and tune it according to our whims and wishes. Yet, most of us are always so much in awe of our PCs and its operating systems that we accept anything and everything exactly the way it is dished out to us. Shouldn’t be that way. We must learn to twist things around to suit your needs and temperament. So let’s try a few capers and conjurations in the computing worlds’ most popular OS, Windows XP.

Squeaky Clean Desktop
Two kinds of homo sapiens populate this earth. People who like to live life with a cluttered Windows desktop. And freaks like me who like to keep it squeaky clean. In fact, I don’t even let the four ubiquitous system desktop icons--My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places and Internet Explorer—mask even a pixel of my desktop’s Malika Sherawat wallpaper.

A little bit of tweaking is all it takes to make this bunch disappear (or appear). To add or subtract these icons from your desktop, right click on your desktop and select Properties. Then click the Desktop tab followed by Customize Desktop. Go to the General tab, check the appropriate boxes for the icons that you want visible on your desktop. Uncheck the boxes of the ones you want removed. Click on OK, once-twice… You want to trash the Recycle Bin as well? Write to me…

Now you are wondering how I manage to quick access the aforementioned icons when required, nahin? Well, I use a little magic genie called ObjectDock (www.stardock.com/products/objectdock) to open these, or launch other) thingies. Give the free-wala a dekko.

Upload-Download Speed Checks
If you’re always doing soch-vichar about the actual speed of your Internet connection at any given moment, here is a neat little site which let’s you can check your download and upload capabilities. Just zip across to www.speedtest.net and give your dabba an online velocity and drag test.

Squawking about this online business, do you know how to keep a tab on how long you have been online? Very simple haiga: Simply peer at the Windows Taskbar and double-click on the network connection icon roosting there. A pop-up window will display the duration of your current call/connection.

Lost Passwords
First let’s tackle how to cope with a forgotten/lost admin password. Reboot in safe mode by re-starting the computer and repeatedly pressing F8 as your PC starts up. In safe mode, click on Start and then on Run. In the Open field, type "control userpasswords2" (minus quotes.) This will give you access to all the User Accounts, including the administrator’s account. Click on Administrator under User Name and then on Reset Password. Type a fresh password in the New Password field, confirm it, and click on OK.

If you have lost or forgotten a user account password, life is even simpler. Log in as the computer administrator. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > User Accounts and reset the password for the required systems user account.

Quick Reboots
You have just installed a new app or upgrade. A pleasant looking pop-up pops up and orders you to restart you PC. You snarl and mentally mutter/audibly mumble an unmentionable expletive. Gaawd no, do I have to? Well, there’s no getting around that. But maybe next time you could try and remember this easy trick to speed up the entire reboot process. Click on the Start and then on Shutdown. Select Restart, hold the Shift key down, and then hit OK. This will get Windows XP restarted much faster.

Taskbar Tango
Here are some simple time and effort saving Windows taskbar tweaks meant to tweeze and squeeze more productivity out of your workings. Try ‘em and take what you like.

If you want to quickly reset the time and/or date on you PC, double-click on the clock displayed in the Windows taskbar and reset as required.
Need to clear the Documents list in the Start menu and records of other recently accessed gunk? Right click on the Windows taskbar and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. Select the Start Menu tab, click on Customize and hit the Clear button.
If you want to use every square nanometre of your desktop, you can Autohide your taskbar and reclaim a narrow strip of real estate. Right click on the taskbar, select Properties and go to the Taskbar tab. Here, tick the Autohide box and click on OK. The taskbar will now disappear from the screen in normal viewing and only slide in when you move your mouse pointer to the edge of the screen.
No devtas have ordained that the taskbar has to squat at the bottom of the screen for eternity. You can always dock your taskbar to the left, right, or even the top of the screen. Just drag and drop it to the side or top of the screen and see how it works for you. Sides are the best as you can view many more open apps at a glance. Try to karo…

Smackdown!

2006-11-29T16:06:00.000+05:30

Vrooming through the sizzling video game console market.

Yeh duniya khel tamasha
Ethhe jeene ki bhasha,
Kanu khich pich tan ke shoo shaa
Ede chakde phatte…
Oola hoo! Remember these lyrics from that recent flick Khosla ka Ghosla? I can’t help thinking of these lines gawking at the khel-tamasha raging in the video gaming console arena. This genre of gaming has hot-footed into its 7th generation on all four paws this November. The battle that was blasted off with the launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360 on November 22 last year has all making of the Ultimate Joystick Joust. Raring to scorch the combat zone comes Sony's PlayStation 3 (released on November 11, 2006), with Nintendo's Wii gnashing nastily at its heels almost week later (November 19, 2006).

Before heading into the rumbles and tumbles of the smackdown, let’s get one thing straight at kick-off: A video game console is a dedicated electronic device designed to play video games which usually uses a separate television or a monitor for viewing. Earlier, game consoles were a distinct breed that employed a TV for display and did not support standard PC accessories like keyboards and modems. But now those lines have blurred. Nowadays, it is easier to look upon gaming consoles interactive entertainment computers that do not choose to undertake “serious” computing tasks.

Microsoft Xbox 360
www.xbox.com/xbox360
The Xbox 360 CPU comprises three separate IBM PowerPC-based core processors that clock a sizzling 3.2 GHz each. The console is armed to the teeth with a 500MHz ATI graphics processor with 10MB of embedded DRAM, 512MB GDDR3 RAM and 700MHz DDR, 20 GB hard disk, a DVD drive, wireless controllers, three USB 2.0 ports, a WiFi adaptor slot, and an Ethernet port. Being a next gen gizmo, it is ready for the HDTV era and delivers all its games in high definition format at 720p and 1080i—thus becoming the first home video game console to do so. (Oh yes, it works work with your regular TVs too.)

To shore up its awesome hardware capabilities, Xbox has used its headstart to build up a strong array of games on this platform. Last week Microsoft also launched its TV and Movie download service in the US allowing 360 owners to view standard and high-definition TV shows and movies sitting at home. Just released add-ons include: HD-DVD player, wireless steering wheel, headset, networking adapter, camera etc. Price: Rs.23,990.

Sony PlayStation 3
www.playstation.com
The king of the console gaming ring’s newest offering features a Cell processor with PowerPC-base core running at 3.2GHz, backed by an Nvidia G71 550MHz RSX chip for graphics. There is 256MB of 3.2GHz XDR for the main RAM and 256MB of 700MHz GDDR3 VRAM as memory. A 20GB hard drive sits in base model, while the upgrade comes with 60GB. Six USB 2.0 ports, a memory stick standard/Duo (in the upgrade model), a PRO (upgrade), an SD standard/mini card reader, and a CompactFlash drive (upgrade), an HDTV out, an AV multi out, and digital out comprise the I/O options. And ah, there’s in-built WiFi compatibility too. Nothing to beat that kind of ammo, dudes! Controllers: Bluetooth. Disc media: Blu-ray, DVD. Backward compatibility: Of course; with both PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games.

Unarguably, that’s a zinger of a config. Also in PS3’s favour are its familiar PSP like interface, all high-def games, free online gaming, and no external power supply. So what are the downers? Paltry selection of games for now and a hefty $600 price tag.

Nintendo Wii
http://wii.nintendo.com
Originally dubbed Revolution, this most compact of consoles in the new crowd, Wii is built around a PowerPC CPU (code-named "Broadway"), developed jointly with--and manufactured by—IBM, and an ATI graphics processing unit. For input, it has USB 2.0 expansion ports, a bay for SD memory cards, and built-in support for WiFi Internet access. Four remotes can communicate with a console wirelessly. The Wii features a single AV multi-output port for component, composite or S-video. A single self-loading media bay plays DVDs as well as 8-cm Nintendo GameCube discs. Backward compatiblilty? Yes, with GameCube, NES, SNES and Nintendo 64, via a virtual console.

Wii real uniqueness lies in its revolutionary motion sensitive remote control styled controllers. Apart from a motion-sensing, multi-function Remote, the Wii also comes with another ergonomically contoured, motion-sensing control device with an analog stick to assist in character movement called the Nunchuk. Bundled also is one freebie: Wii Sports, a medley which includes tennis, golf, baseball, bowling and boxing games. No DVD movie playback abilities here yet. Price: $250.

To see who comes out tops as the khilaryon ka khilari, keep watching this space. Meanwhile, hum this:
Yeh duniya mast kalandar
Taa ate utte bethha bandar,
Samjhe apnoo sikandar
Ede chakde phatte, chakde phatte, chakde phatte…

Going the Whole Hog

2006-11-22T16:11:00.000+05:30

A freeware feast on a platter called the TheOpenCD…

If you have been following my cawings in this space, you must be aware of the type of software that I usually consort with. Most of my regular peckings, pawings, pokings and proddings are limited to software programs that money can’t buy but everyone can download legally, free of cost. Yeah, freeware. Well, this month--in continuance of my umbilical bond with like-bellied, ever-hungry freebie mongers--I go the whole hog and tell you about something that is quite the mummyji and daddyji of all free downloads. This something is called TheOpenCD (www.theopencd.org).

TheOpenCD is a single-point aggregation of some of the best, most stable, as well as hugely popular, free and Open Source Windows programmes available in the world currently. These programmes encompass most universal computing tasks that you and I may need on a daily basis: Word processing, e-mail, presentations, web browsing, image manipulation, gaming, or even web design. (You may notice that we have already spoken about many of these in this column here.)

Hurmph! A few gyani fellas out there may grunt that the stuffing in each of these categories is not all that very comprehensive. Maybe... But a one-stop collection like this is hard—if not impossible--to come by. So no arguments.

Bundled together as an ISO file, TheOpenCD is ready for burning straight onto a CD. And each of the numerous applications on it is available for download individually from the OpenCD website as well. Now let’s sneak a quick peak at what’s on the platter…

PRODUCTIVITY

AbiWord, a decent standalone word processor that does just about everything you can belt out at the keyboard and whisk around with the mouse.
MoinMoin, a very good collaborative tool to generate, organize, and manage content via wikis (easily editable web pages).
OpenOffice.org, the famous, full-featured productivity suite that is fighting the might of Goliath (Microsoft Office); it includes a word processor, spreadsheet, web page editor and presentation programme.
PDFCreator, a well-tempered Adobe Acrobat workalike that can create PDF documents from any Windows programme.

DESIGN

Blender, a pretty advanced 3D modeling software for producing creating animations, generating renderings, performing post-production, interactive creation and playback.
GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program, a good, powerful and compelling imaging solution; can’t beat Photoshop, but it’s legally free!
Nvu, pronounced “en-view”, is a Macromedia's Dreamweaver workalike that weighs in as a surprisingly full-featured what-you-see-is-what-you-get web page editor.

INTERNET

Firefox, my fav web browser, that ably takes on if not licks IE7; TheOpenCD still has to update its download to FF 2.0 though.
Gaim, an instant messenger (IM) client that can chat it out single-handedly in real time with any supported network—from AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, to Zephyr.
Thunderbird, a rock-steady e-mail client that can wing it against Outook Express.

MULTIMEDIA

Audacity, a groovy audio editing programme which can record, mix sounds, apply effects using a variety of filters, and provide playback.
Celestia, an amazing three-dimensional simulation of the universe based on current astronomical information.
Really Slick Screensavers, some mesmerizing, non-static eye candy (fractals, light trails, fireworks) for you desktop.

UTILITIES

7-zip, a beaut of a ute to create, compress, decompress files into 7zip, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM, and DEB archive formats.
Notepad2, a neat and nifty replacement for Windows Notepad; need we say more?

GAMING

Sokoban YASC (Yet Another Sokoban Clone), that age-old crate pushing game; crazily effortless, yet abominably addictive.
Battle for Wesnoth, a turn-based, fantasy-themed strategy game; good (no, not awesome) graphics, first-class gameplay, must try genre.

Of Masters and Commanders

2006-11-15T16:20:00.000+05:30

Life and freeware beyond Windows Explorer.

“To wives and sweethearts. May they never meet!” quips Captain Jack Aubrey during the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Nothing to do with wives and sweethearts, this is the story of a gutsy British frigate, the HMS Surprise and its combat with a French warship. Amazing cinematography, riveting performances (not just from Russel Crowe), soul stirring music, and an enthralling storyline with many twists in the tale. I’ve seen it several times. So should you.

And it is high time you graduated to becoming the total master and commander of your little PC’s file management system. Thing is, we have become so accustomed and dependent on that creaky, stodgy, podgy Windows Explorer for all and sundry file management tasks that we can’t seem to think beyond it. Anything above and beyond WE? Baah, quite impossible! Is there? Aye, aye captain! And it doesn’t require any courage to sail into the unknown. Just follow my wake and make these itsy-bitsy downloads…

A43
A43 is a zippy little freeware file management utility that offers a dual-pane views for quick-gun-Murgun file management, a speedy file finder, a rapid proggie launcher, and favorite buttons to fast-open oft used folders. It features an integrated text editor which can cope with files of unlimited sizes and has in-built zip/unzip features that can create self-extracting zip archives and be deployed both via drag-n-drop files, or click-to-open. A43 requires no installation so you can nip it on a pen drive and take it where ever you go. The program’s config info is stored in a local .ini file, no data is written to the system registry and it nibbles approximately 18 megs of RAM when in use—and 2-3 MB when idling.
OS: Windows XP, 2000
www.primitus.us/a43

CubicExplorer
This is an easy-to-use file manager-cum-browser that is powerful enough to handle multiple directories at the same time. Though a tad lean on meat, it has the basic ingredients in place: Tabbed browsing, a built-in text editor, bookmarks, file search, file quick viewing and thumbnails, free disk space info, and recycle bin control. And ah, it also support for multiple languages. A good tool for those who need something better then Windows Explorer to manipulate files, without the baggage of wading through a complicated and exhaustive feature set. Brawn hungry honchos may wanna look elsewhere. Else hang loose for the next release because yon lad has solid potential.
OS: Windows XP, NT, 2000, ME, 98, 95
www.cubicreality.com/ce/download

ExplorerXP
Despite the advantage of tabs, this drag and drop file manager is very Explorer-like in its work and feel. At just over 400 KB it is compact; and works fast. And unlike WE, it allows multiple folders browsing, offers file merge/split facilities, bristles with a single step multi-file rename tool, shows individual folder sizes, and boasts configurable keyboard shortcuts. In addition, it features advanced copy/move functionality, provides easy access to My Computer, Recycle Bin, My Documents and the Desktop, covers Unicode support and does USB devices. Good step up guys.
OS: Windows XP, 2000
www.explorerxp.com/index.html#download

freeCommander
FC reminds me of my Norton Commander on DOS days and is my personal fav. Here’s why: It is very user-friendly, has customisable dual-panel (horizontal and vertical) with optional tree views; built in file viewer to view files in hex, binary, text or image format; built-in archive handling for ZIP (read, write), CAB (read, write), RAR (read); nested archive handling, searching and viewing; and easy access to Control Panel, system folders, Desktop and Start menu. In addition to the de rigor file and folder copy-move-delete-rename file routines, you can “wipe” files, filter files, select files in either Windows or Norton Commander style, split files, modify file dates/attributes, compare and sync folders, calculate folder sizes, peg folder/program favorites, define columns for detailed view, abuse the DOS command line, connect to a network drive, get multiple language support… and more.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT, ME, 98, 95
www.freecommander.com/fc_downl_en.htm

XPlorer
Another quick loading, fast paced, small-footprint, multi-tabbed offering. Very Windows Explorer. But much better. Multiple tabs means that you can have a lots of locations opened at the same time for easy file management. There are loads of keyboard shortcuts--for virtually all commands making it a very snappy affair to use once you get the hang of it. It has an internal file viewer and editor, file toucher, splitter-joiner, wild card file selections, file filters and command prompt. In terms of memory, it takes up 16 MB of RAM and one meg of disk space (so again a highly-portable tool to carry along). Screen refreshes are a bit of an issue. But it has got the proteins for a definite looksee.
OS: Windows XP, 2003 2000, NT, ME, 98, 95
http://guti.webcindario.com/static.php?page=XPlorer

Browser Battles

2006-11-08T15:36:00.000+05:30

Internet Explorer 7 versus Firefox 2.0. Which is the better browser?

There is a little tale doing the rounds on Net these days. According to this, the earliest NASA astronauts in space discovered that their pens wouldn't function in zero gravity conditions as the ink could not flow down to the writing surface. (Houston, we have a problem, eh?) Eventually, almost a decade and $12 million later, the NASA’s R&D nerds developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on practically any surface, and at temperature--from below freezing to over 300 degrees Celsius. And what did the Russians do? They just deployed pencils instead. Hah! I am not sure if this story is true or not. But it is allegorical in highlighting the difference between focusing on problems versus concentrating on solutions.

And that indirectly brings us to two mini-events that took place end- October: The launch of Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0, the two dominating web browsers. IE7 has taken five years to cook (IE6 was born in October 2001). FF2 follows less than two years after version 1 and about 10 months after version 1.5 was put out to pasture. While the upgrade of IE can be called a long overdue overhaul, FF can be summed up as fine-tuning an already feature-laden offering. So are both browsers finally at par? Hmmm…

Internet Explorer 7
www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.mspx
IE, which has steadily been losing marketshare to FF, has tried hard to play catch up with its new rendition. To bring IE up to speed with the competition, the prime features that Microsoft has included in this 15MB download are: A neat new Windows Vista-like user interface, much-needed tabbed browsing, good integrated search, excellent RSS newsfeed support, a nifty add-ons manager to promote and distribute the extras, and a useful session-saver option for tabbed windows.

In addition to this, the IE7 development team has spent the last five years squashing IE 6 bugs, enhancing web page programming support, adding quick page zooms, working on a nice little bookmarks panel, churning out a faster rendering engine, and collating and vetting add-ons (www.ieaddons.com). On the much promised security front, IE 7 has beefed up by plugging several security holes, adding an antiphishing tool, SSL3 support, and opt-in support for ActiveX.

Pause mode, for those who feel out of sync… Phishing (pronounced "fishing") is a scam to steal valuable information like credit card, user IDs and passwords via an official-looking e-mail is sent to potential victims pretending to be from their bank or or ISP. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, an Internet security protocol used to validate the identity of a website and to create an encrypted connection for sending credit card and other personal data. (When you making online purchases, check for a lock icon at the bottom of your browser; a “closed” lock icon shows you are on a secure SSL connection.) ActiveX is a set of technologies and tools sheparded by Microsoft that helps programmers create small components or applets (self-sufficient programs, also called ActiveX controls) that can be installed and run on networks. ActiveX is viciously exploited by evil Web weevils to distribute malware, spyware and adware.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0
www.mozilla.com
With FF2, a lot of the aforementioned is a been-there-done-that case. Being an open-source project that is constantly being worked on by global community of committed techies, Firefox has always taken full advantage of two of its inherent strengths: Speed of development and ability to innovate. While it demonstrates no radical revamps since its last major release less than a year ago, version 2.0 of Firefox polishes and perfects what it has already delivered. On some fronts, FF2 has integrated into the browser what was previously available as extensions or add-ons.

This 5.6 meg download offers perpetual customizability, an improved user interface, excellent browser tab and form control enhancements, a first-rate in-line spell-checker with multi-language support, an admirable auto-complete function for the built-in search engine box and web forms, a competent tab session save as well as reopen closed tabs capability, an outstanding PC crash session recovery function, and a refurbished themes and extensions manager. RSS integration is limited but can be enhanced via extensions like Sage (https://addons.mozilla.org). Security-wise, FF2 has a built-in phishing-detection system to caution you of a "suspected web forgery."

Endgame: For finicky mirchi-masala mongers like me, who like to tool and tinker, taste and tune, smack and squeeze power and performance, Firefox is the chosen one. For those of you who like your Web meal experience pre-cooked, pre-salted, pre-set, Maggi noodles style, IE 7 is the road ahead. Because all said and done, Firefox again sets the bar a few notches higher and remains the browser to beat.

Wacky Ware

2006-11-01T15:41:00.000+05:30

Odds and ends from the fringes of tech.

Inventions are often just an improved means to an unimproved end. They are like pretty toys that distract us with their workings, fogging our minds with fancy functions while achieving and delivering nothing more than what their prior editions did. Technology is definitely a lot of fun. But we allow ourselves to drown in our technology, becoming tools of our own tools as it were.

Here’s a look at some odds and ends from the fringes of the tech product universe.

