.::Diggtheweb::.

Send SMS from your mobile... yeah from your own mobile and thats for FREE

2010-06-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hey guys I have found a way of sending SMS from your mobile and its for absolutely free. This is for NTC costumer in Nepal. You guys need to follow these steps to send message free to your frends...

step 1:
Send SMS from your mobile with following text " Reg nickname "
In place of nickname you can use any nickname but nickname should be of length between 3 to 6 letter. The destination address to send SMS would be 6000.

step 2:
After sending above message to 6000, you will receive SMS saying you are successfully registered with the given nickname. Now you can send unlimited SMS to anyone who is also registered there. So to send SMS to your friends, your friend need to be registered there with the same process as I have prescribed above.

step 3:
Now to send SMS to your registered friend. You need to write the following message and send it to 6000.
" To nickname_of_friend your_message"
And enjoy it man....

How do I use custom domain name on my blog?

2010-02-19T08:22:00.000-08:00

Choose and Register Your Domain
The first thing you'll need to do is to choose a domain name, like example.com and register it.

Update the DNS Settings

DNS stands for Domain Name System, and a DNS server determines what site a given address takes you to. So far, you have a domain name but none of the servers on the internet know what to do with it yet. To take care of this, you need to do two things:

Create a CNAME record for your blog's address, which should be a subdomain of the form www.example.com.

ghs.google.com

here

Create 'A' NAME records for your naked domain (blog.com)

blog.com

www.example.com

www

example.com

216.239.32.21216.239.34.21216.239.36.21216.239.38.21Your DNS setup is now complete!

Update Your Blogger Settings

Almost done! At this point, you have a domain name, and the DNS servers know to direct people to Google when they want to see your blog. But Google hosts lots of blogs, so we have to make sure the right one is associated with this domain. You'll do this on the Settings | Publishing tab for your blog in Blogger.
If you're publishing on Blog*Spot, you'll see a link near the top offering to switch you to a custom domain. Go ahead and click that link.
The Blog*Spot Address setting now changes to Your Domain. Fill in the domain you registered, and then save your settings.
Now the only thing left to do is to tell everybody about your new address!

Flip your text upside down

2010-02-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

On the process of digging the web, I came to stumbleupon one cool site to flip your text upside down. And thats why I am sharing this site with you. Just enter the text and in real time the site will flip your text and you can copy paste anywhere you like. Specially it will be fun to share with your friends in twitter or facebook status.
Here is the site filp it Enjoy it ;)

Find the Fastest DNS(Domain Name Server) Near to Your Computer

2009-12-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

Lot of users may get confused with Internet giant, Google claiming Google DNS Server offers much improved speed for internet. Lot of people fall into a dilemma whether to shift to Google DNS or use the Default DNS provided by their ISP.
Good news is that along with Google Public DNS resolver, Google also released a tool named Namebench, open DNS benchmark utility which hunts for fastest DNS servers for your computer and also shows recommended fastest and nearest DNS Severs available to your computer.
The problem with changing your DNS server provided by ISP can be unexpected. Some websites may not load properly , its good to always revert back to default DNS service provider when that happens. It is true that you are connected openly to the Internet, you have to secure your computer by using anti-virus software . OpenDNS is one DNS service that filters malicious websites.
Namebench is free tool searches for fastest DNS servers available to your computer using your browser history ,tcpdump output or using standardized datasets. If your ran Namebench, after various tests it shows recommended configuration including Primary DNS server, Secondary and Territory DNS server which is best for your computer.
By default number of tests to ran in namebench set to 200 which may take a lot of time, so minimize the number of tests 50 or to your desired count . Namebench checks your connection quality and searches for all available global DNS servers including OpenDNS, UltraDNS and also searches for best regional DNS servers available for your computer. After benchmarking servers, it shows best DNS server and the detailed report in browser with fastest and nearest configuration to your computer.
For different ISPS, results may vary, ran namebench in your computer and decide which to use for optimal internet performance .

Adding twitter to google wave account

2009-11-21T06:42:00.000-08:00

One of the Twitter client in google wave is called Tweety the Twitbot. Now here is the step how you add Tweety in your wave.

Go to your contacts window and click the + sign at the bottom to add a new contact:

Enter this address: tweety-wave@appspot.com

Now make a new wave. Click the + symbol to add a new participant to it. Add Tweety:

Next you’ll get an authenticating message:

A new window will open to connect Wave to your Twitter account:

After you sign in successfully, you’ll get a message confirming this, and then the window will close.

Back in your wave, push the “Done” button if you’re still seeing the authentication message. Then you’ll see this:

Enter your tweet into the top box (first arrow in the screenshot) and push update to send. Keep in mind that it won’t count down the 140 characters. If you go long, it won’t warn you.

Below the tweet box, you’ll see tweets from others (second, lower arrow in the screenshot). You might try reloading the page, if it looks like the names of those tweeting aren’t showing up correctly.

After that, well, I find that the box doesn’t seem to update. Maybe that will improve as Wave stabilizes during the current round of invites or as the app improves or who knows?

Running DOS Application in Ubuntu using DOSBox

2009-11-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

DOSBOX RUN DOS APPLICATIONS AND GAMES IN UBUNTU LINUX
The Fundamental Operating System DOS is still alive. For basic study purpose, DOS is Used in most of the Universities. Now Also people like DOS games. The Famous C language Compilers are woking only is DOS. You can Make a virtual DOS environment Linux.

sudo apt-get install dosbox
(Your can use Synaptic Package Manager and search for dosbox)

After Installation you can make a folder xxxxx in your home directory
(eg: $mkdir mydos)

copy your favorite dos programs and games like Turboc, dave, digger etc in this directory

Now you can run dosbox by typing dosbox in a terminal or
by select it from menu

You will get a small dos window with Z:\> prompt

in Z prompt type the following

Z:\>mount c /home/xxx/mydos
This command for mounting your dos directory to C Drive
(in my case my dos files are in /home/bu/mydos )

Now You are ready for running your dos programms

Z:\> c: ( change drive to c:)
Z:\>dir (this will list your dos files placed in /home/shibu/mydos)

if ther is our old famous digger game

Z:\>digger and Enjoy it.

Tricks on Notepad [the batch trick]

2009-11-12T07:52:00.000-08:00

1)How To Make Matrix With NotePad

I’am going to show you how to make cool Matrix batch file using notepad.
Open notepad and type in

@echo off

color 2

:start

echo %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random%

goto start

Save it as matrix.bat
Double click on file and it will open the matrix

2)Log trick

This is simple, open notepad and type .LOG

Save it as .LOG.txt

Whenever you open the file with that text in the first line in the notepad, it will insert the current date and time at the end of the file. You can start entering your text after that.

