Philip Spohn's shared items in Google Reader

Fix Internet Explorer New Window and Tab Always Blank and Not Loading Problem

2008-07-23T07:00:07Z

Once in a while I get question like how to uninstall or remove Internet Explorer and I usually advice them not to do that because IE is part of Windows and by doing that, it might cause instability to the operating system and on some software. If they don’t like IE, they can ignore it and always use other alternatives such as Firefox or Opera. As for me, I am a Firefox user but I still use IE to browse a few websites, particularly online banking websites because Firefox is unable to display the site correctly and also I can clear the cache/ cookies after logging out. I don’t want to do that on my Firefox 3 because I have tons of websites that I am automatically logged on via cookies when I access the website.

Today I experienced weird problem on an online banking website when I was trying to transfer fund. To do that, I’ll have to request an “image code” to be sent to my mobile phone number and enter the code to verify that the fund is transferred by me. The problem is whenever I click on a link to request for the image code, a new window will popup and it is blank with nothing being loaded but the URL is displayed at the link bar.

When I manually hit Enter key at the URL to load the link, it gives me a “Unrecognized command” error. This happens because the browser is supposed to send hidden secure data to the server when a new popup window and manually visiting the link won’t work. I then tried opening links from Yahoo website using new tab or new window, both showed blank screen.

After struggling on this problem for a few days, I manage to get Internet Explorer new window and tab blank problem fixed.

Clearing the cache/cookies and starting Internet Explorer without Add-ons did not fix the problem. This first two steps that I did is the most basic method and first solution to fix any problem in Internet Explorer.

Next thing I did was resetting Internet Explorer settings. Go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab and click the Reset button. It is advised that this should only be used if Internet Explorer browser is in an unusable state. Even after resetting IE, the new window or tab blank problem is still there.

I would like to see if it was my user profile problem because I have tons of software installed and it might have corrupted the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry. Created a new user account, logged in and tried the Internet Explorer, problem is still there.

From Microsoft KB281679, I found that this problem might be caused by one or more of the following files is missing, damaged, or improperly registered. It suggest to run this command in Start > Run.

regsvr32 urlmon.dll
regsvr32 Shdocvw.dll
regsvr32 Actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 Oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 Mshtml.dll
regsvr32 Browseui.dll
regsvr32 Shell32.dll

All DLL files were able to register correctly except mshtml.dll. I get the following error “Mshtml.dll was loaded, but the DllRegisterServer entry point was not found. This file cannot be registered“. I thought maybe that was the file that was causing the problem. I replaced the mshtml.dll file with an original one but still couldn’t get it registered. I then tried on another computer and I also got the same error except this computer don’t have the new window and tab blank problem. So this problem cannot be caused by mshtml.dll file.

Continue searching for the solution has lead me to finding IEFix, a general purpose fix for Internet Explorer. Downloaded and ran IEFix but it tells me that Internet Explorer 7 is currently not supported.

I’ve also tried scanning Windows with antispyware programs (SpyBot, Ad-Aware, SpySweeper, a-squared Anti-Malware, SUPERAntiSpyware), cleaned several threats found but still no luck.

I’ve gone through nearly everything possible solution to fix this IE problem but I forgotten the most basic one which is to reinstall Internet Explorer. I downloaded the latest Internet Explorer 7 from Microsoft’s website, ran the setup file and that fixed the problem! Now the online banking request image code popup window is able to load.

Thinking back, I was unable to solve this problem for a few days because I was so focused on searching and following solutions that has worked for other people but ignored the most basic solution which is “REINSTALL“.

Technorati Tags: browser, IE, window, tab, blank

Geeks on Tour Newsletter: July 21, 2008

2008-07-23T14:32:00Z

Yesterday, Gmail would not load in my browser. After extensive troubleshooting -- which didn't succeed -- I finally recalled that sometimes the browser cache gets confused and blocks the webpage you're trying to load. Three seconds later Gmail loaded just fine. I was thinking of writing this up as a reminder, and then the "Geeks on Tour" newsletter showed up. No sense duplicating good effort... ;-) (In my case there was no help screen that popped up -- that's why it took so long for me to remember.)

How and Why to 'Clear your Cache'

Have you ever had a problem with a website and seen a help screen that suggested you 'clear your cache?' It is often a good thing to do, and solves many problems.

