Karthik Blog

Label a Flash Drive with Your Name and Number

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:47:00 +0000

Readers are submitting their best life hack for a chance to win an autographed copy of our new book, Upgrade Your Life. Here's our latest winner.
Reader Jill carries her life on a thumb drive and if she loses it, she wants to make it as easy on the person who finds it as possible to return the drive. Jill writes in:

I've been messing around with a way to mark my thumb drive so it will (maybe) be returned if I lose it. Chances are, I won't actually "lose" it; I will leave it at the house of a friend or at work. But I want to get it back—ASAP—without having to call all over the universe to find it. Of course, the drive is encrypted so i don't need to worry about data falling into the wrong hands. I only worry about having to rebuild EVERYTHING because I carry my life on my thumb drive.

After trying out a splash screen and a launch.bat file, Jill decided she wanted something simpler and more obvious. She says:

I decided to just label my drive something other than "Removable Disk" and add an eye-catching custom icon to it.
So I created a next text file in Notepad, typed the word:

[autorun]

And saved it to the root directory—the "main" area of your drive, not in a folder—as autorun.inf.

I chose a big yellow smiley face for my icon but any brightly colored, unusual icon will be easily noticed. I copied the icon to the root directory of my thumb drive and renamed it myicon.ico.

Then I opened my autorun.inf file and added this text:

icon = .\myicon.ico label=My Name (mobile xxx-xxx-xxxx)

(Of course, you will substitute your name and your mobile number for the above text.) I saved the file and marked it "read only" and hid it (just as an added sense of security—a lot of people have not learned how to tweak their "Show hidden folders" settings and, thus, will not be tempted to delete or
edit the file.)

Once I unplugged and re-inserted my thumb drive, it looked like this:

Nice! Congratulations, Jill! Your smiling USB drive label just earned you an autographed copy of Upgrade Your Life. Ok, tomorrow is the absolute final day of the contest, with just one copy of the book left. Submit your best life hack to win it now!

Convert Word Documents to Cruft-free HTML

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:15:00 +0000

Anyone who's tried saving a Word document as a web page knows you get way more than you bargained for in the HTML and CSS department in the result. The Productivity Portfolio blog offers two alternatives when you want to zip a .DOC to a .HTML file in a jiffy without all the cruft: Using the online Word HTML Cleaner at Textism (files up to 20K only), or sending yourself the document via Gmail and hitting the "View as HTML" link. Handy.

20 Things You Can Use Twice Before Tossing

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:04:00 +0000

Dry Cleaning Bags: Use to pack suits, dresses and fine clothing when travelling, this will help protect it from wrinkles when packing. When storing the bags make sure to keep them safely out of reach of children, they really are that dangerous.
Butter Wrappers: Once you’ve removed a block of butter from its wrapping, place the wrapping in a plastic container or bag and refrigerate. Use it to grease baking pans.
Business Cards: Use the other side to label storage boxes and tubs and tape to the outside of the lid or side so you can see at a glance what the container is holding.
Used Envelopes: These make excellent lists for groceries, To Do lists, bookmarks and labels.
Cardboard Egg Cartons: You can use these to make homemade firestarters.
Tissue Boxes: Once they’re empty you can use these as a plastic bag dispenser, just fill with grocery bags and you’ll be able to neatly pull out one at a time.
Plastic Grocery Bags: Use as garbage pail liners, paint tray covers, packing material.
Plastic Bread Clips: Save a few of the square plastic clips that keep bread bags closed to use as tiny scrapers. They come in handy to remove labels, price tags, and even do a good job scratching lottery tickets.
Newspaper: Line kitty litter boxes for easy cleanup (top with kitty litter), protect work surfaces from crafts & interior paint jobs, giftwrap, use as packing material when moving or shipping.
Plastic Strawberry Baskets: Use as a homemade bubble machine, hold small packets in the pantry.
Cleaner Spray Bottles: Clean thoroughly and use to hold your homemade cleaners, use to spray plants…very important to clean thoroughly first.
Mesh From Veggie Bags: If you buy veggies that are bagged in nylon mesh, you can use that mesh for various cleaning jobs around the house and yard. Just wad up the bag and use it as a scrubber.
Styrofoam Food Trays: Clean thoroughly, wrap in foil then use as trays for giving gifts of baking.
Pantyhose: Use in the garden to tie plants to stakes, make shower spa bags plus there are 20 ideas found here.
Paper Towel Cardboard Rolls: Use to wrap extension cords, Christmas lights (keep untangled).
Citrus Peels: Use to make your own homemade citrus cleaners, candy peels to use in baking or freeze the peels to use for zest in recipes as needed, Save your peels from citrus fruits like lemons and oranges. You can toss them in the fire place when you have a fire going to give the room a nice, fresh smell.
Packing Foam Peanuts: Save them and reuse when packing breakables, storing Christmas decorations or sending gifts in the mail
Brown Paper Bags: Once used, twist into small rolls and use as fire starters.
Laundry Bottle Caps & Scoops: Wash thoroughly and use as sandbox, pool, bathtub toys or pet food scoopers (for dried food).
Cereal Liner Bags: Clean and use for stacking meat patties before freezing, store bread crusts, cover food in the microwave.

