Best Reviews

Google Wave Invite For Sale For 1.50 $ each

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:39:00 +0000

All About Neobux

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:54:00 +0000

First of all I am writing this post because I haven't written anything from a long time lol!!This is a bit kind of informative post and will be helpful to all newbie on the neobux.Let me first give you the basic details of about the neobux.

Payout processor : AlertPay, Paypal
Minimum PTC : $0.01/$0.015 (This refers to the value you earn to click)
Minimum payout : $2.00 (Minimum balance in your account to request cashout)
Referral Commission: 1 Level $0.005/ $0.01
Payout duration: INSTANT PAYMENT!!!!

Level 1 means that the people which are direct refferals to you(not the refferals of your refferal).Ya,the site pays you instantly 100% of the time It has a very good payment system supports the two payment processors Alertpay and Paypal It pays in U.S. Dollars. It is the one of the most trusted sites after bux.to(in its early career) but bux.to has now almost failed and is about to become scam.Neobux has substain cheaters,hackers and autoclicker over the period of time.

Neobux has three type of memberships available.

1. Standard Membership: Every member when registered gain this membership.You get 4-5 ads daily in this membership.You get 0.01 $ to 0.015 $ for each ad that you click.You get 0.005 cent for each ad your refferal click.You can either get refferals when they click on your banner and register or put your username in the referer box when they register.These refferals are called yor Direct refferals they remain with you for lifetime unless there account is terminated due to inactivity or some other reason.You can also rent refferals on neobux.The rate for renting refferals for 30 days is 0.30 $/per refferal.Its hard to make profit when you are standard.I will recommend you to go for golden when you have about 2000 refferals.

2. Golden Membership: You can upgrade to golden membership,the charge to upgrade for golden is 90$/per year.When you pay 90$ you become a golden member for 1 year.There comes handful of benefits with this membership.You will get 14-15 ads daily in this membership.You get 0.01 $ for your each click and 0.01 $ for your refferal each click.In addtion to these you will get a 10% of direct purchase of your direct/rented refferals,which means that if your refferal do direct purchase of 100$ you will get 10$ automatically.You can rent each refferal for a month(30 days) for only 0.27$.

3.Ultimate Membership: You can only upgrade to ultimate when you are already golden,the charrge of upgrade is 810$/per year.You will get 24-25 ads daily in this membership.You get 0.01$ for your each click and 0.01$ for your refferals each click.In addtion you get 50 % of the direct purchase of your direct/rented refferals. You can rent each refferal for a month(30 days)for only 0.24 $.You also get two other facilities also one is rental queue and the other is vacation mode.

There are other types of memberships also other than these three. So,for More Information Enlarge this image and see

NeoBux is Most trusted and number 1 website in PTC Bussiness But some people still have doubt About it So I am posting some of the payment Proof here

Note: I will extend ths post later with more useful information.Constructive criticism and comments are heartily invited.

My plugin for multiclicker - Aditya

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:13:00 +0000

MY PLUGINS FOR MULTICLICKER-ADITYA

MagiBux24/03.2009
Here
Jaymans Freebie World 24/03.2009
Here
TrafficLeaderBux 24/03.2009
Here
Bux Junction 24/03.2009
Here
EurekaBux 24/03.2009
Here
MegaBux.Brazil 24/03.2009
Here
DutchBux 24/03.2009
Here
BuxPut 24/03.2009
Here
CherryBucks 24/03.2009
Here

Package 1 11/04/2009

Contain 18 plugins of sites

[Register under author by Clicking on the name]

BuxBaruch

BuxBox

BuxIndo

Bux-o

Clichispano

CordobaPtc

DutchBux

Earn

EdgeBux

FluffyBux

KlikBux

KlikPtc

Klik-Uang

KosovaBux.Net

MoneyBux

OnlyBux

SecurePayBux

Top.a-bux

Download Package 1 HERE

Download more plugins here
Note:See The amazing site payee.me Instant Payments For More details click here

Payee.me an awesome site

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:59:00 +0000

Payee.me

Look Guys It is an awesome site and a new revolution in PTC world .
I gave you some reasons to join this site :
1. It has Instant payments.
2. It has no minimum payouts.
3. It allows you to make multiple accounts from one IP address.
4. It allow chinese members.
5. It accepts alertpay.
6. There is no limit on ads served, you can get as many as 80 ads per day, some day.
7. It gives you 1 cent per your click and 0.5 cents per refferal click.

My Payment Proof(31st March 2009):
Click for larger view

I invested $ 2 and earn $ 3.30 in just 10 days

Requirements :

All you need is to have a minimum 2 $ in your alertpay account to begin your success story.
I can give you some awesome tricks(may be i can give u some automated method(no guarentee/warentee)) and tips (these offer are till 1 april 2009 untill further news)to make profit here,CONDITION YOU MUST REGISTER AS MY REFFERAL HERE OR USING ABOVE BANNER OR TYPE dushyant267 IN REFERER BOX.
use the below form to contact me (don't forget to give your username that will appear in my refferal list and your correct email id through which i will contact you)

Thanks

Solid Ways Of Making Online Money

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:36:00 +0000

Here I am listing some of the solid ways of making money which I can surely suggest that you should join and start earning today these all ways(information) are based my exprience of making online money from past 15 months.

Here we go:-

1. Adbrite:
If you are interested in blogging or you are already on blogger,wordpress or typepad and your blog is popular and you are get 1000-2000 visitors everyday or having a google page rank of 2-3 then i suggest you join Adbrite for motesizing your site you can make from 1-2 $ of real money everyday.

You can join adbrite here.

2.NeoBux:
It is the most trusted site in PTC bussiness(Paid to click Sites) and I can gaurrente you that you can make a good amount of money through this site. On this site,you get 4-5 ads daily ,which you have to view for 30 seconds and 1 cent is credited in your account per ads respectively.Remember,you cannot view more then one add at a time.

You can join NeoBux here.

3.LinkWorth:
It is a site that sells text ads ,ads in your text and various other type of ads.
Condition: You must have your own site or blog first .
You can become its partner and start selling the ads on your site.They have got flat rate system which means that you will get a fixed amount of money per month for the ad which you are selling on your site. You have two types of partner system on this site one is normal partner and the other is preffered partner. Normal Partner has 70/30 split ratio which means that is the advertiser is giving 100 $ for a ad then you will get 70 dollars and linkworth will get 30 $ .In preffered partner, there is 50/50 split raiton which means that you will get for 100$ payment by the advertiser you will get 50$ and linkworth will get 50$ .I will recommend that you join as preffered partner because it has certaing advantages such as they(linkworth staff) will list your blog/site in a higher ranking sites which will help you get more ads and an ad for a longer duration.

You can join linkworth here.

4. RupeeMail :
RuppeMail is another good way to Earn Money.They are for Indian residents only.They generally pay you 25 paise per mail.You have to give your mail address, they will send you mails you will get money for viewing the mails.

Join here........

5. Scour :

It is search engine service which pays you for every search you do on scour.The procedure is that you have to search,vote or comment on any search to win points and then you convert your points to money.If you will join under me than I can give you a working auto searcher(that will do searches automatically for you.Just run the exe file and let it increase your points/money) to you,Just join under me and send me you username(name through which you have signed under me) and i will mail you the auto searcher Don't froget to mention your mail address..
Mail me your details on 6103438@gmail.com.

Join here

Note: This post is not yet complete .I will edit and expand this post soon.

My plugin for multiclicker - sendtods

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:02:00 +0000

Donation for Plugins Development

ALERTPAY

PAYPAL

Condition for getting plugins who's links are not given here: You should be either my refferal or donate 1 $ on the above account.....and send me PM(private message) here with your name that will appear in my refferal list (or amount that you have donated and the mail address from which you have donated in case of donation)and the mail address on which plugin is to be sent.(send the proof in PM if you have donated).

Some Knowledge:
How to check anti-cheaters link number see this photo:
Click to enlarge

Note:Payee.me is awesome site i will be soon posting its proof for instant payements for more details => click here

Download Aditya's Plugins From here
Here is the list of my plugins....

DualBux.com

[News:Site has Gen2Script,plugin not available]
Publish Date:12/12/2008
Last check: 14/12/2008
Last update: 12/12/2008
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat)
status:working(pay instantly to standard member)
refer me here:referer= sendtods
or by registering through this link:
http://www.dualbux.com/?r=sendtods

Wordofbux.com
Publish Date:12/12/2008
Last check:17/12/2008
Last update: 17/12/2008
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat)
status:working[1$ payout limit]
refer me here : referer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:
http://www.worldofbux.com/register.php?r=sendtods

Clickmybux.com
Publish Date:07/12/2008
Last check:07/12/2008
Last update: 07/12/2008
Cheat link=Yes.(Keep an eye on it)
If it changes report in to me here
status:working
refer me here : referer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:
http://www.clickmybux.com/register.php?r=sendtods
Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://ed739304.linkbucks.com

BeanyBux.com
Publish Date:07/12/2008
Last check:16/12/2008
Last update: 16/12/2008[Cheat link changed]
Cheat link=Yes.(Keep an eye on it)
If it changes report in to me here
status:working
refer me here : referer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:
http://www.beanybux.com/?r=sendtods

Thegoldsafe.com
Publish Date:16/12/2008
Last check:16/12/2008
Last update: 16/12/2008
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat link)
status:working
refer me here : referer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:
http://www.thegoldsafe.com/?r=sendtods
Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://4d573a74.linkbucks.com

Oldschoolbux.com(Now OsoBux.com)[Not working Now]
Publish Date:16/12/2008
Last check:16/12/2008
Last update: 16/12/2008
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat link)
status:working
refer me here : referer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:
http://www.oldschoolbux.com/?r=sendtods

FeelBux.com
Publish Date:17/12/2008
Last check:17/12/2008
Last update: 17/12/2008
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat link)
status:working (payout $5 and .125 $ per click for standard members)
refer me here : referer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:
http://feelbux.com/register.php?r=sendtods
Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://22a0111e.linkbucks.com

BuxHits.com
Publish Date:18/12/2008
Last check:18/12/2008
Last update: 18/12/2008
status:working (ads 30+ daily,payout $10 and .01 $ per click,only pays to premium )
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat link)
Refer me here : referer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:

http://www.buxhits.com/?r=sendtods

Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://4f7d7216.linkbucks.com
Premium Members:
http://88ea4416.linkbucks.com

Hawkinsbux.com
Publish Date:18/12/2008
Last check:18/12/2008
Last update: 18/12/2008
Cheat link=Yes.(Keep an eye on it)
If it changes report in to me here
status:working (payout $5 and .01 $ per click,Pays within 24 hrs)
Refer me here : referrer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:

http://www.hawkinsbux.com/?r=sendtods

Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://b793828d.linkbucks.com
Premium Members:
http://7f2f304c.linkbucks.com

Incrasebux.com
Publish Date:20/12/2008
Last check:20/12/2008
Last update: 20/12/2008
status:working ($3.99 payout,pay within 2-10 days(they say that))
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat link)
Refer me here : referer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:

http://incrasebux.com/?r=sendtods

Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://27bef0a6.thesefiles.com
Premium Members:
http://4b61a0b8.linkbucks.com

Dailycent.com
Publish Date:23/12/2008
Last check:25/12/2008
Last update: 25/12/2008
status:working ($2.00 payout)
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat link)
Refer me here : referer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:

http://dailycent.com/?r=sendtods

Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://8ed0d36f.thesefiles.com
Premium Members:
http://78fa9fc2.linkbucks.com

Mainbux.com
Publish Date:23/12/2008
Last check:23/12/2008
Last update: 23/12/2008
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat link)
status:working (payout $6.99)
Refer me here : referrer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:

http://mainbux.com/index.php?r=sendtods

Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://b0492c7d.linkbucks.com

BuxCL.com
Publish Date:26/12/2008
Last check:26/12/2008
Last update: 26/12/2008
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat link)
status:working (payout $10.00)
Refer me here : referrer = sendtods
or by registering through this link:

http://www.buxcl.com/?r=sendtods

Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://aa7c345b.thesefiles.com

MalBux.com
Publish Date:01/01/2009
Last check:01/01/2009
Last update: 01/01/2009
Cheat link=No.(Not have any cheat link)
status:working (payout $10.00)
Refer me here : referrer = dushyant267
or by registering through this link:

http://www.malbux.com/register.php?r=dushyant267

Download Link :
Standard Members:
http://7524824a.thesefiles.com

Information:

Hi all, this site Neobux pays to every single standard member and is the most trusted and secure site....have fast payouts if you have not registered, register under my refferal plz refer=dushyant267
or by clicking on this banner

Note:http://www.seriouxclickers.com is scam Beleive me.They will delete your account when you will almost reach a cashout.

Tutorial- Regular expression.

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Navigation

This tutorial is just one big HTML file, with a few graphics used along the way. Just scroll down to read it. Printing may break some lessons in the middle--but then, you didn't pay much to get this.

Who is this tutorial for?

This tutorial is aimed at users and programmers who have begun to work with tools that use regular expressions, but who are not quite comfortable with the intricacies of them. Even users who may have used regular expressions in the past, but have forgotten some of the details can benefit from this as a refresher.

After completing this tutorial you will not yet be an expert in using regular expressions to best advantage. But this tutorial combined with lots of practice with varying cases is about all you need to be an expert. The concepts of regular expressions are extremely simple and powerful. . . it is their application that takes some work.

Just what is a regular expression anyway?

Read the tutorial to get the long answer. The short answer is that a regular expression is a compact way of describing complex patterns in texts. You can use them to search for patterns and, once found, to modify the patterns in complex ways. They can also be used to launch programmatic actions that depend on patterns.

A tongue-in-cheek comment by programmers is worth thinking about: "Sometimes you have a programming problem and it seems like the best solution is to use regular expressions; now you have two problems." Regular expressions are amazingly powerful and deeply expressive. That is the very reason writing them is just as error-prone as writing any other complex programming code. It is always better to solve a genuinely simple problem in a simple way; when you go beyond simple, think about regular expressions.

What tools use regular expressions?

A large number of tools incorporate regular expressions as part of their functionality. Unix-oriented command line tools like grep, sed, and awk are mostly wrapper for regular expression processing. Many text editors allow search and/or replacement based on regular expressions. Many programming languages, especially scripting languages such as Perl, Python, and TCL, build regular expressions into the heart of the language. Even most command-line shells, such as Bash or the Windows-console allow restricted regular expressions as part of their command syntax.

There are a few variations in regular expression syntax between different tools that use them. Some tools add enhanced capabilities that are not available everywhere. In general, for the simplest cases, this tutorial will use examples based around grep or sed. For a few more exotic capabilities, Perl or Python examples will be chosen. For the most part, examples will work anywhere; but check the documentation on your own tool for syntax variations and capabilities.

Note on presentation

For purposes of presenting examples in this tutorial, regular expressions described will be surrounded by forward slashes. This style of delimiting regular expressions is used by sed, awk, perl and other tools. For instance, an example might mention:

/[A-Z]+(abc|xyz)*/

Read ahead to understand this example, for now just understand that the actual regular expression is everything between the slashes.

Many examples will be accompanied by an illustration that shows a regular expression, and a text that is highlighted for every match on that expression.

Matching Patterns in Text: The Basics

Character literals


/a/

Mary had a little lamb.
And everywhere that Mary
went, the lamb was sure
to go.

/Mary/

Mary had a little lamb.
And everywhere that Mary
went, the lamb was sure
to go.

The very simplest pattern matched by a regular expression is a literal character or a sequence of literal characters. Anything in the target text that consists of exactly those characters in exactly the order listed will match. A lower case character is not identical with its upper case version, and vice versa. A space in a regular expression, by the way, matches a literal space in the target (this is unlike most programming languages or command-line tools, where spaces separate keywords).

"Escaped" characters literals


/.*/

Special characters must be escaped.*

/\.\*/
Special characters must be escaped.*

A number of characters have special meanings to regular expressions. A symbol with a special meaning can be matched, but to do so you must prefix it with the backslash character (this includes the backslash character itself: to match one backslash in the target, your regular expression should include "\\").

Positional special characters


/^Mary/

Mary had a little lamb.
And everywhere that Mary
went, the lamb was sure
to go.

/Mary$/

Mary had a little lamb.
And everywhere that Mary
went, the lamb was sure
to go.

Two special characters are used in almost all regular expression tools to mark the beginning and end of a line: caret (^) and dollarsign ($). To match a caret or dollarsign as a literal character, you must escape it (i.e. precede it by a backslash "\").

An interesting thing about the caret and dollarsign is that they match zero-width patterns. That is the length of the string matched by a caret or dollarsign by itself is zero (but the rest of the regular expression can still depend on the zero-width match). Many regular expression tools provide another zero-width pattern for word-boundary (\b). Words might be divided by whitespace like spaces, tabs, newlines, or other characters like nulls; the word-boundary pattern matches the actual point where a word starts or ends, not the particular whitespace characters.

The "wildcard" character


/.a/ 

Mary had a little lamb.
And everywhere that Mary
went, the lamb was sure
to go.

In regular expressions, a period can stand for any character. Normally, the newline character is not included, but most tools have optional switches to force inclusion of the newline character also. Using a period in a pattern is a way of requiring that "something" occurs here, without having to decide what.

Users who are familiar with DOS command-line wildcards will know the question-mark as filling the role of "some character" in command masks. But in regular expressions, the question-mark has a different meaning, and the period is used as a wildcard.

Grouping regular expressions


/(Mary)( )(had)/ 

Mary had a little lamb.
And everywhere that Mary
went, the lamb was sure
to go.

A regular expression can have literal characters in it, and also zero-width positional patterns. Each literal character or positional pattern is an atom in a regular expression. You may also group several atoms together into a small regular expression that is part of a larger regular expression. One might be inclined to call such a grouping a "molecule," but normally it is also called an atom.

In older Unix-oriented tools like grep, subexpressions must be grouped with escaped parentheses, e.g. /$Mary$/. In Perl and most more recent tools (including egrep), grouping is done with bare parentheses, but matching a literal parenthesis requires escaping it in the pattern (the example to the side follows Perl).