Geeks on Tour Newsletter: July 21, 2008

Sony’s amazing crapware-free PC

2008-07-21T13:31:16Z

Sony is finally taking on its crapware problem. For the past two months, I’ve been using an astonishingly light and agile Sony VAIO notebook and loving every minute of it. The best part of all was that this machine was absolutely, completely, unequivocally crapware-free, which meant I was able to be productive within a few minutes of unboxing. Sony's Fresh Start delivers exactly what it promises: a crapware-free PC. In today’s post, I show you why this VAIO is different from its predecessors and explain how Sony plans to widen its selection of crapware-free models.

Microsoft Site Map

2008-07-20T20:38:00Z

There is so much information at microsoft.com that I'm confident nobody at Microsoft knows how to find it all. In the past their online content was not well organized at all, but now it's much better. Their site map is of the tools that can help you find what you're looking for.

Another one is Google. ;-) Let's say you're looking for help with Windows Media Player 11. If you use the search terms "site:microsoft.com windows media player 11 help" (without the quotes) Google will return search results from just Microsoft. The magic "site" operator, followed by a colon and then the site domain is what does the trick. Notice that there is no space after the colon.)

Something else that works well is to just plug the whole text of a Windows error message into Google. I'd leave out the site operator because there are many other places besides microsoft.com that have good answers. You could also try my custom "Help" search engine, which pulls in results from several of the best online help sites.

Happy hunting, :-)

HOLY FRAK! Moon transits Earth!

2008-07-17T19:19:32Z

Regular readers know I am deeply impressed with astronomical imagery, and I tend to be a little over-the-top on occasion when describing it.

However, having said that, let me be very clear: the following is just about the coolest thing I have ever seen.

First, the setup. The Deep Impact spacecraft was the one that smacked a chunk of copper into a comet so that we could see what materials were below the surface. After the impact, the spacecraft kept going (with the mission renamed EPOXI), and it’s being used to do all sorts of interesting observations.

In late May, 2008, it turned its cameras back to Earth and observed us over the course of a several hours. During this time, from EPOXI’s point of view, the Moon passed directly in front of the Earth! The images were put together (by my old boss, Don Lindler!) into, well, one of the most astonishing animations I have ever watched. Ever.

Now below is the same view, but this time the "red" you see is actually infrared; note that land masses ~~which are warm, appear really red since they are emitting lots of IR compared to the oceans:~~ appear bright in the IR due to vegetation and the ground being good reflectors (see note at bottom of post):

To my knowledge, nothing like this has ever been seen before. These are incredible. Higher-res versions of these videos can be found on the NASA EPOXI press release page.

Take a look at that, folks. It’s us, seen from 50 million kilometers away. I’ve seen many images of the Earth and Moon together as taken by distant spacecraft, but this, seeing them in motion, really brings home — if I may use that highly ironic term — just where we are: a planetary system, an astronomical body, a blue orb hanging in space orbited by a desolate moon. This is a view that is literally impossible from the ground. Only a spacefaring race gets the privilege of this view from a height.

While there is science galore in these animations, I think their real impact is the visceral one from simply seeing them. As Carl Sagan once said: everyone you have ever met, every human who has lived and died, lived out their lives on that blue ball. And yet here we are, in the 21st century, plains apes allowed to evolve and satiate their curiosity, now with the ability to lob metal proxies into deep space, look back, and see ourselves.

Science. I love this stuff.

A very big tip o’ the solar panel to Don Lindler, for alerting me about these animations.

And oops: I originally said that the land is warm, and thus bright in the IR. That’s wrong, at least in this case! That would be true if these were far (thermal) IR images, but they’re actually near-IR, just outside the range seen by the human eye. At those wavelengths, plant and other objects are pretty good reflectors, so they appear bright. My thanks to R Simmons in the comments below for pointing this out.

Hoover Dam Bypass

2008-07-17T22:39:00Z

This will make your trip to Las Vegas a little quicker. :-)

Construction of the Colorado River Bridge is advancing with construction of the 1,060 foot twin-rib concrete arch. The Colorado River Bridge is the central portion of the Hoover Dam Bypass Project. Construction on the nearly 2,000 foot long bridge began in late January 2005 and the completion of the entire Hoover Dam Bypass Project is expected in June 2010. When completed, this signature bridge will span the Black Canyon (about 1,600 feet south of the Hoover Dam), connecting the Arizona and Nevada Approach highways nearly 900-feet above the Colorado River.