Creative Ways to Reuse "Disposable" Items

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:05:00 +0000

We asked earlier this week what disposable items you had found clever re-uses for, and the answers are in. Not surprisingly, some of you have some pretty crafty uses for household goods that usually end up at the curb. From CD-R spindles to corks, twist-ties to tissue boxes, lots of supposedly one-use items can save you money, free up space, and be seriously handy when the need arises. After the jump, a roundup of our readers' waste-reducing reuses. Yogurt photo by Dan4th, all others by How can I recycle this.

CDs/DVDs and their cases

Along with organizing cables and toting bagels, both borked and discarded CD- and DVD-Rs and the spindles they came in can find second lives:

"The (spindle) covers can be turned upside-down and used as small tabletop bins as well (especially the 50 and 100-packs)."—kureshii
"An outer plastic container from a 50-spindle of CDs or DVDs makes a great desk pen or craft tool holder if you tuck toilet-paper tubes into it."—kevinw1.
Commenter mrs_helm said she's heard that used CDs/DVDs hung outside will repel flies, while kevinw1 ties them to tree branches to keep birds away from his seedlings and plants.
mrs_helm's other CD/DVD re-use: "Cover one side with felt and place under breakable figurines so they don't scratch the furniture." They might also work under furniture on hardwood floors, provided you can cover them with the right material.

Photo by How can I recycle this.

Dryer sheets

We've long been fans of the pan-cleaning, shoe de-stink-ifying, anti-static dusting squares, and our readers have even more novel uses for them:

"Used dryer sheets will clean your iron - just run the iron over it on medium heat."—kuisine
"Stick used dryer sheets into drawers to keep clothing smelling nice."—ac042186.

Photo by Fuzzy Gerdes.

Plastic containers

There's no clear consensus, at least among commenters, as to whether it's safe and prudent to re-use plastic bottled water containers (urban legend buster Snopes.com has a somewhat mixed answer to the standard claims), but, along with re-using plastic grocery bags, cutlery and storage containers, they keep their plastics out of the landfill with some crafty uses:

"Plastic yogurt containers make great starter pots for seedlings."—elsifer.
"... The Stonyfield quart-sized yogurt containers are marked as dishwasher safe. We make our own chicken stock, and freeze it in those yogurt containers."—skyesong.
"The plastic bags that newspapers are delivered in make for a great umbrella bag (when you have to carry your wet closed umbrella into your office, etc."—Thunderpants.
"Plastic Chinese food containers: store miscellaneous parts in my garage."—gargouille.
"I sell and trade a lot of used books, so I cut up the heavy plastic wrap from the cases of bottled water and use it as a waterproof liner for shipping. I use brown paper cut from grocery bags for the outer wrapper."—gwynn1101.
Photo by MiRo740.
Odds and ends
Objects that seemingly have only one specific purpose—keeping your wine fresh, dispensing tissues, and the like—are no match for our space-minding, clutter-savvy readers:
- "2 wine corks can make a quick and easy laptop stand."—Brad N. (and previously explained in detail by reader George).
- "I save those pop-up tissue boxes for the car. They make great trash receptacles and it is easy to tell when they are full."—RubberduckGrrl.
- "I have saved every twist-tie I've come into contact with, and I end up re-using every one. Keep your pens together in your bag. Ear bud cables organized at the gym. Chip clips. Shower curtain rings. Any tech cable that's snaking around the room. Half of that single-serve bag of coffee."—Transuranic.
- "Nylon mesh from fruits and veggies can be used to protect glassware (mostly bottles)."—ac042186.