Character classes


/[a-z]a/ 

Mary had a little lamb.
And everywhere that Mary
went, the lamb was sure
to go.

Rather than name only a single character, you can include a pattern in a regular expression that matches any of a set of characters.

A set of characters can be given as a simple list inside square brackets, e.g. /[aeiou]/ will match any single lowercase vowel. For letter or number ranges you may also use only the first and last letter of a range, with a dash in the middle, e.g. /[A-Ma-m]/ will match any lowercase or uppercase in the first half of the alphabet.

Many regular expression tools also provide escape-style shortcuts to the most commonly used character class, such as \s for a whitespace character and \d for a digit. You could always define these character classes with square brackets, but the shortcuts can make regular expressions more compact and more readable.

Complement operator


/[^a-z]a/ 

Mary had a little lamb.
And everywhere that Mary
went, the lamb was sure
to go.

The caret symbol can actually have two different meanings in regular expressions. Most of the time, it means to match the zero-length pattern for line beginnings. But if it is used at the beginning of a character class, it reverses the meaning of the character class. Everything not included in the listed character set is matched.

Alternation of patterns


/cat|dog|bird/

The pet store sold cats, dogs, and birds.

/=first|second=/

=first first= # =second second= # =first= # =second=

/(=)(first)|(second)(=)/

=first first= # =second second= # =first= # =second=

/=(first|second)=/

=first first= # =second second= # =first= # =second=

Using character classes is a way of indicating that either one thing or another thing can occur in a particular spot. But what if you want to specify that either of two whole subexpressions occur in a position in the regular expression? For that, you use the alternation operator, the vertical bar ("|"). This is the symbol that is also used to indicate a pipe in Unix/DOS shells, and is sometimes called the pipe character.

The pipe character in a regular expression indicates an alternation between everything in the group enclosing it. What this means is that even if there are several groups to the left and right of a pipe character, the alternation greedily asks for everything on both sides. To select the scope of the alternation, you must define a group that encompasses the patterns that may match. The example illustrates this.

The basic abstract quantifier


/@(=+=)*@/ 

Match with zero in the middle: @@
Subexpresion occurs, but...: @=+=ABC@
Lots of occurrences: @=+==+==+==+==+=@
Must repeat entire pattern: @=+==+=+==+=@

One of the most powerful and common things you can do with regular expressions is to specify how many times an atom occurs in a complete regular expression. Sometimes you want to specify something about the occurrence of a single character, but very often you are interested in specifying the occurrence of a character class or a grouped subexpression.

There is only one quantifier included with "basic" regular expression syntax, the asterisk ("*"); in English this has the meaning "some or none" or "zero or more." If you want to specify that any number of an atom may occur as part of a pattern, follow the atom by an asterisk.

Without quantifiers, grouping expressions doesn't really serve as much purpose, but once we can add a quantifier to a subexpression we can say something about the occurrence of the subexpression as a whole. Take a look at the example.

Matching Patterns in Text: Intermediate

More abstract quantifiers


/A+B*C?D/

AAAD
ABBBBCD
BBBCD
ABCCD
AAABBBC

In a certain way, the lack of any quantifier symbol after an atom quantifies the atom anyway: it says the atom occurs exactly once. Extended regular expressions (which most tools support) add a few other useful numbers to "once exactly" and "zero or more times." The plus-sign ("+") means "one or more times" and the question-mark ("?") means "zero or one times." These quantifiers are by far the most common enumerations you wind up naming.

If you think about it, you can see that the extended regular expressions do not actually let you "say" anything the basic ones do not. They just let you say it in a shorter and more readable way. For example, "(ABC)+" is equivalent to "(ABC)(ABC)*"; and "X(ABC)?Y" is equivalent to "XABCY|XY". If the atoms being quantified are themselves complicated grouped subexpressions, the question-mark and plus-sign can make things a lot shorter.

Numeric quantifiers


/a{5} b{,6} c{4,8}/

aaaaa bbbbb ccccc
aaa bbb ccc
aaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbbbb ccccc

/a+ b{3,} c?/

aaaaa bbbbb ccccc
aaa bbb ccc
aaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbbbb ccccc

/a{5} b{6,} c{4,8}/

aaaaa bbbbb ccccc
aaa bbb ccc
aaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbbbb ccccc

Using extended regular expressions, you can specify arbitrary pattern occurrence counts using a more verbose syntax than the question-mark, plus-sign, and asterisk quantifiers. The curly-braces ("{" and "}") can surround a precise count of how many occurrences you are looking for.

The most general form of the curly-brace quantification uses two range arguments (the first must be no larger than the second, and both must be non-negative integers). The occurrence count is specified this way to fall between the minimum and maximum indicated (inclusive). As shorthand, either argument may be left empty: if so the minimum/maximum is specified as zero/infinity, respectively. If only one argument is used (with no comma in there), exactly that number of occurrences are matched.

Backreferences


/(abc|xyz) \1/

jkl abc xyz
jkl xyz abc
jkl abc abc
jkl xyz xyz

/(abc|xyz) (abc|xyz)/

jkl abc xyz
jkl xyz abc
jkl abc abc
jkl xyz xyz

One powerful option in creating search patterns is specifying that a subexpression that was matched earlier in a regular expression is matched again later in the expression. We do this using backreferences. Backreferences are named by the numbers 1 through 9, preceded by the backslash/escape character when used in this manner. These backreferences refer to each successive group in the match pattern, as in /(one)(two)(three)/\1\2\3/. Each numbered backreference refers to the group that, in this example, has the word corresponding to the number.

It is important to note something the example illustrates. What gets matched by a backreference is the same literal string matched the first time, even if the pattern that matched the string could have matched other strings. Simply repeating the same grouped subexpression later in the regular expression does not match the same targets as using a backreference (but you have to decide what it is you actually want to match in either case).

Backreferences refer back to whatever occurred in the previous grouped expressions, in the order those grouped expressions occurred. Because of the naming convention (\1-\9), many tools limit you to nine backreferences. Some tools allow actual naming of backreferences and/or saving them to program variables. The more advanced parts of this tutorial touch on these topics

Don't match more than you want to


/th.*s/

-- I want to match the words that start
-- with 'th' and end with 's'.
this
thus
thistle
this line matches too much

Quantifiers in regular expressions are greedy. That is, they match as much as they possibly can.

Probably the easiest mistake to make in composing regular expressions is to match too much. When you use a quantifier, you want it to match everything (of the right sort) up to the point where you want to finish your match. But when using the "*", "+" or numeric quantifiers, it is easy to forget that the last bit you are looking for might occur later in a line than the one you are interested in.

Tricks for restraining matches


/th[^s]*./

-- I want to match the words that start
-- with 'th' and end with 's'.
this
thus
thistle
this line matches too much

Often if you find that your regular expressions are matching too much, a useful procedure is to reformulate the problem in your mind. Rather than thinking about "what am I trying to match later in the expression?" ask yourself "what do I need to avoid matching in the next part?" Often this leads to more parsimonious pattern matches. Often the way to avoid a pattern is to use the complement operator and a character class. Look at the example, and think about how it works.

The trick here is that there are two different ways of formulating almost the same sequence. You can either think you want to keep matching until you get to XYZ, or you can think you want to keep matching unless you get to XYZ. These are subtly different.

For people who have thought about basic probability, the same pattern occurs. The chance of rolling a 6 on a die in one roll is 1/6. What is the chance of rolling a 6 in six rolls? A naive calculation puts the odds at 1/6+1/6+1/6+1/6+1/6+1/6, or 100%. This is wrong, of course (after all, the chance after twelve rolls isn't 200%). The correct calculation is "how do I avoidgetting a 6 is the same chance as not avoiding it (or about 66%). In fact, if you imagine transcribing a series of dice rolls, you could apply a regular expression to the written record, and similar thinking applies. rolling a 6 for six rolls?" -- i.e. 5/6*5/6*5/6*5/6*5/6*5/6, or about 33%. The chance of

Comments on modification tools

Not all tools that use regular expressions allow you to modify target strings. Some simply locate the matched pattern; the mostly widely used regular expression tool is probably grep, which is a tool for searching only. Text editors, for example, may or may not allow replacement in their regular expression search facility. As always, consult the documentation on your individual tool.

Of the tools that allow you to modify target text, there are a few differences to keep in mind. The way you actually specify replacements will vary between tools: a text editor might have a dialog box; command-line tools will use delimiters between match and replacement, programming languages will typically call functions with arguments for match and replacement patterns.

Another important difference to keep in mind is of what is getting modified. Unix-oriented command-line tools typically utilize pipes and STDOUT for changes to buffers, rather than modify files in-place. Using a sed command, for example, will write the modifications to the console, but will not change the original target file. Text editors or programming languages are more likely to actually modify a file in-place.

A note on modification examples

For purposes of this tutorial, examples will continue to use the sed style slash delimiters. Specifically, the examples will indicate the substitution command and the global modifier, as with "s/this/that/g". This expression means: "Replace the string 'this' with the string 'that' everywhere in the target text.

Examples will consist of the modification command, an input line, and an output line. The output line will have any changes emphasized. Also, each input/output line will be preceded by a less-than or greater-than symbol to help distinguish them (the order will be as described also), which is suggestive of redirection symbols in Unix shells.

A literal-string modification example


s/cat/dog/g 

<> The zoo had wild dogs, bobdogs, lions, and other wild dogs.

Let us take a look at a couple modification examples that build on what we have already covered. This one simply substitutes some literal text for some other literal text. The search-and-replace capability of many tools can do this much, even without using regular expressions.

A pattern-match modification example


s/cat|dog/snake/g 

<> The zoo had wild snakes, bobsnakes, lions, and other wild snakes.

s/[a-z]+i[a-z]*/nice/g 

<> The zoo had nice dogs, bobcats, nice, and other nice cats.

Most of the time, if you are using regular expressions to modify a target text, you will want to match more general patterns than just literal strings. Whatever is matched is what gets replaced (even if it is several different strings in the target)

Modification using backreferences


s/([A-Z])([0-9]{2,4}) /\2:\1 /g 

<> 37:A B4 107:C D54112 1103:E XXX

It is nice to be able to insert a fixed string everywhere a pattern occurs in a target text. But frankly, doing that is not very context sensitive. A lot of times, we do not want just to insert fixed strings, but rather to insert something that bears much more relation to the matched patterns. Fortunately, backreferences come to our rescue here. You can use backreferences in the pattern-matches themselves, but it is even more useful to be able to use them in replacement patterns. By using replacement backreferences, you can pick and choose from the matched patterns to use just the parts you are interested in.

To aid readability, subexpressions will be grouped with bare parentheses (as with Perl), rather than with escaped parentheses (as with sed).

Another warning on mismatching

This tutorial has already warned about the danger of matching too much with your regular expression patterns. But the danger is so much more serious when you do modifications, that it is worth repeating. If you replace a pattern that matches a larger string than you thought of when you composed the pattern, you have potentially deleted some important data from your target.

It is always a good idea to try out your regular expressions on diverse target data that is representative of your production usage. Make sure you are matching what you think you are matching. A stray quantifier or wildcard can make a surprisingly wide variety of texts match what you thought was a specific pattern. An sometimes you just have to stare at your pattern for a while, or find another set of eyes, to figure out what is really going on even after you see what matches. Familiarity might breed contempt, but it also instills competence.

Advanced Regular Expression Extensions

About advanced features

Some very useful enhancements are included in some regular expression tools. These enhancements often make the composition and maintenance of regular expression considerably easier. But check with your own tool to see what is supported.

The programming language Perl is probably the most sophisticated tool for regular expression processing, which explains much of its popularity. The examples illustrated will use Perl-ish code to explain concepts. Other programming languages, especially other scripting languages such as Python, have a similar range of enhancements. But for purposes of illustration, Perl's syntax most closely mirrors the regular expression tools it builds on, such as ed, ex, grep, sed, and awk.

Non-greedy quantifiers


/th.*s/

-- I want to match the words that start
-- with 'th' and end with 's'.
this line matches just right
this # thus # thistle

/th.*?s/

-- I want to match the words that start
-- with 'th' and end with 's'.
this # thus # thistle
this line matches just right

/th.*?s /

-- I want to match the words that start
-- with 'th' and end with 's'. (FINALLY!)
this # thus # thistle
this line matches just right

Earlier in the tutorial, the problems of matching too much were discussed, and some workarounds were suggested. Some regular expression tools are nice enough to make this easier by providing optional non-greedy quantifiers. These quantifier grab as little as possible while still matching whatever comes next in the pattern (instead of as much as possible).

Non-greedy quantifiers have the same syntax as regular greedy ones, except with the quantifier followed by a question-mark. For example, a non-greedy pattern might look like: "/A[A-Z]*?B/". In English, this means "match an A, followed by only as many capital letters as are needed to find a B."

One little thing to look out for is the fact that the pattern "/[A-Z]*?./" will always match zero capital letters. If you use non-greedy quantifiers, watch out for matching too little, which is a symmetric danger.

Pattern-match modifiers


/M.*[ise] /

MAINE # Massachusetts # Colorado #
mississippi # Missouri # Minnesota #

/M.*[ise] /i

MAINE # Massachusetts # Colorado #
mississippi # Missouri # Minnesota #

/M.*[ise] /gis

MAINE # Massachusetts # Colorado #
mississippi # Missouri # Minnesota #

We already saw one pattern-match modifier in the modification examples: the global modifier. In fact, in many regular expression tools, we should have been using the "g" modifier for all our pattern matches. Without the "g", many tools will match only the first occurrence of a pattern on a line in the target. So this is a useful modifier (but not one you necessarily want to use always). Let us look at some others.

As a little mnemonic, it is nice to remember the word "gismo" (it even seems somehow appropriate). The most frequent modifiers are:

g - Match globally
i - Case-insensitive match
s - Treat string as single line
m - Treat string as multiple lines
o - Only compile pattern once

The o option is an implementation optimization, and not really a regular expression issue (but it helps the mnemonic). The single-line option allows the wildcard to match a newline character (it won't otherwise). The multiple-line option causes "^" and "$" to match the begin and end of each line in the target, not just the begin/end of the target as a whole (with sed or grep this is the default). The insensitive option ignores differences between case of letters.

Changing backreference behavior


s/([A-Z])(?:-[a-z]{3}-)([0-9]*)/\1\2/g

<> A37 # B:abcd:42 # C66 # D93

Backreferencing in replacement patterns is very powerful; but it is also easy to use more than nine groups in a complex regular expression. Quite apart from using up the available backreference names, it is often more legible to refer to the parts of a replacement pattern in sequential order. To handle this issue, some regular expression tools allow "grouping without backreferencing."

A group that should not also be treated as a back reference has a question-mark colon at the beginning of the group, as in "(?:pattern)." In fact, you can use this syntax even when your backreferences are in the search pattern itself.

Naming backreferences


import re
txt = "A-xyz-37 # B:abcd:142 # C-wxy-66 # D-qrs-93"
print re.sub("(?P[A-Z])(-[a-z]{3}-)(?P[0-9]*)",
        "\g\g", txt) 

A37 # B:abcd:42 # C66 # D93

The language Python offers a particularly handy syntax for really complex pattern backreferences. Rather than just play with the numbering of matched groups, you can give them a name.

The syntax of using regular expressions in Python is a standard programming language function/method style of call, rather than Perl- or sed-style slash delimiters. Check your own tool to see if it supports this facility.

Lookahead assertions


s/([A-Z]-)(?=[a-z]{3})([a-z0-9]* )/\2\1/g

<> xyz37A- # B-ab6142 # C-Wxy66 # qrs93D-

s/([A-Z]-)(?![a-z]{3})([a-z0-9]* )/\2\1/g

<> A-xyz37 # ab6142B- # Wxy66C- # D-qrs93

Another trick of advanced regular expression tools is "lookahead assertions." These are similar to regular grouped subexpression, except they do not actually grab what they match. There are two advantages to using lookahead assertions. On the one hand, a lookahead assertion can function in a similar way to a group that is not backreferenced; that is, you can match something without counting it in backreferences. More significantly, however, a lookahead assertion can specify that the next chunk of a pattern has a certain form, but let a different subexpression actually grab it (usually for purposes of backreferencing that other subexpression.

There are two kinds of lookahead assertions: positive and negative. As you would expect, a positive assertion specifies that something doesdoes not come next. Emphasizing their connection with non-backreferenced groups, the syntax for lookahead assertions is similar: (?=pattern) for positive assertions, and (?!pattern) for negative assertions. come next, and a negative one specifies that something

Making regular expressions more readable


/               # identify URLs within a text file
     [^="] # do not match URLs in IMG tags like:
           # 
http|ftp|gopher # make sure we find a resource type
     :\/\/ # ...needs to be followed by colon-slash-slash
 [^ \n\r]+ # stuff other than space, newline, tab is in URL
(?=[\s\.,]) # assert: followed by whitespace/period/comma
/

The URL for my site is: http://mysite.com/mydoc.html.  You
might also enjoy ftp://yoursite.com/index.html for a good
place to download files.

In the later examples we have started to see just how complicated regular expressions can get. These examples are not the half of it. It is possible to do some almost absurdly difficult-to-understand things with regular expression (but ones that are nonetheless useful).

There are two basic facilities that some of the more advanced regular expression tools use in clarifying expressions. One is allowing regular expressions to continue over multiple lines (by ignoring whitespace like trailing spaces and newlines). The second is allowing comments within regular expressions. Some tools allow you to do one or another of these things alone, but when it gets complicated, do both!

The example given uses Perl's extend modifier to enable commented multi-line regular expressions. Consult the documentation for your own tool for details on how to compose these.

µTorrent Releases A Mac Version

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:12:00 +0000

Right on time for Thanksgiving day, µTorrent - client of choice for many BitTorrent users - has released a Mac version in beta, after a rudimentary alpha release was leaked a couple of months ago (on a BitTorrent tracker, at that).