Hoover Dam Bypass

From Russia with impunity

2008-07-16T19:04:40Z

By all accounts, Rostov-Na-Danu is a picturesque, culturally-rich city of 1.1 million on the banks of the Don River, near the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia. Established in the mid 1700s, it has served as a hub for commerce and politics for millenia. Now, in the 21st century, the quaint city has emerged as home base of a gang of cyber bank robbers operating with impunity. The Coreflood Gang is likely stealing millions in a steady flow from tens of thousands of individual online banking accounts, mainly in small withdrawals of less than $5,000. Shortly after my 400-word story about the gang’s operations was published today on page 4B of USA Today, a reader called me with a complaint: he appreciated the info, but wanted to know what he could do to protect himself from exposure to Coreflood. The short answer: stop doing online banking.

Threats of having your Web-connected PC compromised at home or at work are so multitudinous and varied that it has become background noise. Internet-enabled data theft and financial fraud has become a mature, centi-billion global enterprise, that uses best-practices—for market saturation and stealth. Long gone are the days when sloppily-written worms, like MS Blast or Sasser, would circle the globe and grab front page headlines. Today, backdoors get planted on your PC when you navigate to trusted web sites. And Trojans that turn your PC into a spam-spreading bot and harvests all your sensitive data are root-kitted deep into your harddrive.

SecureWorks researcher, Joe Stewart (one of the ace virus hunters featured in Zero Day Threat) discovered how the Coreflood Gang uses a common Windows system management component, called PsExe, to spread infections all across a network, from inside network firewalls. SecureWorks and Spamhaus helped shut down the two hub servers the Gang had rather brazenly rented from a U.S. Internet Service Provider to carry out the attacks. But the gang simply rented two replacement hubs from another U.S. ISP, and continues to do business as usual. Such is the sate of cyber crime that security firms and law enforcement believe it is better NOT to shut down these two servers. The logic: doing so might compel the gang to patronize a purely criminal, so-called bulletproof ISP, such as the Russian Business Network. “We’d rather know where they’re at,” says Stewart. “The more we forced them to move around the more they’ll evolve and likely go deeper underground”

photo of Joe Stewart

How to Recover Deleted Files with Free Software

2008-06-10T16:00:00Z

Ack! The computer ate my term paper! We've all been there at some point. You delete an important file, somehow it skips your Recycle Bin altogether, and for all practical purposes, it's disappeared into the ether. But before you hit the big red panic button, there's a very good chance that your file is still alive and kicking somewhere on your hard drive—you just need to know how to find it. With the right tools, finding and recovering that deleted file can be as simple as a few clicks of your mouse.

Part I: The Overview

Ok, so you've lost an important file. Don't panic. Take a breath, and let's see if we can find it. Before you go into full-on file recovery mode, make sure you double-check the folder you had saved it in and the Recycle Bin or Trash. Still nothing?

1. Stop What You're Doing

When your operating system deletes a file, all it really does is mark the space on your hard drive that your file occupies as free space. It's still there, but your computer is now perfectly happy to write new data on top of it—at which point the file recovery process becomes a lot more difficult. That means you should do as little computing as possible until you find the file you're looking for, since every time you save a new file—every time your computer writes information to your hard drive—your chances of recovering the file go down.

2. Find the Right File Recovery Program

Windows: You've a lot of really great freeware options for file recovery if you're running Windows. Notable apps include Undelete Plus (original post), PC Inspector File Recovery (original post), and Restoration (original post). Undelete Plus is the most user-friendly option of the bunch, with advanced filtering options that make it easy to find your needle of a file among the haystack of deleted garbage, but in my tests I found both Restoration and PC Inspector File Recovery to be more effective at recovering files. (Of course, your mileage may vary.) As an added bonus, the bare bones Restoration is portable, which makes it an excellent addition to your thumb drive.

UPDATE: Per several readers advice, you may also want to check out Recuva (original post), another freeware Windows file recovery tool.