Why You Should Clean Your Keyboard--Right This Minute

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:37:00 +0000

A new UK study shows that keyboards swabbed from an ordinary London office had more harmful bacteria than—you know what's coming—a toilet seat. Yeeks!

The accompanying survey showed that most users clean their keyboard infrequently (if at all), and clean their mouse even less often. Here's what you do: shut down your PC, unplug your keyboard and mouse, shake out any dust, lint and other crap, and wipe 'em down with disinfectant alcohol wipes. Right this very minute. For a more thorough cleaning which involves disassembly and compressed air, see this step by step guide. Or if there's just one or two rogue crumbs you'd like to fish out from between the G and H keys, use a piece of Scotch tape.

Run Commands for Windows XP

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:49:00 +0000

Accessibility Controls - access.cpl
Accessibility Wizard - accwiz
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
Control Panel - control
Date and Time Properties - timedate.cpl
DDE Shares - ddeshare
Device Manager - devmgmt.msc
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
Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility - drwtsn32
Driver Verifier Utility - verifier
Event Viewer - eventvwr.msc
Files and Settings Transfer Tool - migwiz
File Signature Verification Tool - sigverif
Findfast - findfast.cpl
Firefox - firefox
Folders Properties - control folders
Fonts - control fonts
Fonts Folder - fonts
Free Cell Card Game - freecell
Game Controllers - joy.cpl
Group Policy Editor (for xp professional) - gpedit.msc
Hearts Card Game - mshearts
Help and Support - helpctr
HyperTerminal - hypertrm
Iexpress Wizard - iexpress
Indexing Service - ciadv.msc
Internet Connection Wizard - icwconn1
Internet Explorer - iexplore
Internet Properties - inetcpl.cpl
Keyboard Properties - control keyboard
Local Security Settings - secpol.msc
Local Users and Groups - lusrmgr.msc
Logs You Out Of Windows - logoff
Malicious Software Removal Tool - mrt
Microsoft Chat - winchat
Microsoft Movie Maker - moviemk
Microsoft Paint - mspaint
Microsoft Syncronization Tool - mobsync
Minesweeper Game - winmine
Mouse Properties - control mouse
Mouse Properties - main.cpl
Netmeeting - conf
Network Connections - control netconnections
Network Connections - ncpa.cpl
Network Setup Wizard - netsetup.cpl
Notepad notepad
Object Packager - packager
ODBC Data Source Administrator - odbccp32.cpl
On Screen Keyboard - osk
Outlook Express - msimn
Paint - pbrush
Password Properties - password.cpl
Performance Monitor - perfmon.msc
Performance Monitor - perfmon
Phone and Modem Options - telephon.cpl
Phone Dialer - dialer
Pinball Game - pinball
Power Configuration - powercfg.cpl
Printers and Faxes - control printers
Printers Folder - printers
Regional Settings - intl.cpl
Registry Editor - regedit
Registry Editor - regedit32
Remote Access Phonebook - rasphone
Remote Desktop - mstsc
Removable Storage - ntmsmgr.msc
Removable Storage Operator Requests - ntmsoprq.msc
Resultant Set of Policy (for 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 Solitare Card Game - spider
SQL Client Configuration - cliconfg
System Configuration Editor - sysedit
System Configuration Utility - msconfig
System Information - msinfo32
System Properties - sysdm.cpl
Task Manager - taskmgr
TCP Tester - tcptest
Telnet Client - telnet
User Account Management - nusrmgr.cpl
Utility Manager - utilman
Windows Address Book - wab
Windows Address Book Import Utility - wabmig
Windows Explorer - explorer
Windows Firewall - firewall.cpl
Windows Magnifier - magnify
Windows Management Infrastructure - wmimgmt.msc
Windows Media Player - wmplayer
Windows Messenger - msmsgs
Windows System Security Tool - syskey
Windows Update Launches - wupdmgr
Windows Version - winver
Windows XP Tour Wizard - tourstart

Are you Smart ??

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:47:00 +0000

Even if u answer **five** questions its great...Feel proud...