The lightweight µTorrent client for Windows was first publicly released in September 2005, and was acquired by BitTorrent in 2006, who continued development on the application and promised to release a Mac version. It has now arrived, but as Torrentfreak points out, the Mac release only runs on Leopard/Intel Macs at the moment and may still contain serious bugs.

Alternatives include Vuze (formerly Azureus) and Transmission.

Google Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:28:00 +0000

The picture, which is probably photoshopped (even if it's a real product), looks pretty good — nothing too crazy though. It has a concealed qwerty keyboard under the display, and a couple standard buttons that look a bit like Google Talk icons. The screen appears to switch between portrait and landscape view like the iPhone — probably using an accelerometer.

The screenshot taken by the poster contains a few more details that may be of interest:

Google makes relevant information and communication tools easily accessible wherever you are

The Google Phone brings the power of the internet in your pocket, in a simple and intuitive device. It combines the traditional voice and SMS capabilities of phones with all the exciting Google services from the PC such as Search, Gmail, Maps, Blogger…

The Google Phone, designed by Samsung, is a very thing and stylish handset with a large screen and a QWERTY keypad so that it provides a real internet experience.

All these internet services will be available under a simple Internet monthly flat fee, comparable to PC Broadband products, giving you transparency and control over your mobile bill. Thanks to simple, relevant advertising, Google will even give you a 3 month discount on your mobile Internet monthly flat fee

Google Adds Voice And Video Chat to Gmail

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:45:00 +0000

Watch out Skype, Google is adding voice and video chat to Gmail today, all in one fell swoop. When you are having an instant message conversation with someone over Gtalk, a video and voice option will appear (after you download this plugin).

From the Google Blog:

Just click on the new “Video & more” menu in a Gmail chat window and select “Start video chat” or “Start voice chat.” You can switch to a full screen view or pop out the chat window and change the size and positioning as you wish. Of course, not everyone has a webcam, but even if you don’t, you can still have voice conversations alongside your email and regular chat

Bringing video chat into the Gmail page, just as it does with regular IM, is in step with Google’s efforts to connect its disparate services together in a more seamless fashion. It is also a better experience. If you use Gmail as your primary email, you always have it open. That means you don’t have to open up a separate application just to conduct an impromptu text, voice, or video chat (as you do with other IM clients). These are all just different modes of communication, available to you as appropriate. Life just got a lot harder for startups pushing point solutions around video chat.

The new feature was developed out of Google’s engineering group in Sweden, where it acquired e-meeting startup April 2007, Serge Lachapelle, the Swedish Google product manager in the video below, used to be the VP of product management at Marratech.

the link to the official video here.

So maybe in another 18 months we’ll see the Marratech’s cool whiteboarding feature incorporated into Gmail as well (see the old Marratech product shot below):

So, Now Enjoy Video chatting on gmail :D

Untold secrect of windows

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:35:00 +0000

This time I have a collection of Tips and Tricks which no body normally knows, the secrets which Microsoft is afraid to tell the people, the information which you will seldom find all gathered up and arranged in a single file. To fully reap this Manual you need to have a basic understanding of the Windows Registry, as almost all the Tricks and Tips involve this file.

****************

Important Note: Before you read on, you need to keep one thing in mind. Whenever you make changes to the Windows Registry you need to Refresh it before the changes take place. Simply press F5 to refresh the registry and enable the changes. If this does not work Restart your system

****************

Exiting Windows the Cool and Quick Way

Normally it takes a hell lot of time just Shutting down Windows, you have to move your mouse to the Start Button, click on it, move it again over Shut Down, click, then move it over the necessary option and click, then move the cursor over the OK button and once again (you guessed it) click.This whole process can be shortened by creating shortcuts on the Desktop which will shut down Windows at the click of a button. Start by creating a new shortcut( right click and select New> Shortcut). Then in the command line box, type (without the quotes.)

'C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec'

This Shortcut on clicking will restart Windows immediately without any Warning. To create a Shortcut to Restarting Windows, type the following in the Command Line box:

'c:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows'

This Shortcut on clicking will shut down Windows immediately without any Warning.

Ban Shutdowns : A trick to Play on Lamers

This is a neat trick you can play on that lamer that has a huge ego, in this section I teach you, how to disable the Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog Box. This trick involves editing the registry, so please make backups. Launch regedit.exe and go to :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

In the right pane look for the NoClose Key. If it is not already there then create it by right clicking in the right pane and selecting New > String Value.(Name it NoCloseKey ) Now once you see the NoCloseKey in the right pane, right click on it and select Modify. Then Type 1 in the Value Data Box.

Doing the above on a Win98 system disables the Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog Box. But on a Win95 machine if the value of NoCloseKey is set to 1 then click on the Start > Shut Down button displays the following error message:

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

You can enable the shut down option by changing the value of NoCloseKey to 0 or simply deleting the particular entry i.e. deleting NoCloseKey.

Instead of performing the above difficult to remember process, simply save the following with an extension of .reg and add it's contents to the registry by double clicking on it.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"NoClose"="1"

Disabling Display of Drives in My Computer

This is yet another trick you can play on your geek friend. To disable the display of local or networked drives when you click My Computer go to :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Now in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives. Now modify it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal) Now press F5 to refresh. When you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown. To enable display of drives in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item. It's .reg file is as follows:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"NoDrives"=dword:03ffffff

Take Over the Screen Saver

To activate and deactivate the screen saver whenever you want, goto the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ScreenSavers

Now add a new string value and name it Mouse Corners. Edit this new value to -Y-N. Press F5 to refresh the registry. Voila! Now you can activate your screensaver by simply placing the mouse cursor at the top right corner of the screen and if you take the mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen, the screensaver will deactivate.

Pop a banner each time Windows Boots

To pop a banner which can contain any message you want to display just before a user is going to log on, go to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinLogon

Now create a new string Value in the right pane named LegalNoticeCaption and enter the value that you want to see in the Menu Bar. Now create yet another new string value and name it: LegalNoticeText. Modify it and insert the message you want to display each time Windows boots. This can be effectively used to display the company's private policy each time the user logs on to his NT box. It's .reg file would be:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"LegalNoticeCaption"="Caption here."

Delete the Tips of the Day to save 5KB

Windows 95 had these tips of the day which appeared on a system running a newly installed Windows OS. These tips of the day are stored in the Windows Registry and consume 5K of space. For those of you who are really concerned about how much free space your hard disk has, I have the perfect trick.

To save 5K go to the following key in Regedit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Tips

Now simply delete these tricks by selecting and pressing the DEL key.

Change the Default Locations

To change the default drive or path where Windows will look for it's installation files, go to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath

Now you can edit as you wish.

Secure your Desktop Icons and Settings

You can save your desktop settings and secure it from your nerdy friend by playing with the registry. Simply launch the Registry Editor go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

In the right pane create a new DWORD Value named NoSaveSettings and modify it's value to 1. Refresh and restart for the settings to get saved.

CLSID Folders Explained

Don't you just hate those stubborn stupid icons that refuse to leave the desktop, like the Network Neighborhood icon. I am sure you want to know how you can delete them. You may say, that is really simple, simply right click on the concerned icon and select Delete. Well not exactly, you see when you right click on these special folders( see entire list below)neither the rename nor the delete option does not appear. To delete these folders, there are two methods, the first one is using the System Policy Editor(Poledit in the Windows installation CD)and the second is using the Registry.

Before we go on, you need to understand what CLSID values are. These folders, like the Control Panel, Inbox, The Microsoft Network, Dial Up Networking etc are system folders. Each system folder has a unique CLSID key or the Class ID which is a 16-byte value which identifies an individual object that points to a corresponding key in the registry.

To delete these system Folders from the desktop simply go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\Namespace{*b-*b-*b-*b-*b}

To delete an icon simply delete the 16 byte CLSID value within "NameSpace". The following are the CLSID values of the most commonly used icons:

My Briefcase:{85BBD920-42AO-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}

Desktop: {00021400-0000-0000-C000-0000000000046}

Control Panel:{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

Dial-Up-Networking:{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD01CCC48}

Fonts: {BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948534}

Inbox :{00020D76-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

My Computer :{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Network Neighborhood:{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-O8002B30309D}

Printers :{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-O8002B30309D}

Recycle Bin :{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

The Microsoft Network:{00028B00-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

History: {FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}

Winzip :{E0D79300-84BE-11CE-9641-444553540000}

For example, to delete the Recycle Bin, first note down it's CLSID value, which is: 645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E. Now go to the Namespace key in the registry and delete the corresponding key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Similarly to delete the History folder, delete the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{FBF23B42-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}

Sometimes, you may need to play a trick on your brother or friend, well this one teaches you how to hide all icons from the Desktop. Go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

In the right pane create a new DWORD value by the name: NoDesktop and set its value to: 1. Reboot and you will find no icons on the desktop.

Till now you simply learnt how to delete the special system folders by deleting a registry key, but the h@*k would have been better if there was a way of adding the DELETE and RENAME option to the right click context menus of these special folders. You can actually change the right click context menu of any system folder and add any of the following options: RENAME, DELETE, CUT, COPY, PASTE and lots more.

This h@*k too requires you to know the CLSID value of the system folder whose menu you want to customize. In this section, I have taken up Recycle Bin as the folder whose context menu I am going to edit.

Firstly launch the registry editor and open the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder.

In Case you want to edit some other folder like say the FONTS folder, then you will open the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{CLSID VALUE HERE}\ShellFolder.

In the right pane there will be a DWORD value names attributes. Now consider the following options:

To add the Rename option to the menu, change the value of Attributes to
50 01 00 20

To add the Delete option to the menu, change the value of Attributes to
60 01 00 20

3. To add both the Rename & Delete options to the menu, change the value of Attributes to 70,01,00,20

4. Add Copy to the menu, change Attributes to 41 01 00 20

5. Add Cut to the menu, change Attributes to 42 01 00 20

6. Add Copy & Cut to the menu, change Attributes to 43 01 00 20

7. Add Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 44 01 00 20

8. Add Copy & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 45 01 00 20

9. Add Cut & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 46 01 00 20

10.Add all Cut, Copy & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 47 01 00 20

We want to add only the Rename option to the right click context menu of the Recycle Bin, so change the value of attributes to: 50 01 00 20. Press F5 to refresh and then after rebooting you will find that when you right click on the Recycle Bin a RENAME option pops up too.

To reset the default Windows options change the value of Attributes back to

40 01 00 20

The Registry File which one can create for the above process would be something like the below:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\Shell-Folder]

"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20

To access say the Modem Properties in the Control Panel Folder, the normal procedure is: Click on Start, Click on Settings> Control Panel and then wait for the Control Panel window to pop up and then ultimately click on the Modems icon.

Wouldn't it be lovely if you could shorten the process to: Click on Start> Control Panel>Modems. Yes you can add the Control Panel and also all other Special System Folders directly to the first level Start Menu. Firstly collect the CLSID value of the folder you want to add to the start menu. I want to add Control Panel hence the CLSID value is: 21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D

Now right click on the Start Button and select Open. Now create a new folder and name it: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

NOTE: Do not forget the period after the 'l' in Panel. Similarly all system folders can be added to the Start Menu.(accept My Briefcase, I think)

Deleting System Options from the Start menu

You can actually remove the Find and Run options from the start menu by performing a simple registry h@*k. Again like always Launch the registry editor and scroll down to the below key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Right-click on the right pane and select New, DWORD Value. Name it NoFind.(To remove the RUN option name it NoRun). Double-click the newly create DWORD to edit it's value and enter 1 as its value. This will disable the FIND option of the Start Menu and will also disable the default Shortcut key(F3 for Find.)

To restore the Run or find command modify the value of the DWORD to 0 or simply Delete the DWORD value.

Fed Up of the boring Old Yellow Folder Icons?[Drive Icons Included]

NOTE: This trick hasn't been tried on Win98.

You can easily change the boring yellow folder icons to your own personalized icons. Simply create a text file and copy the following lines into it:

[.ShellClassInfo]

ICONFILE=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension

Save this text file by the name, desktop.ini in the folder, whose icon you want to change. Now to prevent this file from getting deleted change it's attributes to Hidden and Read Only by using the ATTRIB command.

To change the icon of a drive, create a text file containing the following lines:

[Autorun]

ICON=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension

Save this file in the root of the drive whose icon you want to change and name it autorun.inf For Example, if you want to change the icon of a floppy, SAVE THE icon in a:\icon_name.ico One can also create a kewl icon for the Hard Disk and create a text file [autorun.inf] and store it in "c:\".

Securing NT

By default, NT 4.0 displays the last person who logged onto the system. This can be considered to be a security threat, especially in the case of those who choose their password to be same as their Username. To disable this bug which actually is a feature, go to the following key in the registry editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Click and select the ReportBookOK item and create a new string value called DontDisplayLastUserName. Modify it and set it's value to 1.

As a system administrator, you can ensure that the passwords chosen by the users are not too lame or too easy to guess. NT has this lovely utility called the User Manager which allows the administrator to set the age limit of the password which forces the users to change the password after a certain number of days. You can also set the minimum length of passwords and prevent users to use passwords which already have been used earlier and also enable account lockouts which will deactivate an account after a specified number of failed login attempts.

When you log on to Win NT, you should disable Password Caching, this ensures Single NT Domain login and also prevents secondary Windows Logon screen.

Simply copy the following lines to a plain text ASCII editor like: Notepad and save it with an extension, .reg

----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]

"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000001

----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------

To Enable Password Caching use the following .reg file:

--------------Enable.reg-----------------

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]

"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000000

--------------Enable.reg-----------------

Cleaning Recent Docs Menu and the RUN MRU

The Recent Docs menu can be easily disabled by editing the Registry. To do this go to the following Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Now in the right pane, create a new DWORD value by the name: NoRecentDocsMenu and set it's value to 1. Restart Explorer to save the changes.

You can also clear the RUN MRU history. All the listings are stored in the key:

HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU

You can delete individual listings or the entire listing. To delete History of Find listings go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc Find Spec MRU

and delete.

Customizing the Right Click Context Menu of the Start Menu

When you right click on the start menu, only 3 options pop up: Open, Explore, and Find. You can add your own programs to this pop up menu( which comes up when we right click on it.) Open Regedit and go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell

Right click on the shell and create a new Sub Key (You can create a new SubKey by right clicking on the Shell Key and selecting New > Key.). Type in the name of the application you want to add to the start menu. I want to add Notepad to the Start Menu and hence I name this new sub key, Notepad. Now right click on the new registry key that you just created and create yet another new key named Command. Enter the ful| path of the application, in this case Notepad in the default value of Command in the right

pane. So I Modify the value of the default string value and enter the ful| pathname of Notepad:

c:\wndows\notepad.exe.

Now press F5 to refresh. Now if you right click on the Start Button you will find a new addition to the Pop Up Menu called Notepad. Clicking on it will launch Notepad.

We can not only add but also remove the existing options in this pop up box.

To delete the Find option, go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Find

Delete Find. DO NOT delete Open else you will not be able to open any folders in the Start Menu like Programs, Accessories etc.

BMP Thumbnail As Icon

You can actually change the default BMP icon to a thumbnail version of the actual BMP file. To do this simply go to HKCU\Paint.Picture\Default. In the right pane change the value of default to %1. Please note however that this will slow down the display rate in explorer if there are too many BMP thumbnails to display. You can use other icons too, simply enter the pathname.To restore back to the normal change the vale of default back to: C:\Progra~1\Access~1\MSPAINT.EXE,1.

Customizing The Shortcut Arrow

All shortcuts have a tiny black arrow attached to it's icon to distinguish from normal files. This arrow can sometimes be pretty annoying and as a Hacker should know how to change each and everything, here goes another trick. Launch the Registry Editor and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons.

Now, on the right pane is a list of icons ( we found out that on some systems, Windows 98 especially, the right pane is blank. Don't worry, just add the value as required ). Find the value 29. If it isn't there, just add it. The value of this string should be C:\Windows\system\shell32.dll, 29 ( which means the 30th icon in shell32.dll - the first one begins with 0 ). Now, we need blank icon to do this. Just create one with white as the whole icon. Go here to learn how to create an icon. Once done just change the value to C:\*b.ico, 0 where "*b" is the ful| path of the icon file and "0" is the icon in it.

Now for some fun. If the blank icon is a bit boring, change it again. You will find that under shell32.dll there is a gear icon, a shared folder ( the hand ) and much more. Experiment for yourself!

Use Perl to Get List or Services Running on your NT box

Use the following Perl Script to get a list of Services running on your NT system

--------------script.pl-----------------

#!c:\per\bin\perl.exe

use Win32::Service;

my ($key, %service, %status, $part);

Win32::Service::GetServices(' ',\%services);

foreach $key (sort keys %services) {

print "Print Name\t: $key, $services{$key}\n";

Win32::Service::GetStatus( ' ',$services{$key};

\%status);

foreach $part (keys %status) {

print "\t$part : $status{$part}\n" if($part eq "CurrentState");

}

}

-------------script.pl-------------------

Internet Explorer Tricks and Tips

Resizable ful| Screen Toolbar

The ful| Screen option increases the viewable area and makes surfing more enjoyable but sometimes we need the Toolbar but also need to have extra viewing area. Now this h@*k teaches you how to change the size of the Internet Explorer toolbar. This registry h@*k is a bit complicated as it involves Binary values, so to make it simple, I have included the following registry file which will enable the resizable option of the Internet Explorer toolbar which was present in the beta version of IE.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]

"Theater"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,18,00,00,00,1b,00,00,00,5c,\

00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,05,00,00,00,22,00,00,00,26,00,\

00,00,02,00,00,00,21,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,\

00,03,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

*******************

h@*king TRUTH: Internet Explorer 5 displays the friendly version of HTTP errors like NOT FOUND etc . They are aimed at making things easier for newbies. If you would rather prefer to see the proper error pages for the web server you're using, go to Tools, Internet Options and select the Advanced tab. Then scroll down and uncheck the Show friendly http errors box.