Mac: If you're on a Mac and aren't afraid to lay down a few bucks in the name of data recovery, the $99 Data Rescue II is the go-to application for file recovery with a friendly graphical interface.

All Platforms: If you're not afraid to crack open a terminal window or command prompt, the free, cross-platform command-line tool PhotoRec (original post) is a crack shot at recovering photos (as the name implies) as well as virtually any other file type from your removable media or hard drives.

3. Recover Your Files

Once you've picked a tool, it's time to scan your hard drive for your lost file or files. This process varies depending on the app you're using, but it's basically the same for all of them: Just point the program at the hard drive or folder that was holding your missing file and start your scan. Once the scan is complete, you're going to see a big list of jumbled file names. Often most of these files are nothing more than system files that your operating system has created in the course of basic operation, and you won't need to worry about them. You're just looking for the file type and name that matches what you've lost.

Once you find what you're looking for, saving it is a matter of right-clicking the file and choosing where to save it.

Went through steps one through three and still aren't having any luck? It might be worth trying again with a different application, since there can be a lot of variation between apps. If you're still not having any luck, part two discusses a few other ways you can try addressing more specific problems when your data goes missing.

Part 2: More Specific Problems

Above you got a basic overview for recovering deleted files from your computer. Now we'll take a closer look at some more specific problems, methods of data recovery, and tools that may be of help in your quest for your elusive lost data.

Recover Files from a Wiped or Unbootable Hard Drive

So you didn't just accidentally delete a file or two and empty your Recycle Bin prematurely—instead you've got a whole hard drive worth of missing data. You can still use many of the applications mentioned above to recover files from these drives as long as you have or can get the hard drive into a bootable computer. For more details, check out how to recover files from a wiped hard drive with PhotoRec (original post) or how to recover data from a crashed hard drive with PC Inspector File Recovery (original post).

If you can't or don't know how to get your unbootable drive into another computer, a Linux live CD can be perfect for rescuing files. If the Linux route scares you off, give the popular BartPE (original post) a try.

Finally, if none of these options can even read your hard drive, you still might be able to get it working for just long enough with a few tricks of the data recovery trade, like putting the busted hard drive in the freezer.

Recover Lost Photos

If you need to resurrect photos from a damaged flash memory card from your digital camera, you'll be happy to know that most of the applications listed in part one above will do the trick—you just need plug in your camera or insert the card into your computer's card reader before running your data recovery application of choice. That said, you can find other applications, like Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery (original post), that are focused specifically on image recovery that you may want to add to your data recovery toolbox.

Recover Lost Word Documents

If your lost dissertation was saved as a Word document, you've got a few more interesting options for getting to your lost or deleted documents—read more about them here and here.

Recover Data from Scratched or Corrupted CDs and DVDs

If your munged data is sitting on optical media like a CD or DVD, the recovery process can be slightly different. Freeware application CD Recovery Toolbox (original post) is made specifically to read the portions of a CD that are readable in an effort to rescue as much data as possible from a damaged disc. If that doesn't work, you may want to give a look at the 30-day trial of shareware application CDCheck, as recommended by a reader. Then again, if scratches are the issue, you may be able to get away with simply fixing your scratched CD or DVD yourself.

Part 3: Don't Let This Happen Again

Whatever the cause of your lost file, the best method of data recovery is a good preemptive data backup plan. If you're on Windows, we've taken you step-by-step through how to automatically back up your hard drive so that this sort of thing never happens again. If you're running a Mac, do yourself a favor: Get an external hard drive and flip the switch on the easy-to-use Time Machine. Linux users should check out backup options like FlyBack, TimeVault, or the time-honored rsync.

Have you ever raised deleted files from the hard drive graveyard? What software did you use to do it? Tell us your tales of file recovery victory and woe in the comments.

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who early in life learned to love the backup. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

New service tracks missing laptops for free

2008-07-15T19:43:55Z

Lose your laptop these days and you lose part of your life: You say good-bye to photos, music, and personal documents that cannot be replaced, and if...

Obsolescence

2008-07-14T17:09:46Z

It’s sad, but true, that sometimes you just don’t need things anymore. Even in fiction. I won’t spoil anything about this very well-written story, so just go read it. It’s short; it’ll only take you a few minutes.

