TECH TOLA

Read HFS partition on Windows 7, with free Apple HFS Drivers from Bootcamp

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:51:00 +0000

How to read Mac hard disk on Windows ?

If you have a hard disk with HFS or HFS+ partition on it, you can now read it on Windows for FREE. This makes it work just like any other hard disk partition, and shows up when you click on 'My Computer'.

These drivers are from Apple and included as part of Bootcamp. But they give you only read-only access.

Download link #1 - http://goo.gl/1Ojjy

Alternate link #2 - http://goo.gl/c5x0M

Instructions to use

- Uninstall any existing HFS Driver like Paragon software or Mac Drive and restart your computer.
- Now download the zip, extract and open readme.txt, it has the same instructions.
- As instructed, copy the two .sys files to C:\Windows\system32\drivers
- Merge the .Reg for installing the drivers.

Source - Mac Rumors forum thread

Update and future plans!

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:03:00 +0000

Hello readers,

I am delighted to inform you all that I have decided to revive this blog after its long dormant period. But it won't be a general tech blog any more. Instead it will be focused on Apple universe and mobile apps (iPhone, Android etc.) and mobile games in general. It made more sense as its the field I work in and I am constantly focused in the Apple-verse and mobile games in general now.

Soon there is going to be a stunning face lift for the blog after which there will be regular content updates. Thank you all for your continued support. I am sorry if some of you might be disappointed. Feel free to un-subscribe in case the new topics are not going to be of interest to you folks!

- Blogmaster

How to cheat and solve 4 Pics 1 Word without paying easily?

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:03:00 +0000

4 Pics 1 Words is available for iPhone, iPads and Android devices which is very addictive and on the top of free charts now. Today I discovered this new way to solve any puzzle in case I am stuck on it for a long time.

Here are 8 simple steps you can follow to solve every 4 Pics 1 Word question easily!
(Click on images to see the enlarged versions)

STEP 1

Click on one of the images

STEP 2

Check the name of photographer and the site from which the image was purchased
In this case its "Constantinos" and "Fotolia.com"

STEP 3

Perform a google search. Here I have done with keywords "constantinos fotolia" and the second link is exactly what I was looking for. Click it.

STEP 4

Locate the image you are looking for. Sometimes if you are lucky you can find on first page of search results, otherwise you will have to go to other pages by clicking "next" button at the bottom.

STEP 5

Click on the image after finding it, then on the image page, click on the "Information" tab on the right.

STEP 6

Now all the keywords for this image are displayed. To be sure that you don't miss out, click on "See all keywords" button.

STEP 7

Now my answer needs 7 letters. So I will go through all the seven letter words from the keyword list and see which one fits my available list of characters. Within few seconds I see that the word "degree" is what I need :)

STEP 8

Thank me by commenting, subscribing my blog or following TECH TOLA on Facebook :)

Effective ways to stalk someone secretly on the Internet - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:43:00 +0000

Part 1 - Twitter

There is a method which is more effective than creating a dummy profile and following someone on twitter. That my friend, is the power of "twitter search". Let us do an example.

Open your twitter homepage and type in "the name" of the person who you want to track in the search box. Here we take the example of Arun Basil Lal, good friend and amazing blogger who runs Million Clues Technology blog.

After which you press "Search" button and you are displayed with all the results. These results give not only the tweets made by him, but also people who have replied to him publicly and also his retweeted tweets. Now to make things easier in this process you can do 2 things.

1. Save the search and reuse it. It even creates a very easily accessible link. (pics below)

2. Look Ma! Twitter search has RSS feeds too !

The link will be like - "http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=arunbasillal". Just add the same to your Google Reader or any other favorite RSS reader, and the results come to you :)

That's the end of part 1. We will be exploring more and more ways to stalk people on this exiciting series of "Effective ways to stalk someone secretly on the Internet". Signing off till then - Quakeboy

How to middle click using Magic Mouse and Mac Book

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:39:00 +0000

I got my Mac upgraded at work today and so started using the new Magic Mouse from Apple. First thing I noticed is that it lacks the middle click, which I use heavily with Firefox to open in new tab and close tab directly. I also thought about gaming :(

Anyways good news is that you can actually enable middle click on the Magic Mouse with a help of this cool utility. All you have to do is just use three of your fingers and tap/click the mouse.

The source code for this utility is also available.

Why Bill Gates decides to Sell off Microsoft? - Joke

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:22:00 +0000

I found this PJ floating over many places on the web and thought it would be fun to share with my readers :)

Letter from Banta Singh to Mr. Bill Gates
Subject: Problems with my new computer

Dear Mr. Bill Gates,

We have bought a computer for our home and we have found some problems, which I want to bring to your notice:

1. There is a button 'start' but there is no 'stop' button. We request you to check this.

2. One doubt is whether any “re-scooter” is available in system? I find only “re-cycle”, but I own a scooter at my home.

3. There is 'Find' button but it is not working properly. My wife lost the door key and we tried a lot trace the key with this 'find' button, but was unable to trace. Please rectify this problem.

4. My child learnt 'Microsoft word' now he wants to learn 'Microsoft sentence', so when you will provide that?

5. I bought computer, CPU, mouse and keyboard, but there is only one icon which shows 'My Computer': when you will provide the remaining items?

6. It is surprising that windows says 'MY Pictures' but there is not even a single photo of mine. So when will you keep my photo in that.

7. There is 'MICROSOFT OFFICE' what about 'MICROSOFT HOME' since I use the PC at home only.

8. You provided 'My Recent Documents'. When you will provide 'My Past Documents'?

9. You provide 'My Network Places'. For God sake please do not provide 'My Secret Places'. I do not want to let my wife know where I go after my office hours.

Regards,
Banta

Last one to Mr. Bill Gates:
Sir, how is it that your name is Gates but you are selling WINDOWS?

Get Beautiful Professional Resume templates (and more) for Free !

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:55:00 +0000

If you have not heard of Google Docs before click here. For the rest of the people, I introduce "Google Docs Public Document Templates".

In life, all of us and our friends have more than once needed and searched for templates of Resumes, Business Letters, Finance Documents, Invoice formats, Project Reports, Business/Project Plans etc. All of this is available under one roof for FREE !

They even have templates for EULAs (End user license Agreement), Monthly Planners, Time Sheets, Business Presentations, Business/Greeting Cards, Survey sheets and even Divorce Notices !!

Next time anyone asks you for any format, just tell them to check out..
GOOGLE DOCS DOCUMENT TEMP (wait for it...) LATESSSSS :)

Yahoo Meme - The Twitter Terminator ??

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:32:00 +0000

What is YAHOO MEME ?? Answer in ONE line.

Its a Twitter Competitor with 2000 character limit and HTML tag support + Tumblr + Digg + Photobucket + Facebook Comment System + ULTRA MINIMAL INTERFACE like Twitter even with all these features ! (Cmon! Can't a single line answer can have 197 chars ?)

(The below table won't be visible in feed readers, please read on post page to view it)

Now for the detailed review of certain interesting features.

Digg like system for memes :- When you let out a nice tweet in twitter, when your followers like it they retweet but it doesn't gain any publicity. In Y! Meme heavily re-posted posts are listed in a popular memes page along with re-post count and a 1-Click Repost button.

Image hosting :- You can use Y! meme to host images. On your Y!Meme dashboard page, Click photo > file > upload the file. Now the photo is visible in your meme's page. Click it to view bigger preview. Right click and get location, use it anywhere. The image on the right is actually from one of my memes.

What I don't like about it :- Seriously the service is amazing. I would prefer a better catchy URL - http://meme.yahoo.com is not cool at all ! Remember what Linus Torvalds said about why Linux got famous faster - "The only thing that Linux has better than FreeBSD is its cool catchy name.." I think the same goes for twitter and Y!Meme

I would prefer some awesome Firefox plug-in clients, desktop clients (preferably in Adobe AIR) to make the experience easier. Probably Yahoo themselves could release one to take a lead. I would also like to see the "lists" feature of Twitter (which is terribly buggy!)

I have just started Meme-ing. Join me there and let me know what you feel about the service!

Create too many subfolders in Windows - A Useless fun trick

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:44:00 +0000

Requirements

Any Windows Operating System (like XP, Vista etc)
Some time to waste
A Brave, Intelligent Person with Hot looks.. [Ok stop dialling my number, I'm busy :P]

Now download this RAR archive and extract it in your C: Drive. You will have two files - tech.bat and tola.bat :P

Click on one of them. Then you will see a command terminal window open. Wait for 10 secs and then force close it. Enjoy the endless amount of "tt" subfolders.

How does it work :-

Both the Windows batch files have this code

md tt
cd tt
c:\tola.bat (or) c:\tech.bat

So they call each other and create endless number of folders named "tt" inside each other like
C:\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt\tt...... till the complete path becomes 255 characters which is the limit I guess.

Image courtesy:- Myself

Is MJ really Dead?

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:09:00 +0000

Is MJ really Dead?

An Exclusive Report - First on the web here on Techtola.com
Check the Google Docs link below to find out the answer.

Read it on Google Docs

KLite Codec Pack for Mac OS

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:01:00 +0000

As I am spending almost 10-12 hours a day working on a Mac, I have decided to begin a new section on Mac Softwares, Tips and Tricks on Techtola.

Today was the first time, I wanted to watch a Video of one of the F.R.I.E.N.D.S episodes on a Mac and the Quicktime player could not play it. My first attempt was to download VLC for Mac but unfortunately it was 29 MB in size and I wanted something smaller.

So I searched for K-Lite Codec Pack for Mac OS and looks like there isn't any like that. But I did find an equivalent of just 3 MB in size called Perian.

It adds support for a lot of formats in your default Quicktime Player. Just download the DMG, double click on Perian.prefpane to install it and enjoy :)

Click here to go to Perian Website.

Yahoo, Have you left your brain in the locker ?

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:06:00 +0000

Today Yahoo sent me a mail announcing Geocities is closing. They gave me two options to move my files from there.

I can choose to move to Yahoo Hosting, a paid service.
I can download my site, by visiting each page and giving "Save As" in my browser.

I should say what a brilliant idea ? All you other companies please learn from Yahoo about "How not to do things when
running a Web service". Geocities was very famous some time ago and still has a huge number of pages and files hosted on them, as it was one of reliable free hosting sites available then and because it was run by Yahoo.

Its interesting to note, what Google did, when they decided to stop the Google Pages service. They created a new page, when you can download the entire set of files you uploaded as multiple zip files. Now that is how you run a Customer-Friendly Web Company !

PDF in Firefox - Disable opening inside tab

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:13:00 +0000

This articles also helps you to achieve exactly opposite of what is given in the title and use the same to control opening of other file formats like audio, video inside Firefox.

Reasons why you might want to do this

Firefox becomes slow and unresponsive, when huge PDF's are opened within.
Your intention is to download PDF only.

On the Menu bar click
Tools > Options > Select Applications tab on top, then scroll down.

Select Adobe Acrobat Document Options as shown in the picture.

The Easiest way is to just right click the PDF link and select "Save Link As".

But that doesn't work for a few websites in my experience. Moreover I wanted to help people about controlling Videos and Audio files that open inside Firefox.

How to remove Virus from USB Drives

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:21:00 +0000

This is not related to any specific virus but a generic guide as most viruses follow the same pattern when they run. I have removed a lot of viruses manually and people tend to ask me how do I do that ? This guide is mostly for geeks, so you need patience if you need to master it.

I suggest reading my previous "Ways to prevent viruses in PCs" post before you move on, as always "Prevention is better than cure" :) Now read on..

What does a Virus do once it starts running ?

Virus runs automatically every time you start Windows- typically established by modifying registry keys usually in the start up items list or sometimes as a Windows Service too. Sometimes, they pass themselves as command line parameters to programs like Explorer.exe which is responsible for your main Windows user interface.
It blocks the ways by which you can terminate and destroy it - First, it blocks the Task Manager or sometimes they just disguise as system processes with names like "svhost.exe", where the original process is called "svchost.exe" which always has multiple instances of it in the Task Manager Process list. Then, they corrupt the registry so that you can never see files with hidden/system attributes and apply those attributes to the virus files. I have written about fixing this problem here.
Does everything necessary, to replicate itself - It keeps running in the background, detects attachment of USB Drives, and immediately copies them to the USB Drives along with an autorun.inf file so that next time you plug in the USB Drive it starts running automatically to infect the system. Other things include, blocking installation of anti-virus softwares, changing the registry keys constantly so even when the user manually changes things, it immediately overwrites the keys.

Steps to remove the Virus

Terminate the Virus process execution - I usually need a task manager alternative to establish this, when the Windows task manager is blocked. I use the Process Manager of Tune-Up Utilities - a great package which is not completely free, but it does provide a 30 day evaluation period. Speaking of terminating the actual process, you need to identify the virus first. Experience helps a lot here, but for newbies you need to know the list of common windows processes and services by heart and that happens only over time.

You can refer to these superb list of articles to get started
Most common processes and description - Webkeysoft (must read, short essential list)
The amazingly big list of processes sorted alphabetically
Very nice guide to Windows processes for IT Beginners

When you need info about a specific process name, you can look it up here to ensure if its a normal process or a virus process. If that doesn't help Google is your friend.
Prevent the Virus from running again - I usually type "msconfig" at the Run dialog to remove the suspicious items from the start up list. For thorough checking of start up items I suggest you use StartEd. As a final step, check the services list using "services.msc" at the Run Dialog. You can open the Run Dialog by clicking the Start Menu.
Remove the virus executable files - When you are removing from the start up list, you can look for their path also. Then navigate to that path and delete the files to ensure that they never trouble you again in any possible way.

Finally, after removing the virus you will want to reverse their actions, like restoring Task Manager access, showing hidden files and folders, etc. I have written a solution for the second problem here. To restore task manager, go to Run > gpedit.msc > User configuration > Administrative template > System. You will find an option about the Task Manager's Status. Use that to enable it again.

Please don't hesitate to comment and ask me if you have any problems. I will be definitely happy to help you. Happy Virus Busting !

A Late April fool computer prank :)

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:31:00 +0000

Its April 2, but I can't resist to post this. I did to someone back when I was in school.

1) First take a screen shot of your desktop in its normal state - With some wallpaper, icons, task bar visible and No windows open.

Press PrintScreen Key.
Open MS Paint.
Press CTRL + V
and Save As PNG or BMP.
Set it as the wallpaper of your desktop.

2) Hide all the desktop icons. On Windows XP by Right clicking on desktop and under "Arrange Icons by" select "Hide Desktop Icons".

3) Then hide the task bar also. First unlock it by right clicking the task bar. Then move to the upper edge of the task bar till the mouse cursor changes to resize icon, then pull it down to hide it completely.

4) Invite some friends @ office and sit back and enjoy. When the victim turns back make a group roar of laughter and watch his face.

Even Techies fall for this, to realize it you have to try it once :)

Download Orkut Albums even when Orkut is blocked !

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:16:00 +0000

1) Open Opera Mini online demo - http://www.opera.com/mini/demo/

2) Type in www.orkut.com and then sign in.

3) On your Orkut home page, scroll to the bottom and select View full site.

4) Open Settings and change Image Quality to High

5) Open the album photo you need to download.

6) Open the Page Information and click Download Images.

7) Click on the necessary image, you can find it easily by the file size.

8) Click again the zoom in the loaded image and scroll to the bottom left.

9) Click on the Open Button to open your image in the browser !!!

Note:- Click on the above image to view full size. Designed by my friend and One of the world class designers of the future :)

If the Opera Mini doesn't work - Get the Java run time in case you don't have it. Its around 15 MB. Get it from this page or click this link if you are on Windows XP 32 bit.

Create your own Super Hero !

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:53:00 +0000

Create your own Super Hero now by clicking the below link. I loved it !
http://www.cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/

Do let me know about the Hero you have created !

Note to Readers :- Dear all, I have been busy recently with my new career path as a professional game developer for Android and Apple iPhones and I am loving it! Sorry for keeping the blog idle for a long time. I will be back from March 22, 2009 onwards back again with higher frequency of posts.

Thanks to Roshan for this tool.

How to get subtitles for any English movie

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:26:00 +0000

Easy way to get Subtitles for any English movie

First get the subtitles file
You can get subtitles for movies by using Google easily. Just type the movie name following by the words "subtitles download" in your search box.
Also you can go to sites dedicated to subtitles like
- Open Subtitles.org
- DivX Subtitles.net
and more sites at the bottom (Look down).
Rename the file properly
Subtitle files have either SRT or SUB as extension. Rename your subtitle file to have the same base name as your movie file name. So if your movie file name is "abcd.avi" then rename the subtitle file as "abcd.srt" and place it in the same directory where your movie file resides.
Install DirectVobSub filter (optional step)
In players like VLC player, Media player classic (from K-Lite codec pack), we usually don't need to perform this step as it comes built-in.
Just download DirectVobSub filter from here. Run the installer and then restart your Windows Media Player.

Did you notice, I made the cartoon on the top-right :) using this.

Some more sites to download subtitles

Multi-language sites:
OpenSubtitles
Subscene
DivX Subtitles
DivX Subtitles World
RDW Subtitles
Subbiee Search
Any Subs

Specific languages:
Bulgarian Subtitles (Bulgarian)
Central Subtitles (Portuguese, Brazilian)
DivXForever (Turkish)
DivX Norway (Norwegian)
DivX Nurkka (Finnish)
DivX Planet (Turkish)
DivX Sweden (Swedish)
Greek Subs (Greek)
Hosszupuska (Hungarian)
Ondertitels (Dutch)
MoviePlace (Greek)
Napisy.info (Polish)
NL Ondertitels (Dutch)
Podnapisi (Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, ...)
SubDivX (Spanish)
Subiarkisto (Finnish)
Subtitle Source (Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian)
Subtitles.de (German)
Subtitles.ee (Russian)
Torec.net (Hebrew)
Undertexter (Swedish)
Videometre (Turkish)

Its not Vista Desktop. Its a Wordpress theme !

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:19:00 +0000

Saw the screen shot above? That is the next version of Windows Vista.. There's nothing cool about it right ?

How cool is it, if I said it is a Wordpress blog theme ! and Yes, it is a WORDPRESS THEME !

The theme above "Inanis Glass 1.3" was released 2 weeks ago as an update to fix the Cross Site Scripting vulnerability in versions 1.2 and earlier.

Its features

A cool glass Vista look
With even a Task bar instead of a Menu bar
Start Button with more options and lot's more
Not just a skinned appearance.
Has theme selection also !!

Click here to view demo and download Inanis theme Compatible with WordPress 2.6 and 2.7.

P.S. I wish someone converts it for Blogger, maybe myself if time permits !

Update:- As the link above is currently not working, I have uploaded the theme and it is available for download. Click here to download from alternative location.

Win Cash Rs. 19950 by posting on forums

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:18:00 +0000

Indiabroadband.net has announced a new contest to fire up their message boards more by giving away cash prizes worth Rs.19950 for their forum participants. The prize money is distributed among the top 15 positions with the first prize starting from 5000 Rs. The contest ends on Feb 20th 2009.

This is a great treat for forum posters and I wish more success to Indiabroadband.net for throwing this contest. Click here for the contest page.

Thanks - Prajish

Install Ubuntu Linux on your Playstation PS 3

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:10:00 +0000

Now you can install Ubuntu Linux on your Playstation 3. There are detailed instructions about requirements, how to format and installing the OS. Seems like you can also access and watch youtube videos directly on your PS 3.

Head over to http://psubuntu.com/ to start now !

P.S.

I wish there is some resource like this to install some free Linux on PS2 also. If anyone has got some links please comment here.
I really love Ubuntu Logos :)

Thanks - Prajish

Download Orkut Photo Albums - the easy ways

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:17:00 +0000

Some days back Orkut blocked the Right-click feature on the photos of other users. Since then users are not able to download the pictures directly. I have some solutions posted here which can help you to download any picture from Orkut albums.

1) Save All images on any page method - I have written about this already. You just need to click Tools>Page Info>Media on the main toolbar. Check out the details over here.

2) Drag and Drop the image on the tab - You definitely need firefox for this with multiple tabs open. If you have only one page open, just press CTRL+T to open another blank tab. Then drag and drop the image to that tab as shown below. (click to enlarge)

After that just right-click the image and save it :) Easy as that.

3) MS Paint method - This is a nasty one :) Just after opening the photo press the Print Screen key on your keyboard. Then open "Paint" from accessories or by typing "mspaint" in Run. Then press Ctrl+V to paste it. Now you can use tools to crop it or just give 'Save As' to save.

"Bangalored" - Adjective used in US & UK

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:17:00 +0000

Rejoice fellow Bangaloreans! Here is a post dedicated to all of you.

An Interesting fact

Did you know that "Bangalored" is an adjective found in the dictionary. A person is said to be bangalored if he lost his job because the work got outsourced to Bangalore or any other city in India/Asia.

Lot of people in US got bangalored that it became an issue during the US Presidential election. That's exactly when this word was coined.

"He got bangalored last week" is an example of its usage.
You can also type this word "Bangalored" in Google search & see.

I searched for this word on dictionary.com & Here is the result.

Thanks : Sudeep via E-mail.

Liked the graphic on this post? Click here to find out more about how to create them.

Amazingly cool card presentation trick

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:26:00 +0000

How To Give Your Business Card - video powered by Metacafe

Thanks - @mixdev via twitter

Donate Wikipedia - An appeal from Wikipedia founder

noreply@blogger.com (Quakeboy) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 08:56:00 +0000

Donate Wikipedia.

Its one of world's 5 most popular web properties
Has 11+ million articles
In 265 languages
Serves 275+ million every month

"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge." - Jimmy Wales, founder of this wonderful site.

We have been using it throughout our life, almost like google, but we fail to notice that there are no ads on their site. Its a purely non-profit site run for well being of the whole humanity. Today on all the pages, appeared a header which linked to this page where the founder has voluntarily asked us to donate. It's a site run for us, and we have to help them sustain the site which needs around 6 million dollars per year and they run it with 23 workers only.

It can be anything as less as 1 dollar. But we have to understand that it will be the most useful one dollar you have spent in life for ourselves.

Click on the banner below to donate now. I request all bloggers to spread the word to support them. Just putting up a banner on our blog's sidebar can help them. You can get the code for different banners from this page.