3)Open console box

Open Notepad and type starts like seen in picture below, but you can make as many as you would like.

Save it as start.bat . Depending on how many times you wrote start console boxes open.

The Open Source Alternatives For the Proprietary Programs

2009-11-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

Basics

Windows Vista OS to Ubuntu OS: This is Microsoft’s operating system (OS), and even Microsoft fans have become disillusioned with this product. Open source OS alternatives have expanded; but these OS often are difficult for the average user to install, learn, and operate. Why deal with it when Ubuntu has become so easy to use that even the most computer illiterate can jump into this operating system with very little time spent on a learning curve? In fact, users can purchase a Dell computer with Ubuntu already installed. Remember, however, that when it comes to using open source software that the open source community often focuses on applications that can be used through Windows, Mac, Linux, or Unix with the majority seemingly devoted to Windows.
Internet Explorer Browser to Firefox Browser: Sure, Internet Explorer (IE) is free; but, that’s because it comes packaged with Windows’ operating systems. Free is far different from open source software, where users have more control over how that software works. While you might feel more comfortable with a proprietary operating system, you can still use an open source browser like Mozilla’s Firefox, an exceptional product that expands its use with ‘add-ons‘ created by avid users.

Office Suites

Microsoft Office to OpenOffice: If the price makes you feel that Microsoft has worked you over, then switch! If you compare Microsoft’s Office with other products, then you’re looking for something that includes an email client, a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, and a multimedia presentation application. The only product that provides a competitive edge against Microsoft is Google (that includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Presentation and more). But, some would argue that Google isn’t truly open source. So, the next best bet alternative would be OpenOffice, an open source project that includes everything you’d find in Microsoft Office except the email client.
Mactopia to NeoOffice: Another Microsoft office suite, but this time meant for MacIntosh computers. TryNeoOffice instead. NeoOffice® is a full-featured set of office applications, including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs for Mac OS X. This suite is based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, but it has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.

Office Tools

MathWorks MATLAB to Scilab: MATLAB is a highly used application for numerical computing. It provides a programming language that allows users to work with numbers in any possible way imaginable through visualization. Scilab is the open source alternative to MATLAB, and it provides visualization of numerical data just as MATLAB does. Scilab is partly compatible with MATLAB, and both tools are suited for Windows, Linux, and UNIX.
Microsoft Access to Kexi: Microsoft Access is a versatile tool for creating database-driven applications and to maintain office or personal data. Access contains an embedded database engine, but it also connects to other databases through ODBC. On the other hand, Kexi allows users to design forms to gain access to and to create data, just like Access. Kexi also contains an embedded database engine and it can import data to Microsoft Access databases. Plus - Kexi is open source, whereas Access belongs to Microsoft.
Microsoft Word to OpenOffice Writer: If you want to break that office suite down and begin to replace the suite item by item, then you can start with this product first. Writer is the word processor component of the OpenOffice.org software package that is similar to Microsoft Word, and with a roughly equivalent range of features. Writer can be used across a variety of platforms, including Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. Writer also includes the ability to export Portable Document Format (PDF) files with no additional software, and can also function as a WYSIWYG editor for creating and editing web pages. One plus over Word is that Writer carries functions and number formats in its tables from Calc, OpenOffice’s spreadsheet application.
Microsoft Excel to OpenOffice Calc: Another Microsoft product, Excel still carries its productivity pluses as a spreadsheet, but it no longer carries an air of absolute necessity. Google’s Docs can bring an online, sharing atmosphere to your spreadsheets now. As for a truly open source product that can replace Excel, try OpenOffice.org Calc. This tool provides full spreadsheet functionality incl. a huge number of statistical and scientific functions, pivot tables and charts.
Microsoft Visio to Dia: Visio actually is a great application that allows users to go from complicated text and tables that are hard to understand to diagrams that communicate information at a glance. The only thing that spoils the context is the fact that this software is that it’s not open source. Instead, use Dia, a GTK+ based diagram creation program for Linux, Unix and Windows released under the GPL license. Dia was ‘roughly’ inspired by Visio, which should make this tool easy for transition.

Productivity

Blackboard to Moodle: Blackboard has been the CMS (Course Management System) ‘industry standard’ for educational purposes for many years. This program allows instructors to build courses, manage student workloads, and more. But Moodle has gained significant ground as an open source alternative to Blackboard, as it helps educators to create effective online learning communities in a scalable package that costs nothing to use.
Box to Cabos: If you’re into file sharing, you’ve probably heard of Box.net, if not used them. Not only can you share files, Box allows you to store your files securely online, allowing you to access them from any computer, phone or mobile device for a fee. Cabos, another file sharing program that’s open source, provides simple sidebar user interface, firewall to firewall transfers, proxy transfers, Universal Plug and Play, iTunes + iPod integration, “What’s New?” searches, international searches, and more. All you need is Windows 2000 or later. Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later. Mac OS 8.6 or later. Granted, you don’t have the file storage capacity, but at least you can share files with Cabos without that extra storage capacity.
Microsoft Project to Open Workbench: Microsoft allows users to control project work, schedule, and finances, and effectively communicate project data to other users. But, it costs to do that with Microsoft. Instead, use open source Open Workbench to accomplish exactly the same project details for free. When users need to move beyond desktop scheduling to a workgroup, division or enterprise-wide solution, they can upgrade to CA’s Clarity™ system, a project and portfolio management system that offers bidirectional integration with Open Workbench.
Mindjet to FreeMind: Mindmapping is a way to share ideas among individuals and groups for productivity. This type of activity takes time, but it saves time. So why should you pay for a product when you can save money by using FreeMind? This latter product will accomplish all the Mindjet does and more. That “more” is the fact that FreeMind is open source.