I wrote a story some years ago with a similar idea, but it was pretty bad. Some day I’ll dust it off, tighten it (way) up, and do something with it. Some day.

Tip o’ the tin foil beanie to Larry Klaes.

How do you pronounce kilometer?

2008-07-14T02:37:27Z

When I was in Canada, it was really cool to see everyone using the metric system. But what made me a little nuts was how everyone pronounced the word kilometer. Is it kil-AW-meter or KILL-o-meter?

I make my case for the latter in the video below. If you disagree with me, then I can state quite objectively and maturely that you are wrong wrong wrong.

When I was giving my first talk in Canada I actually mentioned this, and got a lot of applause from right-thinking people. The others were strangely (ominously?) silent. Perhaps they were tuning up their kill-o-meters.

Note: in the video I use the spelling decameter. I have seen it as dekameter as well, and in some dictionaries it says decameter is the old way to spell it. Well, maybe. I still like it, so I used it. If I can rant about pronunciation, I can rant about spelling, too.

Top 10 Best Free Online AntiVirus Programs

2008-07-09T16:37:11Z

Virus!

One of the most feared and often highly misrepresented term of computer terminology. The root of ALL evils, at least many think so. I have seen many long time computer users linking all sorts of hardware and software troubles and crashes to so-called viruses in their system. But it is not so.

What actually are AntiViruses ?

Too Simple a question, who doesn’t know the answer. But technically…

Antivirus software are computer programs that attempt to identify, neutralize or eliminate malicious software. The term "antivirus" is used because the earliest examples were designed exclusively to combat computer viruses; however most modern antivirus software is now designed to combat a wide range of threats, including worms, phishing attacks, rootkits, trojan horses and other malware. Antivirus software typically uses two different approaches to accomplish this:

examining (scanning) files to look for known viruses matching definitions in a virus dictionary, and
identifying suspicious behavior from any computer program which might indicate infection.

As you must have used many Antivirus programs, we are not talking about them in this post. There are the merits and demerits of all of them. But one thing is for sure. No Antivirus is perfect. By the very nature of their working principle, Antivirus invent the process of cleaning a virus only after a virus is born. And this gap, between invention of a virus and its vaccine decides the effectiveness of an anti virus software.

Here comes the role of Free Online Antivirus Programs.

How Online Anti virus programs help ?

Once it is established that no Anti virus program is perfect, then it is sometimes better to apply double protection, meaning that you you two anti virus programs to scan your PC. But you cannot (or rather should not) use two anti virus programs simultaneously on one machine. So, why not try using free online antivirus programs. So that is the reason of writing this post.

Here we introduce you to 10 best online free anti virus scan utilities, which you can use absolutely FREE.

Trend Micro HouseCall 6.6 Free Scan: HouseCall is a FREE Web-based tool designed to scan your PC for a wide range of Internet security threats including viruses, worms, Trojans, and spyware. It also detects system vulnerabilities and provides a link so you can easily download missing security patches. After each scan, HouseCall delivers a detailed report, which identifies security threats detected on your computer.
Panda ActiveScan: Panda ActiveScan 2.0 detects all types of viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, dialers, hacking tools, jokes, and other active or inactive (latent) security risks on your PC. It also detects vulnerabilities of software installed on your PC which could compromise your computer’s security. You can use Panda ActiveScan 2.0 whenever you want to make sure that your PC is free from all types of threats. Also, if you are registered or have bought the paid version you will be able to disinfect the threats that ActiveScan 2.0 finds on your PC.
Computer Associates Virus Scanner: This scanner requires a browser such as Internet Explorer which is capable of rendering ActiveX objects.
Symantec Security Check: Virus Detection checks for known threats, including top threats identified by Symantec Security Response. It provides an analysis of your results and offers suggestions for further action. It does not examine compressed files. In order to run Virus Detection you must be using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher with ActiveX and Scripting enabled.
McAfee FreeScan: McAfee FreeScan helps you detect thousands of viruses on your computer. Based on the award-winning McAfee VirusScan engine, FreeScan searches for viruses, including the latest known "in the wild" viruses, and displays a detailed list of any infected files. Should viruses be found, FreeScan even provides links to more information about the viruses and what you can do to clean your system.
BitDefender Free Online Virus Scan: BitDefender Online Scanner is an on-demand virus scanner which incorporates the award-winning BitDefender scanning engines. You can use it to scan your system’s memory, all files and drives’ boot sectors, and to automatically clean infected files. It is also ActiveX based. Requires Internet Explorer.
ESET Online Scanner: A user-friendly, powerful tool, our online antivirus utility can remove malware—viruses, spyware, adware, worms, trojans, and more—from any PC utilizing only a web browser. No installation required. The scanner uses the same ThreatSense® technology and signatures as ESET NOD32 Antivirus, which means it is always up-to-date.
Free Virus Scan - Kaspersky Lab: This free online virus scanner is a great way to find out if you have any viruses or spyware on your machine without having to uninstall your current antivirus software or install a new one. Most importantly, you can see what viruses your current antivirus software let slip through. It is stated that this free online virus scanner is very powerful and scans your machine very deeply, so it could take hours to complete. We suggest running it during a time of low activity.
F-Secure Free Online Virus Scanner: F-Secure Online Virus Scanner (version 3.3) is a free service. Use it to find out if your computer is infected, and disinfect your computer if needed. The product will automatically download the necessary components and virus definition databases as it is started. The size of the download package is about 35 MB incl. databases
Authentium :: Command-On-Demand - Free Virus Scanner: Authentium Command On Demand is a highly-effective, totally free virus scanner. Command on Demand scans for more than half a million Internet threats, using definition files that are updated daily.