*******************

Making the Internet Explorer & the Explorer Toolbars Fancy

The Internet Explorer toolbar looks pretty simple. Want to make it fancy and kewl? Why not add a background image to it. To do this kewl h@*k launch the Windows Registry Editor and go to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Toolbar\.

Now in the right pane create a new String Value and name it BackBitmap and modify it's value to the path of the Bitmap you want to dress it up with by rightclicking on it and choosing Modify. When you reboot the Internet Explorer and the Windows Explorer toolbars will have a new look.

Change Internet Explorer's Caption

Don't like the caption of Internet Explorer caption? Want to change it? Open the registry editor and go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.

In the right pane create a new String Value names Window Title (Note the space between Window and Title). Right click on this newly created String Value and select Modify. Type in the new caption you want to be displayed. Restart for the settings to take place.

Now let's move on to some Outlook Express Tricks.

Colorful Background

Don't like the boring background colors of Outlook Express? To change it launch the Windows Registry Editor and scroll down to the

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Mail And News key.

On the left pane, click on ColorCycle or select Edit and Modify in the menu. Now change the value to 1. Close and restart. Now, launch Outlook Express and whenever you open up a New Message, hold down ctrl-shift and tap the z key to scroll to change the background color. Repeat the keystroke to cycle through the colors.

Internet Explorer 5 Hidden Features

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 has several hidden features which can be controlled using the Windows Registry. Open your registry and scroll down to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions

Create a new DWORD value named x(See complete list of values of x below) and modify it's value to 1 to enable it and to 0 to disable it.

NoBrowserClose : Disable the option of closing Internet Explorer.

NoBrowserContextMenu : Disable right-click context menu.

NoBrowserOptions : Disable the Tools / Internet Options menu.

NoBrowserSaveAs : Disable the ability to Save As.

NoFavorites : Disable the Favorites.

NoFileNew : Disable the File / New command.

NoFileOpen : Disable the File / Open command.

NoFindFiles : Disable the Find Files command.

NoSelectDownloadDir : Disable the option of selecting a download directory.

NoTheaterMode : Disable the ful| Screen view option.

h@*king Secrets

Almost all system administrators make certain changes and make the system restricted. System Administrators can hide the RUN option, the FIND command, the entire Control Panel, drives in My Computer like D: A: etc. They can even restrict activities of a hacker my disabling or hiding, even the tiniest options or tools.

Most commonly these restrictions are imposed locally and are controlled by the Windows Registry. But sometimes the smart system administrators control the activities of the hacker by imposing restrictions remotely through the main server.

Poledit or Policy Editor is a small kewl tool which is being commonly used by system administrators to alter the settings of a system. This utility is not installed by default by Windows. You need to install in manually from the Windows 98 Installation Kit from the Resource Kit folder. user.dat file that we saw earlier.

The Policy Editor tool imposes restrictions on the user's system by editing the user.dat file which in turn means that it edits the Windows Registry to change the settings. It can be used to control or restrict access to each and every folder and option you could ever think of. It has the power to even restrict access to individual folders, files, the Control Panel, MS DOS, the drives available etc. Sometimes this software does make life really hard for a Hacker. So how can we remove the restrictions imposed by the Policy Editor? Well read ahead to learn more.

You see the Policy Editor is not the only way to restrict a user's activities. As we already know that the Policy Editor edits the Windows Registry(user.dat) file to impose such restrictions. So this in turn would mean that we can directly make changes to the Windows Registry using a .reg file or directly to remove or add restrictions.

Launch Regedit and go to the following Registry Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies

Under this key, there will definitely be a key named explorer. Now under this explorer key we can create new DWORD values and modify it's value to 1 in order to impose the restriction. If you want to remove the Restriction, then you can simply delete the respective DWORD values or instead change their values to 0. The following is a list of DWORD values that can be created under the Explorer Key-:

NoDeletePrinter: Disables Deletion of already installed Printers

NoAddPrinter: Disables Addition of new Printers

NoRun : Disables or hides the Run Command

NoSetFolders: Removes Folders from the Settings option on Start Menu (Control Panel, Printers, Taskbar)

NoSetTaskbar: Removes Taskbar system folder from the Settings option on Start Menu

NoFind: Removes the Find Tool (Start >Find)

NoDrives: Hides and does not display any Drives in My Computer

NoNetHood: Hides or removes the Network Neighborhood icon from the desktop

NoDesktop: Hides all items including, file, folders and system folders from the Desktop

NoClose: Disables Shutdown and prevents the user from normally shutting down Windows.

NoSaveSettings: Means to say, 'Don't save settings on exit'

DisableRegistryTools: Disable Registry Editing Tools (If you disable this option, the Windows Registry Editor(regedit.exe) too

will not work.)

NoRecentDocsHistory: Removes Recent Document system folder from the Start Menu (IE 4 and above)

ClearRecentDocsOnExit: Clears the Recent Documents system folder on Exit.

Nolnternetlcon: Removes the Internet (system folder) icon from the Desktop

Under the same key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies you can create new subkeys other than the already existing Explorer key. Now create a new key and name it System. Under this new key, system we can create the following new DWORD values(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option):

NODispCPL: Hides Control Panel

NoDispBackgroundPage: Hides Background page.

NoDispScrsavPage: Hides Screen Saver Page

NoDispAppearancePage: Hides Appearance Page

NoDispSettingsPage: Hides Settings Page

NoSecCPL: Disables Password Control Panel

NoPwdPage: Hides Password Change Page

NoAdminPaqe: Hides Remote Administration Page

NoProfilePage: Hides User Profiles Page

NoDevMgrPage: Hides Device Manager Page

NoConfigPage: Hides Hardware Profiles Page

NoFileSysPage: Hides File System Button

NoVirtMemPage: Hides Virtual Memory Button

Similarly, if we create a new subkey named Network, we can add the following DWORD values under it(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option):

NoNetSetupSecurityPage: Hides Network Security Page

NoNelSetup: Hides or disables the Network option in the Control Panel

NoNetSetupIDPage: Hides the Identification Page

NoNetSetupSecurityPage: Hides the Access Control Page

NoFileSharingControl: Disables File Sharing Controls

NoPrintSharing: Disables Print Sharing Controls

Similarly, if we create a new subkey named WinOldApp, we can add the following DWORD values under it(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option):

Disabled: Disable MS-DOS Prompt

NoRealMode: Disable Single-Mode MS-DOS.

So you see if you have access to the Windows Registry, then you can easily create new DWORD values and set heir value to 1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option. But Sometimes, access to the Windows Registry is blocked. So what do you do? Go to the Windows Directory and delete either user.dat or system.dat (These 2 files constitute the Windows Registry.) and reboot. As soon as Windows logs in, it will display a Warning Message informing you about an error in the Windows Registry. Simply ignore this Warning Message and Press CTRL+DEL+ALT to get out of this warning message.(Do not press OK) You will find that all restrictions have been removed.

The most kind of restriction found quite commonly is the Specific Folder Restriction, in which users are not allowed access to specific folders, the most common being the Windows folder, or sometimes even access to My Computer is blocked. In effect, you simply cannot seem to access the important kewl files which are needed by you to do remove restrictions. What do you? Well use the RUN command. (START >RUN). But unfortunately a system administrator who is intelligent enough to block access to specific folder, would definitely have blocked access to the RUN command. Again we are stuck.

Windows is supposed to be the most User Friendly Operating System on earth. (At least Microsoft Says so.)

It gives the User an option to do the same thing in various ways. You see the RUN command is only the most convenient option of launching applications, but not the only way. In Windows you can create shortcuts to almost anything from a file, folder to a Web URL. So say your system administrator has blocked access to the c:\windows\system folder and you need to access it. What do you do? Simply create a Shortcut to it. To do this right click anywhere on the desktop and select New > Shortcut. A new window titled Create Shortcut pops up. Type in the path of the restricted folder you wish to access, in this case c:\windows\system. Click Next, Enter the friendly name of the Shortcut and then click Finish. Now you can access the restricted folder by simply double clicking on the shortcut icon. Well that shows how protected and secure *ahem Windows *ahem is.

****************

h@*king TRUTH: Sometimes when you try to delete a file or a folder, Windows displays an error message saying that the file is protected. This simply means that the file is write protected, or in other words the R option is +. Get it? Anyway, you can stop Windows from displaying this error message and straightaway delete this file by changing its attributes to Non Read Only. This can be done by Right Clicking on the file, selecting Properties and then

unselecting the Read Only Option.

***************

There is yet another way of accessing restricted folders. Use see, DOS has a lovely command known as START. Its general syntax is:

START application_path

It does do what it seems to do, start applications. So in you have access to DOS then you can type in the START command to get access to the restricted folder. Now mostly access to DOS too would be blocked. So again you can use the shortcut trick to launch, c:\command.com or c:\windows\command.com. (Command.com is the file which launches MS DOS).

Accessing Restricted Drives.

The problem with most system administrators is that they think that the users or Hackers too are stupid. Almost all system administrators use the Registry Trick (Explained Earlier) to hide all drives in My Computer. So in order to unhide or display all drives, simply delete that particular key.(Refer to beginning of Untold Secrets Section.)

Some systems have the floppy disk disabled through the BIOS. On those systems if the BIOS is protected, you may need to cr@ck the BIOS password. (For that Refer to the Windows h@*king Chapter). Sometimes making drives readable (Removing R +) and then creating Shortcuts to them also helps us to get access to them.

Further Changing your Operating System's Looks by editing .htt files

If you have installed Windows Desktop Update and have the view as Web Page option enabled, you can customise the way the folder looks by selecting View > Customise this folder. Here you can change the background and other things about that particular folder. Well that is pretty lame, right? We hackers already know things as lame as that. Read on for some kewl stuff.

Well, you could also change the default that is stored in a Hidden HTML Template file (I think so..) which is nothing but a HTML document with a .htt extension. This .htt file is found at: %systemroot%\web\folder.htt.

The %systemroot% stands for the drive in which Windows is Installed, which is normally C:

You can edit these .htt files almost just like you edit normal .HTM or .HTML files. Simply open them in an ASCII editor like Notepad. The following is a list of .htt files on your system which control various folders and which can be edited to customise the way various folders look.

controlp.htt Control Panel

printers.htt Printers

mycomp.htt My Computer

safemode.htt Safe Mode

All these files are found in the web folder in %systemfolder%. The folder.htt file has a line:

'Here's a good place to add a few lines of your own"

which is the place where you can add your own A HREF links. These links would then appear in the folder whose folder.htt file you edited. All this might sound really easy and simple, but you see these .htt files do not contain normal HTML code, instead they contain a mixture of HTML and web bots. Hence they can be difficult for newbies to understand.

Windows XP Tips and Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:34:00 +0000

Opening Ports or Adding Allowed Programs with SP2's Firewall

1. Click on Start / Run
2. Enter in firewall.cpl
3. Click on the Exceptions tab

Adding a Port for Internet Access:

1. Click on the Add Port button
2. Name it whatever you want
3. Enter in the ports you want to open

Adding a Program for Internet Access

1. Click on Add Program... button
2. A list of all installed programs will be displayed
3. Highlight the one you want to include for Internet access
4. Click on the OK button

Autoexec.nt or Config.nt Errors
If you are getting errors similar to:
The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.
Try copying the file from \windows\repair directory to the one that is in the \windows\system32 directory.

Common Control Panel Applets

The follow are some common Control Panel Applets that are located in the \windows\system32 directory.
If you find yourself using any of these frequently, then you can simply make shortcu[/color]ts to them on your desktop.

appwiz.cpl >>Add/Remove Programs
desk.cpl >> Display Properties
firewall.cpl >> Firewall Settings
inetcpl.cpl >> Internet Options
mmsys.cpl >> Sound and Audio
ncpa.cpl >> Network Connections
nusrmgr.cpl >> User Accounts
powercfg.cpl >> Power Options
sysdm.cpl >>System Properties
wscui.cpl >> Security Center
wuaucpl.cpl >> Automatic Updates Configuration Go to Top

Windows Explorer Opens Search Companion Rather than the Folder
If the Windows Explorer opens up the Search Companion rather than opening up the actual folder, the default setting for opening a folder is changed.
To correct this:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Directory \ shell
Edit the default value to be explorer or none

Guest Only Network Access
If you try and connect to an XP computer and are shown a logins screen with only the computername/Guest,
You may need to change one of the Local Security Policies:
Got to Control Panel - Administrative Tools
Go to Local Policies - Security Options
Check teh Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts
Set it to Classic - local users authenticate as themselves

Hiding a XP Computer from Network Neighborhood
If you want to share files from a XP computer,
yet want to remove it from showing up in the Network Neighborhood,
Run net config server /hidden:yes

Easy Way to Share Multiple Folders
If you need to share multiple folders, running the program SHRPUBW.EXE will bring up a simple dialog box to let you:
Browse to the folder you want to share
Enter in a Share name
Ender in a Share description
Set permissions. Several choices are available
Restart the process from within the same program Go to top

Not Viewing Zip Files as Folders
If you want to turn of WindowsXP showing Zip files as folders,
just run:
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll

Setting Capslock, Numlock, Scroll Lock
If you want to set the startup state for any or all of these keys,
you just need to edit the registry.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Keyboard
Open InitialKeyboardIndicators
Change the value to one of the following numbers
0 - All Keys off
1 - Caps Lock on
2 - Num Lock on
4 - Scroll Lock on
For multiple keys, add their values:
3 - Caps Lock and Num Lock on
5 - Caps Lock and Scroll Lock on
6 - Num Lock and Scroll Lock on
7 - Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock on
Log off and back on again

Restoring Desktop Icon to the Quicklaunch Bar
If you mistakenly deleted the icon for the Desktop on the Quicklaunch toolbar
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
(where user_name is replaced by your login name)
Create a Text file called ShowDesktop.SCF with the following contents:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop Go to top

Network Access After Norton Anti-Virus Install
Sometimes you can't access a WinXP computer after installing Norton Anti-Virus.
There might be a variety of errors at the other computer depending on the operating system.
On the XP computer, in the Event Viewer / System log, there will be the following error:
The server's configuration parameter "irpstacksize" is too small for the server to use a local device.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\lanmanserver\parameters
Edit the IRPStackSize
Give it a value of 15
Reboot the computer

Configure for Auto-Logon
If you are the only person using the computer and what to have it automatically log you on,
Start / Run / "control userpasswords2" - no quotes
Uncheck User must enter a user name and password to use this computer
Services You Can Disable
There are quite a few services you can disable from starting automatically.
This would be to speed up your boot time and free resources.
They are only suggestions so I suggestion you read the description of each one when you run Services
and that you turn them off one at a time.

Some possibilities are:
Alerter - Sends alert messages to specified users that are connected to the server computer.
Application Management - Allows software to tap directly into the Add/Remove Programs feature via the Windows Installer technology.
Background Intelligent Transfer Service - The Background Intelligent Transfer

service is used by programs (such as Windows AutoUpdate) to download files by using spare bandwidth.
Clipbook - ClipBook permits you to cut and paste text and graphics over the network.
Error Reporting Service - Allows applications to send error reports to Microsoft in the event of an application fault.
Fast User Switching - Windows XP allows users to switch quickly between accounts, without requiring them to log off.
Help and Support - Allows the XP Built-in Help and Support Center to run.
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service - You don't need this if you have other software to create CDs.
Indexing Service - Indexes contents and properties of files on local and remote computers; provides rapid access to files through flexible querying language.
IP SEC - Manages IP security policy and starts the ISAKMP/Oakley (IKE) and the IP security driver. If you are not on a domain, you likely don't need this running.
Messenger - Transmits net send and Alerter service messages between clients and servers. This is how a lot of pop-up windows start appearing on your desktop.
Net Logon - Supports pass-through authentication of account logon events for computers in a domain. If you are not on a domain, you don't need this running
Network DDE - Provides network transport and security for Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) for programs running on the same computer or on different computers.
NT LM Security Support Provider - Provides security to remote procedure call (RPC) programs that use transports other than named pipes.
Performance Logs and Alerts - Collects performance data from local or remote computers based on preconfigured schedule parameters, then writes the data to a log or triggers an alert. If you don't need to monitor your performance logs, then you don't need this service.
Portable Media Serial Number - Retrieves the serial number of any portable music player connected to your computer
QOS RSVP - Provides network signaling and local traffic control setup functionality for QoS-aware programs and control applets.
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager - Manages and controls Remote Assistance. If you are not using Remote Desktop you don't need this service.
Remote Registry - Enables remote users to modify registry settings on this computer.
Routing & Remote Access - Offers routing services to businesses in local area and wide area network environments. Allows dial-in access.
Secondary Login - Enables starting processes under alternate credentials. This is what allows you to run an application as another user.
Smart Card - Manages access to smart cards read by this computer.
Smart Card Helper - Enables support for legacy non-plug and play smart-card readers used by this computer.
SSDP Discovery Service - Enables discovery of UPnP devices on your home network.
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper - Enables support for NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) service and NetBIOS name resolution. This should not be needed in today's network environment.
Telnet - Enables a remote user to log on to this computer and run programs, and supports various TCP/IP Telnet clients.
Uninterruptible Power Supply Service - Manages an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) connected to the computer.
Universal Plug and Play Device Host - Provides support to host Universal Plug and Play devices
Upload Manager - Manages synchronous and asynchronous file transfers between clients and servers on the network.
Volume Shadow Copy Service - Manages and implements Volume Shadow Copies used for backup and other purposes.
Web Client - Enables Windows-based programs to create, access, and modify non-local files across the Internet.
Wireless Zero Configuration - Provides automatic configuration for the 802.11 adapters
WMI Performance Adapter - Provides performance library information from WMI HiPerf providers.