Graphic Programs

Adobe Illustrator to Inkscape: Adobe’s vector drawing system is one of the best in the industry. However, like Photoshop, the price can be prohibitive for some designers and artists. Try Inkscape instead, an open source vector graphics editor similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X. Inkscape uses the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format and it supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.). Finally, the streamlined interface is easy to use to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more.
Adobe PhotoShop to GIMP: Even if you’re paying for upgrades instead of the original package, the price for Adobe’s Photoshop can be prohibitive for some photographers and graphic designers. Try GIMP to see if this open source tool can’t provide you with all the power you need for your photography and graphic design needs. GIMP stands for Gnu Image Manipulation Program, and it’s the solution that comes closest to emulating the Photoshop environment.
Adobe Premiere to Avidemux: Premier is state of the art real-time non-linear video editing for any format including High Definition (HD). Supports 16-bit color resolution, GPU accelerated rendering for faster effects and even advanced DVD authoring. On the other hand, Avidemux provides Windows, Mac, and Linux users with an easy-to-use open source tool for DVD/DivX converting and editing. Avidemux also has scripting support for automation and even offers DVD authoring with the addition of the open source software, dvdauthor.
AutoCAD to Archimedes: AutoCAD is an AutoDesk tool used by any designer who creates design drafts - mostly architects. Archimedes is an open source computer aided design (CAD) alternative that focuses primarily on architectural design. AutoCAD definitely has the winning score thus far, but Archimedes shows promise. The latter program contains all the drawing features a designer would need, but its interoperability is weak. Designers still can export scalable vector graphics, so there’s a real market for this open source tool (this opinion isn’t based upon Archimedes’ newest release).
Microsoft PowerPoint to OpenOffice Impress: You can make a move away from this Microsoft tool with the use of Google’s Presentation or with OpenOffice’s Impress. Both tools represent full-featured presentation applications that allow users to create and modify diagrams and pictures right within the application.
Microsoft Paint to Tux Paint: While not a serious graphics program, it is widely used by many computer users, mostly children Try Tux Paint instead of Paint, as this open source product stands apart from typical graphics people edit software (such as GIMP or Photoshop) in that it was designed to be usable by children as young as 16 months of age. The user interface is meant to be intuitive, and utilizes icons, audible feedback and textual hints to help explain how the software works.
TruSpace to Blender: Caligari offers a range of products that enable designers and artists to produce 3D images - at a hefty price. Blender, on the other hand, provides one tool that provides full multiresolution sculpting capabilities with 2D bitmap/3D procedural brushes (Paint, Smooth, Pinch, Inflate, Grab) supporting symmetry. And, that’s just the beginning of Blender’s capabilities. This open source software is free to download and use.

Web Editors

Adobe GoLive CS2 to Mozilla SeaMonkey: GoLive is an integral part of the Adobe Creative Suites products, so it works with your InDesign documents and allows those documents to be converted to Web pages. But, you might want to try Mozilla’s SeaMonkey before you commit to the total Adobe suite option. The Mozilla SeaMonkey project includes a Web-browser, email and newsgroup client, HTML authoring program and IRC chat client. The Composer is simple but it handles tables, CSS, positioned layers and more without sweat. Add-ons currently include Scribefire, the blog blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.
Adobe Dreamweaver to NVU: While this tool is a powerful WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor, other options exist that can save money. NVU (pronounced N-view, for a “new view”) is a complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Use NVU to create Web pages and manage a Website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.
Macromedia Flash Professional to OpenLaszlo: Developers use Flash to create multimedia events on the Web. Since the program utilizes vector-based graphics, it provides a venue that goes beyond the Web. As an open source product, OpenLaszlo provides developers with a platform to create zero-install Web applications with user interface capabilities of desktop client software. In other words, OpenLaszlo applications developed on one machine will run on all leading Web browsers on all leading desktop OS. These applications, like Flash, provide animation, layout, data binding, server communication and more.
Microsoft FrontPage to Bluefish: While not as powerful as Dreamweaver, FrontPage is a widely used proprietary application used to create Web pages. Take a gander at this list to understand your many open source options for HTML editors. Try Bluefish as one option that can save you money and, possibly, time.
Windows Notepad to ConTEXT: Yes, you can get the world’s most versatile HTML editing tool absolutely FREE when you purchase Windows version 2.0 and above. But, why would you want to do that when you can work with open source ConTEXT? This application is a small, fast and powerful freeware programmers text editor, developed to serve as a secondary tool for software developers.
Altova XMLSpy to XML Copy Editor: XMLSpy is one of the most popular XML editors on the market today. Its editing features and support for both schema and DTD development along with XSLT, XQuery and XPath development make it an ultimate XML tool. As an open source alternative, XML Copy Editor is a versatile XML editor primarily focused on text editing with XML files. However, XML Copy Editor provides many other features including validation of DTD and XML schemas - as well as XSLT and XPath with tag-free editing. Both tools are Windows applications.

Publishing

Adobe Acrobat to PDFCreator: Yes, you have a free trial to create a PDF through Adobe. However, thisPDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.
Adobe Framemaker to DocBook: Adobe Framemaker software represents a powerful authoring and publishing solution for technical communicators who want to author and publish technical documentation in multiple languages. While this software is reliable, so is DocBook, an open source publishing tool. Additionally, you have access to all the free wikis and documentation that shows how to install, use, and customize the tools and stylesheets.
Microsoft Publisher to Scribus: When it comes to Desktop Publishing (DTP) Microsoft’s Publisher provides more control over document elements than Microsoft Word through a DTP-oriented approach. However, professional users still consider this program an entry-level application. Since it’s part of the Microsoft Office Package, many users will find its costs negligible as well. With that said, Scribus offers an open source DTP alternative. Scribus brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout. Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

Communications

AIM to Pidgin: Give it up. AIM, AOL’s Instant Messenger, no longer rules. The open source alternative isPidgin, a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once. Let’s break that down: No matter if you use Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr. Can AIM do that? No? Well, then.
FeedDemon to RSS Bandit: FeedDemon for Windows constantly searches through feed search engines with keyword-generated searches as well as generalized searches. It also allows offline reading as it ‘prefetches’ your subscribed feeds. NewsGator also synchronizes with FeedDemon so you can gain access to news without your computer. Except for the fact that FeedDemon isn’t open source, it’s an ideal, robust reader. But, for open source fanatics, RSS Bandit provides an equally robust alternative RSS and Atom reader that allows you to keep track of all of the news feeds you follow. Its newspaper view can be customized and the templates are compatible with those used in FeedDemon. Plus, RSS Bandit allows you to synchronize everything with NewsGator online. Finally, RSS Bandit also provides access to news on news servers (similar to Google Groups) - it uses NNTP to read and post to newsgroups anywhere on the net. It integrates to Google Groups by linking to posts on their website.
Microsoft MSN Messenger to aMSN: Microsoft offers MSN Messenger to the masses as freeware on Windows, and it’s grown from a simple IM application into a trendsetter in a competitive market. Features include voice and video chatting, gaming, remote support - on top of that it allows connection through mobile devices when you are not near a computer. aMSN, the open source Windows alternative to MSN, aims to mimic its proprietary competitor as much as possible. Most of its extra features are added through plug-ins. You can add, at your leisure, POP3 email support and translation, voice clips, Webcam support, Chat logs, Conferencing support and more.
Microsoft Outlook to Thunderbird: Say that you decided to switch to OpenOffice, but you need an email client to replace Microsoft’s Outlook. Try Mozilla’s Thunderbird, an application that carries a similar interface and that is easy to use. Additionally, you can use Lightning to integrate Mozilla’s Sunbird calendar application with Thunderbird.
Skype to Wengophone: Skype is a very strong freeware internet VoIP (Voice over IP) product in the telecommunications industry. It started with a simple and free PC-to-PC telephony, but today offers full integration with existing telephone systems. Skype today also offers voicemail, video conversations and sending SMSs. Its open source alternative, WengoPhone, also provides free PC-to-PC calls as well as chat and video conferencing. Created by Wengo, this phone also can provide SMS and call-out features that allow users to communicate with any phone at reasonable prices.

