SECRET EXPOSED

Where Can I Get Free Driver Downloads?

2012-10-22T08:44:00.001-07:00

If you have ever installed Windows, then maybe you have noticed that in most cases, there are remaining devices without drivers installed after the Windows installation. These could be a graphic cards, sound cards, wireless adapters, etc. Sometimes, Windows includes drivers for devices, but generally drivers need to be downloaded and installed separately. It is very convenient when we have a CD with the necessary drivers,but what happens in the absence of such a disk? Maybe the easiest way is to find them on the internet, but sometimes it takes a lot of time. That’s why I created the following list and i hope it will make your search more easier.

This is a list of the Support pages from the sites of some hardware manufacturers where you can find drivers for motherboards , graphic cards , notebooks , desktop computers and many other devices. Of course there are many sites, offering wide variety of drivers in the Internet, but the advantage here is that the official producers websites always contain actual information about their products and maybe the most important thing is that you don’t have to register anywhere

LENOVO - includes drivers for desktops,notebooks and servers

DELL – drivers for notebooks, desktops, printers, servers, network devices, etc.You can identify your product by choosing its service tag, model number or select it from the drop down menu. For most products, when you enter your Service Tag you will get a concise list of drivers for your specific product model.

FUJITSU – software patches, BIOS updates, driver updates, and other miscellaneous software for notebooks, servers, desktops, tablets

TOSHIBA - drivers and bios updates for notebooks, servers, PDAs, monitors

HP - drivers and other software for notebooks, servers, desktops, scanners, printers, monitors, projectors, etc.

ACER – includes drivers for notebooks, desktop systems, LCD displays, network products, etc.

MSI - drivers for notebooks, motherboards, graphic cards, servers

PACKARD BELL - here you can find drivers and software for desktops, monitors, notebooks, handhelds, televisions, DVD and other multimedia devices

ASUS - bios updates, drivers and utilities for motherboards, graphic cards, LCD monitors, network products, notebooks and multimedia products

SONY - drivers, software and bios updates for desktops, notebooks, projectors and multimedia devices. You can search by model number or to use the drop down menu, but more interesting is the option AUTO DETECT. This support option allows the support web site to determine your Sony VAIO computer model and forward you directly to your model support page. Unfortunately this option is available for VAIO PCs only.

LG – wide variety of software for any product made by LG. In order to see the searching fields you have to choose your location first (e.g. continent and country).

GIGABYTE - easy to use website, offering many search options.

INTEL – includes drivers, BIOS, utilities, firmware, patches, plugins and other support software for any Intel product.

NVIDIA - drivers and other software for the NVIDIA graphic cards. There is an useful option called NVIDIA Smart Scan that looks at your computer’s hardware and system software to determine whether or not your drivers are up-to-date.

ATI – this is the official support site of AMD. It offers a lot of software and easy navigation.

ASRock - here you can find the latest drivers, BIOS updates and utilities for any ASRock motherboard.

Share a folder or drive

2012-10-21T22:20:00.004-07:00

Sharing a Hard drive in Win XP

What is sharing ?

Sharing is an useful option in Windows, which allows remote users to connect to any computer over the network and access the files, that are shared on that computer. There is also option for the remote users to read, write, or delete any shared files. It is a convenient way to work with files, located on another computer on the network.

In this post I will try to explain in few steps, how to share a hard drive, using Windows Xp.

On the computer you’re sharing, open My Computer.
Right-click the hard drive you want to share and choose Sharing and Security from the shortcut menu that appears.
Click the link to share the drive. The Sharing tab changes to reveal the options that allow you to share the drive.

Note: If you see a window like the one above, then maybe the remote access to your computer is disabled by Windows. In such case, you have two options: The first is to use the Network Setup Wizard and the second is to click on the link saying: if you understand the security risks but want to share files without running the setup wizard click here.

The next window that, appears will ask you to confirm if you want to use the wizard to enable the file sharing or just to enable the sharing without the wizard. Here you can click on Just enable file sharing button and then OK. You may need to repeat the steps 1 to 3 again

Now you have to see the following window:

Select the Share This Folder on the Network option.
Enter a name for the share.
Select the Allow Network Users to Change My Files option.

If you don’t select this option, network users can view files but can’t create new files or modify existing files. Because you’re a network user, you want to be able to work on a file on this computer from a different computer, so there’s not much point in restricting what network users can do.

Click OK.
Lastly...You will see the following icon

Thank You ;)

Success In Social Media

2012-10-21T09:47:00.004-07:00

What Does Successful Social Media Look Like?