Wooden Memory
Seen anything like this sticking out of a comp or laptop before? Well, neither had I. They look kinda weird because the memory stick is encased in thickish wooden twigs! Yep, these thingies are actual functioning USB memory sticks. According to the manufacturer, the sticks are “manually selected on their natural beauty, and professionally handmade into unique and personal USB memory sticks.” The 2 x 2 x 10 cm USB 2.0 sticks come 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB and 1 GB memory sizes, are suitable for Windows, Linux and MacOS and costs lumber between $50 to $90.
www.oooms.nl/usb

Germ-Killing Keyboard, Mouse
Yep, you read that right, this wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse incorporate an antimicrobial compound. Called AgION, this compound is alleged to prevent the growth of a broad range of bacteria, mold and mildew. Other features include an ergonomic straight keyboard layout, large, full-travel, quiet keys, Windows Vista compatibility, one-touch Internet calling controls, an integrated soft-touch palm rest, and sculpted mouse contours. Both devices cost $100 and boast sophisticated power management which ensures that keyboard batteries can last up to 15 months which the mouse can scuttle around for 6 months at stretch. Flit on…
www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2162,CONTENTID=12130

An Open LED Clock
Take look at this contraption. It is a series of four blocks, each of which measures 2 x 1.5 x 1.5 inches and displays a glowing LED numeral. If you have the inclination to place the blocks in the correct order, the blocks will have the correct time. Mix ‘em up and you’ve got a tech art work. This extraordinary timepiece obviously has to have an extraordinary price tag: $89. Time to time out?
www.gnr8.biz/product_info.php?products_id=274

Helmet for 360-Degree View?
Looks like a three-kilo monster moonman Bubble Helmet. It is. And it aims to revolutionise entertainment by giving couch potatoes and avid video gaming buffs a 360-degree view of whatever they are watching or playing view on a 40 centimetre dome-shaped screen. When will we see this in action? Don’t know. While we await details on this future contraption from electronics giant Toshiba, we need to figure how seriously will it impact munchie management and cola consumption.

Air Purifier, Thermo Clock
Call me a cuckoo for telling you about another quaint clock. But I must. This one sits on your desk, cleans (yep, as in purifies!) the air around and tells you the ambient temperature. And yeah, also tells you the time and date. You can it hook to your PCs USB port ($30), or get the AC adapter version ($36). It features a backlight that comes on when you press the clock body as well as a glowing LED light tells you the time in the dark. The air purifier with negative ion delivery style helps remove impurities in the air in a nine square meter (100 sq. ft) area. Hmmm…
http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00194

Mini Shredder
OMG! Can’t think of too many people around me who would want a device like this. Yet, it so odd that I had to tell you about it. This 555 gram device hooks up to you USB port for power. You then feed it all the hardcopy versions of your confidential documents, love notes, scribbles, idling doodles, and unnecessary business cards down its 126 mm throat, two at a time. And it chews these printed pieces of paper in to little strips of scrap. And ah, by the way, it also functions as a letter opener. Go see the demo.
http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00197&cat_id=035&dept_id=015

Tailpiece
My constant vagabondings across the cyberspace often take me to wacky, weird websites. Here are two sites that I came across recently that merit a visit or two: The first, www.msdewey.com, is neatly knitted, but utterly annoying search engine with Flash and lots of video. Use it when you have time on your hands and are bored of Googling. The second, www.office-humour.co.uk, a crazy humor site with hundreds of mad little scraps that will bring you many smiles. And a smile as you know is a little curve that sets everything straight…

Mobile Hacks

2006-10-25T15:58:00.000+05:30

Ten nifty power tips for your cell phone.

If Windows makes your PC tick, ever wonder what makes the soul of your cell phone go pit-a-pat? Well, if you have any of the newish Nokia, LG, Samsung, or Sony Ericsson handsets, chances are that it is a S60--or Series 60--platform phone running the Symbian OS.

S60 is the most popular smartphone platforms on our little Blue Planet at present. It is a multivendor standard for smartphones that supports application development in Java MIDP, C++, and Python. Its bedrock, the Symbian operating system has been designed for mobile devices, and comprises associated libraries for telephony, user interface frameworks, reference implementations of common tools like PIMs and Helix-enabled multimedia players. Symbian is a product of Symbian Software Ltd., a company owned by Nokia, Ericsson, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. S60 1st edition (S60v1), or its 2nd edition (S60v2) software is not binary compatible with S60 3rd edition (S60v3).

Let’s clear one more ambiguous term while we are at it. A smartphone is an electronic handheld device--usually with a largish colour screen--that incorporates the functionality of a cell phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and/or another information appliance. It allows for additional applications and software to be installed by the user. The "smart" features can comprise anything ranging from an additional interface like a keyboard or a touch screen, or ability to check e-mail, or capture and playback of various types of media.

Now let’s look at some little tips and tricks that can jazz up your workings on a S60 smartphone. But hey, keep in mind functionality can vary from model to model and manufacturer to manufacturer. So if some of these tricks don’t work on you phone, don’t arm yourself with a 12-bore elephant gun and come hunting for my rear.

Easy Digits in Alpha Mode
All of us accustomed to using the T9 mode find it a pain entering numerics while typing out an SMS, especially when it is just two or three stray digits that we want. Next time you want to input number, just press on the relevant numeric keys (0 to 9) for a longish time. This will generate a number entry in the text without at all altering the input mode.

Voice Quickies
You know your voice can be you phone’s command by recording the commands in Voice application residing in the Tools folder. But perhaps what you don’t know is that these voice commands can easily be activated by pressing and holding the right softkey, no matter what shortcut you have preset for this key.

Quick Profile Toggle
On S60 cell phones, you can change your phone’s profile very swiftly by using its Power key a uni-directional scroll and toggle on. Press the Power key quickly 2, 3, or 4 times to get to the desired profile. Hold the key down and the profile you want will be activated.

App Capers
Try pressing the Menu/Application key and then a number between 1 to 9. This will launch the application which coincides with its place on the grid of 9 in the menu layout. Experiment a bit, see what lies where, and then memorise the shortcuts.

Image Control Shortcuts
While viewing images in your phone’s Gallery, you can use these keys as convenient shortcuts rather than diving into the menu each time.

1: Turns image anticlockwise
3: Turn image clockwise
*: Toggle on/off of full screen
5: Zoom in
0: Zoom out

MP3s on the 6600
The Nokia 6600 is an immensely popular mobile. And one of the features sorely lacking in it is the ability to warble to MP3 (as well as WMA and Ogg). But not any more. Here’s a little plugin which will allow you to play MP3s on it:

http://zavenx.googlepages.com/Plugins.sis

Download it and install it. Restart the phone. Copy your 128kbps MP3s (yep, only 128kbps) to the Sounds > Digital folder. That’s it. If you don’t know how to install the download, flame me.

Sssh the Start up Jingle
You’re want to switch on you phone but don’t want the people around you to know that you are doing this. So what you do to suppress the Nokia phone on jingle? Switch it on and immediately press either of the scroll keys (Up/Down) to quell the sound.

Confirming Message Delivery
There are a couple of ways with which you can confirm if your SMS has been received. One is ensuring that Delivery Reports on your phone is enabled. The other method involves typing:

*0#

in your message composition window, before thumbing in your SMS. The moment the recipient receives the message, you will get a receipt. Don’t worry, the he/she will just get the message, not the star-zero-hash stuff.

Diwali Bonus
Here’s a Diwali gift for people who have written to me asking for websites that allow sending free SMS messages in India. I checked it out on various major cell networks and found it working satisfactorily on all except Reliance. The image verification check is a wee bit tedious. But what the heck, it’s free. Use it before the Big Boys have it blocked.
www.atrochatro.com
www.aasma.com

Google Gags

2006-10-18T16:33:00.000+05:30

Googling around for fun.

Heard of something called “BackRub”? It was the original name given to Google by its inventors, two Stanford University graduate students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. And like many other wonderful things in this world, Google was not the crafted by corporate honchos in a sterile boardroom; it had very humble beginnings. It was born as a univ research project by Sergey (age 23) and Larry (age 24) in January 1996.

Today, Google is unarguably the most popular search engine in the world, with search access to well over two billion million Web documents, even in 35 non-English languages. While half its daily search requests come from the US, the rest originate from places poles apart—from Antarctica and sometimes even the Arctic icecap. During peak traffic hours, Google processes over 2,500 user searches per second for billions of pages.

By the way, have you ever wondered why Google’s main page is so nanga? To make it load fast? Perhaps. But according to legend, this is because its creators didn’t know HTML too well when they created it. They wanted a fast interface so they didn’t fool around.

Speaking of fooling around, the name Google materialised due to some fooling around with “googol”, a term that deals with a very large number, something like 1 followed by 100 zeroes (10 to the 100th power)! At the time, this was an inference to the large number of Web pages that the search engine could indexed. Little known to most of us, the Google phenomenon also has engendered a wacky side—a fun fringe that has either been invented or inspired by the Google walas. Here's a peek at some of these amusing asides.

Google Gulp
Pepsi and Coke will find this hard to glug. Seems Google’s getting into the bottling business. Google Gulp with “Auto-Drink” is a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximise your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty. Flavours include Beta Carroty, Glutamate Grape, Sugar-Free Radical, and Sero-Tonic Water. Take sip…
www.google.com/googlegulp

Google Jobs Opportunities
This one’s about job opportunities at Google. On the moon! Its Copernicus Center is hiring and interviewing people for engineering positions at it lunar hosting and research center which opens in 2007. Highly-qualified individuals who are “willing to relocate for an extended period of time, are in top physical condition and are capable of surviving with limited access to such modern conveniences… and a steady supply of oxygen” should apply. Utter “lunarcy”!
www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html

Much in the same hilarious and witty genre, are the following Google pages:

Google Technology
www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html

Google MentalPlex
www.google.com/mentalplex/MP_results.html

Google Romance
www.google.com/romance

Google Holiday Logos and Events
One for the trivia man. A compendium of Google logos done for those special days of the years. For example, the Google logo in Braille to commemorate Louis Braille's birthday. Or others for Sherlock Homes, Mozart, Mother's Day etc. etc. etc. And then take a peek at the person behind these Google doodles.
www.google.com/holidaylogos.html

Google Easter Eggs
A simple, entertaining Google home page, specially crafted by the some fun loving bunny at Google Labs. It’s a Google home page with an in-built game where you have to help an Easter bunny catch eggs in a little basket. Above the game you will find the de facto Google search field box and can use it as a normal search engine page.
www.google.com/Easter/feature_easter.html

Want more fun? Go to:

Montage-a-Google
http://grant.robinson.name/projects/montage-a-google/

Guess-the-Google
http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/

“elgooG” Google Mirror
I’ve mentioned this site earlier. It's a Google mirror that makes you read everything backwards. This 4,000-line custom CGI script written in PERL, even survived the Great Firewall of China because the Chinki government security experts thought that “elgooG” was a joke, not a fully functional version of Google. So they blocked Google not this, much to the delight of hundreds of Chinese surfers.
http://elgoog.rb-hosting.de/index.cgi

On the Art Beat

2006-10-11T17:54:00.000+05:30

A brush with art, the penny-pinchers way.

One warm, sleepy Monday afternoon, way back in August 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's famous masterpiece, the Mona Lisa was snucked from the Louvre in Paris. The thief, an ordinary house painter called Vincenzo Peruggia, managed to keep it tucked away for almost a year before he caught and the painting recovered. The weirdest part in the whole tale? More people came to the Louvre in those 12 months to gaze at the blank space on the wall where Mona Lisa had once hung, than had visited the place in the last 12 years!

People have conjectured ever since that the real Mona Lisa was never actually found and the current one dangling in Louvre is a fake. Maybe. Maybe not. I am no one to comment or argue this. I am here for another cause. To lead you to a palette of some wonderful binary offerings that you can employ and deploy creatively on digital canvas...

Blender
They say, creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes; art is knowing which ones to keep. With this Open Source proggie for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback, you can create a lot of “mistakes”. And some wonderful new-age art! It can be used for various professional applications ranging from architectural/industrial work, web design, character animation, visual effects, product modeling and presentations etc. Rigging, rendering, shading, UV unwrapping, physics and particles, editing and compositing, real-time 3D/game creation… Blender does it all. Apart from Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP, Blender has versions for Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, SGI and Sun Solaris.

This is pro stuff man. You gotta go to the website to grab all the details.
www.blender3d.org/cms/Home.2.0.html

Paint.NET
From the bountiful we cut to the bantam. Paint.NET is an Open Source image and photo manipulation that started out at Washington State University as an undergraduate senior design project mentored by Microsoft as it as intended to replace MS Paint. But it goes far, far beyond the infantile Paint you have seen. It has easy and intuitive interface, supports layers, special effects, unlimited undos, and a variety of useful tools (splines or Bezier curves, magic wand, clone stamp, text editor, zoom, recolor etc.). Special effects include blurring, sharpening, red-eye removal, distortion, and embossing, 3D rotate/zoom effects to add perspective and tilting. Image adjustments included help you tweak an image's brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and levels. Paint.NET runs Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Server 2003.
www.getpaint.net/index.html

Inkscape
Another Open Source app, Inkscape is vector graphics editor. In contrast to raster (bitmap) graphics editors such as Photoshop or Gimp, Inkscape is like Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X and uses the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It’s XML, SVG, and CSS standard compliant. A skinnier cousin of its full-featured commercial cousin bhaiyas, it is more than adequate for crafting web graphics, technical diagrams, icons, creative art, logos, or maps. Almost. Go fetch.
www.inkscape.org

PhotoPlus 6
If the complexities of Photoshop confound you, come hither ladies and gentlemen. As an image and photo editing software, PhotoPlus 6 is pretty powerful, yet pretty simple to use. Like Photoshop, it enables you to create, manipulate and enhance photographs, bitmap graphics and web animations. It features creative tools like paintbrush, airbrush, clone, smudge and erase. A digital darkroom to enhance, repair and tweak photos by adjusting brightness, color hue and saturation, contrast, sharpness etc. The layer effects let you add bevels or drop shadows for a 3D look on text or other image elements while a layer manager lets you alter and preview specific image layers. It also allows you to easily edit or create animated GIFs for the Internet or presentations.
www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PagePlus/default.asp

PhotoFiltre
Another neat, easy to use (and free), image retouching program. It has over 100 filters that you can play around with as you go up the learning curve. The toolbar comprises the industry standard: Pipette, displacement cursor, fill bucket, aerosol, brush, drop of water (blur), cloning stamp, smudge and magic wand. Apart from the regular brushes (round and square in different sizes), PhotoFiltre also has some interesting variations in the form of oblique line, leaf, star, etc. A PhotoMasque module lets you create advanced contour and transparency effects on your images by using preset masks. And automatisation module allows you to apply basic functions/corrections (conversion, image size, framing) to a group of images. Why not start by touching up the Mona Lisa, Mr. Picasso?
www.photofiltre.com

Confidentially Yours

2006-10-04T17:36:00.000+05:30

Decrypting disk and file encryption freebies.

"Today, I had my laptop stolen and now I am up that creek without any sort of a paddle... it has files on it that could jeopadise my future employment...not the usual stuff... these are confidential files to do with an ongoing job and publication of these files puts the entire project at risk, not to mention my future job prospects. The problem for me is that the lappy was stolen by my vengeful ex-wife and the files on there are to do with a movie that is still in production... I have received an SMS which says that unless I sign my house over to her, she will publish the files and pics... sayonara to my career unless I comply... I think that I can only agree... Such is life, huh... Btw, all the files and logons were encrypted with the top of the range 1024-bit stuff but it looks like she has found some one to crack it all... and that is in less than four hours... So much for security. Hah!"

Yes ji, aisa bhi hota hai! So much for security... But still it shouldn't prevent you from securing critical data on your machine using encryption. We talked about various encryption fundas some months ago. Vinci da code piece, yaad hai? No? Too bad... Drop me an e-mail and I'll beam it across. But right here, right now, let's horse whisper about some of the best encryption freebies money can't buy.

Truecrypt
This is a free open-source disk encryption software that can bamboozle files, folders, entire hard disk partitions, or a storage device (such as USB flash drive). The encryption is automatic and in real-time. File and folder names are encrypted along with the file contents. A TrueCrypt volume can be up to 8,589,934,592 GB and cannot be identified from random data. Truecrypt uses AES-256, Blowfish (448-bit key), CAST5, Serpent, Triple DES, and Twofish encryption algorithms.

It doesn’t save the password to the disk. Neither does it have a facility to recover of encrypted data without the correct data key. The only way to recover your files is to try to "crack" the password or the key. You can even safely record and playback videos on a TrueCrypt volume. All TrueCrypt volumes are OS independent.
www.truecrypt.org
OS: Windows XP, 2003, 2000 and Linux

Axcrypt
Available under GNU General Public License, AxCrypt File Encryption Software is slick AES-128 file encryption and compression app. Install and its ready to use. No config required. It works on a file-by-file basis. Right-click integration with Windows Explorer makes it easy to use with individual files. Opening, viewing, editing and saving encrypted files is a double-click affair.

After modification, files are automatically re-encrypted. And ah, encrypted files can be e-mailed. A self-decrypting function allows for recipients not to require an AxCrypt installation at their end. AxCrypt features server mode options, an extensive command-line interface for scripting and programming, and an integrated shredder for all temporary and encrypted plaintext files. This one-meg Open Source application supports up to 4 GB files.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT, ME, 98
http://axcrypt.axantum.com

Cypherix Cryptainer LE
Cryptainer creates a 128-bit strong encrypted “ghost” container (vault) to store various types of data. Apart from encrypting files and folders, it locks them, hides them, and password protects them. It encrypts all file formats--textual, graphical, database, audio or video. It can also encrypt removable drives--any data on any media (USB drives, CD ROMs, flash disks etc.)

It works with a simple drag-and-drop operation. The protection is fast and on-the-fly. A secure e-mail module allows for self-extracting encrypted files. Only the password is required at the other end to decipher the file—not Cryptainer itself.
OS: Windows XP, 2003, 2000, ME, 98, 95
www.cypherix.co.uk/cryptainerle/features.htm

dsCrypt
dsCrypt is an uncomplicated, easy-to use, AES/Rijndael file encryption proggie. The relatively tiny download is self-contained and uses the advanced encryption algorithm efficiently to offer fault-free performance and good security. It is works with multiple files and allows drag-and-drop operations.

Install support is neither available, not required. An open code app, it deploys proven encryption methodologies that are supposed to be virtually unhackable--along with something called BruteHalt for brute-force password search resistance. Secure PassPad makes it immune to key-logging on networks. A neat user interface makes the encryption-decryption operation smooth and speedy.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, 98
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/

Productivity Cheat Sheet 26: Command and Conquer

2006-10-03T17:45:00.000+05:30

Wading through mouse-driven menus has almost become a way of life for us computing souls. Tearing ourselves away from the snug, secure feel of that smooth oblong object against the palm is not an easy. Yes, old habits may die hard. Especially when they have become so internalised in our work processes. But try these Windows command line shortcuts and you'll see how much time a just little key-tapping can save you in delving in and out of menu and sub-menus. Many of these are commands you never even knew existed!

For those who want to clear the cobwebs first: A command line is defined as a blank line onscreen which receives typed-in instructions from the user. DOS and Unix are total command line interfaces. Windows is graphical user interface (GUI) with a command line module that people can use to perform several tasks more directly and efficiently than via a graphical user interface.

To access the Windows command line, you need to launch the Windows Run command. For this, press the Windows key + R, or click on the Start button and then on Run. The blank dialog field provided is where you type in the action commands.

(Remember some of commands listed here will only work if the associated component/device is installed in your system.)