1. What programming language is GOOGLE developed in?
2. What is the expansion of YAHOO?
3. What is the expansion of ADIDAS?
4. Expansion of Star as in Star TV Network?
5. What is expansion of "ICICI?"
6. What does "baker's dozen" signify?
7. The 1984-85 season. 2nd ODI between India and Pakistan at Sialkot - India 210/3 with Vengsarkar 94*. Match abandoned. Why?
8. Who is the only man to have written the National Anthems for two different countries?
9. From what four word expression does the word `goodbye` derive?
10. How was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu better known?
11. Name the only other country to have got independence on Aug 15th?
12. Why was James Bond Associated with the Number 007?
13. Who faced the first ball in the first ever One day match?
14. Which cricketer played for South Africa before it was banned from international cricket and later represented Zimbabwe ?
15. The faces of which four Presidents are carved at Mt.Rushmore?
16. Which is the only country that is surrounded from all sides by only one country (other than Vatican )?
17. Which is the only sport which is not allowed to play left handed?

HERE ARE THE ANSWERS
1. Google is written in Asynchronous java-script and XML, or its acronym Ajax ..
2. Yet Another Hierarchy of Officious Oracle
3. ADIDAS- All Day I Dream About Sports
4. Satellite Television Asian Region
5. Industrial credit and Investments Corporation of India
6. A baker's dozen consists of 13 items - 1 more than the items in a normal dozen
7. That match was abandoned after people heard the news of Indira Gandhi being killed.
8. Rabindranath Tagore who wrote national anthem for two different countries one is Indian's National anthem and another one is for Bangladesh- (Amar Sonar* *Bangla)
9. Goodbye comes from the ex-pression: 'god be with you'.
10. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu is none other Mother Teresa.
11. South Korea ..
12. Because 007 is the ISD code for Russia (or the USSR , as it was known during the cold war)
13. Geoffrey Boycott
14. John Traicos
15. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln
16. Lesotho surrounded from all sides by South Africa ..
17. Polo

History behind the Branded Names

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:45:00 +0000

History behind the Branded Names:-

1. Akai — named for its founder, Masukichi Akai.

2. Adidas — from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.

3. Accenture — from "Accent on the future".

4. BenQ — Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to life.

5. Bridgestone — named after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. The surname Ishibashi means "stone bridge", or "bridge of stone".

6. Canon — Originally (1933) Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory the new name (1935) derived from the name of the company's first camera, the Kwanon, in turn named after the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.

7. Casio — from the name of its founder, Kashio Tadao, who had set up the company Kashio Seisakujo as a subcontractor factory.

8. Chevrolet — named after company co-founder Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss-born auto racer. The company was merged into General Motors in 1917 and survives only as a brand name.

9. Cisco — short for San Francisco. It has also been suggested that it was "CIS-co": Computer Information Services was the department at Stanford University where the founders worked.

10. Colgate-Palmolive — formed from a merger of soap manufacturers Colgate & Company and Palmolive-Peet. Peet was dropped in 1953. Colgate was named after William Colgate, an English immigrant, who set up a starch, soap and candle business in New York City in 1806. Palmolive was named for the two oils (Palm and Olive) used in its manufacture.

11. Comcast — from communications and broadcast.

12. Compaq — from computer and "pack" to denote a small integral object; or: Compatibility And Quality; or: from the company's first product, the very compact Compaq Portable.

13. Daewoo — company founder Kim Woo Chong called it Daewoo which means "Great House" or "Great Universe" in Korean.

14. Dell — named after its founder, Michael Dell. The company changed its name from Dell Computer in 2003.

15. DHL — named after its founders, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn.
16. FedEx — abbreviation of Federal Express Corporation, the company's original name.

17. Ferrari — from the name of its founder, Enzo Ferrari.

18. Fiat — acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin).

19. Fuji — named after Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan.

20. Hitachi — old place name, literally "sunrise".

21. Honda — from the name of its founder, Soichiro Honda.

22. Intel — Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore initially incorporated their company as N M Electronics. Someone suggested Moore Noyce Electronics but it sounded too close to "more noise" — not a good choice for an electronics company! Later, Integrated Electronics was proposed but it had already been taken, so they used the initial syllables (INTegrated ELectronics). To avoid potential conflicts with other companies with similar names, Intel purchased the name rights for $15,000 from a company called Intelco. (Source: Intel 15 Years Corporate Anniversary Brochure).

23. Konica — it was earlier known as Konishiroku Kogaku. Konishiroku in turn is the short for Konishiya Rokubeiten which was the first name of the company established by Rokusaburo Sugiura in the 1850s.