When you are starting a social media campaign, what are you thinking about? How to reach 20,000 fans, followers, or connections? Maybe even a more modest 1,000? Stop that thinking, immediately! Sure, aesthetically, these are metrics to aim for, but they won’t get you very far.

Social media success is not about how many fans or followers you can get. Take a minute and let that register. Let it sink in, and always keep it in mind. Instead of counting followers, try to think about how much engagement you are getting from the followers you already have.

When your customers are engaged, and willing to spread the word about your company, additional fans and followers
will inevitably ensue.

Let me put this into a little better perspective for you. A small company, which we will call ABC, with 5-10 employees, launches a social media campaign. ABC company has 1,000 fans, and 190 of them are posting about them or on their page. They’re still spending the same amount of money on customer service, and their website hasn't received any more hits than what it was getting before. Sure, they made a lot of impressions - and maybe gained some brand recognition, but it is offering no additional value to their company.

Instead, let’s take a look at another scenario:

ABC company has 500 fans, and 95 are posting about them, or on their page (50% reduction!). They look at their records, and they notice an increase in hits on their website, and at the same time, their customer service expenses are decreasing! So, even with less overall impressions, the content is driving their customers to engage, buy, click, or do whatever else the company would like them to!

The Power Of One

Remember, it only takes one person to get something out there. Through social media, one person could have thousands of connections at any given time. By having one person post something about your company, you have opened the floodgates for more impressions. That one person could deliver thousands of chances for someone else to connect, and if they do, that could lead to thousands more. Then if they post it....well, I think you see where I am going with this.

My point is this: If you can engage even a small number of users, your possibility of gaining more followers can grow exponentially!

Acquiring Your Following

So, how do you persuade anyone to become engaged, post, repost, and talk about your company?

You don’t have to!

That’s the beautiful thing about social media. Most everyone who joins, do so to connect to others in some way. They are already looking for a reason to do so. All you have to do is provide them with something they can connect about.

Now, that may seem easy. In fact, you could probably stop reading right now, go out and start posting, and have some success. However, should you choose to read further, you could learn numerous ways to maximize your return on investment. Instead of throwing your time and money out the window, you could be saving money and making sales.

Sharing Printers with Others on Your Network

2012-10-21T09:19:00.001-07:00

To share your printer

Open Printers and Faxes. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, and then clickPrinters and Faxes.

Right-click the printer you want to share, and then click Sharing.
On the Sharing tab, click Share this printer and then type a share name for the shared printer.

If you share the printer with others using different hardware or different operating systems, click Additional Drivers. Click the Environment and operating system for the other computers, and then click OK to install the additional drivers.
Note Drivers for users running other versions of Windows (Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0) are located on the Support CD. Printer drivers for Windows NT 3.1 and Windows NT 3.5 are not included.

Click OK, or, if you have installed additional drivers, click Close.
Note When you publish a printer in Active Directory, other users logged on to the Windows domain will be able to search for the printer based on its location and features, such as how many pages it prints per minute and whether color printing is supported.

To stop sharing your printer

Open Printers and Faxes. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, and then clickPrinters and Faxes.
Right-click the printer you want to stop sharing, and then click Sharing.
On the Sharing tab, click Do Not share this printer.

To connect to a printer on a network

Open Printers and Faxes. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, and then clickPrinters and Faxes.

Under Printer Tasks, click Add a printer to open the Add Printer Wizard, and then click Next.
Click A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer, and then click Next.

Top of page

Three Ways to Connect to a Printer on a Network

To search for a printer in Active Directory

Click Find a printer in the directory, and then click Next.

Click the Browse button to the right of Location, click the printer location, and then click OK.

Click Find Now.
Click the printer you want to connect to, and then click OK.

To locate a printer by typing the printer name or browsing for it

Click Connect to this printer.

Do one of the following:

Type the printer name using the following format:
\\printserver_name\share_name
Browse for it on the network. Click Next, click the printer in Shared printers.

Click Next.

To connect to an Internet or intranet printer

Click Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network.

Type the URL to the printer using the following format:
http://printserver_name/Printers/share_name/.printer.

Follow the instructions on the screen to finish connecting to the network printer.

Top of page

Setting or Removing Permissions for a Printer

To change the permission settings for a printer, you must have the Manage Printers permission, which is one of several printer permissions.

To set up new permissions for a printer

Open Printers and Faxes.

Right-click the printer for which you want to set permissions, click Properties, and then click the Security tab.

Click Add.

Click Look For, select the types of users you want to add, and then click OK.

