Rakshit's Place

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Windows XP SP3 to include some VISTA Features


A Web site that leaked details of Windows XP Service Pack 3 over the weekend claimed that the update includes several new features, including some borrowed from Windows Vista.

A site called Neosmart Technologies has leaked some information. According to this website, Windows XP SP3 build 3205, which was released to beta testers on Sunday, includes four new features among the 1,000-plus individual hot fixes and patches that have been issued since XP2's debut three years ago.

One common feature include Network Access Protection (NAP), an enterprise policy enforcement technology that inspects client PCs before they access a corporate network, then updates the machines if necessary or blocks them if they don’t meet specified security criteria. Other additional features range from a kernel module containing several encryption algorithms that can be accessed by third-party developers, to a new Windows activation model that doesn’t require users to enter a product key.

Windows XP SP3, which Microsoft has said will be released early in 2008, will be one more move by the developer to extend the lifespan of the six-year-old operating system. The announcement of a third service pack and the extension of the timeframe for XP’s availability mean that XP isn’t going anywhere yet.

I think it's a good move by Microsoft. We all want Windows XP to stay and stay for long. It has been a best OS developed by Microsoft, Isn't?

Image Source:- 4sysops

Monday, October 29, 2007

Mac OS X Leopard- Apple's new and improved Operating System


Apple launched its new operating system LEOPARD in San Francisco on Oct 26,2007. It wasn't exactly iPhone Day, but hundreds of people lined up on Stockton Street on Friday outside the San Francisco Apple store to get their hands on Mac OS X Leopard.


Apple claims Leopard as the most impressive Mac OS X version yet, with 300+ new features.


Watch the guided tour
Know New Features
See All 300+ New Features

After knowing all its features, you will agree with me when I say that Mac OS X Leopard is one
of the most significant operating system achievements we have witnessed in years. Not only does it add functionality that Microsoft could only have dreamed of, it does so in a snappy environment that doesn't annoy you with pop-ups asking for permission or all of those security threats we have come to know (and hate) in Windows.

I think sooner or later Microsoft's Vista will bow to Apple's Leopard both in terms of functionality and market share.

I personally feel that Windows Vista is a blunder. It has many unaddressed major issues and seems to be a total faulty operating system. Even the CEOs of most of the major computer manufacture companies shown disappointment over Windows Vista and favored XP.

The day is not far when yet another excellent Apple product will rule all computers worldwide.


This was just my perspective regarding Vista and Leopard. I am sure you must have few different words to say.
Do share that with us.

Image Source: Apple, CNet

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Firefox Tip: Make Address Bar your Google Search Box


This is my first Firefox Tip. I was searching for a good one without any add-ons involved in it. Suddenly, I found many. "Doing a Google Search in the Address Bar" is one of them.

We can perform a Google Search right from the Firefox's Address Bar itself. Type your search terms in the address bar and hit the GO button (or, press enter).

This can be implemented by 4 easy steps without the use of any add-on.

* Open the about:config page (type about:config in the address bar).
* Look for preference name keyword.URL.


* Double click on it to re-enter the String Value.
Copy the following link:- http://www.google.com/search?&q=


* Click OK and close the page.

That's it, you are done. From now on, perform google search from the address bar itself.

SAVE TIME!!!
ENJOY YOUR BROWSING!!!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Download- Prison Break



"Prisons were made to be broken"

Won "People's Choice Award" for Favorite New Television Drama in U.S.A.
Also, nominated for the "Outstanding New Program of the Year Award".
My own, one of the favorites TV-Shows- This is Prison Break for you.


Download Section (Season-3)
All files are of High Quality around 350mb. I don't compromise with the quality.

Episode 1:- S3E1
Megaupload Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4
Easy-Share Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4

Episode 2:- S3E2
Megaupload Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4
Easy-Share Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4

Episode 3:- S3E3
Megaupload Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4
Easy-Share Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4

Episode 4:- S3E4
Megaupload Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4
Easy-Share Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4

Episode 5:- S3E5
Megaupload Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4
Easy-Share Part1/4 Part2/4 Part 3/4 Part4/4

Please report the broken links, if any.
More download links to be added for all later episodes.

Subscribe to the RSS-feeds for updates notification or choose daily updates via E-mail.

Stay tuned...

courtesy:- prisonbreakdownload.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

QT TabBar - Tabs on Windows Explorer



Some 2-3 years before I switched over to Firefox from IE for browsing internet only because Firefox made my browsing experience lot more comfortable, fast and easy. I was fed up of multiple windows of Internet Explorer whenever I tried to open more than 1 websites.

Same was the case with Windows Explorer in WinXp/Vista.


Recently, I found a software that will make your work lot easier.

QT TabBar allows you to operates files and folders like tab browser
folder grouping, histories, etc.

System Requirements

Windows XP/Vista + Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

Download it from the official website.

Hope, this software helps you the same way it did to me.
Do share with us any other similar software which you have used earlier.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Download: Movies of the week


This is the new area on which I'll be writing every week. This section includes my list of all the favorite movies and the download links. So keep yourself updated to this post as I'll be adding new movies every week.

All Movies will be high quality DVDrip. If you find any broken link, please inform me. I'll try to fix it as soon as possible.

Here are the links for the top 4 movies of the week.



1.) Mr. Brooks

Learn More...

2.) The Illusionist

Learn More...

3.) Bourne Ultimatum

Learn More...

4.) The Departed

Learn More...


Disclaimer:- All the links have been taken from other sites & author/blog owner is no where responsible in case of violation of copyright.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Research Paper Publication issue haunting me


Its been almost a week now. I don't get time to sleep, don't get time to proceed with my B-tech final year project, don't get time to play PC games (esp. PES) and most importantly don't get time to wander in the blogosphere.

Really, working on research paper publication is a hard nut to crack. One hardly gets any spare time. It's all work day and night. Specially when the submission date is at the door steps as in my case. I have to finish my research paper and submit it before 15th of this month. Yes, that's on Monday. Only, 2 days more.
Sometimes it seems to be very weird. I mean being a Technologist, I chose Economy to do research work. Hope, it pays off. Otherwise I'll be in tremendous loss.

Let's see how far I manage to go. Friends, please wish me luck.

I desperately need it.


Monday, October 8, 2007

Resource Hacker- How to enable HIBERNATE button in shutdown box





Today we will try to play with a system file “msgina.dll”. We will modify that file to enable hibernate button in shutdown box.



Files with .dll extensions are precompiled system files of windows and it can only be modified by software Resource Hacker ( Or, you can it from here). Also, we have to replace the original system file with the new one. This is a bit tricky.

Windows file protection (WFP) service prevents programs from replacing the critical Windows system files. Program must not overwrite these files because they are used be operating system and by other programs.

Still, it can be achieved by a software called Replacer.

After downloading these 2 softwares, now comes the most important part.

Before you go and start modifying the file “msgina.dll”, it is EXTREMELY EXTREMELY important that you make a backup of the file. Go to your Windows/System32/ directory and you see the file there. Make a copy of it (Right-click, "Copy") and then store it somewhere else, wherever you like. In case your file gets corrupted, it can easily be recovered by recovery console( A Windows CD is required for this). If this part is not clear, please tell me, I will explain each and every step.

So, now let’s concentrate on modifying the file as per our requirement.

1) Start Resource Hacker and open the msgina.dll file by selecting "File", then "Open" (or Ctrl + O).
Alternately, you can open %windir%\system32\msgina.dll file into Resource Hacke

2) Goto Dialog -> 20100 -> 1033.

3) Replace existing code with the following code:-

20100 DIALOGEX 0, 0, 208, 122

STYLE DS_SYSMODAL | DS_SETFOREGROUND | WS_POPUP | WS_BORDER

CAPTION ""

LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_US

FONT 8, "MS Shell Dlg"

{

CONTROL "Flag", 20101, STATIC, SS_OWNERDRAW | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE, 176, 0, 32, 26

CONTROL "Turn off computer", 20102, STATIC, SS_OWNERDRAW | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE, 7, 0, 162, 26

CONTROL "&Stand By", 20104, BUTTON, BS_OWNERDRAW | BS_NOTIFY | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_TABSTOP, 47, 48, 22, 20

CONTROL "T&urn Off", 20103, BUTTON, BS_OWNERDRAW | BS_NOTIFY | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_TABSTOP, 93, 48, 22, 20

CONTROL "&Restart", 20105, BUTTON, BS_OWNERDRAW | BS_NOTIFY | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_TABSTOP, 142, 48, 22, 20

CONTROL "&Hibernate", 20106, BUTTON, BS_PUSHBUTTON | BS_NOTIFY | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_TABSTOP, 79, 94, 48, 20

CONTROL "", 20108, STATIC, SS_OWNERDRAW | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_DISABLED, 22, 73, 50, 8

CONTROL "", 20107, STATIC, SS_OWNERDRAW | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_DISABLED, 79, 73, 50, 8

CONTROL "", 20109, STATIC, SS_OWNERDRAW | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_DISABLED, 136, 73, 50, 8

}


Now, save that file in some other location say, at the desktop. Remember to give the new file the same name i.e. msgina.dll.

Once you are done with modifying the system file and saving it at some other location with the same name, you would need to replace the old file with the new one.

Start Replacer and follow the steps:-

1) Drag the original file into the command promt window.

2) Hit ENTER

3) Now drag the newly created file (which you have saved to some other location) into the

command prompt.

4) Press Y (yes)

5) Restart your computer

1-

That’s it after restarting you will see a hibernate button enabled in the shutdown dialog box.

If you face any problem related to the procedure mentioned above, please feel free to ask me.
DON’T FORGET TO MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF THE ORIGINAL SYSTEM FILE.

My next post will put more light on Resource Hacker. The things we could do by this great little system files modification utility. Stay tuned.

Friday, October 5, 2007

How to add a Favicon (favorite icon) to your Blog


I continue with the series of customization I have done to my Blog and also how I managed to improve my Blogging experience.
Previously I have discussed about the BEST ONLINE FEEDREADER.

Today, let's learn how to add favicon (favorite icons) to your blogs and websites. The logo you see next to my web address in the address bar is my own favicon.

First, you have to create the favicon with .ico extension and of preferred size 16x16.

How?

Their are 4 ways to do so.

1.> By any photo editing software like Photoshop.

2.> If you have any existing image, you can convert that to .ico format. The software named
Imagicon will do that for you. Download here.

3.> Create the favicon online. Visit this site. You can even make animated favicons.

4.> Choose from a large collection of favicons.Visit Cool Archive and Icon Archive.

After creating your favicon name it as favicon.ico.

Next, we have to upload it somewhere.

->If you have access to the root directory of your website, simply upload the file to your root directory and insert the following tag just after the starting of the first HEAD section and before closing of HEAD :-




->Otherwise, if you dont have access to the root directory, you can try to upload the file to some other image hosting websites.

TinyPic and MyFavatar can do this for you.
After uploading, grab the direct link of your file- say it URL of your icon file.

Add the following tag just after the starting of the first HEAD section and before closing of HEAD:-





This is exactly what I have done to add the favicon to my own Blog.
I hope you don't face any problem related to the methods described above.

If anybody knows any simpler method to add favicon, do tell us the same or if you know any other useful icon generating softwares or websites, do share that with us as well.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Sourav Ganguly- Truths and Facts (Part-2)



Referring to my earlier post on Winning 11, I now hereby proceed further starting with Sourav Ganguly, my first choice cricketer.

Let’s have a look to some of the comments by few great men.

“The Prince of Calcutta”
-Geoffrey Boycott

“Sourav is a great captain and we should be proud of such a leader”
- Kapil Dev

“A great captain who is hungry for success and is also an extremely competitive world class performer”
-Carl Hooper

“Sourav’s greatest strength is his mind”
-Sachin Tendulkar

“I saw in Sourav a committed individual who wanted to inject some toughness and combativeness into a side that had often tended in the past to roll over and expose a soft underbelly”
-Steve Waugh

“On the off-side, first there is God, then there is Ganguly”
-Rahul Dravid


The story of Sourav Ganguly, the former skipper of the Indian cricket team, is one full of twists and turns, in fact it has all the ingredients of a well-made potboiler.
Blessed with tremendous intelligence, he channelized it into everything: be it teaching a lesson to all those who dared to complain against him to his mother or pick up the finer points of every sport that he ever experimented in. Prodigiously talented, it is his dedication to the game coupled with a never-say-die spirit that has earned him an enviable position in the world of cricket.

FAMILY

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly was born on July 8, 1973 into a sports-loving family. He was also born into immense wealth. His father, Chandidas Ganguly who would go onto to be the treasurer and secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) ran a flourishing printing business that helped make the family one of the richest in Kolkata.
Few Indian cricketers outside royalty have been born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouth as Ganguly was.

There are 22 bedrooms in his house, and the family possesses over 20 cars. With finances no problem, the father was able to provide an indoor multi-gym and concrete wicket at home for his sons. They would also watch cricket videos, particularly those of their idol and fellow left-hander David Gower.

Stepping in to the Cricketing arena

Initially Ganguly was not allowed to play cricket because his parents wanted him to focus on his studies. Sourav followed his elder brother Snehasish (an accomplished left handed batsman for Bengal and East Zone) and started playing. During his holidays, Sourav asked his father to get him enrolled in a cricket academy as he was finding difficult to pass his time.

Shortly after his first century for the Bengal under-15 team against Orissa in Calcutta, he was selected to the captaincy of the prestigious St. Xavier’s School. The tradition at the school had been to pick the captain by consensus. However this time Sourav was an excellent choice. Some of the other boys objected, claiming he was arrogant. But when the topic was raised before the Principal, Father Bouche his immediate reaction was “of course it has to be Ganguly.”

Hiccups

A hundred (121) for East Zone against West Zone in the Duleep Trophy in 1991 earned Sourav a place on the tour of Australia in 1991-92. He was played in only one One-day International match and was then forgotten for over four years. He thought that his career as an international cricketer was over as he was ridiculed as a non-talent, and it was alleged that he had 'attitude problems'. They said he refused to carry drinks for his teammates, he was too high-headed and arrogant, he behaved like a Maharaja, an emperor. None of it was true, says Sourav. But the labels stuck, and Sourav was a forgotten man.

This is what Sunil Gavaskar (who has since become one of Ganguly’s most ardent supporters) wrote in his syndicated column that appeared in the Indian media on January 22, 1992: “…within the team he seems to be an object of fun because of his reluctance to perform his chores as the reserve player. No wonder he has been nicknamed “maharaja” since he leaves the menial jobs like carrying drinks on others while he sits watching them do it.”

Its Late than Never

Sourav was chosen to tour England with the Indian team in 1996. Navjot Singh Sidhu, his
roommate on the tour, chose to walk out of the team after a misunderstanding with captain Azharuddin, while Sanjay Manjrekar was injured. Sourav thus got a chance to make his Test debut. The second Test at Lords witnessed Ganguly blasting a superb century with some help from an English rugby team sports psychologist.

Marriage

He is married to Dona, who was a next-door neighbor to the Ganguly family. Their fathers were once friends but the relationship was strained and the young couple got married under cover.

His first love

'Football' was Sourav's first love. He played for his school football team for four years.

His Secret

The first thing Sourav does after he checks into a hotel room is to place the portrait of goddess Kali and the picture of his wife Dona on his bed side table.

Another major event that occurred in his life was the spat with Coach Greg Chappel and subsequently Chappel’s leaked e-mail to BCCI that further exaggerated the issue. After the Zimbabwe tour Chappel described Ganguly saying "Sourav falls well below the acceptable level in all areas”.
Download full Chappel Mail.



If you have any other untold truths and facts about Ganguly do share that with us.

Hope, you like this article.

Next edition will be on Sachin Tendulkar…