Media

iTunes to Songbird: If you’re accustomed to the equation where “Apple + iPod + iTunes” equals a ton of money, then you might consider a switch to Songbird. Songbird is an open source player and a platform committed to “playing the music you want + from the sites you want + on the devices you want.” Songbird thereby challenges the conventions of discovery, purchase, consumption and organization of music on the Internet.
Nero Burning Rom to K3b: Nero Burning Rom is a popular tool to burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. This software includes backup, cd copying, audio features and more, and it’s easy to use. But, it’s not open source like K3b (Windows). This latter program creates and burns CDs and DVDs, including ripping with DivX/XviD encoding, DVD copy, ISO burning, Video CD (VCD) creation, Audio CD creation for almost any audio file, CD-TEXT support for audio CDs, support for DVD-RW and DVD+RW and much more. Oh, and did we add that it was easy to use?
Quicktime to Darwin Streaming Server: Apple’s QuickTime 7 Pro is good for everything from creating podcasts to transcoding media in more than a dozen formats. And, the software isn’t that expensive when compared to other products. But, why not use an open source application that shares the same code base as Quicktime Streaming Server? Darwin Streaming Server is an open source project that’s perfect for developers who need to stream QuickTime and MPEG-4 media on platforms such as Windows, Linux, and Solaris.
TiVo Desktop to Galleon.tv: Tivo-to-Go users were disappointed to discover that their Tivo software wouldn’t work with Windows Vista. Some answers to this problem included spending more time and money on various solutions that might work to restore that software’s functionality. One solution included using the open source software, Galleon, instead of trying to “fix” Tivo or Windows Vista. Galleon is a free open source media server for the TiVo® DVR which allows you to enjoy many kinds of content and interactive applications right on your TV. The server runs on your home computer and organizes your media collection so that they can be viewed on your home network. Galleon also brings Internet content and applications to your TV.
Windows Media Player to Miro: This application seems ubiquitous…no matter what you try to open, Windows Media Player is in your face, right? Well, replace that in-your-face attitude with Miro, an open source program that turns your computer into an internet TV. Miro has 2,500 unrestricted channels with a huge selection of HD content. Plus, you have access to any publisher with video RSS feeds, including anyone on YouTube, Revver, Blip, and many, many more.

Utilities

CuteFTP to Filezilla: Sure, CuteFTO is cute, but it’s not free. Sure, it’s reliable, but so are many other File Transfer Protocol applications. Try Filezilla, a fast FTP and SFTP client for Windows with tons of features - easy to install, easy to use, very reliable, secure, and open source.
iBackup to ZManda: Who can you trust with your backup files? It’s difficult to decide, as price alone means nothing. You want safe, reliable servers or tools that can keep your backups available and intact. iBackup has proven to be worthy of that task, but you might want to look at ZManda as well. This open source solution protects more than half a million of servers and desktops running various versions of Linux, UNIX, BSD, Mac OS-X and Microsoft Windows operating systems worldwide. Not only do they backup information, they’re into recovery as well.
Norton Ghost to Partition Image: Norton Ghost isn’t a shabby backup system, as it’s a complete tool that backs up everything but the kitchen sink. If you have a complete disk failure, Norton Ghost can bring it back to life on a new hard disk (although you don’t need to make a complete backup every time). You can take this backup to external drives, CDs or DVDs. If you’re an open source advocate, however, Norton Ghost doesn’t cut the cake. You’ll want something like Partition Image (for Linux) or Ghost for Unix (G4U) for Windows or Unix users. Both tools are disk cloners that act differently, but they’re as robust as Norton Ghost. Read more at their respective Web sites before you make the jump. (For a complete rescue disk including Partition Image seeSystemRescueCd).
Rational Purify to Valgrind: IBM’s Purify is a well respected and much used debugging tool. It uses topnotch memory corruption and memory leak detection to keep hard-to-find bugs from any application. As an open source alternative, Valgrind also detects leaks and other memory related programming errors. But, it also detects threading bugs and includes a call-graph profiler that detects bottlenecks in code. as well as threading bugs. A user might say that Valgrind is better than Purify, even if it is open source.
WinZip to 7-Zip: Some of us grew up with WinZip, so it’s sad to say goodbye. But, we all gotta leave home at some point, and when the open source 7-Zip beckons, maybe you should heed the call…

Security

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal to Winpooch: Kaspersky Anti-Virus probably is among the top products on the market for Windows-based anti-virus tools, mainly because it’s well known for its outstanding detection rates. It commits to multiple tasks as it protects against viruses, script viruses, checks file archives (such as zip files) and removes viruses from mail. It also provides protection against spyware as well as adware. As an open source alternative, however, Winpooch also scans files on your computer, detects malware, and prevents all the viruses, trojan horses and other problems that Kaspersky hunts down as well. Winpooch, by the way, adds a real-time scanning capability that ClamWin (noted below) lacks.
McAfee VirusScan to ClamWin: McAfee is well known as one of the oldest companies in the anti-virus market. Many individuals need to deal with this software company, as its tools come packaged with many new Windows OS computer systems. The plus side to McAfee is that it is reliable and that it offers 24/7 support. The downside is that it’s not open source. ClamWin, on the other hand, is a free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003. It features high detection rates, scheduler, automatic download of virus database updates and a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. As noted above, ClamWin doesn’t provide on access realtime scanning, but when combined with WinPooch, this capability is added.
Norton Personal Firewall to WIPFW: Many people could work with Norton in their sleep, as this company has been around that long. The Norton Personal Firewall for Windows will monitor and check all Internet traffic and it will reject any attack or intrusion attempt. Ubiquitous popups and permissions are part of the game, as it seems that each new Website carries its own set of Norton no-nos. As an alternative, WIPFW is a firewall for Windows based on IPFW for FreeBSD UNIX. It provides virtually the same features, functionality, and user interface as Norton Personal Firewall. The big difference? WIPFW is open source.

