Abhishek Upadhyay - Free Softwares Download

iTunes 8.0.2.20

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:58:00 +0530

iTunes, the award-winning digital-jukebox software, is now available for Mac and Windows. The iTunes Music Store offers Windows users the same online music store as Mac users, with the same music catalog, the same personal-use rights, and the same 99-cents-per-song pricing.

With music from all five major music companies and more than 600 independent labels, the iTunes Music Store catalog now offers more than 1,000,000 songs. Features include a free download with no hidden charges for extra features, MP3 and pristine-quality AAC-encoding from audio CDs, smart playlists, more than 250 free Internet-radio stations, and the ability to burn custom playlists to CDs and MP3 CDs, to burn content to DVDs to back up an entire music collection, and to share music via Rendezvous over any network, cross-platform.

Version 8 adds genius playlists, a tile view, and HD TV-show support. Version 8.0.2 is a bug-fixing release.

Download Now (13.43K)

Please note that downloading this program takes you to a third-party Web site.

Internet Explorer 8 RC 1

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:55:00 +0530

This beta preview version of Internet Explore r8 is intended for Web developers and other Web professionals. It is not intended to be a functional product for Web surfers.

Internet Explorer 8 beta is intended to enable developers, web developers and IT pros to begin to test the new browser for compatibility with their applications and Web sites. End-user improvements include two new features: Activities and Web Slices. Activities are contextual services that allow easy access to Internet services from any Web page. WebSlices is a new feature for Web sites to connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a Web page. WebSlices behave just like feeds where clients can subscribe to get updates and notify the user of changes.

Beta 2 is the second public pre-release of Internet Explorer 8 and adds Accelerators--which let you complete your everyday browsing activities more quickly and discover new services; InPrivate Browsing, search suggestions, and other new features.

Download Now

Valentine's Day downloads

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:52:00 +0530

With Valentines day just a couple of days away, why not get in to the spirit? We put together a collection of screensavers and Valentine's Day themed downloads to get you in the mood for the most romantic of holidays. Hopefully, it will also act as a reminder to those who might forget. Ahem.

Some of these downloads are paid and others are free, but any one you choose will certainly put you in the spirit of Valentine's Day.

Cool EasyCard lets you create Valentine's cards (or any type of greeting) with your own photos and the words you want to say. If you're tired of trying to find just the right words in the greeting card aisle, leave nothing up to chance by saying the right thing just the way you want to say it.

Hearts, Roses, Love is an elegant and simple screensaver to get you in the mood for Valentine's Day with class. The beautifully designed screensaver doesn't offer a lot of bells and whistles, but is just enough to make your desktop come alive with the Valentine's Day spirit.

Cuddly kitties and canines is exactly what the name would imply: photos of cute kittens and puppies surrounded by Valentine's themed decorations. If you're an animal lover, check out this cute and simple screensaver.

Free Valentine's Day Screensaver features high-quality images and smooth transitions to make this screensaver the perfect way to enjoy the holiday. If you want a little more than a themed screensaver, or prefer several changing Valentine's day images, this is the download for you.

Valentine 3D Screensaver lets you view a lovely setting with wine glasses, a Valentine's Day message, and a cuddly teddy bear. Smooth, nice-looking graphics make this screensaver a great choice for those who leave their computers on during this most romantic of dates. Later, you should consider turning off your computer entirely.

3D Dancing Cupid gets you in the mood for the holiday with a retro screensaver designed to bring out the silliness in everyone. If you're the type who likes a dancing screensaver, Cupid is a little guy who knows how to get down. On the dancefloor--get you're mind out of the gutter.

3D Love Clock lets you put a personalized, heart-shaped clock on your desktop. You'll never forget your loved ones during this most important of romantic holidays--or what time it is. Customize your clock further by adding a picture of your loved ones.

Check out my Facebook profile

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 10:10:00 +0530

facebook

Check out my Facebook profile

Hi Free,

I set up a Facebook profile where I can post my pictures, videos and events and I want to add you as a friend so you can see it. First, you need to join Facebook! Once you join, you can also create your own profile.