Cleaning the Prefetch Directory
WindowsXP has a new feature called Prefetch. This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs.
However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.
To clean this periodically go to:
Star / Run / Prefetch
Press Ctrl-A to highlight all the shorcuts
Delete them Go to top

Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages
To turn these off:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\policies\system
If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named DisableStatusMessages
Give it a value of 1

Repair Install
If XP is corrupted to the point where none of the previous solutions get it to boot,
you can do a Repair Install that might work as well as keep the current settings.
Make sure you have your valid WindowsXP key.
The whole process takes about half an hour depending on your computer
If you are being prompted for the administrator's password, you need to choose the 2nd repair option, not the first.
Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD
At the second R=Repair option, press the R key
This will start the repair
Press F8 for I Agree at the Licensing Agreement
Press R when the directory where WindowsXP is installed is shown. Typically this is C:\WINDOWS
It will then check the C: drive and start copying files
It will automatically reboot when needed. Keep the CD in the drive.
You will then see the graphic part of the repair that is like during a normal install of XP (Collecting Information, Dynamic Update, Preparing Installation, Installing Windows, Finalizing Installation)
When prompted, click on the Next button
When prompted, enter your XP key
Normally you will want to keep the same Workgroup or Domain name
The computer will reboot
Then you will have the same screens as a normal XP Install
Activate if you want (usually a good idea)
Register if you want (but not necessary)
Finish
At this point you should be able to log in with any existing accounts. Go to top

NTOSKRNL Missing or Corrupt
If you get an error that NTOSKRNL not found:
Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.
At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
Typically this will be #1
Change to the drive that has the CD ROM.
CD i386
expand ntkrnlmp.ex_ C:\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe
If WindowsXP is installed in a different location, just make the necessary change to C:\Windows
Take out the CD ROM and type exit

HAL.DLL Missing or Corrupt
If you get an error regarding a missing or corrupt hal.dll file, it might simply be the BOOT.INI file on the root of the C: drive that is misconfigured
Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.
At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
Typically this will be #1
Type bootcfg /list to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file
Type bootcfg /rebuild to repair it
Take out the CD ROM and type exit

Corrupted or Missing \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG
If you get the error:
Windows could not start because the following files is missing or corrupt
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE
Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.
At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
Typically this will be #1
Enter in the administrator password when requested
cd \windows\system32\config
Depending on which section was corrupted:
ren software software.bad or ren system system.bad
Depending on which section was corrupted
copy \windows\repair\system
copy \windows\repair\software
Take out the CD ROM and type exit Go to top

NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM Not Found
If you get an error that NTLDR is not found during bootup,
If you have FAT32 partitions, it is much simpler than with NTFS.
Just boot with a Win98 floppy and copy the NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM files
from the i386 directory to the root of the C:\ drive.
For NTFS:
Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.
At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
Typically this will be #1
Enter in the administrator password when requested
Enter in the following commands (X: is replaced by the actual drive letter that is assigned to the CD ROM drive.
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C\:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
Take out the CD ROM and type exit

Bringing Up the Shutdown Dialog Box
Create a new txt file somewhere on your system, open it and put in this one line:
(new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application")).ShutdownWindows();
Save and Close the file. Change the extension to js and your got it.
You can make a shortcut to that file to make it easy to shut down your system.

Hiding the Last User Logged On
If you use the standard NT style of login and want to hide the last user:
Start the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
Go to Computer Configuration / Windows Settings / Security Settings / Local Policies / Security Options
Scroll down to Interactive logon: Do not display last user name
Set it to Enable Go to top

Poweroff at Shutdown
If your computer does not turn off the power when doing a shutdown,
you may need to edit the registry. I have all the correct BIOS and Power settings and still needed to do this.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Edit the key PowerOffActive and give it a value of 1
You can do the same in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

Remembering Folder Settings
If XP does not remember your folder settings, delete or rename the following registry keys
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell NoRoam\BagMRU]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell NoRoam\Bags]

Preventing Applications from Stealing the Focus
To prevent applications from stealing the focus from the window you are working
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop
Edit the key ForegroundLockTimeout
Give it a value of 00030d40

Disable Explorer Thumbnail View
If you want disable the Explorer's ability to show the Thumbnail View ,
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced \
Change ClassicViewState to 1 Go to top

Disable Shared Documents
To disable the Shared Documents folder that shows up on the network
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer \
Create a new DWORD Value
Give it the name NoSharedDocuments
Give it a value of 1
Log off or reboot

Removing Thumbs.db Files
When viewing a folder with the Thumbnail view, WindowsXP creates a thumbs.db file.
This is a cache of the current pictures in that directory.
If you want to turn this feature off and save a little disk space
Start the Windows Explorer
Go to Tools / Folder Options / View
In the first section under Files and Folders, check Do not cache thumbnails
Now you can search for the thumbs.db file on your computer and remove them. No more should be created.

Enable / Disable the Task Manager
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System
Create the Dword value DisableTaskMgr
Give it a value of 0 to enable it
Give it a vaule of 1 to disable it Go to top

Clearing the Page File on Shutdown
Another way to set the computer to clear the pagefile without directly editing the registry is:
Click on the Start button
Go to the Control Panel
Administrative Tools
Local Security Policy
Local Policies
Click on Security Options
Right hand menu - right click on "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile"
Select "Enable"
Reboot

If you want to clear the page file on each shutdown:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Set the value to 1

No GUI Boot
If you don't need to see the XP boot logo,
Run MSCONFIG
Click on the BOOT.INI tab
Check the box for /NOGUIBOOT

Using the Classic Search in Explorer
If you prefer to use the classic search style in Explorer,
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\CabinetState
Add a String Key called Use Search Asst
Give it a value of no Go to top

Changing Drive Letters
If you want to change the letters assigned to your fixed or removable drives:
Right Click on My Computer
Select Manage
Select Disk Management
For a Fixed Disk:
Select it
Right click
Select Change Drive Letter and Path
Click on the Edit button
Enter in the letter you want to use
For a Removable Disk:
In the lower, right hand panel, right click on the Disk or CD ROM #
Select Change Drive Letter and Path
Click on the Edit button
Enter in the letter you want to use

Changing the Registered Owner
Start Regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
From there you can edit the name in the Registered Owner key

Decreasing Boot Time
Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the time it takes to boot to WindowsXP
The program is called BootVis
Uncompress the file.
Run BOOTVIS.EXE
For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark
After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs of your system startup.
Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the red vertical line)
Then run Trace / Optimize System
Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays
Note how much the time has decreased
Mine went from approximately 39 to 30 seconds. Go to top

Hide/Unhide Logon Names
If you want to hide or unhide the names of users that are displayed on the initial logon screen:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList
Add a DWORD with the name of the user account you want to hide
Make sure it has a value of 0
If there is an existing account, you can unhide it by giving it a value of 1

WindowsXP Command Line Utilities
While there are a lot of command line utilities in WindowsXP, here are some that I have been using lately.
bootcfg - Configures, queries, or changes Boot.ini file settings.
driverquery - Displays a list of all installed device drivers and their properties.
getmac - Returns the media access control (MAC) address and list of network protocols associated with each address for all network cards in each computer
gpresult - Displays Group Policy settings and Resultant Set of Policy (RSOP) for a user or a computer
netsh - You can use commands in the Netsh Interface IP context to configure the TCP/IP protocol
schtasks - Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time
systeminfo - Displays detailed configuration information about a computer and its operating system

Creating an Automated Install of WindowsXP
On the WindowsXP CP, in the SUPPORT\TOOLS directory,
there is a file called DEPLOY.CAB.
Extract the programs DEPLOY.CHM (help file) and SETUPMGR.EXE (main program)
Run SETUPMGR and answer the prompts.
This will create both a unattend.bat and unattend.txt file you can use for automated installs.
Note: The batch file might need some minor modification for file locations but it is fairly basic.

Disabling Hibernation
If you don't want to use up the disk space taken by Hibernation, or don't need to use it at all,
you can easily disable it.
Open up the Control Panel / Power Options icon
Click on the Hibernation icon
Uncheck Enable Hibernation Go to top

Increasing System Performance
If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can increase system performance
by having the core system kept in memory.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
Set the value to be 1
Reboot the computer

Common Command Console Utilities
WindowsXP comes with quite a few console utilities you can easily run from the command line:
Computer Management - compmgmt.msc
Disk Managment - diskmgmt.msc
Device Manager - devmgmt.msc
Disk Defrag - dfrg.msc
Event Viewer - eventvwr.msc
Shared Folders - fsmgmt.msc
Group Policies - gpedit.msc
Local Users and Groups - lusrmgr.msc
Performance Monitor - perfmon.msc
Resultant Set of Policies - rsop.msc
Local Security Settings - secpol.msc
Services - services.msc
Component Services - comexp.msc

Automatically Ending Non-Responsive Tasks
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\AutoEndTasks
Set the value to be 1
In the same section, change the WaitToKillAppTimeout to the number of milliseconds you want.

Changing the Internet Explorer Title
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Window Title
Enter what you want appear in the title bar

Changing Programs That Start Automatically
WindowsXP has a similar program, MSCONFIG, that was available in Windows98.
This allows you to view and change what programs are automatically started each time you log in.
The new version also allows you to view and edit the boot.ini file (as well as check for errors and use several advanced switches)

How to copy a DVD which will play on Xbox

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:31:00 +0000

TOOLS YOU WILL NEED:

DVD decrypter
DAEMON TOOLS
DVD2ONE
NERO 5.5.10 or above.

1. Rip the DVD in ISO mode with DVD decrypter to your hdd.
(mode=ISO-read)

2. Right click DEAMON TOOLS icon on your desktop
virtual cd/dvd rom
Device 0 [k] no media
Mount Image - ISO file

3. Make a main folder ( title MOVIE ) on your desktop.
make 2 subfolders in it VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS

4. Open DVD2ONE. choose movie only or entire disc.
source - drive you mounted in step 2 (VIDEO_TS)
Destination - VIDEO_TS folder you created in step 3.
start

5. DEAMON TOOLS - unmount the drive you made in step 2.
you can now delete the ISO file to save disc space

6. open NERO
close wizard
New Compilation DVD
Left Column (DVDROM/UDF/ISO)
No Multisession
UHF check Force DVD compatability (required for x box)
Label ( NAME OF MOVIE ) ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
Click New
drag over the VIDEO_TS FOLDER and AUDIO_TS folder you made
BURN

Trick To Increase Browsing Speed for IE and Firefox

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:25:00 +0000

You really don’t need to tweak your browser in case you are using Firefox because it is a browser which has been specially designed for optimized and fast browsing but if you can make it even a little more fast that would certainly be a treat for you. Likewise there is a trick to make Internet Explorer 6 fast too. Browsers are designed to work with fast connections but with this trick even dial-up users can experience fast and smooth browsing.

Optimize Firefox and IE Browsing Speed

I shall be teaching you two tricks which work separately on Firefox and Internet Explorer. It doesn’t require you to be some expert rather all you have to do is change some registry values and you are done. I have also included a video tutorial for those who want to see it step by step visually. This is perhaps one of the oldest tricks to optimize Firefox and IE but it still works great.

Trick to Increase Firefox Speed

1. Open firefox and in the address bar write about:config and press enter
2. Double click network.http.pipelining and set it to True
3. Double click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set value to 10 from 4
4. Right click and create a new string nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to 0

You are done. Enjoy lightning fast Firefox browsing and now for IE.

Trick to Increase Internet Explorer Speed

1. Go to Start –> Run and type regedit
2. Select HKEY_CURRENT_USER –> Software –> Microsoft –> Windows –> Current Version –> Internet Settings
3. Increase the values (DECIMAL) from default to a higher value e.g. 10

See the difference in speed of IE :D

Here you go with a step by step video tutorial

Lightning Fast Browsing Trick For Internet Explorer And Firefox - video powered by Metacafe
Don’t forget to apply this trick and share your thoughts if the magics work and don’t forget to bookmark this post too.

How Much Windows Vista, in Windows7?

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:17:00 +0000

Is Windows7 will be a complete new operating system or just a modified version of Windows Vista? Microsoft has already confirmed that Windows7 is will be develop on top of the Windows Vista. Windows7 use the same architecture of Windows Vista. Microsoft is trying to build Windiws7 in such way that it won’t require any hardware to run and Windows7 is also enable applications and devices work properly with this new release of Windows that are working with previous version of Windows.

Microsoft is not creating any new Kernel for Windows7. The idea behind is that Microsoft has inverted a huge amount of money to develop a new Kernel architecture for Windows Vista. Windows has a very solid foundation as compare to previous versions of Windows operating system. Windows Vista Kernel has different subsystems like Graphics, Audio and Storage. Windows Server2008 and Windows Vista SP1 developed on top of same kernel and subsystem. As we can expect Microsoft will refine or modify some kernel modules for Windows7.

Windows7 may not have same compatibility issues that windows Vista has over the period of time. Windows will be a transition operating system from Windows Vista. Microsoft is trying to develop Windows7 in such way that, transition process from Windows Vista to Windows7 is smooth and less painful for Windows users.

Samsung LE46A756 46in LCD TV

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:30:00 +0000

Having recently checked out new plasma and LED TVs from the premium end of Samsung's current, expansive TV range, we thought it was time we turned our attention to its premium LCD offering - as modelled for us today in supremely attractive fashion by the 46in LE46A756.

Although we accept there are those among you who just can't stomach the ‘touch of red' design effect sported by Samsung's A656 and A756 TVs, the LE46A756 is actually the fifth TV I've seen with the tinge of red in the bezel, and I personally still lap it up as much as I did the first time I clapped eyes on it. Especially when you add in the ultra polished, glossy feel given to the whole TV by the glass layer sitting on top of the screen frame.

I'm also inclined to lap up the 46A756's connections, particularly their inclusion of four HDMIs, a USB port, and an Ethernet socket. Regular readers will know that these latter two jacks are especially significant on the 46A756 because they provide the means for the TV to access the Internet. Or at least, a Yahoo-sourced corner of the Internet that's been designed to provide ‘live' content to Samsung's Internet TVs.

The Ethernet jack is pretty self-explanatory in this regard, simply enabling you to hardwire the TV into your router or broadband ‘pipe'. The USB, meanwhile, can allow you to jack the TV into your network wirelessly, courtesy of an optional (£20) ‘Linkstick' dongle.

My painful experiences with getting other Samsung online TVs working properly meant that this time I actually didn't have to spend too long getting the LE46A756 talking to the remote Yahoo server - though I still had to turn my router's PING protection off temporarily. However, I'd recommend that anyone trying to get this TV online wirelessly for the first time should set at least a frustrating hour aside - unless you happen to be particularly IT-literate.

The rewards for your online efforts are arguably a bit more limited than you might expect, in that you certainly don't get full Internet access. Essentially you're just given access to news tickers, fuller news stories, stocks and shares updates and weather reports. But you can at least choose your weather report by region, and set favourite lists for stocks and shares. Plus this is probably just the start for this feature, with other features likely - hopefully! - set to appear in the future.

It's worth adding before we move onto other matters that the LE46A756's USB and Ethernet jacks are also notable for being able to play JPEG, MP3, and various film multimedia files from USB storage devices or even a connected PC. In fact, the Ethernet is DLNA-certified, for full access to your PC multimedia files via the TV's remote.

As if all this wasn't cutting edge enough, the LE46A756 has one other major innovation up its sumptuous sleeves: The Content Library. Tucked away in a hefty chunk of built-in memory is a diverse amount of pre-loaded multimedia content, ranging from cooking recipes to animated children's stories, a selection of photos you can use as screensavers, sing-a-long children's songs, exercise routines, and even some (very basic) games.

However, although this stuff is for the most part as beautifully presented as it is innovative, I'm not wholly convinced about how much of it most people will really bother with on a regular basis. But as with the online connectivity, it nonetheless feels like another early glimpse of the future of TV, as well as making for a great after-dinner conversation piece.

The LE46A756's screen boasts a Full HD resolution, as you'd expect these days, together with an eye-catching contrast ratio of 70,000:1 - the highest figure I can remember seeing on a non-LED LCD TV.

Also on hand is a seriously wide-ranging set of tweaks for getting pictures to look exactly how you want them. Probably the most significant of these tweaks is a 100Hz Motion Plus system that both doubles the image's frame rate and introduces new frames of image data to make motion look more fluid as well as more detailed.

Also of note are noise reduction routines, a black level booster, a skin-tone adjustment, an edge enhancement processor, backlight adjustment, a gamma adjustment, and white balance adjustment - but there are still other things to have a go at if you really haven't got anything better to do!

The recent Samsung plasma and LED sets I mentioned at the start of this group test have all proved very impressive. And happily the LE46A756 makes it a clean technology sweep, with one of the finest ‘straight' LCD picture performances I've seen.

Particularly impressive are the profound black levels the set can achieve. As Batman and Rachel are pursued through Gotham at night by the police in the Batman Begins Blu-ray, the night sky looks remarkably free of the usual LCD greyness, helping give the scene real credibility; the cinematography a superb sense of depth; and the picture overall a degree of dynamism that really does put most LCD rivals in the shade. Or to sum things up more succinctly, dark scenes on the LE46A756 look stunning to a degree not usually seen outside of the plasma or LED world.

In fact, although the LE46A756's black levels aren't as profound as those of Samsung's LED-based LE55A956, they don't suffer with the LED model's occasional ‘blooming' problem around bright image elements, and so I suspect some people might prefer the LE46A756's approach to all things dark.

Another spectacular success of the LE46A756's pictures is how sharp and detailed they look when showing HD. The breathtaking image quality of the first six minutes of The Dark Knight, filmed using IMAX cameras and included as a bonus feature on the Batman Begins Blu-ray, is delivered with exceptional panache by the LE46A756 thanks to a combination of impeccable fine detailing, perfectly blended colours, and perhaps most exciting of all, precious little in the way of either motion blur or the sort of visual artefacts often caused by motion-enhancing processing.

I should clarify here that you do have to be a little careful with the TV's settings to achieve this impressive motion. In particular you should only have the 100Hz Motion Plus system set to its ‘Low' level, for pushing it higher invariably results in clear glitching around edges, while leaving it off altogether results in judder and a generally less distinct look to moving objects.

I'd also recommend using the Standard image preset (not the awful Dynamic one) with contrast set between 75-80, the backlight set around 5, the brightness no higher than 50, Dynamic Contrast set to Low, the black adjustment switched off, and finally the Edge Enhancement tool set off too, as to me this over-exaggerates contrasty edges and makes the image look inconsistent and rough as a result.