Cosmic Monster - N44 by Don Goldman

2008-07-13T01:02:40Z

Deep in the large Magellanic Cloud a 325 light-year sized cosmic monster is born. Its open maw spans some 250 light years across, and from it spews massive particle winds. Held in its glowing gas jaws could be the expanding shells of old supernovae and it has even coughed forth hot X-ray emitting gas. What exactly is this wide-mouthed creature? Step inside…

(...)
Read the rest of Cosmic Monster - N44 by Don Goldman (866 words)

© Tammy Plotner for Universe Today, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
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ZoneAlarm updated after Microsoft's DNS patch

2008-07-13T03:20:57Z

On Thursday, Check Point Software Technologies released updated versions of all its ZoneAlarm products, addressing an incompatibility with a patch...

StarGazer's Telescope - Last Dance With Mars

2008-07-09T15:01:57Z

Have you ever wondered what it was like to look through a real telescope? Tired of being clouded out night after night and would be happy with a look through any telescope? After all the exciting news we've heard about Mars, I thought it might be fun to let you take a look through a small telescope and see what Mars really looks like - flaws and all.

(...)
Read the rest of StarGazer's Telescope - Last Dance With Mars (287 words)

© Tammy Plotner for Universe Today, 2008. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
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Help with printer problems

2008-07-08T17:06:05Z

A printer is a peripheral that almost everybody has. It is also a peripheral prone to problems. A useful site to consult when your printer is acting up is http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/. They’re in the business of selling printer repair kits but there is also a forum for posting questions about printer troubles.

Find Who Has Access to Your Gmail Account

2008-07-07T21:48:00Z

After years of testing, Gmail has finally added a very useful security feature: tracking open sessions. If you log in to Gmail from more than one computer and you forget to sign out, you'll be able to see the list of locations where your account can still be accessed.

Until now, the only solution when you forgot to log out from Gmail after using a public computer was to change your password. Otherwise, anyone could access your account without knowing the password. Now you can sign out remotely from all the locations where your Gmail account is still open.

If you click on "Details" in Gmail's footer, you'll find a lot of interesting information about your sessions. "The top table, under Concurrent session information, indicates all open sessions, along with IP address and access type -- which refers to how email was retrieved, for example, through iGoogle, POP3 or a mobile phone. The bottom table, under Recent activity, contains my most recent history along with times of access. I can also view my current IP address at the very bottom of this window, where it says This computer is using IP address...".

This could be useful if you want to find whether someone else has access to your account: you'll be able to find the IP address and the date of the most recent activity in your account.

Gmail's blog mentions that this feature is currently being rolled out in the new version of Gmail, so you may not see it right now. Google AdSense, PayPal and orkut are three other services that show the time of your last login so you can protect against abuse, but Gmail's new feature is much more advanced.