TO LAUNCH TYPE IN
Accessibility Controls access.cpl
Add Hardware Wizard hdwwiz.cpl
Add/Remove Programs appwiz.cpl
Administrative Tools control admintools
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
Device Manager devmgmt.msc
Direct X Control Panel 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 (with Appearance tab pre-selected) control color
Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility drwtsn32
Driver Verifier Utility verifier
Event Viewer eventvwr.msc
File Signature Verification Tool sigverif
Findfast findfast.cpl
Folders Properties control folders
Fonts control fonts
Fonts Folder fonts
Free Cell Game freecell
Game Controllers joy.cpl
Group Policy Editor (XP Professional) gpedit.msc
Hearts Game mshearts
Iexpress Wizard iexpress
Indexing Service ciadv.msc
Internet Properties inetcpl.cpl
IP Configuration (displays connection configuration) ipconfig /all
IP Configuration (displays DNS cache contents) ipconfig /displaydns
IP Configuration (deletes DNS cache contents) ipconfig /flushdns
IP Configuration (releases all connections) ipconfig /release
IP Configuration (renew all Connections) ipconfig /renew
IP Configuration (refreshes DHCP & re-registers DNS) ipconfig /registerdns
IP Configuration (displays DHCP Class ID) ipconfig /showclassid
IP Configuration (modifies DHCP Class ID) ipconfig /setclassid
Java Control Panel jpicpl32.cpl
Java Control Panel javaws
Keyboard Properties control keyboard
Local Security Settings secpol.msc
Local Users and Groups lusrmgr.msc
Logs out of Windows logoff
Microsoft Chat winchat
Minesweeper Game winmine
Mouse Properties control mouse
Mouse Properties main.cpl
Network Connections control netconnections
Network Connections ncpa.cpl
Network Setup Wizard netsetup.cpl
Notepad notepad
Nview Desktop Manager nvtuicpl.cpl
Object Packager packager
ODBC Data Source Administrator odbccp32.cpl
On Screen Keyboard osk
Opens AC3 Filter ac3filter.cpl
Password Properties password.cpl
Performance Monitor perfmon.msc
Performance Monitor perfmon
Phone and Modem Options telephon.cpl
Power Configuration powercfg.cpl
Printers and Faxes control printers
Printers Folder printers
Private Character Editor eudcedit
Quicktime QuickTime.cpl
Regional Settings intl.cpl
Registry Editor regedit
Registry Editor regedit32
Remote Desktop mstsc
Removable Storage ntmsmgr.msc
Removable Storage Operator Requests ntmsoprq.msc
Resultant Set of Policy (XP Professional) 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 Solitaire 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 Properties sysdm.cpl
Task Manager taskmgr
Telnet Client telnet
User Account Management nusrmgr.cpl
Utility Manager utilman
Windows Firewall firewall.cpl
Windows Magnifier magnify
Windows Management Infrastructure wmimgmt.msc
Windows System Security Tool syskey
Windows Update Launches wupdmgr
Windows XP Tour Wizard tourstart
Wordpad write

Productivity Cheat Sheet 25: Express Tricks

2006-09-26T22:48:00.001+05:30

The popularity of Hotmail and Yahoo may wax and wane, and reputation of Gmail may grow or slow, the peneration levels of Outlook Express remain virtually untouched. According to unoffical--and therefore debatable--estimates OE is firmly ensconced on 8 out of 10 Windows PCs today. The reasons for this are obvious: It’s easy to use, totally free, usually reliable, and largely perceived as a natural, "in-sync" bedfellow of Microsoft Windows and Office.

So this week, let’s try and see how we can help you work smarter with Outlook Express.

Spelling Bound
Typos and spelling mistakes in an e-mail can create a very negative impression in the mind of the recipient. So it is best to ensure that all your business correspondence is as faultless as possible. Here’s what you need to do to get OE’s spell checker to kick in for every single mail that you beam out. Select Tools > Options and switch to the Spelling tab. Here, under Settings, tick the check box next to “Always check spelling before sending” and then click on OK. Now the next time you your type out a mail and hit the Send button, the spell checker will point out any and every typo you have made.

Address Book Addendum
Double-click on an e-mail you have received from someone to open it. Right click on the sender's mail address (the From field). Next, select Add to Address Book. To edit the person’s name you have just added, choose File > Address Book. Now select the name and click on File > Properties. Edit the name as per requirements and click on OK.

Reducing Drag
If you feel that your Outlook Express has started aping a tortoise of late—or even tends to be unstable—check the number of messages you have amassed. While there is no limit to the quantum of messages OE can hold, things can get lethargic once your Inbox hits 2,000 messages with loads of attachments. More the 5,000 and OE can get cantankerous and even unreliable. So trim the fat, kill the unnecessary, and exterminate the relics. And/or hive off the important one to separate folders.

Inheriting Properties, Fast!
Here’s a speed tip. To get to Properties, most people click on a name they’re interested in and then click the Properties button in the toolbar. Okay, nothing wrong there. But if you want to do this faster, all you need to do to open the Properties dialog box is double-click on the name.

Group Checkin’
Need to check the details about a group in your Address Book? Move your mouse pointer to the group's icon, hold your breath, and wait a few secs (okay, it works even if you don’t hold your breath). A tool tip will open up to show you the names of the people belonging to the group.

Bunching Fowards
If you want to forward several e-mail messages at the same time to someone, go to the folder containing the messages you'd wish to forward. Holding the Ctrl key down, click on each message you want to forward. Then, right-click on any message in your selection and pick Forward. A New Message window will appear with the messages attached (across the bottom of the window). Now simply complete your message and zap it off.

Fighting Big Bad Wolves

2006-09-20T23:03:00.000+05:30

A free lunch with antivirus programmes.

Once upon a time there lived three fat little pigs. As they grew fatter their Mama Mia told them that they were getting far too plump for the house so they should venture forth and seek their fortunes. "But beware the Big Bad Wolf", she warned as they waddled off.

The first little pig went and built a house of straw. The second little pork made a house of sticks. The third little oink constructed a house of bricks. And they all grunted happily along. Until…

One beautiful moonlight night, the Big Bad Wolf--who loved hogging fat little piggies--came loping along and espied the first little suar ka bacha in his house of straw. "Little pig, little pig, let me in... or I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!" snarled the greedy BBW.

"By the hair on my chinny-chin-chin, I will not let you in," grunted the little trotter. So the BBW huffed and puffed, blew the house in and gobbled up the first little pig. Sigh. And thereby hangs tale...

Now imagine your PC as the little piggy-wig in a house of bhuusa, me as your Mama Mia, and a virus as the ravenous Big Bad Wolf. And I am warning you, "Beware the Big Bad Wolf! Use an antivirus..."

AVG Antivirus Free
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/
This easy-to-use freebie download from Grisoft offers very good armour against real time threats from files and e-mails. You can pre-schedule an AV scan or check disks and files manually as and when required. It creates rescue diskettes for emergency recovery. It automatically updates its virus database regularly. It forte? E-mail handling. AVG integrates with mail programs for sniffing and apprehending. It can add virus-free notification to mail, delete all or specified attachments, and block password protected ZIP attachments. All in all, it provides first class protection without bogging down your PC.

avast! 4 Home Edition
www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
This solid full-featured AV has an ICSA (International Computer Security Association) certified kernel. It offers very good protection against in-the-wild viruses and trojans. Regular file formats aside, it can also scan various embedded and compressed files, Outlook pst files, Outlook Express archives and supports a number of executable packers (PKLite, Diet, UPX, ASPack, PeShield, FSG, MEW etc.). Automatic updates, an simple user interface, an isolation chamber, mem resident as well as P2P and IM (Internet Messenger) shields, an integrated cleaner and support for 64-bit Win give it a major edge. Top-notch AV muscle here.

Microsoft Windows Defender Beta 2
www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Aah, benevolence from the King! MWD detects and removes known spyware from your PC, thereby protecting it from pop-ups, Internet baddies and security threats. If offers scheduled scanning and removal, supports XP x64, and incorporates assistive technology for individuals with physical or cognitive difficulties. MWD keeps it definitions up-to-date and offers automatic cleaning. It has a natty interface and provides detailed info on the intruders nabbed.

BitDefender 8 Free
www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-8-Free-Edition.html
ICSA (www.icsalabs.com/icsa/icsahome.php) certified virus scanning. On-demand virus scan, scheduler, online update, skinnable, quarantine and reports. Can scan archives, mail databases as well as the boot sector. Integrates with Explorer right-click menu making very easily accessible for specific file scans. But no “on access” or e-mail scanning. So "always-on" Internet connection walas, don’t depend on this Doc’s dawa alone. Yet, good for second opinions.

Comodo Antivirus 1.1 beta
www.antivirus.comodo.com/index.html?currency=USD®ion=Asia%20%26%20Pacific&country=IN
This proactive heuristic analysis tool for known and unknown threats works does antivirus detection and elimination on desktops, networks as well as removable drives. It incorporates real-time, on access scanning for people who are constantly online and provides automatic virus definition updates. Comodo scans compressed files and has a worm blocker which monitors and intercepts suspicious mass mailing attempts. Dubious files can be quarantined. Downer? Bit heavy on system resources.

Top 10 Online Defenders

BitDefender
www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

eTrust Antivirus Web Scanner
www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx

F-Secure
http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml

Freedom
www.freedom.net/viruscenter/onlineviruscheck.html

Kaspersky
www.kaspersky.com/kos/english/kavwebscan.html

McAfee Freescan
http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp?cid=9914

Panda ActiveScan
www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan?NRMODE=Published&NRORIGINALURL=%2factivescan%2f&NRNODEGUID=%7b3B202047-35D4-4DA2-B310-B1DBEC2971F2%7d&NRCACHEHINT=Guest

PC Pitstop
www.pcpitstop.com/antivirus/default.asp

Symantec Security Check
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?productid=symhome&langid=ie&venid=sym

TrendMicro Housecall
www.housecall.trendmicro.com/

Sound Bytes

2006-09-13T16:48:00.000+05:30

Sound advice on the best audio engineering freeware.

Ever heard of a lassie called Euterpe? No na? Not surprising. She was one of the nine Muses in Greek mythology, million of moons ago maybe. The daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, Euterpe (bolo "you-TER-pee") is the mellifluous muse of music who has always inspired mankind to weave harmonic waves of acoustic melody through the ages.

Be that as it may, for you audiophiles who itch to tune and tinker with audio files on your PCs, queued up here is some freeware that’ll be real music to your ears…

Audacity
Audacity is an awesome cross-platform digital audio editor for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux. You can use this free Open Source programme to record, edit, mix, convert et al. It records from microphone, line input, etc., dubs, creates multi-track recordings, handling upto 16 channels at once. It records and edits 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit (floating point) samples at up to 96 KHz. You can import and edit files, combine them with other recordings and export your recordings in MP3, WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis. However, it doesn’t support WMA, AAC, and other proprietary formats yet.

Apart form standard editing features Audacity allows unlimited undos and redos, as well as editing and mixing an unlimited number of tracks. Altering pitch and tempo, and removal of static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises is also possible. You can alter frequencies with equalisation, FFT filter, and bass boost effects and adjust volumes using Compressor, Amplify, and Normalise effects. Free lunch? That’s more like a free feast, Mr. Wannabe Soundman!
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Gungirl Sequencer
Never heard of that one, have ya? Well, Gungirl is an audiosequencer. A sequencer is a hardware device or software application used to “sequence” timed events into a certain order. In digital audio and music, a sequencer is the core of virtually every computer-based recording studio used to record and arrange MIDI and/or audio events into patterns and musical compositions.

Yet, unlike most sequencers, Gungirl is not a MIDI sequencer. And this makes it even more Gungirl is ideal for beginners with any additional complications. Also, it has an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface and an uncomplicated, idiot-proof file manager. It can handle eight audio tracks. It supports 16-bit, 44,100 Hz audio and exports to WAV format.
http://ggseq.sourceforge.net/

Hydrogen Advanced Drum Machine
Amit Kilam, Shivamani, Ringo Starr, Billy Cobham… and other Papajis of Percussion, hear this: Hydrogen is an advanced Windows-based drum machine out to challenge your ilk! Created by Alessandro Cominu, an Italian programmer, Hydrogen aims to bring professional--yet simple and intuitive--pattern-based drum programming to involved drum aficionados.

It features a pattern-based sequencer, with an unlimited number of patterns and the ability to chain patterns into a song. It claims to “generate up to 64 ticks per pattern, with individual levels per event, and variable pattern lengths.” Hydrogen has 32 instrument tracks with volume, mute, solo, pan capabilities and multi-layer support for instruments (16 samples max for each instrument). It can import and export song files and has unique human velocity, human time, pitch and swing functions. No hum-drum affair this, eh…
www.hydrogen-music.org/

Kristal Audio Engine
A modular multitrack recorder, audio sequencer and mixer for newbies. You can pick up all required nuances of recording, mixing and mastering digital audio here. The mixing console is the main app; the audio sequencer, live audio input, effects modules etc. can be loaded on as plug-ins as and when you are up to handling them.

The app does 16 audio tracks and has a 32-bit floating point audio engine which can handle 44.1 to 192 KHz sample rates and 16/24/32 bit audio files. It has a triband parametric equaliser and supports WAV, AIFF, FLAC, OGG Vorbis formats. It also comes with features like audio clip fade-in/fade-out/crossfade and unlimited undos/redos.
www.kvraudio.com/get/866.html

Audiograbber
Jaisa naam, waisa kaam. Audiograbber grabs digital audio from CDs. It doesn’t route anything via your sound card. It simply copies all the audio digitally. It can automatically “normalise” music, delete the silent seconds from start and/or end tracks, and use a variety external MP3 encoders, or deploy internal MP3/WMA encoders for MP3 file creation. You can make knock-offs of your vinyl LPs or cassettes with Audiograbber and convert the audio into WAVs or MP3s.

Audiograbber has a neat and easy interface that is fairly flexible. You’ll be surprised but, it doesn’t mess with your Windows at all: No DLLs, OCXs, device drivers, spyware, adware intrusions; no evidence of it in the Windows Registry or win.ini. So go grab it.
www.audiograbber.com-us.net/

ALL FOR A SONG!

Audiri
[Online music/music video resource]
www.audiri.com

foobar2000
[Media player]
www.foobar2000.org/

iTunes
[Audio player/organiser]
www.apple.com/itunes

Pandora
[Online music radio]
www.pandora.com

wxMusik
[Media player/library]
http://musik.berlios.de

Star Trek

2006-09-06T13:57:00.000+05:30

Something about the Earth and the beyond.

Amazed and confused at the disqualification of Pluto as a planet in our Solar System? Try and picture the immense magnitude of the Universe and maybe you’ll find a method behind this madness. Visualise this: You’re a 5-feet something dude/dudette. You live on this Dharti Mata, Planet Earth. The Earth is 40,000 kms round and revolves around the Sun (yeah, our Surya). Our Surya is big--big enough to hold 1.3 million Earths. So if you imagine this Surya as a regular kharbooza, the Earth is like a tiny pinhead in comparison. (To see how a piece of rock called Pluto looks in this scheme of astronomical sizings, go to www.rense.com/general72/size.htm)

Zoom out from our Solar System. You will find that our galaxy, the Milky Way has some 200 billion "Suns" in it. Our Sun is just a little spec in the Milky Way--which is about 1,00,000 light years across in width. Now let's try and view that number in some perspective. Light, traveling at 3,00,000 kms a second, takes eight minutes to reach us from our Sun. But from another sun, near the centre of our very own Milky Way galaxy, light takes 27,000 years to reach us! (This sun we are talking about is called the Pistol Star. It is 100 times bigger than our Sun and 1,00,00,000 times brighter--making it the biggest and brightest star known.) For an amazing depiction of the macrocosm-to-microcosm universe--starting from our Milky Way at 10 million light years away from the Earth, to a leaf on tree in Florida, USA, down to its subatomic chlorophyll universe of electrons and protons--go to: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/

If we zoom further back, stepping out of our Milky Way Galaxy, what will we see? Two more galaxies right next to our Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy in the constellation of Andromeda (referred to as M31) and the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33) in the constellation Triangulum. Both M31 and M33 are actually visible without a telescope if you know where and when to look. The "Great Galaxy" in Andromeda is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and about twice as wide--with some 300 billion suns! East of Andromeda, is the M33, another spiral galaxy. This is 2.3 million light years away from us. And the M31? A mite further at 2.9 million light years. So the light that we see emanating from M31 currently was actually emitted from the galaxy around the time mankind first discovered fire!

That's not all. The Milky Way, the M31 and M33 are what astronomers look upon as the "local group" of neighbouring galaxies--because they are in the same part of the sky. Beyond this, astronomers can see billions of galaxies. So what is at the edge of the Universe? Don't know, can't say. Not yet. Maybe, there is not edge or end to the Universe at all...

Fascinating, isn't it? And chilling too, to realise how small and utterly insignificant we humans are in this awesomely gigantic Universe. The Internet is strewn with hundreds of websites on the magic and mysteries of this Universe. Here are some of best astronomy, space and earth science freeware and sites that have skimmed across my horizon.

Celestia
A real-time space simulation freebie that lets you explore the Universe in 3D. Trek through the Solar System, to over 100,000 stars, and even beyond the Milky Way. The exponential zoom lets you delve into space across a huge range of scales.
www.shatters.net/celestia

World Wind
This NASA GIS program is like a high-res world map layered with satellite info. Zoom from satellite altitude to anything on Earth--Grand Canyon or Gobi Desert. LandSat imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data give you a feel of the Earth’s terrain. Like Google Earth? Nay, much more.
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov

Stellarium
Among the best star chart proggies around. It takes your location, calculates local sunset/sunrise, moonset/moonrise and then shows what you will see at night (and evening and morning twilight).
www.stellaruim.org

Orbiter
This demos some advanced principles of spaceflight like orbital mechanics, interplanetary navigation, and related matters. The graphics are better than most commercial programs.
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html

Orbitron
An artificial satellite tracking proggie, has info of almost all spacecraft in orbiting Earth. Spy satellites? Pata nahin but it can show up 20,000 orbiters).
www.stoff.pl

Other Celestial Orbits

BOINC
http://boinc.berkeley.edu

Space
www.space.com

Google Earth
http://earth.google.com

SOHO
http://ares.nrl.navy.mil/sungrazer

SETI @home
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu

J-Track
http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/JTrack

Calling the Video Walas

2006-08-30T13:51:00.000+05:30

Tracking the best video freeware.

By definition, video is the fine tech of capturing, recording, processing, transmitting, and reconstructing moving pictures, usually deploying celluloid film, electronic signals, or digital media. It’s a swampy realm swarming with buzzwords like frames per second, interlacing, resolution, aspect ratios, color space, bits per pixel, compression methodologies, stereoscopics, bit rates, and a blather of blah-blah… But we’re not here to bother with that. In the last few months I have received a slew of mail asking for video freebie utes. Here’s a pick of the best:

VirtualDub
The tape has rolled. The shot is canned. And its edit table-wards ho… OK, for this try a freeware called VirtualDub. It is a wonderful little video capture/processing tool available under Open Source. The GNU General Public License (GPL) program may not bristle with the raw power of a Adobe Premiere, but it does a great job with fast linear ops. And handling AVI files is its forte. It offers batch-processing capabilities, cohabits with third-party video filters, reads MPEG-1, leverages BMP file sets, but doesn’t do DVD or MPEG-4. And as with all video editing work, you need a fast PC--nothing to compensate that Mr. Wannabe Editor!

Acha sunno, for filters go to the Milafat site mentioned below. Hit the “Telecharger ICI” button here to download a complete set. Install these filters and then kill the “PCVideo Image Processor” filter.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT, Me, 98, 95
www.virtualdub.org
http://milafat.free.fr/vdfilters.htm

SUPER
SUPER, an acronym for Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer is a splendid “one-click” video--or rather multimedia--conversion proggie. It can play and convert full length movies to any other format--with no time limitations. Its promise of doing “for free what other encoders can't do for money” is no idle boast actually.

This pretty easy-to-use 18 meg freeware can encode to and from 3gp/3g2 (Nokia, Siemens, Sony, Ericsson), asf, avi (DivX, H263, H263+, H264, Xvid, MPEG-4, MSMPEG4 etc.), swf, dat, fli, flc, flv (Flash), mkv, mpg (MPEG-1, MPEG-2), mov (H263, H263+, H264, MPEG-4 etc.), MP4 (H263, H263+, H264, MPEG-4), ogg, qt, rm, ram, rmvb, str (Play Station), ts (HDTV), viv, vob, and wmv video formats. Audio file format conversions include ac3, amr, mp2, mp3, mp4, ogg, ra, wav, and wma. iPod, DVD, MOV… you can throw virtually anything at it. If that’s not enough, SUPER can also play and save streaming media off the Internet (Multimedia Messaging Service (mms://), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (rtsp://) as well as http://. But hello, dheemi gati kae PC vahan vaalon, saavdhan!
OS: Windows XP, Me, 98
www.erightsoft.net

StreamBox VCR and SDP
Talking of capturing streaming video, frankly there is no truly superlative streaming media recording free software around. The best options I could unearth are StreamBox VCR and SDP.