Follow the above measures and as well as the picture looking stunningly sharp and rich in black level, it will also enjoy a scintillating combination of vividly saturated but also unusually natural colours. Maybe the colours produced by Philips' Wide Colour Gamut sets (such as the 42PFL9703D) are even more expressive still, but it's a close run thing. And don't forget that this Samsung set costs considerably less than an equivalent-sized 9703 model.

I do have a trio of gripes with the picture, though. Firstly, there's one traditional LCD weakness the LE46A756 has not been able to overcome: an uninspiring viewing angle. Watch from 45 degrees or more, and the familiar problems of diminishing black levels and colour saturations set in.

Secondly, I found the screen to be a little more reflective of ambient light in my test room than most TVs I see these days, to a degree that really could become tiresome if you happen to have one of the lights in your room positioned in such a way that it's likely to be reflected by the LE46A756.

Finally, there's occasionally a sudden moment of edge smearing even with the 100Hz Motion Plus system correctly set. But thankfully these moments are seldom truly distracting, and so the positives of the system far outweigh the negatives.

The LE46A756 isn't nearly as outstanding sonically as it is visually. There's a bit more of an open feeling to the soundstage than we noted with Samsung's A656 and lower models, but a shortage of deep bass and a tendency to sound thin during action scenes still keep it out of the audio A-list.

Verdict

The LE46A756's lovely design proves to be an entirely appropriate portal into a world of LCD picture quality that's up there with the very best we've seen. What's more, the set's feature count is as prodigious as it is groundbreaking, and its price really isn't out of the way at all considering what's on offer. In other words, the Samsung boys have done good. Again.

Pocket Power

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:27:00 +0000

The technology industry is constantly promising us the world. Not a day goes by that I don't hear about some revolutionary new hardware, software or concept that will change the way in which we live our lives. Unfortunately though, more often than not, these promises either amount to nothing, or take an absolute age to come to fruition.

Take the concept of convergence as an example. For the best part of a decade I'd heard IT and consumer electronics companies talking about the convergence of the two industries, thus creating products that borrowed from both areas in order to create a new platform for consumers. Of course that convergence is now common place in pretty much every home, in the shape of HDTVs, gaming consoles, and any number of wireless devices. And yes, our lives probably are that bit better as a result of the concept of convergence becoming a reality, but it doesn't change the fact that it took an awful long time to actually arrive.

Something else that the technology industry has been promising us for many years is the concept of a fully featured and connected mobile computer in our pocket, and I think that this concept is also pretty close to reality. Right now we're seeing a new age of mobile devices hitting the market, devices that are so feature rich, that they would have been the reserve of science fiction only a few years ago. The sheer power and usability of the latest generation of smartphones is staggering, even for someone as entrenched in the technology industry as myself.

To give credit where it's due, RIM is probably the company that really changed the perception of mobile devices when it introduced the first BlackBerry handset. Before the BlackBerry came on the scene, the idea of having your email delivered to your pocket was sheer fantasy. OK, so there were ways to access your email using devices like the Psion Series 5, or the Palm Pilot, but having email sent directly to your pocket, simply and easily came with the BlackBerry. In fact, we should really thank the fragmented mobile phone industry in the US at the time for this breakthrough. With differing standards and incompatible networks, the ubiquitous SMS communication that had swept through Europe simply didn't work in the States, so the concept of mobile email seemed to be the obvious answer.

Despite the fact that I still believe that there are relatively few people that need access to their email anytime and anywhere, it didn't stop the BlackBerry becoming a scarily addictive accessory for millions of us. Over time push email and BlackBerry handsets moved out of the corporate world, with consumers deciding that they too wanted email anywhere. Meanwhile other platforms started to offer push email services too, desperately trying to break the BlackBerry stranglehold.

By contrast, I think that Windows Mobile actually held things back rather than enhanced the situation. Microsoft's insistence that its mobile OS should look, feel and act the same as its desktop operating system just resulted in a poor user experience. OK, so for business users Windows Mobile isn't a bad solution, and it does pretty much everything you need it to, but for consumers it's hardly the most user friendly interface. The problem with Windows Mobile is epitomised by the fact that even now, there is no scalable browser bundled with the OS, leaving users to download and install Opera Mini if they plan on mobile browsing.

Credit where it's due though - if it wasn't for Windows Mobile, we wouldn't have seen as many advancements in mobile hardware. HTC for instance, is one of the most innovative mobile hardware manufacturers in the world, and if it wasn't for Windows Mobile, we probably wouldn't have seen half the smartphones that populate the market today. I guess it's fair to say that Windows Mobile was a necessary evil. And of course, there's always the chance that Windows Mobile 7 will be a streamlined, user friendly, stylus free affair - but then again, probably not.

Right now though, we’re seeing some of the best mobile devices to ever hit the market. As with all Apple products, there’s a massive amount of hype surrounding the iPhone, but for the most part, the device itself lives up to all the marketing and fan evangelism. When the original iPhone launched last year it really did change the face of mobile user interfaces, proving that you didn’t need a mechanical keyboard, or a stylus to operate a fully featured smartphone. More recently, the iPhone 3G has addressed many of the shortcomings of the original handset, while sporting a surprisingly affordable price tag.

But by the look of it Apple isn’t going to have everything its own way. The recently launched BlackBerry Bold is a superb smartphone, with a screen that’s every bit as captivating as the iPhone’s. However, while most corporate users will have trouble convincing their IT departments to support an iPhone, the Bold will slip seamlessly into any corporate exchange setup. Data rates on the Bold are lightning fast, while the integrated GPS is one of the best I’ve seen in a phone. And let’s not forget that the even newer BlackBerry Storm has just broken cover, which offers a full touchscreen interface, just like the iPhone - could this be the handset that bridges the gap between corporate and consumer smartphones?

Even an old stalwart like Nokia has made some pretty major leaps in recent months. The excellent E71 for example took the battle directly to BlackBerry when it came to corporate email devices, and even now, after the launch of the Bold, the E71 still looks like a very attractive alternative to the ubiquitous BlackBerry. Meanwhile, the N96 is continuing Nokia’s push into the mobile entertainment market, after the significant success of the N95 8GB. I doubt that too many O2 customers will be choosing one over an iPhone 3G though.

As if all this development in mobile technology wasn’t enough, we’re just about to see another major player enter the market and push the envelope even further. With T-Mobile getting set to launch its G1 handset, we’re just weeks, or perhaps days, from seeing Google’s much anticipated Android mobile interface hit the retail market. I’ve spent some time with the G1 already and so far I’m very impressed with what Google has brought to the table. Much like Apple with its iPhone interface, Google’s Android is a simple, fast and ultimately user friendly mobile operating system, that should win many friends.

It’s also worth noting that the G1 itself is a pretty decent handset, although it was inevitable that the hardware on which Android launched would play second fiddle to the OS itself. That said, it comes as no surprise to see that HTC is the launch partner, and I sincerely hope that we’ll be seeing as many Android based HTC devices as we see Windows Mobile handsets over the coming year.

With Android being open source from the outset, it also has the potential of evolving faster than any other mobile operating system, while also winning over hobbyist developers. We’ll have to wait and see how many hardware manufacturers adopt Google’s mobile interface, but judging by what I’ve seen so far, I can’t imagine that many would choose not to. One thing’s for sure though, like the original BlackBerry, or the iPhone, the launch of Android will move the game on, and push every player to make better hardware and software. And with that in mind, maybe the mobile industry is about to make good on its promise of fully featured, connected, mobile computers in all our pockets.

LG KT520

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:24:00 +0000

LG appears to be going great guns at the moment with its mobile phones. The KS360 quirky might not have achieved top-notch scores but its consumer focussed sliding keyboard proves the company is prepared to innovate, while the 5-megapixel camera toting KC550 was designed to bring high quality photography to the masses.

Now we have the KT520 which as I write is exclusive to O2 and costs £90 on Pay and Go. The phone is tri-band GSM with 3G. It isn't designed to rock anybody's world with its fancy and innovative features. Instead it is meant to be a foil to handsets like LG's Secret, and to be a solidly mid-range mobile.

Click to enlarge

It certainly has a mid-range ambiance to it. I'm not too delighted with the chunky feel of this mobile in the hand. Even given that this is a slider I'm not happy about its 15mm or so of thickness. It is also a bit tall for my hands at just under 102mm when closed, growing to just over 135mm when opened. Width is OK at pretty much 50mm and it is a mere 97g in weight which is welcome.

The light weight can be put down in large part to the plastic body. LG has gone for a traditional black and sliver livery that works well enough, but even with the rounded corners the feel is just a little on the cost-cutting side. The slide mechanism is smooth, though.

The screen measures 2.2 inches diagonally and delivers a standard 240 x 320 pixels. I've no real complaints about it except to say that LG could probably have squeezed something a little larger into the casing - albeit with a concomitant price hike.

Beneath the screen you'll find a button bank. Call and End keys are very close to the bottom of the handset, which, as they are likely to be the most frequently used keys on this mobile, is a bit of an awkward position for them. I'd have liked them further up. The softmenu keys are a long way below the softmenus to which they correspond. To be fair this won't make a difference in everyday use, but it does look a little strange.

In between the softmenu and Call/End keys sit a Clear key and a switcher. The latter is very useful as you can use it to move quickly between applications that you've already opened on the phone. There's another handy option on the left softkey when you are in the home screen. Labelled ‘My stuff', this takes you directly to a list of folders containing images, sounds, videos, games and apps, downloads and flash and other stuff stored on the phone and on a microSD card.

As usual for LG, menu options are hardwired into number-pad keys, so you can either tap the corresponding number key or use the D-pad to get around. The numberpad keys should suit anyone who does a lot of texting. They are large and give out a little click when pressed. I'm not convinced about their durability, though. There is a lot of flex around the number pad as you press keys, and mechanical longevity could be suspect.

The D-pad has a little trick up its sleeve. A central select button and surrounding directional pad, complete with arrows to remind you about its up, down, left and right functioning can be made touch-sensitive.

You can configure this feature to be off, on, or only functional for Web browsing. You can also set its speed to high, medium or low. Turned on, you move your thumb around the sensor to make selections. It's not exactly a new idea, and while it is nice to see it implemented on a lower cost mobile I did find it a bit fiddly. The D-pad's select button has a sensitive area with a circumference of about 8mm, which I found to be pretty small to work with.

The music player is adequate. There is 30MB of on-board memory and a microSD card slot for you to add more. The player automatically found tunes stored all over the place on my microSD card which is just how I like things. Having to put songs into designated folders is a no-no where ease of use is concerned.

Loudspeaker volume is not as high as on some handsets but perfectly good enough. The quality of the provided headset is reasonable, and the equaliser settings, of which there are several, do make a noticeable difference. LG falls over by not offering user defined equaliser settings and, more importantly, by having a proprietary connector for the headset. This is the same connector required by PC cable and mains power. The player supports the genres tag but not composers.

There is a front camera for video calls, and the lens for the main camera is on the back of the casing. It is a bit of a downer that the lens isn't kept scratch-safe inside the slide mechanism. It shoots to 3-megapixels and benefits from autofocus, but there is no flash and no self-portrait mirror.

Both indoors and out results were iffy. The coloured dish is a bit lacking in vibrancy and its background should be white rather than the dull off-white it is in the photo.

Outside, the chair photo is not uniformly the brilliant white it should be, and the flower photo reveals a multitude of sins. The flowers are overexposed, and focus is out. The phone was about 15 inches from them and it decided to focus on the slightly further away leaves. Distance shots were more acceptable, but the camera has some very clear limitations.

There's no Wi-Fi - well you wouldn't expect that on a mid-range phone, really. Mobile email of the POP variety is supported alongside SMS messaging.Yahoo! OneSearch is built in; an RSS reader supplements the Web browser plus there's a voice recorder, calendar, to do list, memo tool, alarm, calculator, stopwatch, unit converter, world time utility, date finder (it tells you the date 'n' number of days into the future), and LG's Secret Memo application that lets you protect info with a security code. LG provides a cable so you can connect the phone to a PC.

Verdict

There's nothing outstanding about this mobile, and its one headline feature, the D-pad sensor, is a bit iffy. Still, on the other hand, for £90 this isn't a bad little phone. Just don't expect too much from its camera.

Nokia 5320 XpressMusic

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Nokia is hitting the mobile phone headlines again at the moment. Its N96 is making waves and the newComes With Music all you can eat music download service is also kicking up a bit of a storm.

Comes with Music is currently compatible with just three Nokia handsets - the only just announced 5800 XpressMusic which is Nokia's first touch-screened handset, the N95 8GB and the 5310 XpressMusic. I'm looking forward to testing the service in due course, but in the mean time music fans who also like Nokia mobiles have another addition to the XpressMusic range to contemplate - the 5320 XpressMusic.

When I've looked at earlier handsets in the XpressMusic range, I've been a little nonplussed. Take the 5310 XpressMusic for example, which turned out to be a case of great hardware, shame about the software.

So had Nokia got it right and come up with a rival for the best of Sony Ericsson's music focussed handsets this time around? I don't think so.

The 5320 XpressMusic is not meant to be a high end mobile. If anything it is a case of Nokia trying to get mid-range users hooked on mobile music. So you shouldn't expect anything groundbreaking.

Can you cram it with music? Well, yes if you think cramming involves stuffing its 140MB of memory and 1GB microSD card with music is going to provide enough storage space for you. You can opt for a bigger card as the phone supports SDHC cards. I tried one of SanDisk's new 16GB microSDHC cards and the phone had no problem with it. The problem comes in getting to the microSD card slot. This is on the left edge of the casing but its cover is difficult to lift without first removing the battery cover.

Can you listen to music in a satisfactory way? Well, the phone automatically looks for tracks when you put a microSD card in the slot and updates it library, saving you the bother of doing this manually.

There is a 3.5mm headset jack into the phone and another just past the headset's mic. The provided headphones are not that great and sound quality was vastly improved when I switched to a decent set. The provided in-ear buds came without any cushions and I found them incredibly uncomfortable to wear. Of course you can use a Bluetooth stereo headset if you prefer.

There is an equaliser. It has pre-sets for bass booster, classical, jazz, pop and rock. You can make manual settings and save them with whatever name you like. This is all good, but sadly the equaliser had no discernable effect for me. I am sure this is the phone's problem and not my ears, even though Nokia says the phone has a dedicated audio chip.

Battery life was pretty good. I got eight and a quarter hours of non-stop music played through the handset loudspeaker after a full battery charge. The speaker is quite loud and though a little distorted at top volume it isn't a disaster.

There is a novelty in the ability to control the music player by voice. Nokia calls this ‘Say and Play'. You say an artist name, artist and song title, artist and album title or playlist name and the phone plays your selection. In theory. I wasn't too impressed with its performance. It didn't do well identifying classical composers and was generally a bit hit and miss.

You use this service by holding down the My Own key and then speaking. The key can be programmed to launch whatever you like on a short press. It sits above the screen rather than on one of the edges, which is the more usual location for this kind of key. This is largely because the phone supports N-Gage and the key doubles up as a gaming button. There's also an FM radio with RDS , for those times when listening to your own tunes gets a bit boring.

So, all in all this is a competent music phone, with some positive features, even if it doesn't set the world alight with novelty.

In terms of looks and handling there isn't a huge amount for Nokia to crow about. The 5320 XpressMusic is nowhere near as nicely designed as the 5310 for a start. The casing is plastic and the upside of this is that the phone is light at just 90g. But it doesn't feel like particularly solid phone. It is a little fat to be called swanky at 15mm, though at 108mm tall and 46mm wide it is comfortable to handle.

The screen is a little on the small side at just two inches across the diagonal, but its 320 x 240 pixels are sharp enough and the screen is bright.

Side buttons enable you to control volume, shift between tracks and pause/play music. When you are viewing the music player screen all but the volume control functions are accomplished using the D-pad. The D-pad is 8-way, incidentally, largely for N-Gage purposes.

The button pad is flat apart from the raised D-Pad. Its buttons are irregularly shaped with the Nokia Menu, clear, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 0 buttons having rounded edges and the remainder simply fitting into the space they leave behind. This lends the phone a distinctive look and doesn't negatively affect usability, which is reasonably good except for the fact that the softkeys aren't near enough to the edges of the phone for my liking.

This is a 3G handset with a front-facing camera for video-calling. It is quad-band GSM with EDGE. The main camera is a bit of a let-down. It does have a dedicated side button, but thereafter the good news fades away.

Its maximum resolution is 2-megapixels and quality is mediocre. A twin LED flash helps with low-light photographs but as ever you need to be close to the subject to feel its benefit. There is no autofocus.

The coloured dish photographed under normal household lighting is dull, grainy and lacklustre. Outdoors the chair lacks uniformity of colour and definition is poor. The flowers are good as far as colour reproduction is concerned, but are over exposed.

There is lots of other stuff on this handset including Nokia's web browser, which performed fairly well at its 3G speeds, QuickOfffice and the Adobe PDF reader for reading documents in a range of formats, plus clock, calculator, calendar, Nokia's Active Notes for embedding HTML and other multimedia into notes, unit converter, RealPlayer, and a voice recorder. Nokia Maps is here too, but there's no GPS in the phone.

Verdict

The 5320 XpressMusic doesn't break any new ground for music phones but there is lots of software built in. You might want to hold out for a Comes With Music handset, though.

Samsung U800

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:17:00 +0000

Samsung seems to be a bit of an unstoppable force at the moment, with new handsets popping up with great frequency. Only a couple of weeks ago we had the 8-megapixel flagship model the i8510, which reached the rare status of a TrustedReviews Recommended award.

Now I have the mid-range U800. This handset doesn't have any headline-busting features, but it does really appeal to me in terms of design and usability. There is no flashy Omnia and Tocco style touchscreen and the chameleon-like touchpad on the slider Soul U900 has been forsaken for more standard controls.