Thanks,
Abhishek

To sign up for Facebook, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1413724328&k=6WB423TSWZ4M5AGEPDZ2UT&r

This e-mail may contain promotional materials. If you do not wish to receive future commercial mailings from Facebook, please opt out. Facebook's offices are located at 156 University Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301.

10 Websites To Make You A Photoshop Ninja - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Wed, 4 Feb 2009 16:13:00 +0530

I told You All About 5 Websites In Previous Post.
Next 5 Websites Are Here
Now Previous Continued...

Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop Tutorials combines tutorials for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Photography. It covers a whole range of things, and always tells you how advanced the particular tutorial is. Some are incredibly complicated, and some are great ways to do really basic things in Photoshop.

Though it doesn’t have the largest database I found, it probably wins my award for easiest-to-follow tutorials. Users also rate and comment on tutorials, so you can see what people liked and hated on the site.

Luxa

Luxa calls itself a “social learning site for Photoshop artists.” It’s a combination of tutorials, videos, and design articles. Users suggest video and tutorial topics, and Luxa helps them learn Photoshop.

To really appreciate Luxa’s community, you’ll want to become a member, which is a bit of a pain but creates a lot of benefits. There’s also a voting system (though not an oft-used one yet) that helps bring the best to the top. In addition to all the tutorials too, Luxa also has a large collection of Photoshop brushes that will let you achieve before-impossible awesomeness.

Photoshop Contest

Photoshop Contest is one part site for Photoshop ninjas, one part site for becoming one. There are contests for people doing cool things with Photoshop, but also a big repository of tutorials and videos.

Since the makers of the tutorials are usually on the site because they know Photoshop inside and out, they often have cool tips for how to take shortcuts and “cheat” an image. Most of the tutorials are pretty basic, though at least for me, there’s nothing basic about any of Photoshop.

PSHero

PSHero gets onto the list for being the most practical of the bunch, and sharing the most tutorials that the average user would actually want. If you’re looking to do things like design a website, create logos, or make your photos grungier, you’re set with PSHero.

There’s not a lot of higher-level stuff to be found, but I found that PSHero was perfect for someone like me, who’s more likely to be creating a logo than an anime airplane eating a lion on top of a mountain. The tutorials are easy to follow, and definitely geared toward the inexperienced Photoshopper.

PSDTop

Another aggregator (I think the name might have taken from AllTop), PSDTop is a great place to find all kinds of cool Photoshop Tutorials.

Though it’s not the only site to have categories, its breakdown of the tutorials into various types (Drawing, Digital Art, etc.) is a great way to become ninja-like at a particular skill in Photoshop. Since it’s an aggregator, it too will have the occasional dud tutorial, but most are good.

From introductions to Photoshop to doing things that couldn’t possibly exist in the real world, these ten sites will help you earn your black belt in the wide world of Photoshopping. But obviously many more Photoshopping tutorial websites exist out there so tell us your recommendations in the comments below.

10 Websites To Make You A Photoshop Ninja - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Wed, 4 Feb 2009 16:11:00 +0530

Photoshop is hard. There’s all kinds of menus, commands, and keyboard shortcuts that you’ve got to figure out. Once you learn how it works, it’s an unbelievably useful and powerful tool, but the learning curve is enormous.

Using the Web though, you can learn how to do just about anything in Photoshop, and either become great at it or just get really good at faking it. Either way, you’re doing cool stuff.

Here are ten sites to learn Photoshop online and get you Photoshopping like a champion:

You Suck at Photoshop

You Suck at Photoshop is the place to start, just to defeat you a little bit and make you realize how badly you need to learn Photoshop. In all seriousness, though, Donnie Hoyle’s video tutorial series is both hilarious and informative. They’re helpful for learning how to do simple things, where to find particular tools, and how to mess with the pictures of people you love.

Tutorial9

Tutorial9 has a ton of different tutorials, including a lot of them for Photoshop. Every tutorial has step-by-step instructions, complete with pictures of the tools you need and the buttons you should click on (really helpful- what in the world does the “capture” tool look like?).

Then, for everything you need to do, there’s a quick video showing you what it looks like. There’s no narration, but that’s okay- the step-by-step instructions do everything you need. Tutorial9 helps you do all kinds of things with Photoshop- my favorite was creating burnt parchment. You know, without burning anything. Definitely agreat site to learn photoshop online.