Click Look In, browse for the location you want to search, and then click OK.

In the Name box, type the name of the user or group you want to set permissions for, separating each name with a semicolon ( ; ).
To ensure the names are recognized by the directory, click Check Names.
Once all the names you want are listed in the Name box, click OK.
In Permissions, click the Allow or Deny check box for each permission you want to allow or deny.

To view or change the underlying printer permissions that make up Print, Manage Printers, and Manage Documents, click Advanced.

To change or remove permissions for a printer

Open Printers and Faxes.
Right-click the printer for which you want to change or remove permissions, click Properties, and then click the Security tab.

Click the name of the user or group whose permissions you want to change or remove.

In Permissions, click the Allow or Deny check box for each permission you want to allow or deny, if necessary. Or, to remove the user or group from the permissions list, click Remove.
To view or change the underlying permissions that make up Print, Manage Printers, and Manage Documents, click Advanced.

Verifying the CD-ROM cables are correctly connected

2012-08-14T09:30:00.002-07:00

Issue

Verifying the CD-ROM cables are correctly connected.

Cause

Moving the computer may cause the cables to become loose or disconnected from the CD-ROM drive.
When installing a new CD-ROM drive you may need to verify the cables are connected properly.
When installing another drive, the jumpers may need to be checked.

Solution

As mentioned above there are several different causes that can cause cables to become loose on your CD-ROM drive. Below are steps on how to check the connections on a CD-ROM drive. Because these steps require that you open your computer and work inside make sure you're aware of the potential ESD hazards by reviewing our ESD page.

Opening the computer

Open your computer and locate the CD-ROM and each of the cables connected to it. Below is an illustration and picture of what an IDE/EIDE CD-ROM looks looks like.

Verify connections

Your CD-ROM should have at least two cables connect to it, a power cable and IDE cable that should also be connected to your motherboard or other interface card. Disconnect the IDE cable from the back of the CD-ROM and reconnect it, do the same on the opposite end of the cable.

Next, if your CD-ROM drive is not getting any power disconnect the cable from the back of the drive and reconnect it.

Finally, some computers will also have a small third cable used to interface the CD-ROM with the sound card. If the audio for your CD audio CDs is not working properly verify that this cable is not disconnected from the back of the CD-ROM.

Check jumpers

If you've recently installed any new disk drives such as a new hard drive verify that the jumpers are properly set on the back of the CD-ROM. Having the jumpers set improperly to master or slave can cause the CD-ROM to not work.

CD-ROM, DVD, or other disc tray not opening

2012-08-14T09:17:00.001-07:00

Issue

CD-ROM, DVD, or other disc tray not opening.

Solution

Locking device or software installed

First, verify no locking software is being loaded that prevents the tray from opening. If you are unable to determine this, reboot the computer and as it is booting up, eject the tray.

No power to computer or disc drive

If you have recently installed a new CD-ROM, DVD, or other disc drive or you have moved the computer, it is possible that the power to the CD-ROM may have become loose or disconnected.

Check the cable connections.

Bad eject button

If you are running Microsoft Windows open My computer, right-click on the disc drive and choose the option to eject.

If this ejects your CD-ROM drive tray, it is likely that the button on the CD-ROM drive has become defective and it is recommended that the drive be replaced.

CD stuck within drive

It is possible for a CD to get stuck in the drive. Look for a small hole (that is not the head phone jack) as shown in the below picture. Place a paper clip into the hole and manually eject the CD-ROM tray.

If the CD-ROM drive is only partially able to be opened, pull the tray gently to see if it can be manually ejected. If it cannot be opened any further, it is likely that the gears within the CD-ROM drive have become bad, dislodged, or that a CD is positioned in the drive, which does not allow it to open.

Incompatibility with IDE or ATAPI interface

If you have an IBM compatible computer and recently installed the CD-ROM drive and are unable to open the drive, temporarily disconnect the IDE cable to verify that you not experiencing an issue with an incompatibility between the CD-ROM and motherboard. Once the IDE cable has been disconnected, power on the computer and see if the CD-ROM drive tray is now able to be opened.

If the drive is able to be opened with the IDE or ATAPI cable disconnected, it is recommended you use the interface card supplied with the CD-ROM drive or the ATAPI interface on the sound card or motherboard.

Bad drive

Unfortunately, if after following the above recommendations you are still unable to properly open the CD-ROM drive using the button on the front of the CD-ROM drive, it is likely defective and should be replaced.