24. Motorola — Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company (at the time, Galvin Manufacturing Company) started manufacturing radios for cars. Many audio equipment makers of the era used the "ola" ending for their products, most famously the "Victrola" phonograph made by the Victor Talking Machine Company. The name was meant to convey the idea of "sound" and "motion". It became so widely recognized that the company later adopted it as the company name.

25. MRF — from Madras Rubber Factory, founded by K M Mammen Mappillai in 1946. He started with a toy-balloon manufacturing unit at Tiruvottiyur, Chennai (then called Madras). In 1952 he began manufacturing tread-rubber and, in 1961, tyres.

26. Nestle — named after its founder, Henri Nestlé, who was born in Germany under the name "Nestle", which is German (actually, Swabian diminutive) for "bird's nest".
27. Nike — named for the Greek goddess of victory.

28. Nissan — the company was earlier known by the name Nippon Sangyo which means "Japanese industry".

29. Nokia — started as a wood-pulp mill, the company expanded into producing rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia. The company later adopted the city's name.

30. Nortel Networks — named from Nortel (Northern Telecom) and Bay Networks. The company was originally spun off from the Bell Telephone Company of Canada Ltd in 1895 as Northern Electric and Manufacturing, and traded as Northern Electric from 1914 to 1976.

31. Philips — Royal Philips Electronics was founded in 1891 by brothers Gerard (the engineer) and Anton (the entrepreneur) Philips.

32. Reebok — alternate spelling of rhebok (Pelea capreolus), an African antelope.
33. Samsung — meaning three stars in Korean.

34. Sony — from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang word used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster, "since we were sonny boys working in sound and vision", said Akio Morita. The company was founded as Tokyo Tsoshiu Kogyo KK (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) in 1946, and changed its name to Sony in 1958. Sony was chosen as it could be pronounced easily in many languages.

35. Sprint — from its parent company, Southern Pacific Railroad INTernal Communications. At the time, pipelines and railroad tracks were the cheapest place to lay communications lines, as the right-of-way was already leased or owned.

36. Toshiba — named from the merger of consumer goods company Tokyo Denki (Tokyo Electric Co) and electrical firm Shibaura Seisaku-sho (Shibaura Engineering Works).

37. Toyota — from the name of the founder, Sakichi Toyoda. Initially called Toyeda, it was changed after a contest for a better-sounding name. The new name was written in katakana with eight strokes, a number that is considered lucky in Japan.

38. Wal-Mart — named after founder Sam Walton.

39. Wipro — from Western India Vegetable Products Limited. The company started as a modest Vanaspati and laundry soap producer and is now also an IT services giant.

Intresting Ads... again :-)

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:42:00 +0000

World’s biggest ad space?

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:47:00 +0000

This one is the biggest ad in Russia. It’s square size is more than one and a half acres! (6000 m2). It is situated in the center of Moscow city and has a few full size cars sticked to it, with back lights and headlights on in the evening.

Rain Forecasting Umbrella relays info via lights

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:29:00 +0000

Turning a drab dull in to vivid lights is this cool rain gear from Materious. This concept umbrella features a LCD handle that that indicates the weather status by displaying different colored lights. White lighting indicates a sunny day and blue light indicates light rains. A dark blue hue indicates heavy showers. While it doesn't do all the predictions via magic, the hub that the umbrella rests on takes info via the net using WiFi.

Some of the good ads!!!

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:19:00 +0000

Undoubtedly the best name ever

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:05:00 +0000

BMW's Exhaust Cleaner than Surrounding Air in Hydrogen 7

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:55:00 +0000

Forget those pricy oxygen bars. If you want to breathe clean air, wrap your lips around the tailpipe of a BMW Hydrogen 7 (careful, it's hot). The exhaust coming out is cleaner than the air this experimental car draws in to the engine, says the Argonne National Laboratories. That's when the Hydrogen 7 is running in mono-fuel hydrogen mode, which is a buzzword way of saying it burns gasoline, too, on account of hydrogen stations being few and far between.

"The BMW Hydrogen 7's emissions were only a fraction of SULEV level, making it one of the lowest emitting combustion engine vehicles that have been manufactured," said Thomas Wallner, a mechanical engineer who leads Argonne's hydrogen vehicle testing activities. "Moreover, the car's engine actively cleans the air. Argonne's testing shows that the Hydrogen 7's 12-cylinder engine actually shows emissions levels that, for certain components, are cleaner than the ambient air that comes into the car's engine."