Financial

Authorize.net to OpenSSL: Granted, Authorize.Net’s preferred payment gateway connection, Advanced Integration Menthod (AIM), provides the highest level of customization and security to merchants for submitting transactions online. But, why pay for a secure SSL when you can get an open source product for free? The OpenSSL Project is a collaborative effort to develop a robust, commercial-grade, full-featured, and Open Source toolkit implementing the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols as well as a full-strength general purpose cryptography library. A worldwide community of volunteers uses the Internet to communicate, plan, and develop the OpenSSL toolkit and its related documentation manages the project.
Microsoft Money (Plus) to TurboCash: While Microsfot Money Plus is much more than a personal accounting software, Turbocash can boast that claim plus more. Turbocash is open source and free to use. In fact, you might compare TurboCash more to Quickbooks than to Microsoft Money. However, as a personal finance tool, TurboCash is much more user-friendly to the average home budgeter than Compiere.
Quickbooks to Compiere: Few people are unfamiliar with Quickbooks, as this software has made its way into many a small business computer. If you feel that few opportunities exist to switch, think again. Compiere, produced by Global Era, provides one solution to open source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions for any small to large business. Compiere 3.0 marks the introduction of Compiere Professional Edition, a new premium offering targeted at larger organizations that require more advanced services and commercial licensing from Compiere.

The Upcoming Firefox Version Can Detect Computer Orientation

2009-10-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

Firefox 3.6 – code-named Namoroka – will be based upon Gecko 1.9.2. The upcoming version will be able to tell if you're listing to starboard--and pass that information along to applications running in the browser.

That's because the browser will be able to detect the orientation of laptops and mobile devices equipped with accelerometers that can tell which way is down. The reason for the work: Web applications running in the browser will be able to use the information, useful for labyrinth-type games with virtual marbles rolling around boards, and any number of other gaming situations.

Mozilla evangelist Christopher Blizzard announced Firefox's coming orientation interfaceMonday.

"One new feature that we're including as part of Firefox 3.6 is support for web pages to access machine orientation information if it's available," Blizzard wrote. "Many modern MacBooks and ThinkPads contain devices and drivers that expose this information. We've added support for Linux, Macs and some ThinkPads where drivers and devices are available."

Mozilla is working on the technology for mobile devices, too, where orientation-aware games are a big deal.

The move is one of many by browser makers eager to transform their software from passive receptacles for showing Web sites to an active foundation for interactive applications. Firefox 3.6 is scheduled for beta testing shortly and final release later this year.
Firefox 3.6 offers several new CSS features. Among these, the most intriguing is support for CSS gradients, which allow Web developers to paint the background of an element with a color gradient with multiple color stops. This feature was originally invented last year by Apple and implemented in WebKit. It is based partly on the gradient features described in the HTML 5 Canvas specification. We have seen it appear in several different WebKit variants, including the rendering engine in Chrome. Mozilla's move to add it to Firefox's Gecko rendering engine marks the first time that it has been used in a renderer other than WebKit.

Download youtube video by just adding kiss in front of the URL

2009-10-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here I will give you a tip to download youtube video in an instance. While watching a certain video in youtube, if you want to download that video then you just have to put kiss in front of url (but after www). For example your url is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K_8R03jIZI&feature=related then the changed url will be http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=-K_8R03jIZI&feature=related or you can just go to kissyoutube.com/watch?v=-K_8R03jIZI&feature=related and follow the steps there and you can download the video in flv format. Try it, its cool ;) have fun.

Top 20 hackers in the Film History

2009-10-06T02:55:00.000-07:00

For Better Lists, go to this Link Click Here

20. Jack Stanfield, Firewall (2006)

Famous Quote: "Honey, I need to borrow your iPod."

19. J-Bone, Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Famous Quote: "Where's Spider?"

18. Lazlo Hollyfeld, Real Genius (1985)

Famous Quote: "Did you wanna borrow my pajamas?"

17. Wyatt Donnelly, Weird Science (1985)

Famous Quote: "A missle! A MISSLE! A MISSLE IN MY HOUSE GARY!!"

16. Milo Hoffman, Antirust (2001)

Famous Quote: "This isn't a game! In the real world, when you kill people they die - for real! And in the real world you're fucked!"

15. Dennis Nedry, Jurassic Park (1993)

Famos Quote: "Ah ah ah, you didn't say the magic word."

14. Gus Gorman, Superman III (1983)

Famous Quote: "I don't want to go to jail because there are robbers and rapers and rapers who rape robbers."

13. Kevin Mitnick, Takedown (2000)

Famous Quote: "Should we fear hackers? Intention is at the heart of this discussion."

12. Boris Grishenko, Goldeneye (1995)

Famous Quote: "I am invincible!"

11. John 'Captain Crunch' Draper, Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)

Famous Quote: "Computers, systems, that's my bag. The phone company is nothing but a computer."

10. Michael Bolton & Samir Nagheenanajar, Office Space (1999)

Famous Quote: Michael - "PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean?" Samir - "Back up in your ass with the resurrection."

9. Theodore Donald 'Rat' Finch, The Core (2003)

Famous Quote: "You want me to hack the planet? Ok, if I decide to do this, I'll need an unlimited supply of Xena tapes and Hotpockets."

8. The Puppet Master, Ghost In The Shell (1995)

Famous Quote: "Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."

7. Stanley Jobson, Swordfish (2001)

Famous Quote: "You're fucking up my chi."

6. Jobe Smith, Lawnmower Man (1992)

Famous Quote: "I am God here!"

5. Kevin Flynn, Tron (1982)

Famous Quote: "I shouldn't have written all of those tank programs."

4. David Lightman, WarGames (1983)

Famous Quote: "Later. Right now let's play Global Thermonuclear War."

3. Dade 'Crash Override' Murphy aka Zero Cool, Hackers (1995)

Famous Quote: "Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night. Ginsberg."

2. Martin Bishop, Sneakers (1992)

Famous Quote: "Ah. You're the guys I hear breathing on the other end of my phone."

1. Thomas 'Neo' Anderson, The Matrix (1999)

Famous Quote: "I know kung fu."

Microsoft's Pressure-Sensitive Keyboard

2009-10-06T02:27:00.000-07:00

Its a prototype right now, but the pressure-sensitive keyboard Microsoft has cooking up promises to make your typing far more efficient.As an example, font size could be changed based on how much pressure we apply to a key during typing and typos could be reduced by gauging the pressure applied to simultaneously pressed keys in order to determine intent. And, of course, varied pressure on a key could make gaming controls more interesting. Just press harder to make the player run, and lighter to make player walk.