PSDTUTS

With PSDTUTS, you’ll see lots and lots of pictures. Tutorials are made up almost entirely of pictures that give you the slightest detail instructions on how to do various things in Photoshop.

One of the best things about PSDTUTS are the comments on the tutorials, which help to iron out the possible issues with the tutorials as presented. The tutorials are long, because they’re so broken down, but if they can teach me to make a Web banner out of a motorcycle, they’re doing something right.

Good-Tutorials

There’s nothing terribly unique about Good-Tutorials, except that it’s more of a general guide to using Photoshop than a guide to achieving a particular effect in Photoshop.

Though Good-Tutorials does have those tutorials, it’s also got things like “Create a Photoshop Action for Screenshots” to help save you time and effort in Photoshop. Simple tutorials and powerful Photoshopping both come from Good-Tutorials.

Photoshop Lady

The Photoshop Lady pulls together some of the best Photoshop tutorials from around the Web, and lets you read and watch them easily. If you create an account, you can save tutorials for later, and you can also see the “Most Viewed” and “Highest Rated” tutorials to see what other people are learning how to do. Since it’s not centralized, some tutorials are better than others, but most of it is good stuff.

22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC - System Utilities

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:47:00 +0530

Previous Continued...

System Utilities

Keeping my system healthy and working its best is a never ending challenge. These are some of the tools that I use to help.

CCleaner - Keep your PC squeaky clean with this System Optimization tool. It deletes just about every kind of unnecessary crap from your computer. Temporary files, Cookies and other junk from every browser, Programs running at Startup, Uninstalls software and fixes all kinds of problems in your Registry. Click about five buttons and wait about a minute and your machine is a new person. Alternatives: NCleaner – better in some ways, but worse interface. AdAware and Spybot for spyware removal.

Filezilla - My favorite FTP client. Quick, simple, and easy. FTP from your browser with FireFTP. Not secure enough, try WinSCP for secure FTP. Use Putty for Telnet and SSH access.

Rocket Dock - Do you have Mac Envy? This launching doc is nearly a dead clone of Apple’s dock. You can launch Applications, Folders, Files, and other processes so quickly and easily, you’ll never click the Start button again. Alternatives: Object Dock

7Zip - This WinZip alternative will open just about any archive file format known to man. It’s faster and lighter on resources than any archive tool I’ve used. Alternatives: There are a bunch, here is a list of free winzip alternatives.

TightVNC - Remotely view and control other computers from your desktop. Install the server software on one (remote) computer and then control it with the viewer software from your main computer. Great for helping diagnose computer problems on your family and friend’s computers. Alternatives: UltraVNC and RealVNC have comparable feature sets and decent followings. See this tutorial for Using VNC to remotely control another computer.

uTorrent - The best way to download huge files is with BitTorrent technology. My (current) favorite BitTorrent client is uTorrent. Nothing spectacular, just a solid tool that fills an important role. Alternatives: Azureus is a java based bit torrent client with similar features.

SyncBack Freeware - Very powerful backup program with numerous configuration options including: Backup and Restore of files, Synchronization of files, Zip Compression of backed up files to save space, Back up to FTP servers, Filters for choosing what to back up or ignore. Alternatives: Mozy Backup (web base $5/per month)

AVG Antivirus - Don’t destroy your computer with that garbage that Norton and McAfee are peddling. Those two applications will screw up you computer worse than any virus. AVG Antivirus (free version) protects your computer from viruses, spyware, and heebie-jeebies of all types without bogging down your computer. Alternatives: Antivir and Avast also offer very good free antivirus options.

22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC - Multimedia

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:45:00 +0530

Previous Continued...

Multimedia

Here is one of the fields where you can spend your whole paycheck on commercial software. Pick up anything from Adobe, Corel, Pinnacle, etc and you’ll see what I mean. Fear not, there are plenty of ways to view, manage, create, and distribute your media without spending a dime.