StreamBox is software for recording and playing back "time-shifting" RealAudio streams. This underground 4.07 MB software is in danger of going extinct cos Real objects to its interoperation with its closed content delivery system. StreamBox can cope with Windows media, QuickTime and some newer formats as well. Max simultaneous streams: Five. It runs on Windows XP, 2000, NT, Me, 98, and 95.

The 2.77 MB SDP lets you to save most Microsoft video streaming protocols (except RTSP, which should be operational with the next update). It works on all versions of Windows 98 and beyond. Apart from MMS, SDP can also catch http v1.0, http progressive (simple http download), mmst and mmsu over both TCP and UDP transport protocols.
http://p082.ezboard.com/fstreemeboxvcrfrm7.showMessage?topicID=27.topic
http://sdp.ppona.com

VLC Media Player
VLC (dubbed VideoLAN Client once upon a time) is an awesome must-have multimedia player for a multitude of audio and video formats. From MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, DVDs, VCD codecs to various streaming protocols it plays just about anything you dump on it. You can also use it on a high-bandwidth network as a server for unicast or multicast streams in IPv4 or IPv6. This 7.9 MB one-stop playback solution also does a range of video filters ranging from image wall to magnify-gradient-bluescreen. Audio codecs supported encompass MPEG Layer 1 and 2, mp3, AC3, DTS, LPCM, AAC, Vorbis, WMA, ADPCM, DV Audio, FLAC, QDM2/QDMC (QuickTime), MACE, AMR (3GPP), Real Audio and Speex.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT, Me, 98, 95
www.videolan.org

August Beginnings

2006-08-23T09:56:00.000+05:30

Of inventive thinking and imaginative products.

He led no armies into battle, he conquered no countries, and he enslaved no peoples... Yet, he altered the history and boundaries of mankind forever. Known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park", in his lifetime he patented 1,093 inventions. Among these, the more famous ones are the electric light bulb, the gramophone, the motion picture camera, and the carbon telephone transmitter. His name: Thomas Alva Edison, unarguably the greatest inventor ever born.

He once said, to invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. So since invention is the natural outcome of creative thinking, this week let me try to sniff out some recently launched creative inventions for you.

Nokia Digital Pen SU-1B
Parker, Cello and co., beware. Nokia has taken to manufacturing pens! Haan, but this is no aisa-waisa pen, ok. You use it like a regular ink pen, but this digital instrument records as it writes. Scribbles, sentences, slogans, sketches, or signatures—Nokia’s Digital Pen remembers everything you scrawl on digital paper. When you get back to your desk, stick the pen into its stand, and transfer your scribbles wirelessly to your PC via Bluetooth. You can change the colour and thickness of the pen’s nib output, write text, or doodle pictures, or mix ‘em up; no sweat. If you still can’t get over Nokia getting into pen making, mull this: Once upon a time Sony's used to make rice cookers…
Price: $232.77
www.nokia-asia.com/nokia/0,,48869,00.html

The Onyx Phone
Dreaming of owning a N73 or N93? Maybe you should check out Onyx, a next generation concept phone from Synaptics and Pilotfish that responds to the touch of your cheek. The phone uses an optically clear, capacitive touch screen technology to create a new user interface paradigm. Obviously the input system eliminates the use of mechanical keys. But apart from points and taps, it recognises shapes, complex gestures, and proximity to your finger or face. Thus two-finger taps, closing tasks by making an “X” over them, sending messages by swiping them off the screen, or answering a phone by merely holding it against your cheek add amazing functionalities. Total gadar eh? Except this cheeky business won’t work for me yaar; I have a bhaloo-style (unpruned Sunny Deol) beard…
www.synaptics.com/onyx

USB Air-Conditioned Shirt
The bijli has gone. So you’re sitting soaked in sweat, sweltering and simmering in the sizzling sticky heat, swearing away at the sad state of saadi Sarkar. Smile now Sambha, for some salvation maybe in sight. Slip into this Kouzi Ichigaya invented USB-powered air-conditioned shirt, plug it into your PC’s USB port and just cool off! The two 10cm fans sewn into both sides of the shirt suck fresh air in, vapourise the sweat and heat and bring down your body’s temperature. That’s not all. The fans come with switches and speed regulators. UPS and inverter has packed up? Never mind. Switch to the shirt’s four AA batteries, or your car's lighter socket for power. Kya cool hain hum…

Atech iCarta iPod Dock
This is one “cutting-edge” device from Atech Flash Technology lends a whole new dimension to the expression “rock ‘n roll”. iCarta actually merges an iPod docking station with—you ain’t going to believe this--a loo roll dispenser! So if you regularly spend extended hours in the throne room, you can comfortably listen to your portable music player --sans messy headphone wires--by sticking it into this integrated tissue holder cum stereo dock. The 8.25 x 3.68 x 7.12 inch device has four integrated “high performance” moisture-resistant speakers, requires AC power, and charges your iPod as it plays. How utterly loony!
www.atechflash.com/products-icarta.html

Productivity Cheat Sheet 20 - MS Access 2

2006-08-22T09:28:00.000+05:30

Not many people are aware of the fact that Microsoft Access was originally the name of a communications program in Bill Gates’ product stable in the bygone era of Windows 3.1. During that time, it was primarily pitted against a successful serial communications software called ProComm. But lack of market response forced Microsoft to kill that Access. Year later, for whatever reason the company chose to label its relational database by the same name. And this Access has met with formidable success.

There are lots of excellent help sites on Access. Beginners can start with www.drewslair.com/desk/access_series/Intro.htm, followed by the FAQs at www.mvps.org/access. And then top it up with www.databasedev.co.uk and www.functionx.com/access/index.htm.

EDITING/NAVIGATING OBJECT LIST
F2: Renames selected object
End: Moves to last object
Home: Moves to first object

NAVIGATING/OPENING OBJECTS
Ctrl+Tab: Cycles through Objects bar top to bottom
Shift+Ctrl+Tab: Cycles through Objects bar bottom to top
Enter or Alt+O: Opens selected table or query in Datasheet view, or form in Form view
Enter: Opens selected report in Print Preview; opens selected data access page in Page view; runs selected macro
Ctrl+Enter or Alt+D: Opens selected table, query, form, report, data access page, macro, or module in Design view
Alt+N: Creates new table, query, form, report, data access page, macro, or module
F5: Refreshes Database window
Ctrl+G: Displays Immediate window in Visual Basic Editor

WORKING WITH MENUS
Shift+F10: Shows shortcut menu
F10: Makes menu bar active
Alt+Spacebar: Shows program icon menu (on program title bar)
Alt: Closes visible menu and submenu at same time
Esc: Closes visible menu or submenu

WORKING WITH TOOLBARS
Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+Shift+Tab: Selects next or previous toolbar
Tab or Shift+Tab: When toolbar is active, selects next or previous button or menu on toolbar
Enter: When toolbar menu selected, opens menu; when button selected, performs assigned action

WORKING DATABASES AND DIALOG BOXES
Alt+1: Goes to previous folder
Alt+2: Opens folder up one level from open folder
Alt+3: Closes dialog box, and opens WWW search page
Alt+4: Deletes selected folder or file
Alt+5: Creates new subfolder in open folder
Alt+6: Switchs between List, Details, Properties, and Preview views
Alt+7: Shows Tools menu

USING PROGRAM WINDOWS
Alt+Tab: Switches to next program
Alt+Shift+Tab: Switches to previous program
Ctrl+Esc: Shows Windows Start menu
Ctrl+W: Closes active database window
Ctrl+F6: Switches to next database window
Ctrl+Shift+F6: Switches to previous database window

USING DIALOG BOXES
Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDn: Switches to next tab in dialog box
Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp: Switch to previous tab in dialog box
Tab/Shift+Tab: Moves to next/previous option or option group
Spacebar: Performs action assigned to selected button; selects or clears check box
Alt+letter key: Select option, or selects/clears check box by letter underlined in option name
Alt+Down Arrow: Opens selected drop-down list box
Esc: Closes selected drop-down list box; cancels command and closes dialog box
Alt+F4: Close dialog box

WORKING WITH TASK PANES
F6: Moves to task pane from another pane in program window
Ctrl+Tab: When a menu or toolbar is active, moves to task pane
Tab or Shift+Tab: When task pane is active, selects next or previous option in the task pane
Ctrl+Down Arrow: Display the full set of commands on the task pane menu
Spacebar or Enter: Opens selected menu, or performs action assigned to selected button
Shift+F10: Opens shortcut menu; opens drop-down menu for selected gallery item
PgUp or PgDn: Scrolls up/down in selected gallery list
Ctrl+Home or Ctrl+End: Moves to top or bottom of selected gallery list

Browse On Baby…

2006-08-16T16:29:00.000+05:30

Life in the times of Internet Explorer 7.

As the Internet gets more and more pervasive in our everyday lives, we end up spending an increasing amount of time riding around the world on our browsers. Forget mail. Forget chatting. Forget Googling around for anything and everything work-related... From looking up train/flight times, to checking our bank accounts, to window shopping for gadgets, to checking ODI scores live at Cricinfo, to downloading music, we are increasingly turn to the Web for a lot of routine, day-to-day things. So it makes sense therefore to be a little picky in choosing a web browser.

For the last few years, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has dominated the web browser space like a smug and smiling Goliath. But leadership is action, not position. Falling prey to its own absolute monopoly, this Goliath till quite recently had virtually forgotten that it had to keep innovating itself to hold its place. Instead of working on further developments and improving IE 6, Microsoft complacently let things drift along.

The world has a habit of making room for those who know where they are going. So a rash of far superior and more feature-rich browsers like Firefox and Opera have begun to nibble steadily away at IE’s marketshare. Though IE is still way ahead in the game, Microsoft can no long ignore this sharp nipping at it heels. Hence, it is in the final throes of giving birth to Internet Explorer 7.

Currently available in Beta 3, Internet Explorer 7 is slated for final launch around November this year. Microsoft has worked double-time to overcome IE 6’s shortcomings in its forthcoming avatar. And IE 7 hopes to reclaim its lost desktop ground with improved navigation, tabbed browsing, in-built web search, advanced printing, RSS feed subscriptions, enhanced interface, better security, and lots more. We’ll dig deeper into it some other time.

Meanwhile, if haven’t already sampled IE 7, you can sample it right now from www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx. Mind it: IE 7 required to have Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed on Windows XP. It would be a good idea to verify all the requirements at www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/about/sysreqs/default.mspx

O guru, remember: Seek always, for by looking for one thing you will surely find another. And until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can fly. Sound like Siddhu, do I? Nevermind. You try Opera. And also check Flock. Each has its virtues. Of course, my heart is still aflutter with Firefox.

Productivity Cheat Sheet 19 - MS Access 1

2006-08-15T16:32:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Access is a very popular Windows programme for creating and maintaining databases. Available as part of Microsoft Office, and even separately, Access is programmable using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). It reads Paradox, dBase and Btrieve files and uses ODBC, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase SQL Server and Oracle data. The Access database driver for online databases is often supported by web hosts using the NT hosting platform.

There is loads of information available on Access on the Web. A great starting point is a motherlode of links at http://allenbrowne.com/links.html. Those of you seeking dope on interesting Access-based solutions should point your to http://blog.datamanagementsolutions.biz/dms.html. And all of you can tip-toe in here for some general keyboard shortcuts.

OPENING, PRINTING AND SAVING
Ctrl + N: Opens new database
Ctrl + O: Opens existing database
Ctrl + P: Open prints dialog box
Ctrl + S or Shift + F12 or Alt + Shift + F2: Save database object
F12 or Alt + F2: Opens Save As dialog box

USING A COMBO BOX OR LIST BOX
F4 or Alt+Down Arrow: Opens combo box
F9: Refreshes contents of Lookup field, list or combo box
Down Arrow: Moves down one line
Pg Dn: Moves down one page
Up Arrow: Moves up one line
Pg Up: Moves up one page
Tab: Exits combo or list box

FINDING/REPLACING TEXT OR DATA
Ctrl + F: Opens Find tab in Find and Replace dialog box (Datasheet view and Form views)
Ctrl + H: Opens Replace tab in Find and Replace dialog box (Datasheet and Form views)
Shift + F4: Finds next occurrence of text specified in Find and Replace dialog box when dialog box is closed (Datasheet and Form views)

WORKING IN DESIGN VIEW
F2: Switches between Edit mode (with insertion point displayed) and Navigation mode
F4: Switches to property sheet (Design view in forms and reports in databases and Access projects)
F5: Switches to Form view from form Design view
F6: Switches between upper and lower portions of window (Design view of tables, macros, and queries and Advanced Filter/Sort window)
F7: Switches to Code Builder from form or report Design view (Design view window or property sheet)
Shift + F7: Switches from Visual Basic Editor to form or report Design view
Alt + V + P: Opens property sheet for selected object

WINDOW OPS
F11: Brings Database window to front
Ctrl + F6: Cycles between open windows
Enter: Restores selected minimised window when all windows are minimised
Ctrl + F8: Turns on Resize mode for active window when it’s not maximised; arrow keys resize window
Alt + Spacebar: Displays control menu
Shift + F10: Displays shortcut menu
Ctrl + W or Ctrl + F4: Closes active window
Alt + F11: Switches between Visual Basic Editor and previous active window
Alt + Shift + F11: Switches to Script Editor from previous active window

WORKING WITH WIZARDS
Tab: Moves to Help image button in wizard
Alt + N: Moves to next window in wizard
Alt + B: Moves to previous window in wizard
Alt + F: Closes wizard window

MISCELLANEOUS
F2: Displays complete hyperlink address for selected hyperlink
F7: Checks spelling
Shift + F2: Opens Zoom box to enter expressions/text in small input areas
Alt + Enter: Displays property sheet in Design view
Alt + F4: Quits Access, closes dialog box, or closes property sheet
Ctrl + F2: Invokes Builder
Ctrl + F11: Toggles between custom menu bar and built-in menu bar
Ctrl + Right Arrow or Crtl + , (Comma): Toggles forward between views when in table, query, form, report, page, view, PivotTable list, PivotChart report, stored procedure, or Access project function
Ctrl + Left Arrow or Crtl + . (Period): Toggles back between views as in above

Monsoon Merchandise

2006-08-09T16:25:00.000+05:30

Of ingenious inventions and cunning contraptions.

India's benefaction to human civilisation through the ages has ranged from bangle to bungalow, cashmere to cummerbund, juggernaut to jungle, pajamas to pariah, shampoo to shawl, sari to seersucker, and zaffran to zero... Be it ingenious invention or cunning contraption, this country has always made its presence felt somewhere.

Obscured by the hurly burly of time lies another little gem that emerged largely on our shores. In 1856, Sir William Herschell, a British magistrate in India, was made responsible for distributing pensions and grants. Soon he realised that a number of our illiterate yet wily countrymen were making a total mickey out of him by fraudulently (and repeatedly) collecting dole under false names on the pretext that they couldn’t sign acceptance acknowledgments. To check this duping, Herschell conceived fingerprinting. And this is how public fingerprinting came about in this world.

Keeping our fingers crossed for the Next Big Thing to be contrived in India, let’s give a thumb’s up to some gadgets the world bestowed upon us last month.

LG Chocolate
The Chocolate KG800 from LG is a slim, snazzy slider phone. Minimalistically designed, it has a 256,000 colour, 176x220 TFT screen. The triband GSM features feather touch buttons that are actually a hidden heat sensitive touchpad. It offers 128MB of memory and incorporates a 1.3 megapixel, 4X digital zoom camera and a flash that can snap up 1280x960 pictures and shoot video.
This 83-gramme, Bluetooth-enabled lifestyle phone has dedicated MP3/camera buttons for the music player mode. The music player supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, AAC++ and WMA file formats. The KG800 has 64 polyphonic ringtones and can also deploy MP3 files as tones. A USB cable for PC connectivity and stereo headphones are also bundled.
Price: Rs.16,000
www.chocolate.lgmobile.com

Altec Lansing iM9 Speakers
A high-decibel boombox acoustic enhancement that “carries” your iPod. The lunchbox-sized iM9 portable speaker set fits, syncs and charges all dockable iPods. It even links iPod video/photo players to a TV.
The AC or battery powered, 11 x 3 x 7.8 inch black device weighs four pounds and comprises dual 2¾-inch drivers, 1-inch tweeters and MaxxBass technology. You can also connect any other portable music player to it via the unit's auxiliary input. It has a durable shock-resistant design, a retractable dock, and comes with a backpack for easy transportation.
Price: Rs.10,900
www.alteclansing.com/product_details.asp?pID=IM9#

Intex MP3/FM Player
Finding the iPod too pricey? Go desi with this is an inexpensive portable mini MP3 and FM player with 512MB of memory. And it also doubles up a pen drive to carry your data. It features an inbuilt microphone and keys for the volume, play, forward, reverse, contrast, search, replay, repeat, and equalisation. Apart from your headphones, you can hook it up to a DVD drive. The USB port whisks your music and data to and fro. The black pocket-sized device has a green, yellow, orange and red screen display.
Rs. 2,999

Samsung 18X DVD writer
A high-speed SH-S182D 18X DVD writer from gizmo giant Samsung, it writes to DVD±R at 18X, DVD-RAM at 12X, DVD±R double layer at 8X, DVD+RW at 8X and DVD-RW at 6X speeds. This translates to notching up 4 minutes and 48 seconds for backing up 4.7GB data on a DVD±R disc—knocking about one minute off the speed of most 16x DVD writers. Burning a 4.7GB disc in DVD-RAM format takes about 17 minutes.
This LightScribe drive is available in internal/external form factors and comes with both ivory and black bezels. Free software for music, video, photo and data disc creation software is bundled.
Price: Rs. 4,700

Productivity Cheat Sheet 18 - IE 2

2006-08-08T16:16:00.000+05:30

In the last few of years, browser badshah Internet Explorer has slowly been losing its once all-embracing supremacy to rivals like Firefox, Opera and even Flock. So Microsoft has been working hard to overcome IE’s shortcomings with its forthcoming avatar of the web browser, Internet Explorer 7. And IE7 hopes to reclaim its lost desktop ground with improved navigation, tabbed browsing, in-built web search, advanced printing, RSS feed subscriptions, enhanced interface, better security, and lots more.

If you're an ardent IE disciple but haven't upgraded to the new and enriched Internet Explorer 7 as yet, please go and get it from www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx. It's still a beta version so you can expect some hiccups. But it’s still worth it nonetheless. And once you've got your paws on IE7, here's your crash course on additional keyboard shortcuts for this genus.

TABS
Ctrl + Click: Opens link in new tab in background
Ctrl + Shift + Click: Open link in new tab in foreground
Ctrl + T: Opens new tab in foreground
Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Switches between tabs
Ctrl + W: Closes current tab (when no tabs open, closes current window)
Alt + Enter: Opens new tab in foreground from address bar
Ctrl + n (n can be 1-8): Switches to specific tab
Ctrl+9: Switches to last tab
Ctrl + Alt + F4: Closes other tabs
Ctrl + Q: Opens quick tabs

ZOOM VIEWS
Ctrl + + (Plus sign): Increases zoom in 10% increments
Ctrl + - (Minus sign): Decreases zoom in 10% decrements
Ctrl + 0: Restores to original size (100% zoom)

SEARCH
Ctrl + E: Goes to Toolbar Search Box
Alt + Enter: Opens your search query in a new tab
Ctrl + Down Arrow: Bring down the search provider menu

FAVORITES CENTER
Ctrl + I: Opens Favorites Center to your favourites
Ctrl + H: Opens Favorites Center to your history
Ctrl + J: Opens Favorites Center to your feeds
Alt: Hides/unhides Menu Bar

MOUSE SHORTCUTS
Click middle mouse button: Opens link in background tab
Click middle mouse button on tab: Closes tab
Double-click on empty tab band space: Opens new tab
Ctrl + Mouse wheel up/down: Zooms page in or out in 10% increments/decrements

Productivity Cheat Sheet 17 - IE 1

2006-08-01T16:00:00.000+05:30

This ubiquitous Microsoft program has recently been rated the eighth worst tech product of all time! Yet it is quite like oxygen for the global browsing community. Yes, for most of us Internet Explorer is synonymous with the Web and the Internet. No IE means no surfing. Period.