This technology would help on instant messaging. So if I wanted to say “I LOVE you”, no switching to boldface before or after is required. Any word or words that I want emphasized could be done so in realtime by simply banging on the keys harder. It would also help lot in case of editing. Imagine if you could hit your Backspace key a little harder, then the last word would be eliminated instead of the the last character. That would speed things up a bit, wouldn’t it? Overall it will help to increase the efficiency of the user typing.

Creating a secret password protected folder in windows

2009-10-06T01:45:00.000-07:00

If you have something secret to keep in your computer then this idea is just for you. Here I have provided a simple method to create a secret folder in your computer which can be used to keep the secret files and hide it from others accessing it.

cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Locker
if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Locker "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%==password goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Locker
echo Locker created successfully
goto End
:End

Now copy and paste above code in notepad and save it as batch file (for example pass.bat). Now open this file and in the same location a folder named Locker will be created. Now put everything you need to keep secret inside the same folder. Now again open the bat file that is pass.bat and now it will ask you if you want to lock the folder then press Y to lock the folder. Now the folder will be locked and hidden. Now when you like to open and view the folder open the bat file again (pass.bat) and will ask you password. Now remember the password is "password" so type the same password and now you can see the folder again. Now if you want to hide the folder again then just run the bat file and its done.

Want disco attitude in your keyboard

2009-10-06T00:51:00.000-07:00

Want to see the disco light in your keyboard then here is simple script to make it. It will make your caps lock, num lock and scroll lock flash like in disco.

Just copy the following code and pase in notepad and save it with extension vbs ( for example save it as disco.vbs).

code:

Set wshShell =wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

wscript.sleep 100

wshshell.sendkeys "{CAPSLOCK}"

wshshell.sendkeys "{NUMLOCK}"

wshshell.sendkeys "{SCROLLLOCK}"

loop

Then after saving the file with the above highlighted code, double click it to run it then whoa! you can see the effect in your keyboard.

To just turn off the effect just open the taskmanager and go to process. Then find and kill the process wscript.exe and that stops the effect.

Convert your email address into a short, cute and safe link

2009-10-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

Use scr.im to get less spam

If you leave your email as plain text in forums, on Twitter or on classified sites then you may be the victim of spam. This is because spam robots and email harvesters constantly browse these sites to collect new victim emails. And your inbox will be full with the spam.

Therefore don't share your email on public sites. Instead, you can use scrim, a free secvice that will convert your email add to shorter and safer form for example kxhitiz@email.com will be converted to something like http://scr.im/kxhitiz .People willing to email you will go to this URL that will reveal your email address, after a simple test that automated scripts and bots cannot pass.

Turning off your computer in just 4 seconds

2009-10-03T02:07:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you may be in hurry to shutdown your computer. So here i have provided steps to turn of your computer in just 4 seconds.

STEP 1:
First open up your task manager. You can press ctrl+alt+del key simultaneously ( or by any other ways you can open task manager).
The following picture shows the task manager.

STEP 2:

Now click your mouse to shutdown menu in task manager. Now hold the ctrl key in your keyboard and
click on turn off holding the ctrl key as shown in the picture given below.

Wow now your computer will turn off in about 4 second. I have tried this in windows XP. Anyway you can use this tips in any version of your windows OS.

Record the use of your buddy's computer using Keylogger

2009-10-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

If you want to know what is happening and record the log in pc, that means if you want to have knowledge what your buddy is doing online then you can use keylogger. It’s simple stealth software that sits between keyboard hardware and the OS(operating system), so that it can record every key stroke. Keylogger has great ability to hide themselves, so that no one can figure out that you are monitoring and capturing information about a computer’s use. There are two types of keyloggers: software and hardware . Hardware keylogger is a tiny hardware device ; just plug it in between your keyboard cable and your computer and it is ready to keeps a record of all key strokes typed on the keyboard. Most of the people generally uses software keylogger , because it is free. Here you can find the 3 most used keylogger in my views.

1) REFOG

Download from this link.

2)Revealer Keylogger Free Edition

Download:link

3)ActMon Process Monitoring

Download: link

Adding Retweet button in every post of your blog

2009-09-30T02:15:00.000-07:00

There are different buttons that you can use on your blogger posts like Digg, Yahoo! Buzz, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Twitter etc. Here I’m going to show you the tutorial to add a Twitter or Retweet button to your blogger blog posts. Yes, you can use Twitter to promote your blog and you will not only get some followers to your Twitter account but will also get decent traffic to your blog.
If someone likes your post, he can click on the Retweet button to post the topic with it’s URL in his twitter account and all his followers would get notified about this. This is the simple yet effective way to promote your blog posts on twitter. There are two types of Retweet buttons available to insert in your blogger posts. One is the most common sized and another one is the small sized. Look at the below screenshot.

Adding retweet button to your blog

Login to your blogger dashboard.

Navigate to Layout >> Edit HTML >> Expand Widget Templates Search for <data:post.body/> and paste the following codes just before or after it. Adding the code before <data:post.body/> will show the Retweet button on the top of your post while adding after <data:post.body/> will show the Rettweet button on the bottom of your post.
For Digg like Button, use the following code.

Wireless recharging in Dell Latitude Z

2009-09-30T00:34:00.000-07:00

The Latitude Z on wireless charging station, and wireless dock adapter on the right.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)

That Dell is releasing a new laptop for business customers is the opposite of surprising. But the fact that it contains notable features not seen in any other laptops certainly is.

Most everything about the new Latitude Z is expected: It's yet another very thin notebook (a metric which PC manufacturers keep using to try to one-up each other), with a different kind of exterior finish (soft-touch, in this case), and comes in a black cherry. It measures 16 inches across, and is 14 millimeters thin at its most narrow point.

But you probably wouldn't guess that the Latitude Z charges wirelessly. And as far as we can tell, it's the first laptop to do so. Surprised that this is coming from Dell? You're not alone.

The wireless charging is handled elegantly enough. An inductive pad that's built into a laptop stand can accomplish a full recharge in "about the same amount of time" as a standard-issue cabled charger, according to Dell. While smartphone maker Palm has a similar (albeit smaller) wireless charging system for the Pre, and companies like Visteon and Wild Charge have debuted wireless charging accessories for phones, no PC maker has incorporated the idea until now.

The wireless charging stand.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)

It's part of what Dell is terming its new "wireless eco-system." Besides being able to get juice without wires, the Latitude Z will also be able to dock without them. A smaller separate adapter can hook up the laptop with any accompanying monitor, whether it be one in a cubicle, or in a conference room.