Paint.net - If you need to do minor edits to your photos and images that don’t warrant the King’s ransom that Photoshop commands, you should give Paint.net a try. You can do edits that range from simple to complex without spending a dime. Yes, I know there’s a huge Gimp following, but I just like this better. Alternatives: The Gimp do yourself a favor get the Gimpshop version.
VLC - This is a streamed down media player that will play any audio or video format ever created flawlessly. This is a lot like Foxit for your videos. It opens lightning fast and begins playing your files. Light, fast, simple!

Picasa - Manage your photos like a champ. If you have more than 10 photos on your computer, you MUST get Picasa. Organize, search, display, and share your photos in a way that will make you really appreciate your camera. Windows Live Photo Gallery (Reasonable clone of Picasa integrates with Windows Live services well).

iTunes - Yeah I know, there are a bunch of alternatives but, I still just like iTunes. It does just about everything I need very well and the few things it doesn’t do, I just use one of the other options. Alternatives: (Media Monkey, Songbird, Winamp, Miro TV)

DVD Shrink - If you want to make "backup copies" of any of your "legally purchased" DVDs, this is the simplest application out there. Pop in the disk, click "Backup" and go. Then, use DVD Decrypter to burn it to a blank disk. Once you do the simple setup, you can do a two click back up of any DVD. (I hope Netflix doesn’t read this blog.)

22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC - Productivity

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:44:00 +0530

Previous continued...

Productivity

Getting things done on your computer can often cost you a pretty penny. While I’m still an advocate of forking over the money for Microsoft Office, there a lot of other areas that you can save money.

Windows Live Writer - I write every one of my blog posts using Live Writer. If you have a blog you really should try this. It handles multiple sites and has tons of extensions to customize it. Alternatives: Raven is a desktop blogging software that is a lighter alternative to WLW. Not light enough? Try the Scribefire extension for Firefox.

Notepad++ - Sure, Windows comes with a text editor built in, but not like Notepad++. You can use the tabbed interface to work on multiple documents at once. There is syntax highlighting for editing code. If I need to do minor edits to code I can open a file, make the changes, and have it closed before Dreamweaver would even begin launching. This is another application with plethora of extensions that allow you to modify it to your heart’s content.

Foxit PDF Reader - Love PDFs, but hate the bloat of Adobe Acrobat? I thought so. Foxit will open your PDF files so fast, you’ll wonder why anyone would ever use Acrobat. Get hours of your life back.

CutePDF Writer - If you need to create PDF files from your documents and don’t want to shell out for Acrobat Pro, then get CutePDF Writer. This installs on your system as a Printer. Then, you can turn any printable information from any application on your computer into a perfect PDF. Put it all together to be a PDF champion.

22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC - Internet

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:42:00 +0530

Previous continued...

Internet

This is the home of the freebies. There are so many free internet browsers and applications that I could go on all day. Actually, the follow-up article will focus on the best web-based applications.

Firefox - The Granddaddy of all free software. If there were one piece of software that I would just not give up, it’s Firefox. Alternatives: Flock (Firefox variant aimed at media and social networking), Opera (decent alternative, but no extensions), Google Chrome (lean and clean new-kid-on-the-block), Apple Safari (only for testing web development).

Google Earth - Put every inch of the Earth at the tip of your finger. I’m not sure how much anybody "needs" this software, but you know you want it. Stalk your friends, enemies, and ex, then check out the Eifel Tower and Pyramids.

22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC - Communication

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:38:00 +0530

Use your Computer, Not your Wallet

The recession is hitting everyone hard and money is tight. That doesn’t mean that can’t get the most out of your computer. There are so many great free applications that can help you do just about anything. I’m going to take a look at 22 applications that I use all the time with wonderful results.

I’m going to identify the free applications that I use in the following categories:

Communication
Internet
Productivity
Multimedia
System Utilities

I have my personal favorites that I’m going to talk about, but those are not your only options. I’ll also list any other viable alternatives that I’m aware of for each category.

Communication

I’m a big fan of Microsoft Outlook, but I have been using Thunderbird on my computer for a while now. It’s not quite as good, but it’s constantly closing the gap. Here are some of my favorite ways to keep in touch for free.