Don Hillebrand, director of Argonne's Center for Transportation Research, said " Argonne's vehicle testing facilities are unique in that they are able to detect even trace levels of emissions. In this case, it was near-zero emissions ... A gross polluter is easy to measure, but the cleaner the car the harder it is to test." Or as was noted by BMW's Wolfgang Thiel, the manager of operating support emissions analysis, "Zero is a very small precise number - we are pushing the boundaries of emissions testing."

11 year old is the school network administrator

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:50:00 +0000

As a 3 year old, Jon Penn would baffle his father when he would switch on log in and start the paint application on his laptop. It did not surprise him when he learnt that Jon now 11 is the network manager in charge of his small private school in Millbrook Ala.For Jon — who says his favorite reading material is computer trade magazines — it has been the experience of a lifetime, even getting to select and install a gateway security appliance largely by himself. "We spent $2, 158," says young Penn, describing how he picked out the McAfee Secure Internet Gateway Appliance after evaluating it in a 30-day trial. He also looked at the Barracuda box and tried the Untangle open source product, which he said did not meet the school's needs as well. His school needed a gateway to protect against attacks, filter viruses and spam, and block inappropriate sites. Keeping costs down is important since the school is operating on a shoestring budget to keep its 60 aging computers, a donation from years ago, working for the roughly 200 students permitted to use them, along with the teachers. Along with school staff, the younger Penn has gotten involved in contributing to school policy on Web access. While blocking access to social networking sites such as MySpace was not popular with many fellow students, he had to agree the school really did not need it. Penn is now the technical support much of the time on everything from printer jams to setting up an external drive to backing up the school's most important server. He was allowed to give a few lessons to his class about basic computers, having his classmates pull out a few components from old machines.

Penn did it to help his mother, Paula, the school librarian who had computer support added to her workload a week before the school year started when the existing IT systems overseer suddenly departed. Penn's parents both believe that technical people must have "integrity and character," and should use their skills for beneficial, not malicious purposes.

Her son is precocious when it comes to computers but Paula says in the final analysis she hopes the experience with the school's network helps him realize, "It's his job to fight the bad guys."

Source

Gmail Custom Time another reason to love Google

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:34:00 +0000

Introducing Gmail Custom Time. This nifty new future allows you to send emails in the past. You set the custom time in the compose view and the email you send to the past appears in the proper chronological order in your recipient's inbox. Whats more you can opt for it to show up read or unread by selecting the appropriate option. There are two catches however - You'll only be able to send email back until April 1, 2004, the day Gmail was launched and secondly each account gets no more than 10 pre-dated emails per year. "I just got two tickets to Radiohead by being the 'first' to respond to a co-worker's 'first-come, first-serve' email. Someone else had already won them, but I told everyone to check their inboxes again. Everyone sort of knows I used Custom Time on this one, but I'm denying it."

Did You Know This ??

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:54:00 +0000

Letters ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ &’d’ do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 99
(Letter’d’ comes for the first time in Hundred)

Letters ‘a’, ‘b’ & ‘c’ do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999
(Letter ‘a’ comes for the first time in Thousand)

Letters ‘b’ & ‘c’ do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999,999,999
(Letter ‘b’ comes for the first time in Billion)

- And -

Letter ‘c’ does not appear anywhere in in the spellings of entire English Counting

Interesting facts

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:47:00 +0000

1. Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from stop producing tears. Try it next time you chop onions.

2. Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time. Indeed convenient!

3. Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name.

4. Male mosquitoes are vegetarians. Only females bite.

5. The average person’s field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle.

6. To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe.

7. Canadians can send letters with personalized postage stamps showing their own photos on each stamp.

8. Babies’ eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.

9. It snowed in the Sahara Desert in February of 1979.

10. Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water.

11. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

12. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.

13. Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.

14. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

15. Everyone’s tongue print is different, like fingerprints.

16. Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn’t stay in the gut. It will pass through the system
and be excreted.

17. At 40 Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.

18. There is a hotel in Sweden built entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year.

19. Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk right foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, rather than right foot, left foot.

20. Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after a atty meal.

21. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

Estari DC15: The World?s First Dual-Touchscreen Notebook

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:46:00 +0000

The Estari DC15 is driven by an Intel Dual Core Processor 1.83GHz. It comes with a 2 GB RAM and a 60-100 GB Hard Drive for storage. The marvelous 15? widescreen stares back magnificently at you with all the glory of a masterpiece. With support for USB and Wi-Fi, the Estari also provides with 2.5 hours of battery life. The most interesting feature of the DC15 is its dual touch screen which can be used either horizontally or vertically. The company has installed virtual keyboard software and users can even use wireless keyboards (or USB ones) if they feel uncomfortable with the concept. One drawback of this model is that it weighs a whole 5.9kg.
The price of the Estari DC15 is $4350.

How to sleep in the office … photos

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:45:00 +0000

optical illusions

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:32:00 +0000

75 Year Old has world’s Fastest Broadband 40Gbps

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:32:00 +0000

A 75 year old woman from Karlstad in central Sweden has been thrust into the IT history books - with the world’s fastest internet connection.

Sigbritt Löthberg’s home has been supplied with a blistering 40 Gigabits per second connection, many thousands of times faster than the average residential link and the first time ever that a home user has experienced such a high speed.
Related Articles

But Sigbritt, who had never had a computer until now, is no ordinary 75 year old. She is the mother of Swedish internet legend Peter Löthberg who, along with Karlstad Stadsnät, the local council’s network arm, has arranged the connection.

“This is more than just a demonstration,” said network boss Hafsteinn Jonsson.

“As a network owner we’re trying to persuade internet operators to invest in faster connections. And Peter Löthberg wanted to show how you can build a low price, high capacity line over long distances,” he told The Local.

Sigbritt will now be able to enjoy 1,500 high definition HDTV channels simultaneously. Or, if there is nothing worth watching there, she will be able to download a full high definition DVD in just two seconds.

The secret behind Sigbritt’s ultra-fast connection is a new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometres apart, with no intermediary transponders.

According to Karlstad Stadsnät the distance is, in theory, unlimited - there is no data loss as long as the fibre is in place.

“I want to show that there are other methods than the old fashioned ways such as copper wires and radio, which lack the possibilities that fibre has,” said Peter Löthberg, who now works at Cisco.

Cisco contributed to the project but the point, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, is that fibre technology makes such high speed connections technically and commercially viable.

“The most difficult part of the whole project was installing Windows on Sigbritt’s PC,” said Jonsson.

PDF files can talk!!!

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:26:00 +0000

Did you realise that if you use Adobe Reader 6.0 or 7.0, you can have a bot talk on the contents of the pdf file?

Open a pdf file then,

Ctrl+shift+b - to hear the entire Document
Ctrl+shift+v - to hear the page
Ctrl+shift+c - to resume
Ctrl+shift+e - to stop

Double Words Optical Illusion - Ambigram

noreply@blogger.com (karthik) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:21:00 +0000

At a first glance, what do you see the word above as? In black the word read as good while in white the word read as evil. It visualises the concept that good and evil coexist together.

Optical Illusion that depicts optical illusion. Yellow area reads as optical while the colored area reads as illusion. Amazing.

Opposite meaning of teach is to learn. This is another great illusion where the word reflection of teach turns into learn.

The reflection of the mirror shows the true hidden meaning of the word hate.

Karthik Blog

Label a Flash Drive with Your Name and Number

Convert Word Documents to Cruft-free HTML

20 Things You Can Use Twice Before Tossing

Creative Ways to Reuse "Disposable" Items

CDs/DVDs and their cases

Dryer sheets

Plastic containers

Odds and ends

Why You Should Clean Your Keyboard--Right This Minute

Run Commands for Windows XP

Are you Smart ??

History behind the Branded Names

Intresting Ads... again :-)

World’s biggest ad space?

Rain Forecasting Umbrella relays info via lights

Some of the good ads!!!

Undoubtedly the best name ever

BMW's Exhaust Cleaner than Surrounding Air in Hydrogen 7

11 year old is the school network administrator

Gmail Custom Time another reason to love Google

Did You Know This ??

Top 10 most stupid questions people usually ask in obvious situations

Interesting facts

Estari DC15: The World?s First Dual-Touchscreen Notebook

How to sleep in the office … photos

optical illusions

75 Year Old has world’s Fastest Broadband 40Gbps

PDF files can talk!!!

Double Words Optical Illusion - Ambigram