Both cost extra, and are by no means cheap ($199 for each), but the intention is for companies to buy, not necessarily individual consumers.

Other cool things Dell is introducing: touch-sensitive controls on the screen's bezel, and its first take on "instant on."

The sliding touch controls--not visible to the naked eye--are located on the right side of the bezel and appear when contact is made. Any controls can be customized and placed there, such as screen brightness, volume, or easy access to specific applications. When controlling an application like Excel or a Web browser, the right side of the bezel can be used as a sort of touchpad for scrolling through a spreadsheet or Web page.

The instant-on capability works exactly the way it sounds. Instead of waiting for Windows to boot up, the computer uses a second smaller motherboard and a separate ARM processor. Through a separate, non-Windows interface, it allows e-mail, contacts, calendars, and a Firefox-based Web browser to be accessed right away. E-mail, contacts, and calendars are always running in the background and are constantly being synced.

The ARM processor doesn't have access to the main motherboard or the ports, which should alleviate security concerns, according to Todd Forsythe, vice president of Dell's commercial client product group. The secondary processor--used mostly in smartphones--also draws much less power than a more robust desktop or notebook processor and so while it's running in the background it doesn't drain the battery as fast: using just the instant-on mode will provide up to two days of battery life; when using Windows and the accompanying Intel Core 2 Duo processor, it will get four hours.

Companies like DeviceVM and Phoenix have built businesses out of instant-on capabilities--basically a quick-booting interface built right into the computer's BIOS that isn't dependent on Windows. Dell said it decided not to go with either of those because they wanted to use the separate low-power processor for the background syncing.

What Dell, and DeviceVM, and Phoenix, and plenty of others are doing is part of a trend that's gaining steam: doing a sort of end-run around Windows. HP came out with its own interface on Touchsmart PCs last year that allows for quick sorting between photos, e-mail, and Web browsing on a few models. Lenovo recently introduced a new touch-screen interface for its tablet, and Asus has its own for its popular Eee PC Netbooks and touch-screen desktop called TouchGate.

Most people aren't used to seeing Dell trying new things like this, some of it actually ahead of competitors. Last year, we wrote about how Dell was starting to be a little more risky about the types of products it was trying out. Not new to the market, just new to Dell, which has traditionally had a habit of waiting, analyzing the market's response to new products, and jumping in later with a more efficient, and less expensive way of making that product.

But that way of doing things is over for Dell now. The company has struggled to find the right mix of products and now has less opportunity to be picky. But it's a good sign that the company is trying out smaller, more innovative, and more practical ideas like wireless charging, docking, instant on, and touch interfaces. Though it's only in the Latitude Z right now, we hear these features are stirring a lot of interest in other product groups at Dell. It's easy to see how, for a cheaper price (the Z starts at $1,999), these new features could find much broader acceptance with retail customers.

Creating Sparkle on Image through GIMP Photo Editor

2009-09-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

Open up any image that you want sparkle on. That could be text, a photo or something else.
I'm using a cocktail glass photo in this tutorial.
To create the sparke we'll need a special brush that has to be created by ourselfes.
Open the brush dialog: Window / Dockable Dialogs / Brushes or simply press SHIFT+CTRL+B.
Click "New Brush" at the bottom of the dialog - name it "Glitter".
As FORM use the third option.
The radius depends on the size of object you want the glitter to be on.
I use ~75 - thats a good value for most objects.
Use the values of the screenshot below:
SPACING is not important for us in this case because we only apply a single sparkle at a time.
Now choose the paintbrush tool. The "Glitter" brush should be active automatically. If not please choose it from the dropdown where you can assign the brush.
- Create a new transparent layer. Press at different places in the picture preferably at bright/highlighted areas.
Tip: While applying the glitter also change the size of the brush using the brush scale option in the tool prerferences. You'll get a more appealing look if the sparkle is not always the same size.
You can apply that sparkle to almost everything. Please don't use too much of it or you'll lose the effect!
Tip #2: If you want to refine the sparkle effect:
- Duplicate the layer with the sparkle
- Set layers mode of the duplicate to "soft edges"
- Move the duplicate below the original sparkle layer. After that the sparkle is shining a bit more.

GNOME 3 For Ubuntu 10.04 ( Lucid Lynx)

2009-09-27T05:21:00.000-07:00

Gnome 3, which will be available to install in Ubuntu 10.04, will mark the first radical change to the Gnome Desktop since it's inception, thanks to it’s “new” interface ‘Gnome-Shell’.

Doing Things Better

On first glance, the Gnome 3 Desktop doesn't seem all that different from the current default Gnome set-up.

(note: click on the pictures to view them larger.)

You’ll notice there is no bottom taskbar and the top panel has been rearranged somewhat. It also has, in place of the Ubuntu System Menu, an ‘Activities’ button…

Activities – Making Things Easier To Manage

Pressing ‘Activities’ takes you into an ‘Overview’ mode. It’s from here that you can open new applications, add or remove workspaces, move windows between workspaces and navigate through your recent files.

You can easily find an application or document by typing it’s name in the search box. This will instantly show the list of matches beneath it.

You can also launch applications by clicking ‘browse’ and navigating the category lists – very similar to the current system menu applet.

Adding workspaces is simple. You just click on the circular add button in the bottom right-hand corner and a new workspace appears.

Similarly you can remove workspaces by clicking the circular minus button that is over-layed in the centre of a workspace in the overview mode.

Moving applications to a different workspace is as logical as just dragging them between panes!

It is the “basics” of this workflow which, in my opinion from the time I've spent using Gnome-Shell, truly enhance the usability factor in this new “desktop” metaphor.

Sadly, Compiz and Gnome-Shell don’t play nice, however this doesn’t mean the end of eye-candy effects as gnome-Shell has slick animations all of it’s own thanks to Clutter!

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS codename Lucid Lynx

2009-09-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

Mark Shuttleworth, the father of the popular Ubuntu operating system and CEO of Canonical, officially announced yesterday evening (September 22nd) the goals for the next version of Ubuntu. Dubbed Lucid Lynx, Ubuntu 10.04 will be the third LTS (Long Term Support) release and it will ship on April 29th, 2010."Two years ago we announced the second LTS release, and what we hoped would become a standard practice of making LTS releases on a predictable two-year schedule, overlayed on our existing six-month schedule of desktop and server releases. We are now giving a name to the next Ubuntu LTS: The Lucid Lynx." - Mark Shuttleworth said in the official announcement. For those of you who don't know, the LTS releases of Ubuntu are maintained for 5 years on the server and 3 years on the desktop.For the Lucid Lynx, the development team will focus their efforts on quality and stability! The main plans are to make Ubuntu 10.04 a bug-free operating system and bring quality improvements to the user interface, boot and installation experience and top-notch hardware support. Another essential goal for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) will be to improve the startup speed to a 10 second boot!