Thunderbird - This is Mozilla’s open source answer to Microsoft Outlook. You can do Email, Contacts, and Calendaring very similarly to Outlook (minus some of the polish). It’s built using the same open, extensible platform as Firefox, so there is a steadily growing collection of extensions to augment it’s functionality. Turbocharge Thunderbird with these plug-ins. Alternatives: Gmail.

Digsby - Simply the best Instant Messenger tool available. You can connect to all of your IM networks (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Google, ICQ, Jabber, and Facebook ) to let you chat with any of your contacts. That alone makes it valuable, but wait, there’s more: Get real-time updates on your social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn). You can also get updates on your inbox for just about any email account (Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, plus any IMAP and POP3 accounts). Alternatives: If you’re looking for something almost as good, try Pidgin IM or Trillian with a bunch of plug-ins. Meebo (Web Based).

How to create an encrypted disk image to store your private files on MAC

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:22:00 +0530

Well,This tutorial will guide you through using SecureFiles to create a secure, encrypted disk image in OS X. Using that disk image, you can store files that you don’t want other people to be able to access.

There are quite a few ways to create secure disk images in OS X, or a secure partition. However, using SecureFiles is arguably the easiest way.

To get started, download SecureFiles and open the .dmg file. Drag the SecureFiles app to your Applications folder to install it.

Launch SecureFiles from your Applications folder.

Give your secure disk image a name by entering it in the New disk image name: field. Decide how large you want the image to be by selecting a size from the Size: stretches to drop-down menu. You can create custom size disk images (rather than using one of the defaults) by selecting the Preferences option from the top menu. Now, decide if you want to allow Spotlight to index your secure image. I opted not to, but this is one of those “up to you” decisions. Click the small “folder” icon in the bottom left corner of the SecureFiles window to change the default location your image will be saved in, if you don’t like the default. Finally, click the Create button.

Now enter a password for your secure disk image. As the window indicates, if you lose this password you won’t be able to access your secure files. So select a password that’s both secure (hard to guess) and easy to remember. You’ll probably want to remove the check from the box labeled Remember password in my keychain, otherwise you won’t be prompted to enter your password each time you open the image to add or access files to/from it, which (with the default keychain settings) negates the entire SecureFiles process.

And now your disk image will be created.

Once completed, your disk image will be mounted, and you can access it via the Finder. Drag and drop files to it the same way you would any other. Once inside, they’re part of the encrypted disk image. Unmount the disk image when you’re done.

Any time in the future when you want to access the secure disk image - to view/extract or add files to it, just locate the .sparseimage file (it will be saved in the location you specified back in step #3) and double-click it.

Enter the password you created in step #4.

And your encrypted/secure disk image will mount. Again, now you can access the files inside, or add more to it.

Ultimate Leopard Customization Guide

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:15:00 +0530

Leopard is cool. There’s no doubt about it. But there’s always that one thing that’s missing from something you buy, whether it be from your new iPod, your new toaster, or your new operating system. We’ve covered many of the customizations that can be made to Leopard in the past, but we’ve decided to compile them all in one place, ready to be downloaded and tried out, (almost) all for free.

Wanna bring back the rounded corners? 2D-ify that dock? Kill that transparent menu? Whatever it is, you can likely find it here. Do let us know if we missed some.

The Dock

Hate it? Love it? Make you dizzy?

2D-ify It!
DockDoctor Dashboard Widget

Probably the biggest complaint about Leopard is the new dock. Personally, I think it’s just dandy. But, if simplicity is your thing, you can easily change the default glossy dock look and change it into a sleek darker shade of the original OS X dock. You know, the one that appears by default when the dock is on the left- or right-hand side of the screen. And, if you like, you can change it right back. Quick and simple.

Color It!
with DockColor

Do you like the shiny dock, but does it just not go well with your wallpaper? No more! Easily change the color of the dock from the color palette and get the dock just right to match your wallpaper. This may require some creativity. I mean, colors are just colors, but I suggest the use of subtlety. Perhaps a slightly pink dock to go with the space-time Leopard wallpaper, or a dark navy with the original OS X one.

Theme it!
with Dockulicious

Don’t like the shiny, glossy look of the dock, no matter what color? Change it! Choose from dozens of themes made by users on the website and easily give your dock a whole new look by simply dragging the downloaded .zip file to the Dockulicious icon. And, if you want to change your dock back to it’s original look, it’s easy to revert to the original.