But in the place of these ‘look at me' features we have a solid build, a light-weight, portable design, and a mobile that is very usable and manages tri-band GSM connections along with HSDPA to 3.6MBps.

The U800 has a mostly slate grey brushed stainless steel body which, in combination with the pearly white backlight to the keys and buttons, and black plastic sides and bottom ridge, give it a very appealing, if hardly innovative look.

In the hand the U800 feels fantastic. It is just 9.9mm thick and quite narrow at 46mm. It weighs just 92g. If I have a grumble it is that the phone is a little tall at 111mm.

The height appears to have been used to allocate more than the typical amount of space to the D-pad and its associated buttons. The extra millimetres have certainly not been allocated to the screen which is relatively small at just 2in. At least its 320 x 240 pixels are nice and sharp. And it is bright too.

Nor has the extra space gone to the numberpad. This is a flat pad with horizontal ridges separating the button rows. Each button has quite a tactile feel to it, and Samsung's usual plinks and plonks provide further confirmation that you've pressed a key. They are quite loud at top volume, though, and could embarrass you in some quieter environments. The side-mounted volume rocker might get used quite a lot to regulate this.

So it is definitely the D-pad area that has benefited from the U800's tallness. The D-pad itself is nice and large and to its left and right tall keys provide dual access to the softmenus and Call and End features. Hooray for a nice, simple and easy to use button design.

The D-pad keys double up on the home screen so that pressing up takes you to profiles, down to the web browser, left to message creation, right to the music player.

The home screen is a triumph of minimalism. All it shows you is the time in a rather stylised display that is different to anything else I've seen. When you are playing music there is an additional panel reminding you of the current tune and that the D-pad offers playback controls.

When it comes to the general look and feel of things you can choose between three themes and then use the built in creator tool to customise them to the nth degree, changing the background images, icons and fonts, and icon types. You can really go to town here and create a unique look for your phone.

The music player had no trouble finding tunes located in random folders on the microSD card I popped into the side slot. Internal memory runs to 1GB. Sound quality from the built in loudspeaker, which sits on the top edge of the phone, was good. The provided two-piece headphones are a nicely designed in-ear pair, with a 3.5mm connector at the microphone. Their sound quality was pretty good too.

Though not as impressive as the best I've heard, I was pleased with sound quality via the provided kit. This is not surprising since sound output is assisted by Bang & Olufsen ICEpower.

However, Samsung really needs to think seriously about its proprietary headset connector to the handset. It shares the power connector and Samsung really would do itself a favour by building a 3.5mm headset connector right into the phone. And, incidentally, putting that connector on the top or bottom edge of the casing. Its location on the phone's right edge makes it all rather cumbersome to slot this beautifully thin and neat U800 into a pocket, as the headset adds no less than 15mm to the width required. Bah!

There is a front-mounted camera for two-way video calling. The main back-mounted 3-megapixel camera is not enough to set your world alight and it does have a few important problems.

The LED flash helps a little in low light conditions, and the camera controls are mostly easy to use. The D-pad takes on a new role enabling you to access the self-timer, flash, brightness and an ‘icons' mode which you can use to have gridlines on screen, information icons there, or a mostly blank screen for framing shots.

Irritatingly, you can't use the D-pad's select button for shooting, instead relying on the side-mounted button. This is slightly awkward for portrait mode shots. There's no autofocus, shooting anything that is moving is a challenge thanks to shutter lag and close-ups are out of the question unless you like them fuzzy.

Indoors, images were somewhat grainy. The coloured dish, photographed under normal household lighting, illustrates this well. Outside things were better, but the chair is not as sharp as I'd have liked. Colour reproduction on the fruits, which can often be overexposed by phone cameras, was good.

Other applications include an FM radio, voice recorder, Web browser, RSS reader, mobile email, calendar, memo utility, task manager, world clock, calculator, unit converter, timer, stopwatch, five alarms and basic image and video editing. One real plus is longer than average battery life. I got through three to four days between charges providing I didn't thrash the music player too much.

Verdict

I really like the physical design of the U800 but loathe the positioning and proprietary nature of the headset connector. The camera is a bit lacklustre, but music playback and battery life are both good. The remaining apps are a fair set for a mid-range handset but aren't overly inspiring.

HTC Touch Diamond

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:10:00 +0000

Never believe the hype - it's a saying that I place great faith in, because (most of the time) it's true. I've lost count of the number of times a movie that's been hyped as the "must see" of the year, complete with fabulous trailers and impressive special effects, has turned out to be a turkey. It doesn't just apply to movies: it happens in sport (take the Dutch national football side - so often highly rated, so often also-rans), and often in the technology industry too.

Apple is the chief culprit when it comes to hyping its products, but mostly it's worth putting up with because the end product so often delivers. The iPhone, for instance, was so hotly anticipated you'd have forgiven most people for being cynical upon its arrival. Amazingly, in most respects it actually exceeded expectations. But where that product ultimately delivered on the hype, the HTC's Touch Diamond - desperately touted in all corners as Windows Mobile's answer to Cupertino's belle du jour - sadly, doesn't. I'll get my apologies out for delivering the verdict so high up in the review right now, so sorry, but iPhone killer this ain't.

One of the main reasons it's so underwhelming is its build quality, which is disappointingly plasticky. You can take or leave the Nokia Prism-like multi-faceted rear panel, but the cheap, shiny finish is about as far from the iPhone's solid metal build as you can get. Flip the phone over and the theme continues. The flat, flush-to-the-edges screen and sharply-tailored corners are smart enough, but the button panel below the touchscreen again looks poorly finished. Worse still, the four-way directional buttons surrounding the small, circular select key are stiff and often difficult to operate without accidentally pressing neighbouring controls.

I was expecting more, so much more, from a firm that in the past has delivered such fantastic handsets as the TyTn, TyTN II, S710, and the S730. But next to those phones, the Touch Diamond feels much cheaper.

But I'm probably being a little harsh; after all, there are plenty of reasons to like this phone. So here are some of its good points. For starters, it's slimmer and more compact than an iPhone at 51 x 102 x 11mm versus 62 x 116 x 12mm. Its 2.8in screen, though smaller, is sharper at 640 x 480, and lovely and bright too.

And it has to be said that the Diamond's interface - HTC's new Touchflo 3D - does an excellent job of masking the inadequacies of the Windows Mobile front end. So much so, that if you didn't know its background, you'd initially think it was a pretty slick phone. It's certainly a big improvement on the original Touch's thin veneer.

When it first fires up, you're confronted with a nifty clock display with numerals in the style of a flip-number calendar, and a summary of recent missed calls and approaching appointments below it. Along the bottom, in a strip, are shortcut icons to access other enhanced pages. The only remaining remnants of the Windows Mobile Today screen run along the top and bottom edges, with the familiar start menu and status icons at the top and context-sensitive soft keys at the bottom. Naturally, everything here can be navigated with a flick of the finger on the Diamond's hard surface screen.

Click to enlarge

It's not just the Today screen that's had the Touchflo treatment, however. There's slick new styling elsewhere too. On the contacts screen, pictures or silhouettes of people you call regularly are presented in a Rolodex-type graphic - again navigable with a sweep of your pinky. Text messages fly in and out of the screen as you scroll through them, and the first few lines of the latest email appears as a letter poking out of an opened envelope. Fans of the HTC weather display won't be disappointed either - it's here again in all its glory, this time equipped with fancy transition animations.

The input methods are as good as ever, too, with a choice between traditional T9 entry, a compact 20-key QWERTY layout like the physical one available on the Touch Dual (or Touch Plus on T-Mobile), plus a full-sized one-letter per key QWERTY keyboard for when predictive text isn't appropriate. All the keypads are sensibly designed and remarkably easy to use, and as a result I found entering text on the Diamond easy and stress-free, especially when using the 20-key QWERTY pad in predictive text mode.

It's a similar story for pictures and videos, which also see a big finger-friendly boost over the dour Windows Mobile effort. Even the music application is a world away from Windows Media Player's horrible interface, with album art on a rolodex-style front-end and an iPod Touch-style navigation of your music library underlying it. The settings also get the glossy, iPhone-esque treatment: ringtones and sounds, and communications settings, for instance, are available without having to delve into Windows Mobile's confusing menus.

It's the best all-round effort at hiding Microsoft's interface away that I've yet seen, and its best feature is yet to come. Included with the Touch Diamond is a tweaked version of Opera Mobile that, incredibly, rivals the iPhone's Mobile Safari browser for usability. You can't use a pinch of the fingers to zoom in and out, sure, but it operates in a largely similar way to Safari, presenting a zoomed out view of a page initially and then allowing you to quickly zoom in and out (here with a double tap) then pan and push the page around with your finger. In fact I found the page rendering engine to be slightly more reliable than the iPhone's on some tricky websites. I visited a number of sites that didn't quite appear perfectly on the iPhone and the page was spot on with the Diamond.

There's even some good news on the hardware front: the stylus (for the rare occasions you need it) is magnetised and snaps away beautifully into the bottom right corner. Take it out when you're on the phone and you can even set it to launch the notes application automatically - a nice touch. The phone also has accelerometers inside that sense when the phone has been flipped into landscape mode. There's even an addictive little game on board that takes advantage of these sensors - called Teeter: you tilt the phone to roll a ball around a maze, avoiding dropping it in holes along the way.

And there are all the usual high-end HTC bells and whistles when it comes to hardware too. You get tri-band GSM, HSDPA with support for speeds of up to 7.2Mbit/sec, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11bg Wi-Fi and, of course, a GPS receiver. There's a 3.2 megapixel camera on the rear (though this isn't much cop - focus is hit and miss to say the least) and a VGA one on the front for video calls. Under the hood is a 528MHz Qualcomm processor, plus a healthy dollop of RAM (192MB) a decent 256MB of ROM and another 4GB of internal storage too, which will be good for a fair few photos, video clips and music files.

However, you still don't have to dig very deep before Windows Mobile starts to surface - it's a tad disappointing that you have to get the stylus out to set the alarm, for instance, and clicking appointments launches the usual boring style-free Windows display. HTC's Touchflo 3D is also far from perfect. Foibles include no easy way to turn of the alarm when it goes off - the only way I managed this was to poke the narrow status bar at the top, then press the notification icon on the following screen, then dismiss the alarm - hardly what you want when you're half-awake at 6am. HTC's latest software is also far from 100 per cent stable. I had to restart the phone at least once a day because it simply froze and refused to get going again.

And there are other, more serious problems here. The main issue is performance. In adding all these extra whiz-bang features to Windows Mobile, it seems that HTC has seriously compromised the Diamond's responsiveness. I expected the 528MHz processor to absolutely fly, especially with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional at the helm and a whopping 192MB of RAM, but I was all-too-often left twiddling my thumbs waiting for it to respond. Battery life is impressive from a pretty low-capacity 900mAh lithium-ion unit, but one-and-a-half to two days with light use is still a long way from being completely acceptable. And the phone also runs amazingly hot - after a brief five minute session browsing the web at HSDPA speeds, the rear panel was starting to make my fingers sweat.

Further disappointment comes in the shape of HTC's proprietary ExtUSB headset/headphone connection - you'll have to buy yourself a converter if you want to use anything but the rather rubbishy wired stereo headset included in the over-engineered pyramid-shaped box. In a phone that wants to challenge Apple's finest, this is a major oversight.

Most unusual of all, however, is that there's absolutely no way to expand the memory in this device. While 4GB may be a generous inclusion, surely you'd want to give owners the option to quickly transfer large files and install memory hungry applications, such as sat-nav software, without compromising the phone's media storage capacity. But there's no microSD slot anywhere to be seen.

Verdict

The Touch Diamond packs in a lot of features and is a good effort by HTC to rival the iPhone's touchscreen usability while retaining the power and extensibility of Windows Mobile. But despite the hype, the Diamond is distinctly half-baked.

Granted, the Touchflo 3D works better than ever to turn Windows Mobile into a genuine phone interface. It hides the ugly-duckling Windows interface away successfully, and browsing the web on HTC's version of Opera Mobile is fantastic. But as a complete package, the Touch Diamond just doesn't convince. Not only does the build not reach the standard set by the iPhone or even the previous generation of HTC Touch phones (this is especially disappointing given the £400+ price tag), but the performance is laboured and the software not entirely stable.

Philips Aurea 42PFL9903H 42in LCD TV

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:55:00 +0000

Whether you loved it or loathed it, one thing you certainly couldn't do with Philips' debut Aurea TV was ignore it. For the way its bezel used a sophisticated array of LED light sources to provide a luminous, multi-coloured frame around its pictures was as outrageous as it was unique, making it a must-have background item for any self-respecting daytime TV show, and a consistent ‘stand out' product at technology shows the world over.

Even better, the original Aurea TV didn't just look fancy. Its so-called ‘light frame' effect actually seemed to improve the experience of watching the set's already impressive core picture quality.

There were only two big problems with the original Aurea from our point of view: its relatively high cost, and the fact that it seemed to be the televisual equivalent of Marmite, with people either being drawn to it like moths to a flame, or repelled by it as if it was some sort of TV antichrist.

Happily the second generation of Aurea TV, the 42in 42PFL9903, has a stab at tackling both of these original Aurea objections. Its price of £2,500, while certainly not cheap, is at least a few hundred pounds cheaper than its predecessor. And the new design Philips has created for the 42PFL9903 is a really striking improvement over the original Aurea, making it much easier to tempt people into the ‘love' rather than ‘hate' camp.

For starters, the light frame bezel looks much slinkier and cool thanks to the application of a full sheet of glass that uniformly covers both it and the screen. Second, the set now benefits from the chic transparent ‘shroud' effect curving forward around the TV's edges that's so illuminated Philips' other 9 Series models.

Next, Philips has considerably toned down the impact of the little 1.5cm or so ‘strip' that runs directly around the image just before the light frame starts. This inner frame was pretty much black on the original Aurea and so made a significant barrier between the picture and the supposedly complementary light frame. On the new Aurea, by comparison, this inner frame is almost white, and so creates much less of a distraction.

The extra aesthetic glories of Aurea Mark II are raised even further when you actually turn the TV on. For as well as that new inner frame proving much less distracting once the light frame starts glowing away, it's also immediately apparent that the new Light Frame's effect is much more sophisticated than that of its predecessor, for two main reasons.

We'll come to the second reason later, but first, the latest Light Frame contains more LED light sources than the original Aurea Light Frame; 150 versus 128. This enables the new light frame to deliver more localised subtleties and differences in its colours than the original one - and it's remarkable just how striking a difference this extra flexibility makes.

For while the way the light frame responded to colours in an image with the original Aurea was dazzling and clever, here it becomes so accurate it's frankly uncanny. And in the process of redefining the precision with which parts of the light frame's colours tally up with the colours in the image you're watching, Aurea II makes the Light Frame effect appear much more natural and engaging.

In fact, whereas with the original Aurea I experienced a couple of days of resistance to the Light Frame effect before finally embracing it, with Aurea II I found myself loving the concept right from the get-go.

Trying to describe just how endlessly subtle and precise the new light frame effect is brings to mind the old saying that ‘a picture can say a thousand words'. For seriously, if I were to try and outline here the precise location of every colour tone and colour intensity shift the frame portrays to back up a typical TV image, I'd be having to write hundreds of words.

What's more, those words would probably start to sound pretty dry and boring by the end, whereas if there's one thing the Light Frame effect certainly is not, it's dry and boring. So all I can say is, look at some of the pictures accompanying this review, and imagine the drama of the effect shown happening ‘on the fly', as the light frame continually and instantly changes in response to the content of the image you're watching. Better still, try and see an Aurea II in action for yourself. Be careful, though; once you've seen the latest Light Frame strut its stuff, you may no longer be able to live with the relative drabness of your current TV…

If you've got a good memory(!), you might remember that I said there were two reasons why the new Light Frame technology used by Aurea II is better than that used by the original Aurea. And the second reason is that the new Aurea approach brings much more precise frame colour matching to the table.

In other words, Philips has improved the light frame's colour reproduction to the point where it can produce shades much more tonally consistent with the content of pictures. This perhaps doesn't sound such a big deal when you just write it down like that, but believe me when I say that it actually has a profound impact, enabling the frame to forge a much closer bond with the image - and thus with you - than was the case before.

I should add at this point that the 42PFL9903 has LED lights on its rear as well as around its bezel, so that pools of immersive coloured light - dubbed a ‘sensorial halo'! - also spill across the wall behind the TV. This means that in an ideal world you'll be able to stand the TV in front of a white wall, or even hang the TV from a white wall to best appreciate everything the TV has to offer. But if this isn't possible in your home, then at least you still get the impact of the forward-firing light frame - something you wouldn't get with a standard Philips Ambilight set, where the coloured light only comes out of the TV's rear sides.

Having established that the 42PFL9903's Light Frame/Ambilight Spectra system is far more accomplished than that of the previous Aurea model, it's nice to find, too, that the new set is impressively loaded with other features. The set's connectivity, for instance, includes four HDMIs, a DLNA-certified Ethernet jack so that you can access MP3, .alb slideshow, JPEG, and MPEG1/2 movie files on your PC and home network, plus a USB jack for playing the same sort of multimedia files from USB storage devices.

Click to enlarge

It's also good to find the 42PFL9903 sporting not only a Full HD resolution and a Wide Colour Gamut backlight system, but also Philips' Perfect Pixel Engine HD image processing engine - the same key technology that recently made the Philips 42PFL9703D such a winner.

Since we've necessarily had to spend a large chunk of this review focussing on the 42PFL9903's key Ambilight/Light Frame technologies, I won't go into detail here on exactly what the Perfect Pixel Engine does, referring you instead to the 42PFL9703D review. But what I will say is that as with the 42PFL9703D, the Perfect Pixel Engine HD really helps the new Aurea TV produce picture quality to die for.