Ubuntu (10.04), aimed for 10 second boot time

2009-09-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

The developers of UBUNTU Linux distribution aim to significantly reduce boot time to 10 second The growing adoption of the Linux operating system on netbook devices has compelled Linux distributors to focus on improving startup performance. Ubuntu 9.04, which was released last month, is one distribution where these improvements are particularly noticeable.

In a presentation at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Barcelona, developer Scott James Remnant noted that boot time decreased from 65 seconds in version 8.10 to only 25 seconds in 9.04. This is already a substantial improvement, but he believes that there is still room for more aggressive optimization. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, will continue pushing the limits of boot performance during the upcoming development cycle for Ubuntu 9.10, which is codenamed Karmic Koala. According to Remnant, the company aims to achieve a ten-second boot time next year for Ubuntu 10.04, the release that will follow after Karmic.

Initramfs (The initial ramdisk, or initrd is a temporary file system commonly used in the boot process of the Linux kernel) is mostly responsible for mounting the root filesystem and loading the requisite kernel modules. It also plays a role in the logic for software RAID, disk encryption, booting from a network filesystem, and a bunch of other similar tasks. Remnant wants to slim it down and remove some of the unnecessary "cruft" that is bogging down the startup.

Remnant says that loading the kernel and initramfs should take two seconds, driver loading, filesystem mounting, and other "plumbing" should take two seconds, launching Xorg should take two seconds, and the remaining four seconds should be used to launch the desktop environment and other services that are part of the user's session. The computer should be fully booted and ready to use at the end of ten seconds, he says.

One of the side effects of starting Xorg sooner, he says, is that the boot splash and associated progress bar will no longer be displayed at all. That's a pretty surprising revelation and it should give you an idea of just how substantial the performance improvement will be from a user's perspective.

"In the default case, there will be no splash screen," he wrote. "I hope to demonstrate that X can be started sufficiently fast that we don't need one."

The reference hardware for benchmarking is the Dell Mini 9, a netbook that is available with Ubuntu preinstalled. Although a single netbook has been selected as the benchmark target for the purpose of consistency, it's important to note that the ten second goal is for the regular desktop Ubuntu installation. Remnant expects that they can go even further with hardware-specific versions of Ubuntu that are customized for netbook devices.

"10 [seconds] is a good number, especially for a generic, hardware agnostic, non-stripped down Linux distribution. From that starting point, development teams will be able to customise and tailor Ubuntu for specific hardware—and the OEM team will be able to produce custom Remixes of Ubuntu that boot even faster," he wrote. "I think it likely that we'll match Moblin's 5 [second] benchmark on similar hardware, with a device-tailored Moblin-based remix of Ubuntu."

This emphasis on boot performance will make Ubuntu a more competitive option for hardware makers who are seeking a fast and lean distribution to preinstall on netbook devices. It will also improve the Live CD and desktop user experience. This aspect of system performance will continue to grow in relevance as Linux expands to other kinds of mobile and embedded devices in a multitude of different form factors.

Reinstalling only the GRUB in Linux

2009-09-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

You may have Linux and Windows in your Computer and due to some reason you may have to reinstall the Windows OS. Now it rewrites your MBR and the menu has gone, now you can only boot Windows. Now in this case you need to install the GRUB again so that you can load both the Windows and Linux. Or for any other purpose if you need to reinstall GRUB then here is the steps:

Boot into the live Ubuntu cd. This can be the live installer cd or the older live session Ubuntu cds.
When you get to the desktop open a terminal and enter.

STEP1:

sudo grub

This will get you a "grub>" prompt (i.e. the grub shell). At grub>. enter these commands

STEP 2:

find /boot/grub/stage1

This will return a location. If you have more than one, select the installation that you want to provide the grub files.

STEP 3:

Next, THIS IS IMPORTANT, whatever was returned for the find command use it in the next line

Code:

root (hd?,?)

Use the value from the find command i.e. if find returned (hd0,1) then you would enter

root (hd0,1)

STEP 4:

Next enter the command to install grub to the mbr

Code:

setup (hd0)

Finally exit the grub shell

Code:

quit

That is it. Grub will be installed to the mbr.When you reboot, you will have the grub menu at startup.
Now the explanation.
Sudo grub gets you the grub shell. Find /boot/grub/stage1 has grub locate the file stage1. What this does is tell us where grub's files are. Only a small part of grub is located on the mbr, the rest of grub is in your boot folder. Grub needs those files to run the setup. So you find the files and then you tell grub where to locate the files it will need for setup. So root (hd?,?) tells grub it's files are on that partition. Finally setup (hd0) tells grub to setup on hd0. When you give grub the parameter hd0 with no following value for a partition, grub will use the mbr. hd0 is the grub label for the first drive's mbr.
Quit will exit you from the grub shell.

Image hover effect in blogger (opacity effect)

2009-09-24T05:18:00.000-07:00

Image hover effect is a good tweak you can do in your blog or any webpages. This is one of the most common and popular image hover effects. Simply hover the cursor in image and the opacity level changes.The hack is very simple, a small CSS code changes the opacity level of the images, whenever you place the mouse cursor over these images.
Follow these steps to add the effect:
STEP 1
Log in to Blogger, go to Layout -> Edit HTML,
Find (CTRL+F)
</head>

STEP2:
And right before that tag, paste this code:

 <style type="text/css"> a.linkopacity img { filter:alpha(opacity=50); -moz-opacity: 0.5; opacity: 0.5; -khtml-opacity: 0.5;} a.linkopacity:hover img { filter:alpha(opacity=100); -moz-opacity: 1.0; opacity: 1.0; -khtml-opacity: 1.0; } </style> 

STEP3:
Save the template.

STEP4:
Now whenever you want to show this effect to any of your images (whether in any post or in the sidebar), you have to modify the linking code like this:

Normally the code you use, to link any image will look like this:

<a href="http://bloggerstop.net" target="_blank" alt="Blogger Help Templates Widget SEO Tips"><img src="http://www.gigaimage.com/images/du41htpibgyb3fqeh9nt.png" /></a>

If you want to add the hover effect to the image, then add this simple code (in BOLD) to it, like this:

<a class="linkopacity" href="http://bloggerstop.net" target="_blank" alt="Blogger Help Templates Widget SEO Tips"><img src="http://www.gigaimage.com/images/du41htpibgyb3fqeh9nt.png" /></a>