Triangulize it!
with a quick customization

Get rid of those glowing blue indicators at the bottom of your dock, and replace them with the classic Mac OS X triangle. Fairly simple tutorial.

Hide it!
with MacPilot

Make hidden application icons translucent with this neat feature of the shareware product MacPilot. Feat not, however. You have 15 days to make the changes until you have to start paying. This can also be achieved through a simple terminal command.

Stacks

Do they increase or decrease clutter?

Overlay it!
with “Drawer” icons

One of the biggest complaints about stacks in Leopard is how the icons are displayed on the dock. They’re just, well, stacked. And if the folder changes constantly, the front-most icon will also constantly change. These drawer icons fix that. Just drag one of these beautiful icons to the stack you want, and poof it’s there. It sits in the folder as an image with a last modified date of 2010, so you’re folders and files look like they’re in a shiny little translucent drawer.

Recent-ize it!
in the terminal

Make a stack with only your recent items, with some quick terminal commands. Great for if you’re working on a project where you constantly have to access the same files, or accessing recent downloads without finding it in the clutter of the download stack. Or, you can even have it show your favorite items instead.

App-ify it!
with a quick tip

Make a stack with a collection of apps in it for easy access. Quick and easy tip, no coding required. This is a very useful way to keep your dock tidy, but still provide easy access to groups of similar applications. Perhaps put all school-related apps in an app stack, or all web browsers that you use every-so-often.

Hierarchical-ize it!
with Quay

Remember the old way to view a folder from the dock? Right clicking would bring up a menu with all of the items inside that folder, and allow you to browse all of the subfolders in it with a hierarchical structure. Now you can do it again with Quay. If you make more than one hierarchical folder, you have to pay $10 for Quay. Watch the video tutorial for more info.

Menu Bar

Don’t you hate when this gets cluttered?

Round it!
with Displaperture

OK, they’re only rounded corners, but still! In previous version of OS X, the menu bar had rounded corners, a couple of dark pixels on the corners of the screen that gave it a nice effect, kind of a way to blend in with the thin dark border around the screen. And Leopard took them away. It’s a small thing, but surprisingly important for many people. Now you can bring them back with Displaperture, even choose how round you want for the corners to be.

Opaque-ify it!
with OpaqueMenuBar

Hate the new transparent menu bar in Leopard? OpaqueMenuBar changes your wallpaper so that the menu bar appears to be non-transparent. Not the most conventional way to do this, but it gets it done quickly and easily - as long as you don’t use another app to rotate your desktop wallpapers. Also, it’s to contrasted for my eyes after looking at it for a while. But that’s just me.

That wraps up our list of Leopard customizations. Do you have any more? Post them in the comments and we’ll check them out, and add them to the list.

5 ways to speed up your PC - Part IV

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:03:00 +0530

Previous Continued...

Protect your computer against spyware

Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the Web sites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using Microsoft Windows Defender, which is included in Windows Vista, and is available as a free download for Microsoft XP SP2. Alternatively, there are other free anti-spyware software programs available.
Learn all about ReadyBoost

If you're using Windows Vista, you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory.

5 ways to speed up your PC -Part III

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 16:01:00 +0530

Previous Continued...

Detect and repair disk errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

To run the Error Checking utility:

1.	Close all open files.
2.	Click Start, and then click My Computer.
3.	In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
4.	In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
5.	Click the Check Now button.
6.	In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
7.	If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.

Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.

5 ways to speed up your PC - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 15:58:00 +0530

Previous Continued...

Speed Up Access To DATA

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.

Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.

When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when:

•	You add a large number of files.
•	Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
•	You install new programs or a new version of Windows.

To use Disk Defragmenter:

1.	Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter. Click Analyze to start the Disk Defragmenter.
2.	In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives. Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.
3.	To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button. Note: In Windows Vista, there is no graphical user interface to demonstrate the progress—but your hard drive is still being defragmented. After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.
4.	To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.
5.	To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.
6.	To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.

5 ways to speed up your PC - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 15:56:00 +0530

By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) and Windows Vista to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.