And surfing for most of us, most of time is a clickety-click affair. Other than typing out a web address, we seldom think of using the keyboard for anything while using IE. However, keyboard and mouse shortcuts even in this app can help you use the browser much more efficiently. Fire up your IE and follow us…

VIEWING AND EXPLORING WEB PAGES
F1: Displays Internet Explorer Help or to display context Help about an item in a dialog box
F11: Toggles between full-screen and other views in the browser
Tab: Moves forward through the items on a web page, the Address bar, or the Links bar
Shift + Tab: Moves through the items on web page, Address bar, or Links bar
Alt + Home: Goes to your Home page
Alt + Right arrow: Goes to next page
Alt + Left arrow or Backspace: Goes to previous page
Shift + F10: Displays shortcut menu for link
Ctrl + Tab or F6: Moves forward between frames
Shift + Ctrl + Tab: Moves backward between frames
Up arrow: Line scrolls towards top of web page
Down arrow: Line scrolls towards bottom of web page
Pg Up: Scrolls towards top of web page in screen increments
Pg Dn: Scrolls towards bottom of web page in screen increments
Home: Moves to top of page
End: Moves to end page
Ctrl + F: Finds on current page
F5 or Ctrl + R: Refreshes current web page
Ctrl + F5: Refreshes current web page, even if time stamp for web version and your locally stored version are same
Esc: Stops downloading page
Ctrl + O or Ctrl + L: Opens to new Location dialog
Ctrl + N: Opens another instance of browser window with current web address
Ctrl + W: Closes current window
Ctrl + S: Saves current page
Ctrl + P: Opens Print dialog box for current page or active frame
Enter: Activates selected link
Ctrl + E: Opens Search dialog
Ctrl + I: Opens Favorites
Ctrl + H: Opens History
Ctrl + click: In History or Favorites boxes, opens multiple folders

PRINT PREVIEW
Alt + P: Sets printing options and prints page
Alt + U: Changes paper, headers and footers, orientation, and margins for current page
Alt + Home: Displays first page to be printed
Alt + Left arrow: Displays previous page to be printed
Alt + A: Allows you to display specific page
Alt + Right arrow: Displays next page to be printed
Alt + End: Display the last page to be printed
Alt + + (Plus sign): Zoom in
Alt + - (Minus sign): Zoom out
Alt + Z: Displays list of zoom percentages
Alt + C: Closes Print Preview

USING THE ADDRESS BAR
Alt + D: Selects text in Address bar
F4: Displays list of typed web addresses
Ctrl + Left arrow: When in Address bar, moves cursor left to next logical break in address (period or slash)
Ctrl + Right arrow: When in Address bar, moves cursor right to next logical break in address (period or slash)
Ctrl + Enter: Adds "http://www." to beginning and ".com" to end of text typed into Address bar
Up arrow: Moves forward through list of AutoComplete matches
Down arrow: Move back through list of AutoComplete matches

WORKING WITH FAVORITES
Ctrl + D: Adds current page to favorites
Ctrl + B: Opens Organize Favorites dialog box
Alt + Up arrow: Moves selected item up in Favorites list in Organize Favorites dialog box
Alt + Down arrow: Moves selected item down in Favorites list in Organize Favorites dialog box

EDITING
Ctrl + X: Removes selected items and copies them to Clipboard
Ctrl + C: Copies selected items to Clipboard
Ctrl + V: Insert the contents of the Clipboard at the selected location
Ctrl + A: Select all items on the current Web page

Tooling Around

2006-07-26T15:34:00.000+05:30

Tidings and tip-offs on the ten most terrific freeware toolbars.

Most of us are so khush with Google Toolbar (www.toolbar.google.com) or Yahoo! Toolbar (www.toolbar.yahoo.com) that we tend to turn our nose up at any new developments and enhancements in the rest of the toolbar universe. Kyon bhai? Haven’t you heard the saying “Seek always, for by looking for one thing you will surely find another.”

Here’s the skinny on some the best toolbars I have encountered recently. So plunge into hitherto uncharted waters to peek at what lies beyond the horizon. (All the toolbars mentioned here are free. A few of them however tend to harvest personal info. Do check their privacy policies first.)

A-ToolBar
www.metaeureka.com
It has 50 pretty awesome tools. General tools include metasearch, web catalog, news RSS reader, spam remover, desktop search, links manager, app manager, language translator, dictionary, PIM, world clock, reminder, password keeper, weather and more. The network tools encompass telnet, ping, trace, DNS lookup, WhoIs etc. And then there are URL tools of all kinds… Ah, don’t miss the biorhythm charts and love calculator!

Advanced Searchbar
www.advancedsearchbar.com
An award winning toolbar that search over 100 search engines, over 60 news providers, and three-dozen email clients and is packed with features to ease Net trawling. It integrates with several spyware-removal proggies, blogs, and IMs. Icons allow easy access to lots of applications, including a built-in file shredder, calculator, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader, and pop-up eliminator.

Blinkx Pico
www.blinkx.com
This amazing one meg download toolbar searches over 4,000,000 hours of audio, video, podcast, vlog and TV along with conventional Web pages automatically! Instead making you trigger a search after figuring out what to search for, navigating through results etc., Pico brings you relevant results automatically using advanced algorithms to assess the info you’re viewing. Leaves me quite keywordless!

Copernic Meta
www.copernic.com/en/products/meta/index.html
This engine metasearches for images, audio, multimedia, news, auctions, and more. You can add your fav search engines and info sources to it, assign keyboard shortcuts and easily sniff around in located pages via highlighted keywords. You can search from within an application without opening your browser. It also features specialised categories like Web, Shopping, Dictionary, and Thesaurus that query multiple search engines at once. "Alt+Click"ing any word triggers start a search on it.

Furl Toolbar
www.softplatz.com/Soft/Network-Internet/Browsers-Tools/Furl-Toolbar.html
Furl is wonderfully huge online filing cabinet genie that almost metamorphoses the Internet into a personal Web by storing as much as 5 GB of your surfed pages--saved, “dog-eared” and accessible to from any PC, anywhere, anytime. You can keep Furl as a toolbar, in your bookmarks or as button. Great tool for students and researchers as apart from saving Web pages on the fly, you can also annotate and search them.

Quero Toolbar
www.quero.at
Amazingly simple and user friendly IE address bar replacement and Flash blocker for IE that enhances your Web efficiency. It lets you pick from 12 search engines. A built-in Flash and pop-up blocker kills unwanted ads. It also offers address spoofing protection, IDN and favicon support. Keyboard shortcuts, find as-you-type functionality and a built in zoom feature add to its ease of use.

jetToolBar
www.cowonamerica.com/products/jettoolbar
An uncomplicated, unobtrusive, position-anywhere, size-anyhow program launcher that also responds to voice commands. It lets you to find, administer, and launch programmes, utes, and bookmarks via tabbed app shortcut categories for easy access. Drag-and-drop functionality allows you add or annihilate buttons and categories in jiffy.

Viewpoint Toolbar
www.viewpoint.com/pub/products/toolbar.html
Viewpoint Toolbar has an interesting graphically enhanced search feature that depicts website thumbnail images in addition to text.

You store thumbnail images of bookmarked sites in a Visual Bookmarks tray. Web search aside, this is also a good photo management ute that helps you organise images from your camera and on your PC. You can also share photo albums online or e-mail pictures to people.

Productivity Cheat Sheet 16 - Outlook Express

2006-07-25T15:11:00.000+05:30

Some four years ago, a British explorer named David Mills found himself marooned on an iceberg around the North Pole. The iceberg was disintegrating rapidly. All his attempts at convincing the authorities to send a plane to pick him had come to naught. A plane couldn’t land on the iceberg, reasoned the rescue team. So Mr. Mills dug up a short runway on the ice floe, took photographs of it, and e-mailed them to his rescuers to convince them of the feasibility of landing a plane.

Only long-term inmates of Rapunzel’s Tower would not have witnessed how e-mail has revolutionised the way we communicate, think, and react. Be it at work or in our personal lives. And almost unarguably the single most popular application responsible for this has been Outlook Express. So in this episode of our cheat sheet series let’s we look at the “fastest fingers first” for this ubiquitous mailing programme.

MAIN WINDOW, VIEW MESSAGE WINDOW, AND SEND MESSAGE WINDOW
F1: Opens Help topics
Ctrl + A: Selects all messages

MAIN WINDOW AND VIEW MESSAGE WINDOW
Ctrl + P: Prints selected message
Ctrl + M: Sends and receives e-mail
Delete or Ctrl + D: Deletes e-mail message
Ctrl + N: Opens or posts new message
Ctrl + Shift + B: Opens Address Book
Ctrl + R: Replies to message author
Ctrl + F: Forwards message
Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + G (only news): Replies to all
Ctrl + I: Goes to Inbox
Ctrl + > or Ctrl + Shift + >: Goes to next message in list
Ctrl + < or Ctrl + Shift + <: Goes to previous message in list
Alt + Enter: Views properties of selected message
F5: Refreshes news messages and headers
Ctrl + U: Goes to next unread e-mail message
Ctrl + Shift + U: Goes to next unread news conversation
Ctrl + Y: Goes to folder

MAIN WINDOW
Ctrl + O or Enter: Opens selected message
Ctrl + Enter or Ctrl + Q: Marks message as read
Tab: Moves between Folders list (if on), message list, preview pane, and Contacts list (if on).
Ctrl + Shift + A: Marks all news messages as read
Ctrl + W: Goes to a newsgroup
Left arrow or + (plus): Expands news conversation (show all responses)
Right arrow or - (minus): Collapses a news conversation (hide messages)
Ctrl + J: Goes to next unread newsgroup or folder
Ctrl + Shift + M: Downloads news for offline reading

MESSAGE WINDOW--VIEWING OR SENDING
Esc: Closes message
F3: Finds text
Ctrl + Shift + F: Finds message
Ctrl + Tab: Switches between Edit, Source, and Preview tabs

MESSAGE WINDOW--SENDING ONLY
Ctrl + K or Alt + K: Checks names
F7: Checks spelling
Ctrl + Shift + S: Inserts signature
Ctrl + Enter or Alt + S: Sends (posts) message

ADDRESS BOOK
F1: Lauches Help
F5: Refreshes View
Ctrl + N: New Contact
Ctrl + G: New Group
Ctrl + R: New Folder
Alt + Enter: Properties
Ctrl + F: Finds People

Powering Up – Part 3

2006-07-19T14:34:00.000+05:30

Need for speed and other tweak tales.

Bill Bhai, muaf karna but of the scores of smirky stories swirling the hurly burly annals Microsoft folklore, this is one of my favourites: Kehtae hain, that in May 2003, popular American singer, songwriter, and multiple Grammy winner Christina Aguilera (www.christinaaguilera.com) was loitering around a Las Vegas tech show. As she stood staring seemingly perplexedly at a PC demoing Windows XP, a man came up to her, introduced himself and asked if he could help her. Presuming that he was trying to hit on her, she turned away muttering, "Thanks buddy, but I've already got a computer guy who can do that."

Seconds later she was told by her companions that the man who had introduced himself to her was none other than the one and only “Bill Gates”, Biggest Dada of Doodads and Dollars in the universe! Can’t say whether this was fact or fable. But the fundas that follow are decidedly factoids that will facilitate the fine-tuning your XP.

Defragging Your Boot
You know that defragging your hard disk regularly helps make PC vroom faster. By the same logic, placing relevant boot files adjacent to each other in your primary disk helps your PC boot faster as well. This option is enabled by default. To verify if things haven’t come unstuck over time, here’s what you need to do. Run Regedit (like we explained last time). Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction. In the right pane here, ensure that the Data value in front of Enable is Y. Else right click on Enable, pick Modify and type in the value “Y”. And it’s time to reboot, Ronaldinho!

Nuking Names
When looking for a picture (or ten) in a cluttered Thumbnail view, sometimes you need to glimpse as many images as possible in one screen. You can easily maximise your viewing by turning off filenames and utilising the space vacated for more thumbnails. How? Press Shift when you open a folder. Or when you switch into Thumbnail view. Wants the filenames back? Repeat the process bhaktjano…

And Killing the Kuradaan
I told you how to bypass in Recycle Bin three weeks ago. But if, like me, you hate the very sight of the Recycle Bin on your Desktop, you can kill it and bury its entrails into the beyond. For this, run Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/explorer/Desktop/SNameSpace. Here, click on the Recycle Bin string in the right pane. Hit Delete and click OK.

Living in the Shadows
Want to make your Desktop Icons look more interesting? Go to Control Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Visual Effects. Tick Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop. Yup, that’s it.

Faster Finds
Sick of your PC’s slow snout? Make your files searches scamper like a super-charged Doberman by getting Windows to create a file index. For this, launch Search using the Windows key + F shortcut. In Change preferences (in the left pane), choose With Indexing Service (for faster local searches). Now go, baby go…

And Swifter Soul Searches
Talking about speedy searching for lost souls, here are a tiny tip: Next time, you’re looking for file/phrase via Windows Search, try using appropriate letter capitalisation. Yani kae, typing “Karan Johar” will produce results a mite faster than typing “karan johar” where your cases are all garbar.

Still can’t find “Karan Johar” on your PC and want to snoop around on the Net for him? Don’t bother to scramble off to Start or your Desktop for your browser icon. Just hit the Search the Internet button in the left pane of this very same Windows Search and key in “Karan Johar”.

Okay now, abhi alvida hai kehna...

Productivity Cheat Sheet 15 - Outlook 3

2006-07-18T14:46:00.000+05:30

The shortest distance between hearts may be love. And the shortest distance between friends may be a smile. But the shortest distance between your productivity and an application programme is often the keyboard. Continuing our sanguine saga of clickety-clack quickies, here is the concluding episode for Microsoft's ubiquitous personal information manager, Outlook.

DATE NAVIGATOR
Alt + Home: Goes to first day of current week
Alt + End: Goes to last day of current week
Alt + Up Arrow: Goes to same day in previous week
Alt + Down Arrow: Goes to same day in next week
Alt + Pg Up: Goes to first day of month
Alt + Pg Dn: Goes to last day of month

ADDRESS CARD VIEWS
Select a card in the list. Type one or more letters of the name the card is filed under or of the field you are sorting by.
Up Arrow: Selects previous card
Down Arrow: Selects next card
Home: Selects first card in list
End: Selects last card in list
Pg Up: Selects first card on current page
Pg Dn: Selects first card on next page
Right Arrow: Selects closest card in next column
Left Arrow: Selects closest card in previous column
Ctrl + Spacebar: Selects or unselects active card
Shift + Up Arrow: Extends selection to previous card and unselect cards after starting point
Shift + Down Arrow: Extends selection to next card and unselect cards before starting point
Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow: Extends selection to previous card regardless of starting point
Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow: Extends selection to next card regardless of starting point
Shift + Home: Extends selection to first card in list
Shift + End: Extends selection to last card in list
Shift + Pg Up: Extends selection to first card on previous page
Shift + Pg Dn: Extends selection to last card on last page

TIMELINE VIEW (TASKS OR JOURNAL)

When an item is selected
Left Arrow: Selects previous item
Right Arrow: Selects next item
Shift + Left Arrow or Shift + Right Arrow: Selects several adjacent items
Ctrl + Left Arrow + Spacebar or Ctrl + Right Arrow + Spacebar: Selects several nonadjacent items
Enter: Opens selected items
Pg Up: Displays items one screen above items on screen
Pg Dn: Displays items one screen below items on screen
Home: Selects first item on timeline (if items are not grouped) or first item in group
End: Selects last item on timeline (if items are not grouped) or last item in group
Ctrl + Home: Displays (without selecting) first item on timeline (if items are not grouped) or first item in group
Ctrl + End: Displays (without selecting) last item on timeline (if items are not grouped) or last item in group

When a group is selected
Enter or Right Arrow: Expands group
Enter or Left Arrow: Collapse group
Up Arrow: Selects previous group
Down Arrow: Selects next group
Home: Selects first group on timeline
End: Selects last group on timeline

When a unit of time on the time scale for days is selected
Right Arrow: Moves forward in increments of time that are same as those shown on time scale
Left Arrow: Moves back in increments of time that are same as those shown on time scale
Shift + Tab: When lower time scale is selected, selects upper time scale
Tab: When upper time scale is selected, selects lower time scale

MOVING BETWEEN FIELDS IN A CARD
Ensure a field in a card is selected. To select a field when a card is selected, click the field or press F2.
Tab: Moves to next field and, from last field of card, moves to first field in next card
Shift + Tab: Moves to previous field and, from first field of card, moves to last field in previous card
Enter: Moves to next field, or adds line to multi-line field
Shift + Enter: Moves to previous field without leaving active card
F2: Displays insertion point in active field to edit text

MOVING BETWEEN CHARACTERS IN A FIELD
Ensure a field in a card is selected. To select a field when a card is selected, click the field or press F2.
Enter: Adds line in multi-line field
Home: Moves to beginning of line
End: Moves to end of line
Pg Up: Moves to beginning of multi-line field
Pg Dn: Moves to end of multi-line field
Up Arrow: Moves to previous line in multi-line field
Down Arrow: Moves to next line in multi-line field
Left Arrow: Moves to previous character in field
Right Arrow: Moves to next character in field

Powering Up – Part 2

2006-07-12T10:41:00.000+05:30

Hacking and honing Windows XP Registry.

Perhaps you know this. Perhaps you don’t. The Windows Registry is a database of the operating system’s settings and options. It keeps track of the settings for all your PC’s hardware, software, users, and associated preferences. Whenever you modify Control Panel parameters, install software, change file associations, or rework system policies, the amendments are stored in the Registry. Therefore, tuning and tampering with the Registry can have a major impact on the workings of your PC. Here are a few moves you gotta groove to.

Flush It Clean
We talked about this before. We’ll say it again. Keeping the Registry squeaky clean is very important for an optimized PC. Litter left by uninstalled proggies, broken shortcuts, erroneous paths, unemployed file extensions, and various dead ends all bog down efficiency. For a good Registry cleaner, try a freeware called CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com). This sanitises your Registry by killing unused file extensions, ActiveX controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, uninstallers, shared DLLs, fonts, help files, paths, icons, shortcuts etc. It also creates a Registry back up and cleanses your browser. Non-XP walas can try RegClean (www.createwindow.com/wininfo/regclean.htm). And RegMon (www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Regmon.html) is a good tool for monitoring your Registry.

Speedy Start Menus
If you’ve got XP crawling on a slower relic, you’ll definitely want to quicken things up. Well, here’s a tiny tweak that makes the Start menu and its submenus scurry along as swiftly as it possibly can. Click on Start > Run. Type “regedit” in the box. Hit Enter to launch the Registry Editor. Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and select it. In the right pane, double-click on MenuShowDelay. Then change Value data from its default of 400 (that’s milliseconds) to 0. Hit Enter. Prankster pape, I can hear your evil mind ticking… Yeah, you can make the menus on your pal’s PC really plod by changing the value to 3000 or 4000!

Killing Dead Apps
XP’s delay in displaying the End Program dialog to force a frozen program to close can be agonizing. I could almost feel my toenails grow while waiting for it to return control until I discovered that I could end hung processes automatically. For this, load regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and select it. In the right pane double-click AutoEndTasks. Alter Value data to 1 and hit Enter. Then, in the same pane double-click HungAppTimeout. Reduce the Value data field to number of milliseconds you want to wait for an unresponsive app to die. (The default is 5000 ms—that is, 5 seconds).

Personalising IE
Want to see your name (or your current mehbooba’s) imprinted up there in your Internet Explorer title bar? Click on Start > Run and launch Regedit. Now navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main and select it. In the resultant right pane, double-click the Window Title icon. (Can’t spot this icon? Right-click in the right pane and pick New > String Value. Type “Window Title” here. Hit Enter.) Type in the name of your dil ruba (or kutta/billi/kachua). And this is what will appear in IE's title bar when you reload it henceforth.

Backing Up Reggie
Playing with the Registry is like playing with fire. So it’s best to have a backup in place. Fortunately Windows backs up the Registry automatically when you create a System Restore point. For this, Click on Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. This initiates the System Restore Wizard. To back up the Registry, select Create a restore point. To restore the Registry, choose Restore my computer to an earlier time.