Fine detail levels are absolutely outstanding with standard and high definition sources alike, for instance, and the image is extremely bright. Also, motion is superbly handled thanks to the TV's 100Hz Natural Motion processing, and colours are luxuriously rich and vibrant. Plus, of course, colours gain an extra boost thanks to their reinforcement by the whole Ambilight Spectra/Light Frame situation. hat's not the only positive thing the Light Frame brings to the 42PFL9903D's picture quality either. For the vibrancy of the light frame has the cunning effect of seeming to exaggerate the TV's black level depths, making the image look more contrasty than it would otherwise.

To some extent I guess this is just an optical illusion; the reality is that the black level response of the 42PFL9903's core panel is only marginally if any deeper than that of the fractionally disappointing 47PFL9603D we reviewed last week. But as optical illusions go, it's a cracker!

As usual where dealing with the Perfect Pixel Engine, I need to stress that it is possible to really muck pictures up if you're not careful with some of the huge amount of image tweaks available from the TV's menus. For instance, if you leave the HD Natural Motion tool set too high, it can cause twitching noise and even, occasionally, a phenomenon during sports where you see three balls instead of one. In fact, you're probably best leaving it set to Low for most movie and TV viewing, and possibly deactivate it completely during sports viewing.

Leaving the set's noise reduction routines can make pictures look softer than they need to as well, especially during HD viewing. But provided you're willing to revisit the 42PFL9903's on screen menus to tackle potential issues more regularly than you would with a more basic TV, it will still reward you for the vast majority of the time with a really outstanding picture given added impact by the sheer drama of the Light Frame system.

It would have been easy for Philips to have forgotten about audio in its drive to raise its Aurea game. But in fact the 42PFL9903's sound is very good indeed, delivering bags of distortion-free power and a striking dynamic range - thanks in no small part to the presence of two subwoofers on the TV's rear.

Verdict

I'm quite sure there will still be those among you who shudder in horror at the whole Aurea concept, even in the much-improved form on show here. And there will be far more of you entirely unwilling to consider coughing up £2,500 for a 42in TV in the current economic climate, light frame technology or no light frame technology.

But nobody can deny the immense quality of the 42PFL9903's core AV performance, and I, for one, love the Aurea Light Frame effect to bits. After all, contrary to what naysayers might tell you, I believe it really does enhance your viewing experience in a unique way, and I'm all in favour of anything that does that - even if the unique improvement does come at a price.

XFX 9800 GTX Black Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:28:00 +0000

With the recent launch of new graphics cards from both ATI and nVidia, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the demise of previous generation cards would be swift and merciless. However, that has yet proved to be the case, with ATI in particular, assuring us that the 3000-series of cards is here to stay for a while. Also, fresh on the back of some hefty price cuts old stalwarts like the nVidia 9800 GTX and ATI HD 3870 can still offer great value, especially when you look at some overclocked cards. It's with this in mind that we're looking at the XFX 9800 GTX Black Edition - the most highly overclocked 9800 GTX we've yet come across.

As you would expect, given the name, the packaging is a mostly black affair which will certainly catch the eye on a shop shelf - assuming that you can find a shop that sells graphics cards anymore. Inside, as well as the card itself, you get a very healthy bundle including both DVI-to-HDMI and DVI-to-VGA dongles (in fact you get two of the latter) as well as an S-Video cable and component dongle. There are also two dongles for converting two Molex power connections to a single 6-pin PCI-Express connection for use with older power supplies. Finally, at least on the hardware front, there's an S/PDIF cable that can be used to connect your graphics cards to your sound card and output digital audio over you graphics cards' HDMI connection.

On the software side you get the a copy of Assassin's Creed, which is worth a few bob. It's not the most modern title and it certainly didn't quite live up to the hype but it's a welcome addition nonetheless. You also get a driver and utilities disc and a miscellany of well written quick installation guides and information cards. Oh and of course the essential, 'I'm Gaming, Do Not Disturb' door handle tag! Woo!

As for the card, well, it's an nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX with a sticker on it. Although XFX's internal tweakings have pushed the card's performance, the cooler and the rest of the card's design is just the same as any other 9800 GTX, which just goes to prove how good nVidia's reference coolers have been of late.

Along the top edge of the card are the twin SLI connectors that can be used to join two or even three of these cards together for more performance. Also up here are the two extra power connectors that are needed to keep this thirsty card running. Two dual-link DVI sockets (which are HDCP enabled) grace the double width back panel along with an analogue video output socket that supports S-Video natively and component and composite with the help of dongles. This is the standard output configuration we've come to expect from cards in this price range.

The back of the PCB is covered by a metal plate, which helps protect the delicate electronics resident there and also performs some additional heatsink duties. This is a feature we first saw on the 9800 GX2 and it's one we've come to appreciate, especially as the regularity with which we're swapping cards around in our test bed requires us to manhandle them more than would otherwise be good for them - does anyone ever really use those anti-static wrist bands?

For those that aren't familiar with the 9800 GTX, what this card will get you is 128 stream processors, 16 ROPs, 64/64 texture address/filter units, and 512MB GDDR3 memory talking to the chip over a 256-bit interface. Standard clock speeds for the 9800 GTX are 675MHz core, 1,688MHz shader, and 2,200MHz memory. XFX has up these to 760MHz core, 1,900MHz shader, and 2,280MHz memory.

Click to enlarge
Of course the key selling point of the Black Edition, aside from its impressive overclocking figures is its price. On the back of nVidia implementing some severe price cuts XFX has also taken an aggressive stance with pricing for this particular card. Whereas many 9800 GTXs are still demanding around £200, Scan already has the Black Edition listed on pre-order for £168.

This pricing means the card fits in perfectly within nVidia's current range, sitting comfortably below the GTX 260. In fact, it also falls squarely in-between ATI's HD 4870 and the HD 4850 so in fact it has no direct price competition, which is always going to help its cause.

For testing we ran through our usual set of gaming tests and also measured the power draw of our test bed with this card installed. The test setup is as follows:

Common System Components

Intel Core 2 Quad QX9770
Asus P5E3
2GB Corsair TWIN3X2048-1333C9 DDR3
150GB Western Digital Raptor
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit

Drivers

ATI: Catalyst 8.4
nVidia GTX200 Series: Forceware 177.34
Other nVidia cards: Forceware 175.19

Cards Tested

XFX 9800 GTX Black Edition
nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX
nVidia GeForce GTX 260
ATI HD 4870
ATI HD 4850

Games Tested

Crysis
Race Driver: GRID
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Call of Duty 4
Counter-Strike: Source

Looking first at power draw, it's clear the overclocking required some internal voltages to be increased as both total idle and load power draw have also risen slightly. The difference is pretty negligible and is still below both the GTX 260 and the HD 4870, though.

In terms of performance, the card equips itself pretty well though the impact of the overclocking varies from title to title. Most notable, perhaps, are the results for Crysis that see the Black Edition being nearly 40 per cent faster than a standard card and comfortably faster than the HD 4850. The HD 4870 is still on average considerably faster, though, and as it costs only £20 - £30 more we'd be inclined to save for that card. That said, if you can't spend anymore the Black Edition is a great value option. Indeed, it's probably the best value nVidia card available at the moment.

Our only real gripe is that the card is rather large. Sure it's only about the same size as an HD 4870 but then that card is considerably faster. Also, the HD 4850, although slower, is half the width and markedly shorter. It's not something we'd term a deal breaker but it will certainly be of concern for some.

Verdict

XFX has got the pricing and performance of the 9800 GTX Black Edition just right with it sitting just inbetween the ATI HD 4850 and ATI HD 4870 on both counts. If you can push your budget we'd still recommend gunning for the ATI HD 4870 but if you can't stretch any further then you can't go wrong with this card.

ATI HD 4670

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:24:00 +0000

We were suitably impressed when ATI released its last range of high-end graphics cards. The HD 4870, HD 4850, and HD 4870X2 all produced impressive performance and most importantly delivered it at a decent price. However, relative prices are one thing but if you simply can't afford or can't justify spending more than £50 just to play the latest 3D games then you'll be wanting something a little cheaper. Something like this ATI HD 4670, in fact.

It's based on the same basic design features of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) chip that lies at the heart of the 48x0 series of cards but, as you would expect considering its price, there's just less of all the processing bits inside. So, rather than 800 stream processors, the HD 4670 features just 320 and instead of 16 ROPs it has only 8. It also uses the more conventional GDDR3 memory found on the HD4850, rather than the super-fast GDDR5 memory used on the HD 4870, and the GPU talks to this memory over a 256-bit interface. Core clock speeds and memory speeds also differ though these aspects will vary depending on the exact configuration the card manufacturer's release - expect there to be plenty of exotic overclocked versions.

As well as the HD 4670, there is the HD 4650, which uses the same smaller GPU but along with lower core clock speeds, the memory type has changed to DDR2 and the interface has been reduced in width to just 128-bit.

In terms of features there's little to distinguish the HD 4670 from its more powerful brothers. As well as the 3D graphics processing elements, you get ATI's Universal Video Decoder (UVD) and Avivo video that accelerate and improve the quality of video playback. There's also support for the latest edge-detection anti-aliasing mode, which offers by far the best image quality we've seen on any graphics card.

If you're looking to spread the cost of your graphics upgrade, you can buy one of these cards now then in a few months time you can buy another one and take advantage of CrossfireX to use the power of both cards together - assuming you have a CrossfireX or SLI capable motherboard, of course.

We're always a little sceptical of these dual/multi card configurations, due to their potential problems with compatibility and stability, and if you had a choice of getting two cards or a single one for the same price we'd always recommend going for the latter. However, in such a price-sensitive market this route makes sense. I'd certainly rather buy one card now and have some gaming ability in time for Christmas, then save for a few more months and improve performance further, rather than save the entire time.

The card itself is very short so it should fit in just about any non-low-profile case. Likewise, the HeatSink/Fan (HSF) doesn't protrude into the next slot so there's plenty of room for other expansion cards. However, this does mean heat from the card isn't allowed to escape so your case will have to be well ventilated elsewhere to keep things cool.

When I first saw the cooler I was rather worried it would be pretty noisy as the tiny fan span itself silly trying to keep the card cool when under load. However, wrong I most certainly was proved. While it's by no means silent mid-gaming session, it is far from disturbing and is to all intents and purposes silent when idle or watching video.

Along the top edge are the two connectors for using the HD 4670 in CrossfireX. Just one connection is needed for two cards whereas the second connector is needed if you add a third card.

Simplifying things further is the HD 4670's power requirement. It also doesn't require any extra power connections as it draws all the power it needs from its PCI-E 2.0 slot. Essentially, so long as your computer's motherboard has an x16 PCIe-Express 2.0 slot you're good to go.

Our test sample provided by ATI came with an interesting output configuration. Rather than the conventional dual-DVI-I outputs, it has a DVI-I and two DisplayPort sockets. As well as giving you the ability to connect three displays to a single card the use of this new (soon to be standard) connection will be useful for when you do eventually upgrade you monitor. If you do still rock an old CRT monitor with a VGA connection, a DVI-to-VGA dongle on the single DVI-I output will sort you out.

Now the biggest contender for your money at this price point is nVidia's 9500GT. This card actually has almost identical components to nVidia's previous generation 8600GT so it seems performance is unlikely to blow anyone away. Nonetheless we've put one up for test so we'll see how it goes.

For testing we ran through our usual set of gaming tests and also measured the power draw of our test bed with each card installed. The test setup is as follows:

Common System Components

* Intel Core 2 Quad QX9770
* Asus P5E3
* 2GB Corsair TWIN3X2048-1333C9 DDR3
* 150GB Western Digital Raptor
* Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit

Cards Tested
* ATI HD 4670
* ATI HD 4850
* nVidia GeForce 9600 GT
* nVidia GeForce 9500GT

Games Tested
* Crysis
* Race Driver: GRID
* Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
* Call of Duty 4
* Counter-Strike: Source

Installation and testing passed without a hitch and we experienced no stability problems whatsoever. The card did become quite hot to the touch but we've come to expect that from ATI's cards and it has yet to cause a problem.

As for performance, the HD 4670 held up very well. Framerates were consistently within a 'playable' range for all games except Crysis where, at the settings tested, it struggled to hit 25fps. However, turning down the graphical settings a little should give you playable performance even in this most demanding of games. Most importantly, the HD 4670 distinguishes itself as being by far the best performer for its price.

Power consumption is of course a great concern in the current economic and environmental climate so it's good to see the HD 4670 does its bit as well. We did note that the 9500 GT consumed a little less power though. Nonetheless, you can rest assured that adding an HD 4670 to your system won't suddenly triple your electricity bill.

Verdict

We really like the ATI HD 4670. If you're seriously into your gaming and have an enormous 24in (or above) monitor, then it's probably not for you. However, if all you have is a modest PC and a modest upgrade budget and you fancy a bit of 3D gaming fun, this card is the perfect option.

Crysis Warhead

noreply@blogger.com (Dushyant Sharma) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Platform: PC

If games were sold like detergents, Crysis Warhead would have been called Crysis Concentrated. This is fundamentally a heavily focussed, super-strength version of its predecessor that proves that a little Crysis can actually go further than a lot.

It's a Crysis without all the dull bits. There is less time racing around vast environments, not being 100% sure how to get to the next objectives, while half the North Korean army (not to mention several irritating helicopters) hound you without mercy. There is less time where you feel like you're suddenly stuck in a lesser alien-blasting FPS while dull extra-terrestrial entities bob around. This is still a spectacular Crysis, still a bombastic and hugely macho Crysis, but it's also a more refined and exhilarating Crysis this time round.

The island setting is the same, and the story still revolves around the same events we've seen in the original Crysis. In Warhead, however, the protagonist is Sykes – affectionately and accurately known as Psycho. He's the gritty Brit special forces agent you probably tried to ignore in the cut-scenes last time around.

Having survived the disastrous early stages of that mission, Sykes kicks off as a one-man army attacking North Korean outposts, but soon gets caught up in a search and recover mission centred on a mysterious container. This is what Hitchcock would have called a Macguffin – the object that provides Sykes with the motivation he needs to run through a series of levels, racing from objective to objective to objective to objective.

And this is where Warhead gets interesting. While it pains me to say it, Crysis was sometimes a bit too open, leaving you with patches of exploration or navigation where you fumbled around in search of a route to the next objective, enlivened only by the occasional outpost or patrol.

Warhead follows its predecessor in always giving you room to explore and a whole host of ways in which you might tackle any given situation, but at the same time it uses objectives and geography to provide you with a clear, central path from A to B. Partly as a result, it feels more orchestrated, with each battle flowing on neatly to the next, and the sense of danger (and the difficulty level) steadily ramping up as each chapter pushes towards a natural climax. As a result, there's hardly any dead time. Warhead is all balls-to-the-wall action, all the way.

There's also a sense that Crytek is more in control of the overall structure this time around. Arguably, Crysis – like Far Cry – lost its way a bit two-thirds of the way through. The aliens and the frozen landscapes made for some impressive spectacle, but the action wasn't as exciting as it was when it was just you against the North Korean troops.

In Warhead the aliens are brought in earlier on and they prove much more challenging, working efficiently in groups and behaving more aggressively, even outflanking you or swarming you on occasion. The game also plays smarter in its three-way conflict, providing more battles between Nanosuited North Korean and US forces, US forces vs alien invaders and – best of all – scraps involving all three parties.

Make no mistake: this isn't a game where you can grumble about the lack of set-piece encounters. It would be enough that Warhead repeats the Half-Life 2 trick of making vehicle-based sections interesting. In fact, there's a chase sequence involving a hovercraft that's actually downright thrilling. Yet Warhead goes further – mixing up large, open battles, fights in constricted spaces, bold assaults and last-ditch defences with real aplomb.

There are some stunning examples of what you might like to call boss battles, and yet never in any of this do you feel that you have to do things in the one approved way. If you want to ditch the hovercraft and take that whole level on foot, tackling each enemy on your way, then you'll find it hard going but you should be able to do it. This is without a doubt the most continuously excellent work of FPS level design we've seen since Call of Duty 4 and Half Life 2: Episode 2.

And Warhead also does what I think nobody expected it to do: it actually trumps Crysis for visual spectacle. Now, I'd take some of the talk of lower system requirements with a pinch of salt. Last year, my – at the time – state of the art gaming system (a Core 2 Extreme 6850 with a Asus Geforce 8800 Ultra) coped with Crysis at 1680 x 1050 on high detail levels. The same machine struggled with Warhead at the equivalent settings without a drop in resolution to 1280 x 720 and anti-aliasing switched off. That said, it's worth having the fastest system you can get.

If Warhead 'only' had all the lovely, photo-realistic effects we saw last time around it would still be one of the best looking games on any system, but this time Crytek has worked harder to produce jaw dropping scenery or weird vistas that make strange juxtapositions of the tropical environment, military hardware and the alien ice. Interior sections that might have been drab are enlivened by fantastic lighting or gorgeous little details. It's safe to say that Warhead is a new benchmark by which all other FPS games must be judged.

Admittedly, all this goodness comes at a cost, and that cost is size. Where Crysis was a lengthy game, Crysis Warhead can be whistled through in around five or six hours, depending on your approach and the number of secondary objectives you opt for. To counter this, EA has released it at a bargain £20 (and you can easily get it for less online) and it is a really, really good five or six hours that you'll probably be happy to repeat at a higher difficulty level.

To bolster the value for money aspect even further, Warhead also ships with Crysis Wars: an enhanced version of the Crysis multiplayer client. The deathmatch-style InstantAction and the more complex team-based Power Struggle return, but now they're joined by TeamInstantAction - a more accessible team-deathmatch mode - plus 21 new maps across the three modes. Will this work to elevate Crysis to the level of Call of Duty 4 as a multiplayer game? Probably not, but it certainly makes it a contender for the odd quick blast and – who knows – maybe more players will make more use of their nanosuits this time around?

Even given the short length, this is a must-have for any serious PC gamer. This hasn't been the best year so far for FPS games, but Warhead is so far above every other recent entry in the genre – on any system – that it's practically ridiculous. It's the concentrated crème de la crème de Crysis at a bargain basement price. Really, what else do you need to know?

Verdict

It might be short, but Warhead gives us the juicy, rare steak of Crysis without any of the excess fat. Absolutely essential.