Among the things you can do to protect your Gmail account, it's a good idea to sign out after reading your email, not to select "remember me" when you log in from a public computer and to choose a good password that should remain secret.

FreeCalc: A Better Calculator for Windows

2008-07-04T06:00:00Z

Microsoft bundles a default calculator with the computer so that you can work with basic calculations on your PC. The software in itself is pretty good but lacks several features.

Though there are several advanced calculators we like to stick with a basic one with few additional features. Moffsoft FreeCalc is one such software that provides you with several new features, including providing you with a history of what you have typed to compute on the right hand side, so you know exactly where your calculation is heading.

Though the functionality is almost similar the features is what makes FreeCalc much better than the regular Microsoft Calculator.

FreeCalc Features

Adjustable calculator size - Make it any size you want and Moffsoft FreeCalc will remember the size and position next time you use it.
Tape - Save, print, or clear the simulated paper history tape.
Color schemes - Select a color combination or use your Windows color settings.
New keys - Clear Tape {CT}, double zero {00}, triple zero {000}, and memory subtract {M-} keys have been added.
Visible memory value - You’ll always know what’s in memory because it’s displayed on the calculator status bar.
Option settings - Flat buttons, always on top, tray icon, run on startup, and hiding the tape are some of the calculator options.
Digit groupings - Number groupings for easy to read numbers.
International support - Digit grouping and decimal point characters change based on your regional settings.
Tray icon - Turn on the tray icon for quick and easy access.

Download Moffsoft FreeCalc [Via MintyWhite]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Calculator,Calculator,Moffsoft FreeCalc,FreeCalc

© Keith Dsouza for Techie Buzz, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us

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Master Your Digital Media with VLC

2008-07-01T16:00:00Z

Cross-platform media player VLC is often referred to as the "Swiss Army knife of media applications" for good reason: Not only does VLC play nearly any file you throw at it (you even voted it the best desktop media player), but it can do so much more. From ripping DVDs to converting files to iPod-friendly formats, let's take a look at the four coolest things you can do with VLC and start you on your way to becoming a VLC ninja. Photo by R'eyes.

NOTE: Many of these VLC tricks use the same dialogs, so rather than repeat the same steps every time, I'll be doing a thorough step-by-step once and then highlighting only the differences in the subsequent mini-guides. I'm using Windows in most of my examples, but since VLC is cross-platform, most of the same tricks should work just as well on any platform. VLC has a Streaming and Transcoding Wizard that's supposed to make this process even easier, but it's been buggy for me in all my tests, so I decided to go with the slightly more difficult method detailed below.

Rip Any DVD

You may have thought that you needed some fancy DVD ripping tools to rip DVDs to your hard drive, but VLC can actually rip any DVD with ease. As reader joelena pointed out, since VLC plays the DVD in order to encode it, it can bypass any copy protection. Here's how it works:

Open the Disc and Find the Correct Title: Insert your DVD and open it with File -> Open Disc. We need to find the right title to rip from the DVD, so at this point we're going to preview titles from the disc one by one. To do this, start with 0 as your title number and increment one number at a time until you find the title you want to rip. I've found it's quicker if you choose DVD rather than DVD (menus) at the top of the Open dialog so you only have to wade through actual video.
Pick a Folder to Save the Rip and Name It: Now that you've find the right track, you just need to tell VLC that you want to save it. To do so, tick the Stream/Save checkbox, then click Settings. Here you need to tell VLC where to save the file, so tick the File checkbox and pick a folder to save it to and then give it a name (e.g., My DVD Rip.mpg).
Determine Video and Audio Settings: Now you're ready to tweak the final settings before it's time to rip. Tick the Video codec and Audio codec, then choose the output codecs you prefer. This is really up to you, and if you don't have a preference I've had good results using the defaults described in this excellent VLC rip guide: mp1v for the video codec and mp3 for audio. If you need a specific file format for a mobile device, you may want to choose a difference encapsulation method and codec. Hit OK when you're done.
Rip Away: You've made it. Just hit OK again (make sure Stream/Save is checked) and it should start ripping.

VLC will rip the DVD faster than real-time playback, and you can follow the ripping process in the corner of the VLC window.