Ideally you should also make a CD copy of the Registry. For this, click on Start > Run. Type in “regedit”, press Enter and open the Registry Editor. Now click on My Computer in the left pane. Click on File > Export. Type in a file name and choose a location to store the back up file. And dump this on a CD.

Powering Up – Part 1

2006-07-05T10:23:00.000+05:30

Taking stabs at bettering Windows performance and productivity.

Aa aa aashiqui mein teri, jaa jaa jaayegi jaan meri
Tu meri jannat hain, tu hi meri chahat hain
Tu meri bechaini, tu hi meri raahat hain
Tu hi manzil meri…

May the chief muse of the English language (and Himmesh bhai) pardon me for this blasphemous blending. Problem is I can’t think of any other words that describe my sentiments for Windows better. I have spent a quarter of my life seeking ways to optimise working in Windows--perfecting its pedigree, polishing its parts, finding workarounds, ever seeking new methods to eke a wee bit more out from it. So much so that tuning, twisting, twirling and tweaking the OS has become almost an indecent obsession for me. Hence the several inches of space devoted to it here. Let's kick off with some simple file management quickies that can help you take a stab at better performance, productivity and pace.

Need to select more than one file or folder at a time? Switch to List or Details view. Press Shift before clicking on the first and last file to select all the files betwixt them. Want to make a non-sequential selection? Keep Ctrl pressed and click on the files you want to pick. If you need to select most of the files in folder, use Ctrl+A to select all files. Then press Ctrl and click on the ones you don't want selected to weed them out.

Once you've made your selection you know you can right-click and use the SendTo menu to jiggle the files to a few predefined set of destinations. But that's not all: You can even rework these right-click default destinations. Click on Start > Run. Type “sendto” in the field and hit Enter to open the SendTo folder. Now just copy/drag the folder/drive shortcuts you want appearing in the right-click menu. Dat’s it!

Remember, if you want to copy files from one folder to another in the same drive, press and hold the Ctrl key down as you drag the files. Else Windows will automatically move the files. And if you need to move files from one drive to another, hold Shift down to ensure that they are moved, not copied.

To eradicate files without having them lounging around in the Recycle Bin, hold Shift down when you hit Delete. And if you want to bypass the trashcan permanently, right-click on the Bin, select Properties, tick Do not move files to Recycle Bin, and click OK.

Ever tried renaming a number of files in one sitting? It is tedious and a major pain. You can attain salvation here via a batch processing freeware called Rename Tool at www.1-4a.com/rename.

This was only a soft opener. Hang loose, I have a whole caboodle out there. Because:
Tu meri saansen hain, tu hi meri dhadkan hain
Tu meri madhoshi, tu hi meri tadpan hain
Tu hi manzil meri

Shoo that Mouse!
The mouse doesn’t necessarily make life easier. Or faster. Many a time, the keyboard is the quickest way to get from Point A to Point B. Here’s how:

Win key + E: Launches Windows Explorer
Win key + Pause/Break: Launches System Control Panel
Win key + M: Minimises open windows
Win key + Shift + M: Undoes minimise
Win key (or Ctrl + Esc): Start menu
Win key + R: Launches Run command box
F1: Launches Help
F2: Renames selected file or folder
F3: (or Windows + F) Launches Search
F4: Views drop-down menu for Address bar in Explorer/IE
F5: Refreshes/reloads current window
F10: Selects first menu item at top of window
Alt + Enter: Views properties for selected object
Alt + Double-click file/folder: Views file/folder’s properties
Alt + Down Arrow: Expands drop-down menu
Alt + F4: Closes current window or program
Alt + F6: Switches between dialog boxes within the same program
Alt + Spacebar: Displays selected window’s System menu
Alt + Tab: Cycles between open programs
Shift + Del: Deletes item permanently
Shift + F10: Launches context menu

Productivity Cheat Sheet 14 - Outlook 2

2006-07-04T10:12:00.000+05:30

It is said about those who have seen the Earth from space--and for perhaps thousands more who will do so in the years to come--the experience changes your perspective and outlook for ever. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us. Even if it’s something incredibly small.

So along with an episode of keyboard shorties for Views, let me share this quirky little Outlook easter egg with you. Create a new sticky note via File > New > Note, or Ctrl+Shift+N. Type in a couple of words. Grab the note by its title bar and drag it around—zigzagging, looping, whatever. Now press Ctrl+Z see what happens. You can keep pressing Ctrl+Z repeatedly to reverse the process. Apart from moving the note around, you can resize it and change its color (via the icon in the upper-left hand corner). Once you got the hang of it, try writing your name on the screen with the sticky (dragging it over the Outlook window too)!

Fun done. Time for elbow grease…

TABLE VIEWS

GENERAL

Enter: Opens an item
Ctrl + A: Selects all items
Pg Dn: Goes to item at bottom of screen
Pg Up: Goes to item at top of screen
Shift + Up Arrow or Shift + Down Arrow: Extends or reduces selected items by one item
Ctrl + Up Arrow or Ctrl + Down Arrow: Goes to next or previous item without extending selection
Ctrl + Spacebar: Selects or unselects active item
Ctrl + Home or Ctrl + End (with in-cell editing disabled): Moves every item in selection to top or bottom in list order

WITH A GROUP SELECTED
Enter or Right Arrow: Expands group
Enter or Left Arrow: Collapses group
Up Arrow: Selects previous group
Down Arrow: Selects next group
Home: Selects first group
End: Selects last group
- (numeric pad): Collapses group
+ (numeric pad): Expands group
Right Arrow: Selects first item on screen in expanded group or first item off screen on right

IN ALL GROUPS
Ctrl + - (numeric pad): Collapses all groups
Ctrl + + (numeric pad): Expands all groups

IN DAY/WEEK/MONTH VIEW
Alt + key for number of days: Views from Day 1 through Day 9
Alt+ 0 (zero): Views 10 days
Alt + - (hyphen sign): Switches to weeks
Alt + = (equal sign): Switches to months
Ctrl + Tab or F6: Moves between Calendar, TaskPad, and Folder List
Shift + Tab: Selects previous appointment
Left Arrow: Goes to previous day
Right Arrow: Goes to next day
Alt + Left Arrow: Moves selected item to previous day when multiple days appear
Alt + Right Arrow: Moves selected item to next day when multiple days appear
Alt + Down Arrow: Goes to same day in next week
Alt + Up Arrow: Goes to same day in previous week

IN DAY VIEW
Home: Selects time that begins work day
End: Selects time that ends work day
Up Arrow: Selects previous block of time
Down Arrow: Selects next block of time
Pg Up: Selects block of time at top of screen
Pg Dn: Select block of time at bottom of screen
Shift + Up Arrow or Down Arrow: Extends or reduces selected time
With cursor on appointment, Alt + Up Arrow or Down Arrow: Moves appointment
With cursor on appointment, Alt + Shift + Up Arrow or Down Arrow: Changes appointment start or end time
Alt + Down Arrow: Moves selected item to same day in next week
Alt + Up Arrow: Moves selected item to same day in previous week

IN WEEK OR MONTH VIEW
Home: Goes to first day of week
End: Goes to last day of week
Pg Up: Goes to same day of week in previous week (5 weeks back in month view)
Pg Dn: Goes to same day of week in next week (5 weeks ahead in month view)
Alt + Up, Down, Left, or Right Arrow: Moves appointment up, down, left, or right
Shift + Left, Right, Up, or Down Arrow; or Shift + Home or End: Changes duration of selected block of time

June Jaunts

2006-06-28T16:44:00.000+05:30

Of freaky phones and deviant devices.

Every noon and every night I trawl and tunnel the Internet looking for inventive thinking and radical intellect. From the ends of cyber Earth to the posteriors of the silicon world, I travel ensconced firmly in the saddle of my mouse, poking and prying for persuasive silicon microcosms that are either potent or peculiar.

I know I wrote about cell phones a month ago. But what-to-do, some of my rodentary jaunts this June have revealed some really adhbhut mobile handsets that I just have to share with you right here right now.

Retro GSM Rotary Phone
Can’t believe your eyes, can you dude? Slip your regular SIM card into it and the contraption actually works as a fully functional GSM cell phone. That rotary dial of the days of yore functions as it should—as a dialer. Tones and tunes? No Mika Singh setting sawan(t) afire here; it’s only the original metallic trintrin. And yeah, you can lug this Portable Rotary Phone from Spark Fun Electronics around where ever you want, just like any other mobile phone.

But hello, mai baap I wonder is mein SMS karna ho to kaisa hoga?
www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=287

Samsung and B&O Serene
A slick, stylish futuristic-looking clamshell phone that almost comes across as a minimalist work of art. The minimalism seems to be literal in terms of features as well: QVGA TFT-LCD display, 0.3 megapixel cam (yes, that’s 0.3!), SMS, MMS, e-mail, Bluetooth. Period. Obviously the look is the wow factor in this less-is-more Bang & Olufsen designed phone. Boasting simplicity via single-click features, a unique thumb-operated navigation wheel, and a concealed loudspeaker behind it, the solitary aim in life for this eye candy is communications. To hell with the froth and frills.
www.serenemobile.com
www.bang-olufsen.com/web2/systems/product.asp?section=systems&sub=tp&prodid=562

Nokia SURV1
First the good news: It has a scratch-resistant display, shockproof case, GPS, MP3 player, and a flashlight. You can snap it on as a belt clip or adorn your neckline (a largish pendant, but never mind). It has no buttons and operates only via the touchscreen. It’s waterproof and can go scuba diving with you. It’s a Nokia. Now the bad news: It’s still a concept phone. After you’ve finished with kicking my behind mentally for this, surf around in the Nokia Concept Lounge to some more cool and crazy stuff.
http://conceptlounge.nokia.be/eng/index.asp?&audio=1

Retro Cell Phone Stun Gun
Armed and dangerous! Watch your moves buster, this retro renegade mobile phone also doubles up as an integrated stun gun. Flick the volume switch and the top of the phone and voila, it starts emitting an electromagnetic wave that is strong enough to knock the socks off anyone who tries to mess with you. Unfortunately, the bit about calling it a cell phone is all fraud-baazi. This Shock Stick thingie is not meant to function like a cell. Bit expensive piece of self-defence equipment at $867, nahin? And methinks, with an unwieldy, monster instrument like this, why bother with electromagnetic fundas; simply use it to clobber the opposition on the cranial pan…
http://www.phonedaily.com/news/?news_id=3839

Vodafone 904SH Face Recognition Phone
Maybe Vodafone should call it Wot-a-phone. With this W-CDMA flipper you can trash the PIN number that you use for locking your cell to secure it from sneaky, slimy scoundrels. Because the 904SH comes with an in-built OKI face recognition sensor that ogles your beauteous mug before authorising usage. Other trimmings: 2.4-inch display, 3.2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a motion sensor. Usage is not restrictive; you can teach it to recognise anyone, including your Tommy kutta…
www.vodafone.jp/english/products/model_3G/v904sh/index.html

Productivity Cheat Sheet 13 - Outlook 1

2006-06-27T16:10:00.000+05:30

Correct me if I’m off beam, but as far as office suites go there seems to be no work-alike alternative to Microsoft Outlook. The OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) cupboard is bare. Corel WordPerfect Office is always pretending to look the other way. And Google has just about started collating its goodies (Gmail, Writely, Calendar, and Spreadsheets). So until Mozilla Lightning (www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/releases/lightning0.1.html) graduates from infancy (version 0.1) and strikes a chord, we must live with and learn to love what we have: Microsoft Outlook.

For those who came late, Outlook is a personal information manager (PIM) that’s part of the Microsoft Office suite. Though popularly used just as an e-mail app, it also provides an integrated calendar function, task and contact management, note taking, and a journal. You can use it as a standalone or in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server for collaborative functions across multiple users--like shared mailboxes and calendars, public folders and meeting time allocation--in an organisation.

Now for some essential Outlook keyboard buckshot…

NAVIGATING
Ctrl + 1: Switches to Mail
Ctrl + 2: Switches to Calendar
Ctrl + 3: Switches to Contacts
Ctrl + 4: Switches to Tasks
Ctrl + 5: Switches to Notes
Ctrl + 6: Switches to Folder List in Navigation Pane
Ctrl + 7: Switches to Shortcuts
Ctrl + , (coma): Next item (with item open)
Ctrl + . (period): Previous item (with item open)
F6 or Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Switches between Folder List and main Outlook window
Tab: Moves among Outlook window, Navigation Pane, and Reading Pane
Arrow keys: Moves around within Navigation Pane
Ctrl + Y: Goes to different folder
+ (plus ) or - (minus ) from Numeric keypad: Expand/collapse group (with group selected) in Navigation Pane
Left and right arrow keys: Collapse/expand group in e-mail message list

CREATING AN ITEM OR FILE
Ctrl + Shift + A: Appointment
Ctrl + Shift + C: Contact
Ctrl + Shift + L: Distribution list
Ctrl + Shift + X: Fax
Ctrl + Shift + E: Folder
Ctrl + Shift + J: Journal entry
Ctrl + Shift + Q: Meeting request
Ctrl + Shift + M: Message
Ctrl + Shift + N: Note
Ctrl + Shift + H: New Office document
Ctrl + Shift + S: Post in this folder
Ctrl + Shift + P: Search Folder
Ctrl + Shift + K: Task
Ctrl + Shift + U: Task request

ALL ITEMS
Shift + F1: Displays ScreenTip for active element
Ctrl + S or Shift + F12: Saves
Alt + S: Saves and Closes, Sends
F12: Saves As
Ctrl + Z or Alt + Backspace: Undoes
Ctrl + D: Deletes
Ctrl + P: Prints
Ctrl + Shift + Y: Copies item
Ctrl + Shift + V: Moves item
Ctrl + K (using the Outlook e-mail editor): Checks names
F7: Checks spelling
Ctrl + Shift + G: Flags for follow-up
Ctrl + F: Forwards
Alt + S: Sends/posts/invites all
F3 or Ctrl + E: Finds items
F4: Searches for text in items
Shift + F4: Finds next during text search
Ctrl + Shift + F: Uses Advanced Find
Ctrl + Shift + P: Creates new Search Folder
F2: Turns on editing in field (except icon view)

E-MAIL
Ctrl + Shift + I: Switches to Inbox
Ctrl + Shift + O: Switches to Outbox
Ctrl + Tab (with focus on To line) and then Tab to Accounts button: Chooses account from which to send message
Alt + S: Sends
Ctrl + R: Replies to message
Ctrl + Shift + R: Reply all to message
Ctrl + Alt + J: Marks message as not junk
Ctrl + Shift + I: Displays blocked external content (in a message)
Ctrl + Shift + S: Posts to folder
Ctrl + M or F9: Checks for new mail
Up arrow: Goes to next message
Down arrow: Goes to previous message
Alt + Up arrow: Goes to row above (message or group heading)
Alt + Down arrow: Goes to row below (message or group heading)
Ctrl + N: Composes new message
Ctrl + O: Opens received message
Ctrl + Shift + B: Displays Address Book
Ctrl + Shift + O: Converts HTML or RTF message to plain text
Insert: Adds Quick Flag to message
Ctrl + Shift + G: Displays Flag for Follow Up dialog box
Ctrl + Q: Marks as read
Ctrl + Shift + W: Shows menu to download pictures, changes automatic download settings, or adds sender to Safe Senders List.

SENDING/RECEIVING MAIL
F9: Starts send/receive for all defined Send/Receive groups with Include this group in Send/Receive (F9) selected
Shift + F9: Starts a send/receive for current folder retrieving full items (header, item, and any attachments)

CALENDAR & TASKS
Alt + C: Accepts
Alt + D: Declines

CONTACTS
Ctrl + Shift + D: Dials
F11: Enters name in Find a Contact box

FORMATTING TEXT
Alt + O: Displays Format menu
Shift + F3: Switches case (with text selected)
Ctrl + B: Bold
Ctrl + Shift + L: Adds bullets
Ctrl + I: Italics
Ctrl + T: Increases indent
Ctrl + Shift + T: Decreases indent
Ctrl + L: Left aligns
Ctrl + E: Centres
Ctrl + U: Underlines
Ctrl + ]: Increases font size
Ctrl + [: Decreases font size
Ctrl + X or Shift + Delete: Cuts
Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: Copies
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: Pastes
Ctrl + Shift + Z or Ctrl + Spacebar: Clears formatting

ADDING WEB INFO TO ITEMS
Ctrl + Left mouse button: Edits URL in body of item
Shift + Left mouse button: Specifies Web browser
Ctrl + K (When using Word as e-mail editor only): Inserts hyperlink

PRINT PREVIEWING
Ctrl + F2: Opens print preview
Alt + P: Prints
Alt + S or Alt + U: Prints preview page setup
Alt + Z: Zooms
Alt + C: Closes print preview

Sound Advice

2006-06-21T12:21:00.000+05:30

Tune into an earful of no-cost audio apps.

From Samba's snivelling in Sholay, to the screeching tires in Speed, to the squeals in Sapne Sajan Ke, to six shooters sniping in Stagecoach, to the seetees in Satte pe Satta, to the swish of Spiderman’s sartorials... it’s all synthetic. Manufactured sound. In fact, almost everything that we hear in the movies, other than the vocals is a synthetic, deliberated dissonance. Sound effects that are conceptions of the fascinating science of sound engineering. While sound engineering is too vast and labyrinthine a subject to speak about here, we can tune into some superb free audio apps to size-up the scene.

Audiograbber
Ripping is all about converting audio (usually CDs) from their native formats to MP3, AAC or other compressed audio formats. And Audiograbber is one heck of a powerful audio ripping tool. Apart from CDs, it does external sources likes those ancient LP turntables as well as radios and cassettes. The mammoth feature list includes music normalizing, encoding of external files, track-name downloading and uploading from and to FreeDB, and ID3 tags and CD Text support.

It let’s you conjure WAV, MP3, WMA, or OGG files. A line-in-sampling function can automatically split recordings from LPs into separate tracks and deploy noise reduction. Copy-protected CDs? It takes a crack at them. And rips karaoke (CDG) discs too. Nai murgies, the interface is a little daunting but poke around in help for solace. Audiograbber doesn’t install any DLLs, OCXs, device drivers, spyware, or adware. No entry in the registry or win.ini either. Interesting na…
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT, Me, 98, 95
Size: 1.59MB
www.audiograbber.com-us.net

Audacity
Here’s a solid one for recording and editing sound. This multiplatform, open-source clone of Macromedia SoundEdit16, records and edits 32-bit files and imports/exports to WAV, AIFF, MP3, and OGG. You can record at 96 KHz from a live microphone, line input, or other sources--and up to 16 channels at once.

Editing of Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files is via cut-copy-paste, dubbing, mixing, or effect additions. A built-in amplitude-envelope editor, customizable spectrogram mode, and a frequency-analysis window for audio-analysis applications are included. Built-in effects comprise bass boost, wahwah, reverb, delay, echo, phaser, reverse, noise reduction, speed and pitch changes. And VST plug-in effects are supported. Now that’s enough ammo to keep the amateur audio aficionado addicted for hours.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT, 98
Size: 2.31MB
http://audacity.sourceforge.net

iTunes (Windows)
Time-time ki baat hai. The media junkie world was once ruled by something called WinAmp (yeah, it’s still croaking). But the foremost digital jukebox proggie now is iTunes. This tool boasts of a very polished interface, smart playlists, the ability to rip files in multiple formats (except WMA), network and library sharing, MP3 and AAC-encoding from audio CDs, CD burning, label printing, free downloads, video playback and of course seamless iPod integration.

Jaeb garam ho to the cross-platform player will let you buy music online from over 10,00,000 songs! But if you’re a bhookha-nanga freebie monger like me, you can always settle for the 250 odd free Internet radio stations to listen to. Ah, almost forgot: Integrated podcasts and parental controls bhi hain. Go fetch now.
OS: Windows XP, 2000
Size: 33.8MB
www.apple.com

Streamripper
For those who waddle the Winamp walk, here’s an add-on that gives you the ability to record streaming MP3 files to your hard disk. You can even capture tracks off Internet radio stations for future playback with this Open Source (GPL) application. It saves Shoutcast/Icecast streaming-MP3 audio in its native format while retaining the original track tags. So it actually allows you to download an entire station of music off the Internet!