Caution: If you are able to open the CD-ROM drive using a paper clip. We do not recommend that you continue using the CD-ROM drive by manually ejecting the CD-ROM using a paper clip. The drive should be replaced and this is not meant to be used as a temporary solution.

Spice Up Your Blog

2012-08-13T09:55:00.001-07:00

Guest Post - Our host is Josiah, in this post has some great tips for a successful YouTube channel.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

A significant amount of traffic that flows throughout the Internet every year is by users watching YouTube videos. YouTube.com has led to an enormous success for many people. Users came along, had an idea and made it happen. Whether the idea was to upload video game play, cooking recipes or even hair and make-up tutorials, users all over the world are thriving using YouTube. Many Bloggers have also managed to harness the power of YouTube adding video content to their blogs. This not only gives readers a fresh way to view the blog but also attracts traffic directly from YouTube. You may be thinking of starting a channel of your own soon. These steps will ensure that you take the right approach and stay on a path that will lead you to success.

The Vision

what is your channel going to be about? You can bet that there are already channels on the subject you have in-mind. It’s important to think of an angle, a unique twist that will make your channel different and offer something more unique to your viewers. What software and hardware will you need to get started? Take a moment to figure out if you’ll need to step up your editing software or buy a new camera. Another important question to ask yourself, “How often will I be uploading videos?” Set realistic goals based on your lifestyle.

Picking a Name

Take a look at the top featured videos and skim through the user names. Some are long, some are a bit generic but what you’ll find is that most are short, catchy and memorable. Thinking of a name that will stick in people’s heads is what you’re looking for. Think about your channel, the direction it may lead in the future and write down names that are short, sweet and make sense even of the direction of your channel changes over time. Once you have a list, seek out other’s opinions on which username you should use. Ask your friends and family or take to message boards chat rooms for more opinions to help you decide.

Perfecting your Appearance

How would you like your audience to view your channel and your videos? What style, flare or uniqueness would you like to come across in your videos and on your channel background? It’s time to think about intros and outros for your videos, or will there be any at all? Sometimes it’s best to let more skilled individuals hand let the more involved editing tasks. Your YouTube channel background is also seen by users from time to time. The channel background should reflect the content you are providing. Your Avatar can reflect your username and be branded with a logo that you might use in your videos.

Marketing your Channel

Once you have your channel setup and a few videos for users to watch, bring awareness about your channel and videos is should be top priority. Marketing is all about presenting your content to as many people as possible while targeting those who you know might be interested. You’ll want to create a Facebook fan page and Twitter profile. These two social networking sites will allow users not on YouTube to be exposed to your channel. Don’t hesitate to interact with users on Facebook and Twitter in-order to gain fans and followers.

The above can also be applied to YouTube. Find channels and videos that are in the same genre as yours or find videos that you know its viewers might have an interest in your videos. Subscribe to those channels, comment on those videos. Let others know by the way you comment that you know what you’re talking about. A sneaky trick is to leave comments that will almost certainly get replies. This will expose more users to your comment and to some extent, your channel. Don’t spam! Excessive commenting or comments that just say “go check out my channel” will get marked as spam and could lead to your channel being suspended.

Consistency

as mentioned before, take time that you know you’ll have available. If you have all the time in the world, make a video 5 times a week, if you don’t, find out how much time you can set aside each day of each week to put towards your channel. However you do things, stay consistent! Your viewers and subscribers will slowly begin to trust and view your channel as an authority on the subject (whatever that may be). Subscribers will come to expect to be entertained, educated, etc., by your videos on a regular basis.

It’s important to stay consistent and put out videos at the same time each week. Never let your channel, your video comments, your Twitter and Facebook page stand still. Continue to put in a little time for each component regularly. Make small achievable goals and as you pass one, set your sights on the next. Stay focused, persistent and your channel will be a success in no time.

How to Create Masks of Transparent Elements in Photoshop

2012-08-04T23:47:00.002-07:00

Final Image

Selections are an essential part of any photo editing work flow, but often, selections aren’t as straight-forward as they might seem. In this tutorial we will explain how to make a selection of a glass that includes transparent elements. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

Glass of Water

Step 1

Selections are an essential part of the image editing process in Photoshop. The process of making a selection is easy but sometimes transparent areas can make the process a bit more complicated. For these types of project, the pen tool is not sufficient. To select areas with a variable level of transparency we need a tool or command which will let us manipulate the brightness information of the color channels of that image. Because we are not only interested in creating a simple cut-out, rather we are more interested in creating a mask, where we can store variable level of brightness information for defining that complex level of transparency. As a channel is just a grayscale image we can use that channel effectively to create a mask, because a mask also uses grayscale (pure white=100% opaque and pure black= 100% transparent) to store transparency information.