Convert Any Video for Your iPod or iPhone with a Drag and Drop Batch Script

If you regularly convert files to a specific file format—say, for your iPod—you can set up a batch file with VLC that will make video conversions as easy as dragging and dropping the to-be-converted file onto the script.

Create a new text file and save it as VLC Converter.bat. Make sure your filesystem is showing file extensions so you aren't saving it as a text file (you don't want to end up with something like VLC Converter.bat.txt). You need to make sure it's saving with the BAT extension.

If you were building the script from scratch, at this point you'd open up the file you just created and paste "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" %1 in the first line. Now you need to get the command line options that describe how VLC should convert the file. For that, you can use the text generated by the Target textbox at the top of the Stream/Save Settings window described in steps two and three of the DVD ripping guide above, which displays the command line options you need for your batch file. Luckily a user at the iPod forums at iLounge already put together a VLC batch conversion script for iPods, so we can just use those settings, which look like this:

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" %1 :sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=1024,scale=1,height=240,width=320,acodec=mp4a,ab=128,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=%1.mp4}}

That's a lot of text, but it's just telling VLC everything you would normally tell it in the Settings dialog. The %1 variable will be replaced by the name of the file you drop on the script. Copy and paste all of that text (and only that text) into your batch file and save it. That's all there is to it. Next time you have a video file you want to convert for your iPod, just drag and drop it on your newly created batch script. The script was built specifically for converting videos to an iPod-compatible format, but you can build your own scripts to do virtually common conversions you want.

Stream Media to Other Computers

Now that you're using VLC to rip your DVDs, you've got gigabyte after gigabyte of your videos on your desktop. Rather than copying all of those files to any other computer you'd like to play them on, VLC allows you to stream video over your network or even over the internet.

First, go to File -> Open File. Browse to the file you'd like to stream, and then—like above—tick the Stream/Save checkbox and click Settings. This time, rather than outputting the stream as a file, we're going to tick the UDP box and enter the local IP address of the computer you'd like to stream to. On Windows, you can find your computer's local IP address by opening the command prompt (Win-R, type cmd, and hit Enter), and then type ipconfig and hit Enter.

Once you've got that, enter it in the computer you're streaming from in the text box next to the UDP checkbox you just enabled. Hit OK to accept your settings, then OK again to finish the setup. While you're still on the streaming computer, go to Settings -> Add Interface -> Web Interface.

Now it's time to start the stream on your other computer, and doing so is a breeze. Just open VLC on your second computer, go to File -> Open Network Stream, and—assuming the UDP choice is selected and the port matches the port you used in the setup above (unless you changed it, they should both default to 1234), just hit OK to start the stream.

You're presented with a slight problem streaming the video using VLC this way, namely that you can't control the playback from the remote VLC interface. Luckily you already enabled the web interface, so on the computer you're streaming to, open a web browser and point it to the VLC web interface. If you're streaming over a local network, find your streaming computer's IP address the same way you did with the remote computer's address above, then enter it into your browser with port 8080 appended to the end. Mine looks like http://192.168.1.2:8080. Through the web interface on the remote computer, you can control all of VLC's playback. Handy, huh?

You can stream video over the internet and not just over your local network, but you'll need to either have a static external IP address or assign a domain name to your computer to do so easily. For more details on streaming with VLC, check out Engadget's previous guide.

Play Ripped DVDs

If you prefer keeping ripped DVDs entirely in tact with you rip them to your computer, VLC may not be your tool of choice for ripping. Instead I'd recommend an alternate ripping tool like our one-click DVD ripping solution DVD Rip or one of the other DVD ripping methods we've covered in the past. Once you've ripped the full DVD to your hard, VLC comes in handy once again to play that ripped DVD, menus and all.

We've highlighted how to play full ripped DVDs with VLC before, but for an even easier solution, check out DVD Play, a Lifehacker Code original that works as a more attractive front end to playing back full DVD rips with VLC.

We've really only scratched the surface of all the awesome things you can do with VLC, so if you've got a favorite VLC technique of your own (or even favorite encoding settings), let's hear about it in the comments.

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who practices his VLC kung-fu regularly. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Free Replacement for Windows Media Player

2008-07-05T08:15:05Z

Sick of Window's bloated media player with all its security problems and digital rights management issues? Then check out these three free media players recommended by our editors. Each one is a gem.