In case you are wondering why you’d want to rip an Internet radio station, mull this: Several MP3 radio stations are to particular genres. So with Streamripper you can easily download collections of your preferred flavour of music--jazz, trance, rock or whatever brand of harmonics you covet.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, Me, 98, 95
Size: 916.26K
http://streamripper.sourceforge.net

Productivity Cheat Sheet 12 - Word 5

2006-06-20T10:59:00.000+05:30

Now that we are at the tail end of the Word shortcuts, let me wag my tongue a bit and tell you an open secret: You can assign a shortcut key to virtually anything you want in Word—be it a command, a macro, a font, an AutoText entry, a style, or symbol.

To do this simply go to the Tools menu, select Customize, and then Keyboard. In the Save changes in dropdown, click on the name of the current document (or template file) in which you want to save the shortcut key changes. Then, in the Categories box click on the category that contains the command or other item. In the Commands box, click on the name of the command or other item. All shortcut keys that are currently assigned will appear in the Current keys box. Now to assign a shortcut, begin shortcut key combinations with Ctrl, Alt, or a function key. Click on the Press new shortcut key box and press the shortcut key combination you want to assign.

Check Currently assigned to verify if the combo is already assigned or not. If yes, select another combo. Once done, click on Assign. To remove a shortcut, in the Current keys box, click the shortcut key you want to delete and click on Remove.

Remember, reassigning a key combo means that you can’t use it for its original purpose. So if Ctrl + I italisises text, and you reassign this combo to insert your name or whatever, you won’t be able to italisise text with Ctrl + I until you restore the original shortcut key assignment setting.

Now let’s get down to mail merge shorties in Word.

PERFORMING A MAIL MERGE
To start the Mail Merge task pane, go via Tools menu > Letters and Mailings command > Mail Merge subcommand.
Alt + Shift + F: Inserts a merge field
Alt + Shift + N: Merges a document
Alt + Shift + E: Edits a mail-merge data document.
Alt + Shift + K: Previews a mail merge
Alt + Shift + M: Prints merged document

WORKING WITH FIELDS
Alt + Shift +D: Inserts a DATE field
Alt + Ctrl + L: Inserts a LISTNUM field
Alt + Shift + P: Inserts a PAGE field
Alt + Shift + T: Insert a TIME field
Ctrl + F9: Inserts an empty field
Ctrl + Shift+F7: Updates linked information in a Word source document
F9: Updates selected fields
Ctrl + Shift+F9: Unlinks a field
Shift + F9: Switches between a selected field code and its result
Alt + F9: Switches between all field codes and their results
Alt + Shift + F9: Runs GOTOBUTTON or MACROBUTTON from the field that displays the field results
F11: Goes to the next field
Shift + F11: Goes to the previous field
Ctrl + F11: Locks a field
Ctrl + Shift + F11: Unlocks a field

SENDING E-MAIL MESSAGES
Use the following keys to e-mail a document or a message when the insertion point is in the e-mail header. Press Shift + Tab to move the insertion point into the e-mail header.
Alt + S: Sends active document (i.e. the document in which you're working) or message
Ctrl + Shift + B: Opens Address Book
Alt + K, Ctrl + K: When insertion point is in message header, checks names on To, Cc, and Bcc lines against Address Book
Alt + .: Opens Address Book in To field
Alt + C: When insertion point is in message header, opens Address Book in Cc field
Alt + B: If Bcc field is visible, opens Address Book in Bcc field. To display Bcc field, open Address Book for any field, and insert or type a name in Bcc box
Alt + J: Goes to Subject field
Alt + P: Opens Microsoft Outlook Message Options dialog box
Ctrl + Shift + G: Creates a message flag
Tab: When insertion point is in message header, moves to next box in e-mail header. When last box in e-mail header is active, TAB moves insertion point to body of document or message
Shift + Tab: Selects previous field or button in e-mail header
Ctrl + Tab: When insertion point is in message header, select Send button. You can then use the arrow keys to move to other buttons. To perform action for selected button or command, press Enter

Confidentially Yours

2006-06-14T10:40:00.000+05:30

Cryptology and the art of keeping secrets.

“Hmm yeah I miss Rhea”! Sounds like I’m pining for someone of female persuasion, but I ain’t... It’s a code. Can you crack it? Okay, here’ another clue: “Hai seems my Mr hi ha”. Still stumped? Samjho na… Both those are just anagrams for the melody mouth of the moment, Mr. Aashiq Banaya Aapne “Himesh Reshammiya”.

Neat way of confounding people, isn’t it? But it’s nothing as confounding as the science of keeping data secure. A discipline of mathematics and computer science concerned with information security—specifically encryption, authentication and access control—cryptology naam hae tera!

Cryptology is derived from the Greek word “kryptós” connoting “hidden”. From ancient Greek “scytale” devices to Julius Caesar's simple substitution ciphers (called the Caesar cipher); from Germany's Enigma machine to protect sensitive communications in WW II to the Kamasutra’s instructions for lovers to communicate without discovery… Secret coded messages, writing with invisible ink, pig Latin, and international espionage... the need for information security has always existed.

Cryptology comprises cryptography and cryptanalysis. Cryptography is about encoding secrets—that is, the conversion or encryption of plaintext to ciphertext by cryptographers. And cryptanalysis is the reverse—decoding secrets. This decryption of ciphertext back into plaintext is carried out by cryptanalysts.

As is quite evident, plaintext (or cleartext), means “usable data”--data before encryption, or after successful decryption. And ciphertext means “encrypted data”. Ciphertext looks like “j9z3D9i7slj7sHHdghT824fls7fdfg”--a load of junk. But it isn’t. A cipher is essentially an algorithm for encryption. (And sometimes decryption too because often ciphers use a separate algo for decoding.) In modern data security, this cipher is actually one of main cooperating elements in a full “cryptosystem”. The cryptosystem is a set of algos, procedures, and protocols required by the encryption and decryption process.

One form of encryption is symmetric key cryptography. Here both the sender and receiver share the same key—or a key that is related and easy to decode. This is also known as private key, secret key, one key or single key cryptography. Since both parties must share the secret passphrase (usually a combination of upper and lower case letters and other characters), the main problem with symmetric cryptography is secure transmission of the key. An example of a secret key cryptosystem is DES.

The other form of encryption is called public key or asymmetric key cryptography. Here two different keys--one for encryption and one for decryption--are used. While decryption key must remain confidential, the encryption key can be made public. This method is also deployed to implement digital signature systems. The best known public key cryptosystem is RSA—an algorithm devised by Rivest, Shamir and Adleman in 1977 at MIT. With the appropriate resources RSA is also crackable.

An even more secure public key method is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). Based on RSA, PGP (www.pgp.com) was created by Phil Zimmermann and uses it uses 128-bit key RSA. Sounds like a lot of gobbledy gook? Check out the sites mentioned in the boxes here.

Speaking of codes, I'm so fascinated by this Da Vinci Code business that I'm contemplating making a movie on it too. It’s going to be in my father tongue, Punjabi. The movie title: Vinci Da Code.

DECRYPTING ENCRYPTION

NSA's CryptoKids
www.nsa.gov/kids

International Association for Cryptologic Research
www.iacr.org

sci.crypt mini-FAQ
www.mindspring.com/~schlafly/crypto/faq.htm

Information System Security Portal
www.infosyssec.net/infosyssec/security/cry1.htm

CRYPTO STANDARDS
IEEE-1363 and forthcoming amendments
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1363/

US Govt. standards (DES, SHA, DSA, AES etc.)
http://csrc.nist.gov/

Others (X.9F, ISO/IEC etc.)
www.cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/hac/about/chap15.pdf
http://crypto.cs.mcgill.ca/~stiglic/cryptoresources.html

Productivity Cheat Sheet 11: Word - 4

2006-06-13T10:53:00.000+05:30

Urban legend has it that J. K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter was severely economically challenged while she was writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In fact, she was so badly off that she didn’t have money to have the book’s manuscript book photocopied. So to make another copy of it, she sat down with her typewriter and typed out the whole darn thing once again. Sigh… Now if only she’d used a PC and a word processor first time round… And used our productivity cheat sheets…

CREATING, VIEWING, AND SAVING DOCUMENTS
Ctrl + N: Creates new document of current or most recent type
Ctrl + O: Opens document
Ctrl + W: Closes document
Alt + Ctrl + S: Splits the document window
Alt + Shift + C: Removes the document window split
Ctrl + S: Saves document

FINDING, REPLACING, AND BROWSING TEXT
Ctrl + F: Finds text, formatting, and special items
Alt + Ctrl + Y: Repeats find (after closing Find and Replace window).
Ctrl + H: Replaces text, specific formatting, and special items
Ctrl + G: Goes to a page, bookmark, footnote, table, comment, graphic, or other location
Alt + Ctrl + Z: Switches between documents or sections of a document, and between a document and an open e-mail message if Word is your e-mail editor
Alt + Ctrl + Home: Opens a list of browse options (use arrow keys to select an option and then press Enter to browse through a document by using the selected option)

UNDOING AND REDOING
Esc: Cancels an action
Ctrl+Z: Undoes an action
Ctrl + Y: Redoes or repeat an action

SWITCHING VIEWS
Alt + Ctrl + P: Switches to Print Layout View
Alt + Ctrl + O: Switches to Outline View
Alt + Ctrl + N: Switches to Normal View
Alt + R: Switches to Reading View
Ctrl + \: Expands or collapses subdocuments in master document

OUTLINE VIEWSAlt + Shift + Left Arrow: Promotes a paragraph
Alt + Shift + Right Arrow: Demotes a paragraph
Ctrl + Shift + N: Demotes to body text style
Alt + Shift + Up Arrow: Moves selected paragraphs up
Alt + Shift + Down Arrow: Moves selected paragraphs down
Alt + Shift + Plus Sign: Expands text under a heading
Alt + Shift + Minus Sign: Collapses text under a heading
Alt + Shift + A: Expands or collapses all text or headings
/ (slash key on numeric keypad): Hides or displays character formatting
Alt + Shift + L: Shows first line of body text or all body text
Alt + Shift + 1: Shows all headings with the Heading 1 style
Alt + Shift + n: Shows all headings up to Heading n
Ctrl + Tab: Inserts a tab character

PRINTING AND PREVIEWING DOCUMENTS
Ctrl + P: Prints document
Alt + Ctrl + I: Switches in or out of Print Preview
Arrow keys: For moving around preview page when zoomed in
PgUp or PgDn: Moves by one preview page when zoomed out
Ctrl + Home: Moves to first preview page when zoomed out
Ctrl + End: Moves to last preview page when zoomed out

REVIEWING DOCUMENTS
Alt + Ctrl + M: Inserts comment
Ctrl + Shift + E: Turns Track Changes on or off
Alt + Shift + C: Closes Reviewing Pane if it is open

READING LAYOUT VIEW
Home: Goes to beginning of document
End: Goes to end of document
Number, then Enter: Goes to page number
Ctrl + ]: Increases size of selected text by one point
Ctrl + [: Decreases size of selected text by one point
Esc: Exits reading Layout View

REFERENCES, FOOTNOTES, AND ENDNOTES
Alt + Shift + O: Marks a table of contents entry
Alt + Shift + I: Marks a table of authorities entry (citation)
Alt + Shift + X: Marks an index entry
Alt + Ctrl + F: Inserts a footnote
Alt + Ctrl + D: Inserts an endnote

WORKING WITH PAGES FOR THE WEB
To use these commands, the Web toolbar should be on. If the Web toolbar is not on, press Alt + V + T, select Web, and press Enter.
Ctrl + K: Inserts a hyperlink
Alt + Right Arrow: Goes forward one page
Alt + Left Arrow: Goes back one page
F9: Refreshes

Productivity Cheat Sheet 10: Word - 3

2006-06-06T14:36:00.000+05:30

The first so called computer word processors the world ever knew were actually editing aids for writing software. They helped programmers edit lines of program code. In 1976 came Electric Pencil, the first real word processing program. But the first commercially successful word processing software program for microcomputers, WordStar was born three years later in 1979. WordStar taught the world that computers could be used by mere non-tech mortals like us too for creating, editing, storing, retrieving and printing documents. And the changed life on the Blue Planet forever.

In this episode we look at keyboard quickies that can help us edit and move text and graphics faster in Microsoft World.

DELETING TEXT AND GRAPHICS
Backspace: Deletes one character to the left
Ctrl + Backspace: Deletes one word to the left
Delete: Deletes one character to the right
Ctrl + Delete: Delete one word to the right
Ctrl + X: Cut selected text to the Office clipboard
Ctrl + Z: Undo the last action

COPYING AND MOVING TEXT AND GRAPHICS
Ctrl + C: Copy text or graphics
Ctrl + C, Ctrl + C: Displays the Office clipboard
F2 (then move the insertion point and press ENTER): Moves text or graphics
Alt + F3: Creates AutoText
Ctrl + V: Pastes Office clipboard contents
Alt + Shift + R: Copies the header or footer used in the previous section of the document.

SPECIAL CHARACTERS
Ctrl + F9: A field
Enter (after typing the first few characters of the AutoText entry name and when the ScreenTip appears): Creates an AutoText entry
Shift + Enter: Creates a line break
Ctrl + Enter: Creates a page break
Ctrl + Shift + Enter: Creates a section break
Alt + Ctrl + -: An em dash
Ctrl + -: An en dash
Ctrl + Hyphen: An optional hyphen
Ctrl + Shift + Hyphen: A nonbreaking hyphen
Ctrl + Shift + Spacebar: A nonbreaking space
Alt + Ctrl + C: The copyright symbol
Alt + Ctrl + R: The registered trademark symbol
Alt + Ctrl + T: The trademark symbol
Alt + Ctrl + . (period): An ellipsis
Ctrl +`, `: A single opening quotation mark
Ctrl +', ': A single closing quotation mark
Ctrl +`, Shift + ': Double opening quotation marks
Ctrl + ', Shift + ': Double closing quotation marks

EXTENDING A SELECTION
F8: Turns extend mode on
F8, and then pressing Left Arrow or Right Arrow: Selects the nearest character
F8 (pressing once to selects a word, twice selects a sentence, and so on): Increases the size of a selection
Shift + F8: Reduces the size of a selection
Esc: Turns extend mode off
Shift + Right Arrow: One character to the right
Shift + Left Arrow: One character to the left
Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow: To the end of a word
Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow: To the beginning of a word
Shift + Home: To the beginning of a line
Shift + End: To the end of a line
Shift + Up Arrow: One line up
Shift + Down Arrow: One line down
Ctrl+ Shift + Up Arrow: To the beginning of a paragraph
Ctrl+ Shift + Down Arrow: To the end of a paragraph
Shift + Pg Up: One screen up
Shift + Pg Dn: One screen down
Ctrl + Shift + Home: To the beginning of a document
Ctrl + Shift + End: To the end of a document
Alt + Ctrl + Shift + Pg Dn: To the end of a window
Ctrl + A: To include the entire document
Ctrl + Shift + F8, and then arrow keys; press Esc to cancel selection mode: A vertical block of text
F8 + Arrow keys; press Esc to cancel selection mode: To a specific location in a document

SELECTING TEXT AND GRAPHICS IN A TABLE
Tab: Selects the next cell's contents
Shift + Tab: Selects the preceding cell's contents
Hold down Shift and press an Arrow Key repeatedly: Extends a selection to adjacent cells
Click in the column's top or bottom cell. Hold Shift down and press Up Arrow or Down Arrow key repeatedly: Selects a column
Ctrl + Shift + F8, and then use the arrow keys; press Esc to cancel selection mode: Extends a selection (or block)
Shift + F8: Removes the selection
Alt + 5 on the numeric keypad (with Num Lock off): Selects an entire table

MOVING AN INSERTION POINT
Ctrl + Left Arrow: One word to the left
Ctrl + Right Arrow: One word to the right
Ctrl + Up Arrow: One paragraph up
Ctrl + Down Arrow: One paragraph down
Tab: One cell to the right (in a table)
Shift + Tab: One cell to the left (in a table)
Home: To the beginning of a line
End: To the end of a line
Alt + Ctrl + Pg Up: To the top of the window
Alt + Ctrl + Pg Dn: To the end of the window
Ctrl + Pg Dn: To the top of the next page
Ctrl + Pg Up: To the top of the previous page
Ctrl + End: To the end of a document
Ctrl + Home: To the beginning of a document
Shift + F5: To a previous revision
Shift + F5: After opening a document, to the location it was in when the document was last closed

MOVING AROUND IN A TABLE
Tab: Next cell in a row
Shift+Tab: Previous cell in a row
Alt+Home: First cell in a row
Alt+End: Last cell in a row
Alt+Page Up: First cell in a column
Alt+Page Down: Last cell in a column
Up Arrow: Previous row
Down Arrow: Next row

INSERTING PARAS/TAB CHARACTERS IN A TABLE
Enter: New paragraphs in a cell
Ctrl + Tab: Tab characters in a cell

Mobile Mayhem

2006-05-31T08:56:00.000+05:30

Tune into the world of mobile phones happenings in the month of May.

"Watson, please come here. I want you," were very first utterances ever made over the telephone by its inventor, Mr. Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Mr. Watson. This was way back in the spring of 1876; Bell had just spilt some acid on his pants. Because this first telephonic device was fashioned out of a funnel, a wooden stand, some copper wire, and a cup of acid.

Even 200 years later, when black bakelite “baby” Bells were all around us, who could even have imagined those clunky instruments would metamorphose into the slick cell phones of today. No wonder they say, there is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.

We tune into the world of mobile phones for some of the hottest happenings in the month of May.

Samsung’s Cell Piano/Drum Kit
According to US Patent Application 20060084218 filed by one Sun-Gi Lee of Samsung, the Korean giant promises to turn a cell phone into a full-size piano or a drum kit! To do so, it projects an image of the piano keyboard or drum skins on a flat surface through a small embedded video projector. You hit the keys/drums using the phone keys, the motion is picked up by an in-built camera and converted into appropriate musical sound. The phone will either play audibly in real time, or record the performance. And haan, the phone's camera will also be able to capture a video of the whole process. Drum roll, Shivamani! And over to Brian Silas…

Sony Ericsson SO902WP+ and W42s
Based by the number of times I have fished out the plasticy remains of my cell phone from the water depths of a toilet bowl and blow dried it with a hair dryer, this is one Sony I gotta have. Because the SO902WP+ is a waterproof phone. It can even function for 30 minutes under water at a depth of one meter and features a 1.3 MP camera. So you safely can go swimming or singing in the rain with it nidar ho kar. In Japan you can pick up the SO902WP+ for ¥35,000 I hear. So I’m getting me one. I’m not fond of swimming or croaking in the rain... But I’ll be able wash the phone thoroughly after any unsavoury future dunkings.

Psst! Sony’s launching another music phone too: The W42s. Slim, lightweight with a 2.2-inch TFT-LCD, 1.3Mp cam, 1GB memory, FM tuner, media player, and dedicated music keys.

LG KG320 and MFJM53
Thin is in. And the KG320 is a 9.9mm thick, 73gm to 81gm ultra-slim phone. (Allegedly, this makes it 0.9mm thicker than Samsung's SCH-V870 credit card-shaped handset, but the LG is lighter.) The KG320 features a 176 x 200, 262,144-colour display, 128MB of internal memory, a flash-equipped 2.2Mp, USB connectivity, and a MP3/MPEG/AAC media player.

The LG MFJM53, on the other hand, is setting out in life as an iPod killer with an 8GB HDD. Slickly designed, it has a 1.77 inches, 262,144-colour, touch-sensitive OLED screen and plays MP3, WAV, DRM and Ogg.

Nokia E50
Yeah baby, thin is in! Not to be left behind, Nokia has nipped in with the E50, the skinniest of the E series siblings. This business class quad-band mobile is replete with pre-installed corporate applications for voice, e-mail, mobile PBX solutions and the ability to have two numbers on one phone. Its GSM 850/900/1800/1900 bands make it viable for Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas. For fun and photos, the E50 has a 1.3Mp camera and an MP3 player. The device is based on the S60 3rd edition smartphone platform and the Symbian OS.

Productivity Cheat Sheet 9: Word - 2

2006-05-30T10:22:00.000+05:30

Evidently the chap who said there are no shortcuts to any place worth going wasn’t a practical sort of fellow. Quite unlike us who dote on the shortest route to success with applications like Word.

Until you have mugged up these shortcuts, remember this: You can use the keyboard to select any menu command on the menu bar by pressing Alt to select the menu bar and then hitting the underlined letter of the required command in the menu item. In the menu that opens, pressing the underlined letter of the requisite command name executes that command. Now, before you check out what quickies are in store for you this week, there’re a few terms you should be familiar with.