Step 2

One of the major advantages of having access to the separate channels in Photoshop is the ability to make selections. You can use individual channels to make different selections in the image. When you want to select a specific item in the image, use the color channels that provide the greatest contrast around the edges of that item. So let’s start the initial planning phase.

Step 3

This is the original image. Though this is a CMYK image, same process will work in case of an RGB image. Only difference will be in the Channels panel. Instead of four color channels and one composite channel, there will be three color channels and one composite channel in the RGB image. The objective of this tutorial is to remove the black portion but to keep the glass, water, bubbles and the reflection below the glass. So we can use it on any other background (Solid color or photo). For this tutorial we will use Apply Image command (Image > Apply Image).

Step 4

The Apply Image command lets you blend one image’s layer and channel with a layer and channel of the active image. But remember the pixel dimensions of the images must match for image names to appear in the Apply Image dialog box. But here we are not using two images. We are blending the black channel copy with the black channel copy itself. But the power of the Apply Image is hiding within the Target section. Here you can specify a blend mode or blending type which you want to use during the Apply Image blend.

Step 5

Open the file in Photoshop. Then in the Channels panel examine the channels for a channel with good contrast. Finding a channel with good contrast is essential for good selection.

Step 6

Here the black channel is showing good contrast between the glass and the background.

Step 7

Duplicate the black channel by dragging it over the ‘create new channel’ icon below the Channels Panel. You can also right click on the black channel and select duplicate channel.

Step 8

Then select the black channel copy and Image > Apply Image.

Step 9

First blend one time with Multiply mode to increase black and in this process convert from the background any area to black which is gray. But reduce the opacity (within the Target section) amount to 50% to create a blend which is not too strong. Otherwise we might remove some white areas, as they are not pure white.

Step 10

The Multiply blend mode looks at the color information in each channel and multiplies the base color by the blend color. The resultant color is always a darker color. Multiplying any color with black produces black. By using the Multiply blend mode we are removing any grey portion from the background.

Step 11

Then blend two times with Overlay blend to increase white. Now we can easily select the white area. Our goal here is to create an effective, fast and acceptable mask with this process. This time use 100% Opacity in the blending area.

Step 12

The Overlay blend mode multiplies or screens the colors, depending on the base color. The base color is not replaced, but mixed with the blend color to reflect the lightness or darkness of the original color. White areas become brighter and black areas become darker. By using the Overlay blend mode we are increasing the strength of the white portion as we want to keep the white portion but mask out the black portion in the final image.

Step 13

You can still tweak the black channel copy by using a brush and paint with white or black color. Paint with white to keep image areas and paint with black to remove or mask out portion. White denotes opaqueness and black denotes transparency within a channel.

Step 14

Load the black channel copy as a selection by either Command/Ctrl-click on the channel or click the first button below the channels panel, which is load channel as a selection.

Step 15

Then go to the Layers panel and duplicate the background layer by dragging it over the create new layer button below the layers panel. You can also right click on the background layer and select Duplicate Layer.

Step 16

Then target the new layer (Background copy) by left clicking on it once. Selection still active, click on mask icon below the Layers panel to create a mask.

Step 17

Now create a new blank layer below and fill it with either red or blue. Now check the quality of the mask. You will find that within the mask there are few grey areas.

Step 18

There are two processes to remove this unwanted grey area. Although first process described below will give you the best output, but still let’s explore both of them.

Step 19

Process 1: Change the blend mode of background copy layer to Lighten in order to remove grey area.

Step 20

Lighten blend mode looks at the color information in each channel and pixels darker than the blend colors are replaced, and pixels lighter than the blend color do not change. As a result dark grey pixels removed.

Step 21

Process 2: Command/Ctrl-click on the background copy mask thumbnail to load the mask as a selection. You can also load the selection from the black channel copy.

Step 22

Then click on the Adjustment layer icon below the Layers panel.

Step 23

This will create a new Levels Adjustment layer.

Step 24

Then in the levels dialogue box first drag the midtone input slider (middle one) and then the highlight input slider (right one) towards left to remove grey area or rather converts grey into white.

Step 25

After applying Lighten blend mode, if you check closely you will find that there are a few broken portions within the white area. You can use the Clone Stamp Tool to fix these areas.

Step 26

That’s it. You can use the same technique to select complex objects with variable level of transparency. Below is the before and after version.

Final Image

This is the final version.