Free up disk space

By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk. The utility identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.
Use Disk Cleanup to:

•	Remove temporary Internet files.
•	Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
•	Empty the Recycle Bin.
•	Remove Windows temporary files.
•	Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
•	Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.

To use Disk Cleanup

1.	Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.
2.	In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list. Choose the files that you want to delete.
3.	Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.
4.	When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better.

Computer Security Resource Center

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:45:00 +0530

The Computer Security Resource Center is one of eight divisions within the Information Technology Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a US federal technology agency that develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology. The Computer Security Division is involved with many different projects and CSRC provides Webpages based on these projects.

The site provides access to documents concerned with the development of the US government's computer security policy, including definitions of encryption, cryptography and authorisation procedures. There is an up-to-date news section as well as publications available in HTML and PDF format, and links to other computer security pages.
http://csrc.nist.gov/

Computer and Communications Security Research and Education Center

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:44:00 +0530

This site provides details of the research carried out at CCSC into the security of computer and communications-based systems. There are publications available to download from staff pages.

Other information includes details of the research areas pursued, projects, staff pages, some of which include teaching materials, and events.
http://www.ccsc.colorado.edu/

Build secure WS-Resources with WSRF::Lite and WS-Security

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:43:00 +0530

Basic knowledge of Perl and a basic understanding of Web services technology and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) are recommended. This tutorial requires all users to register/sign in with IBM IDs and passwords, which can be used site-wide.

This tutorial shows Web services (WS) and grid developers how to build secure WS resources using WSRF::Lite, a Perl implementation of the Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF). It shows users how to secure Web services and WS resources built with WSRF::Lite, using two approaches: Transport Layer Security (TLS) and digitally signing Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages.
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/gr-dw-gr-buildsecure.html

Digital Signature Guidelines

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:43:00 +0530

Digital Signature Guidelines is a publication on the American Bar Association website that is intended to assist anyone involved in online transactions that need to be secure and authentically signed.

Complete with a tutorial, the Guidelines (from the American Bar Association, Section of Science and Technology) explain digital signature technology in simple terms, and examine how this technology can be applied as a computer-based alternative to traditional signatures. Visitors can download copies of the book in WordPerfect or Microsoft Word format or obtain zipped copies of either format.
http://www.abanet.org/scitech/ec/isc/dsg-toc.html

Electronic Frontier Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:38:00 +0530

The EFF campaigns for online freedom of access and privacy rights.

This organisational site includes several accounts of legal cases which EFF has been involved in as well as appeals for action in current cases. There is a newsletter and also a library of Online Civil Liberties Documents covering topics such as encryption, spamming and cybersquatting. A calendar of events is provided.
http://www.eff.org/

Microsoft Research

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:26:00 +0530

This site gives a list of links to computer science projects and groups conducting research at Microsoft. It includes a searchable publications database that includes journal articles and technical reports. Free software and demonstrations are available to download.

There are also links to news articles about, and press releases from, Microsoft Research. The site is linked to the Multi University Research Laboratory (MURL) site, a collaboration between Microsoft Research, PARC and four US university departments; lectures given by members of this group can be viewed over the web.
http://www.research.microsoft.com/research/projects/

Free online dictionary of computing

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:24:00 +0530

FOLDOC is a searchable dictionary of acronyms, jargon, programming languages, tools, architecture, operating systems, networking, theory, conventions, standards, mathematics, electronics, institutions, companies, projects, products and history

covering all aspects of computing. The dictionary contains over 13500 definitions.

Entries are cross-referenced to each other and to other related resources elsewhere on the Internet. Searching is done by direct entry under terms or scrolling through letters of the alphabet.
http://foldoc.org/

Computing Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (abhi_uppi) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:23:00 +0530

Computing Reviews is a subscriptionÃ¢â‚¬â€œbased service which publishes monthly reviews of books, articles, and other forms of publications, thus providing a critical survey of what is being published in the field at the time. Author rebuttals may be printed.

The site offers reviews organised by subject area. Reviews can be browsed or searched. Reviewer profiles and discussion forums for various topics are provided. Access requires a subscription.
http://www.reviews.com/