Menu bar: The horizontal bar below the title bar that contains the names of the menus.

Toolbar: The bar with the buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. Invoked via Alt and then Shift+F10.

Shortcut menu: The menu that shows a list of commands relevant to a particular item. Invoked via a right-click on an item or pressing Shift+F10.

Submenu: The menu that appears when you select a command on a higher-level (previous) menu.

Task Pane: A window within an Office application that provides commonly used commands. Its location and narrower width size allow you to use it whilst working on your file.

MENUS AND TOOLBARS
Alt or F10: Selects menu bar, or closes an open menu and submenu at the same time
Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Selects a task pane or toolbar after pressing F10 or Alt to select the menu bar. Pressing the keys repeatedly moves the focus among the open toolbars, menu bars, and task pane
Tab or Shift + Tab: Selects next or previous button or menu after a menu bar or toolbar is selected
Enter: Opens selected menu, or performs the action for the selected button or command
Shift + F10: Displays shortcut menu for the selected item
Alt + Spacebar: Displays the title bar shortcut menu
Down Arrow or Up Arrow: Selects next or previous command when menu or submenu is open
Left Arrow or Right Arrow: Selects menu to left or right. Switches between main menu and submenu when submenu is open
Home or End: Selects first or last command on menu or submenu
Esc: Closes open menu. Close only submenu when submenu is open
Shift + Down Arrow: Opens selected menu
Ctrl + Down Arrow: Displays full set of commands when shortened menu is open
Alt + Ctrl + =: Adds a toolbar button to a menu. Use this shortcut combo and then click a toolbar button to add the button to the appropriate menu. E.g., clicking Bullets button on Formatting toolbar adds Bullets command to Format menu
Alt + Ctrl + -: Removes a command from a menu. Use this shortcut combo and then select a menu command to remove it
Alt + Ctrl + +: Customises shortcut key for a menu command. Use this shortcut combo and then select a menu command; the Customize Keyboard dialog box opens so you can add, change, or remove the shortcut key

TASK PANES
Ctrl + F1: Opens task pane or hides current task pane
F6: Activates currently open task pane window
Ctrl + Tab: Activates task pane window when a menu or toolbar is active (Pressing Ctrl+Tab more than once may be required at times)
Ctrl + Spacebar: Opens task pane menu
Alt + Home: Goes to the Getting Started task pane
Alt + Left Arrow: Reverses sequence of task panes you opened
Alt + Right Arrow: Repeats sequence of task panes you opened
Esc: Closes a menu if one is currently open, or go back to the document
Tab or Shift + Tab: Select the next or previous option in the task pane when a task pane is active
Down Arrow or Up Arrow: Moves among choices in a selected submenu; moves among certain options in a group of options
Spacebar or Enter: Opens selected menu, or performs the action assigned to selected button
Shift + F10: Opens a shortcut menu in a document; open a drop-down menu for the selected gallery item.
Home or End: Selects first or last command on the menu or submenu when a menu or submenu is visible
Page Up or Page Down: Scrolls up or down in selected gallery list
Ctrl + Right Arrow or Ctrl + Left Arrow: Expands or collapses a collapsible item in gallery list
Ctrl + Home or Ctrl + End: Moves to top or bottom of selected gallery list

Cracking the Da Vinci Code

2006-05-24T14:35:00.000+05:30

Four fabulous freeware tools for pixels, photos and font manipulation.

Do you know what Alexander the Great, Robert De Niro, Albert Einstein, Lewis Carol, Marilyn Monroe, Mark Twain, Phil Collins, Amitabh Bachchan, four of the five designers of the Apple Mac, two of the world first astronauts... and Leonardo da Vinci... and me have in common? Doing lots of faltu stuff? Heh heh heh! Well, mebbe... Actually, we're all lefties... Southpaws! Along with Ricky Martin, Picasso, Julius Caesar and Bob Dylan. Check it out later at www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/famous.html and www.indiana.edu/~primate/left.html. Meanwhile, let's try and crack the Da Vinci code in your DNA with these freebie image and font manipulation and management goodies. Bring out the artist in you, shall we?

The GIMP
The GIMP, a contraction for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a powerful Open Source image composition, image authoring and photo retouching tool. Call it the garib logon ka Photoshop cos its free, but it can run with the big boys with its paint app, photo-retouching program, image-format converter, online batch-processing system, mass production image renderer… Channels and tabbed palettes, filters and effects, layers and masks, editable text tools and color ops, it’s got ‘em all. A must try, but hey, download both GTK Runtime Environment and GIMP installers and set up GTK before installing the GIMP.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT
Size: 7.7 MB
http://gimp.org

Google Picasa
Great photo management tool that finds, organises, edits, prints, and shares images on your PC and linked digicam as chronologically sorted thumbnail preview albums. It works with JPEG, GIF, BMP, PSD, and movie files. Even if you dunk its surprisingly easy-to-use editing prowess (cropping, red-eye removal, enhancements and effects), Picasa’s photo tagging and finding abilities alone make it worthwhile. With a simple and powerful interface, it’s a gotta-have tool for pro, amateur, wannabe and even the occasional photo buff. Ah, it’s a RAM hog btw…
OS: Windows XP, 98, Me, 2000
Size: 3.17 MB
http://picasa.google.com

The Font Thing
Kya naam hai, but quite laa jawab hai boss! TFT is a font management thingie that helps you find and preview the TrueType fonts on your system—installed or skulking. An old proggie it is. But you can install, uninstall, delete, copy, move fonts, and view sample text or individual characters in whatever point size on the fly, tag your own notes, filter fonts according to serif, sans serif etc, as well as get detailed information on each font. You can also pick your font colors, set up drop-down lists of standard text samples, rename font files to avoid conflicts, and load fonts temporarily for use without installing them. And the no-frills, clean interface is a real blessing. It can handle over 16,000 fonts but your system runs like a sloppy, endless saas-bahu soap.
OS: Windows XP, 98, Me, 95, 2000, NT
Size: 1.1MB
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scef/tft.html

XnView
It can read more than 400 graphic file formats--including GIF, BMP, JPEG, PNG, TARGA, multipage TIFF, camera RAW, JPEG 2000, MPEG, AVI, Quicktime, EXIF and IPTC metadata. And export to about 50. Because it’s one heck of a nifty multi-format graphics browser, viewer, and converter. You can edit, crop, and add filters to your photos. It supports red eye rectification, generates HTML pages and contact sheets, executes batch conversion and batch renaming, offers WIA and TWAIN support, and does image comparisons. The viewer is Explorer-like, you can set up slide shows with transitions effects, and also make screen captures. Solid rae!
OS: Windows XP, 98, Me, 95, 2003 Server, 2000, NT
Size: 3.47 MB
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enxnview.html

Productivity Cheat Sheet 8: Word - 1

2006-05-23T00:26:00.000+05:30

Some wise old owl has opined that a picture is worth a thousand words. But that was eons before word processors were invented. In this day and age it’s Microsoft Word that helps most of us paint thousands of wordy pictures! So it’s high time we took the tedium of long tailed-mousy commands out of our Microsoft Word processing by adopting these succinct keyboard shorties.

FUNCTION KEYS
F1: Gets Help or visit Microsoft Office Online
F2: Moves text or graphics
F3: Inserts an AutoText (AutoText: A storage location for text or graphics you want to use again, such as a standard contract clause or a long distribution list. Each selection of text or graphics is recorded as an AutoText entry and is assigned a unique name.) entry (after Word displays the entry)
F4: Repeats the last action
F5: Chooses the Go To command (Edit menu)
F6: Goes to the next pane or frame
F7: Chooses the Spelling command (Tools menu)
F8: Extends a selection
F9: Updates selected fields
F10: Activates the menu bar
F11: Goes to the next field
F12: Save As command (File menu)

SHIFT + FUNCTION KEYS
Shift + F1: Starts context-sensitive Help or reveals formatting
Shift + F2: Copies text
Shift + F3: Changes case of letters
Shift + F4: Repeats a Find or Go To action
Shift + F5: Moves to the last change
Shift + F6: Goes to the previous pane or frame
Shift + F7: Launches Thesaurus (Tools menu, Language submenu)
Shift + F8: Shrinks a selection
Shift + F9: Switches between a field code and its result
Shift + F10: Displays a shortcut menu
Shift + F11: Goes to the previous field
Shift + F12: Save command (File menu)

CONTROL + FUNCTION KEYS
Ctrl + F2: Print Preview command (File menu)
Ctrl + F3: Cut to the Spike (Spike: A special AutoText entry that stores multiple deletions. Microsoft Word appends one item to another until you paste the contents as a group in a new location in your document. You can also use the Microsoft Office Clipboard to get the same result.).
Ctrl + F4: Closes the window
Ctrl + F5: Restores the document window size (for example, after maximising it)
Ctrl + F6: Goes to the next window
Ctrl + F7: Move command (title bar shortcut menu)
Ctrl + F8: Size command (title bar shortcut menu)
Ctrl + F9: Inserts an empty field
Ctrl + F10: Maximises document window
Ctrl + F11: Locks a field
Ctrl + F12: Open command (File menu)

CONTROL + SHIFT + FUNCTION KEY
Ctrl + Shift + F3: Inserts contents of Spike (Spike: A special AutoText entry that stores multiple deletions. Word appends one item to another until you paste the contents as a group in a new location in your document. You can also use the Microsoft Office Clipboard to get the same result.
Ctrl + Shift + F5: Edit a bookmark
Ctrl + Shift + F6: Goes to the previous window
Ctrl + Shift + F7: Updates linked information in a Word source document
Ctrl + Shift + F8: Makes vertical text block
Ctrl + Shift + F9: Unlinks a field
Ctrl + Shift + F11: Unlocks a field
Ctrl + Shift + F12: Print command (File menu)

ALT + FUNCTION KEY
Alt + F1: Goes to next field
Alt + F3: Creates an AutoText (AutoText: A storage location for text or graphics you want to use again, such as a standard contract clause or a long distribution list. Each selection of text or graphics is recorded as an AutoText entry and is assigned a unique name.) entry.
Alt + F4: Quits Word
Alt + F5: Restores program window size
Alt + F6: Moves from an open dialog box back to the document for some dialog boxes like Find and Replace
Alt + F7: Finds the next misspelling or grammatical error. The Check spelling as you type check box must be selected (Tools menu, Options dialog box, Spelling & Grammar tab).
Alt + F8: Runs a macro
Alt + F9: Switches between all field codes and their results
Alt + F10: Maximises the program window
Alt + F11: Displays Visual Basic code

ALT + SHIFT + FUNCTION KEY
Alt + Shift + F1: Goes to the previous field
Alt + Shift + F2: Save command (File menu)
Alt + Shift + F9: Runs GOTOBUTTON or MACROBUTTON from the field that displays the field results
Alt + Shift + F10: Displays the menu or message for a smart tag. If more than one smart tag is present, switch to the next smart tag and display its menu or message
Alt + Shift + F11: Starts Microsoft Script Editor

CONTROL + ALT + FUNCTION KEY
Ctrl + Alt + F1: Displays Microsoft System Information
Ctrl + Alt + F2: Open command (File menu)

There’s a Spy in Your Coop!

2006-05-17T23:42:00.000+05:30

All about espionage and the e-factor.

Whenever I read/hear/think the word “spy”, I unconsciously tend to conjure up images of James Bond. This 1953 fabrication of Ian Fleming has been so charmingly immortalised on celluloid by Messers Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan--and now hopefully Daniel Craig—that "Double-Oh Seven" is the world’s most ubiquitous secret agent.

Cyberdom is infested by a ubiquitous secret agent called Spyware. But unfortunately, this agent is the “bad guy” who seems to grant itself the infinite license to assail all and sundry who venture within a mouse-click. Spyware is a program that appends itself to your OS with its own wicked agenda—tracking your Internet behaviour, pestering you with unwanted offers and targeted advertisements, or generating traffic to a website, or even forcing your browser load specific websites or search results. It hogs up precious RAM as well as processor power thereby slowing your PC down. So if your computer has suddenly started acting up and slowed down, you know what the malady could be.

No, spyware is not a virus. It does not generally damage your files or data apps. It is a program that gets into your PC without your permission and skulks in the background carrying out its own tasks as I’ve mentioned above. It affects PC performance by making it carry out these unnecessary chores and invades your privacy by monitoring the sites you visit.

Nearly 65 percent of personal comps in the world today are afflicted with spyware. Spyware can sneak into your PC via file sharing programs, goodies that you download, websites that you visit, or browser add-ons that you install. Notorious spyware companies include the likes of Bonzi Buddy, CoolWebSearch, Cydoor, Gator, Euniverse, 180 Solutions, DirectRevenue, Xupiter, and XXXDial.

Combating Spyware
Prevention is better than cure. So you must thwart spyware from creeping into your PC. Here’s how:

Keep the security patches in Windows updated. Automate the process if possible.
Monitor and adjust the security and privacy settings of your Internet browser. Because IE so integrated with Windows, it gets hit the easiest. Even disabling ActiveX helps. Check www.getnetwise.org for help.
Be careful of the websites you visit and download from. Don’t download everything you come across. Greed and thrill notwithstanding, if anything looks suspicious, just vamoose.
The most popular route for spyware are file sharing proggies, screen savers, cursor enhancements, wallpaper bundles, “smiley” inserters. So beware these.
Read the fine print of the license agreements etc. that you “agree” when you are installing unknown free programs. Tough call, but very important.
Don’t click on “OK,” “Agree,” or “Cancel” to close those pesky pop-up windows. Click on the X or even better use Alt+F4.
Use a personal firewall.
To detect, delete and block spyware you need to use tools like Lavasoft Ad-Aware (www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware), Spybot - Search & Destroy (www.spybot.info), Webroot Spy Sweeper (www.webroot.com), Sunbelt CounterSpy (www.sunbelt-software.com), PC Tools Spyware Doctor (www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor), and ParetoLogic XoftSpy (www.paretologic.com).
To get more practical tips on how to protect against Internet fraud, safeguard your PC, and defend your personal information, go to www.onguardonline.gov

And oh, Casino Royale, the next 007 flick is still a few months away (November 17, 2006) from release. But its official website (www.sonypictures.com/movies/casinoroyale) debuts May 19. So sneak in for a dekko. And if you’re hardcore Bond fan, fire up your browser right away and blast your way into www.jamesbondmm.co.uk for some truly awesome multimedia goodies.

Productivity Cheat Sheet 7: PowerPoint - 3

2006-05-16T12:38:00.000+05:30

"Using PowerPoint is like having a loaded AK-47 on the table; you can do very bad things with it," squeaked Peter Norvig of Google one dull Monday morn. In fact, another wise guy has even gone to extent of calling PPT presentations are a new form of anesthesia and torture. Why? Because they were even used at the Abu Ghraib Prison. To help you make your presentations simpler, slicker, more memorable and fascinating to look at and fun to read, here’s the concluding part of keyboard quickies for PowerPoint.

OUTLINING
Alt + Shift + 1: Collapses to titles
Alt + Shift + +: Expands text under a heading
Alt + Shift + -: Collapses text under a heading
Alt + Shift + A: Shows all text and headings
Keypad / (numlock off): Displays character formatting

TEXT SELECTION
Shift + Right Arrow: Selects character on the right
Shift + Left Arrow: Selects character on the left
Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow: Till beginning of word
Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow: Till end of Word
Shift + Up Arrow: Line up
Shift + Down Arrow: Line down
Ctrl + A or F2: Selects all
Drag with left mouse button pressed: Selects any text
Double-Click: Selects word
Triple-Click: Selects paragraph
Select and Drag: Drags and drops
Ctrl + Select and Drag: Drags and drops copy

WORKING WITH PRESENTATION WINDOWS
Ctrl + Shift + F6: Goes to previous window
Ctrl + F6: Goes to next window
Alt + F5: Un-maximises window
Alt + F10: Maximises application window
Ctrl + F10: Maximises presentation window
Ctrl + F5: Restores presentation window to previous size
Ctrl + F5: Puts presentation in its own window

DRAWING & FORMATTING
Ctrl + G: Shows/hides guides (toggle)
Shift + Click Slide View Button: Switches from normal view to master view
Ctrl + Shift + G: Groups
Ctrl + Shift + H: Ungroups
Ctrl + Shift + J: Regroups
Shift + Resize: Resizes while maintaining proportions
Ctrl + Resize: Resizes from center
Ctrl + Shift + Resize: Resizes from center while maintaining proportions
Shift + Rotate tool: Rotates in 15 degree increments
Ctrl + Rotate tool: Rotates from corner
Shift + Ctrl + Rotate tool: Rotates in 15 degree increments from corner
Shift + Resize: Extends line along same angle
Ctrl + Alt + Click (using curve tool): Makes straight segment while using curve tool
Arrow Key: Nudges object one grid unit
Ctrl + Arrow Key: Nudges object one pixel
Alt: Temporarily releases grid/guide snap
Ctrl + Drag Guide: Creates multiple guides

HELP & PROGRAMMING TOOLS
F1: Brings up help
Shift + F1: Calls menu and dialog explanations
Shift + F10: Acts as right mouse click without using a mouse
Alt + F11: Brings up Visual Basic Editor
Alt + F8: Calls Macro Recorder

Total Control

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

How to lose files forever, repartition hard disks, and trim fat without going on a diet.

Remember the swish set of free hard disk management utes we looked at last year: PC Inspector File Recovery (www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/download.htm), Restoration (http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html), Force Delete (www.codeguru.com/Cpp/W-P/files/fileio/article.php/c1287/) and VirtualLab Data Recovery Software (http://binarybiz.com/vlab/). Well, here's another neat crop freebies that I have come across in the interim.

Fresh Diagnose
Want to check if your PC (and its purzas) really have all the specs that its makers claimed? Use Fresh Diagnose. This utility from Freshdevices analyses and reports information on the status of your system's CPU, hard disk, video, motherboard, PCI/AGP buses, peripheral (keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.), and network. The program also benchmarks the performance of your PC's hard disk, CPU, CD/DVD ROM, etc. and compares it with other systems. The proggie is quite free of ads and spyware claim its makers!
OS: Windows XP, 2000, Me, NT, 9.x
www.freshdevices.com

Sure Delete
When you delete a file, it merely changes its location to the recycle bin. Maybe you know that. And even when delete it from the kuradaan, it can still be retrieved via an Undelete util. Maybe you didn't know that. However, Sure Delete is a little shredder that can permanently, irretrievably and everlastingly annihilate files for you. Because instead of merely deleting file references, it actually nukes the data itself. It works with FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS formats. And it has an easy-to-use a wizard-kinda interface that helps you in the file eradication process.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, Me, NT, 9.x
www.wizard-industries.com/index.php

Fast Defrag
Very often the reason for a sluggish PC that limps along at the terminal velocity of a kachua is memory fragmentation. To get things up to speed in a situation like this you need the services of a catalytic tool like AMS Fast Defrag--to defragment your PC's RAM and free it. This boosts your PC speed and as well as stability-- especially if your PC is low on the RAM quotient and you are always flitting in and out of programs. Fortunately Fast Defrag is a lean, mean utility so it hardly squats on any system resources itself.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, Me, 9.x
www.amsn.ro

Ranish Partition Manager
This one is blessed with the ability to create, copy, and resize primary and extended hard disk partitions. And even support up to 32 primary partitions. It also lets you format drives and create a password-protected boot menu. It includes simulation mode that lets you work with large files so that you can safely experiment before getting your hands soiled with real hard drive partition tables. It’s a good tool to have around if you have multiple operating systems on a single drive. The command line interface may daunt some of you, but it’s not as bad as you as you think.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, Me, NT, 9.x
www.ranish.com/part

TreeSize Free
Not all of “computingkind” is lucky enough to own 60-80 gigs of hard drive real estate. Lots of us less fortunate ones still need to live, breathe and work within the confines of 10-20 GB. A very difficult task in today’s day and age of megaton apps and monster attractions... But we can thank the computing gods utes like TreeSize. This one tells you what all is gobbling up your precious space. You can account for every single folder and subfolder on your disk and even print out a wasted-space report to analyse the data carefully. And then snip, slice and shear away everything that is unnecessary.
OS: Windows XP, 2000, NT, 9.x
www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml