Digital Quest

Make email signature to work with Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail

2009-02-04T13:03:00.001+05:30

You may be familiar with use of email signature. It helps to add an identity tag below mails. Here we describe about creating an email signature which would have your basic contact information, IM Client username and links to social profiles

WiseStamp is a free website which lets you to make a customized signature. You will have to install WiseStamp add on in firefox before starting make use of it. After installing add on you can start customizing signature by clicking edit signature option in the add on box. it will save the signature. You can add this one below your emails while composing mail in firefox.

Features:

1. Only works with firefox web browser

2. Supports Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and AOL

3. Allows you to create 2 types of signatures- Personal and Official

4. A tiny HTML editor is provided. There you can add you name, other personal information and links to your email and blog

5. Lets you to display usernames of IM clients like skype, MSN, Google talk etc.

6. Allows you to add links to various social profiles

7. You can edit settings at anytime

Visit WiseStamp Homepage now and find some signature models here.

How to check web pages' last update

2008-07-31T04:38:00.001+05:30

How to check whether you are getting latest information from a website. In case of blogposts, it is simple. We can know date of publication of a post. But there is no such facility in some sites like Wikipedia which is a huge resource of information. But we could overcome it using a simple trick.

To check a web page's last update, go to that page in a browser. After loading the full page remove the url from address bar then type in the following code as shown above.

javascript:alert(document.lastModified)

Hit enter. A pop up window will show you the exact date and time of last updating the page.

This code will display web pages' last update including specific time. This trick helps you know whether you are getting the latest information or not.

How to convert a DVD movie into 700 MB XviD AVI file

2008-07-25T05:01:00.003+05:30

Now days XviD AVI movie files are very popular and a good alternative of DVD movies. They can be simply carried in a single CD each. It would have a very good clarity slightly lesser than DVD movies. A DVD disc could have almost 5 XviD movies in it.
I had been looking for software to convert my DVD movies to 700 MB files. I found a cool and user friendly software FairUse Wizard which can do all jobs mentioned here.

How to use Fair use Wizard

Get latest version of FUW from here and install it into your computer.
Open Fair Use Wizard. You will get the main window. Here I use version 2.8.
Before starting encoding, click on options
Here we can choose which codec to be used, size of the file and encoding speed. Quality encoding speed will take more time to encode. But it can produce high quality video.
The combination of next generation codec H.264 with MP4 and AVI are also available for encoding.
The x264 codec would also be preferable to encode video. It is the open source version of H.264 codec. MKV container will be most selective one to host x264 video.
You can also select desired subtitle from subtitle track drop down menu. Remember the DVD movie must have selected subtitle.
Click next. You will get back the main window.
If you are not familiar with advanced options, simply select Full auto mode. It is highly recommended. Name the project and choose a destination folder. Click next.
A new window will pop up. It will ask for the source drive or DVD image file from your hard drive. I recommend using image file for encoding. It would speed up encoding. Back up DVD movie into your hard disk as image file using any freeware like DVD Shrink.
Go to next stage. The program itself will do all other tasks. Encoding time would depend upon your system configuration.

Start watching movie just after finishing all processes. Enjoy!
Related posts by categories:

A mirror for Google

2008-02-04T21:58:00.000+05:30

We know the Internet is the world of information and Entertainment. But some times we find some websites stands out only for making fun. Here is a website that can make fun with Google.

ElgooG is a website which makes an image of Google. This site absolutely looks like Google as seen in a mirror. You can feel this while typing key words also. First get a mirror if you use this site.

Get the start button in windows XP to display the system time

2007-12-27T10:42:00.000+05:30

Here is a funny hack. Replace letters in start menu with system time. It is very simple. For this, a small freeware is needed. At first, get it from here.

Download this cool freeware to your hard drive and install it. This program replaces the word ‘Start’ with the clock.

This tiny piece of code comes with startclock.ini file for making configuration changes such as 12-hour clock with seconds, 24 hour clock load program at start up, refresh rate (be careful while change this setting ;smaller the number, more the CPU usage) and hide the tray icon. To exit this program press “Ctrl+Alt+x”. That’s it, now you can save precious space on the taskbar by replacing the clock from the system tray.

Make personal contact form in your blog

2007-12-23T12:44:00.000+05:30

Blogging is a two way commenting tool. Readers may want to comment or start discussions on you blog posts. Commenting sections in blogs let readers to do it. But sometimes readers may want to ask something personally in which other readers may not interest. In this occasion providing a contact form in you blog will help you and give your blog a professional touch.

Contactify is a web service makes a contact form for your blog. At first, you have to sign up by giving it required information. You have to give your email address to which messages to come. After email verification your contactify link will be given. Contactify link will be looks like www.contactify.com/yourlink number

You can make a hyper link to your contact form in your blog with this link. But we cannot customize link number to our need. Messages from contactify will be no-reply messages.

Your email address will not be revealed in contact form. Contact form contains name block, email address block and message block. Word verification is needed for senders to send messages.

Use Sticky Notes with Windows XP

2007-12-12T07:23:00.000+05:30

Have a look at a few small, handy things which aren’t part of windows. The first one will be Sticky Notes-the virtual equivalent of writing down tasks and reminders on paper and sticking somewhere around you. If you need this with windows XP, you have to download and install freeware. But, you can use sticky notes in windows XP without installing a third party tool.

It will take only five simple steps. Let’s do this in any computer within a few minutes. I thing this sticky notes will be an unavoidable tool in your office computers.

Create a file type:
Open ‘my computer’. Click on ‘tools’ in the menu bar and select ‘Folder Options’ under the ‘file types’ tab click on the ‘new’ button to crate a new file extension. Type in ‘stk’ (short for sticky notes, of course) in the ‘create new extension window’ and hit enter.

Assign an action and an application:
In the folder options menu click on stk file and hit advanced button. A new window-Edit File Type-will is opened. Click the’ new’ button to assign and action for our purpose. Under ‘action’ type in ‘open’ and under ‘application user to perform action’ type in ‘notepad.exe’. Close the window.

Select an icon:
Click ‘change icon’ button in the already opened ‘Edit file window’. Select a icon and type in ‘Remind me’ just before ‘change icon’ button. Click ok. Close all windows opened.

Editing the registry:
Open registry editor by navigating Start-Run-Type in ‘regedit’-Click ‘OK’. Collapse the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and right click on ‘stk’ and select ‘new-key’ and type in ‘ShellNew’. By selecting ‘ShellNew’ right click ‘new-string value’ and type in ‘NullFile’. Exit the registry
editor.

Use this tool:
Right click on free space anywhere in explorer or on the desktop will show up ‘Remind Me’ under new. Select this option. Type in anything you want remind and stick it on anywhere in the free space. And here, the ‘sticky notes’.

We have actually created a notepad file. The reminder you typed in is actually a file name.

Get Google and Yahoo search results in one page

2007-12-06T21:57:00.000+05:30

We know the importance of search engines in Internet. Searching something in Internet without aid of search engines is very difficult. Google and Yahoo are the top search engines giving search results for a query within seconds. And now let us talk about getting Google and Yahoo search results in same page.

GahooYoogle is a Meta search engine which can give us Google and Yahoo search results for a particular keyword in same page. The method used in it is providing search results from both search engines in a page separated into two blocks. It is also allowed to enlarge any one search result only.

Searching in categories such us web, news, images, videos, shopping and blog is very easy with GahooYoogle. I thing it is the favorable thing in this website. Checking boxes near to categories is needed. Remembering its name is also very easy.

Related posts by categories:

Anonymous Surfing

Upload files into your Gmail account

2007-11-30T15:27:00.000+05:30

Now a Gmail account has more than 5GB of storage space. I am sure you will not have mails, documents and spreadsheets having a total space more than 1 GB in your Gmail account. Make use of this space to save your favorite files like pictures, e books and even movie files. You can retrieve these files from anywhere in the world. You can even access Gmail account as a local hard disk drive installed on your computer.

How to do this?

Gmail Drive is a service that creates a virtual hard drive folder on your windows explorer, which allows you to store files in your Gmail account. It is accessible through “My Computer”.

How it works?

Download and unzip set up file of Gmail Drive from here. Install it on your computer. After installation a new folder will appear under system folders. Double click on it. The coming window will ask you to type in your Gmail user name and password for logging in. Copy files to and from the Gmail drive folder simply by using drag and drop.

Features:

Through a Gmail Drive installed on the system, we can access all Gmail account we have.

One Gmail can be accessed trough any Gmail drive.

Whenever a file is added to Gmail drive it creates an email account with the added file as an attachment. It will be shown in your normal inbox folder. So for retrieving files in Gmail account do not require this tool. You can just download the attached file.

Limitations:

The total file name size in drive must be less than 65 characters.

Some file types like executable files and Zip files may not be uploaded.

This tool hooks up with the free Gmail Service provided by Google. If Google decides to block its use, support for this tool may suspend at any time.

Free flash guest books for your website

2007-11-25T14:45:00.000+05:30

All major blogging platforms allow readers to comment on blog posts. If you have a website, you may want to allow reader’s comments manually using a third party service. I have found a website having plenty of free flash guest books with animation for websites.

All flash books are categorized into nine groups. These are Ancient & Mystical, Animals & Nature, Basic & Minimalistic, Dance & Music, Movies & Games, Office & OS, Playful & Friendly, Science Fiction and Miscellaneous. We can customize background color of guest books.

To get one, visit Flash-guest.com. After signing in you have to select a good design for your website. Then give your website URL and location where you want to place it. Download flash and DHTML files from website and then upload to your web host.

Here are some beautiful designs I liked.

Download videos from YouTube using Firefox

2007-11-19T22:38:00.000+05:30

We enjoy playing videos in YouTube. But unfortunately YouTube doesn’t provide a facility to download videos from it. Plenty of websites out there make a way to download videos from YouTube. But it is tedious and may not work properly.

You may be wondering to know your favorite browser Firefox can also do this job for you. You will all need to place an add-on to the Firefox. By implementing this method you can download videos from YouTube by a single click, just as clicking a download link beneath the videos.

Open Firefox and go to this link to place add-on called Fast Video Download to it. You can see an Install button on the coming webpage, click on it. A new window will appear asking you to install add-on. Click on Install Now button. Installing add-on will be started. It will only take few seconds for it. Restart Firefox after finishing installation.

Then you can see Download Video button at right bottom corner of browser. Just click on it for downloading videos you are playing. A new window will pop up asking you to where in your computer videos be downloaded.

The videos will be downloaded in flv format. You will need to download and install freeware like Flv Player or VLC Media Player for playing them.
Make use of this way to download videos from Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion and most of embedded videos on any other pages.

Boost Windows XP's Perfomance

2007-10-30T22:48:00.000+05:30

We can boost the performance of windows XP by prohibiting one of Windows XP’s annoying habits. After an application is closed, XP leaves the associated DLL files in the memory. This can hog precious resources and memory, and also cause stability problems. Make the DLLs unload themselves from memory after the program is done running.

For getting things done, do these simple steps.

Open the registry editor by navigating Start-run and type in regedit.

Then navigate to: HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

Explorer\AlwaysUnloadDLL

If the DWORD AlwaysUnloadDLL is not present, you will need to create it. For creating it, right click on the explorer folder and select new key, and name the key as AlwaysUnloadDLL. Double click on the “(Default)” string value and set the value of the setting to 1.

Application associated DLLs will get unloaded when the application is closed

Remove Recent Documents in Windows XP

2007-10-20T22:30:00.000+05:30

Usually Windows XP tracks recent documents and it appears in the Recent Documents menu in the Start menu. This helps us to easily access our pervious documents. But sometimes this will be a threat to our privacy when two or more people using the same computer. So if you want, you can easily turn off this service by a simple registry hack.

Care must be taken while editing the windows registry.

Follow these steps to do our work.

To open Registry Editor, click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. The registry editor will appear.

Go to the following key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.

Under the Explorer folder create a DWORD value. To do this, select the Explorer folder by clicking on it. And then right click on the right pane and select new>DWORD Value. Name the value as “NoRecentDocsMenu” (without quotes).

Set its value to 1. To do this, double click on the value we have created and type in 1 in the box under the Value Data in the coming window.

Restart windows to complete our work. Then we can see there will not be Recent Documents menu in the start menu

Anonymous Surfing

2007-10-01T19:50:00.000+05:30

The internet brings the world to our desktop. But that world includes a sub-world of spyware, worms, phishing attacks, and more. The most common online irritants include adware, spywares, and spam. There are so many vulnerabilities. Sometimes, browsing the internet without any vulnerability will be very difficult. One of the effective way to browse the Net without get attacked is ‘Anonymous surfing’.

Anonymous surfing is surfing the Net without your identity being disclosed to the Web sites you are visiting. Anonymous surfing works on the platform of proxy connections. This means that you are accessing the internet through a proxy server takes your internet requests (in the form of URLs) and retrieves the information through itself rather than through your computer. This retrieved information is therefore not displayed on your computer directly from the web site itself, and you remain invisible to the site.

There are certain risks involved with using proxy servers. A malicious proxy server could record all the information you send through it. Hence, it is always better to use proxy servers that are of known integrity.
Free proxy servers

1. Anonymouse
2. Iphide

Assign a Shortcut Key for Any Program

2007-09-28T20:10:00.000+05:30

In windows XP, any program can be launched using the keyboard by assigning a shortcut key to it.

Right click the program to which you want to a shortcut key. In properties, under the shortcut tab, “shortcut key” is by default, “none”. Just click in the box and chose an alphanumeric key to be assigned as the shortcut key. Windows will assign [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [(alphanumeric key)] as the short cut key.

Here is an example. Now I assign a shortcut key foe Mozilla Firefox.

DOS Commands

2007-09-28T20:05:00.000+05:30

Usually we do not use DOS commands in Windows XP. Knowledge in DOS is not needed for operating Windows XP. But we can do some special kind of activities such as enabling some services and programs in windows XP and removing some viruses. Basic knowledge in DOS commands will help us to use windows XP more efficiently. Here are some useful DOS commands.

1. Accessibility Controls- access.cpl

2. Add Hardware Wizard- hdwwiz.cpl

3. Add/Remove Programs- appwiz.cp

4. Administrative Tools- control admintools

5. Automatic Updates - wuaucpl.cpl

6. Bluetooth Transfer Wizard- fsquirt

7. Calculator- calc

8. Certificate Manager- certmgr.msc

9. Character Map- charmap

10. Check Disk Utility- chkdsk

11. Clipboard Viewer- clipbrd

12. Command Prompt- cmd

13. Component Services- dcomcnfg

14. Computer Management- compmgmt.msc

15. timedate.cpl- ddeshare

16. Device Manager- devmgmt.msc

17. Direct X Control Panel- directx.cpl

18. Direct X Troubleshooter- dxdiag

19. Disk Cleanup Utility- cleanmgr

20. Disk Defragment- dfrg.msc

21. Disk Management- diskmgmt.msc

22. Disk Partition Manager- diskpart

23. Display Properties- control desktop

24. Display Properties- desk.cpl

25. Display Properties- control color

26. Dr. Watson- drwtsn32

27. Driver Verifier Utility- verifier

28. Event Viewer- eventvwr.msc

29. File Signature Verification Tool- sigverif

30. Findfast- findfast.cpl

31. Folders Properties- control folders

32. Fonts- control fonts

33. Fonts Folder- fonts

34. Free Cell Card Game- freecell

35. Game Controllers- joy.cpl

36. Group Policy Editor (XP Prof)- gpedit.msc

37. Hearts Card Game- mshearts

38. Indexing Service- ciadv.msc

39. Internet Properties- inetcpl.cpl

40. Keyboard Properties- control keyboard

41. Local Security Settings- secpol.msc

42. Local Users and Groups- lusrmgr.msc

43. Logs You Out Of Windows- logoff

44. Microsoft Chat- winchat

45. Minesweeper Game- winmine

46. Mouse Properties- control mouse

47. Mouse Properties- main.cpl

48. Network Connections- ncpa.cpl

49. Network Setup Wizard- netsetup.cpl

50. Notepad- notepad

51. Object Packager- packager

52. ODBC Data Source Administrator- odbccp32.cpl

53. On Screen Keyboard- osk

54. Opens AC3 Filter- (If Installed) ac3filter.cpl

55. Password Properties-password.cpl

56. Performance Monitor- perfmon.msc

57. Performance Monitor- perfmon

58. Phone and Modem Options- telephon.cpl

59. Power Configuration- powercfg.cpl

60. Printers and Faxes- control printers

61. Printers Folder- printers

62. Private Character Editor- eudcedit

63. Regional Settings- intl.cpl

64. Registry Editor- regedit

65. Registry Editor- regedit32

66. Remote Desktop- mstsc

67. Removable Storage- ntmsmgr.msc

68. Removable Storage Operator Requests-ntmsoprq.msc

69. Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof)- rsop.msc

70. Scanners and Cameras- sticpl.cpl

71. Security Center- wscui.cpl

72. Services- services.msc

73. Shared Folders- fsmgmt.msc

74. Shuts Down Windows- shutdown

75. Sounds and Audio- mmsys.cpl

76. Spider Solitaire Card Game- spider

77. SQL Client Configuration- cliconfg

78. System Configuration Editor- sysedit

79. System Configuration Utility- msconfig

80. System File Checker Utility (Scan Immediately)-sfc /scannow

81. System Properties- sysdm.cpl

82. Task Manager- taskmgr

83. Telnet Client- telnet

84. User Account Management- nusrmgr.cpl

85. Utility Manager- utilman

86. Windows Firewall- firewall.cpl

87. Windows Magnifier- magnify

88. Windows Management Infrastructure- wmimgmt.msc

89. Windows System Security Tool- syskey

90. Windows Update Launches- wupdmgr

91. Windows XP Tour Wizard- tourstart

92. WordPad- write

Restore the Show Desktop icon in the Quick Launch bar

2007-09-27T11:28:00.000+05:30

Sometimes the Show desktop icon in the quick launch bar goes missing. But we can recreate the Show desktop icon manually. Open a notepad and copy the following into notepad:

[Shell]

Command=2

IconFile=explorer.exe,3

[Taskbar]

Command=ToggleDesktop

Save this file as “Show Desktop.scf”, and then drag it to the Quick Launch bar. The Show Desktop icon should now visible in the Quick Launch bar.

A keyboard shortcut can also do it for you. You can show desktop using [Windows] + [D].

Type rest of the post here

About the Author

2007-09-27T11:00:00.000+05:30

Hello, I am Riyas, the author of Digital Quest.

I am a technophile who learns new things about computers, software and Internet, and writes something about it.

Digital Quest is a blog about computer and Internet. This blog is a place for me to publish things that I already know and things that I learn everyday.

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